Let the Summer Projects Begin!!!

Mexican Folk Dress

      So here is the first project, turning the pictured yellow Mexican folk dress into a more modern tunic for my daughter. I just saw the how-to for this on one of the blogs I love, The Crafty Chica, and lo and behold, yesterday, my daughter and I spot the exact type of dress needed for this project in a thrift shop for five bucks! How can you not try it for that? I have cut the bottom off and pinned it, but have to hem the side slits and bottom hem yet. My daughter also wants pleated panels set into the side slits to avoid any muffin top type of event or showing. I think that should be easy enough with the fabric I cut off. At least right now I think it will be easy enough, I'll get back to y'all on that. When finished, it should look like the black tunic here.
     Next up is this t-shirt I want to refashion into a more flattering and feminine style. I saw what Rice Zachery Freeman did with a shirt (among other amazingly cool clothing reconstructions and embellishments) and decided to give it a try. I am always trying to find cool t-shirts in a price range I can afford, but rarely do those two things coincide. I can count on one hand, not even using all the fingers, how many times I have found such a thing. This is a heavy cotton t-shirt by Liz and Jane, dyed a
cool shade of periwinkle blue, which you cannot tell in the first shot because I took the photo in the evening with florescent type lighting. But the second photo is almost

T-shirt pre-refashion

right on in color. You can see the cuts I've made and some of my initial pinning. I want to add a raw edge trim, such as silk or that soft netting I've seen on some expensive t-shirts, but don't know what to call it. I hope to get to the fabric store tomorrow or the day after to choose something for the edges. My goal is to make it look more feminine with a more fitted shape and to add a raw edge trim for contrast and fun. I am really excited about both of these projects because I think I can finish them and actually achieve what I envision! I will post the finished pieces as soon as I'm done. I am even considering adding a hand beaded edge as another layer over the raw edge trim, but we'll see how it goes. If I plan on doing too much, I know I will overwhelm myself and then it will sit and nothing will happen, and I so want to complete these projects, among other thing, by

T-shirt, progress report

next week at the latest so I can start something else I have been thinking about.
     On to some foodie porn with a picture of the S'mores cake I made yesterday for my family. I use a bag of mini marshmallows instead of the topping the recipe calls for, which is marshmallow creme and chocolate chips, swirled. After the cake is done, I pour the mini marshmallows on top and put the cake back into the oven, second rack from the top, and turn on the broiler to toast the marshmallows. Doesn't take long, but I keep the door open and pull the rack out periodically to rotate or shift the pan so the marshmallows toast evenly and don't catch on fire! You cannot take your eyes off the cake while the marshmallows are toasting, and you have to pull the oven rack out to rotate the pan so you don't burn your hand under the broiler. Anyway, the cake disappeared in less than 24 hours, and I did not eat it alone! But since it is now gone, I think I am going to move on to eclairs. I watched "Simply Irresistible" last night and every time I do, I get this insane urge to make those caramel eclairs that Sarah Michelle Geller makes in the movie. I have all the ingredients and the S'more cake is toast, so I have my fingers crossed that sometime tomorrow, I will be posting photos of the eclairs!
     Finally, my new "Paletas" recipe book arrived today, and it looks like it is going to be a lot of fun to play with this summer. The recipes include Cantaloupe, Lime

S'mores Cake with toasted marshmallow top!

Pie (think Key lime pie), Avocado, Apricot-Chamomile, Sour Cream-Cherry and Tequilla, Roasted Banana, Passion Fruit Cream, Mexican Chocolate and oh so many more. I'll post pics of those too as we try them out. For those of you who are not familiar with paletas, they are just like ultra fruity or flavorful popsicles, usually with less sugar. They come in a wide variety of flavors, many regional. I can get them at TC Latino Grocery here in Traverse City, but they sell them from carts in the more

metropolitan areas of the country. The rice pudding paletas are my very favorite so far, but I've only had five different flavors. It is creamy, refreshing and so satisfying, I hope to make those within the next week or two. Anyway, paletas are amazing, you'll never want a regular popsicle again after you have a paleta. Well, at least that is how I feel.
     Tomorrow I am introducing "Wednesday Fab Finds." A weekly to bi-weekly post about my latest treasures from estate sales, garage/yard sales, thrift stores and resale shops. Lots of goodies for tomorrow!

Green Paper Challenge and Voodoo Cafe win.

     My submission for Green Paper's Miss Mary Hayes Challenge. You can go to her website to download the PDF of the images required for the challenge here. How fun is this? I can't believe how many creative challenges abound online to keep you thinking outside the box and to help you hone your design skills, I love it. And lots of giveaways too.
     On Notes from the Voodoo Cafe blog I was the lucky winner of a very cool travel journal that Ricë Freeman-Zachery gave away last week, how cool is that? And she has such a cool blog, I really enjoy reading it since she updates just about daily. I'm turning into a blog junkie, there are so many great things to read. Ok, this was just a quick drive by posting to get my challenge entry posted! Hasta!
     And here is a link to another giveaway from Robin's Egg Blues' Blog. Quite a nice little collection of goodies if you are the lucky winner!

New Books

     I am so thrilled! I got two new books in the mail today, Rice Freeman-Zachery's "Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art," and Alison Eads' "The Artful Card." I'm about halfway through Creative Time and Space and highly recommend it for anyone struggling with this issue, finding and making time and space to create, it is very inspirational and full of great ideas. I just skimmed through the other book,  but it looks yummy as well. It has some great techniques that I can use for visual journal pages too, and lots of collage of course.
     As for my inconsiderate gall bladder, still feeling it, but not bad enough to go to the ER, just bad enough to not feel up to doing anything very active. I have piles of "housework" but no real energy to get to it right now. Oh well, it isn't going anywhere, is it? The fat free diet has been interesting. I'm not starving, and actually, my appetite is way down, another sign I'm not feeling up to par. But I have had to be pretty creative. The liquid diet the Dr. recommended ended yesterday, so today I've been able to eat solid food too. My favorite today was a can(I normally don't go for canned veggies except beans) of dilled green beans with a can of black beans. The two together were pretty good. The dilled green beans were actually green beans marinated in a vinegar and dill and they were very good, surprisingly. But even better with the added black beans. I would eat this again, fat free diet or not. I will have to be eating fat free for a few weeks until I have my gall bladder removed. Any fat will cause it to "turn on" and could bring on another attack, so I don't want to agitate the thoughtless thing if I can help it. And I have to admit, it was time to change my eating habits. I won't cry if I never eat another piece of fried anything or fast food, honestly. The chocolate covered twinkie is another thing altogether though.