Glitter shoes DIY

First I bought these last year on super duper sale:



But I never wore them because that leather flower on the side isn't really my style. So I took it off:



And then realized there's a bunch of holes left in the leather because of the thread that held the flower. So I decided that the only thing to do was to fill those holes with glitter.

First I taped up all the parts that I didn't want glittery, including the heel tap:



Then I scuffed up the to-be-glittered part with sandpaper.



Then I mixed about half ModPodge and half glitter from Michaels in the cut off end of a water bottle and painted it on.



Here they are half dried:



I ended up painting on three coats to get the glitter as opaque as I wanted, but the difference between one coat and three is actually minimal.

I let them dry some more and applied some Angelus Acrylic Finisher and voila!





They're pretty cool! I bought the glitter while at home in Memphis so I didn't compare the colors, and in the future I might get a color more similar to the base color. But I kind of like the spectator look these have now, and I'm happy with how they turned out! Not all of the thread holes are hidden, but I think the glitter distracts.

Shibori part one!

A scarf and a t-shirt started out like this:



and one got dyed lime green:



then I started to unwrap it:



and then it was this!



I ended up not dyeing the t-shirt that day because I discovered that the black thread left black lines on the silk of the scarf.



It ended up looking kind of cool and veiny, so I don't feel too bad about the scarf, but I did take the shirt apart and re-tie it with some white thread.

The scarf is willow pattern (yanagi shibori), although mine always turns out so white because I tie it so tight.

I did some more great stuff this weekend at home in Memphis, and will post pics as soon as my sister sends them to me!

I swear...

It's on sale!

This is dedication.

Agata Oleksiak crocheted her entire house.









images via NY Mag

The TV is my favorite, because you can see the screen peeking out in dull, hard black and white from underneath the soft riot of color that almost covers it. She says the phrases on the walls are texts from former lovers; I can't imagine really wanting to be reminded of them enough to see them every day, although some of them are definitely good enough to be immortalized.

I don't think I've personally gotten any texts interesting enough to stand alone; it's all about context.

Would you be interested in hanging out again?

From a guy I dated for about two weeks, sent at least eight months after the last time we texted. The message before that was a multi-text rant about how immature I am and how I should have a nice life, and anyway all he ever wanted was sex. So, no. Not really interested.

This is how New Yorkers live.

We make space for our Shrinky-dink art. We store laundry in our stoves (or fridges, in my cousin's case). We store bananas in the toaster ovens.

I actually once went to see and almost rented a place even smaller, if you can imagine it. It was very similar in layout but with a much smaller closet and the ladder to the bed stuck out too much, so you couldn't use that space for anything really. There wasn't even enough room for a desk and a chair. Her space is downright luxurious for her $700 rent, honestly. I mean this is New York! The space I looked at had a little tiny stove (quite the fire hazard in a space that small) and didn't have a bathroom; it was down the hall and you share with the three others on the hall. It was also right near Lincoln Center and that side of Central Park.

Urbanoutfiller

My sister just forwarded this email to me; she's about to start working at Urban Outfitters.

From: my momma
Date: March 16, 2011 9:16:11 PM CDT
To: my sister
Subject:urbanoutfiller

I am looking at their website; definitely too young  & too expensive for me. BUT, they have furniture, books, electronics!! wow!
Do you get discounts?

Check out more FOBby mommy stories on My Mom Is a FOB!

Ode to My Father

Dear Daddy, thank you for making me help you around the house all the time. I'm thinking specifically of that time I was about 12 and I lost one of my hard contacts down the kitchen sink and we sat there for an hour taking apart all the pipes underneath to find it (it cost $60!).

Also, thanks to Mr. nterpri who posted this helpful video:



Thanks to them, I unclogged our bathroom sink drain by taking it apart a little bit.



ick.



double ick.



triple ick.

That's what was clogging our drain. For the past year I've been pouring Draino (and whatever store brand version of Draino I could find) down the pipes and it just keeps getting worse. Then I was thinking maybe it's not safe to go through as much of that clog remover as we do, so I pulled out this book on natural cleaning that my cousins gave me. It said to use baking soda and vinegar, then wait awhile and pour boiling water down the drain. I put in the soda and vinegar and waited the 15 minutes, and then it was super clogged. Like, going nowhere fast.

I plunged, and plunged again. That was pretty disgusting, and it didn't work either. So I called my dad, but he was at work. I had to move on to Youtube. I watched the video, did it on our sink, cut and refashioned a wire hanger to pull out the clog (chopsticks were too short!), and voila. A gross mass of hair and goo. And a sink that drains!