Glitter wine glasses

I found these online and wasn't completely happy with how they all turned out. You'd think anything with glitter I would love. But not the case.

Instead of using Mod Podge I mixed 1 part glue with 1 part water and stirred. I taped off the glass and started "painting"

       

Once I had the glue painted on one glass I sprinkled glitter until the glass was covered.

       

       

Once they were dry to touch, I glue painted over them again and let dry overnight. I bought a spray lacquer as well and sprayed them so they can be hand-washable now. I took the tape off after everything was dry, seemed the best idea to me and very little glitter came off with the tape.

I really like how the above one turned out. The two that look like they're dripping seem weird to me. I also made two non-stemless glasses and just glittered the bottom, they turned out a lot better.

        

My kitchen table is still very glittery, but I kind of like it so I'm leaving it for now.

xo A

This week

Well. My dad commented that I haven't written anything in awhile. So here's what's going on this week.

Sunday, Elyse and I went to the driving range, and out for lunch at one of our favorite pizza places, and got the most amazing salads. Random I know, but good. I laid out for almost 4 hours reading and got a nice sunburn.

Monday I bought more books and made some pretty sweet glitter wine glasses (more to come)

       

Tuesday was Sydnie's birthday, went out for supper at Cantina Laredo

Today was skype date home 

Tomorrow is Halloween and going to Kat and Justin's for movies and a lot of chatting.

Saturday is Aviation Day at Page Field Airport, Wisconsin vs. Iowa at noon, and ISU vs. Kansas St at 3:30

Sunday is Chrons walk for Team Jac-Attack at Lakes Park

Busy. Busy. Busy.

xo A

Just a spoonful of sugar...

Ohmygosh are you Mary Poppins? Where's your spoonful of sugar?

Every year my VP throws a Halloween party (and this was obviously my first one). Her house was amazing and decorated so cool/spooky.  I love the movie Mary Poppins so in decided to be her thinking it would be pretty simple. I bought a red trench/rain coat a few years ago and wore it one time. It made the trip with me to Florida, and is perfect.

I had a navy skirt, white top and black boots. So I only needed the parrot umbrella, bow tie, hat and carpet bag. My boss gave me a hat to use and I hot glued daisies and berries on it. As a new hire, Chicos gave us umbrellas on our first day (it was also rainy season) and I took full advantage of it. I looked around for a fake parrot to add to the end but ended up paper mâché-ing one (when's the last time you paper mâché? It's actually really fun...) and painting it. It turned out amazing!

       

                        

I bought some red ribbon for a bow tie and some jacquard fabric that I glued to an existing purse and had myself a nice carpet bag.

                       

                        

        

                                        

       

Happy Halloween!

xo A

Pumpkin carving at its finest

This week I invited some friends over to carve pumpkins. I attempted to turn the air down low so it would feel like fall. Fail. With that many people it stayed 76 most of the night. As per usual we get really loud, and the vaulted ceilings really played into our favor. The wood floors were clutch for cleaning up pumpkin guts though...

       

       

       

                                               

This is by far my favorite picture. Mitch and Winnie hard at work carving. Justin searching for a design in the book. And Murphy, playing 1992 Wheel of Fortune on Super Nintendo :)

          

                                    

So this is mine. That I freehand drew off a picture online. It's supposed to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid... Don't feel bad if you don't know, she's not really that great (just kidding I think she's pretty good but I watch the Little Mermaid more than I care to admit...).

       

And of course. The best part about carving pumpkins. The seeds! This year it got really late after everyone had went home and they were clean, so left them overnight to dry on cookie sheets/paper towel. Fun fact of the day - Apparently the Pintrest community says this is the way to go to get them really dried out. Most of us are to impatient to do that though.  

I put them all in a bowl and added 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil (It could be more or less, just enough to cover them lightly, also this was 3 pumpkins of seeds). I removed probably 1 pumpkins worth of seeds and put in a seperate bowl. So the majority I sprinkled garlic salt and normal salt, I didn't want them to get too garlic-y, and spread on a cookie sheet. With the other ones I set aside, I sprinkled dry Rach dip mix on them until they were coated and put on a different cookie sheet. I baked on 250 for 20 minutes, then stirred and cooked for 15-20 minutes, the ranch ones turned a nice golden brown so I took those out and cooked the salt ones a little longer.

They were amazing. All of them. I split them up and this is all I have left of the ranch ones...

       

Side note. It's obviously not as humid here anymore. And I was looking through my closet and found a few dresses I haven't wore yet. So this past week I told myself I was going to wear a dress everyday since it's going to start being too cold in the morning. I lasted 3 days. 

This one is my favorite, who said you can't carve pumpkins and still look classy?

                                              

xo A

Run Forrest Run

Turns out... I can run!

I signed up for a Beach Obstacle Course 5K in November with a few other ladies here and told myself I had 60 days to get back in shape. I started working out, but not really running. 

It scared me. 

Running.

So I started elliptical and weights and then eventually treadmill 2 weeks later. Epic fail. I got a little discouraged when I realized I only had a month left. I remember Lyndsey saying she did couch to 5K for a race she ran and really liked it. Well it's an eight week program so I put myself on the fast track.

Warm up. Run 1/2 mile. Walk 1/4 mile. Run 3/4. Walk 1/4. Etc. etc. for 30 minutes. Did that every other day for a week and began to swap Run 1/2 for Run 3/4 and then a full mile. And today a ran a full 2 1/2 miles without a break. I was pretty proud of myself considering I haven't ran more than one continuous mile since Sophomore track in high school.

I probably could have ran longer but some tool that I met at the pool when I first moved in, came in to workout and turned on The Bride of Chucky. I hightailed it out of there.

On a side note. It's gorgeous here. And I have the windows and lanai door open. Absolutely wonderful fall weather.

xo A

Kitchen. Check!

Last night a bunch of people came over and we had snacks and carved pumpkins and a few of the girls baked. But more importantly Justin brought a ladder to straighten out my sign in the kitchen so it wasn't hanging off the edge ominously.  I bought some accents to go next to it and it turned out really good!

I think I need to switch the white vases, because the left side looks a little shadow-y and too much gloss/vase. Or maybe something tall. We'll see. I got a really good deal on everything at Old Time Pottery which happens to be in my backyard (dangerous).

Pumpkins to come soon.
xo A

Zombie Transformation

Fort Myers ZombieCon 2013 - Back in Time. Can I just say, Sweet As Hell?

My boss loves doing gory make-up, so I went over to her place Saturday afternoon and she did an AMAZING job. I was actually a little scared of me. It's a combination of latex that you peel and cover with blood, and re-apply, and peel and cover with blood and green/grey eye shadow and black/green face paint and fake blood and mallo powder for the hair (its magical powder that literally keeps your hair however you touch it)(seriously too good it took me 2 days to wash it all out)
Thanks LE for this $5 sample dress that is laying in a heap on my bathroom floor. To get it in prime zombie form, I ripped out them hem, rubbed coffee ground all over it, dried it to fray, and cleaned my lanai (it gets really dirty from all the rain) Then took a straw, sucked up some blood and got some pretty sweet blood splatters.

So from start to finish. here goes.

 This is a pretty classic scene from Walking Dead

 This dude had a sweet face wound but I was trying not to be a creep

 This lady approached me and asked for a picture. Her face has a plastic piece that makes it look like her mouth was blown away so you can see the teeth.

 This was an actual child. Sitting motionless. Actually a lot creepier than the other people, because I thought he was going to lunge at me.

I removed my arm wound before we even left downtown, the others weren't long after...Thanks for going with me Justin!

Needless to say, I had blood dripping from my mouth for a solid 2 days.

xo A