Holiday VoxBox Time!

"What is a VoxBox?" you may ask. "What is the new project?" you may ask. Well - I've got excitement and I've got disappointment. No projects in this post. That's the disappointment. The excitement? *Drumroll please*... reviews of everyday items you all can benefit from!

No, this is not going to be an every post thing, it all depends on how often I receive VoxBoxes - which brings me to your first question. This is a VoxBox:

Let's take it from the beginning. So as I was stalking reading other blogs, I saw that one blogger joined a website - www.influenster.com. Being the copying little blogger that I am, I had to check it out. Turns out, it's a website that you go in and do reviews of products/objects/styles/foods/beverages/books/anything you want and, of course, read the reviews as an informed consumer to purchase the good stuff! The website feeds on social networks - as a member you advertise what you get, what you see, what you're doing (blogging about it) and you get points as to how active you are on the social networks and, mostly, the reviews. Then there's the VoxBox - the more active you are, the more helpful you are with your reviews, and the more things you're interested in, the more stuff you get delivered to your door to test out and blog and review about. I was skeptical until I got this fantastic e-mail saying "You're receiving the Holiday VoxBox 2012!" Sure enough - on my doorstep was this box chock full of fun things to try out.

So here goes. First up - Quaker Real Medley's Cherry Pistachio Oatmeal, $1.79 per cup

When I got this my first thought was "ew" because I am not a fan of oatmeal. But, I promised to review it so I sucked it up. As soon as I opened the package, it had about 1 inch of food in it. I was unimpressed by the quantity - it's an awfully big cup for such a little amount. Then I noticed huge chunks of cherries and pistachios and was instantly impressed. When I used to purchase flavored oatmeal to give it a go for attempted health benefits, all of the flavorings were ground up and when it was put in with water it turned into a mushy gushy mess that was unappetizing, to say the least. This one, you added boiling water to and put the cover back on, waited 3 minutes and opened the lid to a way better bowl of outmeal. (There was a microwave option too, but we have a teapot at the office that this was the easier route.)

I was so impressed with the taste when I opened it up and tasted it. It wasn't mushy at all! In fact, it had the crunchy taste of oats, nuts, pistachios and the tang of real (because they were!) cherries. It was very delicious! I was beyond surprised and ended up buying these at my next grocery haul. I am also impressed with the ingredients -  it's in the "healthy enough" category that I don't mind making it a regular in the breakfast rotation. Here's the ingredients: whole grain rolled oats, dried sweetened cherries (cherries, sugar), multi grain blend (whole grain rolled oats, rolled barley, whole grain rolled rye), brown sugar, pistachios, almonds, nonfat dry milk, whole grain rolled wheat, natural flavor, salt. Altogether it's 290 calories, 8g fat, 49g carbs and 9g protein. Kept me nice and full all morning, too.

Score: 4.5 out of 5, due to the small portion in a large cup. I don't think I would have been so taken aback if they were just honest about their portioning and put it in a slightly smaller cup.

Next up: Goody Quikstyle Hairbrush, $11.99 per brush

I didn't quite know how to deal with this. How does it dry? Wouldn't it mold? How does it actually work? All the answers were on the back: Usage: Use it like a regular brush. The idea is that it dries your hair faster because the microfiber bristles soaks up excess water. Drying? Air dry. The bristles are "protected by antimicrobial properties" that prevent mold and mildew. I used this brush this morning and I'm not quite so sure about the results. First off, I noticed that the hair brushing bristles were very hard and had no give or flexibility whatsoever. The microfiber bristles didn't have a different feel but, as you can probably see from the picture, they tended to mat themselves down so I wasn't sure how well they were actually going through my hair. The brush did address this, saying on the back "After a few uses, the microfiber bristles may begin to look a little flat" and tell you to fix it by running a comb through it and then turning it bristle-side down and tap it a few times to "fluff" them back up. Not sure how I feel about having to comb my brush after every few uses; and, to be honest, I didn't quite see much difference than if I just brushed my hair, ran a towel through it, then brushed it again. Did having it all together save me time? Maybe a bit. Would I have bought this brush? Probably not. I'd probably tend towards a brush that had bristles with a bit more flexibility.

Score: 2 out of 5. It certainly served the purpose of getting my hair brushed, and maybe it did dry my hair a bit more than a regular hairbrush - but so does a towel. It's a bit on the expensive side for a brush as well.

Next up: NYC Color LIQUID Lipshine, $2.49 per lipshine.

The color they sent me was "Nude York City" which I thought was very clever on their part. It's advertised as a lip shine that is non-sticky and moisturizes lips with Vitamin E and is supposed to have a "creamy and soft textured feel". This smelled absolutely delicious, and had a big wand that made for some good lip coverage. I don't agree with the non-sticky claim - it was pretty sticky but the creamy and soft-textured description certainly had a leg to stand on. It made my lips stick together and drinking from a glass awkward. It did moisturize a bit, but not any better than my regular lip balm. As the lip "shine" is the obvious claim to fame on this product... how'd it do? It did great. The shine was max-impact like and I really liked the nude color. Although this comes in 10 shades, I'd probably stick with the nude.

Score: 3.5 out of 5. I loved the smell, the wand and the shine and the price wasn't too shabby either. It was sticky, and it's advertizing is clearly proud of it's "non sticky" claim, so I think that was a bit of a downfall.

Next we have Kiss Nail Dress, $6.99 per box (one box has 28 strips, for fingers and toes)

I do confess - this I have not tried yet. I'm hoping to put them on for New Years with my new dress, so once that all happens, I'll be sure to score this one out and tell you how it goes. Essentially - it's a sticker that you put on your nails and then file down into shape. From the sounds of other reviews, they work out pretty well, but as soon as dishes are done (or 2-3 showers) they will unpeel themselves. It's for this reason that I didn't put them on earlier. I am very impressed with the designs and colors though - the ones Influenster sent me are rhinestoned out and seem to match the colors of New Years perfectly. You'll see soon enough.


Next: EBOOST, $28 for box of 20 powders, $39 for box of 30 powders, $39 for box of 12 shots

This advertises as a powder (or shot, but I got the sample of powder) that boosts your mood, focus and immunity with natural ingredients and no crash. I don't know what to say about this other than - don't do it. It's not absolutely horrible - but it's not "good" either. This powder turns regular water into some sort of effervescent liquid that seems to mini-shock your tongue when sipped:

I would not know if it does anything with focus, immunity or energy because I could barely get through half my glass. It was so weird because it wasn't a bad taste, per say - it was pink lemonade - but it definitely is not what you are expecting. And those prices? I get that it only averages out to be $1.40 per drink, but for that same $1.40 I can buy my Coke Zero and get my caffeine fix (focus, energy) and then pop a Vitamin C for the immune boost. I'm good on this one.

Score: 2 out of 5. Blegh.

Lastly - Sole Society, www.solesociety.com

This is an online website for SHOES! This had my name written all over it. I do confess, I have not yet used my coupon that they sent me for $25 off my first purchase. I went on the website and checked out the new shoes, popular shoes, etc. for some ideas on what to buy but I could not make up my mind! I will definitely use it soon though, so I will be sure to update you on the purchase price and the fit of the shoes that I did buy. So far, I am extremely impressed with the shoes, as well as the site itself. It's an easy website to use (with all the shoes on one page to go through them all in one click) and it has free shipping BOTH ways, all the time. With $25 off offer, I was anticipating a larger dent in my bank account, but with most of the shoes going for $49.99 or $59.99, Influenster has essentially given me a "half off" code for most of the website. BONUS! Also, when I went to check it out on Friday, December 29th they had a special going for buy one get one free - making for a 49.99 or 59.99 discount! Unfortunately, the $25 off does not combine with the buy one get one (yes, I tried. Who doesn't want to try to get 2 pairs of shoes for just $25?!). Once my bank account recovers from Christmas a bit, I will certainly try this code out.

The extra bonus?! I can give the code out to all my wonderful friends (that's you!) On that note, please head over to www.solesociety.com and use the code INFLUENSTER25 for $25 off your first purchase! Take a little time to hum and haw over it - the code expires on January 31, 2013.

Score: 5 out of 5 for appearance, website ease of use, pricing and shipping costs. I may have to amend this score, depending on how fast the shipping is and (hope this doesn't happen but maybe) how easy returns are.
See - aren't you much happier reading a post that gives away stuff at the end? Enjoy, all my shoe-loving friends. And try that oatmeal.

Snow Day Sewing

Today, Mother Nature decided to dump over 12 inches of snow into our yard and as of right now, 4pm, it is still falling. Thankfully, I have quite a few vacation days saved just for this such occurrence, so I called in a "snow day" at work. Sure, it uses up some of my precious vacation time - but I'd much rather just stay home and do chores, sew and shovel instead of risking the un-plowed highway and back roads. It works for me :)

I had a fantastic Christmas this past weekend and am lucky enough to call it a weekend because we truly did spend 4 days full of Christmas festivities. It was pretty amazing. I had such a great time with all our family and friends - I haven't laughed that much in a long time.

In the spirit of the holidays, I decided to get a jump start on New Years. Although plans are certainly not made yet - my dress will be.

Here's the gorgeousness I will be ringing in the New Year in:

Oh yes - this is an asymmetrical, flutter see-through sleeve dress. Also, it doesn't seem important now, but take note of the high back that runs along the back of my neck. This will be important come the end of this. In a twist of fate, who saw this coming:

Made by Jones New York! Almost broke the budget with this beauty - it was a whole $5.75. But I saw the black and the pretty pinks and purples and sucked it up.

First thing I did was to take off those sleeves! Although fluttery and pretty, they were an awkward length and see-through - not ideal. So, and you knew this was coming, the seam ripper came out in force!

Bye bye sleeves! I then put on the dress and wanted to do something about the awkward asymmetrical bottom that hit me at a weird spot. So I took the slip part underneath the dress and grabbed about an inch all the way around and pinned it up. I then sewed it and cut off the excess fabric. This left it looking as such:

It certainly wasn't pretty, but all of those seams are covered up by the outside fabric so it didn't have to be attractive. Putting it back on, it hit just above the knee, which was much better than cutting me off at mid-shin.

Next, I couldn't face just tossing out the arms. Although not pretty on my arms, it was still a rather gorgeous, soft fabric. So - I sewed together the two arms and made a belt. This action I so modestly call: genius.

When wrapped around my waist, the seam isn't quite as obvious, so it worked out that that wasn't all that pretty on its own, too. Seeing a trend yet? Then I put it all together.

I was okay with this result, but I was quite uncomfortable with the amount of cleavage going on. So... I went to backwards town! I turned the dress around, where the high neck gave me the ability to make any sort of neckline I wanted. As I've never created a neckline before, I wanted to make something "easy" so I decided just a simple V-neck. I measured the dip of the original neck and it was 7", so I measured 5" down on the back (from now on, the "back" will be the front. Stay with me on this one) and cut a straight line down. Then I folded back the sides and sewed it down. This was much more appropriate, not to mention way more comfortable as well.

Don't mind the sweatpants - I was chilly!

There is still some hand sewing that needs to be done on the V part of the neckline, but other than that, I was happy with my newly created neckline. And the deeper V definitely looked more appropriate on the back of the dress.

I'm actually quite happy with this dress! Again, it's New York so I will have to definitely throw on a sweater and some tights of some sort for New Years, but it's definitely a fluttery, non-constrictive dress that I can also wear it during the summer on its own.

I should probably mention that I had a little help on this dress. Her name is Sophie.

That's right! I got a body for Christmas! That sentence, coming from an ex-Mortuary Science student, may worry some so I should probably re-explain - I got my dressform for Christmas (thanks to my brother's family and my sister!) Using a dressform certainly helped with the pinning and propping and playing around with different styles, and I was pretty thankful to get it.

Speaking of thankful, I got another object for the craft room that will be extremely helpful in all my projects.

A sweet free-standing mirror! No more taking pictures in my small, behind the door, broken mirror. Thanks Mom and Dad! Once it's all cleaned up and wiped off from all of it's box-dust, I'll be putting this beauty to work. Whew!

Lessons learned in this project? 1. Pay attention to stitch length with different fabrics - when I sewed up the sleeves after tearing off the original ones, I used a longer stitch length and it pulled and scrunched up. It didn't end up horribly, but when I sewed the neck I made sure to make a short stitch length so the neck didn't bunch and scrunch in the same way. 2. Don't be scared to create necklines. I was terrified to mess with this one because I didn't want to mess up the whole ordeal. What pushed me into doing it was my husbands voice of reason. I believe his words were something along the lines of "What's going to happen if you mess up? You'll be out a whole six dollars. Big deal." Although $6 is a good chunk of change, in the perspective of amount spent on hobbies and learning experiences, it's a comparably small amount so I decided to jump into it. I'm glad that I did, because it worked out. Maybe next time I'll even venture into a square neck? Let's not get crazy, now.







Sweater Swag Fail

I'll warn you now - this is not pretty, and I'm not happy about it. I'm sure I'll re-visit this project at some point, but here's where it was left. This one was inspired by Pintrest, the site I'm extremely obsessed with and totally okay with that fact; it gives me a lot of good ideas. Recently, I had pinned an outfit that I liked and it had a boatneck sweater that was gorgeous. So when I saw this sweater, much like the one that I pinned, I had to snatch it up for $3.99.

Voila! It wasn't perfection yet, but I swore I could get it there. (Spoiler: I was wrong. Very, very wrong.) And yes, I realized that I did the "hand on the hip" thing again that I swore I wouldn't do. So... here you go.

So yes - no hand on hip happens, it's just not my favorite way to "pose". The plan: a) cut off turtleneck in boatneck-esque fashion b) sew up the hem c) be done for the next 4 days of Christmas vacation and wear my sweet new comfy sweater for the drive between the parents houses.

So task a commenced:

Done. So far so good. So then I pinned it all around and sewed the seam to complete task b. This is where things got shady. First of all, the sweater was puffy and didn't want to fit under the footer very well, so I may or may not have freestyled a lot over the manufacturer's seams where it certainly wouldn't go under the footer when it was down. One would think this was the issue but alas, it was not (although it could have been. Who knows - I'm new at this.) So I finished the hem and put the sweater back on. And it rolled like no tomorrow, making a HUGE gap in between the sweater and my skin. So I decided to do a second hem to make it a bit more stable. It didn't help.

When I walked out like this, my husbands first reaction was "it doesn't look bad. What's wrong with it?" And then I put my arms down and the whole thing fell down to my elbows. Problem found. So, I turned the whole thing inside out and pinched the top seams together. Knowing that this certainly would have been too thick for my sewing machine to handle, I hand sewed the seams together so it wasn't falling off my shoulder. To my absolute horror, this is what I saw when I put it right side out and put it on:

It looks like a shoulder pad in there, but it most certainly is not. That is the result of my hand sewing at 11pm. I don't even know how this happened. The worst part wasn't even this nub (my husband called it a shoulder nipple) - it was the fact that I tried to cut off the excess fabric creating the nub, and ended up with a huge hole in the shoulder. This is where I threw in the towel for the night and decided that I would attempt to fix it after the holidays. For now - no cute and comfy travel sweater.

The only success I had in this project is what I did with the turtleneck. I didn't to waste a pefectly good circle of pretty purple fabric. So I cut the neck in half, and sewed up the hem to make two cylinders. The idea here? Well, have you been in shoe stores and saw the legwarmers that they are now trying to play off as "boot toppers"? Although I know they are legwarmers, and the world knows they are legwarmers, something about calling them "boot toppers" makes them a bit more 2012 appropriate that they are all. the. rage. So I slapped these babies on my calves and made my own legwarmers boot toppers.

 

 

All I have to say? Glad something worked out.

 

So I'll get back to this sweater at some point, when I can figure out how to fix these shoulders. I really do love this sweater, and I still like my idea... I just have to work on my process and application of my ideas.

 

 

What did I learn? Stop sewing at 11pm; not start at 11pm. Also, always work on my work table. This project I did primarily on the floor because the usual spot in my craft room that I use for my work table was taken up by these beauties:

 

Okay, at least it makes me happier to look at them and know I'm spending a fun, family-filled weekend with Christmas festivities. Smile restored.

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!



Party Dress

I have been waiting to write this one for weeks now, but I didn't want to explain all my mishaps with this dress and then wear it to a party - it's like everyone knowing your secrets! Plus, I was a bit flattered by people doing the surprised "you made that?" question; it tells me I didn't do too bad of a job!

So I don't quite have a "before" because this dress I put together with a yard of fabric and a tank top - so here are the general pieces, as well as the general idea of the look I was (trying to) head for.

Sorry about the straight up blurriness - not sure how that one happened.



So I bought the tank at Salvation Army for $1.50 (50% off "original Salvation Army price - love that they do sales on their own low prices). The above picture also shows my general idea - put the fabric at empire waist and sew down. Easy peasy was what I was going for! However, the yard of fabric was quite the headache. My initial idea was to buy a thick piece of elastic and then add a fun piece of fabric to the bottom for the skirt and do it on the cheap. While in line to have the fabric cut, I saw this fancy taffeta fabric (already connected to elastic) and thought "Shortcut! Sweet!" and the fact that it had a huge 50% off sign on it helped quite a bit as well. So I had them cut that fabric instead - never looking at the price, mind you - and happily skipped walked to the register.  Come to find out, my "shortcut" fabric was originally priced at $30 dollars! So I forked over my $15 and learned my should-be-obvious lesson of looking at the original price before saying "1 yard please!" There goes my holiday dress on the cheap. Here's a close up of the fabric:

I have to admit, though - it's really pretty! So once I sucked it up that I spent too much on this dress, I pinned it together and went to the machine to sew the fabric onto the tank. And this was my first mistake.

So this is the tank, inside out, with the fabric pinned inside it, and it's all jammed up inside my poor, poor sewing machine. It was at this point that I realized a) I probably should have known this was not going to work and b) there was no way this was going to rotate easily with the huge excess of fabric I had all jammed up in the arm (or whatever it's called... where's my book?). At this point I had a breakdown - you know, like a totally rational adult. I even pulled the hubster's into the craft room begging him to use his engineering skills on the fabric that I was quite obviously not going to fit on the machine like I wanted it to. His response? "I seriously have no idea what you're doing. You'll figure it out". And with that overwhelming sense of "oh crap", I took a break. He and I went to go pick up his parents at the airport and had a fantastic dinner. I only thought about the logistics of the dress a little, I think. By the end of dinner, I was back to my sane mind and ready to go at it again.

The way I figured it out? I pinned it up how I wanted it to look and then broke it down in both my head and in its physical being and finally figured out how it had to go so that I could send it through the machine like a regular old piece of fabric. Here's what I figured out:

The dress had to go inside the shirt, and one had to be inside out and the other had to be right side out. (I'm sure you can see how the wine helped on that one). So I pinned it all up and sewed it together. Then I cut out the excess shirt on the inside of the dress. I didn't finish the edge because I knew no one would ever see the inside of the dress. For pure comfort, I should have kept the shirt whole and not cut off the excess, but that's for future reference.

Luckily, that is literally all I had to do with the dress - it was done.

So I slapped on my favorite shoes (which are literally what I built this dress around), and threw on some accessories and gave it a go. I think it turned out rather well! Then I realized it was December in New York, and slapped on a sweater:

Done and DONE! Although the sweater was not warm, I knew the party would be inside so it would make due (do?) But I did decide that black tights were the way to go to be a bit more comfortable, as well as some added warmth. I bought a pair of clearance patterned tights at WalMart for $4 dollars and the party dress was done! Altogether, I spent $20.50 for my homemade party dress. Not too shabby, but I'm still a bit angry that it's a higher price than I anticipated.

So what did I learn? Mainly - look at prices when shopping outside of the Salvation Army. In Salvation Army I'm in pure "cheap-o" mode, but outside of it, I get into an impulse mode that I can't seem to stop. Time to take a breather and look at tags. Also, making clothes is a bit more difficult than I thought, something that a dressform (I may or may not have already named my future one Sophie) may make a bit easier. That's for way in the future when I know better than to jam up everything into my sewing machine arm (seriously, is that what it's called? That's what it sure looks like. Where is that dang book?!).

Hopefully, I'll be writing again soon after Christmas for a breakdown of my Christmas gift! Unless the recipient does not like it; then I will hide that post forever in my computer and never let it come out again. Just kidding - I promised I'd even post my fails!

Christmas Carols in Clothing Form

Hiatus is OVER!  I've been waiting for this project for months now, and I'm so excited that I was able to get it under way! Hubby and I were all sorts of in the Christmas spirit today. We went Christmas shopping (separately) and checked off both of our shopping lists, and then we put up our tree and got our house into its entire Christmas outfit. With all this spirit going around - I knew this was my chance to break out this gorgeousness...

 



This was at Salvation Army and I had no idea why it was there, but I knew I had to have it. I mean, who could honestly pass this up? Not to mention, the $3.99 price tag on it was unbeatable. Immediately, I was thinking a fun Christmas skirt; something to wear at Christmas to get the nieces and nephews, who are forever getting older and more and more "too cool" for Christmas, into the spirit of the holidays.

First thing I did was to cut off the bottom for the skirt because it was a ridiculously awkward length. When I noticed that the whole thing, once chopped up, was a huge circle I knew that I had to add some sort of elastic to get it back into skirt form (in an A-line fashion). In result, I made a one inch seam around the top.

Then, I cut the 3/4" elastic to the size of my waist and used a safety pin to inch it through the seam. It was a slow, slow (did I mention slow?) process to get the elastic all the way around. When I got it through, I pinned it and tried it on. Now, it doesn't seem like much but I was immensely happy that I had the forethought to "try it before you sew it". I'm not sure if I measured wrong the first time or if all that time spent threading the elastic made me lose a few inches, but I had a good 4 inches of elastic that was entirely unnecessary. Had I sewn it without trying it on it would have never been on my waist and forever at my feet. Not quite the "family friendly" holiday most have in mind.

After everything up top was all nice and pretty, I moved my attention to the bottom. I wanted to keep a bit of the green on the bottom for "trim", but I certainly did not need the whole five additional inches of that damned Santa figure - seriously, what is he doing? -  so I pinned it up. As I was pinning, I was ecstatic pleased to see this:

That uneven seam right there folks, was NOT. MINE. This was done by the original seamstress of the dress. It put a little smile on my face to see that I'm not the only one that messes up. Even professionals go for the "fake it 'till you make it" attitude sometimes. (Maybe they knew no one would look so close at a Santa-laden dress - oh how they doubt me!)

Once all pinned up on the bottom, I went about sewing the bottom hem. It was around this point that I was thinking "huh, this seems to be a bit easier than I thought - maybe I'm getting better!" Around the same time this thought was forming... so was this.

*Sigh* Shit. Did I know how this happened? Not so much. Do I know what caused it? Not at all. Did I know how to fix it?... not without tearing it apart. So I got out the handy-dandy seam ripper (I seriously keep it next to me every time I do a project now. It's just inevitable, really, that I will need to rip something apart, mistake or otherwise) and went to town on it. Then I did it again. Practice makes perfect, right?... Right?

When all was said and done, I ended up with lots of things to experiment with. What top should I wear with this and, way more importantly, what shoes? So I experimented....

I look like a jacked up Christmas carol! I was actually pretty excited that it looked extremely Christmas-y and I think it is exactly what I needed to get the kids excited about Christmas as well. This may or may not be the outfit I wear while I make Christmas cookies (you're welcome, hubby). Also note the experimentation of shoes - I was dying anxious to find a reason to wear those fantastic green shoes but, alas, they are a bit too bright (ha!) for this outfit. So, I finally decided on this slightly toned down outfit:

Don't mind my lone slipper back there - it was FREEZING in my craft room!

 

So there you have it - my "Christmas Excitement-Inspiring" skirt. By no means a church-going skirt, but something to smile and laugh about on a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

And... if ever I'm invited to a Christmas spirit or Ugly Sweater Christmas party, I can just throw the top back on...

... and the prize will be mine!

Merry Christmas!

No real list of end-of-post thoughts. Maybe just that I should research a bit more on appropriate length of elastic so it's not loose (as mine was, even with taking that additional 4 inches off) or too tight. Also - I really need to stop doing the cheerleader pose. What is with that hand on my hip?! I guess there's not much you can do whilst standing in front of a mirror, but I have to think of something. We'll see!