If at first you don't succeed, Tie Dye Again!

I have wanted to try my hand at tie-dying for months now.  My eye was on a pair of purple jeans that I always wore with a solid top, and I thought the pants would look great in a fun tie-dye pattern on the bottom.

So the term "tie-dye" is not correct usage in this project.  There was no "dye" involved, only a "taking out" of dye by using bleach.

WARNING-SIDE RANT::  Who knows why I kept putting off completing this project...it was so EASY!  A few months back, when the idea first came to me, I picked up a bottle of hydrogen peroxide at the drug store (thinking I would use that as my beaching agent).  Why H2O2?  I don't now know why.  My brother used to use it back in high school to lighten his hair, but I don't know why I just didn't go straight to using bleach.  DAH!  :FINISH RANT

I found what I was looking for yesterday when surfing blogland: Katherine at MakingChickenSalad, tutorial for bleaching out denim.

As soon as naptime commenced, I was gathering up my materials and starting on my project.

Problem is, I have a real deficiency in following directions.  As soon as my pants were ready to go in to the washing machine, I threw them in and then turned on the water.  Wrong!  By the time I added the bleach (and I threw in the H2O2 for extra power, not sure if adding that was really was worth it) the jeans were already soaked with the hot water...I didn't allow for them to properly soak-up the bleach solution.  DOH!  As soon as I realized my mistake, I went back to the tutorial and read everything sentence by sentence.  What I decided to do was just finish out the wash/rinse cycle, post wash with detergent, and throw in the dryer to see what I got:

Some parts were not bad, but the good areas were mostly up at the waist and nothing done to the legs.  Well I did manage to get one star-burst on the leg, but it was much more subtle than I wanted.  So next naptime, back to the beginning (which included a trip to the grocery store to purchase more bleach) .  I re-banded and this time I added the bleach (I used maybe one quarter of the bottle) to the hot water BEFORE adding the jeans.  I left it to soak for about 2 hours.  When I went to check on it, what came out was entirely pink!  "Oh no!  I've OVERDONE it this time"  But, again, I went through the rest of the steps (wash, rinse, repeat with detergent, and dry).  I'm pretty happy with what I got in the end.

Now I can't wait to wear these and show off my handy-work!  :-)

Closet Wrap-Up

So over a month ago I decided to join the DIY Bloggers in their summer challenge.  I failed at completing the project on time, but eventually it did get finished.  I think I managed to have it at 98% by two weeks past the original date.  I still have some sewing to do at the top, but here it is-in all it's glory...

My closet is now a place of inspiration for me.  I'm not the best photographer, so maybe this picture doesn't do it justice, but I love the combination of gold, hot pink, and tomato red.  The white molding just pops, although I can see it sort of clashes with my off-white dresser a bit.  I finally have a shelf to keep my purfume bottles and earrings up away from my little explorer's hands.  I did leave some items on a tray though that he can get into.  I have a case filled with plastic bead necklaces, big ol' shiny plastic rings and braclets, and bright sunglasses that he loves to play dress up with me.

Some "in-progress" pics:

It's very important to have a "spotter" in case you miss something:

My first time painting stripes on my walls!  More Pinterest inspiration for that:

Source: None via Petra on Pinterest

I painted the shelves as well and installed contact paper on the tops:

I'm so happy with the result!

Before

After

Husband is Out of the Closet

I'm so excited to be joining in on the one week design challenge, title above, hosted by the following lovely ladies...

I've been following all of their DIY home design blogs for some time now (Younghouselove.com,BowerPowerBlog.com,stylebyemilyhenderson.com,JoeyandLana.com) and when I heard that the four of them teamed up for this challenge-well, I had to get on board.

What I didn't expect was my husband to get a whiff of my excitement and want to help out.  "Help out" turned a bit into "take over" and has stepped up the project into something much more than what can be accomplished in one week.  Or at least, when you get started Friday night-will not be complete by Monday night.

I digress.  Let's get into the inspiration for this project...

Source: bhg.com via Petra on Pinterest

Oh how I yearn for an organized closet like this one. I have the good fortune to have a pretty large closet all for myself in our spare room, but it is a disaster!

(BEFORE)

Soon after we bought this house and moved in, I had my husband take off the triple, heavy, sliding closet doors and replace them with this white steel rod and shimmery gold curtains I found at a discount linen store.  I have an extra panel of curtain that *we* (husband) have been meaning to make into a transom for filling the gap above the vertical panels, just haven't gotten around to doing so.  So both Thursday night and Friday night, after the babe was laid down to rest, we hashed out our plan.  My plan: to add some boxes to the shelf and have better organization for my jewelry and knick-knacks, and also get objects (like my perfume bottles) up high out of reach from MVP (our active 1 year old, who likes to come into Mommy's closet and pull everything down).  His plan: to completely gut out the entire closet and rebuild it all back up with unfinished lumber, which he can manipulate (with cuts, curves, and routing tools) to his hearts content.  His motivation-my love pouring over.

My Plan-Storage boxes via Target

His Plan-rip out shelves and build fresh ones with plywood

It is really coming along...he is actually still cutting, drilling, installing, and cutting some more as I type out this posting to have it done for tomorrow.  He really wants to meet the deadline tomorrow and I think he'll make it.  Just I won't have my part completed, you know, the painting of the shelves and ofcourse the filling back up of the closet.  Also, I've got further plans to sort through all my stuff and purge purge purge!  Man, I sound like my mother right now.  She's always getting into projects and losing track of time.  My husband laughed when I just read those last two statements to him.  He had just uttered in the same moment "Man, I hate it when home owners leave their furniture in place and you have to work around it" (referring to my dresser) He sounded just like his dad-the general contractor.

testing the strength of his manny-work

So for the next few days, I'm going to be living from my closet on the floor until I can find the time to paint, buy wallpaper, and more boxes, oh-and rope lights (excited about that plan=husband's).

But I will NOT admit DEFEAT!  Oh no, I have a backup project in my Pinterest board:

My mom's crochet purse from her hippiedaiz

 and some silk flowers, wah-lah!

WIWWW #6 & Anniversary Date Night

I'm linking up with The Pleated Poppy today for What I {WILL} Wear Wednesdays.  I'm quite proud of myself when I look back at these photos now.  Maybe thats because this post-surgery body has me in pajamas for the past week, so next week there most likely will not be a WIWWW post.  :-( so sad.

Wednesday:

Ric-Rac white top - BCBG

tank - Old Navy

Cosmetic Pink pants - Victoria Secret

Silver snakey skin loafers - Anne Klein DSW

Thursday, Pop-O-Raspberry:

Striped cardi - Anthro

tank - Old Navy

grey skirt - American Apparel

bright tights - American Apparel

flats - Nordstroms

*this picture does not do these tights justice, I wish I would have got my husband to take a picture of me outside before I left for work.  I got alot of comments on them at the office!

Thursday Night, Our 4 year anniversary dinner:

please don't hate me, but this was the dress I wore to senior prom(13 years ago).  felt far more sexy wearing it now then I ever did back then.  so glad I kept it.

"yummy dinner hon, but what's this 'Fire Kitchen' on our bill-yo!"

No joke, I thought maybe my creme brulee may have started a small fire, but our waiter explained to us is had to do with orders in the kitchen.  In keeping with tradition, we went to our favorite local restaurante, Italiano, and were served by my favorite waiter Giovanni.  My favorite niece is friends with his daughter, and I always want to bring that up when I see him, but alas I get too shy.  Not only was Giovanni our head waiter, but we had a server that I recognised from the cafe (same owners) and we briefly chatted about how long it had been since I came in Friday mornings with my son for an espresso.  He didn't even recognise me at first without my yoga pants and sans makeup face! HA!

So I found out that we have the same Anniversary as Young House Love, do you follow them?  If not, you should start right now (well, maybe after you leave me a comment to tell me you were here ;-)  I love their DIY wedding story and it made me want to share a bit of our 7/7/07 day with you all, so here it goes:

We got married on a hilltop overlooking my family hometown of Santa Barbara

sorry, not this hilltop (but this is my fav spot on earth)

This one!  Pretty Matilija Poppies, Elings Park

my own DIY touches (from top left clockwise): Ribbon board to hang name cards,  covered picnik tables that were already part of site for an awesome BBQ, our friends make their own wine-really good too- and they made pretty labels with our engagment photos, i hand made these pouches of jelly bellys for our guests (coin envelope, paper punch, ribbon, and I found these perfect hand dyed hydrangea petals with paper wrapped wire to hold it all together)

I'm so proud of how it all came together!

WIWWW #5

What I WILL wear Wednesdays began after I got kind of excited following this lovely blog by Lindsay (I discovered her through Etsy), after she decided to host a "linky" party.  At the time, I didn't even know what a linky party was-but now I get it and it's a great way to get more involved and find similar bloggers to yourself.  I added the extra W (WILL) because I'd like to decide on great outfits ahead of time, so I don't have that nagging voice telling me every morning as I stand in front of my closet: "I have NOTHING to wear!".

Basically, I have two standard dress codes: "for the office" and for "my days off" (not really off, being a mother is a 24/7 job).  I need to work on adding in "for date nights" because I feel the need to get dressed up from time to time, and my husband could really use some of that "me time" that I so selfishly steal away from him whenever I please.  With our 4th year anniversary coming up (7/7/07 baby!), now's my chance to really kick it up a notch.  But you're going to have to wait for WIWWW #6 to see what I come up with! ;-)

This week,
Wednesday:  To the office

Pink bowtie shirt - Banana Rep

Brown slacks - Express Editor

Black & white flats - Cynthia Vincent

Burberry trench - Nordstroms (my first real splurge)

Funky brown wrap scarfy thing - gift from BFF

Thursday & Friday, I had a sick baby to take care of and then doctor's appointment (turns out to be an ear infection).  Not a single pic either day, and I can't even remember now what I wore.  Had my mind on more important things.

Saturday:  Family Birthday Baanaannzaa!

Tank - Ann Taylor (hand me down :-)

White linen pants - Target

White wide brim hat - Target (also see)

Sunnies - RL Nordstroms

Gold and Sparkle sandals - Sole Society

Sunday: Hike with my baby love

White shirt - handmedown

tank - Old Navy

Jean shorts - Levi's

Sandals - Chacos

Monday, 4th of July parade:

Navy tank - Gap Body

Khaki shorts - Old Navy

Red ribbon - sewing basket

and for white I wore...
 my birthday candle necklace - Anthro
"Happy Birthday, America!"

Tuesday:   Work at the office

tank - handmedown

cardi - Banana Rep

Skirt - Anthro

Sandals - Target

Last but not least, other than wearing the candle necklace on the fourth, every day I've enjoyed my teenie tiny initials necklace by Lisa Leonard Designs.  I love it!  Perfect way to carry my family with me wherever I go.

How do you put together your outfits?  This morning I just grabbed a bottom, a top, and a sweater-but really not enough thought went into it.  It worked out, but I really want to work on the complete look rather than rush to get dressed.  So I'm curious how does your morning work when you open your closet or dress drawer?

WIWWW #4

Once again it's time to link up with The Pleated Poppy in all her stylishness (sort of addicted to her blog by now! ;-)

Kind of disappointed in myself this week.  I can do better.  I AM GOING TO DO BETTER!  My closet just depresses me right now.  I know I got some good in there, just keep pulling out the bad to put on.  Some of these outfits I should not even leave the house in.

Wednesday:
Pop-o-Red!

White sweater - Old Navy

Red jacket - Anthro

Trouser Jeans - Express

Brown heels - Steve Madden DSW

new necklace!! - Lisa Leonard Designs

Thursday:

Pop-o-Orange!

My baby boys (MVP & Boss the cat)

Faux wrap shirt - Old Navy

505 Jeans - Levis.com

Orange braided belt - Boden

Flats - Nordstrom

Friday:

Trip to the SF Zoo!

Me & Mommy at the monkey cages

Splatter Tshirt - Target

fav white knitted sweater - Express ('01)

jeans - same pair as yesterday

sunnies - RL Nordstroms

Tuesday:

Country Mouse goes to city (construction site visit)

b-o-r-i-n-g-!

silly tight jacket, see I can't even lower my arms! ;-)

Not at all in love with what I picked out of my closet to wear today.  Nothing is even worth mentioning where it's from.  I have the hardest time figuring out what is "appropriate" to wear out on the job site.  Only thing that is definite is my hard toed, hikers boots, safety glasses, and my hard hat (I know-I WISH I would have gotten a picture of me at the construction site for you all to see me in action!).  Meetings at the job trailer, muddy site walks, heavy machinery, and dangerous stuff all around.  I seriously love this stuff.

Today it was raining so that posed an even more interesting problem: keeping dry while outside most of the day.  Here is my wish for a better "rainy day" outfit:

Let it rain! by PeachesPSP 


I'd probably get kicked off the job site if I came in wearing this outfit (plus a hardhat would just look silly !).  I love to get my hands on some yellow rain boots.  They remind me of when I was little my mom had me wear my Paddington Bear's yellow rain boots-they fit me perfect she says!  


Did you ever wear something growing up and could (or are) make it work with your wardrobe today?

WIWWW #3

I'm doing things right this time, and *properly* linking in with The Pleated Poppy who hosts a fabulous "linky party" which motivated me to really get my blogging into weekly gear!  I'm improving on my outfits again, this time I have THREE FULL LOOKS (wow!).

Sunday, Father's Day:
We went to the Cal Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.  MVP's first trip!

- Dress, Anthro

- Leggings, American Apparel

-MVP, from the best da-da in the world!

Monday:

Off to work!

- stitched top, Anthro

- skinny jeans, Levi's.com

- white cardi, Old Navy

- sandals, Target

this guy puts a smile on my face everytime

Tuesday:
Again, off to work

looks like baby got some hand prints on mirror again!

- shirt and pencil skirt, Banana Rep

- shoes, Dansko