So, I have basically left Stef to fly this blog solo for the last few…months? UGH? Nice friend, nice business partner… Sorry Stef.
In my defense, since reading the complete Twilight Series in a week in a half, I have been thrown into a kind of teenage girl uselessness. I have trouble with focus and drive, and continual thoughts of love and designer jeans.
But I am putting all of that behind me now and will soon be filling your heads with all the nonsense I have been up to…Facebooking, a completely insane Amish country buying spree, learning to sing all over again, nursing my mom through a hip replacement, gutting the bathroom, and planning a party for 150 peeps, among other things…
So much has been going on that I need to report, and I have no more excuses…all hail my triumphant promise of a return to Made With Luv!
I usually try to visit my friends and family in Michigan every two years or so, and ideally I try to plan my trip around some sort of special event. My recent trip was planned two years ago, back in 2007 when Amy Kate said to me, “In two years I’m having a day long party- partly for Jordan’s high school graduation, partly for Ryan and my 11th anniversary. Put it in the books; you are coming, and you are coming early enough to help me set it up.”
So yeah, I didn’t really have a choice. Amy is REALLY bossy and you just don’t cross her when she tells you what you are going to do. I had to decline invites to my cousin’s wedding and to my Grandma’s 90th birthday party, because I can only afford to go to MI once in a year’s time and, well, Amy had me on commitment lock down.
Not that I’m complaining- I really wanted to go to this party! I’m so happy to celebrate her son’s graduation, and I was the maid of honor at her wedding 11 years ago so that means a lot to me too. In fact, I introduced Amy and Ryan in the first place (a fact I think they usually appreciate, although I know that sometimes they each hold it against me.)
I was brainstorming an anniversary gift idea when I found out that my friend Pam Jaeger had started customizing her wooden dolls to be wedding cake toppers. Amy LOVES Pam’s dolls, and she is narcissistic enough to doubly love something that looks like her, so I put Pam on the case. I sent her the following photos from Amy & Ryan’s wedding, along with one of them today, 11 years later, and I told Pam to go to town. Here are the photos I sent:
And this is what she came up with:
In-freaking-credible, yes? She completely nailed Amy’s wedding attire, and did a great representation of her two different colored eyes as well. The Ryan doll looks so much like Ryan I can barely stand it, it’s so great. Once again I will completely win the “who gives the best gift contest” (oh please, like it’s NOT a contest?!). This is the advantage to having crafty, artistic friends on your side- you can totally make other people embarrassed for shopping at Wal-Mart. Moded!
So I’m an a plane this morning, off for a vacation, the first I’ve taken in a long time! Too bad my vacation destination is to exotic Flint, Michigan. I know, I know, you are sooo jealous right now. It’s cool though, I’m going to visit some family and see my friends, and have many craft-related meetings with Amy Kate. I am so looking forward to a few days of eating, relaxing, crafting, using Amy’s new bathrooms, having her kids entertain me and never allow me to be alone in the aforementioned bathrooms, taking Jazzercise with Anna, and basically leaving my every day stress here in San Diego. I’m also looking forward to meeting all the crafty people Amy Kate has befriended the last few years and hopefully returning with some fresh new ideas and the drive to make them come together! See you when I return!
God bless the internets! Somebody put together this awesome Buffy/Twilight mash-up and it rules. Well, I don’t love the ending, but I love the idea of Buffy and Edward together. Brilliant! Check it out:
Scene: 24 Hour Fitness, Cardio Room
The Turbo Box teacher fumbles with a malfunctioning cd, and giving up she turns to the class and says (oh my God, this is so awesome I can barely type it)…and she says:
“Hmm. Well, let’s warm you up and then I’ll try to slip it back in”
Cut to me, who is totally convulsing in an attempt to keep my mouth shut, so I turn to my friend Laura and communicate through bulging eyes and telepathy to shout “That’s what she said! THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!!!”
Oh man, it was awesome. Thank goodness Laura was there that day to witness it, because it was too amazing to experience alone. Definitely the best thing to happen at the gym since THIS. Or This. Wow, I love the gym, and not for the excercising.
Father’s Day is a week from Sunday, on June 21st. This is your friendly reminder to not fuck it up. In fact, Let me help you with some easy ideas!
How about giving dad a pillow he doesn’t have to share with anyone else, one of his very very own! Cool dads like sugar skulls:
CLICK PHOTO FOR DETAILS
Does the father of your child have a lot of pens and pencils and pennies and keys and random crap laying about? Maybe if you bought him a super cool zippered pouch he’d throw everything in there instead of all over your kitchen table. Look! Here’s one now:
CLICK PHOTO FOR DETAILS
Know a new dad? I bet he’s super sick of putting his baby in Winnie the Pooh crap, so why not get him a hip bib that won’t ruin his street cred? We have two right now that are just perfect.
Here is one with fabric depicting robots at camp. Yes, ROBOTS AT CAMP. It is awesome.
CLICK PHOTO FOR DETAILS
Here is one of our classics, a bib with a super awesome felt skull with a pacifer:
CLICK PHOTO FOR DETAILS
Speaking of Dads, I’m taking mine to the hospital today, he’s having surgery to get brand new knees put in. How high-tech is that? Great, more technology he won’t know how to work…hopefully they are easier to use than his answering machine. Cross your fingers that things go well for him, and for me, who will be spending the day in the waiting room trying to not snap at the people who aren’t good enough planners to bring things to entertain themselves and will instead want to pass the time by talking to me. Can’t wait.
I would like to share an email I received from a reader the other day:
Dear Stef,
I’ve noticed that lately you have been doing all the work here on this blog- didn’t you used to have a bestie slash business partner who helped out around there? What happened to her, and are you pissed about it?
Signed,
Fake Name to be Determined Later
Dear FNtbDL,
Funny you should ask! I believe you are referring to Amy Kate, who once upon a time used to make awesome bibs and bags and also wrote funny and interesting posts that were a delight to read while wasting time at work. Unfortunately, Amy has gone MIA, thanks to the decision she and her husband made to remodel both their bathrooms, at once, with a six week deadline. Oh right, and they are doing it themselves. The crafter and the high school art teacher, doing home repair. Well, at least we know the painting job will be awesome, regardless of how sturdy the wall actually turns out.
I haven’t heard much from her lately, as she’s pretty much buried under a pile of rotten drywall and old wallpaper, and when she does come up for air I assume she uses her time to fight with her husband. This is just a guess and maybe I’m projecting, because I pretty much end up in a fistfight with anyone who “helps” me assemble something from Ikea. Then again, remodeling a bathroom probably involves tools other than an allen wrench and poorly drawn directions, so maybe she’s in better spirits than I think.
Anyway, you asked me if I’m pissed about her absence, and while I do miss her terribly, I am too excited about the remodel to be mad. While I only visit her every other year, that is more than enough time to feel absolute revulsion and disgust at her old-ass nasty tub. It’s really anything but a pleasant bathing experience at her place- how can one relax and enjoy a good shower while fighting the nausea that comes from facing the stomach-churning color combination of puke green tub meets 30-years of rust? Plus, her family of midgets may fit comfortably under the 5-foot-high shower head, but I end up doing a backbend just to wash my hair. And I am not cut out for backbends! So yeah, I am super excited to use a modernized bathroom when I visit, plus I’m happy that this is finally happening for her. She’s been wanting this for years!
Amy did surface long enough to send me a few photos.
Here is a BEFORE picture of the tub. Gross, huh?
Here is Amy in her butchiest home repair outfit:
Here she is being busted sneaking in a Facebook break:
Hopefully when the remodel is behind her she will have plenty of stories and photos to share with us! I can’t wait!
Recently a friend asked me to make an apron for her to give to her buddy as a birthday gift. She picked out the fabric and at first glance it looks feminine and sweet, especially after I had my way with it and added ruffles:
but here’s a close-up of the fabric:
Skulls! Flames! Badassery! I love things that have secrets and surprises, only to be revealed when you take the time to look really close.
*Thanks to my friend Megan for her mad modeling skills. She will work for wine if you are in need of her services….
My friend Pam Jaeger, super talented artist and designer of Made With Luv’s logo, has had the honor of being entered in a contest on Etsy for Best Wedding Cake Topper. Please go here, log in and vote. Her toppers are the amazing little dolls listed as being by dandelionland (her fun etsy dollstore name). Vote for her!
Yesterday I had a booth at the McKinley Elementary School Carnival. Yesterday, it rained. In San Diego. Which happens like four times a year, and seems to coincide with any outdoor events I’m working. Luckily I had a canopy, but the day was so damp and icky that attendance to the carnival was pretty bad. It’s a shame, because it was a really great event with lots of cool games and rides and entertainment.
The best thing about the carnival was an appearance by San Diego’s 501st Legion, which is part of the San Diego Star Wars Society. What this means is that Storm Troopers were running around all day, which was so totally awesome that I didn’t care about the rain and cold and general ickiness of the day. Storm Troopers make everything better. Here are some examples of how they brought out sunshine and rainbows:
Here’s the group with their amazing costumes:
Here is a Storm Trooper modeling a Made With Luv bib:
Here are Troopers on the playground:
The gang rides Thomas the Tank Engine:
And my personal favorite, Storm Trooper Eating Nachos:
How awesome is that? I wish I had a picture of three Troopers, a Darth Vader and about 5 kids doing the cake walk, or a picture of a Trooper on that spinning carnival ride where gravity sticks you to the walls, but I missed out on those photo ops. Thanks to my friend Mike, from whom I stole most of these photos, because he was way more on it than I was.
Here’s my table, Trooper-free, and you can see the difference. Just not as exciting.
