taking the shirt out on the town!

sarah debuted her bday shirt!!! here she is with her friend mike out in boston. ain't she a beaut?!?!

a baby bunkins

this was bunks when he was first adopted, at 6 months old. he was so short! we rescued him at the montgomery county humane society rescue shelter. his previous owner was a little boy who had to move to brazil and could not take the bunks with him. in his past life, bunks was known as stanley. he was so shy back then. and this next photo was from when we moved into the condo, a month after he was adopted. he looks so timid!!! and now, now he's just a devil bunny.

great minds think alike!

for lan's birthday, liane bought lan a teal version of the anthropologie grape clusters scarf that i used as my model in creating my navy silk one (except her scarf had grapes that were smaller and further apart)!!! either we both know lan well, or we're fantastic and on the same wavelength!

and the decision is...

to not reupholster the leopard print scalloped chair!! oh and andrew loved it. so for what project should i use the blue velvet? hmmm...

happy birthday, lan!

thursday was the birthday of my colleague, lan. lan, liane, and i chill, and we rule the school as the "5'2" and under squad." watch out, we're pretty hip. one is in her 30s, another is in her 40s, and i'm in my 20s, so we've pretty much taken control of all the chicness of each decade!

for lan's bday gift, i wanted to try something new. i loved the look of this grignolino scarf from anthropologie, but wasn't a fan of its viscose material. check out those grape clusters!so, i used navy silk instead and gold metallic embroidery thread and gold beads to create a glam version! pretty ditty, a fantastic crafting and fabric obsession blog, provided a good tutorial. (although hers was less bling.) with both ends in front: with one end in front and one in back: and as a shawl!

to reupholster or not to reupholster?

that is the question.

andrew's aunt kate, whom we visited in portland, owns the hottest armchair i have ever seen in my entire life (and we all know i obsess over interior design and crafting)! it is scallop shaped and is of the most beautiful deep blue you have ever seen. a true beauty. i swear, i dream about this chair and that one day i, too, will own such a magnificent piece of art...

well that day happens to be today. yes, today. from trusty craigslist (ok, maybe craigslist isn't so trusty), i snagged this wonder of a butt-rester, for 60 bones. you heard that right.
6. 0. b. o. n. e. s. in leopard print, no less! it also just happens to match the rug in the master bedroom, above which it stands:now i'm not much of a fan of leopard print, but this is actually subtly chic, non? (yes, chic warrants a french "no") i snagged this dark blue velvet upholstery fabric for 7.5 bones on the same trip as when i got bunks his metrosexual doormat. it's luxurious with small velvet-less squares evenly spaced around. when i saw it, i started drooling, thinking of kate's chair, so i purchased it before i even had a chair to reupholster (yes, that's how i roll- i buy things in anticipation of millions of projects). however, now that i've actually seen this chair, i'm kind of rethinking the reupholstering idea. i think i'm now a fan of leopard print, although we'll have to check with andrew for his opinion when he gets home. maybe i should save the blue for something else?and before we part ways for the night, let me update the status on bunkins and his doormat. he loves it! here he is chilling (ok maybe he's only on it because i strategically put his dinner bowl on the towel. hehehhehe): and note: he doesn't usually look so tough with his pseudo nose-wrinkling. in reality, he's been shedding for the summer, which starts above his nose!

bunkins' new doormat, revamped kitchen cabinets, new buffet chairs, new baby jersey, and debut of sarah's shirt!!

i've been neglecting my fans, all 3,982,734 of you, and for that i offer my deepest apologies. but do understand that i've been under a serious time crunch (a new birth on my soccer team and sarah's birthday)!

but before i present the time sensitive matters, i must discuss the matter of bunkins' doormat. the entrance of bunks' cage used to consist of an old white towel (now more off-white due to his sloppy veggie eating habit of getting green juice all over): however, this weekend, on a monthly run to the fantastic chinese grocery store, great wall supermarket out in va, i stumbled upon this amazinggg zebra striped towel in the thrift store next door. now bunks visits his litter box in style! oh, my metrosexual bunny is so cute!next, mom and dad have refinished our kitchen cabinets (yes, it was supposed to be a project for andrew and i, but mom and dad got to it first while we were in portland)!!! they used to be a dated oak, and now have been repainted to a crisp off-white!!! the kitchen is very cheery and bright now, especially with the new breakfast counter opening. the before: and the after: we also got new buffet chairs for the breakfast counter!!! cute, and 35 bones each! now: the real reasons why i have neglected this blog... we had another birth on my soccer team! the brother of amy (mommy of the last birth), michael, just had a baby of his own named koh. he's super duper cute! as a baby fish, he deserves a baby jersey, so here it is! i used andrew's (i did it without his permission and he got mad, oops) and actually shrank this one properly (via proportions!!). compared with andrew's new jersey: #13!! and presenting sarah's shirt!!!! sarah, my roommate from college and one of my bestest friends, turned 26 yesterday! happy birthday!! sarah was the one that introduced me to my horrid shopping habit but also to my passion for fashion (hehehe). she's also wee small, hence the reason why we're friends. she was admiring the dresses on jcrew kid's website, crewcuts, and fell madly in love with the silk taffeta celia dress! it's very sarah. however there was only one huge problem. $298!so, she turned to me and asked that i find a shirt to bead for her with a similar pattern. no sweat, i can bead. however the only shirt i could find cost $70 by theory!!! now sarah is certainly worth 70 bones, but really? 70? for a shirt? i visited one of my fav fabric stores, g street fabrics, and found this off-white sateen cotton in the discount section for $2.97 a yard, which looked closer to the material on the crewcuts dress than the theory shirt's material (which was white matte). so away i sewed, mimicking the poof shoulders and the folded tuck in the sleeves. my version includes a verrrrrry long zipper in the back for easier exit and entry; theory's version did not (and think, they tried to get 70 bones from me)! and then, away i beaded on tulle so that the heavy beads would not stretch out the shirt. for 3 months (only because i got burnt out and slacked). and a day after her birthday (in true helen style), i finished! here it is! this shirt is very special to me because it is what started my clothesmaking hobby! miss you, sarah!

rosette-ruffle cardigan for liane

remember this rosette-ruffle cardigan from jcrew on my may 27th post (titled "i am so making this!")?well, take this long citrus-yellow "whisper weight long cardigan" from spiegel, of my fabtastic (yes that's right, fabtastic) colleague, liane: and this billowy cloud of flowy lemon silk chiffon and you get this!!! and 'round back i hope you like it, liane!

i want to move to portland, oregon. now.

for starters, it has the only crafting thrift store in the entire country! knittn' kitten. it was heaven!they sold tons of vintage fabric for no more than $2.50 a yard, oftentimes for even $0.70!! and they don't just sell cloth. they've got embroidery thread, vintage clothes-making patterns, yarn, glass beads, zippers (i love zippers), and vintage buttons galore. here's some of the stuff i got!!! my vintage skirt pattern is still packed somewhere in the suitcase. and yes, that's a fantastic bugs bunny space jams plaid print cloth with which andrew wants me to make him a pair of shorts. the fabric on the left is a white cotton with tiny duckies!!! i'm going to make andrew a short sleeve button-down shirt with it! and check out the vintage military buttons that i got for the cardigan i'm knittn'! i got all this for 30 bones!portland is rife with vintage thrift stores. here's a magenta suede belt i snagged at one such location. powell's books is an amazing chain that sells discount (used) and new books in portland. they're huge and all over the city. i'm a fan of "green" reading! food was local and organic in many establishments, there were many fancy beer bars to satisfy andrew's fancy, the coast was close (although very cold), and we swam in creeks and rivers that were so insanely clean. here's andrew by a waterfall at the columbia river gorge. he looks so tiny! hehe they had at least 2 spots named after me: a costume shop (helen's costume shop) and a mini convenience store (helen's market). they even had 2 establishments named after bunkins: a sandwich shop (bunk sandwiches) and a lodging place!but my favorite detail of portland and its outskirts is the number of wild baby bunnies we saw scampering around!!! look at that big booty! he's just like bunks! andrew was able to get real close to him. that white one was absolutely adorable. i tried to lure her with some banana, but she was just too clever. (ok, i admit i'm not too sure about the gender of that buns, but i'm pretty confident bunkins would fall in love with it just like andrew and i did, whether or not it was male or female.)we visited andrew's granny (she was wee small like me!) and stayed with andrew's aunt kate and cousin jane. they were insanely sweet and fun and made our visit in portland just that much more awesome. i cross-stitched bookmarks for them as gifts: jane got a tiger (she loves cats) and kate got a toucan (i forgot to take a picture of the toucan when i was done, but here's one from while i was in the process of making it)! the green strings are the tassel. thanks for housing and feeding us! mom and dad watched bunkins while we were in the pacific northwest. here he is curled up and sleeping at my feet while i was knitting away at the military cardigan. we missed each other while i was gone. check out his big booty. hehe

mike and beverly get hitched!

mike, andrew's bro's friend from high school, got hitched on june 20th. andrew's bro was the best man and pat, andrew's mom, was the pastor. andrew's dad ed, andrew and i were there to root everyone on. me, andrew, nick (andrew's bro), and nicole. i wore an anthropologie dress that i got at the rummage sale run by the school for which i work. it only cost me 6 bones!!!!

the herb garden

andrew had been talking about putting together an herb garden, so one day, we finally did it! also, we buy bunkins parsley and cilantro every week for his diet, so we figured why not grow our own organic herbs for him (and us, of course)? we planted the basil first. the chives were planted on the same day as the basil and in the same pot, but as you can see, the basil invaded all the space. so eventually the chives were granted their own home (more like shack, compared to the basil's mansion).and this is the cilantro. it was the last herb that we planted (2 weeks after the basil and chives) and it's coming out well! after we get some more pots, we're going to plant the parsley seeds!!

mirror mirror on the wall

who is the fairest of them all?

we have a ton of mirrors in the apt. for 2 of them, andrew and i custom framed them. for the 3rd, we kept it in its original frame to take advantage of its long lines to bring height to our massive master bedroom.

for the middle bedroom, we went with a natural outdoorsy theme. for this room's mirror, we scoured the dollar store and michael's and built a frame from reeds, onto which dried plants and dried wheat are hot glue-gunned. to protect the bottoms of the reeds from the destruction of my 3 lb bunny (think small tasmanian devil that skips in the air for joy at the thought of having something new to tear apart), we created a "planter" by screwing in a brass furnace plate into the wall. andrew (or rather his a.d.d.) added a personal touch: our dining room connects to our living room, so we decided to keep the same accent color, black. all framed objects in this room are art collected from our travels, so it only made sense that this room's frame also be an art piece. after a lengthy trip to home depot that involved much brainstorming, we found the most beautiful architectural piece of wrought iron... in the garden department! we used 4 plant hangers (used to hang potted plants in the nooks between the ceiling of a porch and the house external wall) and hung them from nails at the corners of the piece of mirror. in between each hanger, i linked black chain, through which i strung black satin ribbon (the same from the living room pillows and curtains!) so that the chain would look more substantial. i love how geometrical this piece is. not sure why the wall looked so orange in this shot. it's more like a mexican red; in fact, the color is fiesta by behr paints.the master bedroom is all about simplicity. actually, the mirror from the dining room used to be attached to the middle dresser below. and the mirror that's now in the bedroom, which we painted white to match the dressers (that we also refinished and re-knobbed), is from andrew's friend's parents. those 2 dressers flanking the middle dresser are the childhood dressers of my brother and me. they used to be lacquered pine with lacquered pine globe knobs! ignore the messes. we're currently packing for portland, or!!!