Super(wo)man

Why would I dress as Super(wo)man in the middle of December? Because I can.

But mainly because we dress up at work in the few days before some holidays and there was no way I was going to be left out! It's such a fun thing to do and kids and adults both equally love it. A couple kids asked for a picture and a dad pointed me out while I was filling my water bottle and said, 'See, even Superwoman drinks water!" It made me want to dress up every day of the week.

Me and a few amazing coworkers. (Super-Awesome, Batman, Rudolph, Purple Flash, and me)

The night before, at 9:45, I realized that I had nothing planned to wear for superhero day and went into panic mode. After a few google searches, I decided Superman would be the easiest costume to make. I headed to my fabric box, found a red piece of fabric that was somehow the exact length I needed, and a cape was made.

I just cut a slit every few inches about an inch from the top, weaved some yard through it, and ta-da!  A cape with the perfect length to smoothly flow behind me and make me look amazing was made. I made the yarn long enough so that it could go under my armpits and tie behind my back. It made it SO much more comfortable and didn't choke me all day.

To make the S shield, I cut out the shape in yellow felt. Then, on a sheet of paper I sketched out the S while looking at a picture online, cut it out on red fabric, and hot glued the S onto the yellow felt. BAM. Pair it with some sparkly earrings from work, and shit's done. As for the belt, I just cut a strip of yellow fabric and tie it around my waist.

Total time for the costume? 15 minutes. Huzzah. I now have something aside from my cat costume to wear for Halloween! The only thing missing was a pair or red undies and some red fabric around my boots, which I plan on adding if I ever wear it for Halloween.

What would you do in a little canoe, when the moon is shining all around?

I haven't posted a 'personal' post in a while, so here I am. Except after reading it you'll probably tell me to stop being so chipper and die in a ditch already. I've just been so happy even though I've been stressed about school and money and have had to take care of my gimp husband (is the term gimp PC?) who hurt his leg a few weeks ago and can still barely walk leaving me to take care of pretty much everything around the house and feed him out of a silver spoon and wipe his ass.

I think I can attribute the happiness to the fact that I've really taken to heart the about what I've explained in this post. I've been pretty good at managing my time and have gotten SO much done. Since I wrote that post at the beginning of last month, I've just been going, going, going and trying to fill my days with as much as possible.

I also attribute it to transitioning to the paleo diet, even though I'm still not 100% there.

I've had a lot more energy and have been having fun cooking some amazing (and not so amazing) meals. Having my kitchen warm and smelling delicious is just such a good and inspiring feeling, especially when it's cold outside. Vince has been interested in this as well and has even 'gasp' talked about trying to be gluten free for a month to see how he feels. When I cook it's always gluten free, but he still eats regular pasta and sandwiches, and isn't gluten free when we eat out. We'll see if he tries it!

Lastly, I attribute my happiness to seeing every little thing I do as an accomplishment. I finished organizing under the kitchen sink? Awesome! I ate that whole bowl of pumpkin ice cream? Amazing! I brushed my teeth and finished at the exact time as the timer? I'm a champion! Start seeing everything you do as an accomplishment and I swear you'll feel like your on top of the world, even if you just managed to walk up stairs without tripping.

General updates:
School: I'm fuckin' killing it. Today my math teacher talked to me on our break and said that I had a brilliant mind (I kid you not, he said brilliant) and asked if I was going to further my math career. I told him I am going to be a doctor and he said I would be a fantastic doctor and that it was a great choice. I was speechless! I still have all A's somehow and don't see them dropping in the next month before the semester is over.

I went to the cadaver lab with my class last week and was blown away by how awesome it was. I was nervous as first because hello dead bodies, but I quickly got over that and was awestruck with how amazing our bodies are. We were able to look at four bodies and to compare them was so cool. There was a lady who died of metastatic breast cancer and it was intense to feel it in her breast tissue, and then see the other organs that were just covered in tumors. It definitely made me more conscious about doing self breast exams, as every women should.

Roxi: She's as cute as ever. I've been taking her on more walks since Vince has been sick and there are guys in the yard all the time redoing the plumbing, and she's been pretty good. I took the sheets off the bed the other day to wash them and left Vince's pillowcase on the bed. She curled up into the smallest ball and laid directly on it. I was laughing so hard and thought it was just darling!

Vince: As I said before, he hurt his leg when he was mountain biking, so I've been at his beck and call. It's not bad anymore because he's got most of his mobility back, but he wasn't able to do anything for a while! He wasn't able to drink while on his painkillers and continued to not drink, so since he hasn't had any beer he's been eating sweets, which is so unlike him! I guess his body wanted the sugar it wasn't getting from the beer. So he was sharing my pumpkin ice cream with me, but refused to admit that he liked it. When I tried to take a picture he was mortified that I would document him eating something sweet.

Purchases: I bought a new wallet from Issa.Ino and love it. I was sick of my giant bulky one and now I don't even have to carry a purse, I can just throw my new wallet in my pocket! (Oh, and she's doing a promo soon for small business Saturday!

Projects: I've been doing a lot of random things around the house to make things more functional and pretty. I've been going through kitchen cupboards and getting rid of so much old stuff that has been there for god knows how long. I also hung up some new curtains that I got from the thrift store, made a fall table runner for the table and 4 matching placemats, and sewed two new gold spotted pillows since Vince ruined the old ones with a bloody elbow after his wreck and they were forever old anyways.

Drinking: Lots and lots of Yogi Chai Rooibos Tea with a splash of milk and a bit of honey. Vince and I are both in love with it (thanks to Sara's suggestion!) and I can't see it leaving our diets anytime soon. Pots and pots of it are made each week and all throughout the day since it's caffeine free.

Cutest little girl around: I got to hangout with my niece today and holy heck she is getting so big! She'll be two in January, and it doesn't seem possible. She's starting to talk a lot more and is so playful. When Roxi is happy, she makes a long sigh/groaning sound, and Alyla kept going up and putting her nose on Roxi's and making the groaning sound. Today we went to the park and played on the 'sings'!

 

Update #76,394,201

I still haven't finished my trip posts yet, but they will come eventually. Maybe in the next year? I kid, I kid. But really, life has been so fulfilling and crazy that I'm not too worried about it! So instead I will do a simple post with what I've been up to lately.

Sewing a patchwork quilt. I first learned to sew by making quilts and then went on to clothes and I'm starting to realize I love quilts a whole lot more. So I'm going to start investing my time in that more often. I was inspired to do the one I'm making right now simply because I have way too much fabric and want to downsize it. The easiest way it to cut it up and make a quilt! It will include a TON of super sentimental fabric/shirts that I haven't been able to part with, like the fabric from my 'ducky pillow' that I've had since I was a baby and my dad's old high school marching band t-shirt. Vince is excited about it because a few of his favorite shirts (like the first one I bought him at a festival before we were even dating that is a cute turtle) are included as well! It'll be a perfect family quilt.

I also spruced up my backpack for the new school year with some of the fabric!

Cooking. I'm back to the mostly dairy-free simple foods diet again. A few weeks before the road trip and all through the road trip I would feel awful after eating anything and I would get so nauseous and hot and sweaty. I knew it had to be what I was eating, so over the past couple weeks I've been cutting a lot of 'bad' things out of my diet (I say 'bad' because I'm already a fairly healthy eater!). I'm already gluten free so it's sometimes hard to limit myself even more, but it's been great to eat plenty of soups like egg drop soup (which I've made 6 times over the past couple weeks) and sautéed veggies on baked potatoes! Of course, fruit is always a major staple in my diet.

One of the few processed foods I eat are Van's Gluten Free Waffles and I've recently started putting Cacao Bliss on it which is raw cacao and coconut oil. I don't really like syrup and butter gets old after a while, so this has been a perfect choice, paired with strawberries from the garden!

Saw bye-bye to ice cream cones with sprinkles!

Cleaning. Somehow, overnight, I evolved from the type of person who piles things up on the kitchen table and any other surface in the house into the type of person who is happy cleaning everything before the night is over. Almost every night the table gets cleaned off, dishes are mostly done, and my projects get cleaned up when I stop working on them even if they aren't finished. I've always been one to leave my craft projects all over the living room until I was done with it sometimes days later, but not anymore! It's odd, yet highly satisfying.

Gardening. Ok, that's a lie. I don't actual garden, I just pick whatever has bloomed and eat it. The mint has been growing off the hook and I'm getting ready to dry them out for mint tea throughout the winter (my fav!) and there are finally more peppers growing. We have only had two thus far, but about 12 little guys are starting to grow! The strawberries are also going crazy and I have about 5-8 little ones to eat every day! It's been so delicious.


The flowers from our wedding last year are also starting to bloom!

Walking. My friend just had a baby about 6 weeks ago and her and I along with another lady have been taking multiple walks a week together around a 2-mile loop. It's been so nice to start my day earlyish (around 8 or 9) with great conversations and some exercise and I feel less guilty about Roxi because she gets a walk in as well! I'm going to start running a loop or two afterwards as well.

Hiking. Saturday I did the Climb to Conquer Cancer with my work! It was really great to spend time with other people who work in the same shops I do that I barely know, as well as talk more with the owner. He's not so intimidating anymore! It was about 7 miles up Snowbowl road to the ski resort with a bus shuttle back down. There were over 4,000 people there, it was nuts!

My view from the bottom where I parked and the view from the top.

They were serving breakfast at the top which I didn't anticipate being gluten free, so I brought green beans, a Good 'n natural bar that I hadn't eaten before but was great, and a KIND bar which I love. I took out the green beans on the way up and was like, 'Um, so I know this is weird, but I don't have too many GF snacks that I can bring with me for hikes and I really like green beans, so does anyone want any?' After a quick laugh, the people I was with ate some and agree raw green beans are good!

Ordering school books. This shouldn't count because I only spent about 45 minutes on it, but I have to share about it because I'M SO EXCITED! I needed seven books (4 alone for Anatomy & Physiology) this semester which would have totaled $727 if I bought the books from the bookstore or $391 if I rented them from the bookstore. Instead, I rented them all between Chegg.com and CampusBookRentals.com for a total of $156! That's a savings of $235 if I rented from the bookstore and $571 if I bought my books! I used 10% off coupon codes for both websites (found on retailmenot.com) and I had a $60 credit on Chegg for selling them two old books that I wasn't able to rent last semester. I also payed extra (about $30 which I included in the totals) to have them delivered to me by next Monday when school starts. If I would've been smart I would have ordered books a couple weeks ago so that I would've had free shipping which would have meant I only paid $126 for books. Needless to say, though, I'm pretty stoked on how much I saved!

Well that's my life in a nut shell, in addition to going to regular old work. Anything exciting that you've been up to?

Salutary Sunday...on a Thursday!

I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow morning, and I'm kind of stressed! I've been trying to get my house super clean all week because my brother will be staying here while we're gone and I just simply don't want to come home to a dirty house.

Because of that, I haven't read any blogs for 3 or 4 days, and I haven't blogged either! It's been a nice unintentional break. After this post, I probably wont blog again until Monday or Tuesday when I get back. We'll see.  ♥

So here's my Salutary Sunday post...on a Thursday!

Throughout the week I was working on my curtains that I'm going to put up in the bedroom. It's a blue background, and I'm cutting circles out of 3 different fabrics to applique onto it. I'm so excited that it's getting close to being done. I just have to put all the circles onto the blue fabric. Once I'm done I'll have a simple tutorial post for you guys!

While I was cleaning this week, I decided to do a 'deep' clean and went through some drawer in a side dresser. When we moved, we didn't go through it, just left everything in there, so it was messy! I found some old sewing projects that were half finished, so I decided to finish this one:

It's a rice bag for a kid! I think I meant to make it an octopus type thing, but there's only 7 legs...hmm...

I also made some new earrings and a bracelet...

While doing the dishes, I noticed there are flowers growing on my plant that I didn't know grew flowers! That was pretty exciting.

And lastly, I did a whole lot of reading on this here couch. It was wonderful. 

I love the accomplished feeling I get every time I read a book! I just finished Across the Universe, and while I LOVED it when I was reading it, I'm kind of 'eh' about it now. It wasn't the greatest book, but I'll definitely read the second book when it comes out!

So that's all I've done recently. Not too much, yet I've been pooped out! All I've felt like doing was reading.

Have you guys done anything?

Salutary Sunday

Thanks to the few posts I've done around the blogging world recently, I have quite a few new people here at Iffy Inklings so I'd like to say, hey! Feel free to introduce yourself in the comments, send me an email, or leave me a comment on Facebook! New people always make me smile, so welcome. ♥

Every Sunday I do a little feature called Salutary Sunday. To learn more about it and actually know what it is, feel free to read my first post about it!

This weekend has oddly been somewhat productive. I was out of work sick on Wednesday and Thursday and did nothing except lay around and watch Big Love, The Office and some movies. It really sucked being sick, but it was nice to have a couple days off! 

Because I was so lazy for part of the week, I felt like I really needed to do a lot this weekend. So I did! Yesterday started with a bang by making gluten free french toast. Really really really good gluten free french toast that even Vince liked.

French toast is pretty much a super simple recipe, but here it is for you in case you want to make it and don't know how:

French Toast for Two

6 slices of bread {Gluten free if need be! I LOVE Rudi's brand.}

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

3/4 tsp cinnamon

splash of vanilla

Syrup and Butta

In a small bowl mix the egg, milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Dip the bread into the egg mixture and put into a HOT pan. Cook over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes, and then flip over for another 2 minutes. The bread may look a little burnt, but it's most likely not. It just turns darker. Once all the slices are cooked, smother with butter and syrup and devour. SIMPLE AS THAT.

After breakfast I thoroughly cleaned the bathroom, did baskets and baskets of laundry, vacuumed every nook and cranny, broke said vacuum and then fixed it, got rid of some clothes, bought some new clothes, and rearranged our bedroom. 

I think I continued to clean my whole house simply because I did not want to do dishes. I hate dishes, and our counter is covered in them, which is why I am drinking my milk out of a wine glass today.

Why, oh why, do we not have a dishwasher?!

So today, I decided to tackle the dishes after once again eating french toast for breakfast. Halfway through the dishes, I remembered that I was going to make cookies for a friend who just had surgery, so I took a break. Thus, Cheesy Red Velvet Cookies were born. 

Since my friend is not gluten free, I took the easy route. I went to the store, bought a cake mix, turned it into cookies, and threw some cream cheese frosting in between. Here's the full recipe. I don't remember where I got it from though...

Cookie recipe:

1 box red velvet cake mix {or any flavor}

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Spoon out about 1 1/2 Tbsp of cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350* for 9-12 minutes. (I needed the whole 12 minutes.) Let cool for about 10 minutes. Once cooled, spoon about 1-2 Tbsp frosting between two cookies. Enjoy!

Frosting recipe:

8 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar

It was really hard for me to not lick my fingers when I'm baking, so I kept a piece of gum in my mouth the whole time. This was the first time I've ever cooked with gluten in my kitchen since going gluten free, and now I am so paranoid and will never do that again! I am such a messy cook, meaning there is probably gluten all over. It's so much less stressful to just make everything gluten free, even if it's more expensive or time consuming.

Well, it seems like I actually didn't do that much once I write it down. Maybe I'm forgetting some stuff!

We did buy some sheets yesterday to turn into curtains that will go up in our bedroom. I plan on adding some fun colors to the blue sheets. Hopefully they turn out good!

Did you do anything this week?

Salutary Sunday

What did I make this week?

At the moment I am working on a tote/bag for my friend/coworkers birthday.

She said that she had fabric to make the bag but didn't know how to do certain things, and didn't have time. I told her to bring it in and I would sew it for her!

The fabric is BEAUTIFUL. I love it. The true color doesn't show in the picture, but I'll take a better one when it's all finished. It has embroidered flowers on it:

So far I have the inside and outside done, I just need to work on the straps and the flap that she wanted. Meaning, I'm almost done!

I'll try and finish it tonight, but I'm going to play basketball and have a BBQ with some friends. It's been SO nice recently that there's no way to stay inside all day.

I've also made some new buttons for my blog! I know my original button is on some peoples blog, but if you prefer one of these, go ahead and grab one. Let me know if you do. ♥

<a border="0" href="http://iffyinklings.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa438/IffyInklings/iffyinkliingsbuttonheart.jpg" /></a>

<a border="0" href="http://iffyinklings.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa438/IffyInklings/IffyInklingsButton.jpg" /></a>

<a border="0" href="http://iffyinklings.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa438/IffyInklings/iffyinklingsbuttonsummer.jpg" /></a>

And lastly, I've painted my toenails. They look black, but it's a really dark purple.  You know what nail polish means? Warm weather!

Also, you should like me on Facebook! I'm trying to get to 25 likes so that I don't have a bunch of numbers, I can just have my name. ♥

What about you guys, anything fun being created this week? Or anything fun happen?

Salutary Sunday

{Does 'making' my hair into teeny tiny pigtails count as creating something?}

This week has been....unproductive in a way. I cleaned a lot and organized stuff, but I didn't really make anything. I bought fabric for my friend Annie's birthday present, but I haven't made it yet. Here's a peek at the fabrics:

And the whitish/yellow color is actually paper, which will be part of it. 

One thing I did make that I really enjoyed was food! Before I went gluten free I used to make this Pasta Roni {I was extremely high class} with chicken baked in soy sauce. It was something I would eat at least 3 times a week for MONTHS. It was so delicious. That abruptly came to an end though.

Since then, I hadn't made any soy sauce chicken! I completely forgot about it until the other night when I was really craving salt. 

I threw some chicken breasts in a foiled pan with some soy sauce and water and covered it, and put some rice with chicken broth in my rice cooker. And oh my goodness, it's so delicious. I've made it three times in the past week. It takes up 2 dishes and maybe 4 minutes prep time! How can I not make it so often when it's so easy? **edit: I use La Choy soy sauce which is gluten free!**

Anyways, hopefully I'll have something more productive to share next week!

♥

Hmpf.

Because of my post yesterday, the universe decided to curse me and say, "Ha, you complained about that?! Let's see what else I have in store..." Thus, this came about:

{Click to view larger}

Does anybody want to train my dog?! 

My house was spotless when I went to work today, except for the dishes not being done. Everything was where it was supposed to be: on shelves, in recycling bins, on counters, etc. I tend to forget that Izobel is HUGE and can reach anything and knock anything over.

I had a tupperware container full of cornstarch that I use when I make earrings, and she CHEWED THE LID OFF and dumped the container on the carpet. Did I mention we still haven't bought a vacuum? I just use the broom and it works perfectly. Luckily it worked perfectly for the cornstarch or i don't know what I would have done. 

She also dumped a cup full of sunflower seeds, brought beer cans from the recycling and left them all over, managed to get all the pillows off the couch, grabbed the compost off the counter, chewed up her harness, chewed up a Croc, knocked a plate off the counter, and ripped up a plastic bag. How fun would ripping up a plastic bag be, anyways? It's so soft!

So ya, this was a little frustrating to come home to, especially because she had 2 big bones to chew on. I don't know if she's just bored or if it's because she's still a puppy. She is only 9 months old. Hmpf.

Today was beautiful outside though, in a sense. It was brutally cold and extremely windy, but there were little flurries of snow with the sun shining through.

It was also fun to go to JoAnne's fabric store today and get the fabric I needed to make my friend Annie's birthday present! 

I obviously can't say what it is because she reads the blog, but I'll probably post about it this Sunday. 

♥

Saturday Love

{1} 2 new fabrics I bought to make a dress.

{2} Swimsuit from this Etsy shop.

{3} Guitar Hero.

{4} Socks made by grandma, even with mud on them!

{5} Bells on my door.

{6} Yarn art hanging in my hallway.

{7} Good weather so Izobel can lay in front of the screen door!

{8} Method cleaner from Target.

{9} M&M's.

{10} A Buddha I got at the bike shops White Elephant Christmas Party.

{11} Vince's blue hat.

{Want to see more? Click here for previous weeks.}

Tuesday.

Today has been a FRUSTRATING DAAAAAY.

I had the day off because I'm working on Saturday instead, so I was working on putting in a new zipper {yes, the same one I was working on on Sunday...or Saturday?} in a riding jersey, so it's stretchy spandex/polyester fabric. I can put in a regular zipper easily, but stretchy stuff I had never done before. 

The first time I tried, the fabric stretch way too much and the zipper got all curvy. I finally decided to use fusible tape to make sure the fabric stayed in place. Then I had to find the right way to stitch it on while making it look good. Unfortunately, not many stitches looked good because I could never get them straight, due to the fact that the fabric wouldn't ever stay put.

I finally figured out how to sew it and it looked perfect! I was putting the finishing touches and about to sew one last part, up near the collar and I did something super stupid. Like royally stupid. 

The length of the zipper was too long for the jacket, so I had to cut a little bit off top to make it fit. That meant that if I brought the zipper off too far before I sewed a stopper onto the end of it, I would ruin the zipper by having the pull tab fly off. 

Can you see where this is going? Ya, I pulled the zipper tab right off the zipper. Meaning I have to rip out that zipper and sew a new one in.

Luckily, I know exactly what I'm doing this time around and it will take 10 minutes tops but I'M SUCH A DOOFUS!

Anyways, the rest of my day was pretty awesome. I got to watch a few hours of Grey's Anatomy on Hulu because I've forgotten to watch it the past few weeks!  

I also got to eat potatoes, one of my favorite foods. 

When Vince and I were at the grocery store the other day we saw these potatoes on sale, 10 for $10:

Before I went gluten free and when I never cooked, we ate these all the time. I checked the ingredients and they are gluten free! So we bought 10.  Because they were on sale.

Now I can't stop eating them because all you do is add boiling water plus I can eat it straight from the pan. Probably not very healthy, but I don't really care. It's too delicious.

Here's the other foods I ate today:

{Pepperoncinis, GF cookies {like Oreos}, blueberries, and brown cow yogurt}

I didn't eat any 'real' food until Vince got home and gave me a couple pieces of his Cactus Roll with spicy tuna. SO GOOD. 

Now I'm watching Dinner With Shmucks with Vince, which is hilarious. And watching Roxanne sleep sitting up: