The Red Pencil Box: January 2014

It's hard to imagine a place warmer than Texas in the winter, but with our luck that's just what happened on our trip to San Francisco this past winter break. I couldn't help but relish in the fact that the weather was in the upper 60's most of our stay and it wasn't nearly as warm in Texas. Even Yosemite wasn't as bad and icy as it could have been.

first stop right off the plane: crab/clam bisque in sourdough at the Wharf

obligatory GGB picture

getting our hike on with Alcatraz in the background

where the seagulls were huge and ...aggressive

lines of palm trees en route to Yosemite

I'd be lying if I said I didn't bum like this on the weekends

the view from our lodge in Yosemite

mint chocolate chip made in 90 sec with liquid nitrogen at Smitten Ice Cream

sunny (?!) san francisco

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

I don't own any tacky Christmas sweaters, so conjuring one up for a party this past holiday season proved to be tricky. I wanted to have more fun with it than go to a thrift store, so my next best bet was, of course, DIYing one.

I got this idea off of Pintrest, but made it even simpler by just using leftover acrylic paint from another project.

Materials:

Sweater ($6 from Walmart)

Acrylic paint (~$1)

Lettering stencils

Sponge brush

+ Any other tacky things you want to add on (lace, frills, pom poms, etc.) + fabric glue

I ended up liking so much how this turned out, that I kinda have incorporated it into my everyday wardrobe... just not my public wardrobe!

Starting materials

It's easier to paint on the letters crooked instead of worrying about perfect lines

The final product

DIY tacky holiday sweater

Monday, January 20, 2014

Over winter break a group of friends and I got together to create tablet/iPad cases. They were very easy, probably the most inexpensive DIY I've ever done, and one of the most useful. We got the original idea from http://ispydiy.com/tech-diy-laptoptablet-case/, and our experience is up on my friends blog with a better overview of our slight alterations and step-by-step directions at http://littlepiecesofbliss.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/diy-tabletipad-case/.

I made mine for an iPad mini, but you could make it for anything as long as you found big enough sheets of felt. For a full set of directions and materials, see the two sites I've linked above.