I sewed myself a dress! Hurrah!

I made myself a little dress yesterday/this morning. I think it came out pretty darn good for me to have never attempted such a project before. I will be making more for sure.. so I think this blog will be seeing a tutorial really soon-- if that is indeed something you would like to see.. let me know in the comments! So.. without further procrastination, here it is. I'm wearing a shrug because I didn't want to hunt down a bra without straps. This dress also has small halter straps that can tuck in (which I have done here) or be worn tied around the neck. I will be doing an OOTD with this dress reallllly soon.. so I promise you will get a good idea of how it looks styled. Ignore the wet hair and no makeup.. I was fresh out of the shower and excited to try it on!

I'm thinking of recreating this fun little jig for the wee ones in the world also!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

with silver bells and... So folks, how's life? Long time no update.. but that seems to be a running theme around these parts. I see all these blogs that are just fixed up like a BOSS.. and I can't quite get there. I want everything under one roof and that's hard to do you know? Anyway.. so, new news.. I'm starting my first ever GARDEN. Yup. I'm getting my fat behind out in the yard for some manual labor and I'm gonna grow me some clean, fresh organic goods. As of now I'm still in the digging/weeding/grassing part.. but I do have a before picture to show you, and then hopefully tomorrow I'll have a "area dug up and ready for planting" picture.. and then well, you get the idea ;)

and of course... my kiddo cutting first ground

So anyway.. we're gonna plant some fun stuff.. and we got gifted a whole ton of herbs, so I will be posting up a list of everything we plant and whatnot along with photos... hopefully soon!

Photoshop 101: Basic Fire Effect

I have completed my first screen capture tutorial. You can view it over on my youtube channel! Feedback is appreciated :)

Man I got that swag: Swagbucks

I'm late on the train, I admit.. but I'm loving Swagbucks. It's nothing that happens instantly.. but I know that in a few days of casual searching I have earned a pretty exciting amount. I'll continue to save mine until I can do a usable giftcard.. but hey, its' a great side egg.

Don't let it scare you away.. it's not a gimmick. It's got things you can do to enhance your earnings.. but I use it as my search engine.. and I win at least 3 times a day. So... go, now!

FashionistaDiva: A New Project

Hiya folks. 

So.. I've been gone awhile-- but you know, life happens.. so there's your reason. I've survived my kid's 7th ( sad face ) birthday.. and now that we're home and returning to normal I've got many things on the horizon! I've got a accessory swap coming up in a few weeks... and then next month is the REN FAIRE! This means too much work for me though :) I've got to make at the minimum 3 costumes.. one for my mother, one for my son, and of course.. I gotta look fly too.

On top of those things, I'm also in the process of job hunting for a part time job.. trying to go back to school.. and I'm working on a tshirt quilt for a friend of mine!

So basically-- because I don't have enough things going on.. I've decided to add one more. 

Stylist.

It's always something that has been interesting to me, and throughout my time working in the retail fashion industry.. it was always my favorite and most successful aspect of the job. 

I'm starting small, but I'm going to be styling for a portfolio soon... then I'll move into events. I *think* I'm going to go to school and get my cosmetology license.. then I can offer full-fledged makeovers!

I've got plans after that for film, which is my passion... but we're taking baby steps.. and these are the ones that are the easiest to transition to right now.

Excitement!

I'm going to be posting some outfits up online using polyvore-- so once I figure out how I'm going to do so (tumblr, etc).. I will put a post up as to where you can find the samples! :)

Losing ALL the weight.. or trying?

So, I've been on this journey to a new me-- or some craziness such as that. I actually have a blog dedicated to it that is a joint effort with my friend Kim. We're doing it together. Perhaps I'll give you the link to that in a bit.. but I just thought I'd take a minute to share my "progress".

I guess I should start off by saying that I'm following a non-diet, diet. I'm really not making many adjustments.. because, well.. let's be real. I know. me. I will fail an epic fail of failures and I WILL

(picture source: http://memecrunch.com/meme/5RU/eat-all-the-food/image.png)

So.. given the fact that I know I will shape shift into a mama pig-- I'm still eating what I want.. I just say no sometimes. Being broke probably helps, because I stretch one or two meals out for a whole day and really eat tiny snacks if any at all.. so it's not quite the way I *want* to eat for weight loss.. but for now it must do.

I'm not going to post all of the minor details, because like I said.. it's laid out in a blog already.. and why type things twice-- that may actually exercise my fingers, and I already completed my Jillian Michaels for the night.

So far I've lost 6 inches off of my stomach.. and roughly 3 from my hips.. most of my other stats haven't moved much, so those are the noteworthy ones. The thing is.. I can't really tell. Some of my pants fall down when I walk-- but I've always had that problem because I have a big white girl butt, but I think some of it is related to the inches lost. I also can now fit into our patio chair that I couldn't get into without pain before. It still cuts into my fatness.. but hey.. I can sit in it so GLORY BE!

So.. anyway, this isn't crafty.. it isn't well written.. it's just a note. A note to say that I'm trying, and even thought people will judge me, doubt me and say what they may.. I'm doing it for me, not them..

DANGIT.

With that said.. I must go craft onward.

I promise I have some more crafty things coming soon!!

<3 Ash

OOTD? Sure!

So.. I really don't want to go on a rant as to why I feel lately, I have to defend the fact that I'm fat yet I don't wear sweats all day and eat ho ho's.. so.. that, mixed with the many requests I get on various social networks for pictures of some of my outfits-- I have decided to oblige.

I don't know how regular I will do this.. but I'd like to do it quite frequently for no reason other than it's an easy post that lets me kill a little bit of my boredom.

So.. here I am-- going.................. grocery shopping !

Oh yeah, so glam. Actually.. this is pretty darn casual for me. I'm not wearing much jewelry, and .... no makeup.

Gasp.

Alright internet world.

Casual Ash. Going grocery shopping. Practical... yet, A step up from th e sweats (hey.. the sweat pants DO exist.. and maybe one day I will feature the epic greantess that is my goodwill sweat pants).

The ring is from a flea market I think-- it was given to me in any case. The earrings are Claire's. Bag is Forever 21. Boots, I got for like 2.00 on a Claire's clearance.. yeah. Anyway. There it is in all it's glory. I probably would have put on makeup, had I planned to actually let the world see me.. but the photos were an after-thought.. so there.

Huuuyah!

Coming Up:

We swapped till we dropped.. check ours out and find out how you can throw a no budget party that gets you "new" stuff!

My no/low budget porch makeover. I did mine with things I had-- what can you do?