My Week

What I've been working on (more photos here) is keychains made with these cute erasers that we sell at Michaels. I thought they were so cute, but so pointless because they wouldn't make good erasers and, being erasers, they're not tough enough to just be little toys.
My first idea was to coat them in Mod Podge to protect them from being erasable. But that wasn't as "gloss" and thick as I thought it would be, and it left brush strokes. So, I asked one of my co-workers (who actually works on the floor and knows all the products, unlike me) what I should use and she showed me the Triple Thick gloss glaze pictured below. It's awesome! Just what I had wanted! It makes them nice and shiny and makes them tough. I've had the cute hippie one on my bag for a couple days to test it out and it survived pouring rain and being shoved in my locker, so I think it's safe to say these erasers can now handle being keychains.



In other news...
  • I won a second giveaway! I can't believe it! This time I get a beautiful wood ring from Ian Gill thanks to Moorea Seal. (The first giveaway I won was the calendar from Seablanket.)
  • Awkward moment at work: A girl came in to return two boxes of wedding invitations and said "I bought these a few weeks ago, but then my fiancé broke up with me on Tuesday, so I don't need them anymore."
  • I'm taking the online course Indie Business. It's only been a week and already it's helping me so much with planning products and branding for my Etsy shop and a lot of other ideas. These girls really know what they're talking about!
  • I'm back on Twitter! I'm trying to be interesting, but after giving up Twitter in favor of Facebook almost a year ago, it's hard coming up with short quips to say in under 140 characters. I can tell people a whole story on Facebook!

Nicholas Sparks Movie Posters

Dear Nicholas Sparks,

While we all love your tragic, sappy, romantic, epic stories, they are all pretty much the same. Including the movie posters. There appears to be only two romantic movie template poses to choose from.

The Cuddle-from-Behind


The About-to-Kiss


Could you try to change it up a bit for your next one?

Valentine

I just wanted to share something sweet with you on this Valentine's Day.

And then, since it is Valentine's Day, here are a couple funny scenes from one of my favorite movies, MirrorMask, starring the character Valentine.

Well, I Got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates

I kept hearing this song over the speakers at work, and I thought it sounded familiar, but I didn't know it. And I couldn't hear it well enough to make out any lyrics that I could later Google. But, one day after trying many different combinations I finally figured out the lyrics and found the song.
I then looked it up on YouTube to give it a listen. One of the first videos that came up was this one. The description reads: "A 8mm film done by my sister while in high school for a class project in the 70's with music by Melanie that finally got edited to tape"
I just love that it really is a home movie from the 70's! It looks like it could have been made today to look 70's and kitchy, but it's authentic.
You know how some people like thrifting? They like finding housewares or clothes from a long time ago. It's neat to have something that was made and used and loved so long ago and now you get to love it again. That's how I feel about old movies, or even better, vintage home videos like this. It's such a gem! Someone worked hard to make this little video for this song, and over 30 years later I can watch it and enjoy it, too!
I just really wanted to share this song and video with you.

Film Fashion: Gidget

It's the
ULTIMATE!

Remember in Grease, when Rizzo, making fun of Sandy, sings "Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee." Well, this is who she was referring to. Adorable "good-girl" actress Sandra Dee, most well known for playing tomboy surfer Gidget.
Gidget is a feisty little 16 year old girl who, unlike her friends, doesn't want to go on "man-hunts" at the beach. She just wants to have fun, and after checking out some of the boys surfing, she decides she wants to try it for herself. Gidget's a "good girl" and a rebel at the same time.
While she makes friends with the rough n' tumble surf bums, she wears the most adorable swimming costumes. I've always loved 50's-60's style swimming costumes because they create beautiful, sexy silhouettes without revealing too much skin. They often look like little dresses or rompers. You don't have to show off your lady bits to look sexy in a swimsuit!

Video Love: What's Up Elle?

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite YouTubers. Elle. She is a dancer, choreographer, singer, producer, green screen genius, and all-around insanely creative video master (or should that be mistress?)

I don't know if as a reader you care about how I came across the things that I share with you, but for me, how I discovered a movie, person, video, song, artist, blog, etc. is important because that memory/emotion/experience is always attached to that thing.
So, how did I discover the wonderful Elle?
As with all good stories, it begins with TaB Energy. (Have I mentioned my obsession lately? I feel like I need an explanation page on my blog to link to every time I mention it so people can truly understand the obsession). I was searching YouTube for TaB Energy videos, like commercial parodies like I did, etc. And I found a TaB commercial by this group of girls called Whatever Hollywood. I liked their TaB video, so I checked out their other videos (which I highly recommend you do as well) and loved them. Later on, one of the girls from Whatever Hollywood linked to her personal new YouTube channel, What's Up Elle. And, well, that's the story.

This girl is the definition of charisma and charm. She's perky and fun without being fake and annoying. She's an awesome dancer. I don't even watch dance videos, but I watch hers. And she almost always does a behind-the-scenes/making-of video for each of her videos, which is my favorite. I'm a total behind-the-scenes girl.
Elle is insanely talented with her green screen editing, it blows my mind. All of her video ideas are so original and very entertaining. Every new video has me laughing and awing over her ability to play three people at once, with her timing and then editing.
Okay, so I'll stop gushing over this girl, and just leave it with: She's amazingly talented. Her videos are awesome, hilarious, and very good quality. Just check them out, okay?

These are some of my favorites, which I think will give you an idea of what Elle is like. Be sure to go to her YouTube page and check out the rest of her videos.


Micky Green's Retro Music Videos

I recently came across this amazing artist, Micky Green, an Australian living in Paris. She's got a totally retro sound to her music and her music videos reflect that. Check out the different decades Micky channels to go with her groovy music.

This Gidget inspired video for Micky's song Ouba makes me long for summer and cute swimming costumes. Even just listening to the song while walking home from work in the cold and snow makes me feel like it's already Summer. Sigh. Well, until the weather warms up we can all enjoy this adorable music video.

Micky channels an undercover spy in this 70's inspired video for T.L. The 70's aren't my favorite fashion decade, but she makes them look sophisticated and cool for this video. I think the song is a bit 70's, as well. It feels like a slowed down, more soulful disco. If that even makes sense...

The 80's are probably my least favorite fashion decade, so this video isn't my favorite, but some of you may think it's awesome. Micky gets bright and crazy 80's style in this video for Shoulda. She sports several different bright obnoxious outfits that match her animated backgrounds. The song, however, is not 80's (thank goodness), it's more mellow & groovy like T.L.

Under the Sea...

Recently I've realized I have a thing for tentacled oceanic invertebrates. Jellyfish, squid, octopus. I don't know why, I just love 'em. Oh wait, I do know why. They're so pretty! They have pretty colors and they're all flowing in the water and they can make so many positions. I just love 'em.





And my favorite under the sea creature... the sock squid Addie made for me. <3 br="">

Interior Inspiration

My lease is up at the end of March and I am soooo excited to move into a new apartment! One reason being that I've been told this place is really overpriced, so finding something cheaper would be great. Another reason is that I love to redecorate! I'm so excited to go through all my stuff, throw out junk, pack it all up and then get to reorganize it all in a new space. Also, right now I'm in a basement with one tiny window and my new place will probably be in a real apartment building and have actual windows. I'm so excited for sunlight!

I definitely can't afford new furniture and décor (frankly, I love all my colorful furniture and I have more than enough stuff to decorate a small apartment) but I love to look at beautiful interior spaces. My ideal space would be white walls, so all my colorful stuff stands out.

So, here's some pretty, and mostly not-so-practical, interior inspiration.

Some Mac Shopping

One of my January goals is "No extraneous spending. Not even craft supplies."

This is so hard for me because I am a major shopaholic. And I work at Michaels, where I see so much cute stuff and craft supplies that I want. Not to mention I see all the great deals that make shopping even more tempting.

So, I think I've already broken this goal by purchasing a new Mac OS, mouse and remote for my iMac.
The remote was actually needed because the back button stopped working.
And the mouse is half-necessity since the scroll ball hasn't been working for years. (It stopped working after only a few months, I got a new one, and it stopped working again, so I just kept it.) And since they don't sell the wireless mighty mouse anymore, and I wasn't going to downgrade to a wired mouse (with a scroll ball that would probably stop working.) I went for the (expensive) new magic mouse. It's all fancy touch click and scroll; no buttons. It better last forever.
So, really, the only completely unnecessary thing was the new Snow Leopard OS. I'm perfectly happy with my OS (10.4) except that some new applications and updates (and the new mouse) will only work with 10.6. I'm just a little nervous about losing all my files, applications and system settings when I install the new OS.

I think mostly I'm looking forward to being able to scroll without dragging the scroll bar. And not being able to use the back button on the remote has gotten pretty annoying.


P.S. I enjoyed my Christmas break but catching up on all that sleep and having all the time to just chillax got me in a sleepy, lazy funk which then turned into a cold. =( So basically, I've been in bed since Christmas (with the exception of work- which has been way less since the crazy pre-Christmas season has ended). But finally today I wasn't completely exhausted or completely sick and actually got some stuff done. I'll be back to blogging regularly soon.

Delcious Day 8: Paper Snowflakes


Oh, wait. These aren't edible. Oh, well. They're simply delicious to look at. Eye candy, if you will.

If you've somehow missed learning how to make a paper snowflake, check out Mandi's post The Art of Making a Paper Snowflake.

These are all the supplies you will need. I also ended up using some silver origami paper and some tissue paper.
Here are a couple of examples of patterns to show how they look folded and then opened.


I put a couple heavy books on top of the snowflakes after I unfolded them, to keep them nice and flat. I also suggest that, as you unfold each fold, fold it way back, so that each layer gets unbent.

And then I made some out of tissue paper.
And then it's time to get your glitter on! Last year I used white glue and poured glitter on it, which was extremely messy. So this year I opted for glitter glue.

Then just hang them up with some white thread and scotch tape.


So pretty and festive! Not just for Christmas, but for all Winter long.

Delicious Day 7: Apple Crisp


This was originally meant to be Raspberry Apple Crisp (recipe from La Dolce Vegan) but the raspberries didn't last long enough to make it into the crisp. AKA I ate them all. Gawd, I love raspberries! But that's okay, because I could still make a delightful apple crisp!

Start by chopping up some apples. (The recipe called for 3 large granny smith apples and 1 cup of raspberries, so instead I used 4 apples.)
Stir them up with 1 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon. And put that into a glass baking dish.
For the topping, stir up 1 cup oats, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 margarine (cubed), 1 tsp cinnamon. (I added way more cinnamon to every part, though.) Put the topping on top of the fruit and bake at 350*C for 50-55 minutes, until the apples are mush and the top is brown.
Nothing like baked apples to warm your tummy and your heart during the cold winter!

Pretty Sunday

pretty perfume bottles
pretty valentine's outfit inspiration
pretty eiffel tower
pretty bird girl
pretty christmas cookies

pretty dresses
pretty shakira
pretty candles
pretty pink cheetah girl

Delicious Day 6: Hot Chocolate


How could you possibly go through a cold, bitter winter without enjoying a steaming mug of hot chocolate now and then? I'm not talking about adding some Quick powder to some milk. I'm talking about actual chocolate. Hot chocolate.

Here's a really easy hot chocolate recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking.

[Isn't my digital scale beautiful?]

6 oz (170g) chocolate (chips, bar, etc.)
2 cups soy milk (although I ended up adding more)
Granulated sugar, to taste (optional)


Put it all into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir, stir, stir with a whisk to try and get it frothy.

Try not to get distracted by GalaDarling.com and forget about it on the stove, leading it to almost boil over, like I did.

It was really thick and really intense, so I kept adding more soy milk. Maybe you can handle drinking something that thick and chocolatey, but I couldn't. It's really up to your taste to determine thickness, frothiness, and sugarness.

It's even better when you enjoy your hot chocolate out of a cute mug, like I did. And dress like a candy cane. ;)

Delicious Day 5: Josey's Ginger Snaps


I'm so excited to have my very first guest blogger! (And not just because she saved me making one more treat for my 12 Delicious Days.) Josey and I became friends in film school, and have kept in touch since then. I was so excited when I found out she had a blog, too! Even more excited when I saw it was actually a great blog that I love! And I know you will, too. I'll let Josey take it from here with her Ginger Snaps recipe...


Hello dear Sugar + Razor Blades readers, I’m Josey from Rock, Paper, Knit. Tish kindly asked me if I would guest blog for her 12 delicious days of Christmas and I couldn’t be more excited.

I love baking Christmas cookies so today I’ll be sharing a great recipe from my repertoire of go to cookies. These sweet and spicy cookies are a great addition to any Christmas party and can easily be converted into a vegan recipe with a few choice vegan substitutes.

Delicious Christmas Gingersnap Cookies

¾ cup of butter, room temperature (or vegan butter substitute)
½ cup of dark brown sugar
½ cup of white granulated sugar
¼ cup of molasses
1 large egg (or vegan egg substitute)
½ tsp of pure vanilla extract
2 cups of all-purpose flour
½ tsp of baking soda
¼ tsp of salt
2 ½ tsp of ground cinnamon
3 ½ tsp of ground ginger
1 tsp of cloves

Garnish:
¾ cup of granulated white sugar

Yields: about 4 dozen small cookies

In a medium sized bowl, combine butter and sugars and beat well until incorporated. Add the molasses, egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices and mix until fully combined; the flour mixture should be a light brownish colour.

Add flour mixture to the butter mixture, a little at a time and mix until fully incorporated. The cookie dough will be slightly stiff; then cover and chill for 20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350F degrees. Cover your baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put your ¾ cup of granulated white sugar into a small bowl; it will be used to garnish your cookies. Once the dough has chilled sufficiently, grab a small amount of dough and roll into a 1 cm ball (about the diameter of a toonie) and roll the ball into your garnishing sugar until fully coated and place on your baking sheet.


Using an object with a flat surface (like a drinking glass) flatten the cookies slightly. Space the cookies evenly with about 5 cm space between each, as they will expand slightly in the oven.


Bake for about 10 minutes for a crunchy cookie; for a softer, chewier cookie bake for only 5 minutes. The longer you bake these, the crispier they will be. Place on a cookie rack and let cool and enjoy with a nice glass of milk or soy milk!


Hope you guys enjoy this delicious treat!

Happy Holidays!






Blog: www.rockpaperknit.blogspot.com

Etsy: www.joseywiesmen.etsy.com

E-mail: rockpaperknit@hotmail.com

Delicious Day 4: Chocolate Crumblies


Chocolate Crumblies are my go-to, super-easy, chocolate-craving, no-bake snack. So, I decided to try a Christmastime spin on them.

These are all the ingredients you will need. Plus Christmas candy. See the full recipe and instructions in a blog post I did a long time ago here.

First you make a sort of chocolate sauce on the stove top, then you add the oatmeal and coconut.

I also decided to try something new this time. I squished the cookies into cookie cutters to make them into shapes, rather than just blobs.

And here's my pathetic attempt at decorating my Chocolate Crumblie man. It just had to use some glaze to stick on the candies. The cookies dry out really quickly, so you probably won't be able to just stick any candy to them. It would probably be easier if you had more than one person, so you could decorate quickly as someone else keeps scooping out cookies.

I decided not to use the star or snowflake cookie cutters because these cookies are very dry and crumbly when they're set, so I figured those shapes would just break off.

Delicious Day 3: Applesauce Muffins


I have to give credit to my friend, Kelsey, for introducing these delicious mini muffins to me back in high school. They're the easiest thing to bake, I swear.

You only need three ingredients: plain muffin mix (or, if you're not as lazy as I am, you could make a basic muffin recipe from scratch), applesauce and cinnamon (and food coloring, if you're making Christmas muffins like I did). You don't even need to measure the ingredients. This really is a recipe for us lazy bakers who love freshly baked goods, but aren't so good with the precision measurements and instructions.
Pour half your muffin mix into a bowl (or whatever the package says for one batch. Or the whole thing for a really big batch, up to you) and use a whisk to stir it up and get rid of lumps.

Be sure to have a Christmas movie on while you make your Christmas treats! I chose the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
If you're fortunate enough to have a big strong man around while you're baking, get him to open the jar of applesauce for you. Or, if you're all alone like me, be prepared to use your guns.
Dump a bunch of applesauce into the bowl and mix it up. You want it to be a consistency somewhere between cake batter and regular muffin batter. These aren't going to be light and fluffy muffins, they're going to be soft and mushy and delicious. I ended up using about 3/4 of that jar, if that gives you an idea of how much to use.
And then dump a bunch of cinnamon in. Taste as you go, to see how you like it and keep adding more if you wish.

Trade your whisk for a spatula and divide your batter into two bowls. (If you don't want to color them, skip this part.)
Add red food coloring to one bowl and green to the other. A little tip about red food coloring: it's so hard to get stuff really red. It's always pink. That's really just because we think of light red as pink, it's own color. Whereas something light green is still green, light blue is still blue, etc. To counteract the pinkness, I always add a little bit of yellow food coloring in with the red.

You could make these full-sized muffins (I did once, and added apple chunks, mmm!) but because these are somewhat mushy muffins, it's better to keep them small. And this way they make addictive little bite-sized snacks!
I filled my muffin cups all the way to the top thinking that they wouldn't rise at all because I didn't remember them rising in the past. But then they did. Which is fine, but you might not want to fill them as full as I did. You can also sprinkle cinnamon on the tops before baking. (I forgot to on my first batch, so I did that after they were baked.)
For my second batch, I mixed the colors. This can be a little tricky as you need to have a spoonful of each color in each hand and plop them in at the same time. If this proves to be too difficult or messy for you, you can do one color on the bottom and the other color on top to get bi-colored muffins.

Bake for 10-15 minutes at 400*C. They should be soft, but not still gooey to touch. If you do the toothpick test, they won't come out clean, they should have a few moist crumbs stuck on.


Put the tray on your cooling rack to cool. Once the tray is cool enough to touch, you can take out your muffins. They should be easy enough to pop out by hand (careful not to squish them, they won't bounce back). If they're a little stuck, just use a knife to go around the sides, separating the muffin from the pan. I don't suggest putting the muffin on a cooling rack to finish cooling, because they are so soft that they will sink into the rack a bit. I put mine on paper towel instead.

If your muffins end up with crispy bits like this, the easiest way to fix them is scissors. Do not underestimate the usefulness of scissors in your kitchen. Just snip, snip, and you have nice clean muffin edges.

Now, just try not to eat them all before you take them to work (like I did) or your friends come over. They are addictive, delicious, soft little bites of apple and cinnamon goodness!