Christmas Cuteness

Sushi ornaments look so cute on the Christmas tree..



My level of excitement is indirectly proportional to my actual production. I should have gotten started earlier. These are hard work! I have been pulling them off my Christmas tree to send to Etsy ladies too. It's a happy feeling knowing that something you thought of, designed, and created is appreciated by other people. I felt especially happy sending a set to Honolulu. What a pretty place far, far away. And now a part of me is there.


My neice loves them too. Her reaction to Spicy Tuna Maki was "Mimi! You have a paw print ornament! Hahahhahahahahha. You're so funny. You know? When the dog goes outside and gets in the mud and just makes a mess..." Why yes, dear, that is exactly what I was going for.

Homegirl can spot a Barbie doll from a mile away. Wrapped in paper. Hidden under some stuff. Waaaaay back behind the Christmas tree.

We decorated some Christmas cookies. I made this Avatar Gingerbread Man Sugar Cookie..


I have been so busy. I painted a blue wall in my apartment..




And I dug this out. I've had it forever. That little mouse has a spaghetti stain on his face from, like, 1992 probably. And yes, I am moving him every morning.

Pretty Wintry Durham

It snowed here Saturday and it was so pretty. I took these pictures in the American Tobacco district. It was insanely cold but I was nearby and couldn't resist a snowy walkthrough of pretty Christmas lights and white dust.







Lifesize paper Hillary for Julie


The paper attached to this lifesize Sarah Palin says something like - Taking over the entire world of Alaska. Or something like that. And her earrings are teabags.




Icey tree at home..

A Glittery Thanksgiving

I finally got most of the glitter cleaned up and I'm really scared to break it out again. And I need to. I have a few sushi ornaments to finish and I need to paint/glitter my Chopstick Star. It got really bad there for a few days when I was really busy. I have a nice finishing spray for my ornaments/other crafts I have in mind that involve glitter but the actual process of working with it will be saved for moments of optimum TIME availability in the future. I mean we had to shampoo the carpet... just to get my point across.

I've made two Chopstick Stars, one small and one larger. I think I will paint/glitter them two different colors and put them both atop the tree if it's big enough. Here's the small unpainted star..


I just tied a bunch of chopsticks with wire to make a star shape. I think the paint/glitter/tree branches will do a good job hiding the ugly wire.

Thanksgiving Day involved a road trip to Wilmington and much excitement over recieving sushi ornament orders on Etsy on my iPhone! I don't know the name of it but we detoured through a small town where people were shopping outside in the streets flea-market style. There were so many people in the streets that we had to drive slowly and I got a chance to observe the shoppers. It's kind of interesting the things people will buy from Dollar General on Thanksgiving Day. I laughed at the man with the toilet plunger.

Downtown Wilmington is cute with a few Christmas decorations. These are iPhone pics.


It was cloudy and on the edge of rain all day, and pretty desolate due to the holiday.



This dusty workshop caught my attention..


Black Friday I skipped shopping and visited my Gma who made me try each of her Thanksgiving Day pies. Kidding. I didn't resist too much. Chocolate, pumpkin, pecan, and pound cake.

Sushi Ornaments on Etsy

View my listing!

And my cute banner in action!

Just in case

I know I have to put my sushi ornaments on Etsy right now just in case anyone is interested in them. But my brain is too tired to even adequately describe these, so I will wait until tomorrow to avoid a completely unappealing listing.


It's hard to keep the Maki rolls from looking like eyeballs. I had to get rid of a more complicated eyeball-looking one and replace it with that cute spicy tuna and cucumber.

Ornament Update

I want to have our tree decorated and gorgeous with cute sushis by Friday so I've been working hard!


I couldn't resist those discounted (50% off!) glittery poinsettias you are seeing in the background. They are more lime green (love!) than you can tell and quite sparkly.


Here are some commpleted ornaments. I think these wasabi balls are going to look so cute hanging throughout the tree!

Glitter in my nose!

I have been working on my sushis so hard! I wanted a better nigiri ornament than what I was making, so that's how my little sushi ornaments taught me the strategy "perfect the original then branch out" this week. Sushi takeout is a great inspiring agent for this project!



I turned my rolled felt into little pillows because the open ends were driving me crazy and glue was not the answer.



I learned to wait a second for the glue to seep into the felt nicely because it helps make the glitter salmon really pretty..





This lighting in this picture is crazy but I love the finished product..



After I fell in love with my Nigiris, I did lots of sushi research to create a plan for my other ornaments..

I am making Wasabi Tobiko, Salmon Roe, Salmon or Tuna Maki (with Roe on top), an Avacado Specialty Roll (so named because of the avacado on top), and little wasabis and gingers. This plan was necessary. I can't tell you how big of a mess I made and how sparkly my carpet is from all of the "test" work I did this week.

This Salmon Roe Sushi is a product of some of my test work..



I like it but it looks too much like a cupcake so I am going to change the shape and not make the roe as high. I am also moving the ribbon out of the very middle.

I fell in love with glittery sushi ornaments so much that I started to think others might love them too, so I'm opening a little store with this adorable banner that Julie created for me:



I haven't finished creating my store yet because I don't have examples of all my rolls made, but I am hoping to offer them for $10 for a set of three (you pick) + wasabi/ginger in a little black container. Takeout boxes have been done before for handmade sushi so if you have any better ideas, do tell! Boxes in Michael's are EXPENSIVE, so I made this one out of thick black paper... and that ain't no easy task!



It's all taped up because I made it at work and didn't have glue. I plan to use it as a template. I'd like to offter to write a small message on the inside of the opened tab (like Merry Christmas! or something). I don't know how popular, if at all, these will be, but I will totally wrap a ribbon around this and it will be cute!

Glitter Sushi takes a lot longer than Restaurant Sushi!

I cut the "rice" from egg-shaped styrofoam because it already had a rounded edge. Styrofoam is great for this because it is easily pressed to create a smoother edge.



A really strategic move I made was sticking 2 dress pins in the rounded edge (where the fish will go). This gave me something to hold while I painted all the other edges with glue and covered them with white glitter. It also provided a little prop to hold them up as they dry.



To make the fish pieces I rolled up felt and glued the ends together with a mean hot glue gun. For the salmon I used light orange felt, drew lines with glue, and sprinkled pink glitter. For the tuna I used red felt. I haven't glittered those yet.



These have to dry before I can add the black ribbon "seaweed" and have a finish product!

Fun things from this weekend

Saturday morning I met a friend for breakfast at Foster's Market in Durham. I love love love Foster's after my first visit with Julie a few weeks ago. I especially love weekend breakfast outside in the sunshine. I got the French Toast and it was as delicious as it is pretty..



That's some sort of mango creation with some spiciness on top.

I love digging through the dying flowers that are on clearance in Kroger for the most lively ones that I can take home with me. This week I picked these Fall-time beauties. I fed them their package of flower food and put them outside for some sunshine for a bit. They look so healthy now.



I made my first ornament. I am not thrilled with it's quality. I was too excited to have a finished product and I learned during it's creation that I need a better game plan. I think I might like to make just sushi's for my tree. I had read somewhere that a serrated knife is best for cutting styrofoam, so that is what I used to cut out the "rice." I painted it with glue and covered it in white glitter. The "tuna" on top is red felt covered with red glitter. They are tied together with black ribbon for the "seaweed." I expect these to get cuter and better.



And I got this Military jacket in Target that I had been staring at for a few weeks. It's pretty thick and comfy.

Amy Sedaris Book Signing

Thursday evening my friend Jamie and I went to see Amy Sedaris at her book signing for Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People. I like for my dates to just be bare-faced so I can go play in makeup and do them up. Unfortunately Jamie had left all of her makeup at her boyfriend's apartment so we had to dig through her mom's stuff. We found this Avon eyeshadow that I wanted to steal.



Clockwise from left: Jamie bare-faced, eyes, side, front..



We, as usual, got lost on our way to the event. It was at The Armory, which I had never been to. We ended up at The Army National Guard near a hospital because someone gave me misleading directions. We just drove to downtown Durham, looked for people carrying books, and followed them.

We got there right before it started and there were a TON of people already seated.



We were in the second to last row when we spotted the upper level and decided to move for a better view..



Amy demonstrated how to make a twist tie from the love-making section of the book, as well as the Candle Salad. She was pretty hilarious and entertaining during her Q&A Section with the audience. When someone asked if she would buy them a book because they are too poor to afford one, she suggested they steal their neighbor's book.

I was in Group E for the book signing but some of us have to be at work at 7:00 am, so Jamie suggested we "change that E to a B and roll on," which is exactly what I did (super crafty). I'm glad I did because she talked with everyone who came through the line and politely accepted their bullshit craft. The lady in front of me gave her a bright yellow wrist band that looked like something that would admit you to a theme park and it said "FALL RISK" on it. It's for when you wear high heels apparently.

These same ladies asked me to take their picture with her. They wanted two pics! Amy told me my shirt was cute. I had on the white and gold one I had worn to work the day before. Dirty girl.

When it was my turn she asked me if I had made any cool crafts recently. I told her that, actually, I am making sushi ornaments for my Christmas tree out of styrofoam balls and glitter, and I am going to glue (or tie) chop sticks together to make a tree-topper star. She was like "oooooooo! That's a good idea!" We said our thanks and you're welcomes, and 2 minutes later outside I found this:



I'm high on happiness and the excitement I get from glitter!

Christmas Ornament Supplies

I'm ready to get started on my Christmas tree ornaments. I am doing a food themed tree. With the exception of one ornament that it took my entire Christmas break for me to make when I was 10, these will be the only ornaments I've ever made. They are going to be simple, yet glittery. I've been collecting stuff from Michael's. They send out weekly 40% and 50% off coupons, so I might have spent a total of $35. The styrofoam balls were the most expensive.



Pretty new glitter and old paint..



Felt costs pennies..



Hot glue gun, clearance rhinestones, wire, dress pins, ribbon, and string..



So excited!