Here is the first installment in my acquisition of 20 useless skills series (skills listed in this past blog post).
I used this YouTube video to learn how to change the oil on my 2010 Honda Element…my pride and joy.
Ooh La Loo! I did it guys!
Author Archives: oohlaloo
hello kitty ball cap
I was beyond bummed that I missed out on Dodger Hello Kitty Givaway night (both actually). No bobble head or fleece blanket for me…wah wah. But I did however get to go to a game…and I was sure to make it a Hello Kitty night of my own. I heard there was a HK section at the team store now…I was hoping they had a hat. They did! But…it was all sold out on the online MLB store! I actually couldn’t even find a picture online…but I image that it looked pretty darn close to the Padres cap.
HK…does she have no loyalty? It’s hard to tell but there are little white ears…if you google Hello Kitty Dodgers hat a pic of another asian girl will come up wearing it…lol.
I actually wasn’t really a fan of the hat…and also…I don’t reeaaallly want it to be HK ALLL the time….just most of the time. SO I got my throwback Brooklyn Dodgers hat and worked my magic.
This is pretty much all you need! I found a template to print online. Get the bow template here.
Just cut around the bow and pin it to the red felt.
Trim the felt around the bow.
After you cut out the two bows (one for the front and one for the back) use the center of the template to cut out the circle for the middle. You only need one! Also pictured is the stuffing. I wasn’t sure if I needed it at first BUT yes…puffiness was necessary.
Glue all the edges together with the stuffing inside. I folded the top bow in the center and glued the circle on top to give a cinched look…you can’t really tell in this picture but you’ll see what I’m talking about in the finished product. I used clothespins to hold it tight while the glue hardened.
Here it is. I ended up sewing the edges because I thought it looked cleaner…but it’s not a must
Ooh la Loo! There it is!
Since next month my favorite sport season begins (Basketball), my HK bow will get a chance to girly up another cap….Clippers!! And here is proof that HK loves the Clips as well.
Luckily…the Clips have the perfect colorway for the bow…my favorite colorway actually. I LOVE royal and red together…actually navy and red too. I think the bow looks pretty good on my snapback if I do say so myself.
baby boy beanie
Two weeks ago I was on a baby moon with my besties Andy and Kris. We thought the baby boy would be joining us late October…but he couldn’t wait to get here! Kris texted us at the end of last week thinking he might be coming soon. My first thought was about his safety as well as Kris’ and my second thought was…shoot, I don’t have that beanie ready I promised I’d make him! Just a week prior Krisi had been looking up baby beanies on etsy and would send me pictures of ones she thought were cute. She asked if it was something I would be able to do or if she should order one. I told her she could stop searching because I would love to make him one! I had never made a beanie for a babe before so this process was a little trial and error as you’ll see later. I don’t use patterns most of the time and usually rely on my eye when crocheting. All this to say…there aren’t super specific directions.
I had the gray on hand which is a tad bid heavier weight than the blue. The blue yarn is baby yarn which tends to be softer than your average skein. I love mixing textures when I crochet. I stopped by Michael’s for the blue on my way home from a boba run and was so mad at myself for not having my coupons! I almost went home (I refuse to pay full price for anything at Joann’s or Michael’s), then I remembered I had the Michael’s app on my phone! I opened it and it had a 50% off coupon waiting for me. Total coast of this project $2.99! Bam.
Stitch: Half Double
Hook SIze: H
Step 1: I worked a circle by starting with 4 chains. Typically I work two crochets into each stitch until I have made 1 round. From there I do 2/1/2/ the next 2 rounds.
Step 2: After 3 rounds or about the size of a quarter I switched to the gray to start a stripe.
Step 3: It’s all about judgment in this process…if you see the work getting bubbly that means you are adding too many stitches and you should rip out as many as you need to and adjusting how many stitches you are adding. Maybe switching from the 2/1/2 to 2/1/1/1/2. To give you an idea I think I was adding a stitch every eight stitches by 5th round. Once my flat coaster looking circle was about the size of my palm I stopped increasing and just crocheted one stitch in each loop which gave the circle a bit of a lift making it more bowl like.
Step 4: I measured my finished product and compared it to average measurements of baby heads. I was about an inch off (this is why you use patterns people). Sooooo…I scrapped this hat and made another one…which I made a bit larger before I stopped increasing. You’ll notice that the finished product pictured a bit later starts with gray instead of blue!
Step 5: I decided that just because he’s a boy, that doesn’t mean his hat has to be plain! Pom poms it is! I realize the poms were in a previous post but…who cares! Similar to the yarn and fabric method I showed in the upcycled bag post I mixed colors.
Step 6: I added a little ear flap to give it the old school aviator helmet look and added the pom to the top.
Ooh La Loo! Baby Ryder fitting perfectly in his custom beanie!
I promise next time I’ll actually write down what I do! Coming soon…video tutorials. Woo Hoo!
my darn(ing) useless skills…
Saturday night on a drive home from hanging out with awesome college girlfriends I was listening to some late night radio…you know how those evening shows go…random tidbits of information which you ignore waiting for the next slow jam from the past to come on the air. Well, during this car ride something actually caught my attention. The host of the radio show was listing the most essential skills of modern times (this part not so interesting):
- Googling
- Operating a mobile phone
- Connecting WiFi
He only listed 3…but for the whole list visit here.
The next part was what caught my attention. He started listing skills that people no longer need to know.
- Darning (Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting using needle and thread alone)
- Knitting
- Polishing brass/silver
- Baking fresh bread
- Putting up a tent
- Writing postcards
- Sewing
- Knowing the phone numbers of friends
- Servicing the car yourself
- Understanding pounds and ounces
- Dinner party etiquette
- Writing letters
- Speaking a foreign language
- Knowing capital cities
- Understanding feet and inches
- Putting up a shelf
- Planning your route in advance
- Being able to change a tire
- Having neat handwriting
- Knowing how to spell long words
Not only do I dedicate the majority of my free time to many things on this list…I am now even MORE interested in acquiring these skills. I’m actually rather offended. I ordered a darning foot for my machine just last week (#1), I crocheted a beanie on friday night (#2ish), I sewed a quilt; which I gave to a friend on sunday (#7), I started my quest to visit every state capitol last summer (#14), I put up a shelf in my room by myself in may (#16). Apparently my skills are USELESS! Whatevs…onward ho!
I hereby commit to doing each of these listed useless skills and will document my acquisition of said skills on this blog.
ink!
When I was 17 I got my belly button pierced. Immediately after the guy was finished I ran out to the street and threw up. Then, at 19 I got my nose pierced…I ran to the bathroom to get water and woke up sitting on the floor in the corner of the bathroom. Apparently I had passed out! My sister in law was with me…but didn’t notice because she was busy getting her nose pierced too. All this to say. I don’t do well with needles. I had wanted a tattoo ever since high school but never thought I’d ever be able to handle the pain. So when I finally mustered up the courage to get it done…I told NOBODY! Ok…that’s a lie. I told Kelly because I needed someone to drive me home in case there was an “incident.” I knew Kell wouldn’t judge me if I chickened out, and she is my number one cheerleader. She’d tell me it was pretty even if it looked like poop…and I needed that juuuuust in case it didn’t turn out well! I also didn’t want to be talked out of it. I waited to tell Andy and Krisi, who I spent the whole morning with that day, until just minutes before the appointment. Andy offered to come for emotional support. Love her. BTW I think Andy is a part of every single entry I have posted!
Here we are at the fabric district in downtown LA.
And here folks is the last picture of my bare left arm.
Here I am having a little pre-session chat with Kim Saigh. She was on LA ink for a couple seasons and I fell in love with not only her artwork, but her drama free work ethic. I knew she was going to cost more than the average artist…but is something so permanent something you go cheap on? Absolutely not.
Well friends. Let me tell you. IT DID NOT GO WELL. About 15 minutes into the session, Kim asked me how I was doing and I said I was feeling a little light headed. She went to get me water and I made a dash for the bathroom.
A few minutes later I woke up here…
The last thing I remember was grabbing the door frame in slow motion. I fell and hit my face on the wood chair and hit the back of my head on the tile. The next thing I remember was a really cute bearded Brenden, the other artist working that day, holding my head in his hands. Not a bad thing to wake up to. As I mentioned earlier…Kelly was on call in case of an “incident.” She met Andy and I at the shop and drove me home. I threw up on the car ride home and stayed overnight with Kelly in case I didn’t make it through the night! I was SOO scared to go to sleep but google said that it’s actually a myth and that your body needs to sleep to heal. Who knows!? Kelly would wake up and make sure I was breathing throughout the night. Not only did I wake up…I woke up with a shiner! It got darker and darker each day.
It was all worth it. I got a bad ass tattoo. Here it is!
hahaha! Oh man. Needless to say, I didn’t show this to anybody! I kept it a secret until I had something I would be really proud to show off. I had this masterpiece for about a week. Kim fit me into her jam packed sched so I could look halfway decent again! I realized that it wasn’t about the pain (which was horrible), it was nerves. I was too nervous to tell her that the peony she selected wasn’t my absolute fave. This probably wasn’t the best time to be accommodating…I should have been straight forward instead of getting myself worked up and passing out! SO I brought a peony I liked better and she had no problem changing the design.
…and back to work we went. Please note that she has me on a table this time! No more passing out….or hitting the floor at least.
BIG thanks to Eric who I called in a panic minutes before this session and asked him to come to an address with absolutely no explanation. I think he thought I was in trouble! lol.
Here are some work in progress pics…
This was the first thing I saw. I refused to watch because I was scared I’d faint…but when it was time for a potty break I got a peak and was completely astonished. I loved it.
At the end of the four hour session…this was me!
Session 2 (technically 3!)
Finished!
Here’s Kim and I! Even made it on her instagram!
Ooh La Loo! Here’s the final product.
FYI: Peony for purity and Magnolia for love of nature.
collabo post: baby shower invitations
Here’s the team.
Pictured:
zoey, me, andy, kenzie, stacie, amie
My childhood bestie Stacie is having a baby girl! I can’t believe that our own mothers threw each other baby showers when we were born. How cool is that?! With that said…let the baby shower planning commence. Stacie emailed Andy, Amie and I knowing we’d jump at the chance to put our creative minds together to create invitations tailored perfectly to her style. The truth is, I love doing pretty much anything with these girls…so collaborating for this project felt like no work at all. Andy was the project manager on this one. She had a vision of what she wanted and trusted Amie and I to “do our thing.” Amie is awesome at typography and is a master doodler. Andy asked her if she’d work her magic for the invites.
And oh em gee..look what she produced.
Next step. Andy scanned in Amie’s original artwork and worked magic of her own. I can’t begin to tell you how talented she is.
Andy designed the invitation around Amie’s sketch adding the PERFECT font…I was amazed at how she matched Amie’s typography! Next she added color from the yarn we selected at Purl Soho. Check out the hot spot post to see how closely she was able to color match. Genius, I tell ya!
This collaboration process was so fun. Andy would touch base with me throughout the entire process to show me her progress or just to bounce ideas off of me. We have a really amazing working relationship…we send each other pictures and give each other the yay or nay on an idea in under 10 seconds. And in situations like the picture below…when we aren’t sure of ourselves…9 times out of 10 we pick the same option.
The next step was my turn. We had the perfect design…now it was about the packaging. Envelopes are good and all…but why not put them in a sac the recipients could use? I’m thinking this little sac would make a perfect sunglasses bag! This too was a collaboration. Amie came over and ironed the fabric as I sewed the bags (and my mom helped in this process too…there was A LOT of ironing). We had toyed with the idea of fold over flaps…which would have been more time efficient…but I had my heart set on the drawstring design.
I was pretty happy with how the bags turned out!
Ooh La Loo! Look how our collabo finished product!
hot spot post: Cedros Part II
Stop 2 at the Cedros Design District was SOLO. Their website describes the store as, “An upscale collective showcasing the collections of eight creative and dynamic women, each with their own distinct style.” This is my absolute favorite hot spot! The variety of products in this shop is amazing.
The shop is located in a warehouse…look at those beams! Love it. As you may be able to see…there are different merchants displaying different styles and types of products. Merchants vary from children’s and collectables to mid century modern and repurposed objects.
The four pictures below feature the industrial section of the shop. This is my favorite nook. I want everything!!! I bought a pitcher and glasses the last time I visited and I absolutely love them. It’s always exciting to see what they have because most of the items are vintage “found” items.
Below are more examples of how each section of the store features a different style and point of view.
These blankets are adorbs. Pretty sure I can re-create that with my newly acquired quilting skills!
Another merchant with a variety of kitchy collectables.
Take a look at the suitcases pictured below. They are metal and are actually floating shelves! I love these…The black one needs to be on my wall ASAP.
The stationary and paper goods are so cute!
Next stop, Leaping Lotus.
Similar to SOLO, Leaping lotus houses multiple merchants. There is a wider variety of products and it has a less cohesive overall feel. There’s definitely something for everyone! It is a two story shop with 120 merchants.
Below I took a picture of a beachy merchant as well as an antique merchant.
I’m loving this art deco faux fireplace facade. The picture on the right below is the Oliver Shop…my favorite merchant in Leaping Lotus.
Scary plastic doll chandelier anyone?
Can’t say that I’m really into parasols but Ooh La Loo…they look good on the ceiling. Especially in those colors.
