Erin by-the-Sea

Pull-on Skirt

2009-10-26T14:09:00.001-07:00

Yay, I finished this lovely pull-on skirt yesterday!

I really like how it turned out! My boyfriend's grandma was nice enough to give me a good chunk of her fabric stash, which included this awesome floral fabric. It is very simple to make. I only used the fabric, some elastic, and my sewing machine. And my seam ripper, of course. I like it because it doesn't even look home made which is a huge accomplishment for me.

I just finished making some pumpkin bread. Zach's farm has tons of pumpkins right now, so that's what a big part of our diet consists of right now. I shall now go eat my latest creation. Happy monday!

Busy Busy Busy!

2009-10-18T22:12:00.001-07:00

Oh my God, I have been SO busy lately! As I previously mentioned, I found a job as a tutor. I like it so far. I feel like my job actually has a purpose. It's great! Most of the kids I tutor are high school boys from Asia who are staying at a boarding school and need help mastering the English language. Helping them is tough because there are many other things they would rather be doing and it's sort of hard for us to understand each other. It seems to be getting easier as time goes on, so that's a good sign.

I am in the middle of making a super cute dress! I hope to finish it by thursday. I will post a picture the moment I finish. It's similar to my last dress that I posted. I wish I had more time for these sewing projects. I am planning on making all my Christmas gifts to others by hand. We'll see how it goes!

I spent all weekend baby-sitting. Next weekend I want to do something different. I want to go somewhere with my boyfriend and just relax and have a good time. Any ideas?

Flower Headband

2009-10-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

I was killing time on Facebook. On the side bar where all the adds are I saw a picture of a scene from "The Notebook." Rachel McAdams was wearing this stretchy headband with a flower on it. I thought it was really cute. I decided I would make something similar.

So I took a piece of the grey stretchy tank top I used for the dress I made yesterday and sewed it into a headband. Then I looked around on the internet for some ideas on how to make cute fabric flowers. The easiest one I found (but still super cute!) was this tutorial from the blog, My Mama Made It. I made the flower, pinned it to the headband, and voila! I love pink and grey these days.

I made a dress!

2009-10-02T23:03:00.000-07:00

I saw this "ballerina dress" at Urban Outfitters...sooo cute, yet so expensive, especially considering it was from the "Urban Renewal" line which is basically old clothes and vintage fabrics re-created into something Urban Outfitters-esque.

I decided to make the dress myself! I cut a long piece of fabric from a large dress that was given to me, made a gathered skirt and connected it to this old grey tank top I've had lying around. I even added a little pink ribbon to the waist (not on the UO dress), which I think makes it even cuter. What do you think?

Exciting news!

2009-10-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

Today I got a job as an English tutor! I am very excited because I've always wanted to tutor but never really got the chance to do it. Monday afternoon is my first tutoring session! I hope I'm cut out for this kind of thing! I'm already going over in my mind how I want the session to go. I'm a little nervous...student's grades are in my hands! I will post on how my first session went. Yay!

Earning Money

2009-10-01T10:55:00.001-07:00

Lately I have been trying to do odd jobs to make money. So far I have cleaned my mom's house, which she just moved out of, and baby-sat. I have a couple of other things lined up in the next couple weeks. I have also offered to make halloween costumes for friends and family and have posted an ad on Craig's List offering my services as a dog walker! I'm also trying to become an English tutor! I'm curious, do you have any good ideas for odd jobs or ways to make money?

My New Kittay

2009-09-12T19:11:00.001-07:00

This is my new kitten, Gaston! It was reeaalllyy hard to get a decent picture of him because he's always running around!

Isn't he cute? :)

School is starting...

2009-08-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

Today is my first day at Cabrillo College, my new school. I'm excited and a teensy bit nervous at the same time. Fortunately, I'm taking three pretty cool classes. Tonight I have astronomy, tomorrow is creative writing and wednesday is art history. I hope I enjoy them all! Wish me luck!

Neat Photo

2009-08-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture that my boyfriend Zach took and developed of me about two years ago walking around in Niles Canyon, a beautiful, scenic place in Fremont, CA. He was trying to get some good pictures for his photography class and I was being nervous and on the look out for mountain lions (why do I put myself in these situations?!)

I love this picture. Zach told me that he made the photo look that way (like a spiderweb or broken mirror) by slamming down the enlarger really fast, just to see what happened. It's neat to see how he gave this picture a cool effect without digital enhancement.

From pant legs to pot holder

2009-08-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

I'm always on the look out for a new hobby and most recently I've set my sights on sewing and crafting. More specifically, I like the idea of making new things out of old things. For my first project, I made a couple of pot holders out of the legs of some jeans I cut into shorts. The first one will function but has many flaws. I made a list of all the things that went wrong with the first project, and my second one is almost flawless! Plus I made it in half the time it took me to make the first one. I had a couple issues with the hem of the jeans being to thick for my dinky little Hello Kitty sewing machine. But for the most part, it's beautiful! I'm very proud of my work.

Here's a link to the instructions I followed to make this: http://www.makeandtakes.com/blue-jean-pot-holders.

(I didn't make mine with the pocket of my jeans because I only had the legs to work with.)

Camping Trip

2009-08-26T19:34:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting my blog. I knew this would happen. I'll try not to let it happen again, even though I don't think anyone reads this. Oh well.

So the reason for my neglectful behavior was my camping trip. I went to a campground called Hell Gate which is my favorite place ever. It's in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, past Red Bluff, waaaay up north. I had a great time. The highlight of the trip was our five mile hike to the Hoffman graves and back.

That's me on a cute little bridge made out of a tree trunk on the way to the graves. We all gave ourselves nicknames early on in the hike. Mine was Baby Moon Dancer, after my favorite My Little Pony.

That's Cougar Jones, aka my boyfriend Zach cooling off in the creek which my three companions later drank from after they ran out of water. Fortunately they did not get sick. I was very proud of the fact that I managed to conserve all my water. Go me!

That's Rooster Cogburn, aka my brother Jake up on this tree that was growing out of the side of the mountain.

And here with Jake is his best friend Tiger Lily, aka Darren. See that rock he's holding? He had it the whole way to the graves and back, for use as a weapon in case we came across any mountain lions. I have a HUGE fear of mountain lions and was looking over my shoulder constantly.

After a long trek down the main trail, we turned off onto a tiny little trail in a pretty creepy part of the forest. The trees were all dead. Every single one of them. Eventually we got to a very pretty swimming hole that was extremely refreshing.

After a short swim we started on the trail again and soon found the graves. Unfortunately my camera died before we got there, which was pretty devastating, or I would have gotten a picture of them. In case you're wondering about whose graves we were so intent on seeing, here's the story behind them-

Way back when, some time around the California gold rush, a man named Jack Hoffman lived in a house in the Shasta-Trinity Forest, just near where the graves are today. Supposedly, he would put ads in the newspapers of nearby towns in which he promised to meet up with prospectors, sell them supplies and act as their guide. But when these people got near where Hoffman lived, he would shoot them and steal all their belongings. The graves belong to Hoffman and his aunt. Carved into his wooden headstone is a pistol and the words, "Here lies Jack Hoffman, crooked in his grave as he was in life."

All in all it was a fun, if not creepy, experience!

It felt so amazing and yet so terrifying to be so completely engulfed by wilderness. There wasn't a soul for miles. It felt unreal.

Home Sweet Home

2009-08-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

I love unpacking my things and decorating an empty space to make it my own. I am in love with this apartment, despite it's flaws. Although today the shower ran out of hot water after about five minutes...

Last night I could not fall asleep. Well, I did fall asleep eventually, but not until five in the morning. This always seems to happen when I move to a new place. I decided to watch The Little Mermaid which I haven't watched in years.

Source!

I discovered I still love it. I have the dvd and on the second disc there is an extremely interesting little feature on the making of the movie. It made me like it even more. It's basically about how this movie sort of defeated all the odds and was a total comeback for Disney, which apparently was in danger of shutting down.

Things are coming along nicely. Hopefully I find my camera soon so I can take pictures of my new home.

PJ Harvey

2009-07-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for an extremely kick-ass female vocalist, sit back and relax because I have found her for you.

PJ Harvey is quite possibly the coolest chick ever. You should give her a listen. She's been around since the nineties and her style is constantly changing. If you like crazy hard stuff, listen to her early albums. If you like soft, ethereal, piano-driven music, listen to White Chalk.

For having been around so long, I think this woman is highly underrated. I think it may be because people think her music is just too weird to listen to. But I like it.

My First Night in Santa Cruz

2009-07-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

Finally, finally, we moved in last night! Well, sort of.

My boyfriend, Zach, and I have been planning to move to Santa Cruz for months and yesterday, we signed our lives away for a lease on a rather quaint little apartment in Pleasure Point, which I have come to find out is a world-famous surfing spot. Our apartment is in a little shopping center, right above a bong shop and a tattoo parlor. Hah. In the shopping center there is also a fabric store, a Chinese restaurant called Dynasty (we ate there last night...it was good!), a laundromat (convenient!), and Coffeetopia, a little coffee shop which apparently used to be a bank? It has free wi-fi internet, score! We think there might also be a bar of some sort because we heard screaming and arguing all night. Yay.

We met one of our neighbors...I didn't catch his name, but he was an older fellow with shoulder-length hair who smelled of cigarettes. He let us borrow a dolly to move some of our stuff. Unfortunately we had already moved all the stuff we had before he let us use it. Oh well. He also offered us two beds and a book shelf. Apparently he will be moving in a month, but we're not allowed to tell the landlord. Okay. He knocked on our door to tell us something at least four times in the span of ten minutes.

Well, I had about the worst sleep I've ever gotten last night because we hadn't moved our bed yet and had to sleep on the floor. So uncomfortable! This morning we drove back to the bay area. Zach and his family are moving the rest of our stuff today, so the place will actually be inhabitable. Yay!

Until next time...