WILW 12.18.13 Christmas Wishlist Edition

It was nearly impossible to compile a Christmas wishlist because (aside from a huge pile of money and a car) I have everything I could possibly want. Here's a few things I've been swooning over lately, however.

1. Nacy Blue lacey ballet flats from Mod Cloth. I have some sort of obsession with the color blue lately. I don't know what it is. I think it stemmed from really being into sapphires (my birth stone). These shoes are so perfect.

2. I want a chained set of hairclips. End of story. I've been doing much more with my hair since I cut my bangs. I'm just trying to have more fun with it.

3. I keep trying to bid on this eyeball bracelet on Ebay but keep being outbid. I won the ring about a week ago and would love to win the necklace as well. Kind of an oddball piece. Like I need another one of those.

4. This beautiful black fitted dress from Mod Cloth. How pretty is this? And paired with a colored cardigan and some matching shoes? Blah. I love this dress.

5. This set of celestial tea set photographs. I would hate to change the colors in my kitchen (black, white and red) but I may make an exception for these!

So to appologise for my lack of posting, how about a playlist?

1. Terraplane Sun - Get Me Golden
2. Strange Talk - Climbing Walls
3. Stroke 9 - Little Black Backpack
4. Capital Cities - Kangaroo Court
5. Jake Bugg - Lightning Bolt

Decorating a Decoden Cabochon Compact Mirror

As you all may or may not know, Stylish Smithereens Creative Corner does have a YouTube channel. I do, from time to time post hauls, tutorials, diys and more there. Here's my most recent video which I uploaded yesterday. How to make a decoden cabochon compact mirror! Enjoy!

What I Wore ...On Thanksgiving

I'll be honest here. I totally forgot that I had taken pictures of my outfit on Thanksgiving. Here's what I wore that day:

Here is the overall look.

basic black tank top: unknown (Target probably)

white lace button up: unknown, the tag reads Faded Glory though

jeans: Ross

lace ballet flats: Alloy.com

owl necklace: forever 21

owl bracelet: ebay

I also wore a taupe bomber jacket from Target and a black infinity scarf from Sears. I really enjoyed putting this look together and got a lot of nice comments about it. I felt comfortable yet somewhat elegant.

Making An Apple Pie (Recipe)

This Thanksgiving was one for firsts all right. It was the first time I didn't go to my parent's house for dinner, the first time I met my boyfriend's grandparents, and the first time I was asked to bake a pie. Now, I have never baked a pie before, despite the fact that I do enjoy baking quite a bit. Here's the recipe I followed (and modified). I hope you all will give it a try!

The Crust

Ingredients

4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 chilled bowl of water

1 egg

2 sticks salted butter (or lard/fat)

• combine your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
• break egg into your water bowl and mix it in.
• cut the butter into the dry ingredients bowl and mix it in. I dove right in with my hands when it came to mixing so that I could more thoroughly do it as I didn't have proper mixing tools.
• begin to mix in your egg/water mixture. Do so only 1 tablespoon at a time. When it starts to stick together, it's good!
• divide your 'dough' into two equal portions and put into two ziplock bags. Flatten all of the air out and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• after the hour wait, flour a rolling pin and a cutting board and roll out one portion of the dough. place the pie plate over the dough to check the fit then fold the dough in quarters then forths to pick up and place into plate. Unfold with center of dough in center of pie plate. (*if your dough rips here, just get a little bit of water on your finger and smooth it back into place.
• with a small knife or kitchen shears, trim the edges of dough to fit the plate.
• repeat the rolling process for the second portion of dough and once it is flat, cut 1 inch wide, long strips for your lattice.
• put your cut apples (see filling recipe below!) into your pie plate on top of crust and start placing your lattice strips onto apples. Once it is how you like it, seal and crimp your edges with a fork then put into fridge for 30 minutes.

The Filling

Ingredients

8-10 Granny Smith Apples peeled, cut and cored

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 tbs flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup water

• preheat your oven to 425 degrees and turn on a burner to high heat.
• in a sauce pan pour your butter and 3 tbs of flour, stir, and let cook for 1 minute
• then add in your sugar, packed brown sugar and water. let this mixture come to a boil and reduce. cook like this for 5 minutes.
• pull your pie out of the fridge (if/when ready) then pour your filling mixture over the crust. smooth out over the top with a spatula. most of the filling should flow into the lattice work on your pie and what is left on top will make your crust even more flaky.
• pop your pie into the oven for 15 minutes
• then turn your oven down to 350 degrees and cook for 35-45 minutes.

and that's all! I improvised a lot of this recipe to make it work for us and I was glad that Josh had offered to help me with the apples and filling. It was a lot of fun and came out deliciously! There should also be another picture to your right on my Instagram widget so you can take a peek at the process.

What I Love Wednesday 11.27.13

Hey everyone! Look who's actually doing her WILW on time! Let's get straight into it (I have a pie to make in less than 10 minutes!)

I swear that allrecipes.com has been my best friend since I have moved out on my own. It has taught me to make chicken, rice and more recently (like, tonight) a pie! There are several different recipes and ideas on it and I'm so excited to expand my cooking repertoire.

I have been pretty much in love with boot cuffs this season and am really trying to make a pair of my own. I found a pattern on ravelry but have somehow managed to go in a completely different direction once I got halfway in. I'll be sure to post the pattern once I finish at least one of them. ( these are from etsy!)

I kind of stumbled upon these while watching a Mortem3r video. She was talking about her wedding headpiece and I found the Etsy shop she got her antler fascinator from and these. I am obsessed with these. I would love to find some kind of mold or something so that I can make my own from clay. These would be a magnificent statement piece.

Long time penpal, RTA friend and Etsy buddy of mine, Karina has made these cute ornaments for the Christmas season. She's giving half of her earnings to the Animal Orphanage in Voorheese, NJ. Please visit her site and check out her other creative Ornaments for Animals and help out a furry friend this season!

I bought this red glitter nail polish by Sally Hansen on my last venture to Target in hopes of doing some sort of fantastical nail art with it, but my nails have all since broken due to hormonal changes (coughcough) and I'm sat here with stumps. I'll hopefully be painting them up like delicious winter candies once they get a bit longer and stronger! This particular color is called Red Carpet btw.

Product Review: Sally Hansen Wax Strips

Hiya friends. It's that special, rare time again when I review a beauty item that I use. As you all know, I never claim to be a beauty guru but I am a human girl and I do like to share items that I use, like, and frequently buy. Today I'd like to share my experience with the Sally Hansen Wax Strip Kit.

I'd first like to to say that I have never tried any of the waxing products by Sally Hansen and am usually impressed with their nail products so I thought I would give this a try. I sadly have to say that this product was a complete fail in my book.

The idea is that you have to warm up the strip with you hands, peel and apply then pull off to remove the strip and unwanted hair. While I did all of that when I went to remove my strip, the wax stayed on my body and was really hard to remove. Once painfully removed, my skin stayed red for a long while.

Since using, I have seen mixed reviews on the product. It does work for some people, just not for me. I sadly would not recommend this product to anyone.

What I Love Wednesday 11.20.13

I'm trying to get back on track with these WILWs . I'll admit that I've been terrible about keeping this blog up to date and I'm going to look into doing one of those Google Scheduling deals. I'm the worst when it comes to getting everything on my lists done. Anyway...

Wooden Signs by Kaelah Bee

These wooden signs by Kaelah Bee. I can't really even remember how I found Kaelah but I know I've been following her blog for a long time. These signs are so inspiring and I love them. I love the look that they have and the rustic - homey vibe they give off. I may to replicate one to put in our house or buy one from the master herself! I am obsessed with these. Here's her blog: Kaelah Bee

Poppies

I've been looking at a lot of artwork to add to the house lately and I've been thinking about how I'd like to add a picture of poppies to the kitchen. Our kitchen is black white and red and I think poppies would be a perfect addition!

Tooth / Tentacle Necklace

I saw this tooth / tentacle necklace a while back and I have been admiring it ever since. I love how it combines nature and metal. It's just an odd piece and I would love to join it to my collection. 

Robot Unicorn Attack 2

I almost feel ashamed to admit that I added this game to my tablet, but I'm not. It's incredibly fun and challenging and reminds me of this other Korean game that Josh and I used to play. I really like this game a little better though because I can actually read what it says and it has other capabilities. So fun and addicting. Also the song Always by Erasure is super nostalgic.

Don't Trust the B---- in Apt 23

Finally we have this television gem. This show was coming out when I moved out so I didn't have a chance to watch this. This show is hilarious and it is so my type of comedy. It reminds me of Two Broke Girls a little bit. You really feel a close connection with the characters and even Josh sat and watched a few episodes with me and loved it. I can't wait until more episodes premiere! 

That's all! I think I'll do a product review on Friday. See you then!

Halloween Party 2013!

Hi friends. I just wanted to take a moment to share with you the video I whipped together of Josh and my Halloween party from Sat, Oct. 26. It's not a long video or anything since I failed to get footage of everyone and everything that was there, but as always, here's a photo montage and a small video clip. We'll call this the 'sober footage'. (Also, I think I am getting better at editing!) Enjoy!

Denver Vacation Part 2

Hey friends! I have finally gotten around to making part two of our vacation videos and pictures! The following is from visiting the Denver Aquarium and later on the Botanical Gardens. We also did some shopping at Urban Outfitters and Vans. It seemed that those last two days went by so quickly!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip!

A Barracuda.

Josh took this shot of a Jelly.

Cacti at the Botanical Gardens.

I should know what these are called, but I forget. They're a tropical flower...

Orchids are my favorite!

I'm so impressed that I took this one. It's lotus flowers.

You all know about my succulent obsession...

For bees, I believe. Pretty set up.

Kitty in the Botanical Gardens.

Some purple succulent flowers.

That's all for now. I have a Christmas wreath tutorial coming soon! See you all soon!

What I Love... Friday? 11.1.13

How many weeks late am I with this post? Two? Sorry. I've been running around with my head cut off between having our Halloween party  (which I think was a smash!) and custom orders, and now problems with our plumbing. Just arugh. Frustrating. Here's a few things I love from the past two weeks.

Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre

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The first thing I actually love and have been listening to (probably thanks to Halloween) is the opus by French composer Camille Saint-Saens. I remember playing and practicing this song over and over again when I was in the eight grade and an excellent flutist (second chair, not to toot my own horn [pun intended!]) I love the way it sounds like Danny Elfman could have composed it and I love how you can almost hear ghosts flying and bones clattering through different instruments as it was intended. It'll probably always be a favorite.

AmazingPhil

Amazing Phil has been keeping me company all week. Every video he has ever put out always puts a smile on my face. He reminds me of a me a few years ago. That sounds weird. He's just fun and random and colorful and I feel like I can relate a lot.

Owl To Go Mug

I found this beauty searching for my own items on Etsy (hey now, I wanted to see what page I was on and how I could modify my key words!). I love this mug and I want one in every color. I am in awe at the craftsmanship.

Merry Christmas Ugly Baseball Tee

This shirt is so fun and it totally makes me want to watch my second favorite Christmas move, Home Alone! I have a feeling that this shirt will be joining the army this season.

3 piece wall decor

I know y'all don't care about the massive empty wall space that I have in my house, but I was thinking of re-creating something like this (possibly with three different sized canvases or more) to fill them. Just a thought I've been tossing around. I really like this one and the Jackson Pollock feel it gives off.

Candy Corn Rice Krispie Treats Recipe

Happy Halloween friends! I didn't know if I'd be able to post this closer to Halloween as we are having a Halloween party, and I'm having a tough time making time to do things for the blog. Here is a fun recipe that puts a fun twist on normal rice krispie treats.

What you need:

1 box of Rice Krispie Cereal / Puffed Rice Cereal

2 bags of small marshmallows

2 Sticks of unsalted butter

1 orange to grate

1 lemon to grate

food dye or coloring in orange and yellow

vanilla flavoring

cooking spray

The process:

Separate your box of cereal into 3 equal parts as well as your bags of marshmallows. Coat a cooking pot generously with cooking spray and add 3 tbsp of unsalted butter to the pot. Pour in 1/3 of the marshmallows as well as a tablespoon of vanilla flavoring and stir mixture until it is runny and gooey. Add 1/3 of the cereal and mix until the cereal is thoroughly coated then pour into a square baking pan. Let it cool for a few seconds then pat the mixture flat with your hands so that it only takes up 1/3 of your pan.

You don't have to wash out the pot this time as you didn't use any coloring, but generously coat the pot with cooking spray again and add 3 more tbsp of the unsalted butter. Pour in another 1/3 of the marshmallows, a few drops of orange food coloring and about a tablespoon of grated orange zest into the mix. Stir the mixture until it's runny and gooey again and add another 1/3 cereal and stir until the cereal is coated in a beautiful orange marshmallow coating. Pour the mixture on top of the first mixture in your baking pan and flatten it down so that you leave 1/3 of the pan free to the yellow color.

This time you need to wash out the pot so that whatever remainder orange coloring will not stain the yellow layer. Once the pot is clean coat the pot with cooking spray and add 3 more tbsp of unsalted butter. Pour in the last 1/3 of marshmallows, a few drops of yellow food coloring and about a tablespoon or grated lemon zest into the mix. Stir your mixture until it's runny and gooey and add your last 1/3 of cereal. Stir until the cereal is coated in a bright yellow marshmallow coating and pour this layer on to the previous two layers.

Let this sit for a few hours then cut to your liking. As a bonus you can also shape these treats into triangle shapes with gloves and make them the traditional shape if you have the time, but even if you don't no one is going to care with how delicious these are!

What I Love... Friday? 10.18.13

Hey friends. I am really late with this. I got a cold on Tuesday and have been miserable and suffering ever since. But low and behold, here is the what I love post of the week. I should be working on custom orders right now, but I am far more interested in doing this. Shhh!

50's Hairstyles: Victory Rolls

Since I am being a bride of Frankenstein pin up I have been playing a lot with 50's hairstyles and I have been doing a pretty decent job with all of them except... victory rolls. I love the way they look but I just don't think I have enough hair to do this. Ideally I would do these with the white clip in extensions I bought, so maybe I will just keep playing around with it and hopefully get lucky on the 26th.

Rhinestone Friendship Bracelets

I have been seeing these all over lately and am wondering if they're something I might need to add to the shop. I love how they look simple, yet elegant and you can make them is several color combinations. They could be a fun addition to the shop and to my jewelry collection.

Beaded Embroidered Earrings

This is one thing I am for sure going to add to the shop. I have been developing several different patterns for these and am really excited to start working on them. After I complete my custom orders of course.

Candy Corn Rice Krispies Treats

I made these on Thursday for potluck at work and they were a huge success. I totally plan on posting the recipe here either tonight or tomorrow as well. They're really easy and fun to make!

C.O. Bigelow Products

I got my first C.O. Bigelow product at Bath and Body Works and HAD to look them up online. I've since purchased candles and soaps and I think I am becoming obsessed with this brand. I may have to buy something for the whole family for Christmas with these products.

That's all for this week!

What I Love Wednesday 10.9.13

I'm really late here and I don't really have an excuse for that this time so let's just get with the favorites already.

LOOT CRATE BOXES

First of all is LootCrate. I'm sure many of you have heard of Birchboxes or Julep but this is a different kind of box. This box is for geeks and nerds alike. In your box you will receive 6-10 geek related items ranging from tv show nerdiness to meme geekery and everything in between. I love the concept of this and I love that there is something for the guys... and me.

 LORDE

I'm in love with queen bee! Mainly just two of her songs and her look. She's got a beautiful face and that hair is to die for. It seriously makes me consider growing mine out. I can't believe she is so young and so talented. In my opinion she is far more talented than Miley. I rarely love female artists so this really says something.

ARBY'S SALTED CARAMEL SHAKE

Even though I am on a diet and I don't often trust shakes that come from fast food restaurants, this is my new favorite fall drink. Y'all can keep your caramel-machi-whatevers and pumpkin-spice-somethings. I'll take this over those any day. Please go try it. It's got the perfect paring of sugar and salt. It's perfection.

OVERSIZED LACE HAIR BOWS

I really hope this turns into a thing. Oversized lace hair bows. I would really like that this becomes a thing for autumn and winter. That is all.

SPIKED WIDE BRIM HAT

I tried on this hat (or one very similar to this) at H&M in Denver and I hate myself for not buying it. I look very good in hats and I think I should just start buying more of them aside from knit beanies and the like. I could seriously kick myself for not buying this!

PLAYLIST//

Lorde - Tennis Courts

Ms Mr - Hurricane

Twenty One Pilots - House of Gold 

Panic! At The Disco - Girls/Girls/Boys

Daft Punk ft. Panda Bear - Doin' It Right

Cage the Elephant - Come A Little Closer

The Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know

Urban Outfitters Nail Polish Review

Hey friends! It's time for another product review! I thought that I would review something that I bought while in Denver. I want to do a review on the nail polishes that I bought at Urban Outfitters.

First of all, these were completely an impulse buy as they have buckets and buckets of nail polish, jewelry and other fun goodies in a labyrinth on the way up to the registers. I settled on two colors that I don't really have, but caught my eye.

'Undercover' by UO Ecote Collection and 'Storm' by UO Prairie Rose Collection

Aren't these just beautiful? I usually gravitate towards the bright and bold colors but this time I went a different direction. And you all should know by now how I love my gray hues. These also totally scream fall to me even though they are not the traditional fall colors one would expect.

I had read somewhere before that these polishes are high shine and chip resistant and that got me really excited to get my paws on some.

I had originally only intended on painting one of each of my nails with these colors as sort of a swatch to see how they handle and I ended up painting my whole hand! These are not only high gloss but they dry super fast (which is always a plus for a crafter!). I have only had them painted for a day but I have not yet had to do any touch ups and I think they look really good for not having used a base or top coat.

The real challenge will be to see how these fair on a Thursday at work as that is a truck day and I spend the whole day using my hands to peel open boxes.

Well done Urban Outfitters! I will be back for more!

Denver Vacation Days 1 & 2

Hey friends! I am finally home and settled after a weeks vacation. I finally feel back on top and where I need to be in order to post. I did do my WILW but it felt really last minute and thrown together because I had just gotten home and wanted to get that done.

I didn't know if I was going to post all of the photos here or all of the videos, so I bring you the best of both worlds. I have made a compilation video of all of the videos and photos that you can watch and here I will be posting some of my favorite videos.

For some reason, the only thing I cannot post is the video footage from my phone! It was while we were at an arcade bar called the 1UP and it was a ton of fun. I have a part two (day 3&4) that I will probably start working on tomorrow and if I can will add the 1UP footage and few pictures to it.

The first day was exhausting. We stopped at Five Guys Burgers and Fries (45 ish minutes north of where we live in Colorado Springs) where neither of us have ever been and I was really impressed with the food. It was excellent except that I would have loved to have a medium rare burger. Oh well, still a very good experience.

When we got to Denver we spent the day walking the 16th Street Mall which is a mile long outdoor mall. I spent way too much money of course. Around 7 we had dinner at Tokyo Joe's which we have both had before and I had a salad with mango in it and he had some sort of bowl and we shared some sushi. We really didn't do anything that night since we were both exhausted, so we found a liquor store and had some drinks in our hotel.

The second day we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science which was really fun. We literally stayed there until the last minute. They had so much to look at and we got to see and IMAX film about Great White Sharks and a Planetarium display all about Black Holes which was actually narrated by Liam Neeson. I learned a lot and we were scrambling to grab a few goodies at the gift shop. Naturally, for dinner we stopped at a restaurant neither of us have been to called Rubio's which has really good tacos. I had shrimp. Later that night is when we went to the arcade bar called the 1UP. It was a lot of fun and Josh got to drink and we both play assorted pinball machines, Pacman, and Galaga (which is one of my favorites). I drove us home since I had only had one drink the entire night of which I didn't know cost $10!

I'll save the mystery and suspense of days 3 and 4 for the next post. As promised here are some of my favorite pictures from this trip!

Josh and my first meal at Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Mesolite Crystals at DMNS

Mountain Goats

Wolf Pack

Ram

Penguins

Zebras

Cheetah

Large Mechanical Shark Sculpture

Mummies Exibit

Dinosaur Skulls, Tail Bones and Claws

Triceratops Skull

Large Underwater Dinosaur Skeletons

Mammoth Skull

So that's all for Days 1 & 2. It really was so much fun. I will be posting Days 3 & 4 and hopefully the footage from my phone soon in the next post!