Friday, March 25, 2016

Birthday Week!

It's birthday season here at Skull Mansion.  Last weekend we celebrated Felix's 10th birthday.  I can hardly believe that my shorty is in the double digits, but it's true.

March 2016

He wanted a unicorn cake, and I had little confidence in my abilities to draw one with frosting.  Luckily I remembered that some of the fabric I recently bought had pretty purple unicorns on it, and purple is his current favorite color!  I made this buttermilk cake, which turned out delicious.  I'm not a huge buttermilk user, so I bought the powdered stuff from the baking aisle, and it worked great!  The cake itself tasted like a sweeter buttermilk biscuit, and I loved it.  My hips do not love it, but this has been my last week of being in my twenties, so cake every day was an excellent way to send off my precious youth!

March 2016

He got a sweet new bike with gears!

March 2016

And tickets to his first ever real concert!

March 2016

I've gotten Gogol Bordello concert tickets for my birthday in the past, and there's no better party than a GB party.  We got there early to snag seats in the front of the balcony as those shows get a bit moshy and Felix wanted to be able to see the band, not the back of people in front of us.  The old lady in me loved being able to sit down (or stand up, whatever I wanted!), and I was glad to not be smashed around down below in the waves of bodies.

And I know all the dog pictures have been flowing like wine around here lately, but we picked up another foster puppy.

March 2016

We're fostering to adopt on this guy.  So when he's old enough to be adopted, he's officially ours!

March 2016

He is the cutest and sweetest (when he's not being a Bitey McBiterson).

March 2016

We're calling him BMO (pronounced Bee Moe) after BMO on Adventure Time.

Alright, I'm off to get in a 30th birthday state of mind.  I'm a little displeased that I have to share my 30th birthday with Easter, but oh well, at least there's good candy!  Everybody have a great weekend!

Monday, March 14, 2016

The blood!

Before you start to worry, no, I did not cut more parts of my body off in the recent past.  In fact, I've got some nice new skin growing in on my finger where I relieved it of its precious skin a couple weeks ago.  I can even use it again!  Woohoo!

This post contains no injuries!

Felix was the grim reaper for Halloween, and we made him a fun new bag to put souls and candy in at various Halloween events.

Souls!

The most fun part about the tote bag was the dripping blood, which I appliqued on with wunder under and then stitched with my machine.  It was a bit tedious but super fun.

So I decided to use this method to make some fun pouches for the ladies to house their unfun period supplies.  Here's an in progress shot:

Dripping Blood pouches

Dripping Blood pouches

Dripping Blood pouches

They mostly just sat in my shop for a while, but a few weeks ago I got a bunch of traffic on the "NOT TAMPONS" pouch.  I did some research and discovered that it was featured in a buzzfeed article.  I got a lot of likes and one sale, and it was really fun to hear my phone's etsy app making its "like" noises all day.

Then it happened again a couple weeks ago!  I've been selling "Lady Stuff" pouches almost as fast as I can sew them.  After the original bunch sold out, I made them available for pre-order.  The next batch sold out before I was able to take the listing off pre-order status.  I spent the weekend making more, and I think I can finally catch my bloody breath, just as soon as I get the last bunch of orders shipped this morning.  Perhaps I'll find the time to get my new "Shark Week" pouches listed as well!

It's the start of birthday times here at our house.  Felix is turning 10 on Sunday!  We're having a pizza party on Saturday for lunch and then taking him to his first ever legit concert to see Gogol Bordello in Boulder!  He has also requested a unicorn cake because he obviously has unrealistic expectations when it comes to my artistic prowess, especially when it comes to things that you can't erase and start over (like frosting).

We are a little obsessed with Snap Chat's face swapping feature.  I will leave you with these disturbing images.

Face swap!

Face swap!

Face swap!


Friday, March 4, 2016

I'm canceling this week.

I am having a hard week over here at Skull Mansion.  It all started Sunday morning.  I called my mom while walking the dog, and a few minutes after I got home I heard a loud thunk, and smoke started pouring out of our new coffee pot we got from her for Christmas.  I told her I had to go.  Luckily it happened then and not while I was out walking.  Joshua was still asleep, and who knows how bad it could have gotten if I hadn't unplugged it right away.  Our house smelled so bad for hours.

Sunday night I was trying to cut some carrots smaller for roasting when I accidentally cut the very tip off my left index finger.  It was literally just a small piece of skin, but it bled like a mofo and didn't feel very good either.

We got a new foster dog on Sunday afternoon.  He is a sweet guy, but he has no idea how to be a family dog.  He was terrified of people and not exactly house trained.  He has gotten so much better over the week, but Monday morning he left me a present in the kitchen.  I didn't realize it until several minutes later after I had stepped in it and spread it around part of the house.  I thought Felix must have spilled something sticky, but it turned out to be much,  much worse.

After he realized that he was allowed to chew on toys, he started hoarding them in his bed!

March 2016

Here's the little guy all tuckered out.

March 2016

He will eventually be available for adoption through Bruno the Companion, the awesome rescue that saved our Chunk from certain death.

In other horrible Monday news...

We have a little creek that goes through our neighborhood.  I walk Chunk by it every day and have come to love seeing my muskrat friends doing their muskrat business in the creek.  While walking the dog, I saw a crow eating one of them!  The horror!

Also one of my toes has been hurting, and it turns out I have an infection.  I have no idea where it came from as I have not injured my toe recently.  I'm assuming the universe is making my last month of being 29 a pain in the ass so I'll be really excited about turning 30 in a few weeks.  Shit's gotta get better soon.

I spent the week sewing up a new batch of phone wallets to round out my available stock to offer to shops that carry Hot Butter, and next week I'll be trading out wallets at Curating the Cool in Lafayette, CO.  I also went fabric shopping.  I got some pretty stuff at the new craft store in Lafayette, The Crafted Life.  And after I got my toe checked in Boulder, I limped my way over to Fabricate Boulder to pet their quilting cotton.  Their selection is awesome right now, for the record!

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Oh my glob, those kitties!

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So new wallets are coming!  It is also the last day to get 30% off in my shop with coupon code LEAP30.

Alright folks, please have an awesome weekend.  I'm not even aiming for awesome over here, just crossing my fingers for no more personal bodily harm or ailments.  And maybe not having to clean up too many dog accidents.