oh! headband.

Remember in first grade, when the girls all made friendship bracelets? Well I got back into that, but I didn't make a bracelet...

I made a cute little woven headband with elastic in the back.

yay! haha. I wove it (notice it isn't braded. there are 5 wide cords and a thin gold strand). It can be worn all cute and bohemian-like, with the entire headband over the hair, or simple and sophisticated the way a normal headband is worn.

I'm not quite sure what the wider cords are made of.. I should have checked when I was at the store. But I'll be be going back soon, so no worries. The cords are made of 100% rayon, so they're nice and smooth. Seriously. I wear headbands pretty much all the time. It's a bit of an obsession.

As you can see, it's really simple to make. The most time-consuming part is the weaving, and that's not bad at all. Here's a closeup:

The best part about this headband? It cost practically nothing! Definitely cheaper than buying them from a store..

cherry blossom birthday.

Apparently I've been on a cake craze recently.

Last Thursday was my birthday and, of course, I wanted to make my own cake. Since every other cake I've ever made in my life (two) has been fun or childish-looking, I decided to do something a little more simple and elegant(ish).

The answer? A vanilla cake with lemon filling, topped with cherry blossoms.

It was really yummy! Basically, it was a Pillsbury Classic Yellow cake with lemon Snack Pack pudding for the filling. Since I'm such a picky person, I decided that if I'm going for the elegant look, I would need a square cake. So I did the obvious thing that anyone would do: I went out and bought two 8x8 pans. (yay! My future kitchen has a few more items in the cupboards.)

Ok. Back to the story. So basically, I baked two 8x8 square cakes, let them cool, then cut the tops off so they aren't all uneven on the top. Then comes the filling.  Here's what I used:

Personally, I don't really like the flavor by itself, but it tasted delicious with the cake! A little trick I learned a while back was to put some icing around the edge of the cake before adding the filling. It keeps the pudding from oozing out the sides.

I used two of those individual cups of pudding, but I can't remember the exact amount, because I think I ate some of the pudding beforehand. But anyway, I then placed the other cake upside down on top of the cake with icing and filling. (remember? I cut the tops off of the cakes, exposing the inside. It's a lot easier to ice the cake if the crumbly inside of the cake is not on the outside).

Next I iced and decorated it.. I decided that since I didn't make the cake mix or the filling, I should probably make the icing from scratch.. so I did. And I added some of those lemon packets that you add to water to make it yummy (my dad's idea). So yep. that's it. Here's an up close picture

aaaannndddd.... last picture. a view of the cake after it was cut...

has it really been that long?

Well it's been three months since my first post.

That statement makes me feel really... lame. for lack of a better word.


but....... I've been busy! Ok. I haven't really been doing that much.. However, I do have some pictures of my semi-productivity.. and if I get motivated later on, I might dedicate a few posts to them...

 

 

The second to last image was of the ever-ubiquitous button cover push pins. I just had to try my hand at them.. Also, I followed a tutorial for the camera strap. It can be found here.

well anyway, there are a few other things I'm working on now, but they're big secrets... partially because secrets are fun, and partially because if they turn out horribly, I have plausible deniability. =)