Monday, Monday

Today I wanted to share my excitement about how God is helping me survive NYC.

I only brought 2 pairs of jeans with me when I moved here and since I am lucky enough to have a job where I can wear jeans whenever I want to, those two pairs have been getting some good wear.
However, my "nice" pair of jeans now has a hole in them. Dang. Here comes an unexpected expense.
Last week at coffee hour after church, I was talking to someone and a, man that I have met only a few times walks up to me and hands me an envelope with two 25% off anything at Macy's. Anything, even sale and clearance!
So yesterday after church I went to the big Macy's on 34th and went on a jeans hunt! And I found them! perfect size, (I even found petite!) dark wash, medium rise and on sale! These jeans would have cost me $58, and I paid $21 with the sale and coupon. How has God answered your prayers (even the seemingly frivolous ones) this week?

The beautiful jeans I bought! 

Until Thursday,

Technical Thursday

Did you know that Word will repeat the header row at the top of each page if you want it to? I just figured this helpful tip out the other day when making a document with a table that took up more than one page (like the template below). When you click on the table in the document. Then click on the layout tab. There is an option under "Data" to "Repeat Header Rows". Click that. and there you have it!

I made this for the books that we have in rehearsal, but you could use this for at in home library too!

Book Catalog

I am running out of ideas for what kind of tutorials to do. But I would love to hear what you would like to see in a tutorial. Let me know!

Until Monday, 

Shakespeare

Today was Shakespeare's birthday AND the first day of rehearsal for a Shakespeare play I am working on.

We had cake.

This will be another crazy week because on top of being the first week of rehearsals, I am sick. :-/ Well that's life.


Until Thursday,

Busy Week

Happy Thursday!

Today for T³ I am continuing with the Stage Managing Theme.

When you are in rehearsal and don't have a table, just a music stand or a lap, it's hard to have a pencil always ready, so I created a pencil holder on my binder!

Binder Clip on my Binder! (The tape is just there as decoration)

Deck Sheet

This is my deck sheet or run sheet from the last show I was ASM for. This is not the final draft, but it is started and you get the idea.

I was going to finish my tutorial from this post.

but I can't find any of the pictures. BUT here is the final product again!

Until Monday,

Backstage Hair

This week I am starting a new, exciting, SM job and so my posts will focus on Stage Management!

When working on a run crew for a show, the usual uniform is simple,

Black Pants
Black Shirt
Black Socks
Black Shoes
Black Jacket
and
Hair Back

So yes, this can get boring. I like to change how I wear my hair so I don't get bored. Here is how I did my hair last week.

Tuesday

I wish I had taken a picture when I first left the house NYC made this a bit messy. But I used the tutorial here.

Wednesday

On Wednesday I hated my hair for not working with me. 

Thursday

This hairdo was my favorite for the week. I used this tutorial here.

Friday

Again I wish I had a picture of the hair just after I did it and not at the end of the day, but hindsight is 20/20. It was basically a flipped through ponytail.

Saturday

I really liked my fishtail braid because it makes my hair look so long! 

So that was my week in hairstyles! I have quite a busy week this week because I have an overlap of shows. But I still plan on updating on Thursday! 

Until then,

New Spring Headband!

Hi everyone! Happy Thursday!

Today's Tip is from my BF. (he is a smart guy)

You know those extra buttons and thread that come with nice clothes? Well rather than keeping it in a sewing kit to be used for another project or lost or forgotten, 

Use a safety pin and pin those extra buttons etc. into the garment bag you store them in!

I know this doesn't work for everything, but those nice things that get kept in a garment bag in the first place are the ones you want to look the sharpest anyway so those buttons are the most precious. I also thought you could even pin the button onto a hanger that is assigned to that garment. 

I didn't make a template this week but I am leading you to a very cool set of weekly meal planners. I plan out my week of food every Saturday or Sunday based on when I can cook and what I have to cook and then grocery shop accordingly. I find this saves me a lot of time and money, since I know when I am going to eat that head of lettuce and am not tempted to buy extra things at the store that are not on the list.

Click to access these awesome templates

I had a bunch of scraps leftover from my rag rug I made for my room a few weeks ago. I was thinking of a creative spring way to use my scraps.

Mostly t shirt sleeves

I don't have my sewing machine in NY, so all of my sewing is by hand. It is an added challenge but I think it will make me more creative.

First I found a sleeve that fit over my head, and was a color that I wanted to be my base color. I cut about a two inch strip to be the "head band" and since I was going for a rough look, so I didn't finish the edgeand the jersey curls nicely anyway.

Extra Large sleeve cut.

 Next I cut petal shapes out of two other blue color and two leaf shapes out of my green color scraps. I just eyeballed them all and was happy with the varied shapes and sizes.

Petals and leaves

 Next I set out the petals on the headband how I wanted them and pinned them down.

Arranged petals

pinned.

 I sewed the petals by hand onto the band and sewed a button in the middle. I placed the leaves where I wanted them and back stitched them down in a darker thread for contrast

All finished

Ta-Da!

I am really pleased with how it turned out and as an added bonus it's super comfortable!

Until Monday (the day I start a big new job!)

Easter Monday

Happy Easter!

My boyfriend and I had a great Easter Sunday celebration and keeping up with European tradition, we will continue to celebrate Easter Monday! Tonight we plan on making Hot Cross Buns and dying eggs. With me doing more shows on the weekends we sometimes run out of time together. We were able to exchange Easter baskets (which turned out wonderfully!) and go to Church together.

Look how nice the Easter Basket turned out!

We forgot to take a picture at Church but we did look smashing! I worked on a Spring D.I.Y. Project and look for the tutorial on Thursday! 

Until Thursday, 

Holy Thurday

In honor of Easter this Sunday, this T-cubed post is Easter themed!

Today my tip falls into the "surviving" and "sewing" (which is my s-word meaning crafting in general).

It is Salvage. 

I don't mean pull things out of the trash, but save look at things in a new way to save money. For instance, my boyfriend and I wanted to make Easter baskets for each other since this is our first Easter away from our  homes. We set a $20 budget and let creativity rule. Neither of us have a lot of "storage" space, (since we both are basically nomads who came to New York with 2 bags each) so I didn't want to invest in nice baskets to use year after year like my mom does. But I also didn't want to buy something cheap that we were just going to throw away. (That money could have been spent on CANDY!) So I made our Easter baskets from shopping bags! 

I made this one for my Boyfriend

You can kinda tell it's made from green grocery bags

To make this Easter Basket I used this tutorial to make the "plarn" (plastic yarn) and I used this pattern to make the basket. I used an H/8 hook and looking back I should have used a different hook so the basket could have been bigger, but since I had no idea what I wanted to put in the basket when I made it, the coffee will be the outsider. 

I filled the basket with a beer (especially good since he gave up alcohol for Lent), two plant grow kits from the dollar section of Target, Star Wars gummies that I found for a dollar at Duane Reade, Coffee that was on sale at Target and Jellybeans!

My basket is empty so far...

Here is the basket I made, the EASTER BUNNY made and had me deliver to my Boyfriend so he would not have to buy one. I used this tutorial but made it taller. 

I made it using a Whole Foods bag that had a beautiful chartreuse print on it.

See how pretty?

Today's Template is my Menu Template. I made it a few years ago for Thanksgiving and I just edit it with each big meal. I didn't update it with my meal, but when I find a recipe online that I will be using I hyperlink it in the document, so I can access it easily the day of the cooking. 

You can download my word document below.

Easter 2012 Menu

The tutorial I have lined up for you goes with the recycling theme and was created because I had a problem. Well a good problem! My boyfriend and I are having an Easter Monday dinner with another couple and I wanted to give everyone a decorated egg as an Easter present at the table. My problem is that I don't have those special egg cups. So how could I keep the egg from rolling around? Toilet paper rolls!

I started with another Whole Foods bag and cut out the side panel. 

Next I found  and marked the center of the Toilet Paper holder

See the black lines?

Then I cut the tube along the lines.

Ahhhh Two egg holders!

In the next step I should have measured, found the height and circumference and cut the paper using those dimensions, but I am lazy so I eyeballed it. 

Once I cut the strips out it was time to add a little gluestick glue

Add the paper

Glue again

repeat 3 times and 

TA-DA!

Egg holders! 

I am planning on writing each person's name on the eggs once they are dyed. Who knows what designs I will come up with next!

Until Monday,