Slanket turned Snuggie?

I own a Snuggie, or what I thought was a Snuggie until I saw an actual Snuggie. (yes thats 3 snuggies in one sentence)

I'm not one to be big on brand names. I will say brand names usually means better quality, but sometimes a little lower quality for a lot lower price is the best route. However, take cereal, I honestly don't like the way cheap no-name brand cereal interacts with the milk in my mouth.  It seems to mush quicker. So I buy the real deal. 

Now, take the Snuggie.  Its a thick fleece straight jacket minus the straps.  And so is the *slanket, its cheap counter part, except its not as thick, and it doesn't have the Snuggie logo sewn on its sleeve. But it does the trick.  It keeps my body warm, all the while my arms can do the YMCA perfectly.

With all that being said, I can continue on with my Slanket transformation into a Snuggie story.

A couple Christmases ago, I opened a great practical gift from my parents.  A blue Snuggie.  My mom said she bought it from a Snuggie infomercial, and it even came with the reading light. Totally legit, right? Turns out, after I compared it to my nephew's Jr. Snuggie it was not.  I should have known by how long the reading light lasted (about a week).  The fabric was totally different, still fleece, but about 1/2 as thick, and there was no Snuggie logo tag on mine!!!! 

So I quickly called my mom to advise her of the imposter Snuggie I've been snuggling with.  She was confused, because she swears it was a Snuggie infomercial! <Insert image of Ed Norton's Fight Club character ordering the entire IKEA collection.>  Come to think of it, my Snuggie wasn't even in an official Snuggie box. I loved teasing her about my Snuggie turned Slanket.  I've come to realize that unless you're naked under your Slanket, there's no real need for super thick fleece.  (I don't advise going naked under Slankets or Snuggies due to the completely open back)

Little did I know, my mom has been devising a plan to make mine "legit".  Soooo, last weekend (my birthday weekend) she came over and kidnapped my Slanket without my knowledge. I was surprised that my hubby even knew where to look for it considering my organizational skills.  She had come into contact with a real deal Snuggie at a yard sale she was working, carefully "ripped" the logo off, and put the now Snuggie turned Slanket back into the yard sale pile!!!  I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Days later, during my 30th birthday bash in my backyard, my mom was badgering asking me to go get my Slanket for my grandpa to wear while he was sitting outside.  It was my party, and I'll disobey if I want to.  So I found a blanket for Papa to wear, mainly because I didn't have a clue where to start looking for the Slanket. But she persisted, so I went downstairs to the laundry room, to find my blue Slanket sitting there folded.  But when I picked it up, I immediately saw a Snuggie tag sewn on the sleeve and began to have quite the inner monologue. 

Not my hand, nor my Snuggie

"Was this here the WHOLE time, and I've been teasing my mom about getting me a fake Snuggie?"

"Is this my roommate Adam's Snuggie? I didn't know Adam owned one!"

"Is this my nephew's Jr. Snuggie?"

And then after examining it, I realized that it was in fact mine...........sneaky mom!

Sorry to whomever bought a Snuggie at a yard sale.  If by any chance you are reading this, you have a totally 100% legit Snuggie. 

*Slanket=blanket with sleeves

grrreat success

It totally worked. I made the scarf I saw online.

Not that I didn't think it was going to, but just the fact that I'm wearing it today is crazy.

Allow me to rewind a tad.

I have a love/hate relationship with JoAnn Fabrics. I feel that their stuff is waaay overpriced and when they do have a deal, its really only lowering the price closer to what it should be regularly. During craft fair season, I go to JoAnns probably two times a week for yarn. Besides the re-dik prices, their customer service freakin sucks. Take last night for example.  I stood at the fabric cutting station for around 10 minutes waiting for someone to help me.  There's even a bell to ring if no one's around.  I rang the dang bell 4 times, while watching the front counter lady literally follow a customer she knew outside to chat her up for the entire 10 minutes that I stood there.  Finally, I rang the bell again with a little more vigor and simultaneously heard laughter coming from the employee room in the back. I was thisclose to pulling a *Chrissy Cargill on their asses, when a lady sauntered out as if she hadn't heard a single bell ring. "Is there something I can help you with, ma'am?" It was all I could do to not be a total B to her.  Actually the ONLY reason I wasn't, and didn't mention the 4 times I rang the bell, was the fact that I was getting fabric to sew with. 

As I drove home, it felt like I had just scored drugs and was about to go home and get really high.  Its the only way to describe the utter excitement I was feeling.  My palms were clammy, my heart was racing, and I couldn't stop smiling.  I actually felt high on life. I'm guessing other crafters feel this when they come home with a bag of nothings to transform into a magnificent work of art. 

(not to keep bitching about JoAnns, but their selection sucked even worse. I had like 4 colors to choose from, white, cream, black, maroon and green. and I realize thats 5, but white AND cream?)

I changed the thread in my machine, filled another bobbin, rethreaded my machine, at lightning speed I might add, and was on my way.  The scarf really only has 4 parts to sew, that being one of the reasons this was my first project.  I will admit, it has some flaws, but this is not something I will ever sell, so I'm ok with the beginner flaws. 

Oh, and after I went to sleep, all I dreamt about was this scarf.  I woke up around 3am remembering 4 different dreams that all had my scarf in it. I'm not kidding either when I say one of them consisted of Justin Beiber touching my scarf, and me then listing it online with the tag line, "Justin Beiber touched this scarf".

Here it is. I will have better pics, but got excited to show it off.



*Chrissy frightened me at JoAnns right after we became friends, and it was then I realized our friendship would be forever. I hope the lady that ended up helping us didn't quit that night and go home and cry curled up in the shower.

30 years in the makin

I'm obsessed with all things crafty. I can't help it. Its just me.
So I was talking to my sister Betsey like 5 days ago, and mentioned that I really want a sewing machine. My birthday was 2 days away, and by no means was that a hint. I was thinking it would be something that I saved up for and/or splurged for sometime in the near future.  So, to my complete amazement, she took the "hint" and called my other 2 siblings and they all went in on one for their little!!! 

Isn't she purdy?



I woke up Monday morning (my actually birthday) to a smidge of a hangover, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I couldn't sleep in, because we had to get down to the docks for a "maiden voyage" of this wood boat my dad's been restoring.  I know, a boat ride while already feeling woozy sounds like a upchuck waiting to happen, but something about it being my birthday and the wind in my face was just what I needed.  We also put the jet skis in the water, so I got to speed around the Snake chasing unsuspecting ducks and seagulls. 

When I got home around 3, my body was telling me to sleep, but my brain was telling me to break out the new machine and start sewing!  I have sewing experience, so I halfway knew what I was doing. I knew you had to load thread onto a bobbin, figure out how to insert the bobbin, and then figure out how to thread the machine.  This was not super hard, considering there was a manual with instructions, but the manual assumed that the reader was an experienced seamstress.  Maybe it took me so long due to the fact that my brain was already tired from the previous day/night's excitement (did I mention my party consisted of a karaoke machine??) 

After I sewed a pretty darn straight line, I raised my hands in the air and shouted, "I'm a genius!"  and my cute hubby smiled and confirmed. Crafters need a good support system :)

Here I am after I successfully sewed 7 triangles together to make a.........yamulke?  Or a barbie parachute? I didn't have anything other than perfectly good clothes to cut and then re-sew, and I had just made a banner for my party out of these triangles, so I practiced with them (not wanting to go to JoAnn's looking like 30 year old birthday death).

Next up? This.

I've recently gotten into blog stalking. And this is from an AWESOME SCARF TUTORIAL 

Looks SUPER easy. Lets hope it lives up to that. I will be posting the results soon.

I will also be posting some of my recent crochet creations, because I'm quite proud of them. Let just say these are not your typical Blake's Beanies. Actually they're not even beanies. Ok, I'll tell you. I made a hamburger with all the fixins, and bacon, eggs and cinammon roll. I've been really inspired lately by an etsy shop that sells patterns of all kinds of different crochet items. I don't use patterns, but I do use others' ideas. I lean towards the craft and away from the creativity.

Here's a pic of my dad's boat. It doesn't have a name yet, however my mom suggested Red Rocket. Something tells me that won't be chosen.