Attempting New Things (how to sew a retro deer & cook a bad ass dish)

This weekend was a weekend full of experimenting! I figured I had a whole 3 day weekend to myself why not step up my game a bit and try new things.

I kicked it old school this weekend by channeling 7th grade "home economics" me and attempt to sew a retro deer.

After posting this picture on Insta Gram and Twitter I was so overwhelmed by all the positive responses! But, unfortunately this lil guy is not a new business adventure, I just wanted to see if I could pull it off.

What you don't know is:
-this fella took me 3 frekkin hours to make
-lost count of the numbers of times I stabbed myself
-I used the ears from the pattern which would have been great if it didn't make my deer look like Yoda and Dumbo did the horizontal tango and had a baby, so I had to take apart the ears and improvise.
-I used a pretty thick weight felt which was next to impossible to turn my deer right side out to stuff it. I had to jab scissor blades into the neck and legs of this thing to poke them out-it was a borderline horror show, I even had to look away at one point, the violence was too much.
-speaking of the neck how the HECK does one sew a head onto a neck? Needless to say there is a reason why bub dubbed this guy "Franken-Deer", it looks like there is a series of bolts around its neck keeping it in place. I think it adds whimsy, bub thinks its creepy. He might be right but I will never admit that to him.
-for round 2 I'm going to staple and hot glue the hell out of this thing and call it a day.

If you too want to stab yourself multiple times and curse repeatedly to yourself over and over again then you can find the pattern to this little guy over here and make one yourself! Our deers can get together for a play date.

(img via)


Also another venture I decided to tackle this weekend was trying a new crockpot recipe. I decided to give this recipe a go.

(img via)

and can I tell you? It.was.EPIC. Unlike my deer I will be making this dish again.

-6 chicken breasts
-salsa
-taco seasoning
-6-8 hours on low in the crock pot
-bada bing

The only bummer about this dish is that it is NOT "guest" friendly. When I put the pulled chicken and salsa mixture into the burrito shells and rolled them up they quickly started to leak. Thats why I don't have my own pics here, bub and I had to woof down these burritos before they drowned in their own  glorious slow cooked juices.

It was so messy that after each bite we had to take a bath.

But it officially made it into the dinner rotation, I proudly pat myself on the back.

Also there is something else you need to know about me. I am going to ban myself from any and all pet stores from here on out (ok thats a bold face lie) the problem is sometimes I think I'm snow white and want to frolic in a field full of animals while I sing to them all and twirl around in a giant circle all day long. Seriously, can that be my day job? "animal-singer-twirler-arounder"? No? it can't? Well then…

(she's so bad ass, img via disney)

Ok, back to my story. Bub and I are HA-UGE dog lovers. Unfortunately our land lord won't allow us to have a dog which is completely understandable. Since bub flat out refuses to take me to the puppy store since he knows point blank a puppy or 5 will "accidentally" end up in my coat jacket, purse and hat. As a compromise he takes me to PetCo so we can play with the birds.

Well, this planned backfired on him as well. While playing with the birds I flashed bub that look. That "OHMYGODCANWEPLEASETAKEABIRDHOMEIPROMISETOLOVEITFOREVERANDEVERRRRR" look.

(buy meeeee)

He spoke to our landlord and she was on Team Bird. So yesterday we picked out the cutest pearl cockatiel and are picking him up today! (Ok well we dont know if its a HE or a SHE since its too young to tell, apparently birdie parts aren't on the outside of their body) I have already spoiled the heck out of this bird since I want to buy it a mini basketball court and a sweater vest. Bub is immediately regretting this decision. I mean come on, it's not like I'm getting matching sweater vests and already planning our 2012 christmas card….yet