I am amazing!!

I am so proud of this thing.  I had this idea from a random blog I stumbled upon and quickly whatsapped my little sister to tell her of the project.  Then when a chance to go to a wedding at home (where there are many thrift store options) came up I couldn't resist to put my genius to work! 
I quickly made an appointment with little sister to make sure we would have time to hit as many thrift stores as possible.  I told my mom of my idea and she told me to keep my wardrobe options open...just in case it didn't work quite as well as I had planned.
But I knew I could do it.  and I knew it would be awesome!
So, I headed to the airport to head to the States to head to a thrift store.  I mean, I only had a few days and the wedding was on Saturday!!
My sister and I headed straight to the men's shirt section of the store.  We started pulling out shirts that had nice or interesting patterns and colors.  We found quite a few.  So we headed to the dressing room.  (Yes, my favorite thrift stores have dressing rooms.)
Now here are some pointers if you would like to copy my inspired craft project.

• When choosing a shirt you should make sure that the pattern/color transfers well into the women's clothing too.
• You should have a shirt that is not tailors too much that it wont fit around your hips.
• It shouldn't have too long tails or you'll end up doing more sewing to make the hem nicer.
• But unless you want a mini mini dress, it should have some length.
• If the shirt has a seam across the shoulder blades, it looks a little strange.
• If it has one of those loops in the middle of that seam it looks really strange.
• A material that flows is nicer than one that is really stiff.

After discovering all these pointers through personal trial and error I finally had the shirt for me!  I took it home and to the "ooh"s and "ahhh"s of my mother I presented my trophy and we started working.

I have four arms!!!

Wrap the arms around the back and tuck and pull the back to fall into a cute sort of buttoned "train"

We made some adjustments to the front, this is only necessary if you are looking for a more formal look, like I was.

We flipped up the collar to make some pleats and darts

The collar is lain down to hide all the folds and adjustments.  I think this shirt was MADE to be a dress!

This is how to attached one arm of the shirt, heavy duty Velcro!

we attached the other arm with small hooks.  The Velcro worked better...

this is the back of the dress all put together, the buttons of the shirt are used for the skirt part then the arms cover the back of the bodice.

And here is a view of the front of the dress!

 I ended up doing more than is necessary because I wanted a more formal dress.  I was wearing it to one of my best friend's wedding.  I cut the arms to attach them more neatly.  I added a hem.  oh, that was all.

If I ever live in a place that has thrift stores I will most likely do this again, but make a simple summer dress instead.  My little sister found a perfect light flowey silk-type shirt without shirt tails that would have been amazing as a summer dress.  Just put it on, button the buttons and tie the arms.  It was perfect for her because she is shorter and slighter than me.  I'll just have to put this on my list of things to do when I do move back to the states.  Anyone with me?

Yes, I have a picky husband

 I have been taking some random recipes from Stumbleupon or some blogs I read and trying them.  My husband is only sometimes on board.  So sometimes I have to hide the ingredients from him, or just don't offer it to him to begin with.  But I've had fun!!
Here are three of the things I have tried recently:

carrot apple ginger soup
I only took pictures of the beginning process. I always forget one or the other, either you see how I made it... or you see what I made...hmmm someday I'll get better.

After boiling all these things so they are soft I just put them into the blender to liquify them and make a kind of cream looking soup.  Only there is no cream!! pretty good.  and my husband ate it!  I'll admit he dumped croutons in first then shoveled it in his mouth so quickly so he didn't have to taste it very long, but he ate it.  and without complaints!  We'll see what he says when I make it again...

The next thing I have a picture of is something my husband didn't have ANY complaints about while eating it.  I do admit it was a little bit weird because I had offered to make pizzas before and he always came up with a different idea. But finally i just did it.  And the whole prep process he thought it was a bad idea, I don't understand why.  But once it was done, he was a HAPPY man.  the only problem is that I forgot which crust recipe I used! and it was good.... I'll have to experiment a little to find it again.

 My pizza is the one with tomato, spinach, and ham.  His is the one with ham and pineapple. 

One weekend I was home alone, I don't remember why.  But I decided I wanted something sweet for breakfast.  This was what won my vote.  cinnamon roll pancakes!!
the pancake part of this recipe was not the best, but I'm sure next time I can substitute my better recipe for the pancake part and just use the cinnamon roll part from this recipe!

 It was so good!  The sugar caramelized in some bites and integrated into the pancake in others.  very good!!  It does make a big mess while you are trying to hold the bag of "syrup" and when you flip the pancake, though.  There was one left over after I ate my breakfast and I put it aside to save for the next day's breakfast.  But my husband found it first and he let me know I should make them more often.

And, finally! Applesauce! made in my slow cooker that I was finally able to bring from home.  I guess a year a half after the wedding if I am still being able to use presents as new i shouldn't complain.  This way the excitement of using new things lasts longer!!  I read a lot of applesauce recipes and then just decided to do it myself. 

 I used the bag of green cheap apples I found at the supermarket and a stick of cinnamon I had in my cupboard.  Then I let it sit and cook and simmer.

Israel did not try this.  Of course i didn't offer it to him.  But from all the comments about "its still there? Apples?  what are you making? it's not done yet?"  it would have been a struggle to get him to try it.  Next time he'll try it and he'll like it.  I just have to offer it to him in the right way (i.e. don't give him a choice) and he will realize its actually pretty good.