ON THE 11TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS....

A few days ago Mom and I were listening to the radio and the announcers said something about last minute shopping and We were just like "Heck, we have not even STARTED Christmas shopping!"

But really, doing anything Christmasy before December 10th would really be a sin in our house. Except of course, dreaming about what you'll get for Christmas, as that is acceptable ALLLLL year. As of yesterday, we have a tree! 11 days before Christmas, that's how its done.

▲▲ This is the point where I apologize for the ugliness of this photo, but I love it so! On my birthday Emily came over and we had a fondant Santa competition which quickly turned into a snowman and gingerbread house competition. Pictured is Emily's penguin snowman/hybrid (it's a new breed, still in the development stages. Will let you know when they're available in the freezer section.)  Not pictured, my snowman with a toothpick in his eye.

▲▲ Puppies like Christmas trees! Yay! I didn't even pose them for these, which I guess by now they just nap in photogenic places. Train them young, I say!

▲▲ Uber Cliche lights photos. But isn't that what Christmas is for? That and eating cookies.

For those of you interested (Hi Mom! Hi Grandma!) I was quite handy and created a Christmas  tag in which you can view more poorly edited Christmas photos. Enjoy friends!

 “Christmas doesn't come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more....”

What dreams are made of

People  people, if you don't own a pair of polka dot jeans, something is terribly wrong in your life.

That being said, I guess my life was pretty terrible until 3 days ago! But now? It's pure heaven and sunshine and lollipops. Everyday I go bathe in frosting, frolic in peony fields and feast on bacon and ham and cheese and bread and cheesy bread.

And then I don't fit in my jeans anymore.

But anyway! I'll probably keep these jeans even if they don't fit ever again. Because when you find 70 dollar jeans for 12 bucks, you're keepin those babies forever. And i mean FOREVAH. Or something hiperstish like that. I'm seeing tea cozies and wall tapestries in the future for these suckers...

(ps: they are from heaven i mean Gap. Same deal.)

For the love of cacti...

Some gawk at boys and shoes. Some coo at babies. Some cheer for outstanding performances.

And some do all these for cactuses. And by some, I mostly mean me.

Maybe it's because Arizona is my one true love or maybe it's because it's PINK (probably) or maybe it's because 2 years ago I finally figured out that cactuses don't attack you with prickles, but whatever it is, I LOVE CACTUSES.

Also, I giggle and gawk and reassure them they're the bees knees about every 3 seconds. Those poor little cacti, such sensitive souls. They need a boatload of affirmation. Or I just like blubbering.
 Probably not that.

Here's to a plant that loves black thumbs! Amen Amen!

PS: if I spelled cactus wrong, I'm sorry. My mother was napping and spellcheck is having a bad day.

Green Jeans

On a normal schools day, do your pants look like
A.) regular jeans
B.) half sized (shorts or course)
C.) vegetables

Naturally, C should be your answer. That is, only if you are wearing colored denim.

Seriously, I wore green jeans the other day, and I felt invincible.  Like a very nice invincible green bean. It was major happiness. And my legs were wrapped in it. Happiness on you legs, who knew? And if pants had facial expressions, those babies would always be showing their pearly whites.

Basically, your life may or may not be complete unless you invest in colored denim. I invested $11 dollars and it seemed to do the trick.

Invincible green bean, that's what I am.

Make your own: Ombre Shirt

 When I first saw a neon ombre shirt, I knew I had to make one. I can take neon in small doses, and ombre is just the way to do it! I wanted to do it relatively cheaply, so I picked up this shirt on sale at Target for $6 (Although, regular price is only $8!) And I will say that normally I don't wear v-necks, but I thought it worked for this. It made me feel a little weird, but hey. Let's call it expanding my horizons. An expansion of about 2 inches.

Anyhow, let's get on with it!

First gather these things, along with one cup of water. You also might want to use a different bottle than the one the Tumble Dye comes with - I found it didn't work so well. (And yes, Angela Merkel is really excited, Germany loves neon too!)

ONE: Spread out your shirt on the newspaper (you may want to layer a plastic bag under it, just in case there are any drips) 2: Begin spraying the shirt. You can start at the top or bottom. THREE: Add 1/2 - 1 tablespoon water to the dye. Shake it so it mixes. 4: Spray a little further down, about 3 inches. 5: Repeat steps 3 & 4 (as many times as you like). Let the shirt dry COMPLETELY. 6: Set the dye by drying the shirt in the dryer (you needed me to tell you this) for 20 minutes!

Oh, and if you happen to photograph your obmre adventure, maybe take a look at what's on the newspaper before hand. Just in case you happen to not notice the lady in a bikini cheering on your ombre adventures.

But, I really don't speak from personal experience.  Those hearts are really just there to show my love for neon. And my un-love for other things....(See above.)

Happy Neoning....if that is such a thing!
XOXO, Kryn

Color Phases: Emerald

I go in color phases. It started with lemon yellow, then went to bubblegum pink. Now, it's emerald. Trust me when I say, I've NEVER liked emerald. I don't know whats going on, but all the sudden I'm loving colors I used to hate. Well, I'm just weird. But we already knew that.

And I totally forgot to site these when I was saving the pictures, so I honestly have no idea where some of these are from. Except the second to last one. Marc Jacobs, $400. Oh, except it's on sale! For the low, low price of $298. Not totally what I'd call a sale.

What colors do you love?

xoxo Kryn.

PS: The Awesomeness payed off! Aside from having the same swim suit as 20 other eight year old's, the swim meet went really well and I even improved lot of my times. I also ate breakfast at McDonalds. I just wanted to tell you.

Happy {Fri}Day :: 3/30

My school Faux-cation is almost over and to be honest it's heartbreaking. But I know Summer is right around the corner and I am giddy. Doesn't summer just seem bright and happy? I think so, and I intend to make this summer a great one. Do you have any summer plans? Xoxo, Kryn

PS: That is my milk carton. It's so cute right? I picked those bright colors because I am in full Summer mode. Lime green and orange are summers official colors. Or so I've just decided.

Leprechauns and Luck

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

There. I said it. Can I be finished being festive please? I obviously love holidays and celebrations, but for some reason, Saint Patrick's Day is not my thing. Maybe it's all the green? I have an extremely low affinity for all things green except for certain shares of chartreuse and lemongrass. It's also the day that lucky people celebrate - but I'm not one bit lucky so I feel left out. But then again, there's a reason there isn't unlucky day, so I guess I could celebrate anyhow because I wish I was the lucky type. I'm not doing anything really Irish themed today. Other than liking potatoes, I really have nothing in common with Irish people. We just don't relate, and I am okay with that. But I did have green s'mores today so I'm counting that as my super celebration.

Let's talk leprechaun. They are the one cool aspect of St. Patrick's Day. If they did dishes, they'd be even cooler. Everyone gets to make up their own idea of what leprechauns are like. In my world, they are short, talk with hilarious accents, do dishes and are always very complimentary. They wear green tights (they are very into fashion obviously as colored tights are in!) and weird outfits. What's your view of a leprechaun? I love how I'm telling you what something non-existent looks like. I'm just preparing you in case non existent becomes existent. I'm just here to help. That way, in case you happen to see a short man with green tights buying potatoes at the grocery store, you'll know who it is.

What are you doing this St. Patrick's Day, anything fun?

Sincerely,
Unicorns are a leprechauns main form of transportation.

Ps: oh, one more thing, I'm not wearing green! Yippee! No one in our family pinches either. But I'm afraid that when we go out later, random strangers will pinch me. I do not care for random strangers touching me. It's so uncool, even if it is St. Patty's Day.

UPDATE: By the way, I wore my most favorite shade of green today in public. I didn't want to face the pinching wrath of strangers. I loved seeing how many people wore green. And all those who didn't are very uncelebratory!

What I would wear

There's a homeschool dance coming up and as much as I'd like too, I won't be one the attendees. But just because I'm not going does not mean I can't think about what I would wear...right? Okay, I make no sense.

I personally am not a fan of skimpy, teenage prom dresses. They are always, too tight, too short and sometimes fairly ugly. I prefer a little more elegant looking style.

I wish I had $200 dollars laying around so I could get this! Isn't it just darling? I love the color, and the bow is sort of weird, but with a cardigan and belt this would be extra adorable.This one I could actually think about buying, but it seems kind of silly to waste all my Christmas money on one dress. I love the layers of pleats on this one and while green is generally not my favorite color, I love this shade.

So that's what I'd be wearing if I were going. I get my new glasses today, I'll show you some pictures I'm sure!

Pom-Pom Garland

Pom Pom's always make me laugh. Because it was Pom-poms that made mom hate girl scouts and want to be a cub scout....

Moving on! I usually put up a sweet little tree in my room every year. However it is green. Not that I am anti tradition, but green is not my thing. I really wanted a white one. But since I
wasn't about to fork over the money, and one never fell out of the sky, I just decided to use the green normal, not my color tree and dress it up.

And that is just what I did.I made this sweet little garland with pom poms and bows. It makes my green tree look way cute.

First, the pom poms. I didn't know how to make these until a little while ago, so I will first show you how to make them and then the garland.Start by wrapping your embroidery floss (or thin yarn) around your pointer and middle finger. (These are small pom poms, if you want bigger ones, wrap it around another finger.)Wrap it around until you have about this much. If you want a bit fuller of a pom pom, wrap some more. Cut the string.

Now cut a piece of thread about 8 inches long. (Okay, you should have done this before.) This is sort of tricky. The thread needs to come through your 2 fingers. To get it through, I usually push it with scissors It really is the most effective way, even though it sounds sort of weird. If you don't want to use those, try a pen.

So it should look like this. Then pull it all the way through.
And now your thread should be in between both fingers.Slide it down and pull it so it wraps around the back of the wrapped thread.
Tie a knot. Make sure it is loose enough that you can slip it of your fingers....which is the next step.Once it is off your fingers, tie it in another knot. Then you will have a sweet little bow. I used a few bows on my garland, so for a few of these you could stop at this point.
To make your fluffy lovely pom pom, snip ALL the loops on each end of the bow/cornucopia/lookin' thing.Then trim the ends so it is even. Sort of flatten it before you do this, it will help make everything look a bit more even.
And then you should (hopefully) have a cute fluffy little pom pom!

Now for the garland. I'm not posting a step by step, Because I'm guessing you will figure out what I mean when I say "All I did was glue the pom poms onto string."

And here is the finished product looking lovely on my green/sort of my color tree.