An Albuquerque Gem

Merry Christmas, everyone!! I thought I would use this Christmas down time to tell you about an amazing shop I came across while shopping with my husband and in-laws in Old Town Albuquerque.

Gabby's Handmade Soaps! 

First, let me say that basically our whole family loves handmade soaps, so this was an amazing find. We were really impressed with the selection, the quality, and the prices. Soaps were 5 for $20!! 

So M and I picked out some wonderful-smelling soaps, along with some shaving soap for him. We were in heaven! 

Black Raspberry was one of my favorites. 

They even had some soaps with funny names, like nasty ass, arrogant bastard, and dog's breath. The dog's breath one actually smelled really good! 

There was even this amazing little fireplace that made the place extra cozy. 

On top of the amazing soap and charming look of the shop, the owner was sooo personable. He was funny and nice, and very informative about the products they have. His son was there too, and he was just the cutest. 

Wanna know the best part? THEY HAVE A WEBSITE... AND THEY SHIP!! Any amount of their products can be shipped for a flat rate of $9. I cannot say enough good things about this place. Wanna check it out? 

www.gabbyshandmadesoap.com 

I hope you like it as much as I do! 

Attention Nail Polish Lovers!!

I had to randomly stop at CVS today, and of course whenever I am in there I will cruise by the nail polish and makeup. Boy did I find a surprise today! Many of the nail polishes and some of the makeup had 50%-75% off stickers! Oh, the joy I felt! I took this opportunity to pick up some work-and-winter-friendly shades at about $1.50-1.75 apiece. The original prices were about $6-7. Yay! I am very pleased. Here are the colors I chose.

Hopefully you nail polish lovers can pick up some awesome stuff for cheap! <3 happy shopping! 

December CLIMB Blog Hop!

  <a href="http://www.godsgrowinggarden.com/p/chain-linky-climb.html" rel="”nofollow”" target="_blank"><img alt="God’s Growing Garden" src="http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o501/AngieOuelletteTower/Sponsors/Climb200_zps6c2cafff.jpg" /></a>
 
It's the month long Networking Blog Hop  With our second CLIMB GIVEAWAY! Here's how it works - the co-hosts from the previous month's CLIMB will have the opportunity to participate in a Giveaway during the next CLIMB (this is totally optional) - that gives co-hosts 2 months in a row of blog growing fun!!      Please enter below -one person will win: (you must have a PayPal account to enter & be 18 years or older) -  - $70 PayPal Cash  - Christmas Printables from http://domesstique.blogspot.de/ - 300x300 Ad Space on http://apeekintomyparadise.blogspot.com/ - 1 Month Medium Ad Space on http://www.cuddlebugcuties.blogspot.com/ - Super Fabulous Ad Space on http://sewcraftyangel.blogspot.com/ - 1 Medium Ad Space on http://creativepinkbutterfly.com/ - 1 Sidebar Ad Space on http://www.godsgrowinggarden.com/ - "My Cookie Creation Countdown" ebook by Angie Ouellette-Tower - "Make Your Own Cedar Roping or Pine Garland" ebook by Angie Ouellette-Tower
THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO ENTER!

CLIMB Giveaway Rules & Conditions: 

- This is a worldwide Giveaway

- You MUST have a PayPal account to enter

- This Giveaway is open from November 30th, 2013 until December 20th, 2013

- Winner must respond within 24 hours or a different winner will be chosen

- Giveaway Hosts & Co-hosts can NOT enter this Giveaway!, however - December CLIMB blog hop co-hosts MAY enter this Giveaway (provided they are not also part of the Giveaway)

- corespondance is done through email and the winner's email addresses will only be used to deliver or set-up e-prizes.  Email addresses will NEVER be sold or shared.

- if you have any questions or concerns about this Giveaway please email one of the hosts:

Angie:  gourdonville@yahoo.com

Angel:  sewcraftyangel@gmail.com

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway







Now onto the CLIMB (blog hop):

By participating in this blog hop your email address will be added to our CLIMB list & you will be sent an email reminder next month. 

Remember - Now if you co-host you will receive a free Weekly Sidebar Ad and your blog button will appear on both Angie's blog & Angel's blog!!

(The Ad will run live a few weeks after you have co-hosted)

Sign up to receive emails about the CLIMB

Fabulous Fall Floral

Hello again everyone!

I am just getting around to posting this refashion I did before Thanksgiving. I found this floral dress at a local thrift store that benefits a battered women's shelter. I love going there because they have some fabulously outdated dresses that I love buying and refashioning! Plus, you cannot go wrong with stuffing a bag for $4. I think I paid about $0.75 for this dress.

Anyway, here it is, along with gross Darwin showing you all his back end. Yucky old Darwin!

This dress is made from a heavy knit material that I thought would be perfect for fall. I love tights and dresses, and I knew this would look great. All it needed was a hem! That proved to be a little harder than I thought, though, as I am terrible at sewing knit material.

I struggled with this thing for a few hours, and finally got it. I apologize for not taking pictures of the sewing part of it, but what I did is simple enough: I folded the raw edge over twice and sewed it down. I had to do a lot of trial-and-error-style adjusting, though, so I would not be surprised if the hem ended up folded over three times in some places and barely two in others. Why was that thing so crooked???

It ended up being fine, though.

Here is the finished product, which I paired with a pair of black tights, black ankle boots, a black skinny belt, a black jacket, and a gold statement necklace.

Oh, and here is a selfie I took with FatSpice. Happy Monday! :)

Even though this dress turned out looking okay, I will have to go back and fix many of the areas I sewed. I cannot believe just raising a hemline was that hard! Have you ever had a frustrating refashion? I would love to hear about it!

14 Before 2014: An Update

Wow, the end of the year is fast approaching! Since my blog is more than just DIY, I wanted to give you a life update. M and I have been adjusting to having him home and things are finally falling into place. We have always lived together pretty harmoniously, and found that after he came home that had not changed. It is very nice having him back. M has settled into his job here nicely, and is looking forward to the next chapter in our lives together...which brings me to the next thing: I will be graduating with my MBA in about two weeks! I will be working this weekend to finish the two final projects I have left, and after that will not have much to worry about, school-wise. I have some awesome things in the works for what to do afterward, but will give a better update when things are definitive. :)

There are a lot of positive things happening for us! We are trying our best to focus on them, as there is one negative thing that is looming over us: my grandfather is not doing very well. M and I have been very lucky: we both have all four grandparents right now. At our wedding, we were lucky enough to get a picture of us with all of them. We are trying our best to remember that it is part of life to lose those generations before us, but it hurts no less. My grandfather is one of the last of the "true gentlemen". I am sure many of you would be able to say the same about your grandfathers. We appreciate your thoughts as we face this tough time.

The purpose of this post is to update you on how I have been doing with my goal of finishing 14 projects that I wanted to get done before 2014. Here is what I have finished so far:

1. A Chan-Luu-style wrap bracelet
8. Purge the house of unnecessary items- this is going quite well! I figured out that this is an ongoing process. We have so much stuff! We continue to sell and donate everything we do not need. One thing I have found to be helpful is that we list things that others might want on eBay. This way, we make a little bit of extra money (great for Christmas shopping or just general spending money!), getting back even just a little of what we have spent. Win! 
9. Framed honeymoon beer coasters
10. Save for a new TV- wellll... this one did not really go as planned. We have been saving, but are no longer sure that we even want a new TV! Eventually we will, but maybe not right away. We continue to keep growing our savings where we can, and love using Mint.com to build and follow our budget.
14. "Home" art

The next couple of weeks will be full of projects for me, as we move into the home stretch!

Hope your Thanksgiving went well, dear readers, and that you're enjoying the busy holiday season!