envelopes

Recently I've had letters that need to go out that don't fit in any envelopes I have around the house. So I made some. It was surprisingly easy: all I used was a piece of scrap paper, scissors, and a glue stick. I put the folded letter in the middle of the paper and folded the paper around it. Then I cut out over-lapping paper to thin the envelope out, glued the flaps, and there it is! Maybe I'll try making a more formal tutorial sometime. But until then, enjoy these photos:

Two envelopes!

Rounded square-type envelope made from left over butcher paper.

A more traditional-looking envelope made from scrap printer paper.

letters!

So Lindsey (who you may remember from the Beard post) and I have become pen pals since I've moved out here to Iowa and pen pals are one of my favorite things. She wrote me while I was in Utah on Christmas break and I have just gotten to writing her back this week: fail. Hopefully this fun letter will make up for the tardiness.

This is the front...

And this is the inside!

I made the cute girl on the right out of fun-shaped paper clips that I bought at Staples the other day. I'd seen them around and suggested to Gloria that she might want to buy a bunch of the ring shaped ones (ie the girl's head and hair in this interpretation) to use for my bridal shower invites (although I really should have no input here, sometimes I just can't help myself...). When Braeden and I were at Staples most recently I saw that they were on super clearance in a big bag with all the other "girlie" paper clips so I had no choice but to buy the whole bag. (It was only $2.50 for the bag and I saved $9997.40—at least, that's what the label on the bag claimed. Haha.) I thought Lindsey, because she is a girl and likes girlie things, might like them, so I made them into a picture for her: I'm sure she'll be getting more in her next letter, too.

dear universe

Dear Universe,

I have been neglecting you lately and for this I am very sorry. I have no real excuse, since, while I have been a bit busy, it never takes as much time as I think it will to write a quick blog post. As an apology I offer you this series of photographs to give you a brief glimpse into my life of the recent and less recent past (I'd like to give you pictures of the future but technology hasn't advanced quite that far yet, dear readers...):

Me smashing an old computer with a sledge hammer for decoration at Zombie Prom. Jacob brought over a bunch of stuff they were throwing out at the pawn shop and we had a smashing party. It was quite satisfying.

The finished product. No big deal.

The watermelon brain I carved for Zombie Prom. (Check out the inspiration at Instructables.)

Zombie Gloria (EFY counselor), Me (mad scientist), and Sarah (gypsy). Terrifying! Also that face paint was super hard to get right. Initially it just looked like I had put foundation on since it evened out the tone of my skin and matched the color of my neck. Really? Really.

Braeden, Jarrod, Gloria, and I went to The Weepies concert when they came to Iowa City on Oct 26th. It completed me. The opening artist was this guy named Matt the Electrician who was also amazing and between the two of us Braeden and I bought all 3 of his albums that were for sale. Both he and The Weepies are amazing and you (yes YOU!) should check them out.

Somehow almost all of my regular-type shoes are brown. Normal things.

Remember this book? Well I finally finished it! (Sorry it took so long, Shannon!) I think it came out rather nicely, though of course there are always things that I think I could have done better. Blerg. But for my first project of this ilk I think it went rather well.

The inside end papers. Beautiful!

The inside text. Looks pretty much the same, but is framed by the new lovely pink covers. Hooray!

I have wanted an armchair of my own for almost as long as I can remember. Sadly all the sweet vintage ones I'd been able to find (and even the not sweet vintage ones) were all like 80 bucks. What? Well today I stumbled upon this gem for only $17. I am in love. I bought it. Braeden and I did our best to load it up into my tiny hatch back (we ended up pinning it with the hatch back door and used a cord I conveniently had in my glove compartment to secure it, then drove slowly back to the Grape Escape). I sit in it now as I blog to you, dear universe. And I am in love.

I hope this makes up for my neglect. I will try to be more diligent in the future, though there is this boy I've been dating recently and he takes up an awful lot of my time. Though days are coming soon (aka Friday) where I won't be seeing him as often as I have been (since I am flying home for Thanksgiving and he won't be joining me until the far away following Tuesday) so perchance we will have more time to catch up then.

With love,
Cassandra