Amanda Rose blog

Sooo...I MADE A KIMONO ROBE.

Remember back in April went I set out to MAKE A KIMONO-STYLE ROBE by the end of April?  
You kind of followed my journey when I posted my OUT TO SEWs // 1, 2, and 3.

Well, I finished just this past weekend.

It's kind of sad story.  It was supposed to go on for the four consecutive Saturdays in April, but on the third Saturday, our sewing instructor (who I absolutely adore) got sick.  Class resumed on April 27th, but that would mean the "finishing" of the robe would spill over into May.  Then, that first Saturday of May got cancelled because poor Pat was sick again.  When the class finally got together for our last session this past May 11th Saturday, we found out Pat had a severe asthma attack, was in a coma and on a resperator.  8|  I just can't believe it.  I hope the news on her comes back good soon.  It would be a nice deviation from all the saddness that seems to happen one after the other this past year.

Anyway, that Pat: she taught me everything I currently know about sewing.  Most importantly, she made me feel comfortable sitting in front of my sewing machine.  I now have the confidence I need to embark on other sewing adventures.  ...and my robe?  It's pretty sweet, even with it's many imperfections.  I love it.  

Get well soon, Pat!
I am so very grateful for the sewing skills she taught me, my new spring robe, and how my one little word {MAKE} manifested itself last month.

See March's here and here.
See February's here and here.
See January's here and here.

my DIY flowers in my hair

olw for May // MAKE TIME TO MEDITATE

I feel like Fergie said it best when she sang:

"...I need to be with myself and center
clarity, peace, serenity..." 

This is the nature of my May one little word intention.

MAKE TIME FOR MEDITATION was not going to be how I was going to use 'MAKE' this month.  The intention came to me this past weekend, and it makes a lot of sense.  I've been having a hard time letting him go, and have been feeling tons of anxiety, loneliness, and sadness lately.

Enter this practice that I've always meant to try, but have never tried.  I find myself thinking "I should meditate through this" but then never do.  This month, I'm going to set aside at least 5 minutes everyday to sit and center and attempt to clear my mind.

Some helpful links I've found for beginners like me:

How To Meditate Properly
Four Good Times of the Day to Meditate
Advantages of Meditation

Ohm-kay. Let's do this. ;)

my one little word for 2013

April's intention

March's intention

February's intention

January's intention

OUT TO SEW // 2

In my APRIL one little word {MAKE} quest to MAKE A KINOMO-STYLE ROBE, I set out yesterday for the second Saturday sewing class out of four at Sew Right.  

I plan to come to you every Sunday after and give a little post about what I wore and the experience and etc.  

I wore: (DEEP SIGH) again LOTS of layers.  Still my Uggs (blah). Still my Northface WINTER JACKET (boo).  The same go-to attire that I was wearin in January.  It's actually getting me quite annoyed.  I'm so ready to sundress and open-toe it up, weather!  Can you comply?!?! 

I didn't even bother photographing the outfit because I was so cranky that I was so cold. Poo.

The experience: was calming and exciting. I rode my new Biria and wrapped my Amy Tangerine bag around the handlebars.  The ride is only 20 minutes - at most - so I toughed it out. 

The tiny class of only seven gained one more lady, Patrice (who you see above already sewing her purple robe).  My fabulous first-impression of my sewing teacher, Pat, was only made truer yesterday.  She is funny, knows her sew stuff, and kept calling me precious.  

I still absolutely adore her.

My colorful, springy, floral print for the robe was a hit.

I learned how to pin your traced sewing pattern to the fabric.  I only pricked myself three times.
Note to self: bring band-aids next time. I learned a good fabric scissor is NECESSARY.  I learned how to cut fabric.  I learned the direction of the grain of fabric needs to be parallel to the selvage. Haa haa!  Sewing jargon. ;)

etc.: I was so grateful for this project yesterday.  Even though yesterday class was two-and-a-half hours longer than last week, it felt faster.  I'm so excited for the end product.  All my classmates are super nice, and were already talking about what we're going to make in the next class. :)

 

 

>> OUT TO SEW // 1

olw for April // MAKE A KIMONO-STYLE ROBE

This is my monthly intention for April. ( Is it really the 6th already?! )

My sister saw it and said,
"You're going to make a kimono robe?! How the heck are you going to do that?!"

Haa haa! Well, sister, since you asked...way back in February 2012 I dropped some dough for a four-Saturdays-in-a-row beginner's sewing class to start at the end of March.  I mentioned it briefly in this post here.  On the first day, I showed up to...nothing.  The class was cancelled. Nobody told me.  I looked like an idiot. The place held my payment and now, a year later, I'm attending the class again this morning...

..and the next three Saturdays in a row...

...and by April 27, I should have in my possession a new kimono-style robe and a set of basic sewing skills.

LET'S DO THIS!

my one little word for 2013

March's intention

February's intention

January's intention

T.G.I.S.

sharpies + Easter eggs

Today is Good Friday for all who celebrate, and I'm coming to you today with my 'goods' from last night's egg decorating extravaganza.  My cousin, Claudia is with us for the Easter weekend, and when she comes, we get crafty.

Okay, people, I thought I had hit the DIY jackpot!  I had the idea to Mister Huey's mist a hardboiled egg, and sort of monogram them with a colorful marbled-misty look.  Why hadn't anyone pinned this!, I thought.  It's easy. It's fun. It'll be so pretty.  All sounded great...in theory.

Sadly, the idea flopped:

The mist did not stick properly. It was wet and all over the place.  Even with dry-time, it didn't adhere to the shell.  Yeah.  So that's why nobody pinned it.

On to Plan B! ...

...and some interesting creations were made...  

You know me and my polka dots. ;)

When you're a cat-mama, I instagrammed, you want to drawn your babies everywhere.

Claude did an awesome job of springin' up her egg and her nails.

I kept looking for ways I could use the letter stickers.
This thing: ~ reminded me of eyebrows. 

...and an asterisk* for a flower in her hair

This 'dietician' egg was my mom's bright idea. (deep sigh)
My sister is studying to be a dietician and was literally upstairs locked in her room studying, so to honor her and 'include' her we made a dietician egg:
one that would say, "STOP! Eggs are high in cholesterol."

My mom insisted we sign it "-Dietician".

------------------------------------

Then, of course, you have your
Pop Culture easter eggs:

Taylor Swift and 1D eggs.  Carefully and beautiful sharpied by the Claude-myster.

AND...

...last, but not least,
my personal favorite egg of the night...

I used the two cracks as eye-sockets.

Season III Finale Sunday. OMG. OMG.

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I have to say that these are prob not the BEST Easter eggies I've ever made, but still it was a lot of fun.  Also, the scene reminded me of back in mid-October when Claude was over and we were doing the same thing in the same spot, but with acrylic paint and pumpkins.

In fact, the whole thing was highly reminiscent of pumpkin painting.  Isn't that funny? It seems every 6 months we humans need to habitually play with our food.  I love that.

Have a happy Friday, readers & peepers!

I'm doing March's edition of 'Day in the Life' today.
Come back soom to see how that pans out in the near future.

See past Easter egg creations here(2011) and here(2010).

first official photography gig (sorta) // EXCITED

One of my best buds, Elisa (you might know her from here) called me up the other day and said,

"My sister-in-law wanted to book you June 2nd to take photos at Julia's christening, and maybe you could meet with her and talk about your ideas, and she could tell you what she wants..."

Julia is Elisa's new one-month old neice.  She is the sweetest little ravioli and the family is, no doubt, SMITTEN.

Enter ME!  The 'booked' photographer, and I'm so excited!

...and FYI: I get weird when I'm excited about something.

When I was little and the fair at my elementary school was almost up, and opened, I used to sit (for the whole week before) drawing pictures of the fair and myself having fun.
(I guess that was my early ages of blogging.)

Then, these past few years, sitting in a crappy college class or something like that, I'd sketch my outfit possibilities for an upcoming event I was excited about.  

NOOOWWWWW...
...with the little Photoshop know-how I do have (and you know I'm always playing)...THIS IS HOW MY EXCITEMENT MANIFESTS ITSELF:

Bloom Theory camera strap | Anthro midi dress | heels from TJ Maxx

I'm am way excited for June and this gig.  I even told Elisa that I'm not going to really talk or mingle with anybody because I want to be MEGA PROFESH!  
...and the above outfit & accessories is what's going to loop in my brain for the next 2+ months, like a stylish little Vine video of excitement!

Please tell me you also do this.  
Or even better, tell me something weirder you do when waiting for some awesome time!  
Sing in the mirror?
Fashion show around your house a day or two before?
Change the lyrics to a familar tune to fit the occassion your waiting for?

Dang.
I've done all those too.

Happy Wednesday & almost Spring Break!
I'M SO EXCITED!...like THIS excited.

Mission SKINS and PRITS

I get excited when March hits.  March means Spring.  Spring means almost Summer.  Almost Summer means almost bikini/beach season.  Almost bikini/beach season marks the end to my 4-month movement break I usually give myself from November to February.

Granted, I still love movement and activity (did ZUMBA on wii throughout January...see HERE), but I don't make it a point to workout in those dark, cold winter months.  

With March, I start to crave activity.  I start to sweetly desire a more toned, fit figure...one I know I've been semi-neglecting with dounuts and couch lounges. (Perhaps it's the fantasy of all my spring dresses I want to debut!)

Whatever the reason, March hits, and I hit the ground running. Last year, I kicked it off with #amileeveryotherdayinmarch, and THIS year, I'm calling it Mission 'Skins' & 'Prits'.  
(It made its way into my lastest Project Life post.)

Skins and Prits by the way, everybody, is just a silly saying my sister and I have for 'skinny' and 'pretty'.  We just say it stupidly to each other when we workout, kind of like 'Fit' and 'Fab'.

(NOTE: I have no desire to be 'skinny'; I also acknowledge that my body type is one not capable of being 'skinny' so it wouldn't even matter if I did desire to be skinny, which again I don't.  I also know skinny/thin/whatever does not equal pretty. It's just something stupid we say.)

With this mission, I'm just happy being active.  I love that word: active.  I love activity.  I'm happy when part of my day is spent jumping around. :)

I'm deciding to take on this mission by following the INSANITY program for as long as I want to, I guess.  Probably until it's warm enough for me to jog or bike outside.

I also wanted to start eating healthier, and making better food choices throughout my day.  
No Weight Watchers plan, meetings, or fees (although I seriously considered it...WW helped me in the past).
No calorie counting (although I seriously considered that too...downloaded the app and everything).

I decided to just keep a food log.
Eat when I'm hungry, don't when I'm not hungry.
Eat often, so I always feel satisfied.
Eat fruit.  Work veggies in.
Just log it, so I can review it at day's end.

No fuss. No frantic number crunching.  Just balanced life.
I'm 28, and am only now figuring this out. 

Maybe I'll update here on the blog. Maybe not.
You can definitely catch my daily progress on
instagram, as it is my quick-snap central.

The hash is #MissionSKINSnPRITS.

That's all!

Let's get off our butts today!

See ya soon!

a Day in the Life | 2.28.2013

Thursday I participated in Ali Edwards' documenting exercise of capturing a 'day in the life' of yourself. 

I'm not usually one to 'exact replica' another's style of doing something.  Usually I'm more of a 'oh-that's-cool-I'm-inspired-How-can-I-make-that-more-my-style' kind of crafter, but when I saw Ali's January DayintheLife insert, I was floored.  It was so beautiful and appealed to the designer/life-artist in me more than I can describe, so I really wanted to give it a shot JUST LIKE SHE DID IT.

I purchased and downloaded Ali's templates...HERE and HERE.
I printed her recording sheet which helped me track my day...HERE.
I woke up Thursday excited for the project, and I did it.

It was a heck of a good time.

I love the end result:

Some of the happenings from the morning:

...and the highlights from the afternoon and evening:

Here's how I fit it into the |week 9| spread of my Project Life album.  

I strongly recommend giving the next 'Day in the Life' a try.  

I'm definitely going to give it another go, and it will be interesting to compare my day in March to this day from February, especially since my 'Day in the Life' March edition is going to take place during Spring Break off from teacher work.  Woo hoo! How much more exciting it might be! (OR NOT! Pajamas all day, anyone?)  Haa haa!  We'll see!

Have a happy Sunday in the life!

;)

Hey, ChickenPox font, you were fun to make.

I got the itch to make my own font, after I became smitten with this lady's.

The lowercases are spotty and the uppercases are hand-written and basic.  

I used the popular iPad app iFontMaker to make it, and I look forward to unapologetically experimenting more with it. :)

You can download it for yourself here.

Look for more of my font in the future!

Happy, snappy Sunday ALL!

xOxO,

time for the post about...

Readers and peepers of this here blog, I professed at the beginning of this month that I wanted to MAKE JANUARY AWESOME.  There are a number of strategically planned ways I am going to make sure this happens, and one most definite way is with the new KARAOKE system Christmas vacay brought with it.

It's actually far surpassed my expectations of awesomeness.

...and it's so easy to set up:

I cannot express in enough words how much fun and excitement this system has brought to the first few weeks of this year.  I first came across this system at Tomas's extended family's house two Christmases ago (see here) and I knew I had to incorporate it into my world.

With my Grandma's 80th Birthday being celebrated this coming weekend at our house, you can betcha by golly that the KARAOKE will suck our guests into its vortex. Yep.  That's what I decided it does. No matter who you are or how much you love/hate your voice, to sing, karaoke, etc. YOU WILL SUCCUMB TO THIS KARAOKE SYSTEM'S MAGIC VORTEX OF AWESOMENESS. 

Case in point was yesterday, at the Zampelli house, with my friend, Elisa.  She has a very high-pitched, nasally (dare I say) Fran Drescher Queens, NY voice and she was so closed off to the idea of karaoke.

"I'll watch you girls sing," she declared.

I knew the karaoke's vortex would pull her and there would be no escape.  FOUR HOURS LATER...and a whole ABBA album of karaoke-singing later, I was right. ;)

Here ae some shots of my awesome January Sunday:

All this morning my mom and I were in awe that we sang for four hours straight. 

"I can't believe we got nothing done yesterday," my mom's been saying.

...and you know what?! Thank God.  We both needed a day of nothing, of stress-relief, of relax.

I needed a day with the girls, a day with wine, a day with unbridled dancing and singing, a day of

laughing and more laughing, and a day of pure silly.

Thankful for it yesterday.

Thankful for this awesome karaoke system.

It's a constant in a time when a lot of my world is changing.

It makes sense to me in a time that's hella confusing.
 

Yay.

I have so many favorite songs to karaoke but some are:

"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship

anything by Heart

Madonna's "Cherish"

"Heaven is a Place On Earth" by Belinda Carlisle

Janet Jackson's "Again"

...and my big hit from yesterday: "Baby Got Back" ...I do a mean Sir Mix A Lot ;)

 

to buy a system of your very own, visit here