Zag Max Mystery Box, Avon Haul, and Challenge Entry

I walked down to the post office to check on my Avon order and found my  Julep mystery box was waiting for me as well. I had to ask if I had any packages as they are not very good at passing out slips. Since I was not receiving emails from Julep I had no idea when it would come. The postal worker was nicer today.

I opened my mystery box first, it was a large box with two smaller boxes inside. When I opened the smallest box I was confused. I first noticed the loose candy corn. This is my fourth box with a pack of candy corn and I've passed the others off to Danny. He won't mind that a few escaped their packet. The color selection of the polish was off some how. I had Charlie- bright yellow cream, Madison- bright pink jelly, Marion- turquoise shimmer, and a silver blue? It seems they sent me Fina instead of Fiona- ogre green. I really wanted that green.

I then opened the larger box and found my mystery items. I had peeked at others boxes so I knew I was going to get the dry shampoo, sea salt spray, beach tonic, and one step. I even know Nellie- fushia and Clara- peach cream, were some of the colors sent out. Nellie was the only duplicate this time and I was thrilled to get the hair products. I did not notice at first, but I was missing the zigzag stickers.

I called Julep and they said they would send out Fiona and I could keep Fina as it was their mistake. I was not on the list for missing stickers, but they would be sending those out as well. She also fixed the email problem and checked on an order that had given me an error message. If they had not sent the wrong polish I would probably not called them.

My Avon order came with my eyebrow kit, a eyebrow pencil, eyeliner in plum, navy and pewter, and finally a cuticle cream. I had bought a cuticle scraper as my polish was looking uneven and I thought the cream would help too. I tested out the eye brow kit and pencil. The colors are good, the application needs work. The brush in the kit is junk. It is too small and stiff. It doesn't smooth out wax neatly and just digs into powder. The pencil needs a careful touch so they don't look drawn on. I used short strokes but used too much pressure for one stroke and had to blend it in. I think these could work well as a team if I use my other angled brush.

I was playing with my frankenpolish. Today is the deadline for crafster.org nail art inspired challenge. I entered this post:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=428440.0#axzz2iOHIl81i

There were only two other entries at the time. One used her snakes shedded skin as a nail applique and the other matched her nail stamps to her henna tattoos. 

Fun with Becky

Last week I spent a day with Becky. It started with a morning cup of coffee and ended with take out and a late movie. We watched World War Z, I loved the book and this is a truncated version of it. There was so much in the book that it would make a better tv show than movie if you tried to put it all in.Mom came over sometime after coffee and my make up. Becky wanted to give her a makeover as well. I decided to try kitten wings with my look.

I think Mom looks very pretty. The close up on me is scary. Mom said the make up made her eyes itch the next day. She has a lot of allergies that I am starting to have myself. 

After that the boys found a cabinet in the garage that they wanted to paint for Ramon's room. Grandma took Ramon to buy paint for it. He chose royal blue and she picked up the beige color to calm go with it. I decided it also needed to be aged so that the blue did not look like plastic. We sanded it down, we really should have used a finer grit, and then rubbed it with brown acrylic paint. Since his walls are a more country blue, distressing it helped it fit into his room. He plans to use it to replace the large tv console taking up one wall of his room. 

Alex's Harley Quinn Costume

The concept:

I found a red corset and two pair of leggings one red and one black that I hoped would fit. I knew I would have to join the leggings, I was not prepared to have such a big issue with the corset. I had to replace the neck strap with a longer one, I chose to replace it with elastic. I also had to double the drawstring length. This led to the back being open more and lumpy. We got a jacket to cover that. Then there was a fleshy gap between the corset and leggings. We added control top hose and a tutu to reel that in. The idea is to use red duct tape to add diamonds to the skirt. Since we started I found a company that sells plus size corsets and leggings, but not in red. Good to know for the future. For now we are trying to cope.

Loving the gloves. With leftover legging bits I made Max a red cape. Maybe I will make a black one too. The corset strap and bit of elastic was used to make me a head band.

Metalwork.

Charles is in the EMC2 program. It is a program for those who want to go to school for mechanical engineering. They pay high school students to take free classes during the summer after their junior and senior years. So not only are classes free, they pay you $300 each summer and give you another$300 in scholarships after each summer (providing you enter engineering program after), you also get credits reducing your bachelors degree to an additional 2.5 yrs. How can you say no to that?

This is just one of the fun projects he made this summer.

"Grow" Headphones

I finally finished Charles' headphones. I was also using them for a craft challenge. I had to craft something inspired by a proverb. I chose, "Children should be seen and not heard." It also had a garden theme for bonus points.

Drink Dispensers with Chalkboard Labels

I decided to add to the drink dispensers. After I came up with the idea I realized I must have seen it in a magazine using the same dispensers from Target. I just can't locate it. I taped off rectangles and rolled on a homemade chalkboard paint. I used plaster of paris and acrylic paint. I then primed them by rubbing chalk all over and wiping it off.

Craftsters Challenge

Craftster.org is having a Summer Nerd Games crafting challenge. I joined the challenge at the end of the month so I was only able to do three projects. I made a melon trellis for the "zombies ate my brain" challenge. Basically you make something that you don't have to think about too much. I cut 5/8" dowels into 6 and 12" lengths then put it together. There was a lot of tedious filing to get the dowel ends to fit easier.

For the battle royal: horror vs romance, I chose romance. I decided to embroider my rose garden gloves. When I bought them last year I thought they would look nice with a little embroidery. The pink rose embroidery really suits them.

Finally, I made a tardis light strand for the textbook:waves challenge. I need to add three more, but the store was out of the boxes I used. Now to find a place to hang them.