As classes were winding down for the semester, the sun managed to beckon Brad and I away from our studies for a little photo-picnic.

Chicken salad, the best Apricot iced tea in the world*, blackberries, and lemon pocket pies made the perfect picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day, sunny and breezy, and it was wonderful to escape our books for a short while.

But this wasn’t just a little picnic: it was a little photo-picnic.

You see, there are these swings.

They are tucked alongside the almost-highway that is Cleveland’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. We’ve driven by them a million times, and I just love the juxtaposition of the bright red and blue swings against the green grass next to the gray, noisy street. Such a peaceful spot next to such a busy commuter zone.

And I’ve always wanted to take pictures.

So we climbed, and swinged, and I snapped away.

The commuters crawled by, onlookers gaped at me and my camera… but it’s their loss. I was capturing colors; they were sitting in traffic.

Don’t forget to take breaks, even on the busiest days! It makes all the difference.

*seriously, this makes the best iced tea. after trying my first batch i returned to the store and bought the last four boxes they had. now that it’s available in bulk from amazon, you know what i’m doing next.

perfect playground picnic is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

It’s a neat dress: the bodice is rows of folded Starbursts, like lots of chains done in the same manner as my bracelet tutorial. But to keep it from being paper-overload, the skirt is made of a flowy fabric with just a few wrappers attached here and there: they almost look like flowers. I think it was well-executed, and I love it when other creative people get to be in the spotlight for doing awesome things. And while the concept of an alternative prom dress never appealed to me, mostly due to the potential discomfort and dancing difficulties, I can’t say I never dabbled in Starburst fashion.

But the real reason this article caught my attention… is that they linked to me! Fluffyland made Yahoo News!

You can read the original article here. How exciting! Hopefully my site doesn’t explode – there have been lots of visitors around here in the past day!
If you’re new, welcome, and stick around: summer’s coming, and that’s always when the blog’s at its finest!

a day of fame: starburst wrappers in the news is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

We’re setting up a brand new, fancy fabrication lab at school – of course I signed up as a Teaching Assistant as soon as I had the chance! Someone had to pick out and test the sewing machine… and, of course, someone has to learn how to use all the swanky equipment.

I can’t wait to explore the infinite possibilities of the laser cutter. First up? These little camera necklaces, cut from the wood scraps of other students’ projects. I challenge you to find an equally beautiful upcycled product!

And yes, they are available for sale at samanthasnap, my camera-love etsy shop.

laser-cut camera necklaces is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

After the festivities, I was hugging aunts all around and getting ready to leave, when Aunt Jeanie said she had a box of buttons that I might like. Buttons? There’s a good chance that I like those.

“They aren’t very exciting,” she said, “but I figured I’d give them to you before giving them away.”

I am familiar with unexciting buttons. Usually when I happen upon unexciting buttons, they’re all shades of black, gray, and white – spares from old coats and shirts, dangling by a “don’t lose me!” thread. I’m sure you can relate. Those boxes are what I consider the less exciting button boxes, but they usually harbor some treasures despite their appearances.

This was not one of those boxes. Yellow disks? Pink candy-stripes? And all on the cards, with some prices as far down as 25 cents.

Tell me, am I just too excited about buttons? Or does this constitute a treasure box?

a button surprise is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

Two weekends ago, I got to go to my favorite place.

Yes, that place.

Also known as Disneyland, the happiest place on earth.

Arianna, one of my very good friends, goes to school in southern California. Last summer, we bonded over our mutual love for Disneyland and all its magic, and devised a hypothetical visit. Of course, with my love of planes, combined with my love of Disneyland, combined with the fact that I haven’t seen Arianna since summer… I couldn’t pass that up.

The school year progressed, fall semester ended, and all of a sudden it was the middle of February. If this was going to happen, it couldn’t wait. And of course, I couldn’t wait. So I flew to California.

I arrived on a Friday night and celebrated Engineer’s Week USC-style, with a super fancy banquet where I met a bunch of Arianna’s friends. We still went to bed early (well, not so early to my eastern time self!) so we could get an early start. Not that I was excited or anything.

The park was super crowded since it was a Saturday, but we got to ride a ton of rides. We made it on almost all of my favorites: Indiana Jones (i got driver’s seat in the jeep!), Storybook Boats, Alice, the Tower of Terror, and Pirates. We missed out on Splash Mountain, because for some reason it was closed for most of the day, and the entire Matterhorn was down for ultra-maintenance as you can see on the left. So Sad! The lines were long, but we hadn’t seen each other in a long time, so we had plenty to talk about.

I hadn’t been to Disneyland in nearly four years – probably one of the longest Disney dearths in my lifetime. So for me it was simply magical to walk through the streets, listen to the music, and eat Mickey ice cream bars. And, coming from a Cleveland February, seeing the sun was pretty magical as well.

What amazed me the most, though, is how much love my 22-year-old self has for this place. Disneyland contains a timeless joy, a simple sense of wonder that can be appreciated by both large and small. It is truly an incredible place. And, more than anything, I want to be an intern for them.

Here is a list of 5 things, in no particular order, that I would love my fictional Disneyland boss to say to me:

1. Sam, Little Japan on the Small World ride has a hole in her sleeve. Can you go stitch that up?
2. Hey, Monstro needs a new coat of paint. Can you climb up there and take care of that?
3. We need help designing costumes for the new parade – do you have any ideas, Sam?
4. There are 1,000 burned out lightbulbs on the Electric Light Parade floats… that’s a good job for an intern!
5. Sam, program this bird so his mouth moves in time to the music.

I think I have a lot of skills that Disneyland would appreciate. I also think my passion for the place would carry me through jobs as tedious as #4. But I digress.

On Sunday, Arianna gave me a tour of the USC campus – what a fancy place! We ate delicious frozen custard at Manhattan Beach, and, listening to the sounds of the ocean, I got to walk along the waves’ edge as night fell. I had my first ever In-n-Out burger experience, which was awesome, and then it was time to go back to the airport. I waved goodbye, thanked Arianna, and wished her luck for Monday (it was supposed to rain! how terrible.)

And then, standby travel lost a fraction of its glitter. There was no room for me on my 11:30pm flight back to Cleveland, so I spent the night in LAX while maintenance men power drilled screws into every wall near my perch. When morning finally came, I made it onto a 6am flight that connected through Dulles – I even got to go to my house for an hour! Surprise!

But regardless of the miserable night in the airport, and my absence from class and work on Monday – the trip was beyond worthwhile. I saw Arianna, who reminded me that I have a friend all the way across the country who is awesome and hilarious and cares about me. I saw the sun, which reminded me of its cheerful existence in times and places other than Cleveland February. And I went to Disneyland, which reminded me that it is my favorite place of all places.

my favorite place: disneyland is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

Every once in awhile, I enter a personal “Ikea phase”. When I’m in this phase, I adore walking around Ikea and playing with all the random items, sliding the drawers in and out, and sitting on the couches to watch Charlotte’s Web*. When I’m in this phase, I wander and therefore don’t mind getting completely lost.

When I’m not in this phase, I walk in and get instantly overwhelmed and become very annoyed when I’m lost. In fact, I don’t believe it’s possible to be any less than lost after stepping through the doors of an Ikea.

But I’ve been trying to cure myself of my Ikea phases for two reasons: because I have a terrible habit of accumulating furniture for no present purpose, and because I think I can make better (and more “me”) furniture than that which comes in those heavy flat boxes.

So it should be no surprise that my favorite spot in all of Ikea is “As-Is” land. The rejects and stray pieces, all clamoring to be part of my next DIY, eager for a better life than they were intended. It was from the “As-Is” land that I rescued the two halves of a large, yellow tabletop, marked $1.99 apiece.

A month later, some friends and I were exploring the school quad when we saw a large open dumpster full of tossed furniture. Among the recently disposed treasures were four solid wood table legs.

“How convenient,” I said. “I have a tabletop waiting at home.”

And so it began. The legs came to me as you see them above: scuffed and coated in an orange-ish semi-opaque stain. In my opinion, no woodworking crime is worse than the application of opaque stain. Why do that? Why cover up the grain? I just don’t understand.

First I saved the legs from the dumpster, then I freed them from their miserable solid-stained state. I could’ve gone at them with a scraper and some stain stripper, but I chose the fast track and used my Christmas present: my Milwaukee Orbit Sander. I turned it to a low speed setting, and gently worked my way up and down each leg. Since it was set to a low speed, the legs remained cylindrical without any funny flat spots. I can’t praise the sander enough – it’s a remarkable and very robust piece of machinery and I can’t wait to use it on more projects!

Also, it has a cute red dust collector bag.

I stained the legs with my favorite shade, American Chestnut, then gave them a few coats of protective, but not glossy, polycoat. I’ve learned that I love staining wood because it is fun and so easy! You brush it on, and it goes on all smooth, and then if anything’s gone wrong you just wipe it with a rag and it’s fine. So much easier than painting!

Above is a picture of the leg after: so much better, no? I can feel how happy it is to be out from under the opaque stain!

The legs were the easy part, but putting the table together wasn’t too bad either! I also had good help.

To make the halves stay together, we drilled holes down the unfinished center of each half and inserted four dowel pins. To keep the center from sagging, we attached an “apron”, a 3″x1/2″ hardwood frame, to the base of the table on all four sides. As you can see in the picture, it is unfinished at the moment, but I will probably stain it to match the legs.

The legs were already attached to steel plates with mounting holes when I found them, so that was easy. I screwed threaded inserts into the tabletop MDF so that the legs can be removed and reattached whenever necessary.

So with the two halves together, the apron attached, and the legs screwed on… the table could stand on its own! Project accomplished.

And I think I can say it looks better than Ikea – and far better than $4!

Products Used**:

• Minwax Wood Finish in American Chestnut – not listed, maybe it’s “Red Chestnut” now?
• Minwax Pre-Stain Conditioner
• Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish
• Milwaukee Random Orbit Palm Sander

*Charlotte’s Web (the animated one of course!) was one of my brother and I’s favorite movies when we were little, and eventually our VHS copy could only play in green squiggles with wobbly sound. So sitting in Ikea, watching Fern take care of Wilbur in full color (not green), is a nostalgic experience.

**I tell you which products I use in case that will help you with your own DIY. I was very happy with how this project turned out, which is the only reason I lightly recommend the products. The Amazon link is a referral link, but the others are just there for your reference.

And yes, this project used supplies (dowel pins, threaded inserts, and hardwood framing) that would have cost more than $4 if I hadn’t had them laying around. But isn’t that what a stash is for?

a $4 table DIY: my foray into woodworking & Ikea hacks is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

Two weekends ago, a number of events occurred. Brad had just received his passport, and it was anxiously awaiting use. I was feeling antsy, since I hadn’t been on a trip in awhile. Brad read about Poutine, a Canadian dish involving french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. And Mike got a new campus job.

So I said, “hey, we should go to Canada.”

And then, we did. A week of planning, lots of international hotel calls (yay google voice – free to canada!), some scurrying and homework-finishing, a five-hour drive, and then – we were over the border.

Friday night, we arrived at our Toronto hotel and headed to our first stop: Big Smoke Burger, allegedly home to the best burgers in Toronto and some fantastic poutine. I say allegedly because I have not tried any other burgers in Toronto – but I don’t doubt that theirs are close to the best. And poutine, as weird as it sounds, was incredibly delicious.

The next morning, we got up early and ate a box of Tim Horton’s Timbits, like true Canadians. Then we acquired our day-long subway passes and began exploring. We started at the St. Lawrence Market, and were amazed at the selection of produce – where does Canada grow all these things?

We bought Kinder Surprise eggs, which are apparently considered contraband in the U.S. But we ate them all (except the surprises!) before crossing the border again.

After further meandering, we headed toward the harbor for a tour of Toronto’s Steamwhistle Brewery. The small brewery is located on the historical grounds of an old roundhouse – you know, the place where the trains go on the circle and get spun into their different garages? I had never seen one in real life, so my 8-year-old Brio-loving self was thrilled to see a roundhouse in real life. It was so cool!

The best part of this brewery tour was the brilliant green that Steamwhistle uses for their packaging. It was everywhere!

After the tour, we headed toward Chinatown for an afternoon lunch. We dashed into an art store, where I bought 13 sheets of the most adorable paper of all time. Then we all had the classic Sam Janis foreign country experience: finding a new fabric store.

Toronto’s King’s Textiles was located near Chinatown, in what is called the Fashion District. The location is a little bit run down, with lots of (awesome) graffiti. But the fabric store was just my type, with a filled-up warehouse feel and creaky floors that you can’t hear because all the sounds are so well-damped by the cloth.

It was large, but not enormous – however, due to the towers of fabric and the eerie stillness of the air, it would be easy to get lost forever. Mike loved that he and Carrie could stand on opposite ends of the aisle pictured, nearly shouting, unable to hear each other.

The only downside of this store was the pricing – fabrics were more than I like to spend. But I was on vacation, and we were in a big city, so what could I expect? I bought a cute turquoise knit and plan to make a henley of some kind.

While in the Fashion District, we happened upon the giant thimble at the top of this post. That discovery and its photographic proof justify my trip entirely.

The Fashion District isn’t like the Garment Districts in Paris or New York – the area was mostly dedicated to clothing stores, although I did find a few stores selling buttons. And with two boys in tow, my shopping freedom was limited.

Everything in Toronto closes early, presumably because it’s so cold. So we took the long way home, stopped at some stores and ate more poutine, then took the subway back to the hotel. The subway was one long, continuous car with accordion joints and moving floors to accomodate twists in the track: Brad and Mike insisted on riding where the floor moved.

We got in the car and drove to our Saturday night hotel near Niagara Falls, and ate grilled cheeses at a strange diner that looked like a spaceship.

After Church Sunday morning, another Tim Horton’s breakfast, and an exploration of Canadian Wal-Mart to find milk that comes in bags, we headed out to look at Niagara Falls. I have decided two things: 1. It is a large waterfall and 2. It is a very cold place to be in early February.

We were hoping for something louder, more menacing perhaps – but the rushing water was, instead, almost of the peaceful sort. Near the falls, the mist was falling down on us as snow flurries, which was way cool – but a further reminder that February is not the best time for a visit.

We froze, I took lots of pictures, Mike ate yet more Tim Horton’s, and then we headed back to school. Our work was waiting where we left it, but we felt good – especially me. Who picks up and goes to another country for the weekend? I like the idea of being that person – again.

hellooo-oh, canada! is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

Last weekend was the first weekend: the weekend after the first week of classes. And rather than relax and unwind whilst simultaneously winding (up for the new semester), I sacrificed my weekend for a retreat.

This retreat was different because I wasn’t a standard participant. It’s a First Year retreat, for freshmen to develop their roots as college Catholics. My First Year retreat was a vivid and transforming experience for me, so I felt the need to give back. That need called me to organize the food for the first years. Of course, I also signed up two months before the retreat’s scheduled date, believing it would be a piece of cake when the time finally came.

Only as I was making my Costco list did I realize what I was in for. I had to plan and purchase food (reimbursed of course) for 20 people?! For a weekend?!

Estimating quantities was so stressful that I wanted to give up, to throw my list at anyone else and say, “You do this. I want my first weekend to myself, not around stupid freshmen.”

My wonderful friends came with me to Costco, and the five of us dominated the self-checkout like pros, scanning and stacking and boxing. And my miracle station wagon managed to hold all the food along with a full load of passengers. Even though Brad now cringes at the word Costco, we made it out alive.

And I made it out to a wonderful world of snow, light, and space.

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, yes, but I also spent a lot of time retreating. Bonding with the freshmen over our shared faith, sharing stories and experiences and beliefs. I cooked and served them lovingly, and they all helped me and nobody complained when food was a few minutes late.

What struck me was that, even with a 3-year age gap, our retreat conversations were so relevant. When we were all speaking from our hearts, the feelings were universal.

Then breaktime would ensue, and the bond was broken as talk turned to dining hall food and freshmen classes. But I still remember those magical moments.

So maybe I did need a retreat. Mine was a retreat of service and reflection, and so much gratitude. Grateful that I had gone on the retreat as a freshman; grateful that I had signed up for kitchen duty on a whim. I lost a weekend, but I gained perspective: that’s enough.

(and i served my “secret recipe”, ultimate overnight french toast, so everyone was happy.)

a weekend filled with gratitude is a post from: Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog