September Magazines: "The Issue" or "The Issue for Ads"?

I have a confession.  I love fashion magazines.  And not the high-fashion, editorial ones; I'm talking the flashy, exciting-looking ones that are obviously targeted for younger women.  So obviously I was excited for all the September issues to arrive at my door a few weeks ago.  I even got the more high-fashion ones.  It is, after all "The Issue" of the year.

Don't you just want to dive in to these bad boys?

Now, I am never one to really pay too much attention to ads.  I mainly just flip through them until I get to the content.  But as I was reading, I realized that I was flipping a lot more pages than usual and it got me wondering: how much of the September issues are actual content and how much is advertisements?  Certainly the much anticipated giant-sized issues would be jam packed with addicting fashion content, right? So I decided to find out.

First, I cut out all of the pages that had an ad on both sides of the page, but I noticed that half, if not more, only had an ad on one side of the page.  So, for every two ads I cut out one page.  Yes, I had to cut out actual content, believe me there was careful deliberation on which pages were to be cut (mostly, though, were the contents pages and the credits...and maybe a few pages that didn't really interest me) : ).

I was left with this:

See those loose pages? Those are all the ads in each magazine.

Now, for each magazine I did a few things, I found the percentage of ads (nerd alert!) per issue and also took note the type of ads.  Does Vogue have more of a certain type of ads compared to Marie Claire?  Here's what I found:

People's Style Watch

Of its 328 pages, 55% were ads.  

Glamour

386 pages, 56.7% ads.

Marie Claire

430 pages, 52.6% ads.  Marie Claire had the lowest percentage of ads of the lot.  I was thinking this could be because Marie Claire leans more towards more of a lifestyle magazine instead of solely being a fashion magazine.

Harper's Bazaar

 600 pages, 60% ads.

Elle

Now we're really getting into the heavy hitters.  658 pages, 62% ads.

InStyle (My personal favorite)

716 pages, 59.5% ads.

And finally,

Vogue

With a whopping 902 pages, 64.75% of it was ads.

Notice a pattern?  It seems that the more pages that a magazine boasts that it has, the higher percentage of ads it contains.  Now ,that being said, the 65% of ads in Vogue still leaves 318 pages of content, which is more than the 147 pages of content in People's Style Watch.  The most pleasant surprise was InStyle.  InStyle has always been one of my favorite magazines, especially around fall time.  And for being one of the issues with the most pages this month, I was delighted that it had the same amount of ads as some of the smaller magazines. It was also the only one I actually struggled with what one-sided pages to cut out.

Vogue did have the greatest amount of pages, but it had the biggest amount of advertisements.  

Random tidbit: Harper's Bazaar had a huge amount of jewelry ads, 37 (compered to Glamour's measly 7).  I was thinking this could be maybe because Harper's Bazaar is more geared towards older women, and older women...can afford more jewelry? I don't really know, but I thought it was interesting.  Also, Vogue the only magazine I had to buy, as I subscribe to the rest (thank you Coke rewards).  Another thing that I thought was kind of interesting, most of the ads were in the front and became less frequent the further you got into the magazine.  

I should point out that I fully plan on recycling all the magazine carnage I was left with, and I made sure that everyone in my house had a chance to read each one before a cut it up.  In the end I was left with this:

Makes you think doesn't it?  More than half of every magazine we read is made up of advertisements.  Are we buying the coveted September issues because they have an increased amount of content, or is it because it's been heightened by all the magazine companies, and in turn the ad companies? 

What do you think about the amount of advertisements in fashion magazines?  What is your favorite magazine?

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!!! I hope you're having a fun and safe holiday weekend!

I got to spend some quality time with my family, which is always a good time in my book.  I went out to lunch and did some shopping with my sister.  Afterwards, we picked up some food to grill up at Trader Joe's.

Tilapia,Asparagus, and Sweet Potato Tots, Yum : )

Doesn't it look delicious? My sister did all the cooking (it's where her 'crafty-ness' comes out) and had a pretty genius idea to put pie tins (like the one in the background above) directly on the grill so everything was cooked in the same place!

While she was cooking I was watching The Walking Dead marathon on AMC and...

...creating some festive 4th of July nails! 

The polishes I used were:

Base - OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Red chevrons - Finger Paints' Expressionist Red

Wet 'n' Wild's Saved by the Blue

Gold Glitter - ORLY's Too Fab

Top Coat - NYC's Matte Me Crazy

Hexagon Glitter - Born Pretty Store

Stamping Plate - Bundle Monster BM 201

I wasn't so sure about the matte topcoat so I added a coat of Seche Vite:

I think they turned out pretty festive! I also added the silver hexagon glitter to my middle nail, but only on my right hand as I wasn't sure how I liked it.

Later in the evening my Mom, sister and I got into a heated game of Spite and Malice.

Am I the only one who grew up playing this game?  Most of my friends have never even heard of it, but my family has been playing it since I can remember.

BONUS:

How awesome-ly cute are these patriotic pretzels?! I found them at the grocery store and couldn't resist grabbing these bad boys up based on looks alone. :)

My family ended the evening by watching fireworks on TV (there have been storms all week so we decided to stay indoors and watch the fireworks from the safety of our home).  Now I'm off to snuggle with my cat, he's afraid of loud noises and fireworks are going to be going off all night. Not a bad day.

How is everyone else celebrating the holiday?  Any traditions you do every year?

Tetris Baby Blanket

Did anyone else play massive amounts of Tetris when they were younger?  My brother played lots of video games, all of which I sucked at, but Tetris I could kick some butt in. (Don't even get me started on when I would try and play Mortal Combat with him.)  It was also the only game that my Dad would play, so the game has a special place in my non-gamer heart.

I play much better than this.

When my sister's friend, Krista, announced that she was expecting I was super excited. Firstly, because Yay baby! Secondly because I love making crafty baby things. Now Krista and her hubby Steve are very hip, and I knew that an ordinary baby blanket just wouldn't do.  While searching online for wonderfully nerdy patterns that could also translate for a baby, I found this Tetris blanket pattern.

The pattern is an intarsia, which is a skill I have yet to learn, but since it is a simple block pattern, I figured sewing together squares would still look good.

I didn't want to do granny squares (not that they aren't fabulous) because I thought it would be too whole-y for a baby.  So I went on a hunt to find a square pattern that would work and found this awesome washcloth pattern and got to work.

Goober 'helping' me crochet.

Confession time; I usually lack the patience to finish any crochet/knitting project that's larger than a hat (I also have trouble knitting the second mitten once I finish the first).  Phew!  Now I feel better.  Thankfully around the time I started crocheting the squares TNT started showing repeats of the The Mentalist for what seemed like all day, everyday.  I got hooked and so did my yarn! It took my about a month, but I finished all the squares and sewed it together.

Enter Krista's baby shower.  

The shower was peanut themed. So. Cute.

There were baby pictures of Krista and Steve on each table.

And the glowing Mama-to-be.

Krista has a hilarious blog on her pregnancy here.  You should definitely check it out.

Here's the completed Tetris blanket:

I loved how it turned out!  I think it's perfectly nerdy.  I wanted each shape to be outlined so I sewed the individual shapes with the same color then sewed it all together using yellow yarn.

I had a great time at the baby shower and a great time making the Tetris blanket for little peanut. : )

Also HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  I'm thankful for my adorable nephew Garrett who has his first Thanksgiving today!

What are you thankful for?

Jo's Scarf

My aunt Jo is where I get most of my crafting inspiration!  She's the one that originally taught me how to crochet when I was younger and how to knit around the time I was starting high school.  Jo is definitely the one I look up to for all my crafting and she has crocheted a blanket for me and each one of my siblings along with her other relatives.

Throwback Thursday! My gorgeous Aunt holding an infant version of me.

It wasn't until a recent trip to her house when she was showing my mom and I a crocheted afghan that someone had made for her.  She said that it was one of her most treasured items because she always made blankets for everyone but it was the only time that someone had made something for her.  It had (stupidly) never occurred to me that she would like something handmade just as much as the rest of us!
I had been thinking about doing something for my aunt for a while but, since she lives in South Carolina, most of the things that I usually make (hats especially) are a little too warm and I needed a pattern for something that was a more lightweight that she could use when it gets a bit chilly.

Enter The Purl Bee. This infinity scarf had been in my extraordinary long "to-do" list for a while (please tell me I'm not the only one that who saves almost every pattern that I like knowing I couldn't possibly make them all), and it seemed like a classy-looking stitch (my aunt is a very classy lady).  It was also a stitch I hadn't tried yet and I was excited to try it out.

I wanted to add a little embellishment so I crocheted an edging with some sock yarn I had.

Sorry about the cropping, it was not the greatest pic of me. : )

I really liked how it turned out and my aunt loved it, so it was a success!  I actually really enjoyed learning the herringbone stitch and I'm currently working on a scarf for myself, so I'll post it as soon as it's done.

Does anyone else remember the fad when it was suddenly "cool" to learn how to knit and everyone (well, every girl) was bringing their knitting to class?  I definitely remember thinking that I knew how to knit years before they did (it was the closest I'll ever be to hipster).

What's your favorite handmade gift?

Nail Polish Wall Rack

I love reading nail polish blogs, and I kept wondering where they keep what seemed like an endless supply of polishes.  While I don't nearly have the amount of polishes as they do, I have plenty and keeping them all in a Target bag wasn't a great way to keep them stored.  After a little searching (a.k.a Tumblring) I found this lovely tutorial on how to make your own nail polish wall rack!

Despite being just foam board and hot glue, the thing is pretty sturdy! I may have added way more glue underneath each shelf out of worry but it holds up pretty well!

Also, I love putting things in rainbow order!  My slight OCD sighs in relief at just the sight of it (you can also see that my yarn in my bookcase is in rainbow order as well).

I've added a few more polishes since taking these pictures (like OPI's Just Spotted The Lizard that's currently on my toes!) but I still have the bottom shelf open for my nail stamping plates and stamper and cotton balls.  

Making the rack made me realize how many greens, blues, purples, and pinks I have, so whenever I'm close to buying another polish I have to make sure I don't have a similar color at home.  My mom always comments that I have too many polishes but I feel that's like saying I have too much yarn (impossible!).

How much nail polish do you own? Where do you store them all?

Olympic Nails!

I couldn't be happier that nail art is becoming more popular!  Even some of the Olympians are sporting nail art for their country!  I'm a little late to the Olympic nail post party BUT the games are still going on (watching women's gymnastics reclaiming the gold since the 1996 games and seeing Michael Phelps' last race have been the highlights of mine so far) so I'm not too far behind.

I tried making a torch on my ring finger (it's upside-down in the pic above) and I'm happy with it!

The polishes I used were:

Icing - White (it had no label sticker)

Finger Paints - Expressionist Red

N.Y.C. - West Village (blue)

Sally Girl - Black

Spoiled - Daddy's Credit Card

Spoiled - Pirate's Booty

L.A. Colors Liner - Gold Glitter

L.A. Colors Liner - Silver Glitter

Sally Hansen Color Stick - Gold Chrome

Top Coat - Sally Hansen No Chip Top Coat

The red glitter came from a pack of small glitter polishes from Meijers a while back and I threw out the packaging before I remembered the name. I also used Bundle Monster Stamping Plate BM 201. The chevron stripes has got to be my favorite stamp of the whole bundle, I use it probably every time I stamp my nails.

Here's my other hand.  The torch is right-side up this time.  I wanted to incorporate the red, white, and blue (Go Team USA) and gold, silver, and bronze, so on my index finger I did stripes of each medal.  Spoiled's Pirate's Booty was the closest polish I had to bronze.  It's a little on the sheer side but I think it looks alright.

By the way how hilarious are the Spoiled's polish names?  I found them at CVS on sale for $1 each! I had to restrain myself from going overboard!  I may have spend far too long reading the names of each bottle. : )

Also, if you're into nail stamping, you should definitely get your hands on Sally Hansen's Color Sticks.  I got five of them in a nail polish kit for Christmas.  Simply brushing them straight onto the nail doesn't look so great, but they stamp like a dream! The colors that I have are all metallics (or Chromes, as they say on the label) and I love stamping them over creme polishes because the contrast is pretty striking.

But enough about the stamping, how are you liking the Olympics so far? What are your favorite sports to watch?  The swimming and the gymnastics are my favorites.  It definitely makes me want to go swimming, but I have a feeling it's not as easy or fun as they make it look on T.V. : )

What's your favorite event?

The First Post!

The awkward first post! I figure I'll just start with what I plan on doing with this blog:
I currently have a lot of time on my hands, which means I'm, more often than not, bored out of my mind. To cure my boredom, I've been doing a lot of crafts that I had been planning on dong later.
........Soooooo this blog will be my adventures in crafting!  It will also be a way for me to document my progress for myself! I hope you enjoy!
Kristin

P.S. I picked the title 'The Crafty Giant' because I love crafts and I'm nearly 6 feet tall (5'11" to be exact), a giant compared to the average American lady!
Also bear with me, as I learn how to make the blog look as pretty as possible!