12/30/2008
Toadstool Love
12/22/2008
Christmas-y Goodness
I know, everyone makes fun of me for liking that movie so much but it really is one of my favorites this time of year. Also on the list is Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, and of course all the old Rudolph claymations.
Anywho, on to the garland. I got a package of dried orange slices last year at a farm shop near my parent's house and I had an idea to make a garland with them. I always see these amazing garlands in magazines made from whole walnuts or nutmeg and knotted ribbon and I've always wanted one, but I also wanted something colorful and nice enough to leave up year-round.
So I was shopping for presents at World Market and I found packets of whole nutmeg for a dollar each and I got 5 of them. I borrowed Dennis and his drill and he helped me drill holes in the center of each of them. The whole house smelled like nutmeg! Then I picked out a ton of red, green, white, clear, and turquoise vintage beads from my stash and grabbed some deep red linen embroidery floss.
To start, I threaded a long needle and sewed thru one side of an orange slice and tied the thread with a few square knots. Then I threaded 5-6 different colors of beads and then a nutmeg, more beads, another nutmeg, then more beads. Then I sewed thru the side of another orange slice and tied off the thread tight. I kept going until I used up all the orange slices and the resulting garland is super long and smells heavenly, and it looks super cute with the little holiday vignettes I put up in the built-ins. I especially like how the orange slices look when light shines thru them, kind of like little stained glass windows.
I can't believe those little trees were $2.50 at Target. There were only a few left when I found them and I should have bought them all, what was I thinking?! Oh well. The little deer are from the toy store where I work.
And the tree is covered with all the old ornaments Angela and I had. Very cozy this year, just the way we like it.
12/19/2008
Success!
12/05/2008
Very Last Minute
11/29/2008
I've Been Busy...
11/10/2008
Shop Update!
11/05/2008
Beads and more beads!
11/04/2008
Busy Bee
I finished a scarf made from ArtFibers yarns. It's made from red and pink Quipu and orange Valparaiso. Instead of weaving in the ends of yarn as I switched colors, I left them loose and tied them with weaver's knots, then trimmed the fringe to 3/4" and I adore it! I still can't decide whether to keep it or sell it, but selling usually wins out.
I finished a little zakka lunchbag that I started lord knows how long ago. It's crocheted from cream, chocolate, and robin's egg blue yarns and the pattern is from one of my many Japanese craft books. They always turn out smaller than you think they will, but somehow they're still the perfect size; fits a soda, sandwich, and fruit just fine. I lined it with a vintage cloth napkin I found at a thrift store and added a vintage basketweave linen handle. I'll probably do a shop update sometime early next week.
I also made a pillow to photograph etsy stuff on which will hopefully make it easier for me to get things listed faster. I just couldn't find a consistently good way to photograph my stuff in this new home, but this may be it! Keep your fingers crossed.
And lastly I made a papercut inspired by this one from Craftstylish. I want to mount it on the handmade paper I photographed it on, but I'm not sure what I want to do with it. I tried writing a poem on it, but it wouldn't fit. I'll have to think on that one for a while. Oh yeah, and I got all of the halloween decorations put away. I hope this trend of getting things done keeps going, it feels good! Hopefully tomorrow I'll be making brownies and chicken pot pie for dinner (probably not in that order, lol) and squeeze in some crafting since I've already turned in my absentee vote. Don't forget to vote!
11/03/2008
Just a quick update...
In other news, I've been working on some hand-sewing projects, but mostly just little things here and there. The constantly chaotic craft table was cleaned up for the Halloween party, so hopefully it will stay that way long enough for me to get some real work done on my day off. Of course, that's never going to happen unless I get my butt off to bed. 'Night!
11/02/2008
Happy Halloween!
The kitchen looked really cute this year with little vignettes on the built-ins.
It was Dennis' idea to put the big spider behind the TV. I really like the way he looks and don't really want to take him down.
While visiting my parents we went to San Luis Obispo and there was this eight foot tall lego storm trooper walking around downtown. It was so cool!