Two Things I Really Like

1. Ravelry

I've probably mentioned Ravelry a few times already. It's website for cataloguing knitting and crochet projects, patterns and yarns, so it's highly relevant, to say the least! The reason why I remembered that I love it is ...

I started making this scarf last week:

I found the yarn in the drawer of the coffee table and started making it on impulse. It's just a very simple V-stitch, I could practically do it in my sleep once I got the hang of it. I was working away happily on it here and there for a week, when I suddenly noticed with a sinking feeling that the ball was looking a little anaemic. Will I have enough yarn to make a scarf that's not pathetically short? Did I have 2 balls of this yarn, or just the one?

Am I feeling lucky, punk??

So I looked up my stash of almost 250 yarns in my Ravelry database. The ballband had gone astray, and I couldn't remember what it was called. All I did was change the display settings to 'Alphabetical by Colourway', scroll down to 'lavender' and there it was! I do have two balls, and not only that, I know exactly where the other one is! Easy!
My careful record-keeping back when I bought the yarn (entering in the colour, location, a photo of it, etc.) has proved invaluable, but if it weren't for Ravelry, I could never have kept those records in the first place. Yay!

2. Protopage

I was put onto Protopage a couple of years ago by friend/mentor A., after I complained about my bad luck with finding a site/tool to read blogs with, that doesn't disappear after 6 months. Protopage is basically an extremely simple webpage creator. You add boxes to it which can contain blog subscriptions, links, lists, images or just text. You can make them open to the public, private, or password-protected if you only want to share your page with certain people. Mine is private, but I'll show you a screenshot:

I created tabs which can hold blogs on different topics: craft, art, fashion, culture, news, etc. My interests tend to oscillate between different things. I'll be totally obsessed with crochet for a month or two. Then I get bored with that and I want to read all about embroidery, or altering clothes, then back to crochet. I set up the tabs and boxes within them so it would make it easy for me to find blogs about things that interest me at that moment. And it's great!

Over time, however, I slowly noticed that I was slipping behind on some of my favourite blogs. While I was skipping straight to the Fashion tab to get inspiration from Le Blog de Big Beauty and By Anika, I somehow got 3 months behind on Crazy Aunt Purl and Little Lixie! I was strangely upset when I realised. It's like a friend that you love spending time with, and you suddenly realised you haven't called her in ages.

So I took the easy and obvious solution, and I created a new tab for my favourite blogs of all genres. Once I've read all the new posts from that, I then go to my current tabs of interest. I feel much happier now. Yay!

P.S. I started Yet Another new project last night. I'll post some pics soon!

Changes

A few factors have come together recently to make me think about how I do things.

Why do I go into a flap every time I sell something on my Etsy [shop closed] and then procrastinate like crazy until the Guilt Monster swallows me up and I fail my ridiculously high standards and the parcel doesn't get sent for *GASP* 4 whole days!! Why do I find that unacceptable?
Why did it take me nearly a year to get up the guts to ask for leave at work? Why do I have such trouble asking for what I want?
Why do I keep clinging on to things I don't really need or want anymore? Like the two cupboards-full of yarn that I know deep down inside that I'll never use up? They're clogging up space so much in our hobby room that I don't have room to do things I really want to do.
Why do I write notes when I send my orders saying, "I hope you like it"? They bought it for a reason, didn't they? I should be writing, "you're probably gonna like it because I think it's great!" I appreciate all those wonderful shoppers so much - thank you! I should appreciate myself a bit more, though.
Why do I use the word "should" so much?
Why do I spend so much time on the computer looking at other people's creativity and so little exploring my own? And why does the Guilt Monster yell at me about that, too?
Why do I spend so much time curled up into a big, tight Stress Ball when I'm pretty sure I know enough about myself to know how to uncurl from it?
Why do I act more like my real self at work than I do with my friends? Am I the only person in the world to be in this situation or what?
Why don't I seem to manage to drink 2 litres of water every day?
Why aren't I Naturally Slender yet??
Why does it even matter?
Why have I had Bad Romance by Lady GaGa, but sung in the voice of Olive Oyl, stuck in my head for the last week? Does my brain hate me??

What's prompted all this self-reflection and scary over-sharing? Blogs!
* A while back, I subscribed to Four Rooms blog [now closed]. The writer has made it her mission to live by the old Native American concept of Four Rooms. Our lives consist of the Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual, and we should endeavour to spend some time in each of these 'rooms' each day to lead a balanced life. I realised that I've been trying to do this for some time by making sure I do some exercise every day, as well as having some quiet time and some creative time. Most days I don't quite get there! But on the days that I do, I feel much better. It's helpful to me to have concrete concepts and imagery to concentrate on, so I want to adopt the Four Rooms idea to make my life more balanced.

* I found Havi at Fluent Self recently. She's all about improving herself, overcoming fears and coaching others to do the same. I love her lighthearted style and use of silly words to make the process more fun and interesting. I could probably do with some more Iguanability (accountability) and regular Chickens (check-ins) myself!

* I also like to read Hyperbole and a Half, because Allie reminds me that you can be individualist and nonsensical and a little bit crazy and you can talk about your experiences and fears and people will still love you and it's not that scary after all.

I've made a decision. I'll tell you about it in a couple of days, when I have the details sorted out.

Now here's a pretty picture to remind us all that life is colourful and really quite good:


Colorful lanterns, originally uploaded by lelandadam.

Writing is Boring .. To Watch, Anyway.

A lot of my spare time lately has been taken up with writing - writing exercises and experiments, writing lists of things to do, writing in my art journal, writing emails to friends for their or my succour, signing up for an online writing course that I haven't had time to start yet, trying to finish a book about writing that's due back at the library soon, reading about writing, talking about writing, thinking about writing ... and even selling my writing! Unfortunately, all that activity doesn't tend to add up to blog posts with pretty images, and unless I'm willing to post what I've written, not much content either. So, I'll show you what isn't too boring or too personal, and what I've been able to take half-decent photos of, and if I fill in the gaps with images of things that I like from Etsy or Flickr, I hope you forgive me. Besides, it's my blog and I'll post whatever I want!

Today I'd like to share some of the new and inspiring blogs I've started reading recently, in:

EIGHT GREAT BLOGS I JUST FOUND

1. Fawa - I love her cutesy-kitsch yet slightly creepy illustrations, and I just ordered some hand-carved rubber stamps from her Etsy shop. Her little monster pouches are adorable too. I love the way she works in different media, a bit like me. The fact that she's in Mexico got me excited too.

2. Sara Wears Clothes - [No longer available as of Jan 2010] - This new fashion blog is one of those a-post-a-day, this-is-what-I-wore-today blogs. But unlike any other I've seen, this girl has a dress size in the double-figures, and actual cleavage. So empowering!

3.Go Fug Yourself - Another fashion blog, this is one of my few celebrity-watching indulgences. A plethora of fugly outfits with laugh-out-loud commentary.

4.The Argyle Academy - by Mike Lowery. His illustrations are cute and whimsical and everyday and magical and witty. And he's just gotten back from Japan.

5. ii-ne-kore and jollygoo - Two blogs dedicated to Japanese design, aesthetics and food. One is by an ex-pat Japanese girl living in Melbourne. Both of them regularly make my mouth go 'O'. I couldn't stop at just one!

6. Spiritual Evolution of the Bean - Biffy Beans is a former heavy-metal fan who's obsessed with ink, pens and paper and uses them to make beautiful mandalas. She's on my reader because: a) she's even more obsessed with art supplies than I am, and b) she demonstrates what amazing art can be made from the most simple materials.

7. Capybara Madness - I've recently branched out from reading craft blogs only, and I think I'm the better for it. This one about (and by?) Caplin Rous, a pet capybara living in the U. S. but who has his little paw on the world-wide capybara pulse.

8. A Lovely Dream - by Suzi Blu. A mixed media artist who does tutorial videos on art, journalling and all round just loving yourself. Her dog Gigi is adorable. I think I have a bit of a lady crush on her. And I'm OK with that.

Art Journalling - Ur Doin It Wrong!

About 18 months ago, I started an art journal. About 12 months ago, it got lost in the hobby room somewhere. I did about 10 pages, but it slowly petered out. I wanted to journal, but it just didn't happen. It wasn't for lack of ideas or materials: I had plenty of both. I had logistical difficulties, you see. I would cover a page with layers of lovely, luscious glazes, and the page would just warp and go wrinkly. I would colour in an area with black crayon, and it would end up marking half the other pages too, even when I inserted a piece of tissue paper. The cover went all floppy when I tried to put a base layer of paint on it. After a while, it wouldn't lie flat when it was open because the previous wrinkled, warped pages were so bulky. It drove me nuts, and I gave up. Then, over time, my painting station slowly accumulated mounds of unrelated junk - receipts, doctor's letters, magazines, souvenirs and other random stuff - making it completely impossible to do any painting or drawing without spending hours moving and sorting all that stuff first. It was all just too hard. I was sad, but I didn't have the motivation to do anything about it.

Last weekend, motivated by an urge to write, I cleared off my painting station (converting it to, as I thought at the time, purely a writing station). I had the smart idea of putting all the junk in a box, so I could go through it at my own leisure. Here is my writing painting creating station now:

1. Mug with gel pens, scissors, smaller paintbrushes.
2. Vase with larger paintbrushes, foam roller, pencils with Star Trek toppers, mirror.
3. Glue caddy. A wire caddy that was originally full of hot sauces.
4. Bizarre purple ceramic thingy that I got at an op-shop, which I think might be a pen holder. I'm using it as a brush holder.
5. Chinese ink and larger paint pots.
6. Organiser drawers which I installed just yesterday. They contain my art journal, writing journal, spare writing journals, and pencil case with special writing pens.
7. On top are my rubber stamps, another pencil case with my special drawing pens, and a dinosaur figurine.
8. Window. During the day, there's a nice view of a tree and courtyard of my building.
9. Lamp. Hanging off it are beaded book thongs and elfy Tree decoration I bought from Jelli Bat last December.
10. Spools of ribbon and candle holders with sponge and aloe vera gel in them. That's just stuff I haven't gotten around to tidying off yet.
11. Box with acrylic paints in it.
12. Inspirational dragon plaque and kapibara-san coin purse that I got in Japan. Also a lip balm. I have stashes of them all over the house.


When I sat down to do some creative writing exercises, my metallic textas and rubber stamps were still on the table. After I finished the exercises, I found myself spending just as much time decorating the borders of my pages as I had writing! And it felt good. So what's wrong with decorating my writing journal if I feel like it?

It got me thinking about my old art journal, and what had gone wrong with it. For a start, I'd bought the cheapest scrapbook I could find. It needed to be sturdier, with a real hard cover. It needed thicker paper. It needed to be bound like a proper hard-cover book so it would lie flatter. Basically - I had to stop being tight for a minute! Secondly, I hadn't done any research on materials. I had just used whatever I had lying around. But I didn't know anything about what the best paints were for laying down backgrounds, what the best markers were that didn't bleed through to the other side, what glue was best for adding collage. No wonder it went wrong more often than not! This time, I'm going to try to keep in mind that it's important to observe and learn, not just to do. My perception has changed - I thought that a tutorial on 'how to make art' is a bit beside the point. You just DO it. You just ... be creative. But then it occurred to me - when I was a little kid and I learned to knit, I had to actually learn to knit. Then I learned more techniques and practised and I got better. Singers learn how to sing, writers learn how to write. They need to get to know their instrument or medium before they can get the most out of it. So I would like to do some research (as an information geek, I have no issues there!), start over again and make a better art journal. No, not better, just more appropriate to my needs.

Yes, I'm proud of some of the pages I did in the old one, this one for example:

but overall it just doesn't inspire me to get it out and turn the pages, reminisce over old ones and be excited about making new ones. And I think that's what's important.

So I've enrolled in an online course run by Dawn Sokol of the art journalling blog D'Blogala (among many other projects). I find her blog very inspiring, so I'm sure it'll be good. It consists of a weekly e-mail every week for 10 weeks, with attached tutorial, tips, etc. It's US$15, which seems very reasonable. The only problem is - it doesn't start until 12th August! That's a whole month away! I bought a lovely sturdy journal from Riot Art n Craft yesterday and I'm ready to start! I'm the kind of person that wants it now, cause I know that tomorrow I'll have moved on and be all excited about something else. But the thing about art journalling is that you can put it aside and come back to it later. It's as finished as you want it to be. And there's such a huge scope with what can be done with them. Why couldn't I write in it instead of paint sometimes, take some photos and stick those in instead of draw, if I felt like it?

I started already, last night. Here is page One, a declaration of intent:

[The text says: "ART JOURNAL No. 2. Yes, I know the first one isn't finished yet, but I really feel I need to start afresh."]

P.S. I also wrote a Tanka poem tonight too! I'll post it next time.

Unfortunately... Meme

Ok, I couldn't resist this meme, which I saw on the Meet Me At Mike's Blog:

What you do is google "unfortunately [your name]" and cut and paste the sentences that come up. The fact that most of them are going to be fragmentary in the description of the search results makes some of them quite intriguing. Here are some of mine!

Unfortunately Katie does not live anywhere near Toronto ...
Unfortunately Katie wasn't able to share her real feelings with Mike ...
Unfortunately Katie isn't a titan, she's an anchor miniature ...
Unfortunately Katie was not shown again in the States until she was three and half ...
Unfortunately Katie is nothing compared to the ultimate hotness, Michelle Pfeiffer ...
Unfortunately Katie is a different style and therein lies the problem ...
Unfortunately Katie and those around her come across as sanitized versions of people ...
unfortunately Katie has reached understanding of life that most ...
Unfortunately Katie's best efforts to gets flowers seems to go wrong somehow and she ends up hopping in and out of several paintings in her search for a ...
Unfortunately Katie's face is completely obscured by an "ectoplasmic" ...

P.S. I have a new banner for my blog! I spent a couple of hours faffing around on Picture2Life.com over the long weekend, and that was the result.

P.P.S. Boy has a blog now too! He's documenting his 18-month drawing course, so if you're into drawing, learning, looking at pictures or just all around self-improvement, check it out!.

Eight Great Blogs!

I've decided to start an occasional series where I list things I like, just cause I feel like it. I've started with my favourite blogs. Well, a few of them. The list on my reader currently runs to 141, and it was quite difficult to choose just 8. Perhaps I should call this Eight Great Blogs, Part 1!

* Meet Me At Mikes - The blog of the shop of the same name in Fitzroy. Mostly art, craft and vintage wares. Full of kitsch, funny, sweet, personal content. Updated frequently. The recent story about how the author helped a drag queen home late one night was absolutely adorable and typical of her generous spirit. I've got this one at the top of my reader!

* Crazy Aunt Purl - Used to be all about knitting, now it's more about the author's quirky life as a Southern gal living in Los Angeles. She posts once every 2 or 3 days, so you get regular updates without it being overwhelming. Her four cats, her commute to work, her out-of-control garden and her wine-laced knitting jaunts are a source of endless amusing stories. She also chronicles her attempts to improve her life by, among other things, deciding that she won't buy anything (unneccessary) for 6 months. I always click onto her blog when I need a pick-me-up.

* Plush You! - These guys just love plush! It's the blog for the Schmancy Shop and annual exhibition in Seattle. All kinds of handmade soft toys are featured, from the amazingly adorable to the truly creepy. The annual Plush You exhibition is on in October, and it makes me want to impulsively buy a plane ticket! I get lots of inspiration from this blog, though I haven't done anything about it yet!

* Crafty Pod - Home of the Craftypod podcast and so much more. Sister Diane is the doyen of all that is crafty, kitschy and fabulous. Her wry sense of humour and childlike glee in discovering new items makes both the blog and the podcast very consumable. (I actually get excited whenever I see a new podcast coming out.) I especially love her regular presentations of vintage booklets with the wierdest crafts you have ever seen. I'm not sure how often she posts as my reader doesn't pick her up properly (*pouts*) but its always a joy to read.
NOTE: This website is now offline. Here is the Craftypod Instagram.

* Joyful Abode - Mostly about cooking, this blog also touches on house-y stuff generally and the author's personal life. (Just recently she held a raffle to help raise money for the vets bills for a stray dog she found recently. She often shares kind gestures such as this.) The recipes are always easy and slip right into just about anyone's life, and she loves sharing tutorials of how she figured out different techniques. She has an online shop selling aprons, stationery, etc, but she doesn't annoyingly drop it into every post like some. This blog always makes me feel like I too, can be a 21st-century Betty Crocker. Posts about 3-4 times a week.

* The Tiny Fig - The blog of Connie, an Etsy seller from Canada. She makes the most adorable kawaii-inspired jewellery and more recently fabric pouches. She occasionally posts about personal topics, but it's mostly about the development of her range and her experiences with new equipment, materials and techniques. Despite the frequent mentions of her shop, she only talks about her experiences, not 'go buy my stuff' type plugs, so it's interesting to read. She is happy to share the lessons she's learned about running an independent craft business, and even hosts a second blog called Sweet Figments, which highlights other sellers. I feel I can really relate to this blog as I have similar experiences and problems as an Etsy seller. I love clicking on and finding out what she's up to!
NOTE: While the shop is still running, the blogs mentioned in this point are offline.

* Accidental Hedonist - This one's all about food, baby! And drink! It includes everything from summaries of current issues (e.g. a spinach recall (?!)) to reviews of kitchen equipment to articles about the history of whiskey and other spirits. The tone is down-to-earth yet knowledgeable. It's a fascinating read from a true gourmand, but it updates a bit too often for me to keep up properly. Still, I try my best!

* D'Blogala - I have only just discovered this blog, but it looks wonderful. It's written by Dawn Sokol, who runs classes and has now written a book about art journals. It's full of techniques, materials and ideas, and she seems very happy to answer reader's questions and provide encouragement. I will definitely have to go through the old posts on this one and I'm sure I'll be painting up a storm in no time! I've already visited Riot Art n Craft for a few supplies.

Magazines

I let my subscription to Creative Knitting lapse - because it was shit* - and I subscribed to Handmade instead. I figured that as I was branching out in my crafty endeavours, this would give me some ideas for different crafts. I received my first issue in the mail yesterday. Perhaps I should have put in a bit more research before I decided where to switch my loyalties to. Or perhaps it was just an unfortunate issue to be my first. It's the bumper Christmas issue!

Well, I don't celebrate Christmas, and I only like Christmas decorations for their kitsch value, which kinda cuts out anything made after about 1980. Now, if it had a Dias de los Muertos issue, that would rock big time! As if! At least there's some sites in the U.S. that cater to that, like the Crafty Chica. It also had a rather disturbing preponderance of teddy bears. I like most stuffed animals, and even beanie kids, but traditional teddy bears just don't float my boat. Sometimes they even make me wanna cry. I don't know why. I must have deep-seated emotional issues.
Anyhoo.

I've been having a lot of fun making my monsters lately. I like them a lot more than the kokeshi dolls. They can be lumpy and lop-sided and have 7 arms and it doesn't matter. I feel a lot freer and less pressure to make them perfect. In an effort to give them more personality, I've decided to write a new zine called 'Monster Stories' or something similar, with a half-page story about each monster and a drawing of her/him. I might make both black-and-white and deluxe colour versions. Maybe I'll make a little mini-booklet to offer with each monster with the same information. Course, this may take some time as it takes me forever to make each monster.

Meanwhile, my brain has been obsessed with how to turn this into a softie:

An individual of the species Brongla.
It's my first Spore creature! Isn't he cute!

*goes back to obsessing*

---

* Why was it shit? They take patterns from British magazines (with permission or not, I don't know) and Paton's pattern books for almost all of their content. There seems to be a lot of padding to make the magazine longer - unnecessarily large title headings, etc. Often, the finished item isn't shown from different angles; there's often just a single photo and you can tell the close-ups (when there are any) are all just zoomed in from the main photo. In the last few issues, there were no articles whatsoever. I buy magazines more for the patterns than the articles anyway, but many people don't. Also, the patterns were always pretty dull and uninspired. Yet another plain, stocking stitch jumper with a bit of froo-froo on the bottom hem. I've read similar complaints from other readers on their forums, which they don't seem to have addressed. And really, I already have more patterns than I could possibly knit in my lifetime. I've gotten much better patterns for free, Knitty being only one of hundreds of great sources. Then there's Twist Collective, a new online magazine where the articles are free, and you pay individually for the patterns you want. I must check it out sometime! But to be honest, I've gone off pattern collecting a bit. Even vintage ones don't excite me much anymore. I'm more interested in the pictures in them than the patterns. There's much scanning and printing and collaging fun to be had!

Mosaic Monday - a day early

On Saturday it was Worldwide Knit in Public Day. It was also the day of the 2008 Melbourne Zombie Shuffle. When disparate worlds collide...

I went, I knitted (though I didn't shuffle), I met lots of people and had an all around lovely day. I was too lazy to take my own photos, so I stole some to make this week's mosaic:

1. Melbourne World Wide Knit in Public Day - a shot of some of us knitters and the amazing things they were making and wearing. I have my eyes firmly shut in every single photo, so I chose one where I'm not too prominent.
2. Melbourne World Wide Knit in Public Day II - the highly embarrassing brightly coloured acrylic project that I was working on. Everyone around me had yarn that was bamboo, or hand-dyed, or just plain gorgeous. Cheap and cheerful is a bit more Me, though!
3. World Wide Knit in Public Day in Perth - other people knitted as well!
4. Worldwide Knit in Public Day 2008 - fun and games. This was in the U.S.A. somewhere. Not sure exactly where.
5. Braaains! - we saw the zombies! They came right past the cafe we were at! I was so excited!
6. melbourne Zombie Shuffle 2008 - One zombie seeks brains in all the wrong places.

Some of the lovely people I met were:

* foreverknit [Blog] - thank you so much for organising the day! Her scarf was gorgeous!
* kittenkong [Ravelry] - I can't wait to see her finished clapotis!
* craftyscience [Ravelry] - I think she was using the 2 circular needle technique to knit her sock - impressive!
* live2knit [Etsy Shop] - was making a clapotis from her own hand-dyed yarn. The colour was so beautiful.
* gusseting [Ravelry] - had such a beautiful headband on!
* sonia [Blog] - was making the most wonderful multi-coloured entrelac thing. I didn't get a chance to find out exactly what it was, but it looked amazing.
* damo [Flickr] - the photographer and donator of some of the prizes.
* Some blogless girls who were very friendly as well.
* A lady who was sitting behind us who asked why we were there knitting. I explained that it was to meet people and share our projects, and she confessed that she knitted, but only ever in her lounge room at home. It was kinda cute! We told her to google WWKIP Day and come along next year.

I was very freaked out to hear that some of the others had heard of me. I wanted to ask, 'where? how? how could this be??' Also, I won a prize! Lil ole me! It was a new Cleckheaton pattern book from Australian Country Spinners:

I love the styling and the patterns. I'm eyeing off the hearts vest with the crocheted tie closure.

Other things I enjoyed that day were:
* hundreds of zombies shuffling. A couple were even knitting!
* The Medieval Imagination exhibition at the State Library, despite half-hour wait to get in. It was completely worth it.
* dumplings and pork noodles
* San Churro hot chocolate
* the fact that it didn't rain

I love Melbourne!

Doing what I can

I haven't got much done lately, with being sick and sore and stressed and grumpy. I've started making the scarf that I've been asked to make by my friend (the word 'commission' is still pretty scary) and it's about 1/3 done. I have a slight lack-of-fluffiness issue, but that can easily be solved with a quick trip to Spotlight or Lincraft. I'm getting a bit bored with crochet though. My last 3 fibre projects have been crocheted, as well as my toys. I think that when I've finished the last scarf and the cat blanket, I'll try and do some knitting for a while. I have some large knitted swatches that I didn't know what to do with, and I think I can make them the bases for some log-cabin style cat blankets, or perhaps sew them together (though the sewing needle is the devil, remember). Meanwhile, I dig through my stash for purple and pink yarn. I actually enjoy that. The colours, the fondling.... mmmmmm!

Today I went to the Magnolia Square craft market at the Malvern Town Hall. Don't get too excited - it was the last day. I cleverly implemented an extreme money-saving strategy of forgetting to bring my eftpos and credit cards, or any cash. $&%@*(#&%(!!! But as it turned out, there was a lot to see and not much to do. (Or buy). There were a few pretty, shabby chic, cutesy things there, but it was pretty obviously geared towards the yummy mummy, Toorak tractor, power-pram-wielding set. I did see some naive paintings and stuffies that were cool, the sorts of things that I aspire to make. By far the best part was seeing the stall of The Lark and 3 Buttons and meeting Lark, who I recognise from blog-land. (Well, her crafty stuff, anyway!) I instantly went from feeling creatively and entrepeneurially inadequate, not to mention dumb for leaving all my money at home, to feeling connected and validated. We talked about blogging and stuff and she asked my handle and said she'd heard of my blog! I was pretty much dumbfounded. Wow! She gave me a tip off about a new market - Sisters Market in Brunswick. Thank you! And thanks for the chat, too.

The second best part was having chilli pork bento boxes at Kim Chi Bowl (the lovely, wonderful Boy paid) and then ice creams from Cold Rock. Then we went home for a nanna nap.
What a lovely afternoon!

Later, I took my newest Swirly Series ACEOs out of the flower press, and they're as flat as they're gonna get. So I chose 4 to put on my shop. I'm up to 35 items already! Huh, easy! I'm loving this making things in batches stuff.

I'll leave you with my very first Flickr Mosaic! I searched the 'softies' tag to find these pics. Unfortunately the mosaic came out unbelievably large, and some resolution was lost in the reducing. Still pretty cute though.

Photo Credits:
1. plushies-make me a cat swap, 2. Day 3 - Mario Felt Plushies, 3. plushies, 4. plushies, 5. plushies all in a pile, 6. Pac Man Ghost plushies, 7. plushies added to our shop!, 8. kitten plushies, 9. More plushies!!, 10. Lined up plushies, 11. lamb plushies, 12. Day Out plushies, 13. Tofu Plushies, 14. . plushies, 15. Pikmin plushies, 16. Robot Parade 14: GAIENT BOT

Now off to work crochet. :)

In a Nutshell

I'd much rather read blogs than write them at the moment, so I'm keeping it short.
(I currently have 116 blogs on my feed. *gulps*)

Amazing Birthday Haul
I got a Lincraft voucher, an Art 'n' Craft Riot voucher, and a subscription to CRAFT magazine from my amazingly wonderful, generous friends for my birthday. Thanks guys!!! I still haven't decided what to buy. Some canvas boards to try out my painting on, perhaps. (NOT more wool! :P)

From my Mum I got these:

Some socks. Some Yuzu hand cream. It smells divine! Like floral and citrus. And a kokeshi doll! I'm especially happy with her. And I realised that her head is poseable!:

ZINE STUFF
I got it finished! Yes I did! Way late, but I'm very proud of it. I'm even sending it to people I don't have to. What's it about? The title pretty much sums it up. And if you want more, it's listed in my shop.

"My Life as a Slacker;
Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wage"
There's a workshop on street media (zines, blogs, etc) on at the City Library on Wednesday nights starting this week. I can't decide whether to go or not. It would be good for me to meet people, get some new skillz, and borrow hundreds of books (well, some may argue against the last one!), but on the other hand, I'm pretty sick of zines, I'm supposed to be doing BodyPump on Weds nights, and I'm very shy and never take proper advantage of these opportunities. So I just don't know! I have 2 days to decide.

SHOP STUFF
I came into a little bit of money that I wasn't expecting to get from a dispute from a former employer. So I decided to fork out money for some things to do with the shop that I wouldn't normally, or not at this stage yet, anyway. I got:

A Head. I was very excited when I ordered this! Hopefully it will make my hat and scarf pictures look a whole lot better. I just need to find a time when the light is right. Perhaps on the weekend. I hate this time of year - I leave for work in the dark and get home at dusk. And I work in the basement. Still, I've never wanted to be tanned anyway!
(I'm just concerned that her skin is a little shiny. I'm gonna give her a wash. I don't have any inspiration for a name yet. *percolating*)

Moo Cards. These came today. I got a 33% off offer for Etsy sellers. Can't go past that! I could only select photos from my shop, but most of my best photos are on there anyway, so that doesn't matter.

New Banner. See shop. I paid a web designer to make it for me. I didn't like my old banner, but I just couldn't be arsed making a new one. So I decided to help out a fellow blogger who couldn't pay their phone bill.

Bored, hungry and cold now. More next time.
See ya.

[Later]
I tried to change the style of my blog and it deleted the sidebar completely. #*%#**&^*(&!! I've been meaning to re-do it anyway. I don't have time to finish it off at the moment though, so it might look a bit hinky for the next few days. Whatever.

Things are happening!

Today was the day. The wait is finally over.

I finally took some photos of the art doll I finished over two weeks ago! Even after I had taken it to the sellers' meetup and Boy had overheard some compliments on it, and kept saying that if/when I put it on my shop, it'll sell quickly, I still didn't get around to photographing it. Anyway, without further ado, here it is:

first art doll

the back ; detail of front

I have to admit, it's quite heavily based on the Dotee Doll style invented by the lady in Perth who I was talking about a few posts ago. Now, I dunno what the 'rules' are about these things - shape of top, eyes open or closed, type of embellishment, or what. I just went to town with whatever kind of decoration I felt like doing. So I made it with open eyes, and used some needle felting for a heart on the front and some abstract decoration on the back. I embroidered a bit with buttons, beads, sequins and ribbon, til I got bored with it. Then I sewed the front and back together by hand, and sewed the purple ribbon in for hair as I was sewing it up.
I'm quite happy with it. I'd like to make another one, but I want to try and make it more original and specific to my style.

I've also been working pretty steadily on my knitted Blue Creature:

one ear finished ; slut creature!

I used a technique from Mochimochiland to make the legs and join them together. This leaves a hole between the legs that you sew up later. Hence why my creature has a giant hole in her nether-regions! I utilised the access this holes gives to weave in the ends at the bottom of the legs and embroider some 'claws' on. Oh, this is really sounding so wrong.... *secret smirk*
I have now finished the body; the picture shows it with one ear completed, but I have now finished both ears and started one arm. I'm going to finish the arm, then embroider on the face, etc. through the arm-hole on the other side, then knit on the second arm last.

Perhaps this isn't the most efficient way of making this toy, but *shrugs* schnyeh. I think that knitting toys is a bit too fiddly for me. All those double-pointed needles sticking out all over the place - it's annoying. I think I'll stick to crochet from now on. I also wanted to make a toy that was symmetrical and straight out Cute instead of a bit fugly, but I'm starting to think that's really not 'me', either.

Perhaps I am working out my style, after all.

The other major thing was, after finding this blog Joyful Abode, about creating harmonious spaces to live happily in. She is currently hosting a series on creative spaces. I was heavily inspired to finally get the Hobby Room into gear - organise everything and tidy the place up. Not only that, but fill it with inspirational objects that will make the room a pleasure to be in. Or whatever.

So yesterday, I spent the whole day tidying and sorting. Except for an exhaustingly expensive trip to Bunnings. Boy took 'Before' photos, which I'm too embarrassed to show - yet! To be fair, I should mention that Boy worked very hard yesterday too. The room is supposed to be going to be for his photography and other hobby stuff just as much as for mine. Most of my beads are sorted now, which makes me want to make another art doll. Whenever I uncover another supply or piece of equipment, I want to make something out of it. This is good! My creative juices are flowing again.

Although, they make me want to make wool scarves on 35oC days. Not so good. Oh well!

SHOP STUFF

Art doll going up on the shop tonight.

I Heart MochiMochi Land

I never thought I could describe a blog entry using the words 'festering' and 'adorably cute' in the same sentence:

MochiMochi Land