My July

July has again been very cold and windy. I've had to wear my Winter 'coat' (really just a slightly thicker and longer cardigan with a hood, if truth be told) every day for nearly two months now. I even had to buy a beanie! I don't normally get cold very easily, so this is a rarity!

I'm not sure if it's the weather or some other factors in my life right now, but I've been having some issues with depression this month. I feel like I haven't done very much, but I wanted to make this post anyway. I feel like posting what I've been doing will be a positive thing to look back on, and I also don't like it when I'm away from the blog for too long.

What I've been reading ...
As I mentioned in my Winter Reading List post, I tackled reading Ulysses by James Joyce. I honestly wouldn't have finished it (or even started it!) if it hadn't been for Conner Habib's reading course/club. I do have to admit that I skimmed the last 2 chapters, but only because I wanted to finish it in time for the online meet-up at the end. Any description I could give of the book wouldn't do it justice, so I will link the Wikipedia page for the interested. I do think I'd like to read it again, but perhaps in (Australian) Summer next time so I can get a better feel for the atmosphere.

What I've been making ...
I started a new series of artworks made out of hama beads. They will probably have other things glued to them, too. I've started two so far. Perhaps once they're further along, I'll do a separate blog post about them. One thing I know for sure already though -- I'm going to need a lot more hama beads!!

What I've been eating ...
I mentioned last month that Husband and I have begun having a monthly lunch with our foodie friend. This month we went to Pepper Lunch (despite the name, it's open all day!). The Japanese-style meals are served in hot stone bowl, and the food cooks as you eat it. Pouring my curry and listening to it sizzle as it hit the bowl was immensely satisfying! There are lots of toppings to choose from, which I like, though for some reason every meal comes with corn. It's a good thing that I like corn!

What I've been divining ...
Here is an image of a combined oracle and rune reading I did for myself during the month. It was on the theme of sharing my art and participating in another exhibition. Lately I find myself wanting to reach for several different sources to answer the same question. It's not that I don't trust my own readings -- I do. At the time I find the insights to be very valuable, but somehow they don't "stick". I think this is something I need to look into further.

Selections from Instagram

Many Projects

Hello! After a fairly long absence, about a month ago I started to become really motivated to craft again. This came about because of a couple of things: really cold weather, which makes me want to make scarves and hats and gloves! Two of my friends having babies, which makes me want to create little treasures! And just last weekend, a geek-themed trivia night, which put me back in touch with my geeky interests and made me want to start churning out Jane hats and Dr Who scarves!
In a word, I'm excited!

Today I'm just going to share a quick run-down of what I've been doing in the last month, so get ready for some photo-spam! Later on, there'll be more in-depth posts.

So the first thing I did was make these baby booties. This was about a month ago. S and B came over for a craft/card-playing afternoon. I decided to start some booties from the Quick and Easy Baby Knits book. It's a simple pattern and I thought I'd get a good way into it. In fact, I worked hard and I finished them in one afternoon! Yay me! I was able to give them to Ms E at her baby shower.

I also started a project that I'd been meaning to make for a couple of months - cat toys! They're semi-urgent because I want to make them for a friend as a thank-you gift for something that's rapidly moving further and further into the past! My plan is to make a set of 3 in simple shapes. I'm about half-way through the spherical one:

I've also been working a little bit on my rainbow-coloured afghan, which doesn't really have a name. I've nearly finished this section, and I think I only have about 2 or 3 to go. I'm very happy about that!

I have a few ideas in mind about other afghans I'd like to work on, so it'll be good to have that finished off so I can start one of those. Or, knowing myself, I'll just start one of them anyway!
I'm also coming along well with the Jane hat for Husband. I want to get both his and my hats finished before the charity Firefly screening, which is in about 6 weeks. I think I'm well on track for that (if I don't get distracted by other projects!). I altered the original pattern so it's more fitted. That means less stitches, which means finished quicker. Yay!

I'm still on a bit of a Hama bead kick, and a few weeks ago I made this little storage box. My perfume vials kept falling over all the time, and it was really annoying me. So I made a box to put them in!

I made it with a lip on the bottom edge for stability, and just the right size and height for all my mini perfumes. It also fits perfectly on my mirror base, just where I wanted it to go. The pattern was something I just made up. The polka dots are a little uneven, but I like it that way! I made each piece separately and glued them to the base with epoxy glue. I don't know if I would use this method again. I found the edges of the beads were a very small surface to glue together. It came out how I wanted it to, but I don't think it's very strong. It holds together fine for its purpose, but I wouldn't want to test its strength. There are a few other methods you can use to make a 3-D box; I'll try one of those next time. I'm pretty excited about this - being able to make little containers in just the right size and shape that you want them (not to mention colour!), instead of hunting around the shops for hours and usually not finding anything. I love Hama beads!

I'm so inspired at the moment! I even had a dream the other night about making an afghan. It was a 70s retro-ghan, made out of granny squares. Each square had an orange centre, a couple of rounds of brown, and then a couple of rounds of cream to lighten it up. I want to make it in real life! Though I don't have any orange or brown wool, funnily enough!

I'm just completely wired at the moment!

3 Days of Craft: The Wrap-up

So perhaps you've been wondering what I did over Easter? During the highly anticipated 3 Days of Craft that I was so excited about? Actually, I spent the majority of my time on the computer, reading blogs and such. But I did manage to do a few things, and get a few things closer to done.

Firstly, the closer-to-done things. I worked on the scarves, both baby and adult.

Baby Sunlight Scarf.
The baby scarf is half-way done now. I'm using the same technique as I did with the Harry Potter scarf. I really love the tube effect with no visible joins. Unfortunately though, that means knitting half of each row at a time, so it's pretty slow going. I guess I forgot about that when I decided to make the new scarf the same way!

Chequerboard scarf, "front".
The adult scarf is pretty slow going, too. Firstly, I made a base of simple filet crochet. That part was easy. Now I'm up to the hard part. I'm crocheting a second filet grid, but attaching it to the first one as I go along. I've never seen anything made like this before, so I basically have to make it up as I go along. I don't think I could even describe how it's done. Every time I put it down, the next time I take it up again, I have to figure out what I did before! So it's very slow going.

Chequerboard scarf, "back".
Then for some bizarre reason, Husband and I decided to break out the Crystal Mining Kits that we'd had in the back of the cupboard for a couple of years. Inside the plaster brick are 8 crystals. You use the provided plastic hammer and scraping tool to excavate them. It's quite fun. I've excavated 2 so far. But again, it's a very slow process. The brochure even warns that you need to have patience, just like a 'real geologist'!

But the best thing I did - the thing I actually finished - was I tried out my Fuse Beads kit for the first time! I bought it a few weeks ago, but didn't have time to try it until now. Fuse beads are little plastic beads that you can arrange to make a pattern or a picture on a peg board. Then you iron them so they melt slightly and fuse together. There are a few different brands of beads out there. Mine are the Hama Beads brand. Here's an example of some fuse bead projects from the intertubes.

As you can imagine, this kind of format lends itself really well to things like pixel art - characters from old computer games, anime, pop art, etc. There's a lot of geekery in the genre! Having said that, I've also seen some gorgeous examples based on Navajo and European folk art. Here's a link to Tumblr with lots more examples (there are giant Totoros!).

There are a couple of advantages to the properties of fuse beads:

They're made of plastic, which means that -
They're washable and relatively durable. You can use them to make coasters, for example. (Though, seeing as they melt and fuse with the heat of an iron, I wouldn't use them to make a trivet or anything like that.)

It also means that -
you can easily glue them together or glue things to them.
You can make several sheets and glue them together to make a 3-dimensional box or basket. Or even a figurine. They'll stand up straight if you make a little stand for them or lean them up against something. You can glue decoden to them, such as bows, cabochons, googly eyes, etc.

Also -
They have little holes in them, so it's insanely easy to attach split rings or other findings and make them into jewellery - necklaces, rings, earrings, phone charms, bag charms, etc. Also, instead of fusing them together, you can use Native American weaving techniques to string them together into a flat or 3D piece.

Anyway, here are my and Husband's first projects!

Hama bead projects.
Here we see: a coaster that I made using the circular peg board, a star shape that I'll probably make into a hair clip, and a smily face that Husband made. Later he turned it into a fridge magnet.
We've made a couple more things since, but I'll post them later.

To wrap up:
well, this 3 Days of Craft was more like 2 days on computer and 1 day of craft but - hey - I did what I wanted to do and I have no regrets! At least my Startitis has abated a bit. As the saying goes, it's much easier to start than to finish. (Well, if no-one has said that, someone should have!)