3 Days of Craft :: Semi-Festive Edition

I'm happy to say that I have my craft mojo back good and proper! So much that I decided to declare another 3 Days of Craft! True, the 3 days aren't consecutive (the public holiday falling this-coming Tuesday), and I have plans to do other things as well, but I'm not letting that stop me!

Technically I didn't make this first item during 3 Days of Craft, I made it earlier in the week, but I'm sharing it anyway. It's Husband's birthday cake!

It's not actually a cake, it's the Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies from an older issue of SBS Feast Magazine. The fudgy chocolate brownie mix is given a heavy dose of peanut butter sauce, swirled through it before baking. It's supposed to be served with more peanut butter sauce, melted chocolate and ice cream, but I just made a chocolate icing and decorated it with store-bought white fudge writing icing and mini chocolate eggs. He loved it!

Now to 3 Days of Craft proper. Unfortunately there was a bit of a hiccup on Day 1 (yesterday). I decided I wanted to make a Christmas project (possibly a pair of advent calendars), so I just quickly hopped on to Pinterest to get some ideas. I ended up spending all day on there.

Oops.

It did help me narrow down my options and be more realistic, though. To make a really nice pair of advent calendars is going to take time and money. Even the more budget ones involved supplies that I don't have. (How would I get hold of 48 matchboxes??) I think we'll just buy a couple of kiddie ones this year, and I'll start earlier with making some really nice ones next year. Having pinned pictures of hundreds of festive craft projects, I decided to start with something quite simple - a Christmas garland!

I crocheted a chain using some red acrylic yarn leftover from another project. I held it together with a strand of sparkly silver yarn that I saw when I was re-organising my projects. I hung it up in front of the lounge room window. Then, using photos from Pinterest as a reference, I cut out some circles of paper and cut them into snowflakes. I'm a bit ashamed to say, but copying designs from the internet makes prettier snowflakes than ones I've made in the past.

Then all I did was staple them onto the garland! I have only done 5 snowflakes so far, and the garland is less than half full. But I figure: it's not even December yet, so I have some time to finish it!

Then, I was inspired to start doing decoden! If you read my last post concerning the nature of decoden, you may have wondered, when is it going to actually happen? Well I declare it happened today! But it's still just baby steps so far. Here's my decoden setup:

I happened to have a cute tin from Ikea lying around, so I'm using that to keep all the supplies in. So cute! I used an old envelope to work on and squeeze the glue onto. A plate to put the gems on. As for the chopsticks, I'd read that you should have a thing called a Magic Picker to pick up the gems with, but Violet le Beaux said that a skewer or chopstick with a blob of blutac on the end works just as well. And it does! I used the other chopstick to dab glue onto the projects.

I have to say - those gems are darned tiny!!

But the 'Magic Picker' really makes it so easy! yay! I decoed my lip gloss (inspired by the photo of the decoed lip gloss tube, which I showed in my last post), a pen, and popped a couple of gems on the ends of 2 of my crochet hooks. I had a bit of glue left over, so I went rushing into my room in a tizzy to find something else to deco. I grabbed my BB Cream and glued a little bow to it. So fun!

Maybe a cheap disposable pen is a strange thing to deco? But it's only a few gems, and every time at work when I look at it, it'll remind me that I'm more than just a public servant salary-man drone. Here's a juicy close-up:

Other things I've been working on lately:
✔ As I mentioned above, I re-organised my craft projects. I put some wintery ones from the lounge back into the hobby room, and brought out some that I do want to work on so they're handier to get to. Yesterday when I was on my Pinterest bender, I also created some more specific pinboards for different crafts, so instead of spending hours trawling through stuff, I can go straight to what I'm looking for in future and hopefully spend less time on the internet. (I'd like to think that time spent wasn't all in vain!)
✔ The Rainbow Afghan. I've finished all 14 sections now, and I'm just waiting for the black edging wool to arrive from Bendigo Woollen Mills to finish it off.
✔ I've been working quite a lot on the Babbi Blanket. I'm on the 2nd-last square (out of 20), but I realised today that I don't have enough edging yarn left to finish it off (I've been using it for the Squares Blanket as well). So I had to place another order with Bendigo Woollen Mills! Oh dear! ツ
✔ I've decided on a new zombie afghan project and I have both the wool and the pattern all ready to go. BUT - I've vowed not to start it until I've finished BOTH of the above projects. I promise!

Happy crafting!

[Later]
I found a parcel on my doorstep soon after writing this post - it was my wool! So happy! I can finish off my Rainbow Afghan now!

Consider if you will : Decoden

What is Decoden? It's a craft and/or fashion that comes from Japan. The 'deco' part is short for 'decorated', and the 'den' part is short for 'denwa', meaning 'phone' in Japanese. In a nutshell, it's the Japanese version of bling. Decoden has been popular in Japan for a while, but has only been seen in other countries in the last couple of years. I can see why it's such a popular craft: youth culture in Japan is very much about self-expression and individuality, and when everyone is walking around with the same model of phone or ipod, the urge to personalise it must be irresistible!

When I first heard of decoden a year or so ago, I liked the idea of it, but thought: it's not for me. Part of me loved it and wanted to embrace it, but the realist in me knew that it wouldn't fit into my current lifestyle. As anyone who knows me knows, I'm not that into my mobile phone. Heck, I forget to take it with me half the time! Plus the model I have is a style that doesn't come with a case. And I could picture myself on a crowded tram, tired after a long day, in my conservative work outfit, whipping out something like the above. It would be just too bizarre. So I had no desire to decorate it. And quite frankly, things like this were a bit scary:

The other thing I'd seen decoden used with was nail art. From day to day, I'm lucky if I have nail polish on at all, let alone unchipped and more than just a quick swipe of a single colour. So when I saw things like this, I was gobsmacked!:

Wow! I really admire art like this, but it's just too impractical for me (or for most women, I imagine). The dress code at my work doesn't specifically cover nail art, but I'm sure that if I turned up one day in something similar to the above, I'd be pulled aside for a bit of a chat.
For a long time I was content to sit on the sidelines and consider decoden as one of the Crafts I Don't Do. I admired it from afar. But then .... a few weeks ago, I saw this:

My heart started beating faster. I suddenly realised that I could have decoden that worked for me. I could bling up things that I use every day. Things that I only use at home, if I wanted to keep it private. And it didn't have to be precious things where it had to be perfect, either. I could do a little bling or a lot, as the whim took me. I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to decoden!
To the internet I went, checking my blog reader for tips and most importantly, where to get supplies from! Mana Starre's Blog had a handy list of her top 5 decoden suppliers, which led me to Miss Sapporo on Etsy. I procrastinated for a few days, and I'm glad I did, because when I went back, there was a 20% off everything sale! See, it was meant to be. So I bought up big. Here's my haul:

Look out for decoden soon!

In other news, I've taken up a little crochet again as well. Not so much to really be worth taking photos of, but hopefully soon. I worked a little on my filet crochet horsehead design, and quite a lot on my rainbow afghan. In fact, I'm excited to say that I've started the last section! (It calls for 14 in total.) It's finally time to buy the edging yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills. I think the reason why I've suddenly latched onto this project after all this time is: it's a zombie project. You know the ones, even if you're tired after a hard day at work, you can just sit in front of the TV and churn out a couple of rows without any thought. You don't need to refer to the pattern or try to remember complicated stitches. It's just nice and easy.

In fact, I'm specifically looking for a zombie-style pattern for my next afghan project. Yes, I am.

Tiny Thriller, from Mochi Mochi Land.

I've been writing

This week I've been suddenly interested in writing haiku again. When I was at university, I came across haiku in my research on Japanese culture. They really resonated with me. I'd tried writing poetry in school, but it always felt clunky and forced. I never knew when to end a poem, or how many themes it should have. Haiku are deliberately short and sweet. They also appealed to my spritual side, because they're (usually) about appreciating nature.
Reading about the history and form of haiku, I realised there are many misconceptions about them. People have said to me, "I hate haiku, I had to write them in school and I got sick of counting the syllables. Why do there have to be exactly 17 syllables?" I quickly realised in my research that this isn't true!

The 17-syllable rule was only applied in very strict poetry-writing competitions; in most other cases, it never mattered, as long as the poem had 3 lines, with the first and third being a bit shorter than the second. Japanese is a very different language to English, and the concept of a syllable can't really be applied to it. The closest it has is a unit called the on, which is more like a word-unit than a syllable. Japanese words tend to be longer as well, so you would need less syllables in English to convey the same amount of information, anyway. Here's a haiku by Basho, the most famous haiku master, as an example:

furuike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto

old pond / a frog jumps in / sound of water

I found out lots of other interesting things about haiku as well. Originally, they were called hokku, and they were shorter sections of longer poems called renga. A renga consisted of a series of haiku-like verses, alternating with a two-line joining verse. Generally, the minimum length was around 35 verses. In the Heian (medieval) period, people would gather at inns for group poetry-writing sessions. Each person would write a verse, sometimes changing topics abruptly, challenging the next to create a verse that flowed as a complete poem. Many of these poems were humorous or romantic, matching the informal mood at the inns. Regular poetry-writing competitions became popular, and there was prestige as well as material prizes for the winners. It's thought that haiku were first written as starter verses for renga, but it may be that they developed in their own right. A concise 3-line poem can convey more technical skill than a longer, open-ended one.

Though the 17-syllable rule is less important than many people realise, there are two things that a good haiku should have. The first is a kigo, or a season word. Documents have been found with long lists of pre-defined kigo. As haiku are traditionally a poem which appreciates or celebrates nature, an element which gives an indication of the season or weather the poem is set in is important. Kigo need not be obvious or restrictive however. Many kigo are subtle and it takes a familiarity with Japanese customs and history to identify them. In the example by Basho above, the frog is a reference to Spring. In modern haiku, this concept is more open - words can be used to evoke a sense of familiarity or an emotional response from the reader, rather than a stricter concept of season. For example, this is a poem I wrote in response to an experience I had earlier today:

Dull corporate kitchen
Bright yellow cheers a work-worn soul -
Pear-shaped sponge

In this poem, I have tried to convey a certain feeling ('dull'; 'work-worn'), then being pleasantly surprised by a small detail (a normally boring kitchen item that has a quirky shape and colour) which pulls me out of my dull mood. There is no mention of nature or seasons, rather the poem tries to convey a small but significant experience occuring in a familiar environment. In a more traditional poem, the pear and the colour yellow (perhaps even the sponge?) might have stood for seasons. Here, they stand for more abstract concepts, yet the purpose of triggering visual and emotional contemplation is the same.

The other convention that haiku normally have is a break (kireji in Japanese). This change of direction usually occurs in the somewhere in the middle line, or at the end of one of the lines. It can involve the introduction of a new concept, or a break in the rhythym of the poem. This adds energy and prevents the poem from becoming dull and monotonous.

So much sunlight
Suddenly bursting through
Is it really spring?

In this haiku I wrote the other day (which was my first one in years, so I admit isn't the best!), the first two lines are a single statement. Then there's a break where I suddenly switch to asking a question. Often poets in English will use punctuation to emphasise a break, but I wanted it to be quite subtle. The fact that the first and second lines both start with a hard 's' sound, while the third starts with a soft 'izz' sound, is enough to emphasise this. Hopefully, when the reader reaches the end and realises the last line is a question, their attention will jump back to the rest of the poem, they will visualise the imagery I described, and will contemplate possible answers to the question.

So, though haiku have conventions, as all poetry forms do, they're actually not as restrictive and dull as many people seem to think. The trick to haiku is not getting the number of syllables right, but using the 3 lines to delight the reader and spark a heightened appreciation of nature. Japan also has a long tradition of linking poetry with painting, something I'd like to explore more of soon.

Wacky!

I was at the library last week to pick up a book, and on the display near the front door, I saw Wacky Baby Knits, by Alison Jenkins. Of course I had to grab it!

There are 20 patterns for babies, some more wacky than others. My favourites were the Cupcake Hat, Elvis Wig Hat, Winged Bootees, Monster Mittens and Bootees set, and the Cow Suit. The Aviator Hat was more elegant than wacky, but I also liked that one a lot, too.

I'm umming-and-aahing over whether to make the Cupcake Hat or the Aviator Hat first. The Cupcake Hat is more complicated, but the instructions for the Aviator Hat are more ambiguous. I find baby patterns to be a bit frustrating on the sizing. I know it's hard - babies grow so fast! - but it's still annoying. Most patterns I've come across have "0-3 months" as the smallest size. I only realised through trial and error (not knowing that much about babies until recently) that an item that will fit a 3-month-old will be far too big for a newborn. So when I give an item in that size to someone who's just had a baby, it's way too big and they can't use it yet. It's disappointing for me, and I'm sure it is for them as well, and I can never be sure if they actually use the item later on or if it gets lost among the piles and piles of stuff that new parents usually get given. That's nobody's fault! I'm just saying that the maximum satisfaction all around comes when you give something to a parent, and they can start using it straight away.

There are only a few baby items which don't need to be fitted. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of washcloths, bibs and blankets. I'm quite happy to make any of these (though blankets obviously take a long time); the only issue with them is the "it's too nice to use" factor. On the other hand, I'm really a process-oriented knitter. I like thinking of a design, figuring out how to do it, and then doing it. That's what give me a sense of satisfaction. Most of the scarves and headbands and etc I've made for myself, I never even wear. It's the process of making them that makes me happy. So the idea that something I've made might never get used, isn't really that upsetting to me as it might be for other people.

Anyway, I'm over-thinking again. I'm going to knuckle down now and decide which project to start first!

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!

My First Cloth Mask!

As promised, here's a post about my first time using a cloth face mask. It's not a review, just a few comments about my experience with it. The mask I used was the Ffid Coenzyme Q10 Cloth Mask that I was given by my lovely friends who brought me some beauty products back from Japan. I used it one day last week when I was home sick and I thought I deserved a treat!

This is what the packaging looked like. I can't read Japanese text at all, but I've read enough beauty blogs to know in general how they work. I figured that 15-20 minutes would be a good time to keep it on my face.

I took the mask out of the packet and unfolded it. It was soaked realy well with serum, so much that it was practically dripping! I was very pleased with that. Applying the mask to my face with all the little shaping parts to it was more complicated than I thought it would be, but the persistence was worth it!
Now, I have to apologise in advance for this next picture! I was embarrassed about how I looked in the mask, plus the photos didn't turn out too well, so I decided to spruce them up a bit by making this collage:

One touch that I loved was that the mask had little flaps for the eyes which you flip up once you're ready to lie back and relax. I don't know if other eye masks have this, but I hope so! I used the time to listen to a guided relaxation MP3 on my iPod.
The serum was clear and had no smell. As I said before, the mask was soaked with it, so when I removed the mask, I rubbed it into my face and also my neck. In fact there was also plenty of serum left in the packet, so I squeezed it into a spare little pot I had, and applied it over the next few nights.

I have to say - I'm a cloth face mask convert! I love them! I want more!

Review: Crabtree and Evelyn Citron Honey and Coriander Body Scrub

ABOUT THE PRODUCT & BRAND
Crabtree & Evelyn was founded in 1972. The first part of the name comes from the Crabapple Tree, which is used in many health and beauty applications, and the second part from 17th-century naturalist John Evelyn. The Citron Honey and Coriander Body Scrub is part of a range of body products with a spicy lemon scent. It contains peach kernel, pumpkin, jojoba, and soybean oils, extracts of citrus, coriander, fig and apricot, and honey. Beads made of sunflower wax provide the exfoliating component. The product is free of artificial colour, phthalates, parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate. Crabtree & Evelyn products are NOT tested on animals.
Source: Brand Homepage..

THE PRODUCT & ME
I bought the Citron Honey and Coriander Body Scrub from a local gift shop that was closing down. I can't remember exactly what I paid for it, but it was about half price. The RRP on the brand website is $30.00. Crabtree & Evelyn products are also available at brand stores and on their website.

PACKAGING
The Scrub came in a cardboard box, which made it seem more special. The design of the box and tube itself has a whimsical, old-fashioned feel with an illustration of a lemon. The tube stands upside down on its lid - I always prefer packaging like this, because the product naturally travels to the bottom and you can squeeze more out.

Straight from the tube.
APPEARANCE & PERFORMANCE
The Scrub is white in colour and has a very thick, creamy texture. I really loved the smell. It's a subtle creamy lemon with just a hint of spice. The smell lasts on my skin for hours, but it's not overpowering. The exfoliating beads are a little hard and people with sensitive skin might find them a bit scratchy, but I thought it was fine. The amount of beads compared to scrub is quite a lot, so there is an effective exfoliating result. My skin felt much smoother afterwards.
I tried this scrub both on dry skin and wet skin with different effects. On dry skin the scrub clings to the skin and there's a harsher scrubbing effect. On wet skin, the scrub disperses and the scrubbing effect is much gentler. I preferred using the scrub on dry skin personally, but you may prefer using it on wet skin if you have sensitive skin.

The exfoliating scrub. CONCLUSION

Pros:                             Cons:
delicious smell                  a little expensive
made skin feel very smooth       not widely available
pretty packaging

WOULD I GET AGAIN? Yes. Crabtree & Evelyn is a brand I wouldn't really have considered purchasing before, but I'm adding them to my list of "for a treat" brands now!