5-Minute Obsessions - #3

Bookbinding!

I've been feeling an urge to do nothing but write the last few months. That's why I've had very little craft to show you lately. But, like craft, there are writing supplies and special things to be had. The Jetpens website has been on high rotation on my laptop, and I'll just burst if I don't place an order soon. Paper has taken on more significance for me as well, especially since Boy starting his drawing course. So of course I have to have some lovely journals to write in before I can even start to write anything, right? So I've been cruising Etsy and Notemaker as well.* And if I've learned how to make them myself (hopefully using up some of the insanely large stash of junk in the hobby room at the same time), that's even better! This is my procrastinating brain in action. I'm sure it will all come together one day soon. I hope so, or I might burst.

At 6am this morning (today is Saturday), I woke up suddenly and realised something. A few months ago, someone had asked me how I made my sidebar for my blog. I had always meant to answer them, but it's kinda complicated, so I kept on putting it off and feeling guilty about it. But when I woke up this morning, what I realised was that I needed to write a tutorial to explain it properly ... and that involves writing! My favourite thing of the moment! Plus research, which I'll never say no to (yes, I'm an information geek). Well, I couldn't just lie there in bed and try to get back to sleep with my brain buzzing like that, so I jumped up and madly started typing. I'll post it in a day or two when I've put the finishing touches on it. Probably the most important of which is to get Boy or someone to read it and make sure it's more than just incomprehensible 6am insanity.

Meanwhile, I have prepared a lovely mosaic showing some glueless bookbinding methods, Coptic Binding and Japanese Stab Binding, to be exact:

[I'm afraid it's been ages since I last made a mosaic, and I accidentally deleted the photo credits. =( But these photos are all from Flickr.]

Have a lovely weekend!

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* I placed an order on Etsy a couple of days ago - I can't wait til it arrives!

5-Minute Obsessions - #2

The Terrarium!

Apparently these are all the rage at the moment amongst the crafty cool kids. But only if they have moss and cute little figurines in them. The kitsch is spreading! I love this one - it's evocative of the Scottish highlands: the little plastic sheep has lost her flock and she's wandering, lost, among the heather...

Picture Source.
Let's face it, moss is cool. Look at all the different types. It's like a tiny, pre-historic world....


Moss Terrarium {03}, originally uploaded by Janick • Nea.

This one just gives me fluttery feelings in my chest. Apparently the little ceramics were purchased from an Etsy shop. Lovely!


Mini moss terrarium, originally uploaded by poopscape.

At the opposite end of the spectrum: oh, the kitsch! I'm not sure if the red things are berries, or if the faux-Bambie was constipated....


Moss terrarium, originally uploaded by orchideenoire.

The site that got me all excited about these was Craftzine Blog's Jam Jar Terrarium Tutorial. There's a more comprehensive guide to making different kinds of terrariums terraria at the The Terrarium Man website. You gotta love a man whose tutorial somehow incorporates the legend of King Arthur.

I always thought that I would not be interested in gardening until I was at least 60, but now I'm not so sure!

5-Minute Obsessions - #1

Right now I have an obsession with hand-spinning yarn on a drop spindle. Brenda of the Cast On podcast has been increasingly turning to spinning lately (she was on weaving thing for a while, too), which is a bit strange for a knitting podcast, but hey, I love her! I'm attributing my current obsession to her.

I'm swooning over this:


New Spindle, originally uploaded by Shunklies.

Let's face it though, I will probably end up with one like this:


spindle, originally uploaded by CUBIST LITERATURE!.

It was made at home using materials from the local hardware shop. I'm pretty impressed by it actually. I'm on a making-everything-yourself,-even-stuff-that-you-use-to-make-things-with kick at the moment. Hence the spindles I guess! Spinning raw material into yarn to weave into a cloth using the cardboard loom I got in Craft Zine a few issues ago, to cut and hand-sew into a [insert item here] seems really appealing to me right now. I just need a sheep to start the process off! They're so cute!:


sheep:Suffolk, originally uploaded by aikawarino.

It might be worth making my own spindle, not only for the money it saves, but because by the time it takes for me to actually decide to buy one of the other spindles, and for it to arrive in the mail, my mini-obsession might be over. I just can't take that risk!

Hmmm, what to do?

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!.

Finish A Project Month

I've declared this month Finish A Project Month!
(It was nearly going to be No-Buy Supplies Month, but I'm just not that strong.)

I noticed that I was cycling through new projects pretty regularly, while the old ones lie, languishing in the back of the cupboard. They really need to be dusted off and given some love.

Here we have my set of three embroidered Art Cards which I finished yesterday:

flowery
(A new project, I know, but I haven't gotten started dusting yet!) Some are for swaps on Swap-bot, and I'll probably chuck the spare one on Etsy if I can get a good photo of it. I've already started a new set of 2. I also made these bookmarks for another swap:

Bookmarky goodness
The idea was to make them with stuff you have lying around the house. Materials include paint, a patterned paper bag, a brochure for the Bell Shakespeare Company, and a copy of National Trust magazine. I'm quite proud of some of them.

Yesterday we all left work early due to the possibility of the trains being cancelled due to a storm (I work for the Government, okay??) and I was a bit bored. I was listening to some craft podcasts and got inspired by what I perceived at that moment as a lack of receptacles in my bedroom. So I made these:

They're crocheted bowls (not quite finished yet). I made them to keep bobby pins in. The taller one falls over when I put bobby pins in it, so I made the wider one as well. They're OK. Now I have an (even more) insane amount of projects on the go.

More in progress means more to finish! Yay!

Friend Floggin

Black Rock Sunset, originally uploaded by ugbug7.

My friend is a photographer (as much as he says he's not! :P ) and his work is now available on redbubble.

Mail!

U.S. Troops Surrounded by Holiday Mail During WWII, originally uploaded by Smithsonian Institution.

I'm so excited! I sent off my bulk order to the Lilmag zine distro today. My zines are going to be sold in Japan!

Yay!