Month: May 2013

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You Never Know What’s There Unless You Look.

Damn that Craig’s List!
Did I need anything? 
No. 
Do I ever?
Well, sometimes.  And you never know what’s there unless you look.
This was there.  It’s a goofy little project holder thing.
A little worse for wear but cute anyway.

It opens up. 
And is already overflowing with unfinished projects.
This one I thought was the real find.
The front opens like a garage door.
Cute right?  When I got it home I realized that I was wrong.
It’s all kinds of falling apart and loose.  
I should have looked closer before I threw it in the car but I already loved it.
I glued and clamped the part that was just straight out broken right away.
My hero.
But it’s loose here and there and everywhere.
Does anyone know if its actually worth anything?  I suspect it isn’t. 
 
Inspired by this book, I am picturing wiring or wrapping the loose and broken parts together with colorful wire or twine and keeping them wrapped.  
That’s pretty cool looking, I think.
That’s assuming that it isn’t actually a good piece.  I don’t know how to really tell.  I googled around a bit and  didn’t find anything exactly like it.  If it’s a good piece of furniture, I’d hate to do something to lower it’s value.  
In any case.  I paid $35 for both.  At first, in my head, I thought of it as $10 for the top piece and $25 for the table.  Once I got it home and got to know it better, it made me happier to think it was more of a $15 and $20 cut.  I can’t be happy if I think the top one cost me $20 because that’s what they were asking.  
Any leads on where to find a value for it?
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Not Much To Say

Playing around with Zentangles
 
and macro camera settings.  
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Logic Is So Overrated.

Look how tidy!  I just had to brag a little bit
I did empty this  – two glasses worth – and today my stomach is mad at me.
I found this which I had totally forgotten about.  It was a learning piece from Subversive Crossstitch.  
I also added a doorknob to this cheap little dresser I picked up.  It was missing a drawer pull. I have plans to paint it at some point.
 
Look, I made an unintentional face.
So now I can move on to some of the million and seven things I want to work on.   I started to work on the journal idea I’m all excited about.  
I cut out the guts of this book.  It’s the perfect size for pages that are folded in half regular paper.
I want to add some regular printer paper, pretty paper, some cool looking pages and some random inspiring quotes and bind it all in there. I’m stuck at the quotes part. I know how I want them to look but I think the idea needs to marinate a little bit before I make my quote pages.  I do have a collection of quotes in two separate Pinterest boards with content that overlaps quite a bit.  
Logic is so overrated.  
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Plus Life

  
I wont get too much more done today.  I just brought in some wine, it’s there on the right.  

 Ugh.  No matter how long I ignore it, my mess doesn’t clean itself up.  Remember how I just did a big clean up just two short months ago?  The room did not keep itself tidy.  I know, you’re as shocked as I am.

Check out this cool carousel display rack.  For the next craft fair.

 Today I’m trying to tackle it a little bit while making room for paper stuff.  I now have enough paper supplies that I have to acknowledge that I like making things with paper.  The paper needs it’s own area.

I’m trying all my collage books in here but I have to many, I think.  I actually sorted pens today.

There are, of course, so many other things I want to do.  Just right up front, I want to do some zentangle drawing.  I want to make some art to mail.  I have some journal ideas I am really excited to try out.  But first, I need to find homes for all my paper and put away the blown out craft sale stuff. 
Plus life.   🙂
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Unicorns Are Real

Did you know that I work at the library?  
My favorite part of working there is connecting someone with the right book.
I also like my easy access to so many craft books.  
Here’s the list of what I am looking at and loving right now.
Yes, I realize that that’s a whole lot of Jenny Doh.  
I like to put related things on hold at the same time.  
I’ve been spending my creative energies getting our Etsy shop set up.  I’ve found that I LOVE writing out the descriptions.  It’s so fun.  That sounds a bit nutty, I hear it now.  You should just go read them.  I tried to tell a little story for each thing.  Well, less so for the jewelry.  Anyway, go and check it out and please let me know what you think.
With all that going on, I especially have been enjoying Habitually Chic:  Creativity at Work because it’s easy to read for reasons you’ll see in the note below.  It’s pretty pictures of people’s studios with inspiring quotes and interviews.  
This is my favorite quote from the book.  
My daughter, of course, shot it down right away.  She closed her eyes and said:
“Unicorns are real.  I’m blonde and I live in New York.”  Opened her eyes, looked around, looked in the mirror and shrugged.  
So literal.
I plan to get back to making stuff really soon.  Experiments with indigo dye are in the near future.  I’ll keep you posted.
* These books I consider to be craft porn.
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Curvy As The Learning Process

It’s called a learning curve.  We’re in one.  First, I’m on my third try at a tank top ala Alabama Chanin (but my size).  Somehow it’s not quite perfect but I’m getting there.  
I have gained a huge appreciation for wax paper.  I copied the pattern onto wax paper and altering it is as easy as taping on more or cutting it up. Which is, in case you didn’t know, really easy.  
I don’t have a picture of the first try because it has already joined the rag pile.  It was a bit small in the bust so I added a little triangle of wax paper to the front of the pattern.  It also had too large of an arm opening.  The side of my bra showed.  That  happens for me a lot with tank tops,  It’s so awesome just to be able to add a little wax paper to the pattern and voila:  A shirt that’s fit just for me!
2nd try, pretty good, but the little triangle I added in the front made it a little low cut for me.  
Number 3, much better.
What I need to figure out now is how to place a couple of darts – because I’m as curvy as the learning process.  
I think I can figure it out.
Then there’s taking pictures for our Etsy Shop opening which is speeding towards us at an alarming rate.  I made a light box using some online tutorials (I love you, on-line tutorials – How did we ever know things before the internet?).  But the pictures taken using it are dim.  I think the bedside lamps didn’t quite cut it and we’ll need to buy some bright lights with reflectors.  But I did take a little time and f try to edit the picture online.
Can you tell which is which?  I realize that these are very shadowy..learning process, remember?
So we took some pictures outside.  It worked well but somehow books don’t belong in the grass.  
114.JPG
Also, what do we do in the winter?  We talked and planned as we snapped pictures and the process of doing it all at the same time was very helpful.  Kind of like doodling while talking on the phone.  
We’ve come up with some ideas for how we want our pictures to look and what we want our aesthetic to be.  That makes it easier to make choices – kind of like a mission statement.  It’s a process and it’s really inspiring and enjoyable to be able to dig in and work to make everything come to life. It’s a good learning curve, I really enjoy the process of learning now that I’m a grownup and get to pick what I learn and how I learn it.
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OOoOoooh The Guilt

I had some free time on Saturday since the craft fair was blown off the planet.  I decided to take on some guilt that I had been sitting on for a while.  About two years ago we had our house on the market.  It didn’t sell but we dusted and cleaned it relentlessly all that time.  That was when we started using Swiffer Dusters.  I am not a fan of disposable cleaning supplies but the Swiffers work really well.  We kept on using them even after we took the house off the market.  OOoOoooh the guilt.
For two years I’ve put this project off.  I found a tutorial to make Swiffer dusters out of flannel on line a looong time ago so it’s not like I didn’t have the necessary information.
I would have had to dig back through old blog posts but thankfully now there’s Pinterest so I could just grab it off of one of my boards.
 I’m just posting some random pictures of my project for you since her tutorial is very clear if you want to make one.
Also I found my old camera, which I thought was dead, in my son’s room and used it for all but one of these pictures.
I may need to steal it back from him.  My camera phone picture really stinks.  So, I’ve overcome my guilt on one front, only to pick more guilt up on another as I steal my camera back from my son.  I shouldn’t feel guilty, it’s mine, not his but I remember having that teen logic of touching something and it becomes yours.
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Blown Out

Well, I had hoped to share pictures of our awesome both set up at Elver Park for the Fresh Air Craft Fair today.  But we got blown out.  Literally.  The vendor agreement said that the fair would go ahead rain or shine; it did not say that it would go ahead with crazy, gusty winds.
So here’s our booth part way through being taken down.  That’s when I remembered to take a picture.  It looked great and we actually held out longer than the people around us before the big wind came through.  The secret:  Attach the canopy to cinder blocks.  We were helping someone else keep her canopy from blowing away when the wind knocked everything off our table.
Look at the poor gourd lady.  This is when they cancelled the fair.  It was a bummer to do all that prep work and then have it cancelled but, ya know, shit happens and we met some nice people there.  Also, the wind distributed many of our new business cards far and wide.  
So on to planning our Etsy Shop opening.  It’s May 21st  and I’m too superstitious to make a crack about the weather not being able to affect that opening.  
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Time For A Little Goofing Off

No, I’m not showing off my neon pedicure….actually, I am.  Isn’t it cute?
Also, I’m showing off these tee-shirt bracelets.  I’m hoping to sell some on Saturday at the Open Air Craft Fair in Elver Park.  I’ve been pricing and inventory-ing all morning so it’s time for a little goofing off.
They’re mixey matchy, cute and cheap.  
I hope people like them.  Who could say no to someone with such cute toes?
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Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road!!!!!!!!

So, this will seem pretty random but when I was in college, I had to bring in a song to learn for Musical Theatre class.  I knew nothing about sheet music or what to pick so I asked the guy at the shop to pick for me.  I don’t remember which song he picked but it was from the musical “I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road“.  I think the reason I don’t remember the name of the song is that I never sang it.  My teacher said he didn’t want to spend the semester hearing it over and over again so we picked an old standard from the ’40’s for me to sing.  It was actually pretty funny.
In any case, any time I am getting myself organized my brain shrieks: I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road!  And that is what is ringing in my head because I am vending at a craft fair (My first in years) this coming Saturday.
I made cards.  I sewed on them a little bit.  
We’re probably going to change the design eventually so I only made 40.  
It doesn’t seem sustainable to always sew on our business cards but I like the way it looks.
I made a big ol’ sign.  I sewed on that, too.
But you can’t really see the stitching unless you’re up close to it.  I need to fix that somehow.  I don’t want to sew on it too much because it perforates the paper and if I do too much, it will fall apart.  
I have some stuffed animals.
Jewelry out of electronic components in muffin tins…Yes that’s right, muffin tins.  They’re good for storage.  
Pin cushion bonanza!
Jewelry out of tee shirts and my partner has a lot of wool crowns and balls.
And I have the ability to take credit cards which feels like a super power.  I know there’s butt loads more of stuff to prepare but I feel like I’M GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER etc…  
PS – I still can’t carry a tune.  That poor teacher was tortured by my singing for a whole year,