May is Anti-Procrastination Month

AKA Finish what I started month.

I have enough partially finished projects that I can NOT start anything new. It's got me in a creative RUT. SO this month I am pledging not to start anything new, but rather to work on finishing what I have started. Oh my, this list is long. Not all of it will get done, but some of it will, and that will feel freeing, I am sure.

Craftiness:
Finish the stuffed bunnies I am making as baby shower gifts (all three of these babies have been born now!)
Add straps and applique to Lorelei's sun dress I started last year
Make pillowcases for Lorelei
Make a pillowcase and mattress for the doll bed
Make the "sunshine" pillow I bought supplies for
Paint Lorelei's Letters for her room
Dye "festival dress"
Dye the experiment underwear
List the dyed stuff I have sitting around on Etsy!
Finish Lorelei's birthday silks

Photography:
Fully edit my personal bluebonnet sessions
Get friend's maternity session booked and shot
Get John's newborn session at least booked
Schedule C and A's toddler pictures

House Work:
Finish sanding bench
Varnish bench
Finish digging new flower bed
Buy pots for tomatoes
Plant tomatoes
Put mulch and path gravel down
Start on the second bench


I'll keep the progress updated on here. Wish me luck!

Costumes, Part 2

I finally got my dress and Lorelei's outfit completed.

A black tshirt with ladybug wings 

A rather unflattering stripey bee dress


Now on to the details... just need some antennae, and to figure out what Ivy will wear under her monster dress.

Costumes... in progress

I worked for a while yesterday on Lorelei's ladybug costume but was getting irritated trying to make the wings work the way I want them, so started on my from-a-pattern costume today. I often do this when I'm working on projects-- let the problem kinda stew in my mind for a while and do something else that it "easier" or at least different while I work the problem out.

Today my husband took the toddler out sailing, so it's just me and the baby.
She REALLY likes the fabric I'm making my dress out of--- check it out!

"Hi Mom!"

"Oh.. I wasn't supposed to have it?"

"Yay! you didn't take it away!!"

Ah, the relative peace of crafting with a non-crawling baby around...

Marble Magnet tutorial

A simple tutorial for a cute little craft.


I've seen these things everywhere (here are some other peoples tutorials for them), and I decided to use my old business cards to make some of my own as a promotional item I'm giving away at the WonderCraft's grand opening. I'll be there doing a free photo booth for people who feel like goofing off or showing off their newly embellished neckties. The first 25 people in the door will get gift bags filled with little goodies from local artists.

Enough talking about that, and on to the tutorial. There are other tutorials all over the blogs, but this is what worked the best for me.

Materials:
Old Moo business cards with pretty pictures (or other pictures on thick-ish paper)
1/2" round magnets
small clear flat marbles (found in the floral section of Joannes)
glue-- I used Elmer's Craft Bond Ultra Stix All

A pencil
Scissors
and of course a table to make a bit of a mess on. It's really an easy to clean up mess though. I love low fuss low stress projects. They are so satisfying.

1. Use the marble to find parts of the image pleasing in small format. I found that many of my favorite pictures wouldn't work well for this project because it would just have part of a kid's face or some other odd unidentifiable subject that didn't look right through the magnifying effect of the marble. Of course if you are already using abstract images this won't be a probem, but don't expect photos of people to work too well.

2. Trace around the magnet over those areas you have found work well, and then cut out those little circles. I found this worked better for me than tracing around the marbles, because of the tapered shape of the marbles. Too big of circles that show much on the back look a bit sloppy.

3. Smear a thin layer of glue on the magnet, and then stick the back of the image to the magnet

4. Put a slightly thicker layer of glue on the back of the marble, then place the marble on the image and press until there is no air space between the image and the marble. If you can still see some slightly foggier areas, lift it off, add a little more glue and try again. You'll see what i mean when you go to do it, I'm pretty sure. You do NOT need much glue at all, but it will take more than it did to stick the image to the magnet.

5. Once you have it how you want it, set it aside. Don't set the magnets too close to each other to dry or one will either push the other away or they will stick together and knock the images askew. Once you have them set aside don't touch them for a while. It's harder to fix them once they have started setting up than if the glue is fresh.

6. Enjoy your new magnets!

It's that easy!

A few notes about how I did things, if you still have questions about it:

1. The thick moo cards keep the glue from seeping through. I have not tried this with thin craft papers or magazine pictures so I don't know if this glue would work well or if it would do odd things to the paper. I chose the glue because it is strong, dries clear, and has no odor. I'm pregnant, so the no odor part was a kind of big deal to me.

2. Some people recommend hot gluing the magnets to the back. I don't recommend that if you want them to hold up. Hot glue really isn't that great for high use items. Now if you are just going to stick your magnets somewhere once and never moving them, go for it. Also, the idea of using two different glues for the project doesn't appeal to my desire for simplicity.

Felt orchids

My newest crafty project... felt orchids. I bought the tutorial... first time ever buying a tutorial, but I think it was a good buy.

Since no one I'm planning on gifting with these little guys follow my blog I can post some pictures. If I was to make more, I think I'd need to order some more natural looking felt greens. The leaves are a bit glaring.



Obviously, I'm still working on the red one.

Technical Difficulties

I'm still working on Lorelei's costume.. slowly but surely. Bodysuit and tights dyed, silk for her skirt dyed, some little flowers for embellishments made, wings made...

I'm having a bit of trouble with the wings though. The trial run revealed a droopy problem.

I didn't think about the fact they wouldn't stay up as well on a onesie as they would on a dress, or maybe they are heavier than they are supposed to be? Who knows.... I think I will be sewing some ribbon on them and tying them on that way along with the velcro.

She still looks awful cute though even with the droopiness!

Ready for Halloween?

I'm not! Ive been working on Lorelei's costume, but I may be overestimating my abilities and time... because I also need to make my own costume, and my boyfriend's too. His will be simple, but I have big plans for mine.

Luckily I also have the tights and onesie dyed for the toddler costume, and have everything for her skirt I just need to assemble it :)

Here's my progress as of this afternoon...
Can you tell what she's gonna be?

She already loves the practice skirt I made up ... she brings it to me and then lifts a foot up for me to put it on her, and prances around the room in it. I don't know if it's the bright colors or the softness of the silk, but hopefully she will like the not-just-for-practice one too.

Squidhat anyone?

This is one of the funniest hats I've ever seen, made by ObeyMyBrain on Etsy.
http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.80802613.jpg

Just thought I'd share :)

Tie dye panties! For Made It Monday!

Fun tie dyed panties! I dyed all my old white undies first and got annoyed at how the waist band didn't pick up the dye right, so I got these where the waistband is cotton covered elastic. I love how they turned out.

A good day to Dye

The week has finally come where I made enough money selling vintage finds on Etsy, ordered my supplies and started fabric dying!

Here's a look at some of my first experiments while still in their dyebath.


I was going to take pictures of the finished product this morning but my camera battery died right as I was about to snap the pictures.... so that's for next time.

This is way too fun and I can't imagine that I'll be able to find enough stuff to do with all the stuff I want to dye. I may have to get more clothing blanks so i can have fun with it and possibly sell some. Otherwise I'll drown in my crations and my boyfriend will kick me and my mess out of the house *grin*

Mission Cat Tree, Accomplished

We've been working on some remodeling-- ripping out a wall and just leaving two columns and a knee wall, removing carpet, redoing the flooring, trying to remove the texture from the wall... and took the opportunity of leftover carpet, padding and wood to make a cat tree from the remnants. I think it turned out pretty cool... and I hate to say it but I was hesitant to do it before because of the sick kitty peeing on everything. Now, the random pee incidents are in our past, and hopefully will stay that way.

There's still a tiny bit more to be done-- I'm planning on wrapping the posts with sisal, and doing some sort of finish on the bottom board to make clean up easier when some cat inevitably decides to hairball on it, but they are happy with it how it is, and I will get to "finishing" it eventually.



And the kitten loves it.
The others like it too, but they don't show off for the camera as much

A thought aobut the CPSIA

One big problem with the law is that is is similar to the ADA (Americans with disabilities act) it opens up well meaning people to lawsuits that they would not have otherwise been venerable to.

The ADA has specific guidelines for things as tiny as how far a toilet should be from a wall, but it is not actively enforced as long as the businesses are trying. But there are people making a "living" off of suing people who are not following the law to the letter. In Virginia, this included a couple who were both in wheelchairs getting sued for thousands because their business was not accessible even though their adaptations worked just fine.

So really, even if it is not being enforced actively people can use this well meaning law for personal gain at others expense if we look at the ADA as an example.

Baby hats

I went looking for hats for Lorelei before Christmas and was a bit dismayed by the lack of selection and the price of most of what I found... so I decided to make some myself.

They aren't great, but they came out sort of cute, plus they cost me almost nothing because I used fleece I already had sitting around.

This one was sort of from the Martha Stewart website... I followed the instructions loosely though and didn't add pom poms. I'd link to it but it seems like the website always sends you to the main site. Search for Fleece Hat on there and you'd find it easy enough. This one also has about an inch of hat available to let out, since I made it too big at first. Matt suggested I not cut off that piece so she can wear it still when she grows.

This one I much made up after seeing similar looking ones. It was super easy, and I used the curled selvage edge instead of making a band. Lorelei seemed to like this a bit better than the big band, but then she hates hats and always has to wear ones that are a bit big or she cries. I did take out a little of the excess fabric and made it a bit less bulky after this picture was taken, but it doesn't look that different.

In theory I am going to make a pom pom for this one some time... but I night not ever get to it.

I also knotted up the end to see what that would be like - it would be good for if she was in her car seat or stroller- and it worked pretty well.

So there you go, baby hats!
If anyone would want me to make a baby hat for them, just let me know

a craftless craft blog?

That seems to be what I have. Someday I will get more of a chance to craft again. For now... well, I did make a few stockings tying to work out a pattern. They were for a craft day with other moms to make baby's first stockings but for some reason all but one person has decided to change their RSVP to no or maybe- including the person who actually requested the event. *sigh* That was a bunch of work for nothing.

Here they are:
These actually aren't ones I am going to use but... well, at least I know how to make a stocking now.

I also made some sugar cookies last night that turned out wonderfully. I used this recipe. I tried to frost them with a simple powdered sugar and water glaze but I think I'll do something differently for the other half the batch. I need to do something that travels well or I'd put butter cream frosting on them. I'm going to be making them for a cookie swap though and I want them to turn out good after taking them someplace else in the car.

The icing I'm in theory going to make it going to be a royal icing like hard icing with crushed candy canes sprinkled on top before it hardens. The question is, when can I find a chance to crush candy canes into little bits while not waking the baby?

Etsy fun

I finally got around to making an Etsy store for some of my... junk. right now I have a few burp clothes and some tag toys on it... but soon I'm going to list (as vintage) a bunch of little Wade miniatures I collected as a kid, some vintage buttons and bead and ... random little crafty stuff I will probably never use that my mom keeps getting at auctions and giving to me, more sewn stuff and... who knows what else. Because of the "who knows what else" part... I've named my store "Chaotic Whimsey"

Now we'll see what happens with it.

Extreme Cakemaking!

I found this on Cakewrecks and it's pretty amazing. They actually made a full sized mock up car out of entierly edible materials, mostly cake (180 eggs anyone?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwBE1l6QexU

If you want to see it more in depth, there is a "making of" video too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb3tlVlJhgY

Anyone want to help me out and tell me how to embed a video onto this blog?

Gnomeness

This hat is one of the cutest baby things I have ever seen. Someone needs to teach me how to make one... or I need to break down and buy one. Knitschmidt on Etsy is the genius behind this particular one.

I'm not usually one that finds any baby items "must have because they are soooo cute".... until this!

Monster Wreath, completed!

It ended up being easy to make.. but the fur was hard to find. I found a small amount of purple fun fur, but much less than needed to do it as a group project. Only "natural" colors were easy to find. But I did end up with a purple wreath, with enough fur left over for two people to do a one side purple/one side black wreath.

Here is how mine turned out. Not a shot of it in place on a door but... you get what you get ;)