September 4, 2011
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awesome
I just wanted to note that Jessica from ALLFREESEWING.com contacted me a while back about listing my book cover tutorial on their site. I gave permission and am thrilled with the amount of people checking things out!
Don’t forget to share your photos with the rest of us at http://www.flickr.com/groups/fabricbookcover/ :)
On a different note, grad school is kicking my ass so theCrafties is taking a side seat for now. I hope to get things worked out and back to quasi normal after I get caught up (boo for late shipments on books!!). Remember that if you would like to follow my grad school adventures, you’ll need to email me because I will not be linking the site here.
I hope you experience great crafting days ahead and continue to share so that I can live vicariously through the internet!
July 1, 2011
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Willow Movie Party
My all-time favorite childhood movie is Willow. Or Labyrinth. It’s a toss up, really. But anyway, I found out that my sister-in-law had never seen it. This is important because 1) How can you never have seen the awesomeness that Willow is? And 2) “Kaia” has been my favorite name for most of my life and I learned about it from that movie – And she just so happened to pick that as my niece’s name so hello! Side note: This post is overdue – the party was in January. o_O
I was inspired to do a bit of a popcorn party from one of Princess Lasertron‘s series – Mine was hardly as glorious, but it was a good start. Check out her post Have this party: popcorn bar and a movie!
I made parchment invites and left a bottle of Black Root Ale (root beer) for each of the guests on their doorstep.
To make the invites, I whipped out the invitation details for the front, and some Willow movie facts for the back. I printed onto parchment paper then cut them into ragged, bumpy squares. A few hits with a lighter later, and it had an old-timey effect.
“Kael”, “Sorsha”, “Madmaya”, and “Kaiya” were all in attendance. Unfortunately for the rest of us, our names didn’t mimic anyone from the movie. I also noted that the party was taking place at the “ruins of Tir Asleen” since our house was still under construction;)
To make the bottle stickers, I got some full sheet label paper. I designed the labels myself in Gimp, and I am pretty proud of how they turned out. I had Black Root Ale (the aforementioned root beer), Black Root Ale Light (yummy cream soda), and Madmartigan Party Juice (Izze sparkling juice in clementine, grapefruit, and blackberry).
The mega-awesome sketch of Madmartigan and the Eborsisk came from Joel Carroll. I got the parchment look from FantasyStock. Both are found at DeviantArt. Thank you both!!
Feel free to make your own Willow Theme party! Let me know if you do:D
May 11, 2011
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Midna the Stray
Our precious stray kitty, Midna, went to the vet yesterday. It didn’t sound good. Her belly is bloated and her intestines are ropey. She has broken hair and alopecia over her back end and a few other spots, leading the doctor to believe she has flea dermatitis, but there are no fleas to be found. Her coat is very rough also. And she has poor muscle mass over her hind legs. Otherwise her teeth, ears, eyes, etc are all ok.
I gave them a stool sample (she choose to poop in random places in the garage) and ordered a slew of tests to make sure she is fit before we give her to someone. The bloodwork was ready before I left and the doctor was very concerned that her white cells were super high. He didn’t have a reason for it, so he suggested testing her for the deadly and contagious FIP (feline infectious peritonitis), considering her low muscle mass and bloated belly.
So a few hundred dollars later (which was our intention on vaccines and spay, neither of which she was healthy enough to undergo yet), and worrying that we may have given our kitties some untreatable disease even though we washed our hands and such (which if that turned out to be true, I would destroy Mother Nature), the vet called today to tell me this news:
Midna’s stool showed no signs of worms (but they did suggest I get a general de-wormer just to be sure).
Midna’s FIP test was negative. Big, huge, massive relief. She’s going to make it and my kitties wont be sick! :D
And how thrilled was I when I found poop in her litter box?? Yay Midna!! :D
So currently I am giving her anti-biotics twice a day and will take her back in 10 days to get a new blood test and hopefully her counts are closer to normal. And then hopefully she will be healthy enough also for the vacs and spay because we will be leaving for NYC and I would really like to place her by then. Wish us luck!
And today, I went out to sit with her in this hot hot heat and we found a garter snake! Once she noticed it, it slithered its way into our garage which is not okay with me. I found myself too daunted to capture it so I called Boy who came home from work but by then I had lost track of it. We searched the garage to no avail. But Lady Luck smiled on me once Boy left (she frowned at him I guess) so I was able to pin it down (with a squeal or three) until he turned around and came back. Once he caught it I was able to regain my composure and play with it but something about having to catch it myself freaked me out. In the excitement I forgot to take another picture but this was the before scene when we first found it. Boy carried it to the back woods to live happily ever after.
May 7, 2011
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birthday cat
On Boy’s birthday last night, the cutest little kitten strayed onto his brother’s patio and mewed her way into our hearts. She was starved and skinny, as well as a bit grungy looking, but we gave her some hotdog bits and some fresh water which really warmed her up to us. She was freezing and exhausted, and lost her voice by the end of the night. They let us keep her in their garage over night and this morning we picked her up to take her to the vet. Unfortunately she did not have a microchip and so we are using other means to try to locate her family. She’s just too sweet and lovable to be a feral cat. Now she is living in our garage but she really tries to get in the house (although my girls have made it completely clear that they are not interested in sharing).
We do not want a third cat and I am so worried about her getting hit by a car or attacked by a local dog or the crazy raccoons that I don’t feel comfortable with her being our outdoor cat. Boy won’t listen to me and keep her as his office cat. So….who knows what we will do with her, but I did find an no-kill shelter that seems to be a good fit if I can’t find anyone.
For now I am calling her Midna, which is a character from one of the Legend of Zelda games, and we found her roughly at midnight. She stands on her very tippy toes when you pet her, meows with her tongue out, and craves attention as much as Sasha, yet she is as docile as Maya. She lets me look at her teeth, ears, and eyes, and I could clip her nails too if I cared to (I assume since she is outside I should leave them sharp). She doesn’t shed but she’s young yet (I am guessing under one year).
Hopefully she isn’t already pregnant…
April 19, 2011
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tragedy in the war on tv
We don’t have television stations: no cable, no satellite, no box for local programming. Nothing. This is a choice for us because of a slew of reasons (namely he hates superfluous shows and I hate the general media and its hold over the world). Over the years we have missed out on a few things here and there but Netflix and the internet has rescued us on some occasions, albeit late in the game. However, I really *really* wanted to be there for the premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martin’s (unfinished!!) series. Luckily, I know people with stations;)
However, the tragedy unveiled itself Sunday when both Boy and my television program owner Katie felt under the weather. Actually, it didn’t bother me much because I haven’t seen it yet to be completely hooked and I am looking forward to a back-to-back GoT party next round:) This is a patience one learns only after forgoing the power tv holds, I know.
Meanwhile, my bro and Luci are representing me in New York:
Did you watch it? Was it evilly twisted and full of drama?? Was it awesome?! I hear they are making deals for season 2 already. (I’ll not go on about how I’ve been waiting for YEARS for the series to be finished, George, because I know you know that, duh. I just hope the involvement you have with the television series inspires you to finish them rather than impedes on your time to do so:)
July 29, 2010
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creepies
Just a thought, but maybe i should rename my blog to “Spiders I Find in my Bed While Sleeping” or something. :/
I would have had a better photo but it
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July 20, 2010
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awesome
I dont think i ever mentioned that we did some gutter work. We had some trees up in there so thats all gone and I have noticed a tremendous dent in the mosquito population! Phew!
We also recently visited where I use to live and
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June 25, 2010
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a week in photos
This post isnt that crafty but my week has had some highlights so I thought I would share.
We’ve been pounded with severe thunderstorms for what seems like weeks now. Living in a swamp means the mosquitos are out of control. Eugh. Instead of picking up sticks, ive dragged tree branches larger than me to the burn pile. And all while this is happening, my girls are obliviously laying in awkward positions.
June 1, 2010
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basket tags
(My camera is in Alaska – I lent it to Topher for his green-eyed-monster-summoning 10 day cruise. So, I apologize for the quality of the pics, as they are from my phone. Usually my phone takes pretty swell pictures, but the lighting in my craftroom is quite lacking so thats not the case here. But while grabbing the pics off my phone, I came across some from a WWII re-enactment that our friend Adam participated in – so here is proof that it does take okay photos!)
Anywho, i have a few of these canvas boxes for storage in my Ikea
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May 6, 2010
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surprises
So there i was, straightening my sheets the other day and as I flipped the top sheet over to tug the bottom one, I was greeted by this huge monster.
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as mammoth as I had originally thought, but mind you *i was just in the bed*. Literally, like 60 seconds before and it was found right where i lay. He was just shy of a quarter in size. After about an hour search (seriously, what took me so long??) i discovered it is a Parson spider, and although not poisonous
March 13, 2010
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photo dump
I got my new memory card reader, yay! So as promised, here you go:
I took Sasha out in the snow. The coldness didnt bother her, but the depth of the snow did, so she stayed near the house.
Maya checked out Tofers new bookcases.
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March 9, 2010
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still no sign of it
But i do have great news! I am so excited to tell you that i happened upon some great fabric. Heidi Grace is one of my most admired collections for scrapping, so you can bet your socks that when i saw the coveted designs in fabric, i just had to buy some!
I promise to do a photo dump once i get the pics transferred…
March 1, 2010
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missing my usb cable
I have several crafts i could talk about but without pictures its like eating pizza without cheese or sammiches without bread!
So instead, hows about my pothole drama? I hit a giant crater and heard a loud distinctive crack. I immediately called Boy and told him i thought i trucked up my car, but I was almost home – literally like a mile left to go. So he stayed on the phone with me and when i came to a stop, i thought “phew, i guess its ok, whatever happened”.
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August 17, 2009
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in other news
I will get back to posting about NY hopefully tonight. I have one more day left of adventures to write up. Being that I had some good news though, I thought i would quickly share it first.
1. I think I sold my condo. The agreements have been signed, but he has 7 days to go over the regulations with the option to back out. Keep your fingers crossed! :)
2. After the most horrific flight to date (i can tolerate turbulence, but this was pretty bad, and the kid next to me was literally freaking out, white knuckled, tears in eyes, close to hyperventilating – so i talked to him, telling him it was all normal and wed be fine, discussing his future college plans, etc, all the while, in the back of my mind i was thinking that soon we would all be wearing oxygen masks as we fell to our deaths), boy picked me up at the airport. Long story short, in the middle of the airport in front of gobs of people, he finally got on one knee and asked me to marry him. I never wanted an engagement ring, so he produced the ring that will be my wedding band – I have had my eyes on it for probably 10 years so to finally have it is pretty amazing. It is designed by Jack Kelege – isnt it beautiful? So to all you people who wondered if indeed we had already secretly eloped and just never admitted it and to all you people who wondered if it would indeed ever happen, now you have your answer:)
August 7, 2009
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almost!
Charlottes gift is ready! Like, for real this time. I solved the last problem with a little bit of yarn and it should work great. It WILL be out on delivery today, heavens help me. But, the giftedness of it means no photos for you yet. Here is the package though – I hadnt intended on making it cute, but it just kind of happened:
Meanwhile, although all the problems of it had killed my desire to create (really it was a matter of: If i move on to something else, i will never come back to it), I have accumulated quite a stack of projects.
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July 30, 2009
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beadwork and leather
One of my teachers was able to make it to my graduation beach party that boy threw for me (hooray for all the monkeys, boo for lack of parking!).
She makes Native American inspired crafts so she made me a beautiful pouch from teal suede leather, and created a beaded rosette for it. Its so soft! I havent decided what Im going to keep in it yet, but itll be something good:)
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July 28, 2009
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beauties and beasts
I am cat-sitting for a friend who has two sphynxes. For whatever reason, people had assumed I was getting hairless cats when I told them about my girls. I dont know why – Javanese are certainly not hairless so I have no clue as to how that rumor got started (side note, if you wiki javanese cats, youll see my girlies;).
For true hairless cats, check these bad boys out!
Jinx, on the left, and Cocoa on the right. They outweigh my girls already and are still under a year old (Maya is at 5lbs, Sasha is at 6 – the boys are around 12 each) and my girls hate them. Can you imagine two giants speaking some obscure language bounding right up to you in your own home who just so happen to also be skinless? Im sure thats what its like for my babies.
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July 9, 2009
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the belated project…
…is still belated.
You know, for something Ive already made before, and the simplicity of it, this one just isnt being nice to me. It is one thing after another – a few clipped seams here, a mis-sewn piece there, no more thread over here, another broken needle over there, yadda yadda. But I have also had other things going on – more showings of my condo = major cleaning tasks. Fixing up Boys office and helping him get organized in the new space = major weekend tasks. Working at the future house = other free time tasks. Sicknesses, lemonade stands, and parties, not to mention that thing i do at the bank five days a week that really gets in the way of things. My free time has been wee wee small. I dont want you all to feel I gave up on crafting, because I surely havent! So, another sneak peak. Maya just cannot get enough of this thing. She will be sorry to see it washed and mailed out, Im sure.
June 25, 2009
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im working on it
The current project I am working on is taking quite a bit more time than I thought because instead of this last part being incredibly easy and fast, it is instead incredibly easy and slow. And i cant show it yet, since its a gift, so youll just have to wait.
Instead, Ill leave you with a pic of my neice, Kaia. Her Pops runs a concession stand at local events, and last weekend i was working for him at the local arts and craft show. Her mom found her these cute little headbands, with flower clippie attachments. Ive seen a lot about these on craft blogs, and perhaps one day Ill think of something to embellish them with.
June 8, 2009
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busy weekend
But no update on projects :( I had broken my sewing machine needle, and although I got it replaced, I was barely home this weekend to finish up the tasks. Boy needed me to finish painting his office (which still isnt done – it needs a third coat) and we had a birthday party to go to, not to mention all the other errands that always get pushed off until weekends.
I went over to Gayles and she taught me how to do a blind hem. It doesnt look like my machine will do it (although I need time to look more into it) but at least now I just might be able to hem my own stuff.
On a different topic though, we have gotten serious about Boy learning french, and my reaffirming what I know with rosetta stone. I like that software quite a bit. But we have only 3 months left and 48 lessons to do, so we made a schedule for twice a week that we must uphold! Ultimately, this will cut into my crafting time, but it will allow for better posts in the future about France:)
May 19, 2009
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a graduation present
Although I was officially said and done with my undergraduate education in december (diplomas and all), the actual ceremony was this last Thursday.
Due to that, I have been getting presents and its been awesome to say the least (including Joann gift cards!). But this blog is about one special item that is appropriate for a crafters blog.
Its actually kind of funny. I had to call in late to work for a showing of the condo, and my boss was oddly weird about it. Usually she understands life happens and simply says ok. This time, she wanted to know how late i would be, and told me that i could be late, but i had to come in early. Im thinking “oh no, the whole system is down or half the department called off – what a terrible day it must be to ask me to come in early!” and then she finally explains that they had a surprise party planned for me and they were all waiting to eat. Lol.
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January 1, 2009
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introduction
As my first entry, I should probably explain what the goal is here, eh?
I like being crafty and decided to make a record of my doodads, with links to the main materials I used or places of inspiration (fellow crafters, buildings that inspire me, ancient art, etc). I hope to also include basic explanations of what I did. I don’t pretend to be an expert, but that is what going public is – to learn from others how to achieve the creations that I so covet. I want to record my accomplishments and errors both, because they are all learning experiences.
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