On the Plane

Edit: Oops, I thought I pressed publish on this when I wrote it Monday, but I guess not! Here you go.

I set myself up with an embroidery project for the plane (I must have been inspired by Floresita), and in case I got bored in New York (yeah right) and wanted to stay home. I almost n-e-v-e-r make time for embroidery, it is truly time consuming, but I’ve had these patterns for a couple of years now and I thought it would be a good change of pace. I used a bird transfer I ordered from Colonial Pattern about and referred to their suggested colors and made it up as I went. I haven’t done a lot of embroidery, but I think it came out pretty well.

The guy next to me on the plane asked me what I did with the things I was making. I said “I’ll use it to dry dishes.” And he was incredulous, “No, really, do you make pillows or what?” At which point I said that I could do that, but I just like to add a little bit of color and art in my life even for mundane uses. I don’t think he followed. I guess I might turn this into something other than a tea towel, but if it remains a tea towel, that would be fine with me, too.

In other news, I posted some photos from Wave HIll Gardens. I had never heard of Wave Hill but I read about it on someone’s blog while in New York and thought “Hey, that’s here!” so my brother and I made the trek. And it was a trek- make sure you get your directions straight before you go– although wandering around the pretty houses in Riverdale is not a bad way to spend time. I love that my brother lives in NYC, because I don’t think I could have convinced anyone else to go there with me, even though in reality it is not that far away.  One thing that was good about living in Queens was that I could never be the lazy one (it was bad too, trust me), and I went all over in terms of exploring the city. My theory: yes, it may take an hour to get there, but what else am I doing, really? Once my more adventurous friends moved away, it really started to piss me off that no one would ever come to Queens, and that everyone who lived in Astoria was always flocking to Manhattan. Sigh.

(Photos from a paper flower menagerie exhibit by Jun Eun Park in the Sun Room)

So during my 6-day vacation, I hit 4 boroughs (Brooklyn: flea, Queens: Egyptian food, Bronx: Wave Hill, Manhattan: everything else). More photos on Flickr, of course, because I think that’s all I have to say about the trip. See also Kayte’s post about our visit to the Crochet Coral Reef. 

Christmas Stroll

A couple weekends ago (dang, I am behind!) we went to the annual Bozeman Christmas Stroll. The city closes main street to traffic so that everyone can walk around and delight in the holiday spirit, all the while wondering if they’ll be able to revive their toes upon frozen boot removal.

Paul and I headed downtown with a bunch of friends and we came upon a little Ugandan Craft sale. There were tons and tons of paper beads. TONS! And so inexpensive, for what you were getting, with all proceeds going to charity. Despite the fact that we’re not really putting up a tree this year (so sad, but I left my tree at the curb when I moved here, andI’m leaving on Sunday anyhow), I had to buy a “garland”– which was really ten or eleven necklaces strung together. Of course I detached one necklace to wear myself. I think it wil also look great on the tree. The some day tree.

I also got this super cool blue necklace. I wasn’t sure about it in the basket, but it looks GREAT on. This is definitely something that you can make from old magazines (or specialty papers, if you feel fancy), and if you choose a monochromatic color scheme, you can achieve a really nice look. There’s a tutorial on some very similar beads in the winter issue of Craft. Just taper your strips of paper and wrap them around a toothpick instead of the safety pin they recommend so that they can get chunky. You can slip them off the toothpick when they dry and string them however you want. I think the seed beads are a nice touch.

Other activities at the stroll included listening to the local high school’s Jazz Choir, sipping hot chocolate, and petting an alpaca!

I was seriously excited to pet the alpaca, and I made everyone come with me. Luckily most of the kids were lined up for Santa by this point. The alpacas were already full from being fed by kids all afternoon, but I lured one over with my teleke-knit-ic powers. I had an 8-year old’s smile on, according to my boss. I wish we had gotten some better pics of the alpaca, but it was dark. Some of them had these cute white faces and their fleece was trimmed so stylishly. Oh, those alpacas. One day I’d like to have a pair of my own.

And here we are, in a rare blog photo appearance. Coming to a Texas near you! Hi Mom(s)!

p.s. Tomorrow is the last day to order from my etsy shop in time for the holidays. After that, I’ll be out of town, so no orders will ship till 2008. Thanks to everyone who ordered from me this year- it really helps encourage me to keep on making stuff.

Season’s Greetings Holiday Cards

I was thumbing through Martha Stewart’s holiday issue when the idea for my cards came to me.  I still love the woodland animals trend, which is probably because I actually get to see bunny tracks in the snow and foxes darting across the road late at night. I traced one of her cute deer templates and decided to go with it for my not exactly Christmas-y cards. I used a mix of papers from my stash along with some more cute flower cutouts–plastic this time– from American Crafts (like Depeche Mode, I just can’t get enough).  Although I am not a huge personal fan of traditional scrapbooking, there is something satisfying and instant about putting papers and trinkets together with a simple dab of glue.

 

I like the mix of patterns and the not quite matchy-matchyness of this set. I was drawing inspiration from the pattern layering I used to see all the time from the in the outfits of crafy and stylish miss Kayte (our stylist, when I was working on Adorn). 

The fact that it’s not technically winter yet and I’ve already fallen on the ice three times (twice today, one in sight of a bunch of kids waiting for the school bus) has me feeling a little bummed. I fell so hard my hat flew off, and that’s never not embarrassing! I ordered some ice cleats (who knew they existed?) at work, though, so hopefully that won’t happen again. Here’s hoping it’s not freezing where you are.

Turkey Day Place Cards

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week! Luckily I am not the one making the turkey, although I will be bringing a very large version of my cheddar corn spoon bread, which seems to be a hit. I also wanted to make some place cards for the table, just to cheer things up, and here’s what I came  up with. Everything was from my stash, bonus points for not acquiring new stuff!

Supplies:
-Assorted scrapbook paper in solids and patterns. If you have 8 x 8 paper,  cutting the 4 x 4 squares is a breeze.
-Ruler
-Scissors and Decorative Edge scissors
-Felt flowers (I used pre-cut flowers from American Crafts, you could also cut your own, use paper flowers, stickers, or whatever you want!)
-Sewing machine
-White Gel Pen or letter stamps and white pigment ink

Making It: Determine how many tags you’ll need. Cut that number of 4″ x 4″ squares from patterned scrapbooking papers. Fold each square in half. Next, cut that same number of 3 1/2″ X 1″ rectangles from  your solid papers with decorative scissors to make the name rectangle. For each card, center one rectangle over the bottom (”front”) half of a folded square. Place flowers on top as desired. Put the whole shebang under your sewing machine needle and stitch around the name rectangle with a long stitch. If you’re nervous about the flowers and papers moving while you sew, you may secure them with a glue stick, just make sure the glue dries before you sew so your needle won’t get sticky.

 
Note: The needle will  dull from sewing through paper, so you may want to mark it and set it aside for your next paper project– don’t sew fabric with it after sewing paper.

And voila! Place cards! To finish them off, I’m either going to write or stamp the names in white ink. There will be fifteen people at our dinner, so I’m going to wait until I have a list to do that part.

 

Gobble Gobble!

Gearing Up

Things have been busy around here,  both in reality in my mind. I am thinking of all the lovely things I could make in time for the holidays. However, if you are on my holiday gift recipient list, you might want to stop reading the blog for now. Hah! I’m probably going to wait to post anything major till after the holidays (assuming these ideas become realities), but you’ve been forewarned. It’s been snowing a lot, and to me snow= Christmas. I already bought a small sparkly pink tree. So, according to my boss and the snow, it will be Christmas till March. The combination of snow and sun is so bright that I actually have a headache. I don’t mind though, because it’s much better than depressing gray weather. Yay for the sun in winter. Here’s a picture I took on the walk to work this morning.

This weekend I continued to make more stuff for my local craft fair. I think I may be going a little overboard, but it’s always better to have too much stuff than not enough, right? I’ve wired at least 20 button necklaces– here are some of my favorites:

 

I also made some quick journals that I’m either selling or gifting. I haven’t quite decided. The felt flowers are from American Crafts (I love them!).

 

And I worked on a fun placecard project for Thanksgiving, which I’ll post later this week. For now, enjoy this weekend vignette: me sewing labels into hats between scrabble turns. They finally came from namemaker, and I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed. For the cost (about $70 for 100), they aren’t super high quality (they weren’t even cut!), and I also had no idea they’d turn out so long. They tell you they’ll make the length as long as your type mandates, but I guess I didn’t have a good idea of the font size (my last labels were the same height and about half as long). Needless to say, once I run out of these I’ll be taking my business elsewhere. But hey, at least I am winning this scrabble game –for now!

Paper-Cut Portraits

I haven’t been doing much of the crafty sort at all lately, but I wanted to share these paper-cut portraits that Paul and I had done on my last day of work. In typical “I’ve walked by this corner every day and never seen this” fashion, I noticed a table with paper cut portraiture. At $10 a pop, I couldn’t resist.

 

He simply folded a 4″ square of origami paper in half and cut out most of the detail, then went back in for details like our hairlines.  I think they’ll be a nice memory a long time from now. If you’re in New York and would like to stop by, Portraits by Ming is on the southwest corner of Broadway and Prince street.

Blogging might be spotty for the next few weeks. I’ve been acting like a tourist with Paul each day, and at some point we’re supposed to pack boxes and drive to Montana. For now, enjoy the view.