Friday, October 28, 2011

My week in pictures (with some explanations)

Did something last weekend that made me decide to have long hair like this. 

Unfortunately that same thing made my face do this.  Stupid makeup.

But I totally fit into these!!!

And I took pictures of water on my yard.

And played with a new bag design.

And I plan on doing this to my dog this weekend.  She will get me all the candy ever.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Nail Polish

New obsession?  Yeah, just a bit.  I blame Haley.  I have become obsessed with painting my nails.  Actually I blame Haley and Pinterest.  Lots of very cool pictures and manicures.  You should have seen the crazy that occured while I was trying to find the Hard Candy Matte top coat around here. 

It has hooked me up with a few blogs to read.  For ideas and pretty colors.  Although some of the best information has been on how to take care of my nails so that they grow out long enough to do stuff with and what the best products out there are.  For example, I found Seche Vite.  The angels began singing the first time I used it as a top coat.  Super fast drying.  I didn't have any trouble with bubbles or weird texture.   My only gripe (and only because I'm cheap) is that it is a bit pricey (I've found it between $7-9).  But I just plan on keeping an eye on sales flyers and stocking up a bit when it is on sale.  I also do a base coat and try to use cuticle oil whenever I think about it (i.e. I set it out in the downstairs bathroom so everytime I go I use the oil)

Blogs I read:
Nail Polish Art Addiction
Nail Slide
Polish Amor
The Manicured Monkey (actually where it started, with the water marbling.)

yay pretties!

My first attempt at water marbling.  Done for the Pumpkin Run.  I think it turned out great.  It was a bit time consuming and messy.  But worth it.  Next time I am using vaseline instead of tape to keep the polish off of my fingers.  I also found a tutorial for doing a dry water marble. 

A gradient.  I need to try this again.

Possibly my coolest mani so far.  Inspired by this picture.  I feel cooler just having tried this.

My polishes.  I have filled up 3/4's of a 4th wheel by this point. 

A touch of crafting fame

I'm feeling a bit of pressure to be witty and brilliant today.  If you are a crafter, you have probably heard of and read Craft Magazine.  I know I do.  75% of the time if you see a random craft on my blog that doesn't fit into my normal range of crafting or is out of the blue, it comes from there.  For example:

This sideways, plush wookie (stupid Blogger won't let me rotate the picture).  The tutorial came from here.  So lots of fun stuff.  It is a lot of links to how-to's and articles about cool crafty stuff.  Being mentioned on there is sort of like an athlete being featured on ESPN.

Why do I mention this?  Something I made, made it to Craft.  My Tulle Dishscrubber pattern.  Mad props to Lindsay at A Wooden Nest for the much better picture than the one in my pattern.  Which is actually a funny story.  I was reading Craft (shocker) and came accross a chai tea concentrate recipe.  Yum!  So I wandered over to the blog to get the recipe and started reading because it was a nice blog and seemed interesting (great pictures!).  So I get a few entries in and there is her Dishscrubber post.  Now, 90% of the time when I am designing, I design for me and everyone else gets to take advantage of what came out of my brain.  So I rarely expect to actually see my patterns being used in the wild.  It was very cool.  Little did I know we would both be back on Craft in a few days. 

So, my brush with fame.  Not nearly as amusing as the time I flipped out because I thought that maybe the Yarn Harlot had ready my blog because I had commented on hers and it was showing that someone from Toronto had looked at mine.  I finally calmed down when I realized that I'm sure there are many people from Toronto who also read her blog who might have followed my comment back here.  But I still like to pretend it was her.  :)  I'm creepy that way.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Nerd Wars- August edition

 First off, I finished my dissertation project.  yay.  It is this shawl pattern.  I adapted it a bit to make the short row section stockinette with beads.  you can kind of see them in this picture.  Love it. 
Technical: Guilty Pleasures
A written description of how your project answers the challenge: My guilty pleasure is making amigurumis/toys. They are so fun and so fast to make. And they always turn out cute. But I have no kids and I feel silly making a bunch of stuffed toys that are going to sit around the house. Well, I finally have a niece that is old enough to appreciate a good stuffed animal. So now I can indulge a bit more in my guilty pleasure.
Team Spirit: There aren’t a lot of “monsters” in the Discworld novels. But they do have trolls. I imagine them as hulking, large lumps of stone. Trolls are made of stone in the Discworld. This little toy could be a baby troll. Maybe one around 2 years old (like my niece) who maybe needs a bit of a nap. Maybe she is made of Ruby Zoisite.
 
 Intellectual: Finishing the Race
Finish up to two WIP's.  The first is my Saroyan shawl and the second is the Cabin Shawl.
 The cabin shawl also counted for
Giving Geeks: Respect your elders
A written description of how your project answers the challenge: This shawl is for my grandmother. She starts getting cold around this time of year and she always admires my shawls. I thought she could use her own.
Team Spirit: When making this shawl, I decided to make it in honor of a Discworld Elder. I tried to think of someone that would need a nice comforting shawl. And the mother of Corporal Nobbs, Maisie Nobbs, came to mind. I was reading one of the Discworld novels from the Watch theme line. She is featured also in Nanny Ogg’s fabulous cookbook for her Distressed Pudding. Her picture even has her wearing a shawl. So I think she would greatly appreciate this one.

  Scientific: Waves
A written description of how your project answers the challenge: This fiber was dyed when I first started dyeing and it turned out a bit felty. I finally did something about it and ran it through my drum carder. When it came off the drum carder, all of the blues made me think of water. I also had a bag of silk neps and I thought the splashes of white would look like the crests of waves. I was right. It has a very oceany quality to it.
Team Spirit: Discworld is flat. Consequently all of the water at the edge of the world flows right off of the edge of it. As the water moves towards the edge of the Disc, it gets a bit choppier and splashes against rocks and debris that has built up over time. White froth dances over the top of these waves before the water plunges off of the edge of the Disc and into the space below.
 Nerd Culture: Know your roots
A written description of how your project answers the challenge:
As many people who have read the Discworld novels know, there are several ways to approach the large stack of books. Some people go with the publishing dates, some chronologically by story line, and others read them by theme. I chose the latter method. I started with the Death set of novels. I’m very glad I did. Death is the personification of death. He is what we think of and has been created by our thoughts of death. During Reaper Man, Death took a bit of a vacation and several aspects of him were created. Most notably Death of Rats (and sometimes guinea pigs). Death of Rats did not reabsorb into Death when he returned to his job and has since hung around for company and finding ways through loop holes that death can’t get through. He is also adorable and says SQUEAK.
So I made my own Death of Rats to commemorate the beginning of my love for all things Discworld. I was going to have him watch over my yarn stash, but I have a knitted stash hedgehog already and I don’t want him to worry about it being his time already. :)

 Team Spirit: Necessity is the mother of invention
A written description of how your project answers the challenge: Bloody Stupid Johnson is a famous (and infamous) inventor in the Discworld. He has many, many inventions spread across the world and many are still being found. This invention was discovered in the dish washing room of Unseen University. It was discovered to be a BSJ invention when the dishes that were placed near it were hurled across the room. Although the speed at which they traveled was apparently so fast, they sped through time and space. Several of these dishes were found represented in cave paintings done at the beginning of the world. Research has been done on BSJ’s journals and they believe this invention is the Patent Super Speed Double Scrubbing Dish Washer. It has been locked away because of worries of what other items it might hurl through space and time, such as people.

September

September was a decent month.  I don't know if I've gotten a lot done, but I feel like I did.  

I finally made this tea cozy.  I love it.  Mom and I traded tea pots so I could make this.   I had to felt it a little bit to make it fit my tea pot.  But I was working with the wrong yarn.  But my tea pot is a snail, so all is good.
 I made a flying monkey.  It is for the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon.  they give them as prizes.  I like the way this one turned out.
 I changed to my winter hair. 
 And apparently so have the stores.  Yes that is a Christmas tree.  I'm sorry. 

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Since You've (I've) been gone...

 It has been a while.  But I've been busy.  I had to go on a Goodwill raid.  I was in desperate need of some new clothes.  I got all of this for $50.  Woot!
 I made these for the bathroom.  I needed some sort of organization for my earrings, besides jamming them all in my jewelry box.  I could never find the ones I wanted.  Now they all hang up.  The big one at the bottom is all of my earrings without a back.  The small one holds all of my pins and clips.  And the one that is empty will hold all of my post backed earrings.  But I need to go through those to see if I still want them all.
 I finished a shawl that may or may not have been in the WIP pile for ::mumble mumble 3 years::  But it is finally finished.  Now I have no idea what to do with it.
 I ran a race.  The two mile race that is done in conjunction with the Parkersburg Half Marathon.  It was loads of fun.  And I got a personal record. 
 I started a Smash book.  This is the first set of finished pages.  Essentially you just smash things into your book to keep.  Add notes and things as you like.  I am just using a generic journal to start with.  I didn't want to spend that much on it until I decided if I like it.  It might be a good way to dabble in scrapbooking without having something to scrapbook.  The race page above is also in the smash book.
Finished Nerd Wars.  I'll put all of those projects in a separate post. 

Got a new camera and I'll squee about that in a separate post.  I don't want to overload this one with pictures. 

Monday, September 5, 2011

Doing things with friends

I like my friends.  A lot.  Some of them have moved away and some of them have been having a rough time.  But I just want all of them to know I like them and I like doing things with them. 

Such as knitting in the great outdoors.  Scaring all the non-knitters. 
Look at those hands go!
Demonstrating our fiber love at fairs and festivals. This is a good way to come across new friends.
Taking over our local hobby shop.  So many knitters.
Sorting through grossness-covered fleeces.  I have no idea why this picture is sideways.  I can't figure out how to fix it.