New Year's Resolutions

1. Stop spending money on things I don't really need-  I actually had a longer list, but like 80% of stuff I had pretty much boiled down to this.  Less impulse buying, buying less nail polish, stop buying stuff to make costumes I haven't gotten around to wearing, stop buying the stuff to start new hobbies when I don't really have to time to finish the ones I have. 
2. Organize the craft room and the living room.  I think this is going to involve buying an entertainment center for the living room.  Possibly another bookshelf for our dvds.  I am so excited we finally organized the basement and I have a dance space (reminder to get a rug for down there).  I can imagine I'll be just as excited to be able to find things in those rooms.
3. Step up my belly dance.  Practice at least one extra day outside of class.  I got some great drill DVD's for Christmas.  Use them.  Then maybe I can use some of those costumes and maybe justify the purchase of a very nice one.  (and if I stick to number 1 I might actually have the money to do so)
4. I should call this one 3.5, but get my ass back in the gym.  My surgery was in October.  Granted I've been sick a few times and the holidays are a shit time to try and organize a schedule.  But seriously.  Too many excuses
5. Decide if I really want to make this jewelry thing happen.  Do some craft shows.  Revamp the Etsy store.  

I think 5 is good.  I think they are doable.  Nothing too epic like lose 100lbs.  In fact, going to the gym isn't about losing weight anymore.  I am healthy and pretty happy with my body.  I want to be able to shimmy longer and run faster.  Yes, those would be easier if I were skinny, but being skinny wouldn't mean I could automatically do those things.  I have to work on them no matter my weight.  So I should work on them.  And I will

We Have a Winner

I would like to thank everyone for entering.  It was great to see so many blog hits.  And I love that the overwhelming majority of posts said they would keep the earrings.  I went to a craft swap this weekend that was marketed as being able to finish your homemade Christmas shopping.  And I think I maybe got two things for other people.  Everything else was mine, All Mine!!!  lol

Without further ado, the winner is Jingle.  Such a festive name so close to the holidays. 

And keep an eye on the etsy store.  As I have a chance I will begin adding my wire earrings to sell.  Thanks everyone!

Sew Mama Sew giveaway day

 Contest Over!  Winner has been contacted, and I will make a new post when I hear from them. 

I haven't posted in a while.  So to come back with a bang, I'll start with a giveaway.  I always enjoy participating in the Sew, Mama, Sew blog giveaway days. 

This year I am giving away a pair of earrings.  If you're thinking, "but wait, Nadine!  They need to be handmade!" you can put your mind at ease.  I've taken up a new hobby (because I need another one like I need a hole in my head).  If you've been here before, you know I have an Etsy shop where I sell bags and other sewn items.  Well, I've come to realize they aren't really fiscally sustainable.  I like making them and I sell them occasionally, but they don't require much creative thought.  Then I fell down a hole on Pinterest and started getting really interested in wire jewelry.

Some examples.

So for my giveaway, leave a blog comment telling me who you would give a pair of  these to for Christmas (keeping them for yourself is totally a viable option).  Easy Peasy.  This contest will be open until Midnight on Friday December 7th.  I will then use a random number generator to pick a winner.  Please leave an email or some way to contact you.  You can choose from a pair pictured above or I can even work with you to create something completely unique.  I use nickel-free sterling coated copper wire and high quality beads and swarovski elements.  Thanks for looking

Meet Glinda

She is super nice and as luck would have it, we are the same size!  So I see a lot of clothes sharing in our future. 

 I did have to pad out her butt and waist.  Unfortunately the size dress form that fit my bust was too small for the rest of me.  And as I hope to make my bust smaller in the future, I figured I would be safer with the smaller size.  So thanks to a large felt contribution from Jenn, she got a little bit of extra cushion.  Oh and a sexy bra.

 Now if I could just keep her from scaring the crap out of me when I walk into my dark craft room. 

New Hobby

So I've picked up a new hobby (since I needed another one) and I have been trying my hand at wire jewelry making. I blame pinterest and my friend Anna on there who keeps pinning beautiful stuff. I had tried to make shawl pins before, but they didn't work very well. Until I learned that key piece of information about hammering or annealing the piece. Yeah, it works much better. 

I started off simple.  A little stick pin style.

But I've been working my way through some more complicated designs.  

 

 Mine are a bit unique in that the "pin" part is actually connected to the design so that it won't pull out.  I've lost a few shawl pins that way and I think this helps. 

Then I decided to get really complicated thanks to the design of my friend, Jess.  It is actually the Seal of Rassilon from Doctor Who.

 I need to make more shawls to keep up with all of the shawl pins I am making.

Tour De Fleece 2012



So I totally did participate in the Tour De Fleece this year.  Unfortunately, my camera's memory card ate all of the pictures before I could upload them here.  They are all over on Facebook.  I would save them and upload them here, but the quality is horrible.  So just pretend there were more bobbins of the stupid brown romney fleece (I literally have one more bobbin's worth of fleece left to spin, I will get to it before next year's tour) and a random skein of yarn and a skein of yarn spun for a swap partner.

 

 Instead of all of those wonderful pictures, I will leave you with a cute picture of Itchy and Heidi.  They really do like each other.

Mountain State Arts and Crafts Fair

 Another year, another 4th of July and another Mountain State Arts and Crafts Fair.  We had a different booth set up this year and I really liked it.  But I really could have stood for it to be a little bit less hot.  

First up, our booth.

 And there was a lovely vendor there who had just enough drop spindles to sell to the 4 of us working the booth.  It will make a very nice plying spindle.  It is a bit heavy for most of what I spin.

 Holy Crap!  I learned to shuttle tatt!!!

I also finally rounded out my completion of all of the hands on crafts available by playing in the wood turning booth. This one is a bit harder than the others.

Visited the stained glass booth again.  I really liked the project for this year.  The candle holder would have been nice to have for the giant power outage that happened before the fair this year. 

In all, a very good fair this year.