Stuff I Make

O Christmas Tree…..

January 9, 2008

I may have mentioned that we go bonkers for Christmas around here. A little bit. Around the edges. But we come by it honestly. Bear’s parents set the standard that we can only hope to aspire to. Next year I’ll be sure and post pictures, because it really must be seen to be believed. There really is not a square inch in their home that doesn’t have something Christmas on it. It defies comprehension.

They have a lot of different doll collections: four ft tall nutcrackers, rooms full of nativities, collectible dolls from A Christmas Carol, scenes of Victorian carolers, Santas of every size and color…you get the idea. My problem is that dolls creep me right out. I so adore having the house overtaken by Christmas and filled to bursting with all the sights and sounds of the season, but I just can’t have it be with dolls or my dreams will not be filled with visions of sugarplums, but more like little Chucky’s standing over me with bloody knives.

I’ve decided that our version of Christmas excess will be achieved through Christmas trees as far as the eye can see. I want them in every color and shape and size, with crazy themes and elegant themes and color schemes that match the room. As much as I’d like to just run out and spend myself into the poor house, I do have to exercise some restraint and so I can only add one tree a year. And since this was the first year we have a garage and enough square footage to fit more than one tree, this was the first year I could put my plan into effect.

Here’s our traditional Family Tree:

My mom always had a beautiful designer tree that matched the living room, but when we brought home our ugly clay ornaments from Kindergarten, they stayed in the box since they clashed with her carefully curated decor. It always broke my little heart. When our kids bring home their little creations, this is the tree it will go on. As for right now, it’s also housing a couple of our collections that will one day take over trees of their own.

Every year we buy the Swarovski crystal snowflake ornament. I got a couple of these from a vendor way back when I was working at a mergers and acquisitions firm, and they are so stunning I had to keep them up. Eventually I want to hang these from a chandelier.

This is one collection that shows off our sappy side. Every year we go out and buy an “Our First Christmas” ornament. Because one of the goals we have for our marriage is that we’ll be newlyweds forever. (Sorry about the crappy picture. Winter light is hard.)

This year I also added a ton of family photos. I saw it in a Pottery Barn catalog and just went nuts over it. They had all kinds of frames just propped up in the branches, and it was just so gorgeous. I added photos of all my favorite friends, and it just made me so happy. Every time I glanced over at the tree, I saw someone I loved peeking out of the branches at me. I’ll be sure to add more every year.

And now, for my brand new tree: 12 Days of Christmas.
It’s a theme I’ve had simmering away back there for a while, but this year everything just fell in line. I found an ornament set at Costco, Crate and Barrel carried a set that I lucked into at their outlet, and then I made enough myself to pretty much fill up the tree.

I went to a wholesale floral mart near us and loaded up on all kinds of good stuff. The “star” on the top is actually a gourd that I sawed a hole in the bottom of, painted green, and dumped glitter all over.

A friend of mine does vinyl lettering, so I had her cut me out “My true love gave to me…” and put that on a ribbon garland.

And the rest were really easy.

Simple pears from the floral shop I covered in glitter. Cheap ornaments I just glued leaves onto. Green ornaments from last years clearance I decorated with paint pens and the song’s lyrics. And my favorite: wood numbers from the craft store I just doused in about five coats of Martha’s glitter. I’m also working on some super cute crosstitched ornaments, but those will have to be for next year.

The next theme in progress is a snowfall tree, covered in icicles and snowballs and flakes of all kinds. I’d also really love to do a Christmas Treat tree for the kitchen with gingerbread and peppermint, and maybe a winter clothing tree for the hallway with lots of little scarves and sweaters and things. Big plans, I know, so you can expect to see my progress on these trees all year long. If I have any hope of adding more trees, I can’t exactly put it off until December.

Filed Under: Over the Top Christmas, Stuff I Make, The Good Life

Following up on the finishes…

January 8, 2008

I figure I’ve already given this one away in the header, so I better show it off for good. If you’ve paid any attention to my project progress bars (and really, who would since I’ve obviously barely paid attention myself) you may have noticed that my Apple colored throw has been sitting at 100% for ages and ages now.

I finished this back in August, and I’m just now getting around to posting. It’s funny to me to look back at these photos and see how different the light is here in the winter, even in sunny San Diego. Who would’ve thought?

This was the second time I made this blanket, which may have been a first for me. I don’t know that my attention span has ever held up well enough to make something and actually finish it twice in a row. I initially made it for The Good Twin way back when she redesigned my portfolio website, and I was so in love with the squishy (and cheap) yarn and how it held the pattern, that I knew I had to have one for myself. A few years later, and it’s finally finished.

It’s been in use now for several months, and I don’t think it’s ever again looked as nice as it does in that picture. Kitties have played in the tassels, it’s always to be found wadded up on the couch wherever we last reluctantly got up, and it never stays in the room I designed it for. It always ends up in the family room in front of the T.V. where more green is the last thing anyone needs. I think these are all signs of a successful project. It is being well loved.

Filed Under: Stuff I Make

Christmas goes all year round at my house…

January 4, 2008

I’m always a little sad to see how quickly people move on from Christmas. To me it seems like just now is when you can really sit back and enjoy it. No more deadlines, no more rush, now you can sit back with a cup of cocoa and a cheesy movie and just relax.

Besides, the house always looks so bleak once you take Christmas down, and unless Spring is right around the corner to brighten things up, I just can’t bring myself to do it.

This is not just an excuse to keep from cleaning up the Christmas mess, but also an excuse for me to show you all the Christmasy things I should have been showing you in December, but was too busy with doing the Christmasy things.

I have loads of Christmas projects to show off, so I’ll start with this simple one that has been waiting around on my hard drive since back in October. My computer is fighting valiantly against its final crash, so I’m a little afraid to upload the new photos onto it. Everyone cross your fingers for good ol’ sparky. Also, if anyone knows why a computer would work slower than my runny nose despite all the latest virus software, I’d love any input. Rookie needs a bed more than a computer.

We made this as the first gift of the season this year for Bear’s parents, Mike and Sally. They are just relishing their role as grandparents, and this is one of the first years that the kids are getting old enough to really have fun with around the season. Moose is almost five now, and the other two are each just over a year, so the grandparents are just stuffing their little fuzzy heads with Santa-lore.

Bear actually came up with this idea when he saw the wood mailbox in Michaels. The whole project was his from inception to completion, including all the snow. He didn’t even know they made such a thing as a “snow writer,” he just had this idea in his head of making the mailbox look snowy and then left it up to me to figure out how. It was my first time using that snow writer paint you see each year at Christmas time, but I am a big fan. Super easy and it puffs up great. Then we just dumped some thick glitter on top while it was wet.

One trick for the lettering: Since I can’t really draw, I have become quite a pro at finding ways to fudge. Here I printed my favorite font off the computer in the size I wanted it, and then using a ball point pen with a dull tip, I traced it right onto the balsa wood mailbox. Those cheap sticky bic pens work great for this. You want something that won’t scratch through your paper as you’re applying a good amount of pressure. Then when you pull the paper off, you’ll have just enough of an indentation for you to see where to apply the paint. A silver paint pen around the edges covered up any sloppy bristle work, and bingo. I look like a stud.

We gave it to Bear’s parents before Thanksgiving even came around and they loved it. It held a place of honor right on the kitchen counter top all year long as they explained to the kids that this was where letters to Santa went to make sure he got them in time. I’m really looking forward to next year when Moose will be old enough to write his own letter and toss it in the box. You know grandma and grandpa will snatch that letter up and run right out to buy everything on the list.

Filed Under: Over the Top Christmas, Stuff I Make, Tutorials

ugh

November 27, 2007

I really wish I had a blackberry or an iphone that tapped directly in to my brain. Then, whenever I think about blogging, I could just *be* blogging. If that could happen, I’d be blogging so much the internet would be sick of me.

I have stacks and stacks of things I’ve *meant* to blog about. I have a really cute stuffed cat pattern I made for Halloween I was going to share, I have finished projects all over waiting to be photographed, I have major house renovations that no one has even seen yet. And I have some really really cute Christmas plans. But whenever I sit down at the computer, the thought of writing any of that out seems to take more energy than I have. Instead I spend hours surfing around after nothing and wasting time.

I’ve been spending whatever measly energy I can scrape together working on this house. We’re hosting several Christmas parties here this year, so all of a sudden I’ve got deadlines looming down on me, cabinets to be sanded and never-ending paint staring at me and calling me names and I really just want to read a book in bed.

My pregnancy is going just fine. I’m now four months along and I’ve reached the uneventful stage. Babies not big enough to make me feel her yet, and we still have a few weeks before we find out the sex, so I’m basically just getting fatter every day and that’s about all I can say about that. I’m having constant dreams about baby being a girl. I don’t know if that’s prophetic, or just subconscious because I want a girl so badly that I’m going to feel terrible guilt if it’s a boy.

Aside from the relentless exhaustion, the other thing keeping me from my regular blogging is all the revisions I want to make to this place. I’ve been thinking a lot about the blog and how it’s changed since way way back in 2002 when I first started shoving my thoughts out on the internet. I wrote about a ton of things I probably don’t want the whole world to know because I was content with a small audience and my anonymity. I don’t really have any anonymity anymore, and I’d really like to change the focus of my blog, which would hopefully attract more readers.

When I first started writing, it’s because I moved to New Hampshire where I didn’t know a soul, and I was completely crippled from my chronic illness. Now my illness is under control, my infertility is temporarily fixed, and the internet is a totally different place. For so many years my life has been this crazy dramatic roller coaster, and now [knock on wood] the roller coaster seems to be settling into more of a nice leisurely Sunday drive.

Way way way back in 2001 I started a website and a business to sell my crafts. It flopped hard. Way hard. Turns out, I was just too revolutionary and ahead of my time. Now there are a million online craft shops with blogs to support them and etsy taking care of all the sales issues. It’s so much easier now than when I started, and there is a fantastic community of craft blogs sharing inspiration and their amazing products. That’s the direction I’d really like to go. But before that happens, I really need to edit archives, redesign my template, yadda yadda yadda. All of that is so daunting, it’s kind of keeping me from getting down to work. Especially when I still have cabinets calling to me and a bathroom to paint.

New years will come sooner than I’m ready for it, and I think addressing the blog issue will make a nifty resolution.

Filed Under: Grand Schemes and Other Plans, Stuff I Make, The Good Life

Take the lesson home

August 10, 2007

This time around, my work in Young Women’s is a little different. Now I’m just in charge of the 16 – 18 year olds, and I teach them every single Sunday. When I used to only have to teach once a month, I loved to go all out and make crazy handouts as a take home reminder of the lesson. I remember whenever a teacher did that for me when I was a teenager, it made such an impression. I even kept a box in my closet where I saved them all for when I was an adult and teaching teenagers.

Unfortunately, somewhere between my teenage years and my full on adult years, that box got shed as too much baggage. So now I have to come up with all my handouts on my own.

This weeks lesson is on service, so I whipped up this quick picture. I’m going to have them just printed out as photos, and then no big assembly process. I got the photo from microsoft’s website, and then just tossed on a border and the quote, the whole thing took me about half an hour, and only because I’m a total photoshop newbie. Feel free to use if you desire.

Filed Under: Matters of Faith, Stuff I Make, Tutorials

So not feeling it..

August 8, 2007

I’m sick. How I got a cold in August, I just plain don’t understand. I have the sore throat and sniffles, the body aches and the irritated skin.

Of course, this would happen on an incredibly busy week for me. I work in Young Women’s now (again – this must just be where I belong.) and things have been hectic as we try to recover from summer and get back to work. I’ve had posters and spreadsheets and activities and temple trips and lessons and busy busy busy.

Plus, any time I move to a new place and introduce myself as a craft designer, I get pounced on. I always end up helping out in Relief Society (the women’s organization) and usually with the activity board as well. Luckily I haven’t met the Activities person yet, but relief society already found me and I have to come up with two projects that all the ladies can make as part of a special event. I’m working up a nativity and a black halloween cat that I’ll share with all of you once I’m finished.

And it’s pine wood derby season, and Bear volunteered to help out, so I have to turn a pine wood derby car into a golf cart by Saturday.

And I need to make a cake for a lady who’s having a baby, not to mention all the gifts I’m late with. Canadian boy and girl had a little junebug and I haven’t even started anything for it, and one of my favorite girls ever graduated from high school and is about to leave home any day now without even a card from me.

I sound incredibly whiny, I realize. It’s not that I have a problem saying no, believe me, I know my limits. It’s that there’s not a thing on this list that I don’t want to do. I just don’t seem to be able to be all the places I want to be right now.

Because I have a stinking cold in August.

Filed Under: Are you kidding me?, Stuff I Make

Reining in the chaos

July 30, 2007

Now that we’ve finally, Finally, FINALLY, managed to finish up enough of the projects to pick all the protective paper up off the floor, I’m trying to claim control back over my life and surroundings. For my branch of OCD, that means lists and more lists, and then lists of all the lists.

With the first round of painting finished, everything has a place (even if it’s only temporary) so I can actually keep my dang house clean now. It is quite a lot more work than I’m used to. In all of our apartments I could clean the whole thing top to bottom in an afternoon. Now that I have three times the square footage, it takes a little planning. Which is of course my very favorite thing.

I thought that since I’d already done all the work, I would share my little chart with all of you lovely people. Click here to download the excel chart consisting of one tab with a monthly calendar full of once a month chores, and then another tab with a weekly calendar full of once a week chores.

On the monthly chores, I left quite a few days blank, because even the most fastidious among us can’t dedicate their entire life to cleaning. I also left a couple of days at the end because I couldn’t think of anything else I needed to fit in around my place. Please let me know if I’ve missed anything.

On the weekly and daily chores, there is no vacuuming listed because I have no carpets, but I would put that in the daily category for high traffic spots, and then maybe a thorough move-the-dining-room-chairs vacuum on the day you do the dusting. I also do all my clutter catching every day. I sort the mail over the garbage can and have a special drawer just for bills. Loose papers are my enemy.

Hope this helps someone, because it sure made me at least *feel* like I had a handle on things over here.

Filed Under: My Dreamhouse in Progress, Stuff I Make, Tutorials

Recent Finishes

April 18, 2007

Crafting lately has been rather difficult, mainly because 90% of my stuff is in boxes. I’ve been trying to find ways to keep it up though. I dug out my sewing stuff for my quilting class, I got my beading stuff out after a trip to the bead store, and I always have “My Activity Bag.”

That’s Jem and Cheetara at the scene of the crime – my poor murdered overstuffed rocking chair. Reupholstering that is on my list of things to do for the new house.

My activity bag is actually a dog carrier I got at Z Gallerie a few years ago. I never leave the house for more than a few hours without it. During my super-bad endo days I would always take a knitting project to church with me so I could distract myself enough to stand sitting down for three hours straight. I actually found it extremely helpful in getting more out of my church meetings. By keeping my hands engaged, it was much easier to pay attention to profound things and ignore any distracting thoughts or growling stomachs.

I have tons and tons of things I want to make for the future house, but I’ve started very few of those. I don’t have any measurements or anything, so I can’t make curtains, and I don’t have anywhere to store things, so I can’t buy furniture yet. And since I don’t know which room the big rocking chair is going to end up in yet, and therefore a color scheme for the fabric, I can’t reupholster it.

I went to a bead store the other day to get beads for my “I Can Make This Friday” project, and I couldn’t help myself from grabbing a few other beads and making this:

I fell in love with a few of these beads and I scoured the store looking for something I could use as a pendant. I finally grabbed this ceramic bead just to have something. Of course the hole was too big for a standard eye pin so I used these random little bead caps I had lying around. It was like magic. I suddenly fell in love with this bead that I almost didn’t even buy before. I read all the time of crafters liking to make things up as they go and allowing the project to unfold, but I am wound way too tight to work that way. This was the first time I saw the appeal in serendipity.

This was a bracelet I finished a while ago, and the necklace made out of the rest of the beads is in progress on the sidebar. I just love seed beads, and I love these colors, so I made it up as I went along. It took me easily a dozen tries, but I figured it out in the end. Look at me, again with the serendipity.

This was a necklace I made to match one of my favorite bracelets of all time. I bought these square beads in both the matte and gloss finishes and then just wove them to make a stripe. It was my first bead weaving project and I absolutely fell in love. So even though I really don’t do matchy-matchy, I had to make a matching necklace. I just wove another rectangle, strung a wire through the top and made a loop at each end, and then hung it onto two lengths of tigertail and beaded the rest.

I’ve also caught the apron bug, so I had to sew one up. Oh gosh I love it. Prior to this the only apron I had was this really sweet velvet leopard print apron my brother-in-law gave me one year for Christmas. Now I’m thinking I need a whole apron wardrobe. Isn’t is beyond retro-fab?

Filed Under: Stuff I Make

House Projects and Quilting Mishaps

April 10, 2007

I’m going crazy waiting around and hoping the loan works out OK and we get through escrow with a house at the end of it. Being the OCD freak that I am, of course the only way I know to deal with this is to plan my little heart out. I’ve been staying up late every night playing with the interactive paint picking tools all the paint companies provide.

I’ve also started a couple of the more time consuming projects that I can get a jump on. First and foremost was this blanket I’ve been meaning to make for literally two years.

I made one just like it for my friend The Good Twin way back when she redesigned my portfolio website for me. Hers was a rich rust color in the same yarn, which is oh so affordable and yet surprisingly yummy Amore’ from TLC. It’s been a Michael’s/JoAnn’s staple forever, but I actually had trouble finding enough yarn when I finally got around to starting this, so I’m worried this yarn is going the way of the dodo.

The pattern is a very very simple lace pattern that makes a simple argyle effect with just increases and decreases. I’d probably find it boring in a less nubby yarn, but in Amore it’s just subtle. The Good Twin’s blanket was so great I really had a hard time giving it away.

Then, in accordance with my newly adopted quilting jones, I wanted to make a quilt for our new bedroom. I’m envisioning this as mainly decor, but I did want it to pitch in for function if necessary, so it’s going to be a full king-size quilt top. I mentioned a while ago that I wanted to make a traditional quilt out of untraditional fabrics, so I chose crepe backed satin, and I wanted to stick to a smoky gray/blue/purple monochromatic pattern, which turned out to be impossible. Apparently there isn’t much call for four shades of gray/blue crepe backed satin at the average fabric store.

I chose a quilt pattern that struck me as rather arts + craftsy, as in the architectural movement, so I chose this pattern:

I really liked the center motif and thought it would work really well in an art deco inspired room.

So imagine my horror when I make up my very first quilt block, and this is what I see:

Does that remind you of anything? Anything at all? Like, oh, I don’t know, a SYMBOL OF PURE EVIL??

I did substitute color selections, but you’d think that the pattern would warn against choosing colors that would make you look like a nazi. Throw a girl a footnote, would you?

I took a deep breath and hoped against hope that by the time the block was placed within it’s surroundings, I wouldn’t be making a Quilt of Hate.

It’s good, right? You just see the motifs and not any swaztikas, right? Of course, now that I’ve pointed it out that’s probably all you’ll see. Cripes.

I suppose if I just can’t get past it and it looks like what Hitler would wrap around himself in the bunker, than I can always sell it on ebay. I hear psychos will pay a pretty penny for this kind of thing.

Filed Under: My Dreamhouse in Progress, Stuff I Make

Quilting can be macho

April 5, 2007

I live literally five minutes away from Camp Pendleton, the huge Marine base here in North San Diego county, which you could totally figure out if you spent the day in my apartment complex. The parking lot alone could tell you a lot about the breed, since every other car is some massive pickup truck. The marines are a manly lot.

I was stunned, therefore, when I walked into my first quilting class to find myself seated next to Chris, a big bald and burly retired marine who was sewing the binding onto a Mother’s Day quilt for his mom. The girls all adore him just for being there. He’s usually quiet at the classes, putting his head down and cranking out the squares with precision, and the women still fuss over him all the same. Whenever he enters the room someone cries out, “The Bouncer’s here!” At our first class everyone was showing off the projects they’d been working on in the hiatus, and Chris held up a queen size quilt top he had made for his daughter that was made entirely out of Strawberry Shortcake fabrics.

I’ve been having a blast at the classes. Like I’ve said, crafters are awesome and this bunch is no exception. I didn’t have any fabrics picked out prior to the class and I wasn’t sure how much of each to get, so the instructor kind of helped me pick some out just before we got started. While they aren’t all the fabrics I might have chosen if I wasn’t under some time pressure, I’m really kind of thrilled with the result so far.

The main fabric is the one I really fell in love with. It’s an Asian print with flowers and butterflies on it in some really gorgeous colors, and the rest are all Michael Miller fabrics chosen in a hurry to go with the Asian floral.

I’m already planning my next quilt. I’m thinking something really subtle, monochromatic colors in a smoky palette, out of some kind of satiny fabric. I’m always attracted to the juxtaposition of old/new, modern/traditional in my crafting, so I really like the idea of a traditional quilt made out of untraditional fabric. And then it could go in my new bedroom of my new house if anyone ever decides to take our money.

Filed Under: Stuff I Make, The Good Life