Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Maybe because my whole life my favorite color has been orange. I can find so much orangey goodness around Halloween! To celebrate this year, I carved two pumpkins while Peter cooked delicious pumpkin seeds.
The first one was very traditional because I was getting used to using a normal knife to carve a pumpkin. I then branched out a little and made a kitty. I only stabbed myself once, while working on the eyes!
They're nothing fancy like at
Extreme Pumpkins but I like them. I also made and decorated cupcakes to take to work.
I was going to take some pictures this afternoon of some necklaces I made yesterday, but between the time change and the thunderstorms (poor trick-or-treaters!) it was already dark when I got home from work. Bummer!
I got a package in the mail from my sister, who recently went on a business trip to Japan.
In it for me was a beautiful pack of oragami paper. There was also a packet of tea for my mother, which I'll hopefully get to try one night.
These are just a few of my favorites. The color and pattern of this paper is beautiful! I can't wait to put it to use.
And it's
totally copied!!
The quarter is for scale - this is a made from an infant sock, and all handsewn! Phew!
It turned out pretty cute, but not nearly as great as
Molly Chicken's I linked to above. I'd change a lot if I had it to do over again - for one thing, I'd make a little more room between the face and the legs!
The flannel in the background will be a snuggly baby blanket to go with the monkey as a gift for a coworker's new baby. I'm told the nursery is pink and yellow, so I think this will go nicely. Hopefully I'll get a picture of the happy recipient when I visit in a week or two!
This has been a crazy week after work - friends from out of town Monday, drawing class Tuesday, home late from work last night (I did do a little hand-sewing on a project but don't have anything to show for it). I don't know how women with children and a million things to do still turn out such wonderful projects on a regular basis!!
To change what's at the top of this page, I thought I'd post what we did in drawing Tuesday. Plus, I'm pretty proud of it. We took an image provided by the teacher, cut it in half, and then finished the drawing:
I brought home another picture to do, and we have homework to draw a paper bag (which I remember doing in high school art, but I don't mind doing again). I'm having a lot of fun in this class...
I've actually been quite productive this weekend, but don't have too much to show for it. I'm finally making progress on some of my scrapbooking - I'm mostly just a photo album girl, but I have a few major scrapbooks I'm working on, including an
anniversary album to keep for myself. I also got a lot of work done on the other wedding quilt. I'm still learning a lot even on this second try.
Here is the one thing I do have to post... a super simple necklace with a vintage bead I got on eBay a while ago:
The nice thing about making jewelry is how quick it is. I like this loose bead look, but I think next time I'll make the wire a little longer so it's not
quite so much a choker. Still, it looks great with this shirt!
Labels: jewelry
I found a wonderful lot of green vintage beads on eBay a while back. I finally got around to making a necklace out of some of them.
There are still a lot of beads left over from the auction so I'm looking forward to figuring out another project for them!
Labels: jewelry
As soon as I signed up to take a drawing class and saw the wonderful list of required supplies - pencils, Prismacolors, blending stumps, erasers, pencil sharpeners! - I wanted to make a pencil pouch. I procrastinated and made due with what I had, and I think it was meant to be! When I saw the abundance of beautiful fabric in the gift from my parents, I immediately pictured the perfect pencil pouch.
I wasn't going to line it with Amy Butler since I am already hoarding it, but the combination was too good to pass up:
I am keeping all my pencils in the white box they wrapped them in at Texas Art Supply - I tell myself it's because I don't want the points to break, but we all know it's because I don't want to get lead inside my new pouch!
Labels: sewing
I can't believe how generous my parents are! When I mentioned how much I love the new Amy Butler "Charm" line of fabric, I had no idea what I'd open on my birthday... Not just one set of fat quarters, but all four!!
All tied up in lovely ribbon from the
Fat Quarter Shop. I am positively giddy imagining all the wonderful projects these will be! I have drawing homework tonight, and class tomorrow night, but I will definitely be sewing on Wednesday!
My mom received her birthday present last night, so I can finally post it! I love how this set came out.
It is made with sponge coral and onyx, and sterling silver. I had her in mind when I got all the supplies, so I was very happy when it looked wonderful on her!
I especially love the matching earrings. They're fun but elegant, and again look great on my mom!
It's hard to wait to post things I'm so happy about, but I wanted it to be a surprise... Speaking of happy - I got a totally awesome birthday present from my parents, but I'm trying to avoid a blog dry spell so I'll save it for tomorrow!
Labels: jewelry
I couldn't resist this light and fluffy yarn in the Target dollar section... 60 yards for $1! It is so soft, and a very pretty lavendar. And did I mention it was only a dollar?
It will soon be a scarf - I'm just doing a simple ladder pattern to make it a little longer, and it's going very fast. I like projects I can do while I relax at night, so I don't feel like I'm just sitting around watching TV!
In other knitting news, I want to get the yarn to knit the
Kiri Shawl [pdf] but I'm nervous about the beginning of the pattern. I don't understand the provisional cast on. Any knitting lurkers out there with advice?
I missed my mother- and sister-in-law's birthdays. I had grand plans to make them presents, and I got all the supplies, and made gifts in plenty of time. And didn't like them! So they sat in my craft piles of stuff for a while and I continued to not really like them. Then their birthdays (one day apart) passed! So their presents were late! And I became motivated to fix them. I am now much happier with the results. Since during the evacuation my mom showed everyone my website (thanks for being proud of me, Mom!), I'm going to link to the before and after pictures just in case my mother- and sister-in-law check this site now...
Before - pretty, but not up to snuff.After - much better!!And a close up for good measure...I have another good finished project to show, but I'm waiting until after the weekend so I can post pictures without linking... Okay, time to make dinner!
We had the back seats down so we could load up the car to evacuate - cooler, box of photos, sleeping bags, cat carriers, animal food, pillows, gerbil cage. We spread blankets out in what space was left in the backseat to give the animals somewhere to be. I took this picture while I was in back keeping them company. I don't think I can convince anyone they were stressed out - but you can tell they were happy to have me nearby!
Other
Self Portrait Tuesday bloggers
here.
Labels: photography
I missed my blog birthday and didn't even notice! So much for a big project or something to celebrate. I don't even have a small project to post... So, yay, my blog is one! Maybe when it's two there won't have been a hurricane to distract me from celebrating!!
