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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What i'm doing lately


The other day, a friend asked if i could make a spiral scarf for her daughter, which she wanted in blue and this is what i've come up with.
I had used the spiraling technique in one of my scarves before, but had never put it to use for making a whole scarf. I think I may have spiraled this one a bit too tight because it literally looks like a tube or some kind of icing piping. Perhaps i'm just like, "eh" on this one because it's not something that i would have thought to make any other day. that's not a complaint. things outside my box are cool too.
☺
Look at my babies! I took these pictures yesterday. Inside of the flower ones, there are more, pointier leaves sprouting out. (are they true leaves yet??) I'm so excited by their growth. they're actually like tiny stalks! lol
I think i may just move them to a rectangular planter and sit them on the porch.
I'm only just thinking about it, because that would just make all the effort of the carton and eggshells pretty pointless.

But, with the temperature being some where near 95° yesterday, and very close to that today- i don't think they will survive out there in the front.

The other picture is of the watermelon sprouts- LOOK AT THAT LEAF!
i honestly can't imagine getting any watermelons from seeds, but i'm going to stay hopeful and nurturing to these puppies until they pass or fail.
-


I love this Bag!
I've had it for a little while now, and have completely fallen in love with it. so much so that i carry it like a purse, even tho i may only have my keys and chap stick to carry. I used to use it soley for trips to the store, in an effort to not use those plastic bags from the store, but u always would up taking a few anyway.
Because i love this bag so much, i've decided to make one inspired by it. So far, i've started out with a hot pink yarn and am complimenting it with the earth and sky, like the one i used for this cap, along with a bit of white.

Naturally, i started the bag in rows, but i'm starting to feel like iwant to do something else, like free form circles or perhaps a few hexagonal patches, similar to a granny square bag. the only issue with those ideas is how to get them to be a long rectangle in the end, so that i can attatch a strap and line the bag.
This is going to be on on-going WIP for sure, but i can't wait to see what i'll come up with. i may just surprise myself! =-)
☺

On a side note, a fellow Artfire Artisan, RiskyBeads used my pink rave handbag, along with a good seletion of other pretty pink things in a spotlight she calls 'If Your Mother's Favorite Color is...Pink'. You can check out it on her blog HERE

Monday, April 20, 2009

more on my sprouts

Before they get any bigger- i wanted to post pictures of my little sprouts. a few are over 3 inches now, but weren't when i took this picture. i'm afraid that if i do plant them,they'll die, even though the packages say that i should be doing that now.

After GlassIdentities' mention of coffee for plants, i tried it and they sure enough sprouted even more the next day! the watermelon ones have a real looking leaf- the carrots have things on them that look like the tops of celery, and the flowers have about 6 leaves (not sure how many of them are "true") .


I did have them in the window, but i'm thinking about moving them to the back porch for some air and less harsh sunlight. some of the leaves on the flowers are showing signs of sun damage, even though i've been watering them every day. I'm going to hate thinning these babies, because i'd like to see all of them grow....

Friday, April 17, 2009

A few caps and Featherstone.

Last week, I was asked about making a cap or two. Now, I know that that's wouldn't be anything too exciting to most, but the request came from a lady who had bought from me before- yep, my second [tentative] repeat customer.

She brought to my attention the fact that I didn't have much to choose from when it came to kids hats and such, so, I came up with a few for her, and a couple extra for my studio.
The fact that i have a 5 year old running around totally slipped my mind- I hecka should be taking advantage of my little model while i can still get him to stand still with out a bribe!
I've got a pink camo one (for a 1-4 yr old) in the works that will be listed tomorrow as well.
Yay for actually making stuff! lol
________________________

I've actually picked up and started reading a new book, called Featherstone, too. So far, the way the sentences are structured seems a little odd to me- for example, the first character to be introduced, Sonny, is talking or thinking about having seen a figure, having to look up towards the sun at it-
"Only the sun, printing gold into black into gold against his eyes, only a dark shape against the sky, like a dear shape cut clean out of the light and laid against it..."

but i'm hoping that reading the story will be worth it, and that i'll soon get used to reading in it's strange to me dialect. (Even though a few who have reviewed it on amazon have complained about the beaten to a pulp usage of prose).

I'm looking at this one in an optimistic way- if i am ever to write my own story, which i hope will be read and read, i guess i've got to see how to NOT do it, too.

If this one doesn't work out, i'll be on to the next and won't feel like my time was so wasted- as it was on that Blond Roots garbage because I have been making hats =-P

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

That book wasn't bad!

After finally getting to the last page of Broken, by Martina Cole, i have to say that i was pleasantly surprised by this novel. It was well written (of course, I could have told you this early on, as it was a best seller) and had me feeling like i knew the characters and wondering what they'd do next. At first, i thought that this mystery was too complicated for the likes of me. I'm used to nice little books like Sister North by Jim Kokoris, Sara's Song by Fern Michaels, and other books in which a happy ending is obvious from the start.

This book began with one complicated scene and went on to the next and the next, but the frequent page breaks- often used to focus from one going on to the other made this read pretty easy. I didn't have to try and force myself to make it to the end of the chapter for fear of waking up and not remembering what was going on when i left off.

I so enjoyed this book. Martina Cole isn't an author that I'm going to easily find in my local library- i think I've only found one of her other books listed, but, i really did enjoy reading enough to be willing to actually buy her books and keep them on my own shelf.


Tuesday, April 07, 2009

What to do with it?

I smashed out this little baby hat while waiting for 200 numbers before mine to be called.
Now i'm unsure of what i'll make to go with it. originally, i was going to make a pixie like hat for a new baby boy that i know of, but the pink speckles in it stand out more than i thought they would, so, this one may wind up in my studio along with a coordinating blankie or vest.

I have attempted to make this cardigan with the yarn i used to make the baby beanie, but it always came out doll sized. there is no guage for the pattern, so i found myself just working it over and over again until i got to a point wher it was obviously way wrong.
(to finally find that i need a K hook to get the size right)

So, i'm pondering- a sort of granny sqaure blanket with the speckled yarn as the centers and a baby blue yarn for the main color; or a baby cardigan to go with this hat?

Another give away!

Not My personal give away, but a give away none the less =-)
(give away isn't for these particular cuties, but you can find something like them in her shop)
Laura, of MadeByLaura on Etsy is having a give away. She's giving us a chance to win a $20.00 Shopping spree in her shop which is filled with needle felted cuteness.

Check out the details on her blog and her etsy shop.

It's awesome ♥

Monday, April 06, 2009

More Sprouts!

I wanted to show these sprouts before even more cute things happen with my little planters-



I'm not sure what they are- either zinnias or larkspur. i love how a few of the sprouts on the left have the seeds still attached...
come to think of it, those are larkspur seeds, i think the zinnia seeds were way smaller. so i guess i've got both growing!

I'm starting to think that keeping them in the window is about to be not such a good idea. they're growing rapidly, and with the sun, drinking water like no one's business.
now i have to research if having such a fast start will effect the quality of the plant later- or if it's normal for them to grow within a blink of an eye.


one did wither away, but, it's alright- 10 out of about 14 planted is pretty good!

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

The MDC Etsy Team is Giving Away Some Good Stuff!

And i want to win!

Here are a couple of pictures showing some of the prizes...


(I took these images right off the blog- hope ya don't mine, MDC)

Being given away is stuff for mama and kid, so it's good timesd two!

I'm telling you about it, so you can enter too-

You can check out the giveaway blog here.

♥


Tuesday, March 31, 2009

We Got Sprouts!

It just so happened that i was in a planting mood yesterday. Had i not been, i wouldn't have noticed that our zinnia/snapdragon seeds have begun to sprout.

(this has got to be the cutest sprout ever!, lol)

I'm not sure which these are, because i planted both in each shell thinking that i had lost the zinnia seeds in the tumble the egg planters took to the floor.

We'll call it a surprise! They both grow to be about the same height, so there shouldn't be too much of an issue when they do reach their full bloom.

I'm thinking that their sudden appearance has something to do with the seed starter soil that i put on top.

it could be that it was just their time, but that's me, always looking for a miracle.

SO..

i finally got around to cutting up some of the paper towel and toilet paper rolls that i saved just to use as eco friendly planters.

Watermelon and Carrots went in this first batch, because they take the longest to grow. it's surprising how small a carrot seed is. having never planted carrots before, i hope that my sprinkling of a pinch of seeds per planter won't give me any issues later. I guess i should have looked it up before hand, but i figure, the things grow in bunches, right? so a bunch of seeds per thing should be ok =-|

I REALLY want to plant radishes cause i love them, but i think that they take the least amount of time to grow of all the seeds i have so i'll be a bit more patient. My garden dirt isn't quite ready yet and i don't want to have them fail just cause i put them in bad dirt.

How is your planting going?

I'm glad that the sprouts came up when they did- it's so inspiring to see them appear out of no where!


I Love Me Buttons



While digging around the other day, i rediscovered my bags of buttons and re-remembered why i loved them so much in the first place.

They're slick and shiny and perfect and sometimes not perfect, round, and some times not, 2 holes or 4, maybe 3 or none... They remind me of the days when it took me forever to button up my shirts and the era of flowered one piece jump suits with flower buttons that weren't really functional. And of 30 minutes of each week in the 2nd grade with which we had to play with, sort, or just plain sit and look at small objects like marbles, wooden cubes, and BUTTONS!

There are so many simple things around us that we often don't think twice about now, but meant the world, or even day to us back when we were little.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Crocheting in Rounds Tutorial Video



This is my very first tutorial.
I've come across a few people who aren't quite sure on how to do it, so, I hope this helps.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

I've not been around much..

I've been doing a bit of this and that lately. Continuing with my wire/bead adventures, I've cranked out 2 more pairs of earrings. One, a hot pink and black pair for my aunt-

(This is the only pair i made in these colors, the pic leads to something similar)

she loved them.

And the other, this blue and ecru pair, which will be listed soon enough.

My brother's friends tend to live here on the weekends, and these new walls are not as dense as the old ones were, so getting piece and quiet with 4 teen aged boys playing video games, talking football and listening to mac dre ( who I now CANNOT stand as a result) is not easy to do.

I still have my bean bag, crochet hooks and movies, but the air does change with their energy in it, so productive is something i've not been much of.

I've been loving working with wire, so i picked up a small spool of it from michaels while i was out getting my new tripod-which i can't wait to use to shoot my tutorial on how to crochet in rounds. I've come across several people who are wanting to know how to do this properly, so, i'm excited about doing this. -insert smilie- lol


Thursday, March 26, 2009

Check Yourself, Girl!

I tried to list my new pair of earrings a couple times yesterday, but the pics wouldn't load no matter what I did. I went straight to the forums and checked in bugs- nothing there, so i closed everything i had open and started firefox up, thinking that this opera browser thing that i had fallen in love with was finally failing me.
that didn't work either.
so, i just gave it a rest and thought that what ever the issue was, it would resolve itself eventually.

It wasn't until a few minutes ago that i remembered that i had set my camera back to 8 mega pixels to take a picture of the kid with BOTH his bottom teeth missing. 

Please excuse the ketchup the thing came out while he was eating fries, and the kid just prefers to look a mess some times.

I think my point was, that's it is so easy to jump to a conclusion or place fault in some one else.

I had to give up, go through a whole day, go to sleep, wake up and check forums AGAIN after a few more failed attempts before thinking that 'I' could be the issue- which i was.

i shall do a bit more checking of the self first in the future.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A Pair of Earrings Using a Few New Techniques

While strolling home from the library on a beautiful day, the idea of making earrings that were not confined to the basis round shape that's most often seen in crochet came to me.

I'd need wire, wire tools, crochet thread, and perhaps beads.

Wanting to make geometric shapes, i got a spool of craft wire to play with and a set of mini wire tools and set out to find what works for me.

While these aren't what i had in mind at first, i do love them.

I think that the design makes the possibilities- color combinations, hoop sizes, beads and what not pretty much endless.

SO!

If you're diggin the style, but not the colors, please keep an eye on my blog for more spring/summer type colors, as well as some fall for those in the southern hemisphere. ( I'm still thinkin about ya'll ;-)



Monday, March 23, 2009

Seeds in Eggshells

I'm totally ready to have my labors rewarded by fresh flowers and veggies.

Unfortunately, it's been very windy here lately, so shoveling dirt wouldn't be too smart right now.

Still with the semi-determination to 'just grow something, damn it!', I decided to make a project out of the eggshells that were left over from breakfast.

After washing the shells that i could use, I poked holes in them with my x-acto knife and invited my son over to help drop dirt into them. He thought the whole idea was cool, but wasn't too sure about sticking his hand in a bag of dirt.

after each grab, he'd do the dusting off and wiping on the shirt thing. I don't know how this kid could prefer to dig in the sandy stuff that is our dirt, but not want to play in the soil type stuff that's moist and has little pieces of this and that in it. -sigh-

so, we got the seeds planted in there and all, but it's not been sunny enough, or not windy enough for me to set them out with out them blowing over.

I'm SO hoping that these will zinnias sprout.

I got the idea for this eggshell seed pot from a blog I read and follow called Mr Brown Thumb. His blog is full of great gardening stuff and is definitely worth reading if you're new to gardening- or even if you're not.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

My Latest

I've been super productive lately, but I haven't been listing much, or online at much for that matter, so I got down to business tonight and listed a couple of things. I still have one pixie hat to list and a couple pairs of hair clips, but I think I'll save those for tomorrow.


I've alos decided to raise the discount percent on my shop's sale by 5 so now, instead of 20% off, you'll get 25%. That's like free shipping and then some =-)

Dumping Firefox

While it is so much better than Internet Explorer in many ways, firefox has been being a brat to me for a while now.

I've installed Opera, and just LOOOVE it! I can comment on blogs that i couldn't before, and they have lots of very cute (probably just that) widgets.  I'm thinking about uninstalling tweetdeck because Opera has it's own twitter widget that actually works for me- unlike the add-on for firefox.  it's not as nice looking and customizable as tweetdeck, but i'm sure it takes up less memory.

So far I've been able to play scrabble on pogo with out freezing or having to close everything else out, and Opera also has a pandora widget, so i don't have to keep an extra tab open to jam!

Check thier widgets out here.

♥

My only one qualms with it arethe bookmarks import- bookmarks aren't as easy to get to in this browser,  but, I'm sure it's  just seeming that way because it's new, and i'm used to a different format and the fact that there is no spell checker built into the browser.  Firefox underlines and suggests correct spelling for words typed in on pretty much any form in the browser.  So, you're going to be seeing more typos, but also a less frustrated me =-p

hopefully.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

I've been kinda productive =-)

My few days of productiveness continued last night with finishing a couple of pixie hats that I had stashed, and assembling 2 pairs of hair clips. One of which is pink and brown, the other pink and blue- both with white center buttons.

Months ago, I was chatting on Etsy and looking for ideas on new color combination to come up with for little girls' hair clips and those were a couple, along with greens, more neutral colors, and a few others. I've since lost the list, but with spring here, and my discovery of those that i had in the works, I may be able to remember what they were, or just be humble enough to ask again.

Along with actually working on products for my studio on Arftire, I've transfered my stock from one bin to another, and in doing so, I found a few little items that were listed on Etsy, but never Made it to Artfire. I actually got a few of them listed the other day...





It feels so good to be productive!
I've got a few ideas for new products swimming around my little brain that I just can't wait to try too!

Spring is so great
♥

Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring's Sprung 20% off Sale @ Lanee's Crochet!

Spring has sprung!
Here in Vegas- lately, the temps have been getting up to the mid 80's with a bit of humidity.

I know that in the Southern Hemisphere, fall is back, which means that there are people down there who will be needing nice scarves and hats and such, and boy do I got 'em!

♥Lanee's Crochet ships internationally, so no one will be missing out on this change of season sale♥

Just click on the banner to go to my studio where I have already reduced the prices on all items. (even the ones that are in my stimulus section).

There's no need to wait for a revised invoice or refund to see your discount- This way is far more convenient, I think I'll be doing percentage off sales instead of free shipping from now on. (I've calculated it so that it comes out to be just about the same =-)


Friday Feature

I'd like to start featuring my favorite handmade items more regularly here on my blog, so I'm going to give this Friday Feature thing a try. There are definitely more than one a week worth of awesome handmade things, but, doing a regular feature will make it so I'm not feeling like I have to squeeze blog posts in while also making sure that i share my appreciation for others' handmade goodness at least once a week.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Mostly copper, some sterling silver, and a piece or 2 of brass; almost perfect, but not so in just the right way, disks, squares, and spirals come together with semi-precious stones to give Ggestalt's Shop a refined rustic feel.



This ring caught my eye, perhaps because unlike most of the other jewelry in Ggestalt's Shop, the curves and lines seem to exact on this one. It was made using sterling silver and moonstone.
Or maybe I love it because it looks like something to suck on, lol, like ice, or mike and ikes.

Mike and Ikes!! that's IT!
I loved sucking on those things to get the flavor off and then spitting them out, lol jelly beans too =-)

Anyway- back to the feature...
Please check out Ggestalt's Shop over on etsy for more great stuff.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

He Lost It!

With a little help from my brother, this little booger came out last night.
it was flappin on the edge and just ready to come out, but with dominic refusing, it kinda just chilled there for a few days.

after mounds of screaming and a little bleeving, dominic is now happy with his holey smile. he loves that he tongue can be seen through his teeth, lol.

it seems that this whole big boy thing is coming in a wave.
for the longest time, he's refused to pick up a writing utensil and actually try writing or coloring, but while he thought i was asleep (i was really peeking), he picked up an orange crayon and one of his "big coloring books" and began whizzing though the mazes and 'which one of these things is not like the other' puzzles. he put the book back where it was and hid the colors as if he hadn't touched it, but i SO saw it. lol

i'm hoping that his first tae kwon do lesson, which is tomorrow, will go off without a hitch and that he'll LOVE it.
maybe he'll develop a respect and love for the art =|

so.
back to the tooth...
he believes that the tooth fairy collects the teeth and uses them to make tooth castels (he got that from Arthur, i think). when i reminded him to put his tooth uunder his pillow, he replied, 'oh, that's ok, i don't want to mess up the castle with my bloody tooth. i'll just wait for the other one to fall out and leave that one for her'.

awww

so- technically, this gets me off the hook for leaving money under his pillow, but i kinda really want to, even though i know it'll lead to his asking to go to the video game store to buy a game with it (it won't be THAT much, but he'll still ask).

how important do you think it is? do you even remember how much you got for your first tooth? i don't- hey... DID i get anything?? =-\

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I Spun Dat!


I finally decided that i was going to use my first spun yarn, out of which, so far i have 2 small balls of worsted weight and i don't know how much of sock weight.

i thought i was was going to be able to eek out a beanie from the 2 balls i already had buuuuuuut-
NOPE!
The picture above is about half of what i got to, i've already frogged the first ball of it. so, perhaps i'll make some coin purses or lacy looking arm or wrist warmers with the thicker stuff.

when i went back to spin more, i couldn't get it to be the same weight, no matter how hard i tried. even drafting is the hardest challenge for me as far spinning goes.

So, lesson #1- draft all the roving at one time, or even just in the same day-
lesson #2- pay attention to yardage
and #3, plan that mess, man.

I don't feel as bad as i could for messing up this-my very first wool spinning- but i have to recognize that i'm a horrible planner of projects, so i know that some frogging, and variations in yarn weight could have been avoided if i had only thought it through.

But!

It's life, and it goes on...
I've got a little more roving left, which i know will be spun into the thinner weight- because, of course, at the end of the whole thing, i've realized how i have to split the roving to just about an inch or less wide to have it draft and spin to the weight i'd like.
Posted by Picasa

2 more stamps, 2 more ways to do it wrong!

I tend to want to do stamps in the wee hours of the morning, when my brain is either needing to be sleeping, or just waking up.
my kid's not buzzing around and i'm able to listen to my radio on pandora in peace- with out random outbursts or informative shouts of being thirsty.

i had decided to stick to nature things because they seemed to be the easiest- and least perfect things to carve, they're so open to interpretation, i thought, great! that's me all over again, lol.

Michelle called my flower rustic, i called it flawed- we'll stick with rustic =-)
A leaf was my next attempt at nature. Embracing my rustictivity, i thought that creating bold lines in it would make it look cool, and it did.
it wasn't until i actually stamped something that i noticed the flaw. (it's SO a flaw. lol)
the stem is a bit off, which may be ok for some, but i think it gives it a whizzing football look, so i'll pass on this one too.

I'm going to keep it to look back on in the future- cause i'm so sure that i'll master this craft. lol

I don't know what i was thinking when i decided to give up on nature and get straight to my point- a yarn ball!it was going so nicely too, i was very pleased with the way things were turning out for this one. while i'd like to eventually get to a more dainty ball, once again, i'm embracing the rustic and so, the strong lines are ok... were ok..

until i decided to notch the ball out and wound up cutting too car and into some of the lines!
after some sper glue, the thing is fine, but after stamping- i realized that i had just created a volley ball, and well- that just won't do. =-\

I made these things a while ago, but my frustration caused me to just slide them under my keyboard and forget about them.

Bryan of BryanKite on Artfire (the guy with the giclees) suggested that i invest in some linoleum and what not. and that's not a bad idea.

I think that stamp making would be a great way to express some creativity, with out having to be a pro. it seems like a good place to start and grow- simple designs could sky rocket.

So, after more yarn- maybe before, cause i think i have enough of that stuff to work with, the linoleum is on my wish list.
thanks for the tip, Bryan
♥

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Have You Searched Your Items?

I'm up at 11am.
THAT is such a faux pas in my little world. i think i'm developing the kind of insomnia that doesn't allow me to sleep during the day. or perhaps it's because of some kid electing to whisper, 'can i play my wii?' in my ear while i was sleeping.

that kid goes from one extreme to another with this waking me up stuff, i swear! one week, he was pouncing on me, the next, hitting my leg, the other just standing over me watching me sleep until i felt it. now with the whispering.

the bad part is, that he doesn't need to ask to play with his own crap or get on the computer, or watch tv, or do what ever may give me just a few more minutes of sleep in the morning!

but he still does.

so, while i'm up with out real reason, i decided to go on artfire and search my own items to see where they came up (old etsy habit, sorry)
but, to my dismay, some of them didn't show up at all when i searched things with at least 2 words in their title.
it seems that artfire's way of searching is more geared toward tags and exact tags at that. my spring green hair clip didn't come up when i searched for "green hair clips" until i put "hair clips" in the tags
and my multicolored coin purse didn't show up in my search for "coin purse" until i put the actual words coin purse into my tags- even though they're in the item name.

This seems a bit obvious, but i'm sure that a lot more people out there are overlooking the importance of tags on an item. I've pretty much left out the obvious keywords that are already found some where on my listing's pages because i thought they would be automatically included in the search. nope.

have you searched your items lately to see if they come up where an every day shopper might serch? you should.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Your Eyes Look Like Sand Dollars

After flying kites at the park yesterday, we all piled into the car to head home when my son looked at me while the sun shone in my eyes and said- "Your eyes look like sand dollars".
I thought that was SO cute!
I told him that his did too and he replied,'No they don't, there's no such thing as a green sand dollar!'
I didn't let him know that there was probably no such thing as a dark brown sand dollar either, but only because I'm still glowing after my compliment. =-)

Kids are so great.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Aww, baby!

'Awww, you're becoming a big boy!, you're not my little baby anymore =-('

Yes he is, he says, always ♥
a couple of weeks ago, i noticed that one of dominic's bottom teeth were wiggly. about a week later, i saw the 2 permanent ones trying to grow in.
wtf! i thought.

i think more than wondering why his teeth were growing while they were trying to fall out, i was kind of disappointed that they appear to be growing in crooked and just way too far back.

I hope he doesn't start talkin funny =-\

But more than my disappointment at their appearance, i'm kind of wading in the fact that my baby is losing teeth already.
it may just feel way early because he's not in school yet (he's 5)- i dunno.

i asked him if i could pull the really wiggly one out (no doubt that it would be gone if it didn't have the other one growing behind it for support) but he said
'NO! it will bleeve!'
and so they remain.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Partially Crocheted, Totally Awesome


Rachel's Joy


I'm sure that it doesn't take being a crocheter to appreciate the beauty and and creative use of crochet in Rachel's pieces.

I honestly didn't recognize that there was crochet in this and other pairs of earrings that she has to offer until i read the descriptions. (I must admit, it's not something that i do too often, lol).

I'm all for cute jeans simple jeans and semi-sophisticated tops. This pair of earrings reminds me of just that.

i could totally see myself boppin along as the day goes by while at work or play with this pair of
Mediterranean Eye Earrings, or even while sporting this Blue Squares Pendant

Cant you?
=-)

Stamp That!

I've been hopping around the idea of starting a new craft. first i thought i wanted to do wire work, but i had none on hand and didn't know when i'd be able to get to the craft store to get some. after researching which kind of metals were the best as far as hypo allergenic stuff goes (if there is a such thing) i've decided to go with half hard sterling silver.
i'm not sure where i'll get this from, or how much it'll cost, but i'd love to start making earwires.

erasers are cheaper, and i already have an x-acto knife, so- the first new thing i'm trying is stamps. this is my first one and it's rather rough, i know but its still mine and i love it!

ok- maybe not love- it's so flawed, lol but!- it's not the worst i'm sure so i'll go with it.

I'd like to be able to create simple stamps with "LC' on them so i can Lanee's Crochet some stuff up!

if i can find my 40% off coupon to Michaels, i'm going to get a full x-acto knife set. I've read that i'll also need some tracing paper. i just can't wait until i master this!
it will be awesome.
=-)

Monday, March 09, 2009

Broken - a novel that appears to be better than the last.

After being disappointed by the last book i started to read, i thought i'd take a small break from novels and just stick to blogs for a minute, but my mom came home one day with this book and suggested that i might like to read it.
she hadn't read it herself, but she found it at work and thought i might like.

I'm not the mystery reading type, i prefer the inspirational fiction - oh, it looks rough but it's sure to be better and then we all live happily ever after type novel.

This one is authored by Martina Cole, from Essex.

I love the mention of birds and blokes, buggers, and Old Bill ( i seriously thought that bill was some one's father until i caught on, lol).

It's a bit longer than what i'm used to (more than twice as many pages). But not having to return it to the library in a couple of weeks is going to make this a nice and easy read, i think.

Have you read this or any of Martina Cole's other books?

Really, what is that?


I don't know if this is deja vu or my energy's way of telling me when it's time to get off the computer, but earlier today, while I was in between reading and deciding whether or not I wanted to crochet or start on a stamp (I'll show you that disaster later) the question popped into my head suddenly-
'wtf is a gilkee?'

I have no idea why I wondered this or even what one was. But while browsing the Artfire forums, I came across BryanKite's studio and in it- there's a "Giclees" section.

Now, I know I was probably saying it all wrong, but I'm sure this is what I was trying to think of.
' Giclée' is an invented name for the process of making fine are prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing'. The name comes from the French word GICLEE (pronounced Zhee-Clay) that means “spray".
(taken from www.reference.com)
[It's actually a lot more than just an ink-jet printing- i just took the simplified explanation and plunked it here. you can follow the reference.com link for a more in depth definition of what they are.]

They can be in color, like the one of BryanKite's that's shown above, or monochrome like the one below that I favor =-)

They're pretty interesting, if not that AND beautiful. Please click to check him out
♥