J for J2- I'm considering graphing an amulet bag with Sam on one side and Dean on the other and some of the lines from Carry On Wayward Son in the strap.

J for Jello Biafra. Who has a free album up on Amazon right now. Audacity of Hype.

J for umm.. what's your favorite thing that starts with J?

Everybody is doing holiday memes right now. I'm having problems getting truly enthused, but that's normal. Mike isn't a fan of the holidays and the constant "Prove you love her with diamonds" commercials aren't helping in the least. I've been trying to help by doing as much as I can to keep him out of the malls and stores.

I have Alaska road maps to wrap presents in. Of course, all my presents will NOT be holiday gifts. That's just not the way I do things. I buy presents for friends when I think of it but the holidays followed immediately by William's b-day combined with my holiday blues of missing my mother.. it's a bad time for me to think of mailing things. Not to mention the fact December always shatters my budget.

Have any of you tried cold porcelain? There are lots of recipes out there, and it looks like the perfect thing to use with our Dr. Who ice tray, plus Miss Teri is giving us some candy molds that she used with her kids when they were younger.

First, if you haven't already heard of it elsewhere, Yasmine Surovec from the brilliant A Print a Day blog has a new magazine especially for crafters called Parasol Craft. It's only 2.50 USD, and full of gorgeous things, interviews with artists and pictures of the beautiful things they create, it also comes with some things for scrapbooking, a darling doll project, instructions for creating and using Illustrator brushes with vector files to practice with, and some really lovely embroidery designs. 111 pages of goodness.

Rachel at Instructables has great step by step instructions for making your own panties and bra. Since you make the pattern by using one you have that you kind of like the fit of, you can adjust the fit to be perfect, and unlike some bra projects I've seen on the net, it WILL work for something more than a B cup. Oh how we envy you ladies with the high and perkys! (perkies?)(Umm.. *blushes and waves to the guy in Canada and the guy in Japan* you can ignore that whole last paragraph!)
If you can draft patterns, The Canton of Gleann nam Feòrag Dhuibhe has instructions for making all sorts of garb.
I reposted my pirate eye patch pattern here

This bat mask is a costume all in itself with a gorgeous little black dress. For this? I'd start wearing contact lenses again.
If you are more the Winter Queen type, check out this necklace.

Fractal box printable.
Also a new design up for scoring at Naked and Angry. You can use your Threadless log-in to score it. Click here.

Other than that, crocheting, reading, and working with Friendly Plastic. I had a fun creative sort of accident with it today that I'm going to turn into a project later that I think that Melissa will love because it's right up her crafty alley.

Via One Pretty Thing
Midsummer Nights Dream Tutu almost no sew and too cute.
Adorable no bake teacup treats for children.
Sushi Cake with orange gelatin roe. I'm so making a cupcake version of these for Wm's b-day on NYE.
Felt scissor keeper, embroidered and hand stitched.

I have no appropriate icon for a paracord bracelet.
( click here for pictures and instructions )
x-posted to Don't Eat the Paste
Click for a friendship bracelet project I posted up on Beadwork at Bellaonline

E and I made simple record cuff bracelets today with some of the records I picked up last night, then she wanted to make a bowl.
She picked Jim Nabors Christmas Album, and we put a Pyrex bowl on a pizza sheet, then put the record on that, and popped it in the oven. The Pyrex bowl we could find was fairly large, so when the record slumped, it slumped naturally into 3 fluted edges and a vague triangle shape E was very happy with. So we exaggerated the shape after we pulled it out, and called it good.
( pictures )
Now, it seems to me, everyone should know how to make these,but if you don't, they are super fast and easy.
Heat your oven to 200°F or about 93°C and find an oven safe bowl of some sort. Stainless steel or Pyrex work well. Put the bowl on a cookie sheet or pizza pan open side down, then balance the record on top with the label centered on the bottom of the bowl. Put it in the oven for about 2 or 3 minutes. Seriously, that's all it takes. Pull it out when it slumps and working fast, crimp the pleats/flutes how you want them. The record will be hot, so oven mitts or potholders help.It cools pretty fast, then it's that shape. If you aren't happy with the shape, pop it back in the oven to re-soften and do it again. Better done with older kids only because the records get hot, but younger kids can decorate slumped records with rub ons, stickers, gel pens, or paint. I don't recommend eating something like chips or popcorn out of these bowls because I'm not sure if the vinyl will leech ickiness into food, but wrapped candy is fine. Which is why that one is full of kisses. It will be E's Christmas present for her Grandpa. She's pretty thrilled, it's a Christmas record, which will be full of Christmas kisses, on Christmas. And while I did most the work, she helped out enough to feel like it's something she made for him.

I updated Beadwork at BellaOnline with a bunch of links to recycled bead projects. I also posted a couple new links to pictures in my newsletter. (there's a subscription link on the side of the BellaOnline page). Here are the pictures if you're interested.
Polar Bears, taken at the zoo last Saturday.
Trees, taken in the same place this picture was taken before winter.

To start with, because it's the prettiest to me.. check out this entry from men_in_full about Sumo.
E is totally into steampunk lately. I'm not sure if it's because a lot of her favorite movies and books have that feel, or because of ThreadBanger's series about steampunk fashion, but she is.
You can buy aluminum foil tape in the hardware section of most places that have a hardware section, and we've used before for crafts, and after seeing this tutorial it occurred to me, I've got a lot of pill bottles. I can't make myself throw them away because hey.. plastic! and they might be useful for something.. and my pharmacy uses a computerized filling system and refilling old bottles isn't easy for them since they don't fill by hand unless the machine is broken.
( more information and a picture behind the cut )
I was trying to think of other things I can do with the bottles. Some I've turned into mini-purses in the past, and I'll probably do that with some, and I was also thinking maybe advent ornaments for our Christmas tree, but another idea I think would be fun is to use them as a block for stamps made with silicone caulking, this idea just makes me happy. We can make a bunch of mini stamps that fit the lid, and keep them in the bottle itself, then stick them on the lid to stamp with. I think we will have to separate them in the bottle with parchment paper to keep them from sticking to each other, and then using some sort of repositionable glue on the backs of them to attach them to the lid, but I think it will work. We can stamp paper and glue/tape it around the bottle to decorate it.
And I really have a lot of pill bottles. Do you have any ideas?
Aviary is a lot of fun. I drew this a couple days ago in Peacock. Peacock is a pattern maker with different "hubs" you use to build pictures out of. Way fun. I still have invites if anyone wants one.

I graphed out a dark mark bracelet in even count peyote if anyone wants the pattern.

Yeah.. and R? You really don't have to reply. I know you want the pattern.

Today was craft day. Today's craft was really entirely too simple. There was also a free make it and take it, but entirely too many people to fuss with it. Afterwards, we went to Sam's Club as usually for the inexpensive lunch we follow craft class with. But dad was with us, and he loves to browse.

( E's haircut )
( The funnest of all her fun hats )

I picked up a new heat tool today with the weekly 40% off coupon for Michaels. I still feel like an idiot. I KNOW I have one, just no idea where. Heat tools are incredibly handy for shrink plastic, because you can see exactly what you are doing.

I had an idea, I still need to try it, but I think if I print out pictures of constellations and scale them right, then transfer them to card stock and prick holes in the card stock, then lay that over one of those big camping types of flashlights pointed up at the ceiling, E and I can paint constellations on her bedroom ceiling with gitd paint. It's an idea anyway. She currently has footprints on her ceiling. Like she stood on it, and traced around her feet. Yeah.. I had to ask. She traced her feet paper, cut it out, then traced around the paper footprints on her ceiling, but she was snickering as she explained, I think she's been waiting for me to ask.
Things you *never* think you'll say "Why are there footprints on the ceiling??"