Snowy box because it's all snowy outside so I drew a simple snow scene and put it on a box to celebrate.
BeadTool4 review. I used pictures I took of mushrooms for my example, but if you ask nicely, I also did Sam Winchester for R.
Wild Rose bead pattern, also done in BeadTool4 using another photo I took this summer.

Other than that, working on a pincushion, and I knit myself a headband, but even using a suspended bind off, the bind off was too tight. *grumbles* It fits. It's just not as stretchy as I'd like.

The icky thing about snow is that of course, I hurt entirely too much right now. It's making me a little moody.

Oh! Sister Diane interviews Rachel Klein. Sister Diane does the great CraftyPod podcast, Rachel runs the incredible craft round up site One Pretty Thing. I've been really impressed with how regularly she updates and how she manages to find so many new projects. What really astounds me is the idea she keeps up with 4000 craft sites weekly to do it. 4000. Wow. Her organizational skills are astounding.

E told me today, Threadbanger had a puppet episode that showed how to make bike chain bracelets. So there you go. After we get it degreased we will make bike chain bracelets with our 56 inches of found bike chain.
( The Tuck and Snippit Show )

Yay!!!! Now I'm hoping to find more broken bike chains!

One of the gifts I got for E was a bag from Enderby Designs, and it arrived on Christmas Day. E was *thrilled* Bouncy happy thrilled. Especially since there was a lovely note from Meg in the package. Meg does the Decor It Yourself segments on ThreadBanger.
( How to make a cape video with Meg of Enderby Designs )
Which makes it even odder something I sent 3 weeks ago never arrived at it's destination. *grumbles and complains about the US mail service*..

I really enjoy Yasime Galenorn's books, and Night Huntress which is the new book in her Sisters of the Moon series is coming out on January 6th, so I need to remember to reserve my copy. *grins* My husband HATES picking up my paranormal romances, and always asks if they can wrap them in plain brown paper wrappers when he leaves the book store. But I'm pretty picky about them. Just having a vampire isn't enough. I like these books because the romance isn't the most important part of it, the characters are strong women, and the romances themselves are alternative types of relationships. Not the "swoony woman falls in love with big strong rescuer". All 3 sisters are perfectly capable of saving themselves. It's a great alternate world. Yeah.. I'm pretty excited. You know.. like I haven't been reading much more than I should be lately.

Last night at the gym, I watched Martha's podcasts for Halloween, and some of her projects were great, some.. well.. a lot less so. The Styrofoam and glow stick spiders come to mind as incredibly bad for the environment. Disposable chemical glowsticks. STYROFOAM. Oh well.. so even Martha isn't perfect. But one of them was for a window silhouette of a witch, which I thought was just nifty.
I decided to make a wall decal instead, using the bat that I drew years ago and have in a couple of my dingbat fonts.
( picture, and download )
Other then that, working on an article for BellaOnline. More bats.

Honeybeehill's conversation about patchouli.. just because it made me lol. I like the smell in blends, but it does tend to make me sneeze. Which made teen clubbing at the couple of local teen night clubs a pain when I was younger. Lots of patchouli, cloves cigarettes, and leather. The scent always makes me think of the Cure and strobe lights.
For another smile.. (edited in just now as I finish the story), read
The Curious Case of Mr. Silverworth.

I went to the yarn store, hoping in a silly way, they might have more of the green yarn I used for my winter hat, they didn't. They did however, have this pretty painted colorway in the same bulky alpaca. So I'll frog the lacy cap I had started back to the ribbing and finish it as a wide headband for E, and then do the lacy cap in the new entirely too expensive colorway. But it's pretty.
I also got some Sprinkles yarn off the clearance racks to use for my first knitted plushie. It's sort of a loopy yarn made of 100% fiber from the rare Polyesteria. It knits up like terry cloth, which makes me think it would have made more sense to sew the plushie out of towels, which would have been a cotton terrycloth instead of a polyester terry.
Spinning class! I called, and I'm all signed up. I asked E if she was interested in taking a spinning class with me, and after she made sure that yes, Mike was joking when he said that I planned to be tied to a spinning wheel while she learned to throw knives, she said yes. I've always wanted to learn how to spin on a spinning wheel. Blame fairy tales. Which is another story altogether.
The wet felting she wanted to try is a project posted by Michelle at CraftedBy.Us, you can look for Crafted By Us in itunes and download the episode called Felted Bowl I think? It's a 45 minute long video podcast. But don't stop there. I love Michelle's podcast. We have much roving. So we are going to try it later.
At some point recently, a bunch of old pennies got into our economy up here, so I've been separating out the copper ones. (which, by the way, are worth about 2¢ each now because copper has gone up so much in price, so you can double your money by selling copper pennies as scrap copper I guess.. but really.. that's a lot of effort) Last night I started hammering some flat. After well.. entirely too much hammering, I had Mike hammer them flat. Which went a lot quicker. Then I domed them slightly, and drilled them for earrings, so I need to assemble them into earrings in a bit. Fun fun.
Mike's bag with his computer and all that got found and returned. And his computer still works.

First,the dice bag. jenna_thorn pointed out that Anticraft had a really neat eyeball dice bag up. Well.. I'm not really a follow patterns kind of girl, so I didn't. I just grabbed some yarn,and wondered why I'd never thought of that.
( wanna see? )
So.. I did this last night in about 3 hours catching up on podcasts with E, like I said, we have a cord to hook my ipod to the tv. We watched On Networks Food Science, and E loved it so much. I really liked it too, I don't have easy access to liquid nitrogen to make instant ice cream or sorbets, but I do have blowtorches, and I like the idea of roasting corn with my big one. Fun fun!
We also watched episodes of ThreadBanger we hadn't seen yet. Still full of win. Next New Network actually has a bunch of E's favorites, Indy Mogul explains special effects on a budget, and Metal Chik is nicely done casts on how to do basic silversmithing. I think all of those are available on youtube too which is nice, but I like watching them on tv because.. well.. it's bigger and E doesn't crowd me watching over my shoulder.
We also watched DIY Style which doesn't have the flare or entertainment value of ThreadBanger, but it's solid, and teaches good sewing habits. For me it's a little too basic, but my mom was an amazing seamstress. For E, it's great. A lot of things my mom taught me but I haven't taught her are shown, and I can explain in greater depth.
I prefer the slapdash get it done of ThreadBanger, but ThreadBanger is short on nice finishing techniques. So I guess it depends if you want an obviously handmade diy alternative/punk look or if you want something finished so people think you bought it in a store.

Don't forget, Chat tonight at 6 pm Pacific Standard Time. Bette is going to be having a super secret word contest, she's picked a word, and anyone who says it will get beads. Last week she came in with a secret identity, and said anyone who guessed who she was would win beads. So I've got charlottes coming to me in the mail!


I'm talking to R about holiday gifts, I've got friends who tend to spend too much on gifts that never get out of their boxes. This year? I took the handmade pledge, and I'd rather have handmade, but if that's just not an option, I want gift certificates to indie businesses, like Microcosm Publishing or if Alternative Tentacles offers one, Alternative Tentacles.

Me? Well.. as Mike says, with the tween and the teen, all handmade isn't an option. I can't crochet a working GH 3 game and controller even if Mike does do the electronics. But I will crochet a few more pouches for W, who uses them for all sorts of things. Not sure what I'm making for E yet. I'm making my dad a blanket like the ones we use here, and the kids are going to a paint pottery place and painting a mug for his milk and a plate for his cookies to give him along with a box of oreos.

I want want want the DIY Screenprinting book from Microcosm. One episode of ThreadBangers was about how to make simple screens with embroidery hoops, I've seen it on the net before and always wanted to try it, but now that E's seen it, she wants to try it too, so chances are most of my friends will be getting something screenprinted.
( the ThreadBangers video )
Doesn't that look fun??
In my last entry, jenna_thorn left this comment...
"For a foldable, squashable, travel set, broad grossgrain ribbon in red and black, eight strips woven tabby then stitched (or glued) with squarish bits of ribbon snipped off to be the pieces.

Tends to float off in a breeze, but is light enough to fold up in a jeans pocket and go anywhere."
I like the idea, but not with the ribbon snips because they would float off too easily, but maybe combine it with washers that will fit the squares painted to match and a long narrow ribbon to tie it up that the washers could be threaded on?

I was checking my webstats the other day, and I was absolutely shocked to see how many hits I had from the diy ethics tag on here.
Right now, I'm watching Thread Bangers podcast, it's not one I've mentioned before, but for someone into DIY fashion, recycling and repurposing, it's fantastic. The music and energy of the show make it one of my daughter's favorite too. One episode features a fabric cuff that looks like so much fun.. well.. if I were a quilter. But some people who read this quilt. It is a video podcast.

Well, yesterday was Saturday, so we went to do crafts.
<begin minor rant>
One of the reasons we do the crafts thing so often even though E is just barely away from being too old is because I think parents who take the time to do these sorts of things usually have fairly good kids.
It's not the only reason, not even the main one. The main one is that E loves it, she loves doing projects with stuff I don't have.
My rant? This morning their were a couple of THOSE mothers there. The ones who don't seem to get that kid art is special all on it's own, and that perfection isn't a part of it.
I was flinching pretty badly. This week was a teddy bear sleeping bag and pillow made with a bandana. One little girl, after being left to do the craft, accidently glued it all the way around. She didn't leave an opening for a bear to go in. She happily decorated it, and then her mom came back. Her mom said, with disappointment in her voice, "I thought we were going to leave the pretty side (hemmed edge) for the opening." We? What we? You were shopping. Her daughter didn't think it was quite a tragedy, and said she was happy with it, and just going to cut a new opening. Her mother said "We will do it at home with my sharp scissors." and her daughter grabbed the safety scissors and started cutting. Mom tried to stop her. The girl knew what she wanted to do and continued to cut. Mom sighed deeply and said "It would have looked better if you let me do it at home with my scissors." The girl said again, she was happy with it.

Hey mom? This isn't about you. It's not going to hold your toys, it's not your craft, not your art. Would you have insisted that Picasso went back to more realistic portrayals as well? This? For the KIDS. I'm THRILLED my daughter would rather do crafts with me then hang out on the street with the other kids her age sneaking cigarettes. If she does it, I'm proud. Occasionally I do offer suggestions, but more in line with "I have ____, would you like to use it?" I like that my daughter has a DIY ethic. She plays more with dollhouses she makes out of boxes then with the one she got a few years ago as a gift, and she enjoys it a lot more, because she made it herself. Everything is how she wants it, how she envisions it. If she feels she needs help with something, she'll ask. I don't take over for her, I give her suggestions, or we check the net to see what other people have done or maybe to get other ideas. It's HERS. I know how I feel when I'm spending hours on a project and someone either offers suggestions in terms of "It would look better if you.." or worse, if someone "helps" me and takes over the project. It's not encouraging, it makes you feel like someone whose opinion you value obviously doesn't think your talent and vision are worth much. If it's a subtle sort of criticism as an adult, how much worse is it for kids?
Ah.. I lied, not a minor rant. That sort of behaviour really does make me cringe inside.
</rant>

Michaels of course, had lots of really inexpensive Halloween craft stuff. Including oddly, tubes of 15 glow bracelets for 1.00. I got lots of those even though they are way too disposable for me, because the kids and Mike love glow sticks. The also had little totes for trick or treat bags at 50¢ each, the nice canvas ones, and the black ones, so very not too halloweeny. So I got 3 of those, and one orange one for E and I to decorate to use as purses.
I love Halloween leftovers!

More mail happiness this week. I got the most gorgeous necklace in the world. I'll take pictures later so you can all agree it's the most gorgeous necklace in the world from Bette. It's a 3 dimensional dark red rose with 3 Russian leaves on a black beaded ribbon edged in a gold color, all done in 15s. Serious patience. And oh yeah. it's the most gorgeous necklace in the world.

I also got the BESTEST care package in the world. It had candy, it had Hello Kitty, it had that very hard to find black worsted weight cotton, it had EVERYTHING! Even superballs. Seriously! Superballs. How absolutely fabulous is that? Someone MAILED me superballs.

Which is just the thing I needed, because I've been a bit blue most of the week, see, I pulled a muscle in my back right by my right shoulder. I'm left handed so this didn't completely ruin my week, but do you know how often you use the muscles in your right shoulder? I do. I was made aware all week. Yesterday I was delibrately very careful of it. When we went to the book storm (what E used to call the book store and the bead store was storms, all the other stores she called stores) I had Mike pull down magazines I wanted to look like. I felt a right proper idiot having to have him help me so much. See, I'm not good at asking for help. Ask anyone who's seen me doing dishes while crying because my back hurt so much. So with achy shoulder making it so I couldn't crochet, bead, do origami, knit (yeah.. seriously.. you use your non dominant hand and the muscles in your shoulder for all those things) I've been a bit moody. Alright, a lot moody. This morning I started crying because 1) E ate my leftovers and 2) I was absolutely certain Dad wasn't going to bring Wm over like he said he might. Turned out Dad was going to. Poor Mike.

But my shoulder is a lot better for taking it very easy yesterday. (I pulled it a week ago, this is the best it's been all week)
Yesterday we went to the local big Chinese New Year celebration, much fun was had by all. As well as odd little fruity candy in red and gold wrappers, after that, the book store, I got the Ready Made book which has been on my wishlist forever, and the Generation T book (and took both off my amazon wishlist). Like every metalhead turned punk in the 80s, I've sliced up far more then my fair share of shirts, and turned shirts into dresses and other things (I've got one dress Kim covets muchly if I ever make one on the sewing machine instead of hand stitching it), Generation T has some great ideas for things to do with teeshirts. I've got a lot of teeshirts I don't wear often. Happiness!!!
Readymade? Rocks my docs. Seriously. If you are into recycled crafts, there are tons of ideas in it, as well as timelines of the components (how plastic was invented/used et cetra) and brief scientific descriptions of the components. So it's not only a great idea book, but it's got a ton of information in it as well.
A lady at the book storm was looking at Metal Clay and Mixed Media Jewelry, and I told her I'd reviewed the book recently (you know, I'm going to have to come back in and put all the links in here I'm skipping aren't I?), and that it was fantastic. It is. If you have any interest in PMC? Get the book. It's wonderful.
TV yesterday: The morning news. That was it all day. Saturday night we watched the news, and then two of Woodworking Online's video podcasts. Those were GOOD. Mike liked them a lot, and I enjoyed them. Even though we don't have a table saw we need to tune up and clean, now we know how to do it. I don't think the tv in our room has been watched at all this week. I knew we weren't big tv people, but looking at the diary, I've realized that other then the Big 3 in this house, the only thing we watch with any consistency is the news. The Big 3? N.C.I.S., Heroes, and Battlestar Galactica. Heroes, well.. Hiro reminds me an awful lot of my eldest child, and I just adore him, BG? Lots of pretty people, great plots. Speaking of which, I like all the BG comics, but the really great one is the story of Zarek. Worth checking out if you are a big BG fan, they are alterverse, but well written, and fantastically illustrated and they stay true to the characters.
Dad's new boots fit him, and he's really impressed with them, and agrees they were a good buy. Of course, he STILL wants shoe goo to repair the 4 year old pair that got ripped because "They are still in good condition." The FUNNY thing about this is when you think about the hoodie. Years ago I got Wm a hoodie in Hell for 11 dollars for Christmas, it's a full zip heavy fleece hoodie with a rubber design on the front, and it didn't fit quite right, but Dad tried it and loved it (the start of dad and hoodies right there). I went back a week later, and they were marked down to 9 dollars, and I got 2 for Wm in his size. This hoodie was my dad's favorite. Well, at some point, it got burned in the elbow with a cigarette, so there is this small hole in the elbow. So now his hoodie is to him, completely unwearable. So he's willing to give up on a 2 year old hoodie for a small hole in the elbow, but the boots need repairing. I do actually agree he should repair them, but a repair isn't going to be the best thing walking in knee deep snow, so he needs the other pair too. The hoodie? I'm taking the sleeves off it and turning it into a hooded vest for me probably.

( the last couple of days )
Valentines was nice. Mike took me to a local bar I enjoy, which was just a bit odd because we forgot about the poker tournaments they have. Three of his co-workers were there. It was just nice being with him without the kidlets.Of course, my pulled shoulder still hurt pretty bad, and maybe sitting so long was a bad thing. I ached badly when I got home, but it was still a lot of fun.

The Crafty Girls video podcast is really good. It's another free one, and the videos are available for download from the site. Gorgeous and simple jewelry techniques. For someone like me with way more books about making jewelry in lots of different ways then the law allows (as my dad puts it), it's a bit simple, but simple is good.

I really should do a feature on podcasts sometime shouldn't I?

Apparently everyone has exciting things to do today but me. At least given the absolute deadness of my chat programs and lack of updates here. Fine. Have fun. I'm trying my best to stay awake. I have no idea why I'm drowsy.
So it's a good time to mention my favorite podcasts. I keep a bunch loaded on my iPod for when I'm doing something while we are out that either Mike or Emily won't enjoy. Like at the dr the other day. I gave Mike my iPod while I headed in to be seen.

They are all free, and they are all wonderful. Search the iTunes store for them.
Of course there are the obvious ones like the National Geographic podcast. That's sort of a given.
Catie's Kitchen- Catie is a girl who does a cooking show for kids. It's mostly audio, although she did recently do a video podcast I haven't watched yet. My daughter *loves* this one.
Her other favorite- Family Fun. She loves the magazine, so the video podcasts make her very happy.

For Mike- Foamy. Yes, Foamy is a video podcast now. You know, I forgot to tell Mike about Foamy for something like a year. Then I told him. Then I told other people I forgot to tell him, turned out they didn't know about Foamy either. Which made me feel really bad. Because Foamy is good. When I was in the dr's office, I set Mike up to watch Foamy, this is part of my secret plan to get an 80 gig iPod. I'm getting Mike hooked on the fact he can watch Foamy anywhere if only he a video iPod instead of just his old 20 gig iPod. No. It won't backfire. He won't decide he needs the 80 gig. He'll be happy with my 60 if he gets me the 80. Right? That's how it's supposed to work anyway. I'm asking for it as a birthday present because I *know* the next few months are always terribly expensive.
Make Magazine- This is an interesting podcast. It's about half video casts and half pdfs that get downloaded as podcasts. They do the same thing with Craft Magazine, I like it, and Mike likes it. Robots and geeks and other such stuff.

For me-
Olive Garden's Step by Step Cooking, there are only 3 episodes of this, but it's good.
Scrapbook Answers Video Podcast, I don't scrapbook. I don't rubber stamp. But I like magazines about it, and I like videos about it. So this one is very informative about things I don't do, and absolutely kid safe too. Which is always a plus when Emily asks what I'm watching.
Cut Out + Keep, Cat Morley's podcast. It's wonderful, I love her website, and the podcast is one of my favorite things to listen to when I'm working on something.

There are a few more I like, but these are my favorites.

Funny thing, when Mike was in the waiting room waiting for me, he left his laptop in the car (okay.. we *are* a bunch of geeks. Both of us have desktops and laptops and iPods, and the kids have mini cheap mp3 players, and we are a gadget happy household.), usually he brings it with him because the clinic I go to *does* have a wireless connection for us to use. It's a very nice hospital/clinic. So I gave him my iPod and Foamy because it's part of my secret plan. Emily brought a library book (surprise surprise, she checked out one with crafts. She always gets crafts or cookbooks from the library), when I came out, Emily had my iPod, and Mike was reading some of the pamphlets that are always around such places (I picked up "100 ways to say no to sex" for a couple friends) I said "Weren't you watching Foamy?" He said in his best Emily impersonation "I'm pretty sure there is something more kid-friendly that both of us could watch on there." Which is why she was curled up with my iPod, cheerfully watching some of her Family Fun videos, and he was reading about healthy snacks.
I haven't checked out The Candie Cast yet, I'll let you know when I do, it's about beads though, so how much could I hate it?

For all you knitters out there, CRAFT magazine? Has a very interesting scarf pattern right now in PDF format on their podcast. I'd love one, but we all know I'm a bit strange.