Right now I'm working on 3 more e-books. Both will be available in both PDF format and in Kindle format. Brick stitch, shortbread and *points to icon* cute little goffy crafts which will mostly just be a collection of things I've posted here, but it will include a pattern for my bat hair clippies.
Strained my vanilla last week and posted after pictures here. After I dried out the beans I strained out of the mixture, I put some in a jar with Splenda to infuse the Splenda with vanilla goodness as well as adding more to E's sugar jar. Still had lots left, so we are putting a couple at a time in our coffee grinder with our coffee. Which is really so very good.
I also posted a couple new boxes based off old designs from my original site. Moon and Star stained glass design and a sword decorated CCG box. I'm really happy with how both designs turned out.
When E and I hit the thrift store last week, I found a bag of zippers. Mostly they are reclaimed from garments but very good quality older zippers rather than the cheaper ones made now. One of the zippers in the bag was a zipper from the 40s still carded. So I'll scan the card later. It's fantastic. It's got instructions for insetting the zipper in it. What a lot of fun for 1.50. Zipper accessories are so hot right now, but real zippers, not like those zipper lariats from the 80s!
I also found some great clip on earrings for my collection including one pair of signed earrings. One pair is this big pair of gold beaded earrings I'm working on reverse engineering.
I have this long list of things I want to work on. I'm trying to work on just one thing at a time, but I'm failing so far. I got a book on soapmaking I've been reading, and one on making soft non-ripened cheeses that's on deck next.

Threadless tees 10 dollars for a few more hours today. LOTS of zombie and creepy designs.

Let's see.. Friday we had plans that didn't pan out. My fault I'm afraid.
Saturday on the other hand, everything did work out nicely.
( bead show )
After the show, E took us all out to lunch. It's a family tradition that the kids take us out to dinner once a year. E chose Glacier BrewHouse and Dad met us there. They have lovely food. I checked the menu carefully and finally settled on a hamburger for dad. Their cheeseburgers are slathered with goodness so I had to make sure they would do it the way Dad wanted it. So instead of a nice big absolutely wonderful burger, Dad got his plain burger with bacon, no bun and mashed potatoes instead of fries. Which I had to order for him, because he will go without rather than doing a special order.
Home again, home again.
Sunday we went to the fabric store, and E got fabric and thread. After, we went to a thrift store we hadn't been to in a while and I found a 1960's hamburger cookbook. I also found a cone of beige fingering weight yarn of indeterminate fiber content. But it's pretty stuff. Just slightly fuzzy and that light eggshell beige. I got it and it would make a lovely shawl, but I'm using it to make a light lacy scarf. I think I'll make a flower pin for it as well. E found herself a nice jointed Barbie in decent condition she's going to make clothes for.

I posted a recipe for Creme Brulee from Grandma's recipe box over at Don't Eat the Paste. The hat E is wearing in that picture is a Link hat she made for herself out of green fleece. Hand sewn without a pattern, it's awfully cute.

The burn on my leg WAS blistered, the skin came off it in a strip about 2 inches long and a half inch wide, but at this point it doesn't look like it injured the tattoo too much. Just waiting for it to heal to see if I'll need touch up work.

I have a few designs up at Spoonflower and after getting the swatches. I like them. The raindrop design turned out a little muted, but I can color correct that brighter. All the designs posted were drawn in vector format, and saved that way so I can change sizes and colors pretty easily. So.. here's the question.. now that Spoonflower is offering to let people post their designs for sale and willing to pay them 10% commission, should I make those designs available for sale? Do you think enough people would be interested in buying things like the chef skull design for aprons to make it worthwhile? (and I *am* going to make a fat quarter sized design that's 2 large skulls to use as patch pockets on my apron. Yep yep.)
What colors would you suggest? Except for the time being the doll panels. Because that's going into the next contest, but *after* the contest, I can recolor the dolls and do other variations of those.

Oh.. Eyeball hexagon box at Don't Eat the Paste.
Also made today- Some mod earrings out of Friendly Plastic, still need to get pics.

E had a very good day today. There was a make it and take it at Michaels I completely forgot to post here yesterday. Sorry! It was an American Girls craft thing in the US, in Canada it was spoon people. For us in the US, there were 3 projects, a paper frame, a paper cupcake tag, and a mini-scrapbook. The scrap book was decorated with fun foam shapes, and E found a star and cut it into a fair approximation of a Starfleet logo for her book, her very own Captain's Log.
After that, we headed to the University Center for lunch and the Farmer's Market. The University Center used to be one of the biggest malls in town, it had a theater and a bead store that got entirely too much of my money, as well a lovely little gift shop that sold individual Godiva chocolates. Now, about half the mall is actually used by a local university, so the University Center is really living up to it's name now.
Up stairs is a restaurant that's been there for 30 years now called The Cauldron, we've been going there with a fair amount of regularity almost the entire time we've been together, so we had lunch there, after which we hit the fabric store in that mall. They teach a lot of sewing and little quilting/patchwork projects there, so instead of remnants, they sell scraps. E bought a bag of scraps. The pieces too small for her to use, she uses to stuff, and the bigger pieces become parts of her projects. Then we went to the farmer's market.
I gave E her choice of carrots since one farmer there had yellow, white, red, orange and purple carrots. E decided on purple carrots. We also got some bright purple cauliflower, some turnips, broccoli, arugula, a little jar of wild rose petal jelly (for me, I love the stuff but I haven't gone out looking for wild roses to harvest petals), a bar of soap made quite proudly with fat from Alaskan cows, lye and water. We also picked up a dozen eggs that are fresh, local, and organic. I'm so having a really good egg tonight for dinner. Yum yum! They will be there every Saturday until October 10th, so next week we will go again.
Last night I didn't want to go to the store, so making do with what was available, I made pizza quesadillas for everyone. They were a hit.

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.

So here's the thing. I want to grow my hair to classic length if I can. If I can.. I actually want it longer than that. So I'm fussy about my hair, what sort of brushes I use, how often it's brushed, not washing it every day, protecting it to the best of my ability.

So I decided to start covering it. Now, I'll admit, I have had a continued fascination with veiling and the reasons why women do it. But I'm not doing it because of religious belief, but just to protect it.
The conversation went something like this...
Me:"Well, I made a decision on veiling."
Mike: "That was still up for debate? What was the decision?"
Me: "Not on weekends in deference to you."
Mike laughs.
Me:"Wait a minute.. DEBATE?? You were going to DEBATE my right to cover my hair?"
Mike:"No. Do I look stupid?"
(in my head- laughing like that? Yeah. Kind of.)
So I explained about protecting the length of my hair most days of the week and said "Look, it's like this, the easiest methods? A veil or a hairnet. So.. I can look like someone who is devout or.."
Mike nods and says "A food service worker."
Not that I have anything against food service. I don't. But it's not really the look I'm going for in my off time.
So I explained about modest clothing sites and such, and he started looking. Now he's looking at hats. Specifically, Amish hats. He doesn't wear hats, but I'm getting the impression if I veil, he will wear a straw hat.
Which is fine. He can have a straw hat.
I'm upping the ante though. And suggesting he get me a treadle sewing machine. Because I don't have one of those!

Sock and Glove : Creating Charming Softy Friends From Cast Off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori is really just that, charming. If you like Japanese style cuteness but want quicker projects then amigurumi, this is a great book.
I just noticed this book was released on my birthday in 2007, which is wonderful appropriate because I got it on my birthday this year from my son.
I love it so much. None of the projects are really complicated or require specialized skills or equipment. If you can hand sew a good seam, and embroider, you can do everything in it and the projects are adorable.
What makes it really special is the introduction, which takes up most of the book to all the animals in it. It's sweet, and the photographs are fantastic.
I think my favorite project is the zebra made from a striped sock.
The construction ideas and tips will give a lot of crafters other ideas for things to do with socks and mittens. I think a lot of the stray socks accumulated in my family will start finding their way into my sewing basket and my daughter's sewing basket after reading this instead being used to dust. I highly recommend it.
I think E, being doll girl lately, is really going to love it. I'll have to make sure she doesn't decide my knee high stripey socks need to be a zebra!
---
One more day left to score my little orange design on Threadless. Well.. okay, if you won't score my silly little design,you could score others. Lots of talented artists with ideas that make a lot more sense than mine!

I relisted the earring pattern set here.
Other than that..yesterday I wanted to get some good lace for a choker, and I was mourning the fact that Three Sisters fabric wasn't opened anymore. Mike took me to Seams Like Home and I found fabric there. Like most of the independent fabric shops in town, it's got a strong quilting theme, but I did find the kind of lace I wanted, and amusingly enough, it was stock from Three Sisters! The owner of Seams Like Home bought their stock and merged the two stores! E got a bunch of scraps for her dolls and we also picked up some elastic and buttons to make bento belts for our new bento boxes. (and I splurged on some German sequins, because I love sequins)
We stopped on the way home for dinner at New Sagaya.
So today I'm going to finish up a new bun holder I'm making myself, and E and I are going to make bento belts decorated with buttons.

Seriously. The last chef at the place he works had no interest in switching from white to go boxes to unbleached. So he brought it up with the new chef, who is enthused about the idea.
I love that he does this so much. Without being preachy or anything else, he just encourages greener choices for a big hotel. He's absolutely my hero.

Today: That chocolate banana cake finally, and making yogurt. Other than that.. working on a pair of earrings and reading a trashy book on my kindle. Yay kindle! I can hide my more embarrassing reading choices while I'm in public.

Yesterday I was supposed to meet an old friend for coffee, but that didn't pan out. So we took E out to get more fabric for her dolls. Which I need to see and get pictures of. I've only seen one of them so far, but she spends her evenings happily in her room sewing sewing sewing.
I've been making a bunch of knotted paracord bracelets lately. Since I don't have plastic slide clasps,I'm making clasps out of copper for them. They are so easy and fast. I think I'll use the same technique to design a beaded friendship bracelet. It's just super easy square knots with handmade clasps so it will adapt well to embroidery floss.
The QotD thing recently? What song is stuck in your head? Stuart by the Dead Milkmen or Vanilla by Marian Call. It keeps going back and forth.

I'm in a lot of pain today so it's sort of hard to focus on what I meant to get done.
Updated Beadwork at BellaOnline with a sort of silly thing, instructions for converting a peyote pattern to a regular graph. It's a joke, since people keep asking how to like there is this quick and easy way to convert graphs.
School Needlework at Vintage Sewing Info, a ton of information on hand sewing and darning. (Darning socks, not the kind of darn that takes you straight to heck.)
Build a table top loom, which is very nifty, but fairly involved. (pdf)
More fun and something you can set up to do with younger kids, or have older kids help you build?
Thread Banger has this great weaving project.(youtube) It's a great use for scraps and such and the technique would work well with selvages.

Well.. more later. Time to go try to be productive.
I hope you all had a day with a lot of laughter.

And oh yeah.. me? Without coffee?? I think my family would start sneaking it into fruit juice or something.. too scary to contemplate.

Well.. I kind of do, my DIY icon, but I never get the chance to use this icon. So I'm using it.
Anyway.. you know how to make circle skirts right? There are a ton of tutorials on the web.( cut so non-sewers don't have scroll past it )

It's almost time to start seriously thinking about the donated pieces of art I'm giving to a couple auctions this year as fund raisers. The zoo is easy.
I was thinking brick stitched earrings for our American Legion Post and for the United Way auction, but the obvious issue is.. I don't really design for either venue. I tend to do a lot of bats and skulls and ankhs and stuff that's just purely cute. I did design a simple pair of RWB earrings about a decade ago that will work for the American Legion I think.
I was looking at information about curve stitching, which was designed by Mary Everest Boole. Think 1970's string art. A way of making curved lines with straight lines. :) I remember Mom teaching me to cut a circle out of paper using a variation of that technique. I really like the idea of curved stitch embroidery on stuff like very 1950s ish looking aprons, maybe on a patch pocket on a blue gingham apron trimmed with red rickrack.
( example I drew )
That's a pretty simple design, not too complex, and I think it will work in thicker flosses and threads. I'm going to redraw it a bit finer for regular cotton floss. I need to pick up some color card stock so I can practice stitching these on card stock and see how they look.
If I do make an apron, I'm going to use a fusible interfacing on the back of whatever fabric I use to stitch it on for extra support and to keep the fabric from stretching and ruining the lines.

Since you can't really call them quillows, not being quilted.
( instructions )
Well.. one more blanket left to finish now. Dad's. Raiders fleece with black fleece to back it, and I'm still not up to season 3 of Bab 5.

( eyepatches, this time with a pattern )
Emily told me she's watching pirate movies today. Obviously.
-Shala

After everything I had to do to make Emily the *right* eyepatch for her costume, she lost it. So I had to make her a new one.
I asked what she wanted on it, and she said "you can do skull and crossbones." I said "I'll do whatever you want on it" "Skull and crossbones will make you happy"

Okay. So I did skull and crossbones, but while the embroidery on the face is in black floss, I stitched down the skull and stitched the edges with hot pink which doesn't show in this picture. But I think it turned out well enough for all that.


Ah.. I love craft felt.

Purse swap news. I got the first one in. Want to try for November 15th for the rest? Sorry about the delay folks, but personal life has been full of interesting things lately. Don't send postage, do send your address. Not fair to ask you to send postage when I'm including extras in everyone's package, things I've had on hand for them but haven't mailed yet.
I'll post my addy in the craft filter in my other journal.

-Shala

( Emily's shawls )

and what you've really been waiting for..
( The eyepatches )
-Shala