craft fair table, here i come

Yesterday was Day One-ish on my way to having a table at a craft fair. Craftynest is still a little ways away, but with work and all, it'll be here sooner than I know it. So I better decide what I'm making, let alone make quantity!

I say it's Day One-ish because I've been alternately mulling, planning, scheming, dreaming, editing and revising my ideas for what to make for my table. Last night I devised a pattern for one of the animals. I guess I could have made it a lot easier on myself by doing some research and seeing how existing patterns are put together, but I just wanted to draw something then figure out how to make it right away. So that's what I did. Fun!

I won't tell you what I'm planning on making yet... maybe more on that after I've worked some more stuff out this weekend.

P.S. If you're in Vancouver, sign up for a table at Craftynest this week. The deadline to apply is August 31st. It's the least expensive table in town - and will be the awesomest craft fair, to boot!

Read more...

quiz: what kind of squid are you?

It's time for a quiz. Everybody likes quizzes. And this one answers a question you've been dying to know the answer to.

What Kind of Squid Are You?

• 1. Should squid be (A) white or (B) red?
  
  
• 2. Should squid be (A) tiny or (B) gigantic?
  
  
• 3. Should squid be (A) fuzzy or (B) sleek?
  
  
• 4. Should squid be (A) fun for babies or (B) fun for everyone?

Answers

If you answered mostly A's, you're Poor Mojo. Don't let the name fool you, you're not low on mojo. You're cute, you're cuddly, and babies love you - which means the girls love you, too. You're a bit kooky, but have a generous soul - you're willing to show everyone how you became what you are today.

If you answered mostly B's, you're Archibald Dux. You're a modern kind of squid. You're bold, confident, and feel like you're 18 feet tall. You're not afraid of being different - in fact, you love to stand out and always wear bright colours. You're very popular and even have a myspace page, like everyone in the in-crowd.

Read more...

bwah!

Crochet a wee little chihuahua. Need I say more? I think not.

Read more...

my first quilt ever

Back in January, I started a quilt. I looked online at various quilts I liked, planned, and drew out the layout of all the squares with careful colour coordination. I started cutting. I cut about 120 squares. I put them together - first in pairs, then in squares of four. Then, I got busy. Over the next eight months, I've had time to put some of the four-squares together, but that's it. I had a load of excuses, but as of last week - no more!
Now I have all the squares sewn together (so what if not all of them line up perfectly? That just adds charm!) and am working on choosing the border. I have a nice purple stripe planned (as pictured), but I think it needs something else... maybe a white or cream? A nice dark blue? I wouldn't mind putting a lot of stripes around the centre part... the quilt ended up being smaller than I anticipated (even though I planned it as a lap quilt, it was frustrating to have done so much work and to end up with something so small!). Comments and suggestions welcome!

Read more...

cloth wallet tutorial

Nice tutorial (or "tut," as I've started seeing recently - presumably pronounced "toot" which predictably gets on my nerves...) for a cloth wallet. Maybe not a great size for everyday use, but it'd be nice for goin' out.

Read more...

Make Podcasts

Make: Technology on Your Time has podcasts. Why am I just realizing this now? There are presently over fifty of them (many of the early ones have to do with robots...), and my favourite in the series are some of the newer ones - the weekend projects. For instance, you can make a pinhole camera, or make a workbench, or make your own t-shrit designs, all featuring the helpful (and delightfully bespeckled) Bre Pettis. Neat-o.

Read more...

pretty scary

... or if that whole photogenic thing doesn't work out, you can always post your picture on Ghostface, a collection of snapshots of people who look like they just saw a ghost. AHH!

Read more...

post-its and pretty pictures

For those who like post-it notes, I present a find: the post-it note table. This one seems a little extreme (huge post-its, yellow-and-black colour combination, hyperactive website), but not a bad idea.

On another note, did you know that there are courses out there for models on how to look/be more photogenic? Makes sense, I suppose. Now, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can get a few tips for yourself: 5 steps to being more photogenic. (I think that crazy clown was a bad choice as an illustration of successful photogeneticness, but some of the tips are interesting.)

Read more...

office art

Don't quit your day job. Sure it's boring, but that boredom (not to mention the handy office supplies) might just produce some great art.

Giant Robot's GR2 in LA is hosting a art show with all the works done on on Post-It notes. Post-Deux features nearly 2,000 works by noted (har har) contributors like Jeff Soto, Souther Salazar, and Jordan Crane (whose work and graphics novels I adore). The show's sticking around till September 13th.

Read more...

even the cool kids craft

Yesterday my friend and I walked by these two guys sitting on the grass. They were very cool looking, hip hop kind of guys and looked like they should've been smoking or talking about cars or something. Instead, they each a pair in scissors in hand, cutting up brown paper bags and bright pink paper. It looked like they were making valentines or strings of paper dolls.

I wish I had had the nerve to stop and ask them what they were doing or to take their photo.

Read more...

spruce up! part 2!

My second wood painting project in as many weeks is finished! (Here's last week's.) I was originally thinking of painting a pattern on the table, but after much deliberation I decided against it. Too many ideas - and not one that stood out as "Yes! That's an image I want to see everyday!" (Also the reason why I'll probably never get tattooed.)

It super easy and fast, considering there are three coats of varnish on top of the stain. I'm happy with the stain colour - Varathane in "Traditional Pecan" - not to be confused with that "Punk Pecan". It had to be dark enough to cover the curry and turmeric stains that were impossible to wash off the table.

I think I've painted eveything wooden in the house now. I should stop. (For now.)

Before...



...and after!



It looks like a happy table, don't you think?

Read more...

hey, babylegs

Is it just Vancouver, fashion-clone capital of the world, or is everyone wearing leggings? I like this look, but am not sure if it's an acceptable look for anyone over age 20. (That being said, I wore awesome knee-high stripey socks today, and had a pack of teen boys grunt "Nice socks!" at me as I walked by. Pfft.)

For under 20 though - waaay under 20 - check out BabyLegs, adorable leggings for babies and toddlers. Not only are they beyond cute, the concept and company were started by a stay-at-home mom who started making them for her daughter, then selling them out of her diaper bag. How cool is that?

Read more...

i like plush

Some people sing about a few of their favourite things. Some people recreate them in plush.

Oh Frau Liebe does just that. Check out her Things I Like set on flickr - where she documents the adorable plush renditions that she's made of objects such as tofu, Q-tips (!), books and more. Oversized, with smiley little faces... these toys are bound to make you like all these things, too.

Read more...

tuscan whole milk

Amazon.com has started selling food and fresh produce from their site. They already sell books, dvds, watches, clothing, furniture... so why not food?

The amazing thing about Amazon is that they blindly treat every product the same way. Despite the many things wrong with this approach, the great thing about this is that they maintain a reader reviews section for every product they sell.

Enter Tuscan Whole Milk.

The one-gallon jug of Tuscan Whole Milk has become the target of a reviewing frenzy - with 680 reviews so far, and counting...

...

I am a big man. I drive a bus for a living. But the first time I drank this milk, I wept like a baby.

...

While on vacation in the Swiss Alps, Tuscan Whole Milk protected me and the tour group I was with from a terrible avalanche. And one afternoon, finding myself trapped in a nuclear submarine beneath the Antarctic ice, I was safely transported to the surface by Tuscan Whole Milk alone. I just can't imagine what would happen if I drank some.

...

I ordered three gallons of this delightful beverage and had it sent to my post office box. Amazingly, the container is exactly the same size as my PO box. So now, when I want a delicious glass of milk, all I have to do is go to the post office, open the box, unscrew the cap, voila! Once they put my milk into the PO box so the bottom faced the door and I had to poke a hole in it and drink the whole gallon at once.

...

When I first moved to America from Germany, I was led to believe that America was the land of Milk and Honey. But for years all I could find was the Honey. Now, thanks to Tuscan 2%, I finally have the Milk, too. Thanks, Tuscan!

...

I just found a finger in my milk. BTW, Snape kills Dumbledore....

...

And so on and so on... Go read (and write) Tuscan Whole Milk reviews for yourself.

Read more...

flickr meme

Flickr is fantastic. It's a curiosity shop full of interesting and intriguing things...

What are the 3 most recent flickr photos that you've bookmarked? No cheating - post the 3 most recent, not your 3 favourites of all time. Post the links on your blog and add the link to your blog in the comments section here.

Here are mine:

1) A procession of small children wearing amazing fish costumes in some Spanish parade. How awesome is that?!

Desfile de anchoas
Originally uploaded by Tenebris.

2) A gorgeous black and white bird tattoo. (The kind I'd probably get if I were the kind of person to get a tattoo.)

birds
Originally uploaded by malloreigh.

3) I like the colours of these armsocks. I must make armsocks.

braiding
Originally uploaded by kittenjunkie.

Read more...

spruce up!

In the few of weeks between roommates, I'm taking advantage of the temporarily-extra, now-empty room by using it as a painting room. Here's the mini-reno I did on an old chair (but new to me!) that I bought at Sally Ann this summer. Just a little stripping, painting, varnishing, glueing of maverick feet caps, and screwing in of one wobbly arm. Before, during and after...

Read more...

call for crafters! new vancouver craft bazaar!

Get your craft on, Vancouver!

Craftynest is a new craft bazaar that will hit Vancouver on Saturday, October 21st.

Tables are still available - but hurry up and sign up, as applications are due by August 31st.

The bazaar's being organized by Laura from my craft group - and I'm making the posters! So it's bound to the the best bazaar. EVER. ;)

Get all the details about the event and how to sign up for a table on the Craftynest site.

Spread your feathers. Spread the word.

Read more...

social shopping using wists

Wists "is a free service that lets you visually bookmark any page on the web, then automatically create a small image, text summary and add set of keywords." Since I found it, I've been going through it for sewing patterns - it's full of t-shirt alterations, hoodie patterns, loads of skirt tutorials, and much more. While it seems mostly focused on DIY and other such craftiness, you can apparently search for anything. Focusing on DIY, it's a great way to get a lot of patterns at once - for instance, wrap around skirts. Handy!

Read more...

janet morton and eveyln roth

Last weekend I went to see an amazing show at Vancouver's Belkin Satellite Gallery. "Material Obsessions" presented works by two Canadian craft artists - Janet Morton and Eveyln Roth. Although they worked in similar mediums - from wool to audio and video tape - they didn't know about one another's work, and were producing art 20 years apart.

The gallery - in the foreground is T.V. Trap (1973) by Eveyln Roth



The show was really magical, even for non-craftistas. You're greeted at the door by Janet Morton's full-size tree, knitted in black wool. Some of the branches turn into gloves or sleeves, and the roots trail off into balls of yarn and knitting needles. Inside the main room of the gallery, there's a giant work sock (aka sock monkey sock!), cassettes with their guts crocheted into quasi-Christmas ornanaments, a suit knitted out of video tape (from the CBC, no less!) that encloses a TV and the viewer. There's also a structure that would be pretty much the best playhouse ever. This is Evelyn Roth's "Environment for Living Recycled from 110 Sweaters" which she made in 1974, when recycling was "new" and groovy. It's the coziest hideout, like being in a pillow fort or inside a giant tea cozy. Here are some photos of the show. Enjoy.


Woollen Tree (2001) by Janet Morton



Environment for Living Recycled from 110 Sweaters (1974) by Eveyln Roth



Chain of Fools (2003) by Janet Morton



Memorial (Canadian Work Sock) (1992) by Janet Morton

Read more...

ok go, on treadmills

This video by OK Go is so good it almost makes me want to go to the gym.

Almost.

Read more...