Bad, bad bad.

Maybe it's a winter thing, maybe it's just a matter of some random firings of neurons, but whatever it is, I have a mega case of projectitis right now. Since I don't have a functioning camera, it's hard to show you, but I can share the source of the problem: Sunset Magazine. If you haven't seen this magazine, you probably don't live in the west. Because otherwise, it's pretty much the must have magazine for any home. If you're a foodie, it's got you covered. If you like wine tasting, sightseeing, shopping, gardening, or making crafty stuff, you're covered. The major problem is that one issue is so chock-full of fantastic ideas that your brain may very well explode. And we all know how messy that is.
Well, in my case, the mess of an exploded brain looks a lot like 50,000,000 fabric scraps all over the living room floor, and 15 balls of yarn on the couch.
I've been in a hat-making frenzy, crocheting up at least 10 darling, unique hats in the past month. Then yesterday I started one that is knitted, since I couldn't figure out how to do a spiral looking hat with a crochet stitch. I'm sure someone out there can tell me it's possible, but I was boggled.
In addition to the hats, I sorta went overboard with the cookie baking. As a person who doesn't eat cookies (much) 3 big batches is probably pretty ridiculous. But I can't help myself. They're so fun to make, and I enjoy wearing my darling little vintage Donna Reed apron that I got at Burning Man last year (some camp used aprons as fencing, if you can believe it and they were giving them away!)
So you can see, I was already pretty busy when I cracked open my Sunset magazine.


First I saw these rock paperweights, I thought of a million possibilities, and how fun and easy they'd be.
Then I saw little lavender saches, and etched glasses. Imagine, a trip to the dollar store and some fun designs! What an amazing project!
Oh, and then there was the yummy bath scrub recipe, and a "bath bomb" recipe, and really cute old silverware that was stamped with herb names to use in your herb garden. Easy-peasy to make, and just darling! And this terrarium! OMG is that not awesome!?
Okay. Enough. As you can see, I have a million things I want to do and about 15 minutes of spare time in the next few weeks. These will just have to be filed away, for some later date when I'm, I don't know. Unemployed and without any other responsibilities!?

Greenhouse!

Well, it's winter, and miss Monotonia needed a greenhouse. It's one of those things we've been talking about for a while, but the materials can add up to a lot of money, and it hasn't been much of a priority.
But just the other day a disassembled greenhouse came up on Craigslist, for free. We jumped on that and now Nitro's busy building. Kaya, of course, has been a great help.

Autumn Creativity!

Projectitis is beginning again in earnest.
I've begun crocheting a hat out of to die for soft alpaca yarn in a pretty cornflower blue that my husband's grandmother got me one year for Christmas, and I've been hanging onto it, waiting for the perfect small project (I only have one skein) to use it on.
Since I finally figured out that my favorite hat was crocheted, not knitted, replicating the pattern has been simple, and I'm thrilled by the results. I've even edited it a little bit. As soon as I finish, I promise to post pictures.

I've also gotten excited about Christmas stockings again. Several years ago, I made a couple dozen very unique stockings, out of fun co-ordinating non-holiday materials. The pattern is one I created myself, with a very exaggerated funky foot shape and wilde embellishments. They're super-fun and a great way to use up leftover fabrics. I made one this weekend, and have another cut out, ready to sew. I'm just struggling with a way to make them hold their shape when hanging. I could always stuff them with some filler, but that's not my favorite solution. I'm thinking I need to make them a lot more finished, lining them and adding some of that stiff stuff in between the lining and outer shell. It's just a bit of a pain to do that, for something that's just a holiday decoration.

The purse making stopped; I guess I got tired of them. Partly. The other part is that the nice magnetic snaps are so expensive, and other snaps pull out to easily. I have a bunch of purses here at home that need to be fixed because the snaps pulled out, and they're not fixed yet, because the nice snaps are too pricey. I was hoping to find a good place to buy them in bulk, but so far I've had no luck with that. So the motivation on the couture clutches has petered out.

Cards

I've been making lots of cards lately. Mostly because I keep thinking I'm going to "plant" my hummingbird stamp somewhere as a letterbox, but haven't made a decision about that yet. It's one of my favorite stamps, and the fear of losing it is great. So I have been making tons of impressions of it, so that if it does disappear, at least I have something of it to keep.

The cards have been selling really well at the orchid shop, which is really nice, though not a huge money maker. I made about 15 new orchid cards last week to put on the rack, and today I've been whipping together more of the hummingbirds. This is just a small handful here. I don't think any two are alike, which suits me, as if I've done something once I really don't care to do it again. I love to explore new ways of displaying the stamp in a way that is bright and fun. Some work better than others. I learned straight off to not try to stamp onto the card, since the texture of the paper makes a clean impression difficult, and if it was messed up, then the whole card was trash.
Other projects have been at a stand-still, mostly due to time. There's been some skirt-making for bellydancing and a lot of graphic design work, but nothing notable, and nothing truly my creation. Summer is not a good time for me to be crafty, as there's too much to do outside!
Stay tuned, however, as I just bought some great new fabric scraps to make more purses, as well as some awesome bamboo handles to try out a new style of purse.

Summer!

The projectitis has mellowed these days, as the sun is shining and the days are longer, I find myself playing outdoors much more than in the past months. Not that I've stopped the creative pursuits altogether. I did make a lovely collar for my dog -- we got the standard black collar, and I've embellished it with a pretty brocade trim, sequins and beads. Maybe there will be a pic later.

I've been making more cards out of my hand-carved stamps, but there haven't been any new stamps lately.

The cool thing on the stamp front is that I was interviewed in our local entertainment weekly paper about my favorite hobby of letterboxing, and about stamp carving. Here is the article.

The other cool thing was that our dance troupe had our annual big extravaganza evening of dance & music (and yummy cookies) and it went off really well, and the costumes that we worked so hard on looked fabulous and it's such a relief for it to be over now, too. We had fun, and the audience had fun, and it was worth all the trouble and time and expense.

So yeah, I've been busy, just not busy making cool projects to share here. I'm sure there will be more very soon!

So inspired.

Last weekend I traveled to Venice Beach, CA for their annual garden tour. It's a benefit thingey for the Las Doradas Childrens Center, and it's an amazing tour. I mean, who hasn't walked the canals of Venice and thought "Ooh, I want to see the inside of that house, I want to see their garden!" Well, we got to. AWESOME experience. One thing that particularly inspired me, perhaps because it's something that's in reach for me, something I could make myself, were these lovely art pieces constructed mainly of succulents, tillandsia, orchids ...epiphytic plants and others with low soil needs, mainly. Some of them hung on a wall, or even constructed whole walls, the colors and textures of the plants creating beautiful shapes and harmonious patterns. My mind was blown. One home had business cards for the place that created these beautiful live art-pieces, so I checked out their web site. Holy moley, I'm fired up! I spent most of today at the orchid shop playing with different ways of arranging plants and cut flowers together to make centerpieces. It was a bit indulgent, since we don't sell that sort of thing, but I justify it by saying that it beautifies the shop, no? Anyway, check out the site if you're ready to be awed!
www.bigredsun.com

Head Case.

Oops, I meant "head piece."
Today was all about finishing up loose ends. Literally, really. The headpiece I've been working on has been in the same stage of nearly-finished for several weeks. I got stuck, and just sort of put it aside until this morning when I stopped by a friend's house for some advice. And woo-hoo, it's finished. Finally. Perhaps someday there will be photos.
In the meantime, I met another amazingly creative person who's making some beautiful things. I want! Well, I want it in a very unrealistic way, because I can't imagine where I'd wear them. I'm rarely out of my workout clothes. :) But check out the beautiful stuff here: http://liaisonbykatherine.blogspot.com/