Holiday Cards

I have the time, and the inclination. It's too cold, really, to do other stuff. I really should start making my holiday cards. The only problem is they have to represent me, the person, and me, the business. They have to be fun, funky, pretty, and universally adored. And that's too tall an order.
Not to mention that I keep looking around online, you know... for inspiration? And I come up with 30,000 ideas, and 1,000,000 cards that I absolutely love love love. And I think "Well, I should just buy those cards!" but that sorta goes against the whole graphic designer sending out holiday cards as a self-promotional item sort of grain. But if I end up sorta copying someone else's cards, then that's not right either. But I see these and simply can't imagine doing a better job than that.
Or this stuff and I know that I just about suck as much as anyone could suck when compared to that.
So I guess what I'm saying is I'm stuck. I'm in the creative tar pits. And I can't get out.

On to more impressive stuff ...

I mentioned before, I'm sure, that Nitro tends to build way more well thought out and complicated and useful things than I. What? You don't think my crocheted hats are as useful, or impressive as the back deck? Whatever. I'm over it.
This next project of his is FANtastic. I'm really excited. He's making a hot tub. Out of a water trough and a beer keg. I kid you not. The water trough (pictured) is big enough for us both to sit in, legs straight out ahead, water up to our necks. And there will be some sort of a tube at the top and at the bottom, and cold water will go out one tube, get warmed by a fire (that will be in the modified beer keg) and then the now hot water will go back into the hot tub. Apparently, through the magic that is physics, this whole circulation of the water will happen automatically.
Don't ask me how.
It's magic.
The basic concept is presented in Mother Earth News, a favorite publication around here. But I'm rather fond of the beer keg boiler creation that Nitro came up with. That's a class act right there. Oh, and the stovepipe? Why, it's made of the old exhaust pipes from his Chevelle of course. Pictures to come, I'm sure.

Lesson Learned

So, as a sufferer of projectitis, I generally plow into a project, full steam ahead, without the proper planning. Or even without the proper knowledge necessary to successfully accomplish the project. This generally results untold hours of frustration, of re-working and oftentimes abandonment of projects altogether.
I mention this because today I decided to look through a book I have here on my bookshelf. The book is titled Embellished Bras: Basic Techniques. I've had it for quite some time ... a friend gave it to me when I mentioned I wanted to make my own covered bra for bellydancing. Well, the covered bra is now done, and done poorly. It's definitely wearable, and a casual viewer wouldn't notice that it is poorly constructed, and will probably last through only a couple performances. But anyone who looks at it from less than 5 feet away will know that it's just mangled. And I think back to how many times I had to re-do every part of the process. How many pieces of fabric I wasted because it wasn't working. Ugh. I feel like such an idiot, because now I flip through this book and it explains how to do EVERYTHING. It's perfectly illustrated, and explains every step of the process in a way that any novice sewer would find totally clear. But did I read this book before jumping in to my bra project? Oh heck no! That would require forethought!
Sigh.
I guess it just means I need to make another one!

while the cat's away ...

Nitro's out of town, so I have the house to myself this week. It's also raining (!) so I am somewhat stuck indoors. I had visions of all sorts of spare time in the evenings where I'd be a whirlwind of creativity and then be a cleaning dervish as well! No such luck on either count.
The "real" workload has been really intense, leaving me pretty well burnt out by the end of the day, and no time for the rejuvenating workouts that usually kick my creative drive into gear.
The original plan was to spend some time on my painting. I got a book from the library called Microcosmos that I'd hoped to paint an interpretation of one of the pages onto my big 5' canvas (used to be the 'mares' painting but the mares are long gone and now have been through several phases of birds and then a swamp, and now just swirly doodles). But I haven't gotten into it. I just can't.
But then yesterday I had to start pawing through my fabric in order to finish up a project that I've been working on for belly dancing -- I had only a small scrap of my harem pant fabric left to make a vest out of, but not quite enough, so I was looking for another coordinating fabric that would complete the vest. Sure enough I found, a dusty rose colored silk that I'd been hanging onto for a long, long time, that came from great grandma's, I believe. But I also found lots of goofy little scraps. Some no bigger than my hand, some only a few inches wide but several yards long. Totally worthless for making anything out of, so why am I saving? That's when I decided I'll try my hand at a quilt.


This is something I've always wanted to do, but I lack the dedication. The stick-to-it-ness. Also, I know for a fact that as soon as this project gets put away (which it will need to do, since it's set up on the dining table and eventually I'll have to eat), I'll forget about it and it will never be finished. But, I really do want to try to make something beautiful with all these pretty little scraps. And so, inspired by the book Quilter's Playtime I've decided to just start sewing. Nothing quite as "planned" or organized and definitely not well-done, because I have no idea how to do this, but at least I'm getting started, and trying to figure out how to make these things come together.

At first I thought I'd create one big radiating "sun" of fabric strips, but then after playing around I decided that I'd need several big suns, and then come up with pieces that fit into the gaps. So, I've got one sun started, and another coming along.
Looking through that book, though, has me really wishing I understood how to make some of the gorgeous patterns, how to sew the pieces together so they lay flat and smooth. I really want to get together with my amazing friend Luna Sea who is not only an incredible artist, but has made some of the most beautiful, creative quilts I've ever seen. I'd really like to spend a day working with her to learn from her. Plus, she's just nice to be around. :)

As promised ... pictures

The covered bra is coming along ... after some talking with a friend, I realized that as usual, I'm agonizing over details that won't really matter. This is my normal M.O. to agonize over tiny details at the beginning of a project so that everything is "perfect" only to get sick of the project and then just whip it together sloppily at the end. So many things are ruined that way, as I lose patience. So this time, I'm trying really hard to have an eye for the details that matter, and work carefully without giving up at the end.

And, here's another project that Nitro's been working on the past couple weekends: he made a headache rack for my truck! Now, he NEVER has a problem with losing patience. He's probably the opposite of me in this respect. He can maintain a level of perfection throughout an entire project, and always works slowly and carefully until a thing is done, and it's always done well. I wish I could take some of that for myself. Ah well, I'll just take advantage of it by using the finished projects.

Dress forms and bras.

The other day I saw an ad on Craigslist for a dress form for $70 which sounded like a steal. The last one I saw was $80, and someone had told me that I should have bought it, no questions asked. But I hesitated and it was gone. So this time I didn't hesitate ... only it was gone by the time I called as well. Which is probably for the best since I really don't have $70 right now.
In the meantime I've been trying to make my own beaded bra for bellydancing, and it's been a huge challenge without having any sort of form to use while covering a store-bought bra. At first, I tried just stretching it over a chair back, but the cups wouldn't hold their shape. So I put some melons in the cups and my husband proceeded to tell me that I should "dream on." I gave up, basically.
But then I got motivated again and really made some progress and figured I could borrow a dress form from a friend. That's when I found out that she sold hers for $35 at a garage sale the previous weekend! That is JUST my luck. So typical. She said, "Well, I know you're broke and not looking to buy anything right now so I didn't even think of asking you if you wanted it." Whatever. She did have another one I could borrow, and it's now in my living room, wearing a bra.
And I'm still frustrated.
Getting the fabric to lay flat, to line up the stripes, to just pin the stuff on there is driving me nuts. I am starting to think that maybe I have ZERO hand-eye coordination, since I am finding this process excruciating.
On the other hand, I'm finding that the results are very nice, I'm happy with what has been accomplished thus far. There have been some mistakes that I think are covered up nicely, at least nicely enough that a casual viewer probably won't notice. And there have been some successes that mean NEXT TIME will go better.
Pics to come soon, I am sure.

More racks

Because the rack for all my headpieces went so well, and was so easy to make, I decided to make another ... for necklaces. I'm so sick of having a tangled mess of jewelry in a box, and had been thinking of ways to make it easier, but without taking up space on my dresser (which tends to get covered in stuff way too quickly anyway). So, hooray! Yesterday I whipped up this little rack, and I'm quite sillily pleased with it.