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/

Work, ick!

Ah well, the creativity has slowed down considerably. I'm using it all up on work stuff. Ick!
But I am working hard creating stuff for my Relay for Life team -- Relay for Life is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, if you didn't already know that.
I did sketch a bit to come up with some new purse ideas. I really love the clutches I've made so far, but it's not a pattern of my own design, and I feel a bit awkward about selling them. As in, I feel as though it's stealing and I ought not to. So I sketched a bit, and then realized that a drawing wasn't helping too much; what I needed was something three-dimensional to really see how it would work out. So I got a bunch of paper out and created the shapes with paper and sort of taped them together and ... hell, yeah! I really like it! So, eventually, I'll get all my sewing stuff out again and start working on a new series of clutches that are all my design.
Oooh! And in other news, my husband brought home a 4-drawer filing cabinet last week. I'm ecstatic, because the clutter factor in this little house was getting out of hand. Inside my filing cabinet? You'll love this.
Top drawer: All the dog magazine back-up files.
2nd drawer: Knitting supplies -- needles, yarn, etc.
3rd drawer: Fabric scraps -- all in baggies to keep each project together (scraps from each bellydancing costume, for instance, are in their own bags, to easily find all coordinating fabrics) and embroidery stuff (thread, hoops)
4th drawer: Iron, projector, sewing box (with all thread, needles, sewing machine parts, etc)
The whole thing is just awesome. I wish I had a whole room full of filing cabinets like this. Imagine how organized I could be! Imagine how clean the house could be, if I didn't have paper bags, piles, boxes of projects all over the place!
For instance, right now I'm not making any more purses because I don't want to create a new disaster in my living room, because it makes *living* in that living room near impossible. BUT if I had a clear place for everything to put away, or to find it straight off, I wouldn't have to make such a huge mess, and would be more likely to create something in whatever time I have available. Actually, some people may say this is B.S. That I'll always create huge messes where ever I go. I'm *dreaming* if I think something like filing cabinets is going to make my house clutter-free. Those people may possibly be correct.

Arbor, part 2

Yesterday we really jammed through the arbor project. I'm exhausted today! But hooray, we have a really sweet addition to our home. I can't wait to plant wisteria to grow up the sides and make our little home feel like a fairytale cottage!
You can see here, the first pieces were cut out. We decided to not follow the complicated instructions from the book. Yikes, that's usually a recipe for disaster. But my husband insisted that the way the book instructed was way more complicated than necessary, and would take many days more than we had available (which was just 1). So I designed my own arches, and cut them out very carefully with the jigsaw while he worked on the framework and made the vital measurements.
We placed the frame near our back door, and leveled it out. Then big, long, metal stakes were attached to the legs, and pounded into the ground so that it wouldn't blow away. And finally, it was attached by boards to the side of the house. It may look funny at the moment, but it's going to be part of a whole fence, when we're finished.


But after cutting out 3 big arches for the top beams, then 2 small ones for the bottom frame, I got really sick of cutting out arches. So, instead of 7 for the crossbeams at the top, I ran out of steam at 6. I don't think it matters. The one disappointing part, however, was that those crossbeams are supposed to be notched so they set upon the beams below. But after trying to cut out 1 beam with notches, and being a remarkable failure at it (believe me, it's hard to get those little rectangles to be truly straight and even), we decided that they could just be nailed on top of the thing. It doesn't look bad, exactly, but it's not really how it should be.
I got really tired of the project after this point, so I went inside to do some sewing for a bellydance costume, and when I came outside, the latticework was attached to the sides, and we sat down for a moment to discuss a gate. I don't have photos of the gate, which is too bad, because it's really cute. It has an arch on top and on bottom, and a diagonal beam across the center, to keep it square. It has a black metal latch and swings inward. The whole thing is so pretty, I can't believe we made it in a day!




And while I'm uploading photos, check out this project from 2 weeks ago that Nitro built! (He should post his process here, I may bug him about that!) The little 4-wheeler was his as a child, so it's super tiny, but we needed something to toodle around the ranch, and also to clean out manure from the horse pen. He built this awesome little trailer out of an old wheelbarrow. It lifts from the handle in front (which is off an old frying pan!) to dump all the manure easily.

Arbor!

Today we are building this arbor, with a few modifications to keep costs down. It's from a book I got at the library. I'm nervous about this project, as it looks like we may have bitten off more than we can chew. But as we progress, I'll be sure to update on progress. I'm hoping to get most of it done today.