Haček

Halloween Altered Altoid Tin

2008-10-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

I received this Halloween theme altered altoid tin stuffed with goodies from Bizzles. I particularly like the ribbons and the skull beads. There's also some sticky foam things, confetti, erasers, and a whole bunch of stickers. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the one I made before I sent it out :( Oh wells.

Zeke's first ATC!

2008-10-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

Zeke made his first ATC yesterday. He made an ATC of Waybig, one of the Ben 10 aliens. Apparently he's quite large. Anyway, he'll be sending it out to someone else's child along with a small gift. Unfortunately for some reason the parent won't tell us the age and gender of the child or what they like, so I think we'll be sending some age/gender neutral art supplies.

Spider Garden

2008-10-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

I made this altered altoid tin for someone on swap-bot for the Black and Pink Handmade #2 swap. It was hard to part with actually. When I receive something in return I'll post it.

Enviable Envies

2008-10-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

So, above are some envelopes I made and sent to someone or other, and below are some infinitely cooler envelopes chloecrossland sent to me. THANK YOU CHLOE!!

Umm.. some dots? and an untitled tres bombtastic ATC

2008-09-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

So, above is the ATC I made for Marie in Puerto Rico in exchange for the ATC she made me (below). I actually posted this awhile ago, but am now reorganizing my blog and thus have removed it from its original location and am reposting it here.

ALIVED and Vintage

2008-09-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

The above ATC I made for Sarah in Australia, a penpal who sent a very nice ATC to me (entitled Vintage, below). It may be hard to see, but it does indeed say ALIVED on there; the A and D are pink and blend into the bird/card, so you can choose if it says alive, live, or lived. Whatever makes you feel nicest I guess, or the most horrible.

Hot Demon Bitch and Condom Nipple (Sexy, Sensual, Erotic ATC swap)

2008-09-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

The two above I made for the Sexy, Sensual or Erotic ATC swap on swap-bot.com. The condom nipple may not look like much, but it actually took quite a bit of effort. A condom, as it turns out, is not the easiest medium to work with. The background of Hot Demon Bitch is also a condom. The rims on the side of the ATC are the rim of the condom. The two ATCs below are what I received. The one on the left is from Andree and the one on the right is from Felicia Artistic. Many thanks.

Sophistiseks

2008-09-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

So, I've had these decos sitting around for quite some time now, just waiting for me to do them and pass them, or just pass them and I finally completed one of them, and I mean completed x2. I completed the page that I was supposed to complete, and it just so happens that was the last page of the deco, so I completed the deco and sent it on it's way home. Here is my page.

Ribbons and Raindrops

2008-07-25T14:56:00.003-07:00

Here is yet another ATC. This one I made for Rachel in Australia. The card is not as crooked as it looks; it was at an angle when I took the picture. As you see in this post and 2 posts down I am experimenting with these black and white ribbons. I think I will make at least one more ATC with them, because I would like to try making a ribbon person or ribbon people.

Peace Muse

2008-07-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

2 posts in 2 days. How about that? Anyway, I made another ATC. This one is for my penpal Botje in the Netherlands, just because. The girl is from a Mucha painting. If you're a girl and you haven't checked out (or rather, czeched out, because he's a Czech artist) Mucha, do so, because he's awesome. Sorry about the glare; the wings are metallic.

Rock and Roll ATC swap

2008-07-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's apparent that I almost never post on this thing. What have I made and not documented since my last post? Hmm... lots of cool buttons, some purses I crocheted, some scarves I think, or at least one scarf, some magnets... Anyway, I am posting tonight, which is all that matters. Above I have some ATCs I made for a Rock and Roll theme ATC swap on swap-bot.com. There are duplicates because I swapped with two people, so each person got one Elvis ATC and one punk rock ATC. Below are the ATCs I received from the swap. The top three are from Jenny/kjbrown and the bottom two are from Diane/craftaddict. Thanks for my first 5 ATCS!

Loopy

2007-11-21T16:26:00.001-08:00

Look! I made a pot holder on a loop and loom. Jealous? Having kids is great for all kinds of shit. Ukiah sort of helped with half of the pot holder making, but then he got bored of it. Unfortunately the stupid loops don't actually fit on the loom very well. It was somewhat difficult for me to do it, and this thing is meant for kids. Maybe the loopy baby on the card I made made the loops. Or maybe the baby is actually lippy, not loopy. Hopefully that child's parents don't ever visit my blog. Ok. I'll update soon with pictures of the "I am thankful for..." books my kids made today. They're cute. I just need to decide if the kids need to glue them to bigger paper and find out if I can laminate them or not, as not all the pages are flat.

Pike's Peak and Pirates

2007-10-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

So, for Zeke's parks project we went to Pike's Peak State Park in McGregor, IA, about 2 1/2 hours north of Cedar Rapids. The park has trails to follow, but unfortunately not to hike. The trails are wood, sort of like wood sidewalks with wood stairs. That's at least true of the trails on one side of the park; we didn't have enough time to do the trails on both sides. The trail on the side of the park we went to goes to a small waterfall called Bridal Veil Falls. That was pretty cool, but Zeke was too scared to get close to it because you have to go off the trail and you could fall to your death. On the other side of the park supposedly you go by limestone in which you can see fossils. The town of McGregor seemed fucking awesome and we hope to go spend a whole day there. There were lots of little shops including antique stores and ice cream shops and I don't know what else. We did stop for ice cream and at the ice cream shop also got some nice kids books for super cheap.

Also, Jack turned 2 four days ago. We had a party at Chuck E. Cheese's and it was pirate themed. There were no pirate or ship or even skeleton cake pans at Michael's so we made cupcakes in which we put little sword toothpicks and we made pirate flags with toothpicks and construction paper and white out. Hooray!

Oh my god! I'm posting on my blog!

2007-09-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Hmmm.... well, I made some scarves and a card, but I gave them away without getting to take pictures of them. Hopefully I'll be making some more cards soon and I can post pictures of those, and I'll definitely be making some cakes as all birthdays are coming up. Oh! And I might be making some buttons; I need to tour the Grant Wood Area Education Agency building first, which is where I would be making them. Right now Zeke is doing a project on parks in Iowa by visiting parks and journaling about them. Here's a pic of Big Creek State Park in Polk City, 2 1/2 hours west of Cedar Rapids. This is the fourth park we've been to for the project, but the first three were just little city parks. Zeke also recently made a book about pennies and Abraham Lincoln.

Of course there are more pages and the back cover looks like the tail side of the penny. Hooray for laminating things at the Grant Wood Area Education Agency building. They only charged $.86! That would've cost like $15 at Kinkos. Okay, well hopefully I'll be updating more again. If not about things I've made then about homeschooling.

Bubblegum and Cream

2006-10-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

It's not for eating. Those are just the colors of the baby blanket which I started 6 1/2 months ago and finally finished 2 days ago. Hooray! The pattern is out of a little book called Knit and Crochet Baby Layettes and I used 3 3/4 skeins of Lion brand Baby Soft yarn in bubblegum and some portion of a skein Caron brand Simply Soft yarn in off white. I made it for Journey Franks, the youngest child of my friends Matt and Lyndsay, and meant it as a baby blanket, although now that she has finally gotten it, she is about 8 months old. Oh well. She's still a baby, just not a little one. So! Here's the blanket.

Unfortunately, if you look, you can tell which end is the beginner end, this being the first thing ever that I started crocheting. On the bright side, that means I can see my progress. The problem with the end I started on is just that it is a little loose. It's not, like, falling apart, or horridly ugly or anything. The blanket still came out giftable.

Little Miss Suzy Homemaker

2006-08-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

(There was a picture here, but it has been removed so that I don't have to look at it anymore. I will replace it as soon as Amber stops being a lazy ho and sends me a pic of herself wearing the apron.)

About 3 weeks ago I finished sewing this fabulous apron as a birthday gift for my friend Amber. The pattern I used was number M4958, Easy stitch 'n save, by McCall's; it cost like $2. I got the fabric from Joann's. Anyway, it was really fun to make, aside from the annoying little steps that don't make any kind of big progress that come with any pattern, and even more so annoying the subset of steps within that group that were unanticipated. I really tried to anticipate as many little steps as possible before I started, but I'm just not that experienced. The corners of the pockets are rounded, so I had to baste and tug to make them gather in so they would lay nice upon being sewn. The very worst though, was that a very large portion of the straps had to be sewn by hand, which took like 2 hours. However, the ruffles were amazing to make, very satisfying. Gathering the skirt was awesome too. I guess I just liked adding the girly details. This is the first thing I've sewn that I didn't swear I would never make again once I had finished, although that's probably partially because I wasn't surprised about how many little steps there were like I was with the first couple I've things I sewn.

Sandra Lee's guide to masochism

2006-07-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

In case anyone is considering making the Grilled Jalapeño Poppers from Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee, consider the warning an understatement. I have no skin sensitivities, and so did not wear the rubber gloves suggested for those who do, and I washed my hands plenty well, but still spent the next nine hours with my hands in a bowl of ice water. It is difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position which also enables you to keep your hands in a bowl full of water.

First completed crochet project - first blog entry

2006-07-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

Although I have started two crochet projects which are still unfinished, yesterday I actually both started and finshed crocheting a baby hat for my friend Leta who's baby shower is this Friday. I happened upon the yarn, Bernat cotton tots in very berry, for only $1, so I figured I had better make the best of the good deal by completing my first crochet project and making a present for Leta, all for under $1, since I didn't use the whole skein. I started using a pattern from the internet, but it didn't work out since the person didn't tell what gauge, so here's what I made up instead. Gauge 3, hook size H. Ch 25, R1 DC in the fourth stitch from the hook and every stitch thereafter, ch3 turn, R2-R12 DC in every stitch, ch3 turn, SC the sides together - making the original chain the top of the hat and R12 the bottom - and continue by SCing the chain, which will be folded in half, together, turn hat inside out. That's it! You do end up with a rather large seam.