Happy holidays!

Last year I had a totally handmade Xmas, and though I didn't commit as fully again this year I did try my hand at embroidery for the first time and made a pretty owl cushion for my sister. Luckily I picked up the stitches pretty quickly as I'd given myself a pretty tight schedule to get it finished. If you like the pattern, I bought it from this Etsy shop - there are heaps of other cute patterns there too.

I also got this awesome gift of sewing machine and a filled up sewing box. I'm so keen to start learning, but wont have time for a little while - I'm currently road tripping up the Queensland coast to spend New Years Eve in Port Douglas. I'm super excited to see the Great Barrier Reef for the first time!

Festival collage

I admit it - I probably spend thousands every year on music. Most of this goes towards gigs and festivals - one festival now costs in excess of $500 for the weekend - so it adds up pretty quickly. I've been hooked on live music for longer than I can remember - literally. My first concert was John Farnham when I was probably 3 years old and all I can remember about that night was that I was allowed to have a mint flavoured Drumstick icecream (still a favourite, 25 years later). I don't remember anything about the actual concert itself.

My first music festival was the 2000 Big Day Out, featuring my absolute-favourite-at-the-time band Blink 182. I've been collecting ticket stubs, wristbands and leftover drink tickets for over 12 years and have just had them sitting around in an envelope/small box/bigger box just waiting to be displayed in my ultimate dream  glass top coffee table, which I hope to be showing on this blog one day once I find the perfect table within my price range.

For now though, my festival tickets/wristbands/drink tickets are now framed and on display - yes, that 2000 Big Day Out ticket is in there! The rest of my tickets? Still in that box, waiting on a bigger frame/dream coffee table.

Triangle Necklaces

I love triangles! For my first attempt at some wooden jewellery I thought I'd play it safe and stick to the basics and triangles are about as basic as it gets when it comes to shapes. Circles are near impossible. Squares have to be too perfect. Triangles, however - take any three sided shape and it will still look awesome (according to me anyway).

I made two different styles, the first was a three triangle dual colour double sided piece. The two colours are reversed in layout on the back.

The next was a bigger solitary triangle and some more experimentation. The border of this is coated with flocking powder, so it has a textured suede like finish. It really added something extra, though in hindsight white was not the best colour to team with tiny clingy black fibres. Lesson learned!

Starting simple means you can really go crazy with colour/size/texture combinations, and I had so much fun making these that I will probably end up with one to match everything I own!

Fabric covered boxes

Yesterday was the start of summer storms - yay! Not only did the heat finally break a little, I had every excuse to stay indoors and be productive. I had intended to start with cleaning but... cleaning?? Blerg. Instead I went with cooking and creating.

I had already planned on making some delicious Corn & Black Bean Quesadillas for dinner, so I made up a massive batch of black beans. Well worth the time to buy dried beans and re-hydrate them yourself - the 500g tub I got is going to end up making around 2kg. I also made this super tasty Roast Zucchini Salsa which I recommend everyone make - so incredibly delicious.


Then I painted my nails in this incredible neon green - China Glaze 'I'm With the Lifeguard'. Not the best coverage - two coats and slightly patchy - but still a pretty amazing colour.




Lately I've been obsessing over people's organised homes on Pinterest. I look around at my bomb site and shudder... why can't everything have a place (and be put in it)? I have so much scrap fabric around the place, and empty tissue/shoe boxes seemed like a perfect fit for under my bathroom shelf - so I put the two together, added some ribbon, and voila!

The fabric is glued to the boxed with modge podge, and the ribbon was my first opportunity to use my glue gun - so much fun! While they aren't the most incredible looking things in the world, for their purpose I think they turned out great. Here they are in their new home:

There goes October

All quiet on the blog front lately huh? Seems I've been busy, though looking at what I've done  craft-wise in the last 6 weeks it really doesn't seem like much!

I think my problem is my growing nail polish addiction - wet nails are not really conducive to getting things done. This morning 6 new Essie polishes arrived at my door, I scored them for $7 a pop! Bargain!

I did complete one new project in October - revamp of an old unloved corkboard with a splash of paint and bonus features.

It is now our 'life organisation board', with a menu, mini whiteboard shopping list, calendar, and regular old corkboard space for bills and other reminders.

The headers were done with paint on foam stamps and the menu/calendar sheets are ink stamps (I think I developed a thing for stamping after making this bag), the calendar weeks are mounted on magnetic strips and can move at my will.

I'm planning on making up for my October laziness though - Lincraft were having 30% off storewide this weekend so I stocked up on some DMC floss and picked up some flocking powder and a glue gun. All of that only cost me $40! I just need to find a reason to try out that glue gun...

I haven't used flocking powder before, but I hear it's used for scrapbooking and creating a velvety texture on surfaces. My interest purely stems from this post on xojane - textured nails! If I hadn't just done a new design this morning I would be getting straight into it, but I'll just have to be patient.






Aaaand finally, an update on my Community cross stitch - Jeff Winger complete! Finishing another character has totally renewed my enthusiasm for this piece (not to mention a recent rewatch of Season 3) so I'm hoping to show you all Annie Edison soon. Until then, here's the current progress:

Crafty Sunday

Jewelry hanger + Stamped tote

I love Spring! Sunshine, colour everywhere, cool (not cold) mornings and beautiful warm days. After taking my dog for a walk to make the most of the morning sun I hopped on the net for some quick inspiration and came up with these two colourful and handy items. I was so motivated to get stuck into making I was at the shops for supplies before they had even opened. 

This jewelry hanger I've had in my head for a while but have been waiting for the right time to put together. I seem to have lengths of balsa wood in every corner of my house - every time I think I've used the last, another turns up. Today my absolute last piece was turned into a bright necklace/jewelry hanger. The shapes are hand cut Fimo clay shapes glued to some flat head nails.

The inspiration for the tote came via JustB - so many great DIY fabric prints! I purchased a bunch of plain totes online forever ago and had this last one stashed away among my piles of handbags. I love triangles and chevron patterns so tried for something based around that idea in primary colours. I'm pretty happy with the outcome and am already thinking of the possibilities for more stamped fabric printing.

Welcome, Pierce Hawthorne!

Community Digital Estate Planning cross stitch returns! Finally, a character! 

My progress up to today:

• 12909 stitches done
• 44691 remain
• 22.41% complete
• 1 character done!

Jake the Dog

Adventure time! Come on grab your friends!

Mid week public holiday crafternoon+bonus Thursday off meant I got stuck into another amigurumi - Jake the Dog from the awesome TV show Adventure Time. (Click that link. You won't regret it)

This is my first attempt at amigurumi with no set pattern, so he's pretty basic but I'm really happy with how he turned out.

Triforce mani

I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before now, I've be trying to think of an easy(ish) geometric style mani all week. Once the idea of a triforce mani came to me there was no stopping me. Who doesn't want their nails to scream 'Attention! I am a massive dork!'?
I had considered doing a nude base to speed things up but I'm glad I changed my mind - the blue looks amazing as the base colour.

Embellished cushion

A quick update with a cushion I've embellished for my Nanna`s 80th birthday. A sample of ripple with some leftover yarn, some flowers and some quick cover buttons. Hope she likes it!

Community WIP

See my new WIP post!

Update (1 Dec 12): It's been a while since I've updated (again), but I'm making some good progress. Two characters complete so far, 22,000 odd stitches done! 

Update (1 Oct 12): Terrible news everyone! The computer my pattern was on died last week, so I've been slowed down somewhat. Hoping it can be repaired next week as I (stupidly) don't have a backup. I have been able to make some progress working on the repetitive bits like the horrible, horrible carpet, which breaks my brain if I work on it for too long.

So, fingers crossed for me please that I get my pattern back soon. I swear to make a backup if I get it back!

Update (9 Aug 12): Moving the stitching down the left hand side of the study room window - taking the fast track to start on Pierce. Only just over 1100 stitches til I can start on my first character! Sounds like a lot, right? Well so far I've completed approximately 10500 stitches... that's now 18% complete!

For reference, what I have left to do!

Update (23 Jul 12): Finally on to the study room window, 14% complete! Moving a bit slower than I'd like - hoping to get to 20% by the end of the month.

Quick update on my Community 'Digital Estate Planning' stitch :D The wall of the Greendale study room is ever so slowly expanding, almost time to move on and start on the window. Doing the characters seems so far away at the moment!
Currently at just over 5% completion.

Granny square 1 Up blanket

Let's be honest - loads of these have been made before. They are all over the internet. Still, I wanted one of my own! This was an on/off project that I started a few months ago and finished last week.
288 squares in total, made from cheap acrylic yarn, approximately 75cms wide - perfect for keeping my feet warm on the couch!

Soko's winter coat

Boooo winter! The cold has been a bit much for my poor little puppy, so I made her a cute little coat.
The pattern was just made it up as I went along, increasing from half double around the neck to treble at the back, with some random detail thrown in. The thick blue stripe was done as a separate piece and wraps around the belly and buttons up at the side.

Isn't she adorable?

Community 'Digital Estate Planning' Cross Stitch

(see my current progress here)

As soon as I saw the first screen cap of the pixelated study group from Community online several weeks ago, my first thought was I have to stitch this!

A couple of days after the episode aired I picked through some hi res screen caps, and created my ultimate Community cross stitch. I cheated a little and manually added Pierce in - I really wanted the Greendale Seven all together in the study room.

In total, 57600 stitches. My last major project of under 40000 stitches took me 9 months - here's hoping this doesn't take as long! An up to date progress shot is coming soon, meanwhile here's a .gif of my progress as of about a week ago.

Mother's day

Taking inspiration from this amazing creation, I made my Mumma a jewellery display board for Mothers Day. She loved it, but will need approximately 20 more to house her full stash - at least it's a start!

I was so pleased with the result I'm tempted to make one for myself - just need to pick a colour!

Russell Crowe's band

This idea popped into my head one day after checking out Subversive Cross Stitch. I found a random cross stitch lettering generator online and got my text, and designed the 'shit' myself. (Not often you can claim you've 'designed' a shit, right?)

The quote is from the Frenzal Rhomb song 'Russell Crowe's Band'. I stitched it off and on for ages and ended up finishing in time for the birthday of a friend who is a big Frenzal Rhomb fan, so I've sent it off and am hoping she loves it!

Hyperbole and a Half

Seems I just keep finding completed projects, here is my stitched Alot.

From Hyperbole and a Half, "The Alot is an imaginary creature that I made up to help me deal with my compulsive need to correct other people's grammar.  It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug".

I love this Alot. I made the pattern myself but obviously the artwork is not mine. Follow the link above to Hyperbole and a Half for more awesome and strange drawings and stories.

Treat Jar

The Armor etch came out again tonight, this time to make a treat jar for my beautiful (and well behaved) dog Soko. After putting on the floor to get a good picture she waited patiently for her reward - chicken treats!

Getting organised

I hate cleaning. Problem is, I also hate a messy house. While I manage to keep the place tidy, I never really feel like it's clean.

I've been sick for a couple of days, and while I'm going crazy not being able to do anything for longer than 10 minutes without getting sleepy, I've managed to make myself a magnetic perpetual cleaning list. I'm hoping that once I'm feeling better this will motivate me to get my house sparkling again.

I made these with some scrap pieces of balsa wood I had sitting around from an abandoned clock project, some felt, thread and an old magnetic L plate I cut into strips to fit the wood.

Presenting: The Greendale Human Being

Last post for my power run of completed projects is the ever creepy, irrationally difficult to complete Greendale Human Being.

If you don't recognise this human being, then I suggest you go buy yourself a Community DVD and familiarise yourself quick smart. By far one of the funniest, smartest and craziest TV shows in recent memory.

This was meant to be an Xmas present for my boyfriend, but it took such a long time to complete he ended up getting it over a month later. I hunted high and low for an iron on 'G' or ready transfer (I don't have a printer to create my own), but gave up after 6 weeks of scouring stores and embroidered the 'G' by hand. Utter madness I tell you - took my inexperienced hands almost 2 hours :/

Now s/he might look a bit awkward and proportionately-challenged, but I think my totally hand sewn mascot turned out better than the ones on sale in the NBC.com store, and more like the actual Human Being. I will at least keep telling myself that...

Experiments with etching

After seeing a few posts on Craftster with some fantastic looking etched glass projects, I had to hunt down some Armor Etch. Turns out it's near impossible to find in stores here, but Ebay came to the rescue (of course!).

The result: custom booze glasses for my parents birthdays! It was really hard to get a good photo, but I was so pleased with the result. I really need to make myself some of these.

Pixel cushion

More completed projects, this one a little different. Inspiration was courtesy of 3Sheets - I swear this cushion was made to appeal to me. After my amigurumi binge I wanted to try something a little easier that I could just do in front of the TV, and having started this new crafty life cross stitching video game pixel images, a pixel cushion made so much sense.

The cushion is backed with some scrap black fabric, all hand sewn with a 35mm cushion insert. I love the result, but am still far more in awe of the gorgeous colours from my source of inspiration - click that link up there if you haven't already!

Pop culture stitching

A couple of random pop culture stitches - I loved the idea of stitching Robot Unicorn, and once someone made this awesome pattern, I had to make it!

I saw somewhere online someone had made up a Futurama inspired wall hanging, and thought it would be  a cool quick project. I'm definitely not the first person to stitch this, but I just kinda winged it on the text and didn't follow any pattern.

Amigurumi!

After my massive cross stitch binge, it was time to try my hand at something new and challenging. Amigurumi it was! Warning - if you've never crocheted before, starting with amigurumi is a crazy idea.

Thanks to some Youtube tutorials, Nerdigurumi, Wolfdreamer, and a lot of persistence I was able to miraculously assemble the characters below. I think Kirby turned out the best/neatest, but I have a soft spot for Chain Chomp - it was easily way above my capabilities when i started but I just kept on plugging away and finally made him at least recognisable.

Kirby still doesn't have a face :(

Smaller projects

So during the 9 months of creating my amazing SMB3 World map, I stitched this little framed piece for my Nana's birthday. I made the pattern, but didn't design the flower myself - I think it was from a bit of Googling.

These little bows were made... just because I wanted to see if I could do it! I don't have a sewing machine, so the bows are all hand stitched (not that much is required), made from recycled upholstery samples from Reverse Garbage. The non-headbanded bow is a brooch :)

These little mini magnets were stitched on plastic canvas as breaks from the SMB3 map - Tetris didn't really require a pattern, and I can't remember where I got the Angry Birds patterns from - they took me forever to find though!

Super Mario Bros 3 World 1 Map

Feeling like a complete hero after cross stitching a grand total of two projects, I was compelled to start something big. Of course, a 37000+ stitch project is the natural progression.

My proudest moment was completing this map. It was my figurative baby, taking around 9 months to complete. The pattern was found here - there are patterns for all eight worlds! I've been toying with the idea of starting another one, but have a couple of WIP's I really need to finish - and the knowledge that the repetition is super frustrating at times. After something like 50 cactus, I was groaning every time it was time to do another.

I really need to give this the respect it deserves and finish it off more than just a wash, iron and mount, but custom framing is a bit too pricey for me at the moment. Anyone got ideas of what to do other than framing?