I'm so great at starting things...

I'm not so good at finishing projects. Starting a project is always so exciting: picturing the finished product in your head, gathering the required supplies, the first cut/stitch, seeing it grow before your eyes. Then I get halfway through and "oooh pretty things on Pinterest" or "oooh new nail polish" or "oooh Mad Men is back" (hey, I didn't name the blog "Look! A Distraction" for no reason) then before I know it, I've started something else.

Most of my cross stitch projects remain unframed or unfinished.
My amigurumi Kirby still doesn't have a face.
I've painted a whole bunch more beads that I haven't turned into jewellery yet.

Recently, I started two more projects:

This blanket I started while we were in Melbourne for Easter. I find keeping my hands busy helps my anxiety, so I packed some wool and a hook. I didn't end up getting it out on the flight, but it was so cold in Melbourne that I thought having this on my lap would help keep me warm.

It's currently about scarf width. I love how obnoxious the multi-coloured wool is - it's really overcast here today so olive green didn't really come out in the picture.

This bookshelf-style nail polish display shelf was born out of reluctance to spend too much money on something that wasn't exactly suited to my needs. There isn't a great deal of affordable storage available that will precisely fit nail polish bottles while still displaying them. 

I finished the building stage 3 weeks ago, and loaded it up with polishes to take a photo straight away. I still haven't painted it as I had planned to. From a distance it doesn't look so bad, but I'm no carpenter - there are some minor gaps and imperfections that will be hidden with a coat of paint.

I also need to make another one ... or maybe two.

Then there's my eternally time consuming Community cross stitch, which is still only a little over halfway done. Now that the weather is cooling down I'll be far less reluctant to have it across my lap constantly, so hopefully I can pick up the pace and get it finished before the show gets inevitably cancelled.

Here's to never finishing things!

Decorating with triangles

Last weekend, I had the stressful pleasure of throwing my own engagement party. My amazing partner of 5 year asked me to marry him on New Years Eve while we were holidaying in Port Douglas, so a celebration back home with our friends and family was absolutely necessary.

Given we had just spent all our money on a holiday we thought a party at home was the best option. Many hours were spent planning, preparing, cooking, cleaning, and for me - making decorations! Given my love of all things 3-sided, I decided to make some paper triangle garlands. 

I picked up some super discounted scrapbooking paper at Spotlight, and set about cutting them into dozens of strips of varying width, then folding and cutting hundreds of triangles with a trusty box cutter.












Then came my chance to test my sewing skills - feeding each triangle in one by one, trying to line them up as best I could - which was often challenging with the myriad different sizes and patterns. I don't think my beginners sewing skills really showed that badly in the end as I got plenty of compliments from my friends and family.

Finally, the morning of the party I realised we needed some kind of gift and card area. I had a mini chest-style woven box in my bedroom, so I quickly cut up and lettered some decorative paper and strung it along some leftover lace ribbon to attach to the box. We cleared off a spare desk and found ourselves with a little gift table.

The party itself was fantastic, despite incessant rain all day which prevented some guests making it. The generosity of our friends and family was incredible. For now, I get to plan a wedding where I can celebrate all over again with all of them!

Community "Digital Estate Planning" WIP (Cont.)

(10 Apr 2013) Here's a quick shot of where I'm at - Troy is done, almost time to start on my absolute favourite - Britta! 

(19 Feb 2013) I've made some decent progress on this over the few months considering how much time I've spent away or otherwise occupied. I'm currently sitting at 48% completion! I aim to be halfway by the end of the week, which is a pretty achievable goal.

So we have one-and-a-half new characters since I last posted an update which is super exciting! 

Back to windows today, which is less exciting, but repetitive in a relaxing way. But first - it's getting a good iron today to get it back into a reasonable shape as the hoop is really taking its toll. 

Painted bead necklaces

Well it's been a while hey? It's been a busy few months of holidaying, adjusting to getting back to work, dealing with some illness and, of course, crafting.

I had a few ideas running around in my head about painted bead necklaces while I was on holidays (one inspired by this fantastic nail polish), so I ordered myself a batch and started experimenting.

I painted all my test beads with some cheap acrylic paint and covered with a spray on clear gloss. 

The blue and grey on the left was totally painted by hand, though I had the good sense to use masking tape on the half painted beads on the right. There are a lot of beaded necklaces around at the moment but most seem to just be strung on a chain or string so I decided to be a little different and make them into drop pendants. Of course eye and head pins are hard to come by at the length I needed so I had to make my own. I had a coil of jewellers wire but my poor little snips just didn't want to cut it! I improvised by making the eye pins out of some gardening wire stripped of the rubber coating.

The glitter was my own creation - a mixture of some superfine glitters - mostly blue with some green, silver, grey, gold and purple. I wanted it to have a bit of a celestial look and I'm really happy with the colour. So I now have two new pendants that I quite like but I'm still undecided on what I should hang them from. Any ideas?

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!