New clay stuff!

 Aren't these ring dishes just beautiful? I LOVE my fall colored one above! The colors just ended up blending just enough, and it made me so happy with the end result! I found this tutorial for these leaf dishes on pinterest and I said "I HAVE to make some of those!" I rolled the clay a lot thinner than the tutorial did, but I use Premo and it has a lot of flexibility so I think they'll be fine. The green one is for a close friend of mine. I mixed glitter in with the glaze, and then did a clear coat of glaze on top of that so that none of the glitter would come off whenever you touched it.

 

 

I also made a couple of dragons! The blue one wasn't glazed yet when I took that picture, he is all shiny now.  I'm not too proud of their faces, I am still working on that. The neck on the blue one is definitely a bit thick! I am a lot happier with their wings now... I used to make such ridiculous wings! Now that I've got the wings down (at least I am happy with them... for now) I need to work on their faces and front legs. The red one below isn't even baked yet! That's why he looks pretty shiny. It's a different shiny than what glaze gives them. I've taken a liking to making the dragons out of clay that's been mixed with different colors, but not mixed into one color. They look a lot more interesting this way, I think.

He is missing a black spike right on the tip of his nose!
A picture decided to fall right on top of him...

Both of these dragons will be for sale soon on my Etsy or possibly my Facebook page. I'll have to look up this new facebook shop thing! Does it cost money to set up? That's my biggest concern.

I'm staying at my dad's for another month at least, so I'll be making quite a few more things! I'm headed to Joannes tomorrow to grab some fabric for a few projects... At least 3 different projects actually!

So I shall be posting a bit more regularly for a while. I'm usually at a place where I can't do any kind of craft or if I do I'm being bothered by destructive dogs so it takes forever. I'm so happy to be back here and getting some stuff done!

Bubble Art, tips and tricks!

I spent the weekend with my sister and she mentioned seeing something about bubble art recently. I never thought I'd ever make bubble art, mainly because I never had food dye and never need it, so why should I buy some for one project?

We went to the dollar store and got 2 packages of 3 containers of bubbles and a thing of different sized bubble wands. $3 for the whole project, since she had the dye and paper already! Also, it was the day after Easter, so I'm sure that there were at least egg dyes at the dollar store if not regular food dye.

So here's the results! These are only my 2, but they are the same color scheme as my sisters:

Aren't they pretty? I cut a heart out of the cardboard on the back of the extra wands, then cutout the cutout (if that makes sense, it's the hearts outline).

NOW. We had an issue while doing this: The bubbles hate the color white and will do anything not to land on it!!! So basically, we would blow some bubbles and then try to catch them on the wand, and then basically place them on the paper. If you press down gently and then keep still, then lift up a bit and keep still, you can make rings of color. You can see on the bottom of the green and blue one a blue bubble with another blue bubble inside of it. So when you place the bubble on the paper, press down so that it spreads wider, then lift up so that the bubble tries to come off the paper with the wand and it gets skinnier. That's how we made the multiple rings.

Right next to that double bubble on the green and blue picture, there's a bubble with some purple in it. I can also explain how to do that! We each had a wand, and I would dip mine in the blue and then NOT blow a bubble. My sister would dip her wand in the purple and blow bubbles and I would catch them with my wand. Basically there's extra dye and liquid from my wand and it all goes to the bottom of the bubble. I place it on the paper and extra dye lands first with a little bit of purple from my sisters wand, and more blue from mine since I didn't blow any bubbles.

Anyways, pretty cool huh? I thought I'd just share some of the tricks we learned while making our pretty pieces of art.

Powerpuffs save the day!

So I've taken a short break from my quilt to work on a simple dress. A powerpuff girl dress. Yes. I will be dressing as Buttercup. For Radcon. I really wish I had a black corset, because I just feel so unbelievably fat in this dress. Losing 7 pounds this month has not had any visual effect whatsoever. I can only hope in the next 2-3 weeks I will lose more! Haha. I am doing it for a friend though! We started watching Powerpuff Girls on Netflix and they're just really simple. Instead of doing a simple black band around the middle, we sewed the sash to the front and left the back long so that we can tie them into bows. The front of the dress is "modest", trust me it really bothers us to have such a high neckline! I seriously can't stand shirts touching me above the collar bone.

My friend is Blossom and made this amazing and giant hair bow. She just made it out of leftover dress fabric so it's pink instead of red, but it is still simply amazing. I love it and I want one. She said it turned out a lot better than she thought it would.

I'm going to add darts in the front and back of my dress because the sleeves are basically hanging on my shoulders and I'd like them to be closer together. There's definitely room in my dress to be smaller! Although it's not a stretch fabric at all so I shouldn't make it too huggy.

Speaking of losing weight, I believe I'm being more and more better (don't even try to correct that sentence) about food. At the moment I am making beef soup bone broth, using a slow cooker for the first time, and I am also cooking beans. Not canned beans, dried beans! They're really annoying with all the overnight soaking and now cooking for hours, but this is what a good woman does, right? Pre-plan meals? I also made rice, and plan on cooking up some ground beef and also making guacamole, so we can have burritos/tacos probably for lunch/dinner. We don't really eat at regular times, and I try to eat smaller portions while my boyfriend will eat until everything is gone. When I make enchilada's, I make 6 so there's 2 for each of us here. When he decides to eat 2 enchiladas I bitch constantly because he knows he shouldn't eat so much (I stuff them unbelievably full, it's like enchiladas you get at a mexican restaurant) but it's there and he WANTS it even though he already had one! He keeps saying that he's lost weight, and I don't really believe him because he keeps talking about when he's skinny and looks good he wants me to make him all of his clothes but he never bothers working out, he tries to get me to hand him things that are just out of arm's reach from him, but nooo he's losing a pound once in a while so why should he try harder? I'm pretty sure he is losing weight because of my trying harder to make us better food.

Sorry for the rant, but it's starting to get on my nerves! This is something that NEEDS to change and soon, because when I don't think and hand him something that required me to move more than he would have if he got it, that's just ridiculous and sad and pathetic. Sometimes when I say no I won't give him something he will explode saying how his hip will hurt like the old man he is in his early 20s, and that I can't expect him to do it and from now on I'm not going to listen to that bull.

Stop ranting. Stop it. I really needed it, though! I feel loads better. I'm just done being a maid!

Quilting!

So I mentioned my "big project" on Facebook and forgot to give any details. I asked a few friends if they were interested in starting quilts this year. One is more experienced and has been helping us start ours, and it's proving to be much easier than I thought it would be... Probably because the ironing board is right next to us instead of downstairs, encouraging me to actually iron the fabric!

I choose to go with batiks for my quilt. We're doing a pattern called "Bento Box" that shows you how to make a block that can be arranged into many different patterns. Some don't look like anything to me, and other ones look really cool.

I also am going to start knitting a TON of these Trumpet Flowers for my sisters wedding! They're really pretty, and small. It shouldn't take to long to churn out a bunch, but I've got the time anyways, it seems. I'll need to grab up some needles that size, and matching yarn for the theme, but it shouldn't cost too much except time, which I've got plenty of!

So there's my 2 big projects this year. Yes, a lap sized quilt is a big project for me! I really want it to turn out beautiful. We are zipping through, honestly. I only got most of my fabric today, and I know that I'll end up need more anyways. Especially of the white. When I sew up a few blocks, I'll post a couple of pictures of the blocks so you can see my color scheme. It's mostly batiks, with a couple of tie-dies thrown in that sort of match the batiks.

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Homemade Xmas Gifts

Anyways, so here's some of the things I made for this past xmas. I didn't get a picture of the scarf I made, I liked how it turned out though... Oh well. I knit a lot, and made a few clay things... I wanted to make more clay stuff, but I just ran out of time. 

Here's a headband I made to match a hat that I didn't get a picture of. You can't really see the pattern, but it has rib knit along the edges and in the middle it's broken rib. I think if I make another one, I'll make sure the rib and broken rib don't line up. 

Dice bag! I love the stripes. The white yarn is fuzzy and the green yarn wasn't... But, whatever. We were supposed to fill it with all kinds of dice, but we never got the chance too. 

Back scrubber! This was like knitting a scarf with the smallest needles I've used. Ugh. Took forever. 

This is what took the longest out of the clay projects. I took the box apart in order to stain it all, and I also used sandpaper to make some worn areas. I was planning on adding more clay features, but the clay wouldn't stick to the wood. So, I painted it instead. After I made the dragon! It's the biggest dragon I've made. You can't really see but one eye is open and looking up. I think he turned out adorable! 

This was for my boyfriend's new friend at school. She mentioned how she really liked the unicorns that also had wings (alicorns), so he came home and asked me what they're called so he could tell her their name. Then asked me to make her one for xmas. The last pony I made was butt ugly, so I'm happy this one came out cute! 

Peacock! This is an ornament I made for a friend. I worked really hard to make it more color-accurate, but the beak ended up become much too long and I didn't want to try to make the wings. They'd be really complicated! 

A lizard! This was actually a request, and I had planned on making more desert themed animals but ran out of time. 

Rags. I actually haven't given these to their recipients yet but they know what they are getting anyways. 

Just a hand warmer. I stuffed some jewelry into it as well. 

These were fun! Corset shaped bags! I put hand soap, sewing kits, and jewelry in these. I wanted to put more, but again I ran out of time. 

Here are the sewing kits. Thread, thread cutter, pins, needles, a zipper in one and I think some velcro in the other. They're good to keep in cars for emergencies! 

No pics until AFTER xmas.

I planned on posting all of these pictures of the things I've been making recently, but then I decided against it because I DO post my blog posts on my blogs Facebook page and I don't want people seeing all these things, deciding they like it, then finding out it was for someone else. So I'll be posting them after xmas.

Meanwhile, I've been working my fingers off knitting. Scarves are always difficult for me, because they seem to take SO long to make. I've saved the hats for last, because they go so much more quickly and feel more satisfying. I knew I'd be burned out by now, and it's only the beginning of December! After all the knitting, I've got clay figures I need to make. One will be rather simple, and the rest I haven't even decided what exactly they'll look like.

So, sorry I haven't been posting, but all I have been doing is knitting, knitting, knitting for xmas. I'll make absolute sure to get pictures of everything before I give it away, because some of the things are nice enough that I wish I could keep them. I cut a lot of people out of my gift list this year (you know, the people I never see and who never give me anything anyways) and some people I won't see until summer, so I can concentrate on those gifts at my leisure. I really wanted to start making things earlier in the year, but I couldn't decide on what I wanted to make, because my gift list was a lot longer. I usually end up making everyone one small thing, and basically mass producing the same thing to give to a lot of people, and most of them time they aren't exactly happy with that. That's the big reason why I cut the list down. The other reason is the fact that I'm sick of giving people shit when they don't return the favor. If it's been a couple of years... You ain't getting anything anymore. Or is it you ain't getting nothing? Apparently "ain't" has been added to the dictionary, so what is the proper way to use it in a sentence? Honestly I think it's an improper word, so if it's an improper sentence, it should be proper. Two impropers make a proper, right?

So, here's a link list of some of the things I'm making, in case any of you guys need ideas:

Corset Shaped Hanging Bag

Graham Knit Hat

Very Plain Knit Hat

Starfish Knit Cloth

Knit Scrubber

Knit Troubador Scarf (I did a variation on this scarf)

Double Knit Soap Sack

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Star Shaped Dishcloth

Hey, an actual project to show you guys! These will be happening more often as December is just around the corner and I'm make the majority of my xmas gifts. Here is one I threw together today:

This dishcloth still took me a few hours to knit, with the smaller needle size. I think the next one I make I will use a size up. It's a good size, probably will be better when it's wet.

I made a mistake, I thought that the pattern was to make each wedge individually and sew them together, but it's supposed to be knit in one piece and sewed along one edge only. I ended up making one wedge, cutting the yarn, and THEN checking the comments on the ravelry page to see if that was correct. It wasn't. So, I made one half, then took the wedge I made earlier and continued from it and made the other half, then sewed it up nice and neat up the middle. It really isn't noticeable!

Anyways, here is the raverly page for this project. It's free! Otherwise I wouldn't have done it... Haha. Maybe once I get that elusive job!

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Bachelorette Party Details!

So I didn't bother taking any pictures at the party, because it was mostly girls I didn't know. What I wanted to show you was the party favors I got and why I got them, anyways! I did make a Pin the Junk on the Hunk game that we didn't end up using, and that idea came from Pinterest. I'm trying to convince some friends that we should use it at their Beer Olympics next weekend.

Game from Pinterest (this one isn't mine)

We ended up playing a game of Cards Against Humanity, which is just like Apples to Apples but the game is for 17+ of age! I've never played with so many people before, there were 7 of us and I was surprised when we started getting repeats of cards we've had before! I usually only play with 4 people.

Everyone got a pretty pink bag full of Party Favors, including the bride-to-be's fiance. He was sick, so he stayed home that night. Here's a pic of everything that went in the bags:

Mostly Dollar Store goodness

Ring Pops, of course, because it's the "Last Fling before the Ring"! Since I was throwing the party and I'm not yet 21, we didn't go to a bar. I got a few bags of those. I also got girly stuff, such as small lotions, and shampoos, tissues, hair clips, and pretty nail files. At the bottom of the picture are garters I made out of headbands! While we were poking around at the mall, the bachelorette and I looked at Spencer's bach party stuff and she saw a pack of garters and decided she liked the idea of everyone having garters for the party. I did buy lace, but it ended up not having nearly enough. It was measured in feet, not yards! So I headed to Hobby Lobby and got some headbands and simply laced ribbon through it. I made corsages, but I decided on attaching those to the garters.

The stack of green boxes in the picture? I go to Planned Parenthood every 3 months to get the Depo Shot, and every time I go they give me a bag with 3 or 4 boxes of Plan B. I don't really need it. You'll also notice the pile of condoms to the left and the smaller pile of lube to the right of the Plan B. There were several girls who really appreciated this gift, for which I am glad because I really wanted to get rid of it!

Anyways. I'm really happy that everyone took their bags with them, because the last time I spent time and money putting together bags full of favors, everybody ended up leaving them at my house.

I didn't get a picture of the garter that I did make with the lace I got, but it ended up really pretty even though I had to hand sew it. That was a 2 person job! I had to have my boyfriend hold the elastic stretched out to the length of the ribbon and lace while I was sewing. I'm sure it'd be a lot easier with my sewing machine!

Anyways. I got 3 different kinds of nail files, and 2 different kinds of hair clips. I thought the butterflies were really cute! I gave the extras to the bachelorette's little girl, as well as an extra ring pop. She also got a garter and wore it as a headband. Luckily a couple of the girls didn't show up!

3 different nail files, for variety

Butterflies and tiny octopus clips

Anyways. Hopefully I shared some ideas, especially the garters made out of those cheap headbands! They are 79 cents each at Hobby Lobby. The Plan B, condoms, and lube came from Planned Parenthood (and were free) and everything else came from the dollar store.

Oh, I didn't get a picture, but I after I put everything in the paper bags, I folded the tops once and used a butterfly hair clip to keep it closed. Some garters were made for specific people, so I cut out dress shapes from scrapbook paper and wrote their names on them. When I mentioned that at the party, I noticed all the girls with the name tags take the tags and put them in a safe place. It was kinda funny! 

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Holiday Stress

It's October. It's the time of year I get depressed. And why? I didn't even celebrate the holidays for the first half of my life.


I need to talk about this. I can't afford therapy, or the medication, which I sorely need. I cry half the night for no reason that I can think of. I can't sleep. I know of several people in my life who end up drinking a lot during the holidays. I don't, and I don't plan too when I turn 21 (Next month!) because I have an alcoholic mother and it's just sad what she goes through.  Those people I know drink because of family reasons. I don't spend the holidays with my family. I can no longer stand driving 3.5 hours with my younger brothers to get there. However, holidays and family don't mean anything to me, because we never really celebrated it together.

The only reason I can think of for this deep stress and depression, is because I force myself to make things for my friends for xmas, things that are usually useless but take a lot of work. No one understood what the mug rugs were for last year. People throw away the reusable coffee cup warmers. Liners. Whatever they were. I made corn bags one year. Those were useful. Before they were eaten by mice. Thankfully, I have a sewing machine this year, but still.

So, I'm thinking about just taking this xmas off. At least, limit my craft making for close friends whom I talk to every week, instead of once in a while. I'm sick of making a bunch of small things for a bunch of people. I'm thinking I'll try to make medium things for a few people, and then maybe step it up depending on how I feel.

So. I was just wondering, does anyone else get stressed about the crafting for xmas? I can imagine some do... With the quilts, and far more complicated things for a lot more people than I care for, plus having a job!

We had the bachelorette party today, so I'm planning on posting pictures of the party favors I got everyone and the ideas I had tomorrow. Just to share and give ideas to all of you. We had a real good laugh about some of the party favors!

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Acorn Fail and Other Fails

I've decided to stop trying to get the tannin out of the acorns. (Read that post here.) It was taking way too long! I'm also not using my own kitchen or kitchen tools and I don't want to inadvertently ruin them. The tannin is sort of staining the bowl and the pot I was using. I soaked them in hot water, scrubbed them, then put comet on the stains for a while, scrubbed them again and most of it came off. Which is, you know, good.

I've been trying really hard to throw an awesome party, but one thing that I was REALLY excited about suddenly might not happen. I bought some lace to make everyone garters. I thought the lace was measured in yards, but they are measured in feet. 4 feet is not 4 yards. I.... Am sad about that. However, there are these stretchy headbands at craft stores that are cheap (hopefully as cheap as I'm thinking they are) that will work just fine. Maybe it won't be as pretty, but I'm adding ribbon to them all anyways. I might even try to make garters out of just ribbon. IT WILL WORK. Somehow. I'm making some damn garters!

I also thought I'd be making headway into my xmas craft load. Well, I've started knitting one scarf so far. I have fabric and yarn for several more presents, so at least I've made some progress. I've realized that when I decide to start working on xmas in July, it means I'm going to spend a couple of months looking up online what I should mass produce for everyone. Except that this year I can't find anything that I can make for everyone. I'm going to spend a lot of time crafting...

In fact, the reason I haven't been posting very often recently is more because I've been spending a lot of time looking up what I SHOULD be crafting, instead of actually making stuff. Or looking up how to eat acorns and wasting my time with that. Speaking of which, I've decided I want to look for some good pine trees and try to collect pine nuts next. There's no leaching acid out of pine nuts, so why not? I want to gather food off the ground!!! It seems to be some survival instinct coming out. Not sure why, but there's no reason to not feed this desire of learning what natural things I can eat that I didn't have to grow myself...

Excuses.

Sorry for the long absence! I haven't been crafting, like at ALL for a while because my BF worked for a month straight with no days off and when his schedule went back to normal all I did was stay with him. All I've been doing in the craft department is look up projects for xmas, and! (More exciting): A bachelorette party that I'm throwing for my friend!

I'm pretty sure that all the bridesmaids are supposed to be helping plan, but I'm doing this mostly on my own. I don't mind, because I always go above and beyond for parties. At least, on the smallest possible budget that I can. Once I get a job, my parties will be infinitely better!

This party however, will not be at my house, so I'm not bothering with decor or music. I am going to do party favors, because that is a MUST in my book, especially for specific parties (i.e. bachelorette party, graduation party, ect. not birthday parties though).

The bachelorette wants everyone to have garters! So I'm making those. Hopefully I'll get some in progress pics for you guys. I'm also making corsages, because I have a lot of silk flowers to use up. I also have a TON of feathers, so those will go into anything I can get them into.

I'm also going to draw up a "Pin the Junk on the Hunk" poster and "Junk" for a fun game! 

My BF is throwing the bachelor's party hopefully the same night as our bach party but all the girls are going to come home will all kinds of pretty things to show off and the guys will be jealous! That's my favorite part of all this crafty work!

Anyways, just an update. I've got to get to work! I'll work on getting you pictures. Sorry again for the long absence!

How crafting made me.

I've decided to write a condensed version of why and how I started crafting, because I've been thinking about my life lately and honestly, I'd like to move on. Typing things out often make me feel better more than talking things out, plus I think my friends are a bit bored with my complaints anyways. I wish I had some pictures to show for this post, maybe of things I've made in the past, but I live with my dad and my mom was the one who documented things with cameras.

Recently, I got the chance to visit my mom. This is a rare occurrence, and we ended up talking a lot about why I didn't end up living with her after the divorce like we planned. I told her how moving from one school to another, even though the school districts were literally right next to each other, fucked up my education. My first district taught division in 4th grade, the second one taught it in 3rd grade. I learned how to divide in 6th grade. She told me how, at the time, she didn't have a place to stay, and wasn't financially stable. My dad had a job opportunity in Oregon, and took it, and took me with him. I didn't do any school work that year, and yet was moved on to the next grade because it was "understandable" that I didn't do anything.

I managed to graduate high school on time, regardless of the fact that I spent most of my time between 4th and 10th grade not doing any school work. My relationship with my dad bordered on friendship, instead of father and daughter. My stepmom seemed to stop trying to care for me when I stayed holed up in my room for years.

I was always encouraged to draw. My entire family would draw. So, I drew. I still do, but I don't like my particular style of art, and I can't draw realistically. So I don't do that as much. When I lived with my older sister for a while, I got a bracelet made of shoe laces and pop tabs. I started making those out of boredom and even sold them at school. During one spring break, I was taught how to knit by my stepmoms mother. I knit one short scarf and then stopped because I didn't have any more yarn. After a while, I somehow found craft websites, such as craftster.org and cutoutandkeep.net. These inspired me to start reconstructing my clothes. I made a few cute things, but ended up ruining others. Then, I started to get bolder and go to Joannes for fabric. I mostly ruined that too.

Then, I found a website that sold chainmaille rings for cheap. I decided I wanted to try that. I got my dad to order some, and I made some bracelets and a choker. Then I started realizing that I wanted to learn how to make all kinds of things. I threw myself into crafting because I didn't have any friends in my neighborhood to ride bikes with, as I had in the past. I was a loner, because I had a hard time thinking of words to say to people.

I started knitting again. I learned and learned and learned. I didn't have people to help me, I just had the internet. Then I started connecting to people because I would be making something, and they would ask me about it. Or, I would be wearing something I made, and they would compliment me, and all I had to say was "I made it" and it would start a whole conversation.

I don't always make the coolest things, or things that look interesting, or even functioning things, but people loved it all because it was something they couldn't do. They would be amazed at my talents. I had something in me that was worth working on and improving! So, I brought that into the rest of my life and improved that too.

So. that is how I started crafting. I was depressed and alone, and needed something to do. It brought me out of my depression enough to connect to people when they spoke to me. I still have a hard time with thinking positively a lot, but it's better than it was before. I'm really trying to let myself be happy. I can lose myself in crafting and come out with some kind of productive work to show for it. That's better than wallowing about, letting myself get down.

Does anybody have an inspirational story about crafting to share? I'd like to hear it! Hopefully there are some out there that isn't as sad and annoying as mine is.

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Housework + Craft Time?

Ever since I indicated to my dad that I would like to help him out on his home improvement projects, it seems every weekend he has something to do now. Something that entails me staying outside all day, getting sunburned, then coming in and crashing and not being able to work on my crafts. Which is sad. However, I won't go back on my word... It makes things go by faster, and it's easier for him to have a gopher while he is up on a ladder instead of having to climb all the way back down and grabbing something. I don't mind helping him, I mind that I don't get my own stuff done at the same time.

That said, I'm still working on stuff. I really wish I could take my sewing machine and all my clay things to my BF's mothers, but there is no where to work there. Plus the dogs would eat everything. Including my sewing machine if they were desperate enough for attention. Which they're not going to get if they misbehave.

I promised a tutorial on clay snakes this weekend, then my camera broke, but we sent it to the repair center today, I should have it back in a year. Or maybe a month. Or maybe 2 weeks at the soonest. You know how those things go. They told me to send it in without the battery or any accessories, but to send the new memory card that I was sort of planning to return instead. If that thing doesn't come back I'll be pissed. It was only $10, but it was a nicer one than the other one I have. (8gb over 2 gb... What would you choose?)

When the camera gets back, I should have a whole new stock of things to show you, as well as to put up on Etsy, because I'm sure my skills with clay are just as good as plenty of other people who sell their clay stuff. I also plan on making clay pendents... I like the idea, I haven't tried it yet because my jewelry stuff is at the BF's mothers to make repairs on her jewelry. She has a lot. I'm jealous.

On another note, someone made me a banner for my Etsy shop! It's better than mine, I haven't put it up yet because I'm not sure if they are done yet, but they took pictures that I had of my jewelry and used those! It's awesome. So, that'll be up soon.

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Finally! Clay critters!

I've been working on making these adorable clay dragons and cthulhus, along with some other animals because of this chick on DeviantArt. Her dragons. Are freaking cute. So, I was inspired!

At first, I modeled them after her dragons without any kind of idea of what I was doing:

Then I watched her video tutorial. Basically, she uses tin foil armatures in her figures. That opened a whole world of possibilities. I improved immediately. 

I want to sell these eventually, so I knew I needed to branch off on my own style. I also NEEDED to make a  cthulhu. Since I couldn't find any good clay cthulhus, I ended making my own without any kind of inspiration picture, and I think I figured out how I'm going to make my figures. Their body will be one ball, then their head will be another ball. Observe: 

Sadly, that sleepy cthulhu was the only one I have a picture of, as my brand new expensive camera has decided it doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that there is, in fact, a memory card in it. I have 2 different memory cards, they both are supposed to work with the camera, but it doesn't pay any attention to them... It's very sad. We'll mess around with it some more, but I reset it to it's factory settings and it's still doing it, so I think it's just screwed and we have to send it back. This is greatly upsetting, as I was waiting for the camera to finally set up my Etsy shop and now that it is set up, this camera has stopped working... 

I've made two more dragons and one more cthulhu with the 2 ball body and they're all getting better all the time. 

I've also made an awesome snake, which I will have a tutorial for hopefully next weekend. It turned out really cool looking, and I thought it would look like crap, so I'm really excited about this snake. 

I've also made some other, inconsequential things...: 

That dragon took HOURS and I'm not very happy with how he looks. It'll be nice to see these pictures in the future, when I will hopefully be better at manipulating clay. 

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Etsy Shop is Up and Running!

That's right! I set up my Etsy Shop today. I named it DIYDaily, as I couldn't have periods or spaces in the name of the shop, but that's just fine, I think you guys will recognize it well enough! I'm super excited for this to be happening, and it couldn't have even begun if my wonderful boyfriend didn't take the initiative and split the price of my brand new wonderful camera with me!

For those of you who want to know, it's a SONY Cybershot DSC-HX200V. It has all kinds of wonderful features, such as GPS tracking AND the ability to take pictures in 3D! Which you then cannot look at without a 3D TV, but still... It has the capability! That's all that matters when I'm boasting about the awesome camera I now have.

This weekend and probably next weekend I will be busy helping my dad out with some housework, so I haven't been able to work on crafts, but if I start getting sales right away I can use that money to buy more chainmaille. I also think that I will start knitting hats for sale. Not any kind of fancy hat, but just really nice quality ones, with nice yarn.

Here are some examples of the housework we are doing:

Windows to my room.

Other window to my room. 

We are adding trim around the windows and the sliding glass door. We are actually cutting away the siding around the windows so that the trim will be sunk down into the wall of the house instead of on top of the siding. Don't worry, we aren't finished with these windows... We will be adding caulking in all the nooks and crannies. After we finish the trim, we will finally be PAINTING the WHOLE HOUSE EXTERIOR! You can't really tell in pictures, but when you look at the house, you can see the caulk over every single nail in the siding and it looks TERRIBLE. You can literally see these spots all over the house!

Also, yes, I have 3 windows in my room. It's the only room in the house that has more than one window, even though the master bedroom is on the other side of the house and could just have easily had 3 windows. The people who made our house were lazy and took every short cut that they possibly could have and still leave the house standing. I wish I had pictures of how it looked when we first moved in, as the second owners of the then 2 year old house. The house is about 9-10 years old now. All the work we've done on it was mostly done on weekends! 

I wanted to show you the new stuff I've been doing, but the camera won't upload the pictures that are on its internal memory. I've been working on making clay things, mostly dragons, owls, and cthulhus, and I think I'm going to settle on making owls (birds at least) and little cthulhus to sell. They've turned out the best AND are of my OWN design. Plus both of those are rather popular! This past week I got more clay, better paint brushes, and some glaze that's made for use on polymer clay. I hope to work on these more next weekend, if I'm not busy both days helping my dad. In fact, once I publish this post I think I'm going to work on at least one critter in a few minutes! It'll be nice to get something of my own done, instead of just housework!

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Omg Dragons!!!

So, I've been looking at this girls Deviant Art rather jealously, because she makes these amazing clay figurines and I've never been good at making stuff with clay. Well, she sells the cute adorable animals that she makes, but they're gone so fast that I don't ever see them in her shop. Especially when I forget that she is listing that day!

Well, I've decided that I can try to do some clay stuff again. While they're not good, I have a feeling that as I practice more and more, better techniques will come to me. I also will probably have to cut my nails...

I don't have any glaze, but I still absolutely love the three dragons I made today. The first one I decided will be a mothers day gift, as that one is holding a flower. She also has a star shaped brad shoved into her forehead as well. I went ahead and did a little painting on them, as well. The picture, as always, isn't great, but I plan on getting a new camera sometime soon!

YAY dragons! So cute, right???

The other two are for my boyfriend and I. Their tails are supposed to hold dice. Like when you are playing a game where you use a d20 to show how much life you have or such. So the dice won't roll around too easily. I didn't have any dice on hand while I made them, so I can only hope they fit in a way that will hold them securely. 

Their eyes are all beads. The standing one has blue eyes, the laying blue has white eyes, and the green has green eyes. The standing blue is also holding a flower bead! 

I'm super proud of them, yet I also hope that I will get much better in the future. It was fun doing them, so I think I'll continue making things out of clay. Probably not for sale, but for gifts and things to keep for myself. Unless I get really good at it, I guess. 

I also made a pillow cover! Now, I cut out over 100 2 inch squares for a quilt. Then I realized that I needed more squares than I thought and I didn't think I would have enough. So I just started putting them together until I got a rectangle, and made a pillow cover. The seams aren't lined up, but I didn't iron the strips before sewing them together, and I think that may have made a huge difference. 

I have another pillow that I plan to cover as well, and I'm debating on making another just like this one since I have enough squares too, or if I should use this weird shirt that I hate the texture of on me, but is very interesting. Maybe I could use both, actually. Maybe that's what I'll do! Anyways, here's the cover: 

Fun Pillow Cover! 

I hated sewing the squares together. But I love how it looks, so I'll do it again. The pillow isn't very straight in the picture, is it? I just used an old cut up tank as the back. I made it like a pillow sham, so I can stuff the pillow in. Then, if I want to wash the cover or if I want to change covers, I can take it off. 

Anyways. I'm planning on making the next pillow cover tomorrow (maybe....) and I'm thinking about making myself a new purse. We'll see how it goes! I'm super glad I got to post something really crafty today! 

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New Camera Coming Up!

I apologize for not posting very often lately. I really wanted to keep up with this blog, but it's about crafting, and I haven't really had time for that lately. The temporary work I had kicked my ass, and I'm still feeling tired no matter how little or how long I sleep. So imagine the pain I must feel thinking about going BACK...

I've found a camera I want. Mother's day is coming up, so it's on sale for $350. It's usually $480. That's over $100 off. Also because of mother's day, anything over $50 has free 2 day shipping.

I need to get this camera, NOW!

So, I'm going to go back and see if I can get temporary work for a few days at Labor Ready. I'll be splitting the price for the camera with my boyfriend, as well, so I don't need to make all $350. If they actually send me out to do work, I'll definitely make the money. I just don't know if they will want to send me out. I've had experience HELPING my dad work on things like building a shed, and putting down wood flooring. I know how to swing a hammer, work a cordless drill, but we'll see. Hopefully, they'll think I'll be a fast learner.

So, the reason I'm getting the camera is so I can take pictures of things I want to sell on Etsy and/or Artfire. The other reason is because when I make things, I can't always get a good picture of them on my phone, and then I don't want to post those pictures, and then I don't write on my blog because I don't have pictures to show. That's all going to change, now!

If I get work at Labor Ready, I'm going to continue going there for work. Eventually, I'll get enough experience to get a real job. I'm also going to try to get an Ipod Touch so I can use my square, but my boyfriend is going to wait until he can get a free smartphone from his company instead. I don't want to deal with a smartphone, I also don't want to be using my square on something of his, because I've been in situations where someone saw something I had and wanted it like at the grocery store, and he's not always there when I will need it.

But I have the damn square already, I just need something I can use it with!

On another note, I'm almost done with my $5 in paris sweater. I've debated on long sleeves, short sleeves, then just posted it on facebook and everyone says short sleeves. Honestly, the sweater doesn't keep me warm when I put it on anyways, so I was about to decide on short sleeves anyways. Here's a nasty myspace mirror picture of it:

Nasty Myspace Mirror Picture

All I can say is, SQUEE! It's almost done! Plus, it fits! Perfectly! I have never knitted something this large before, or anything wearable at all, actually, so, I feel awesome about this. It actually didn't take that long at all, either, once I got over my knitting break and continued on with it. I could make tons of these! In fact, I just might! Or, I could move on to something a bit more challenging. Or I could stop knitting myself things and work on jewelry to sell.

I DID make a byzantine bracelet, against my better judgement... The rings are a little too big, so it doesn't look as fancy. Here's another really blurry crappy picture: 

Byzantine Weave in too big rings

I want to make myself a nice Byzantine chain necklace, because for some reason I feel like it'd be completely awesome and everyone will want one. I want to make it with much smaller rings, though. These are 5/32, I believe. I think I may order 1/8 rings next. At the same time, I think I should probably order rings with some color on them, instead of just plain ones. We'll see how expensive this gets...

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Socks, Work, and Life in General

Whenever I get the song "Shots" stuck in my head, I sing "Socks! Socks, socks, socks socks socks! EVERYBODY!"

Anyways, a friend of mine has an unusual problem. She has too many socks. I personally find that I never have enough socks. My boyfriend has even less socks than I do, but that's because I get cute ones at Hot Topic and Spencers and he prefers just plain old Hanes.

So, what to do? Well, I suddenly thought earlier today, "Why don't I just look up a list of things to do with socks?" So I did. I found a perfect one, so here it is; I'm not going to sit here and repost half of what is already on this one page.

Work was.... Boring. A nice guy named Ceaser drove me to and from work, as he was working there as well and probably lived somewhat near by. I finally found out where the damn place was: In a completely different town than where I live. It was a 20-30 minute drive there. So, I found myself waking up at 4:30 in the morning, to get to this place before 6:00. When we scanned in with these little cards, that was when they started paying us. When we scanned out, they stopped. So, everyone was either trying to leave on time or they were trying to stay as late as possible. There was one guy who would get there at 5 and leave at 7. 14 hour days! I couldn't possibly do that. 12 hours was more than enough, although I got a few more hours than that the few days I worked.

It was only a temporary job, and technically I'm still on call until Wednesday, but I consider myself to be done because they try NOT to call people in...

Basically, I watched some guys throw some equipment in some holes at each other, then some other guys welding. I had to sit around with a fire extinguisher for the remote possibility of a fire starting. Why was it remote? Fires rarely start around this place. Yes, it's a paper mill, yes, there's wood chips, sawdust, and wood lying around, but everything is kept wet. So that fires don't start.

If you're caught smoking anywhere near the premises, you're fired on the spot.

Now that that's done, I have a possible job opportunity working as a vet assistant! Only 3 days a week, but that's okay with me, it's not only a job, it's a job doing something I would like to do! Maybe... MAYBE with donating blood plasma (which can net me about $240 a month) and doing jobs at Labor Ready, (I have no idea how much that will get me) we can move out. We can GTFO. I want to live in my own place, taking care of it, decorating it, coming home and having to clean and cook and only maybe having time for crafting... At least I will be busy. (Just joking... of course I will have time for crafting!)

Anyways. I've had a couple of days to get rid of this constantly tired all day from the long hours, and I plan on crafting again soon. I only have my chainmaille here, but we brought a bookcase over from my dads and there's space in the room for my jewelry making stuff which will be good to have because my BFs mother has some things she'd like me to fix. Plus it's nice to change what I'm working on because I have that ability too. I could finish off my sweater, I'm almost halfway done with it! However it's starting to get hot and it's kind of stupid to make myself a sweater now... However I won't let myself knit anything else until it's done, and that means either finishing it now or not knitting until it gets cold again!

Now that I'm used to sleeping during the night, I'm super sleepy at 9:41 PM. This is not how I work! Oh well.

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Music makes everything better if it's loud enough.

I woke up and no one was here. So I hooked up some speakers and blasted music all day long! It does wonders for me to be able to listen to music that loud.

Instead of making things like I planned to, I ended up cleaning my room. Apparently that's what loud music does to me. It was windy today, and I opened my window. The opening to the attic is in my room, and I learned that the cover isn't very heavy, because I looked up in time to see it lift up as if a raccoon was trying to get out. It was just the wind, but omg I nearly shit myself!

I ended up finding some clothes I don't know what to do with and don't like, so I put those in the box for the yard sale this weekend. I also priced some stuff. The room is still a mess, but it's cleaner than before. In fact I went through some drawers and took all the clothes out and FOLDED them! I usually just cram stuff in because I'm lazy and honestly, my BF will dig through the drawers looking for a pair of socks that doesn't exist and ruin any hard work I've done. But, he doesn't live here at my dads, so I guess I can fold the clothes here. They fit a lot better now.

I also hemmed some pants, which I rarely ever bother doing, but my sister gave me some pants that were actually sized "petite" and they fit perfectly, so I can just put those on top of longer pants and mark where I need to hem at. I also now appreciate having pants that aren't ripped and horrible at the ends! I used to not care ever and actually liked them, but now I realize that wearing pants that are too long DO make you look shorter because of the way they bag at the bottom. I can't stand laying in the bed/chairs at the biomat (where I donate blood plasma) and my pants that are the right, short size ride up and show my mismatched socks. But they always do that when they don't drag on the ground. Annoying. Then again I guess I usually am not laying down when I'm wearing pants. Like public pants I mean... Jeans and stuff.

I ALSO! Fixed up a pair of jeans! They had holes in the thighs. When they started doing that, I stopped wearing them, but I finally took some scrap fabric and sewed it to the inside of the pants, then sewed all over the hole and around the hole with thread that matched the color of the jeans. Sort of. It matches the rest of the jeans, but the inner thighs are worn down to a very light blue/white color now, so it's definitely noticeable when I sit with my legs wide open like a guy. Or a slut. Or just like a regular person because honestly we all sit like that!

I broke a needle. It's the first time I've had to replace the needle in my machine, but it's not the first time I've broken a needle... I was pretty hard on them when I handsewed, too. Here's a pic of the broken needle and a new one, to compare the damage I did:

Sad needle is sad! 

I also FINALLY managed to make a freaking scale maille flower: 

It was unbelievable the problems I had trying to make a flower, any kind of flower, until I found this tutorial. I don't even like it... The rings are so huge, they stick up a lot in the front of the flower. Oh well... It's a flower. I will just deal with it, I guess -.- 

Anyways. That's what I did today... That was crafty, at least. It was a nice productive day! 

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Yard Sale Stickers

I'm not going to do the 52 weeks of happiness thing anymore. I just have too much of a problem remembering what was this week and what was last week. Even going back and reading my own posts here on blogger and on facebook. I don't really write down what I do doing the day. If I continue doing it it will be on paper, writing things down as they happen. So I can look through it to give myself a bit of happiness when I'm down, which is a lot, lately. I stopped taking my anti-depressants because they're expensive and recently I have finally started noticing all my negativity coming back. Which is not a plus, but oh well. It was to be expected. I will just have to live with it.

You know what makes me happy? The super clean feeling after a shower. You know what doesn't make me  happy? MY FIRE ALARM. It's beeping at me all day today. This usually means the battery is dead, which is ridiculous because they die 2 times a year but we never have had, you know, A FIRE. What really ticks me off is that it's 11:30 at night, it's beeping like it has been all day, but! There isn't even a battery in it. It's connected to all of the other ones in the house (There is one in every single room except our tiny bathrooms) so it still goes off when all the others do. They're really sensitive and they go off often when we are cooking.

I can hear all of them going off, so it wouldn't be a problem that mine doesn't have a battery because of that, however, the most ridiculous thing is that mine is in my doorway. There is one in the hall about 3 feet away. So, even if mine didn't go off, I can hear the one right outside my door.

I'm sure they do save lives, but when they go off 5 times a week you get really annoyed with these things!

I plan to spend tomorrow morning sewing up some T Shirt purses, and maybe some more wallet gloves to sell at the yardsale this weekend. I really want to make about $50 simply to have a goal, but I think that if I do good I can make more. The thing is, this is a yard sale, where people are expecting really low prices, however some of my jewelry are expensive. I have some necklaces that are $25-30, and I'm not willing to lower the prices for a yard sale because... Well, I made this stuff, and the materials were expensive. I need to make a profit.

I have a bunch of books to price tomorrow that will fit yard sale "standard pricing" as well as some clothes, though, and maybe some other stuff if I look around. I'll probably sell the purses for like $5, since they will all be made out of shirts that were given to me. It's a good idea to get rid of some stuff because I hope to move soon. I've been hoping to move soon for a long time though, however now that I have this job (that will certainly lead to other jobs) I hope to actually move soon. I really would like too. I want my cat allowed to live inside again. She wouldn't let me touch her earlier, and I'm worried that she's already getting to the point of hating me. She'll hate me when I bring her to a new place and never let her outside again, though, so I'm prepared for that. She's just going through "teenage years". She's 5 now!

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