No crafting

Autumn garden, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

No crafting, not much of anything. I've got (well had now) a sick husband and a sick child and have a touch of the cold myself. Too much tv has been watched and too many computer games played by the young Miss.

Tomorrow, however, I shall wave them goodbye as they leave for creche and work and I shall do something creative. Like have a cup of tea maybe. Pet the cat. Blog. But no! I have plans! Especially trying to track down the pattern for my bunny* which I have, erm...misplaced somewhere. I shall be mightily annoyed with myself if it's gone because I'll have to try and copy the dimensions off Hazels and that will be a royal PITA to put it mildly. Especially knowing that the pattern is somewhere, neatly stored in a ziplock bag, placed somewhere clever by yours truly at some point when I "cleaned up". Just not somewhere clever enough to be immediately obvious now.

*

Heather Ross's Sole-ful Slippers

I'm having a bit of a love-hate relationship with these.



As I said I like the look, the way they're made, the overall appearance, but functionally I'm not so sure... Here they are on Hazel. Cute eh? But look at the way her toes are pushing against the tips.



And then look how much space there is at the back. The elastic is the only thing that holds them on and they're loose as it is, so while I expect if I loosened it her foot might be able to come back a bit, they'd never stay on.



I made these at the end of last winter but they were miles too big so it was quite a bonus when they fit this winter! From memory I had to fiddle the size quite a bit and also put in a curved instep and toe which seemed kind of necessary for fit. I remember trying to figure out my size at the time and giving up because they were so oddly shaped. I think you'd have to create your own personal template based on tracing around your foot. Perhaps they're worth playing around with a bit more because like I say - cute!

I have been enjoying my stats counter recently for all the neat places people come from plus as well as the lovely colours they use. I must admit to being addicted to site visits etc. for awhile but that pales eventually and the other stats become much more fascinating!

And of course since I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Mac user (and have been since the Apple IIe) I find this figure very interesting ;)

A new love

Mmmm. Fabric., originally uploaded by cicadastudio.

I just discovered Cicada Studios - ohhhh I'm in love! This is the 'Earthly Delights' range and the dandelions are blowing me away. The other collections are just as lovely. They're about to open a new shop called Cloud 9 Fabrics which will sell organic fabrics at reasonable prices. I'm just hoping this brings the designs into my price range! I could probably afford some fat quarters but that's about it at the moment...

How did I not know this?

Heather Bailey posted about using a feed aggregator last week and I felt superior because I've been using Google Reader for like, forever. And then she posts about the 'next' button and I am put in my place. Maybe everyone else is in on this but just in case there is some poor benighted soul out there like me who isn't - if you go to the 'settings' tab and choose 'goodies' you can add the 'next' button just by dragging it up to your toolbar. Then you can just click through your unread blogs one by one instead of viewing them in small on Reader. I think sometimes I'll want to pick and choose, especially now that I haven't checked it for a couple days and I have about 50 to go through; but sometimes the randomness of "what comes next?" will add much-needed excitement to my life.

At the moment I'm finishing up a pair of slippers for Hazel made from Heather Ross's Sole-ful Slippers pattern. I've got one finished and the suede sole to put on the other. I'm sort of at an awkward point because I actually don't think it's such a great pattern. Sure it looks good, very cute, great idea, I like the construction method, but...they don't fit well and are a kind of odd shape. I'll post some pictures tomorrow when they're done and the model is a bit more co-operative. I hate putting in the effort on this last one though, when I have a feeling they won't be worn much, and will be more annoying than anything. Oh well, not everything's a winner right?

Old movie night

I'm not really planning on making this old flim clip thing a habit or anything, but Nickel Pickel posted this over at her blog and I think I might be just slightly obsessed with it! It's filmed in Barcelona in 1908. I'm not sure what fascinates me most - the clothes? the bikes? the street urchins? the passers-by? Best watched in the high quality version I think (not sure if that will come through if you view it here). Watch out for the little 'flasher' just after the 5 minute mark :)

The good old days

Just to continue the whole cooking theme - Via Ancient Industries, this rather amusing cooking lesson.



I was able to explain to Hazel how until quite recently girls and women did all the cooking and cleaning and the boys and men didn't have to lift a finger and were waited on hand and foot. Well ok not really but honestly, the way the women in this film hover around the boys as they gobble down their food...

I just read somewhere that Typepad has enabled nested comments - c'mon Blogger, get with the program here! It was such a toss-up for me, Typepad or Blogger, and I went with Blogger because I already had an account via Google, but man if I were choosing now it'd be a different story!

Oooo the excitement!

Today I had a guest lecture to give to a third year class, so I took advantage of being on campus to check out the art supply store there. They had most of what I wanted to make stamps, but a limited choice and no breyer, so I'm not completely set up yet. I got 3 sheets of lino, some carving tools, some fabric paint (black and green) and two Staedtler erasers for trying little stamps.



None of it cost very much, I figure if I like it and prove to be decent enough to satisfy myself, then I can get better supplies and equipment.

These carving tools cost $16, so I'm guessing they're not all that flash but if they can do the trick for awhile there's a nice Speedball with my name on it out there somewhere :) Plus they have squirrels on them so how could I resist?



I certainly don't need this many, but it was the only set with a fine V-shaped one and a broader U-shaped one, plus the squirrel thing. The erasers were a total bust. If I'd been paying attention I'd have seen that they had small flowers embossed all over them so they're utterly useless for stamps. I guess they'll just have to revert to their original purpose!

I've decided that my first larger print will be a squirrel, I just need to come up with something. I'm not particularly gifted in that sense, and I have a strong tendency to inadvertently copy designs because I simply can't get them out of my head. Like these little guys from Kristen Doran!


I will try and do something myself I think, I'd feel prouder of the final product for sure. Speaking of squirrels, I highly recommend this post over at Whoopee, I'm still snickering over it and wanting to do the same here although perhaps I'd need to subsitute 'possum' for 'squirrel' to make it more applicable (and scary).