New years orange (coral?) and bronze

Tonight we'll do our traditional Chinese buffet and then over to a party in downtown. Here is my outfit, which seester scored at forever 21. Of course I had to alter it a bit (silly strapless dresses never fit me!), and I designed a suite for the occasion.

The antiqued bronze, coral (orange?) and pearl pieces are a necklace, earring and bracelet suite, but I can't wear jewelry like that. Too matchy matchy. So, I'll be doubling the necklace to make a double chunky, double fun bracelet set.

I really want to find a caplet for tonight, but I don't know if we'll be out shopping. I'm glad it's warm so the jacket doesn't have to cover me for too long.

Happy new year all!

On the 12th day of crafting

My true love made for me
12 pairs of earrings!
11 bobbie bundles
10 head/ear warmers
9 nesting bowls
8 peacock feathers
7 handmade scarves
6 beaded beauties
5 CROCHETED COWLS
4 felted friends
3 custom hats
2 felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly!

On the 11th day of crafting

My true love made for me
11 bobbie bundles
10 head/ear warmers
9 nesting bowls
8 peacock feathers
7 handmade scarves
6 beaded beauties
5 CROCHETED COWLS
4 felted friends
3 custom hats
2 felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly

Is this cheating? I already wrapped my bundles! Oh well! At least the bobbie part is in...

On the 10th day of crafting

My true love made for me
10 headband warmers
9 nesting bowls
8 peacock feathers
7 handmade scarves
6 beaded beauties
5 CROCHETED COWLS
4 felted friends
3 custom hats
2 felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly

Allllright! No, there are not 10 in this picture because they've already been wrapped or put away to take to the store. But, here are three beauties. These head wrap/ear warmers/head bands are an original design inspired my amiee and suzette. Amiee made her family winter head bands last year, and suzette waxed poetic for about 10 minutes during my hair cut in November about how she hates winter hats.

Thus, multiple styles of head warmers. Tada!

On the 9th day of crafting

My true love made for me
9 nesting bowls
8 peacock feathers
7 handmade scarves
6 beaded beauties
5 CROCHETED COWLS
4 felted friends
3 custom hats
2 felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly

These bowls take forever and EVER to dry! But, once they do, they're adorable. This is one of three sets and this one is still drying. Elle already had a set of nesting bowls, so getting these to fit has been superdy-duper easy.

On the 8th day of CRAFTING

My true love made for me
Eight peacock feathers
Seven handmade scarves
Six beaded beauties
Five crocheted cowls
Four felted friends
Three custom hats
Two felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly!

Seester's special gift is a peacock Aminal by Larc scarf. I'll post the final once she's got it, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE these feathers. I fulled (felted) them, and then sewed individual designs into each feather. I'd love this design for the store, but I'm afraid it'd be more expensive than the other designs. Nevertheless, I might make one more and see what Ashley thinks...

On the 7th day of crafting

My true love made for me
7th handmade scarves
6 beaded beauties
5 CROCHETED COWLS
4 felted friends
3 custom hats
2 felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly

The bottom isn't a scarf, its a hand bag. But the rest of the pile are alll scarves are various yarn. All handmade by either me or da seester. 4 are alreayd headed to the store, while the three others are going to dear teaching friends. All will be Aminals by Larc scarves.

On the sixth day of CRAFTING

My true love made for me
Six beaded beauties
FIVE HANDMADE COWLS
Four felted friends
Three custom hats
Two felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly

These necklaces are all for Urban Gypsy, so I knew they were safe to show to you all! They are a mix of silver, yellow gold, and copper with stones and glass beads. I love the lavendar one most! The green and brown one is REALLY gorgeous, and I was temped to keep it for me... but alas, if I still love it in the future, i'll make myself one.

On the fifth day of Crafting

My true love made for me
FIVE CROCHETED COWLS
Four felted friends
Three custom hats
Two felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly

I'm obsessed with cowls this season. And with their circular design, what's better for the fifth day of xmas? It's a ring for your neck. Perfect!

On the fourth day of Crafting!

My true love made for me
Four felted friends
Three custom hats
Two felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly

As (I hope) you can see, these are pre-detail. There's a horsey, giraffe, moose, and penguin. They are all spoken for, being affixed this very snowy day!

On the third day of Crafting!

My true love made for me
Three custom hat
Two felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly

These hats (one you've seen before) are all very different, but all made of that wool acrylic chunky blend I love. Next I'm tackling a men's slouch in navy... should be really adorable.

On the second day of crafting

My true love made for me
Two felted flowers
And a felted purple frilly!

These are add ons to a clutch, although I think they'd be great broaches! Maybe one will be a broach...

On the first day of CRAFTING

My true love made for me
A felted purple frilly

This will be attached to come chain or another textile to make a bracelet. Haven't decided exactly how that happens, but it will happen!

So, thus begins the 12 days of crafting!

Hats!

Oh...look at these seester lovelies!  Gotta love a seester who loves to crochet as much as I do!

THANK YOU SEESTER!

Finished scarves

Voila!

Moose on seafoam green
Rooster on olive green
Whale on gray
Turtle on brown

These are on there way to Urban Gypsy tomorrow for Black Friday craziness.

And,  I'm pooped!  Sleep now...zzz...

Black Friday lot

Any retailer loves Black Friday. The crafter in me... needs to have a stake in this money exchange! So, here is my black friday lot:

First is the felted group. The animals will go on scarves. We have Turtle (my fav), whale, Moose, and Rooster! Who doesn't love that rooster? He just has too much personality. The gray shape was supposed to be an owl, but the felting didn't go so well. So, he'll be a fish, eventually. Mr.Rooster needs his detailing, still, as well as zippers on the coin purse and clutch. Then, off they'll all go. There is an extra green dot which I had to remove from MrTurtle. His head was way too big, so now I have just an extra felted circle. I'll figure SOMETHING out with it, though.

Clutch wise, here are my 3 offerings for this week. There's a faux leather in the top left. It's a wristlet. Then, there's my typical owl coin purse. And, finally, the piece I love the most: the red cable clutch with felted flowers. All three are really different and Im hoping that Ashley loves them.

I have Jewelry as well.. I'll have to post them in a later blog. Have a lovely Thanksgiving everyone!

Aminals by Larc (yes, it's spelled like that!)

Tonight's felting lot is a mini collection of successful and semi successful aminals. The Larc line of felted animals is called Aminials by Larc, and they're all inspired by elle's doodles.

Can you name those Aminials? The one could be miss identified as a llama. May be ill make one of those next...

THANK YOU TO DA SEESTER FOR A BOX-O-YARN!!!! Most have been balled and will be made into lovely beautiful details...

There are also felted beads and a hand purse drying in the picture. Tomorrow I will adorn the Aminals w threaded details, attach them to scarves and clutches, and Thursday I will get my friends to Urban Gypsy for the Bella night out! It's a very exciting week...now if only I felt as successful in my REAL job...sigh.

Excellent news in the theatre front: I have been cast in Showtimer's winter production of Cinderella. Although I don't think I'm allowed to say which part, I will tell you that I'm not Cindy--Allen (director) was reading the YOUNG bucks for Cindy and her step-sisters. You'll have to check www.showtimers.org on Friday to see which lovely lady I'll be, come February. I'm stoked to be returning for year 3 at showtimers theatre, and to do Cinderella again. I'm very interested to see the cast, because I'm hoping the usual suspects are around for the run. Gotta have my Tragedy (aka Linda)! And, of course Owen will be there, and I just love that man. By far my closest male bud, and my best friend in Roanoke. Not to mention one heck of an actor/lyric baritone...

Here's to a happy hump day, all!

Productivity, people. Productivity!

Now with a buyer, I'm off and running: completing all I can as quickly as I have time to complete.

I'm one for one since Sunday, meaning 3 creations are DONE, and if I can get out 1 bag a day this week... ill rock!

What you see above is a 15in laptop sleeve, a pleated brown clutch and an owl coin purse.

Bam!

Good bye!

Today I have the pleasure to announce that I'm out of inventory!

A local store, Urban Gypsy, picked up my line of bags and jewelry. She bought. Everything I brought her today...amd I couldn't be more pleased. The best part is that she's ordered more!  So, away I go, into craftville :)

Yay!  Go Larc!

Happy birthday Gayle!

Tonight we have Gayle and Nancy over for a birthday dinner celebration. Elle asked me to make steaks (Dad style) and a coconut cream pie (Kentucky style).

So, last weekend we did a test run of the steaks because, let's be honest, who likes steak cooked more than medium??? Not I. Steaks should never be any color but pink while you're eating them. Yet, elle and her mom and dad like medium well. Ho hum... Last Sunday's dinner was lovely, even though I was the only one eating. (Poor elle had a stomach bug, but sweetly sat with me while I ate my half of our fancy Sunday dinner.)

Tonight I have selected loin cut steaks, and I'm using the traditional Dad style coriander/garlic rub. NOM. The house smells great as the steaks are in the microwave, just getting to know their rub a little better.

For the coconut cream pie, I jump into the family recipe book. Aunt Vic's coconut cream pie is DELISH and TO DIE FOR with calories: butter, sugar and everything baked goods offer to make Americans over weight. In the spirit of trying my best to keep elle's dad's bday dinner semi healthy, I elected the following substitutions:

splenda for sugar

light butter for butter

light pie crust for regular pie crust

skim milk for milk

lite coolwhip for whipping cream w powered sugar

And, Voila.

I know, I know, I KNOW. The pie is a bastardization of the original recipe. But, it might be good. may be? The toasted coconut isn't on the pie just yet... we still have 2 hours to wait, and I didn't want soggy toasted coconut topping.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed!

Peacock clutch

Tonight I started work on seester's peacock clutch.  My first adventure is dry felting the feathers. I want to make two.

Gosh, my arm is tired!

Incase you're unfamiliar with dry felting, its when yarn is stabbed into fabric with a special barbed needle. I love the raised affect it creates to a peice of fabric.

I don't love this feather. I'm thinking it needs more whispy outside strands. I'll get there... just not tonight.

An over crafter?

While I'm working on the gift set for leslie's benefit, I had to stop and make something just for me.

Maybe I like to over craft? Possible. I now have a pruse, a clutch and a card holder that I carry with me. Super ooober organization here, people.

In this pic is my new hummingbird card holder. It lives nicely in my clutch and safely keeps my cash and cards from rolling around in my clutch.

Yes!

Copy cat crafter

Found this neat-o craft on etsy and had to make myself one (well, ok, three).  Its an ipod/cellphone pillow, allowing for easy reading vertically or horizontally, or just a cute comfy spot for your most used electronic.

I (of course) made three. The prototype taught me that rice stuffing doesn't really work for these. Numbers two and three are filled with stuffing and super light.  Not really what I think they should feel like, but they work, for now.

Next week I have a new commission for a bit warmer (yay Kim and her horse, Jazz), so I'm hoping to have an easy evening schedule to get that little innovation created and photographed, just for your viewing pleasure.

A weekend of failures

Yep. Crafting this weekend was a dud. Let's recap:

First, the kilt.

Ya know, it's wearable but I royally screwed up with the pocket. Yes, there are belt loops and a pocket. It's totally a kilt, but if Derrick decides to wear the belt, he can't get into the pocket.

Lesson learned: kilts are easy, once I get a male human or dress form in my life. But no model and fitting a kilt to me, does little to help.

And finally, the jean rug.

It's totally fixable. I'm just angry about its bubling. I pulled the thread too tight near the end. Either a redo for a rug or some slight edits for a kitty bed.

Lesson learned: don't pull thread too tightly when forming circle patterns. Sad part about this lesson is that I already know this skill from knitting in circles. UGH!

A hunk of braided jeans

I'm half way there!

Here is a pile of the completed, braided jeans. 4 pairs of jeans and one skirt. A circular rug (hopefully) will be the outcome!

Pillows

And, finally, it's done! I'm so excited that I've finished a sewing project. These easily hand crafted throw pillows are designed to go with the covers I made, in an earlier post.

Each one is unique and original. Now, let's hope joe and jessica love them as much as I do! My favorite is the bottom right one, with the two different sized stripes. But, I love the patch one, as well. That one is endeared to me because the fabric was going to be a seat, but I had the iron on too high, and melted the fabric the second the iron touched it. OUCH!

Breakfast on thursday

Does this look gross to you?

Well, I don't care. Its deliciousness. im a true beleiver in a large breakfast as well as one thats got some nomnom to it. heres a whole wheat/high fiber bread with lemon hummus, and egg whites cooked w roaster red peppers.

A bittersweet success

Yesterday evening I sold my first legit etsy items: my two sets of bobbie bundles. They're now residents of FLA. I hope they like warm weather.

I'm shocked at how I'm happy that I'm a success--and someone who doesn't know me personally likes my hand crafts--but sad to see them go. Truly. I hope the buyer likes them.

Actually selling items and having this type of emotional reaction never, NEVER crossed my mind.

This weekend we're putting full effort into etsy products. Dear, beautiful amanda has agreed to be our stunning model. I'm also going to call monique for some items. Her sassiness is needed for a couple peices.

Tonight I made a gunmetal set: necklace and earring, with some green and coral stones to accent. Don't know what I'll call them yet, but they are probably making their debut tomorrow.

Outside seating covers

It's been a lovely weekend of productivity. Tonight's finished product is a trio of outdoor seat covers requested by Jessica and Joe.  These were surprisingly easy to make!  Im happy with their outcome... and can't wait for the happy couple to come pick them up!

Greek festival find!

Its a great day when I blog three times!

Today at the Greek festival, I found these little clay creatures. Way too adorable. And, affordable.

Now, what do I make with them?

A busy saturday

Well, well, well, what a lovely Saturday.

Squee! Find of the day are these 4 adorable prints (on-sale) at joanns right now. I couldn't help it. They're too adorable.

And, who doesn't like a studio adorned with flowers?

Going back to school means...

Going back to school means WAY less time in the house. But, honestly, after the summer-o-traveling we had, it might be about the same.

This week I was able to pump out 3 prototypes, although, honestly, 2 are not done. I'm still not able to access the sewing machine bc the redone studio (my side) cannot be fully reset until the yellow cupboard is finished. It's still in the basement, waiting to be assembled.

We also need cabinet pulls. More on that search later.

This week, I present to you 3 prototypes: The Surprise, The Pleat, and The Fandom.

First off, is The Pleat. This felted bag is ADORABLE, and made from a Seester supplied Teal, a Philly STEAL of the purchase Brown, and fisherman's oatmeal Wool, crotcheted into clutch (with PLEATS!) and then wet felted. I haven't decided if I want to line this or leave it as it is. It will need SOME sort of closing devise, but as of now, I'm tickled with it's design.

The Surprise! is this set of antique looking bow and bluegreenish earrings. I mean, how much cuter can you get than these? They're all store/etsy bought materials (sadly meaning they're more expensive than most my creations), but I am still impressed with their beauty.

And now, The FAN! A Purple and Yellow -something- for the purple and yellow fan. PHHS? Sure! ECU? Sure! JMU? SURE! Totally up to your Purple and yellow heart's desire. I think I'll be wearing this to PH games, unless someone else claims it. Elle jokes that I should give it to Brad. Bahahahaha!!! Can you see the head coach of PH football with this strapped to his belt?

And, finally, here's a picture of the beautiful studio/sunroom. It's a bit naked presently, but it'll pick up items as we continue to find what we like. Especially now that elle has her camera... we'll be able to put up lots of beautiful photos soon!

thanks to Aimee over at http://www.thefunctionalspace.blogspot.com for her suggestion of wall color!

Bestest nest ring

For blair's 29th bday, I crafted her a silver nest with two gray iridescent eggies, representing her two boys.

I was worried abt the ring not fitting her, but it looks awesome. I need to live closer to my bestest because she's a lovely model!

Speaking of, I need a jewelry model. My hands are too gnardled and arms too hairy to be a good model. Elle is too shy. So... any ideas?

Dinner on Tuesday

I never blog the amazing food we make. I'll do better at that.  Tonight was a lowstress dinner since it was a stresser of a day.

roasted potato salad. 

2 white potatoes. Chunked, seasoned w ranch & house. Sprayed and roasted at 425degrees for 30 minutes, flipping half way through. 
Salad (whatever we had available): lettuce, diced orange peppers, chunked roma tomatoes.
Dressing: homemade ranch and katsup. 2 tsps Ranch power, 1/4c rf sour cream, water, 1 tbl franks.  Mix well.  Water to your desired thickness.

This is really easy and yummy.  Make sure you season the potatoes well. I love both the ranch and katsup on the salad.

Easy!

Lolita's copper collection

And, here's my first collection! The Lolita copper collection contains one necklace of a white Lolita skeletal cameo in copper. The 21" necklace is long and simple with a copper clasp.

For ears, there are 3 different choices. My favorite are the green glass with copper ring set. There are also blue Lolitas and a set of copper ring and metal bead dangles. All three are made with copper fishhook ear wires.

The bracelet is a double chain with a metal copper bead linked to copper chain that was left over from the necklace.

Finally, a set of 3 different rings. One egg nest ring with grassy green eggs. Then, a flower ring, made of crocheted copper wire, and last is a simple chunky crocheted ring.

All items are for sale (or trade!) and elle is working on pictures for the shop. Yes!