oh, they know me too well

I dislike writing in pen, especially at work, so I go through pencils like mad.

Look what one of my co-workers made me for Xmas. Pencils, with text from Jane Eyre (which I recently read).

We always give crafty gifts around these parts. I will be stealing this idea for future gifts.

confetti floats away like dead leaves

my phone woke me this morning. a text message vibrating off my dresser, nudging the lamp.

it only said three words:

fringe. skype. now.

i wish my friends on the east coast would remember there is a time difference. i love a good fringe post chat, but not at 7am. and not on a saturday. nevertheless, i was up. so until i became fully functional to skype i did some early interneting, only to find my old hotmail account had been hacked. so a round of changing passwords and deleting contacts took place. always fun.

over cereal and tea i skyped with my friend. my sides hurt from laughing so much. i suspect they were still waking up. i wish i was going home for a visit before july.

call was then placed to the Boy. he was already up helping a friend do renovations. installing carpet and hardwood, i believe. we scheduled a scrabble date for the late evening.

another call placed to arrange a dinner date for sunday in Van.

okay, its only 10:30am. i hate that my saturday has turned into a sunday while i’m taking this class, really screws me up.

after some errands and a trip to the market, i decided the rest of the day should be spent crafting.

always nice when the cotton wrapped blank canvas…

becomes what you were hoping…mostly

girl is made from felt, hand stitched onto fabric. flowers are paper, hand stitched as well.

looks much better in person, you can’t really tell the detail from the picture.

what did you do today?

p.s. song of the minute: barnes’ yard – the rural alberta advantage. kinda feel like this is my hometown anthem. the anthem to get the hell out, that is.

right foot followed by her left foot

On select Wednesday’s this summer I’ve been running an arts program for kids at the museum. Today was the last one – a pottery workshop. Luckily, I’ve been able to mess around with clay all week in preparation, and today things went swimmingly. I love seeing the creativity that comes from it. Not one vase or bowl in sight; hybrid creatures, a grocery store produce section (complete with mohawks) , and even a few aliens.

I remember when I was a kid and went to art camp, we had a clay class and I made finger puppets. You know, ceramic finger puppets are so usable. I think my dad still has them on his desk at work.

I also learned this summer that I have to stop saying I have horrible balance.

I am a master at stilts. Truly. There were witnesses and everything.

Something you’ve learned lately?

wooden spools…

so much more enjoyable than the plastic kind. i used to steal them from my grandmother’s sewing kit when i was younger and line them up on my windowsill.

i found a bag full of them at the museum last week, not being used, so i’ve taken them back to my humble abode. at first i had them stacked up on my mantel. then i was inspired by this picture.

love clutter. my flat is full of stuff like this. it drives some mad.

i just have this thing for miniatures. i dunno where it comes from…

texture

I love experimenting with different textures in my art/craft projects. I think that’s why I was drawn to start working with different types of felt. I’ve stepped up my felt game, I started making gift tags to go along with birthday gifts, and using colourful thread, hand stitching the outsides. They are coming along quite well, I’ll take picture when they are done.

Working on them made me really wish I had my sewing machine here. I’m hesitant to ask actually if it’s still at my parents. My mother has this wonderful habit of dispensing of my stored stuff without asking, which I’ve always found odd since it isn’t taking up room in their house, but the storage outside. Anyway, I hope it’s still there, as I have a plan to make a felt wreath, stitched on four fabric blocks (probably 12×12), with the hope that it will end up like a wall hanging.

In my search for inspiration, I found this great site; Modern Fabric. So. Many. Wonderful. Fabrics. I need to do some garage sale hunting, score an antique frame, that one of these fabrics would look fabulous in and bravo, I have myself a new, updated tack board.

Well, now I have a project for weekend lined up.

tired and wired, we ruin too easy

Is it November yet? Specifically mid-to-late November?

No. Damn.

Okay, guess I’ll make another button bouquet to pass the time away, while I’m waiting for my canvas to dry and the pie to cool.

I figure by the time this year is up, between work and keeping up with social activities, I will have crafted myself into oblivion to keep my mind off of the fact that everything I want is 5000km in the opposite direction. On the plus side, our house will not be lacking in decoration. Stayed tuned. Next week I’ll show you the pillow case I’m knitting.

Note: This is not the one I made. I lost my usb cord…but it’s similar.