I actually got some crafting done today

I finally got myself going working on a long over-due gift.  It's not working out quite how I had hoped, but I think it's still fairly nice.
I'm working with stamps and having a bit of trouble getting good coverage without it being overly gloppy. I'm also using textile paint, which may well be part of the problem.   I have been sort of painting it on with a sponge brush, but that's not so hot.  I'm tempted to try hacking a stamp-pad based on this wicked cool tutorial, but I'm a little hesitant for fear it will waste a hell of a lot of paint or that it won't work with the paint I happen to be using.  Anyone have any tips?

It's Curtains for You

Well, actually it's curtains for me, but the cliche movie quote was sort of irresistable.

Monday I managed to feel mostly up to going out shopping and Tom kindly took me out to the fabric stores.

I've decided to make some curtains for a plastic shelving unit we've put up in the kitchen to use as extra storage and counter space. We're using the lower shelves to store pots and pans and are planning on finding a board or piece of laminate or other object to put across the top to serve as counter space. I think the shelving unit is hideous, so I decided hiding it with curtains would be nice and that it might help keep dust and grease and things off the pots and pans when they aren't in use.

The plan is to cut and hem the blue and green striped fabric and attach a strip of hook and loop fastening to the top, the opposite strip to be glued to the upper edge of the shelving unit. Hopefully this will be as simple as I hope. It should also make it easy to pull down the curtain to wash when necessary, especially since the fabric is just basic quilting cotton.

The second photo is the fabric for the windows all through the apartment and the trim for at least some of them. We found some really nice unbleached muslin to use and a nice multi-colored braided trim. I'm planning to cut and hem and then probably use the glue gun to attach the trim. The basic unbleached muslin curtains will be in every room but I'm planning on changing up the trim. I just haven't found all the kinds I want yet. What's shown here is probably going to be going in the dining room/craft room/office.

I just have to get around to washing the fabric and setting up my sewing area and I can get down to work.

Busy Day

I was amazingly productive today, despite only getting 4 hours of sleep (which I will be paying for tomorrow I can already tell). Hubby took me out supply shopping. I picked up some Speedball Speedy Carve blocks (the pink eraser-looking kind) to try out. I think/hope that they're a little firmer than the sort of golden colored Soft Cut stuff from Speedball and will therefore take finer detail a little better. I also picked up another Exciter pack from Jacquard (I don't make the names people). This time I went with the Halo and Jewel Colors. I already have the Traditionals pack and loved it - a little went a very long way, it had a good consistency for printing/stamping and painting, it has a lovely watercolor effect when diluted a bit with water and, most importantly, it leaves the fabric with a really nice hand - no nobbly bits, no shiny/sticky-ness like you sometimes get with screen prints. Very nice. See close-up examples here.

I also picked up a few other little things I've been needing/wanting - more bobbins, some safety pins, ball ended straight-pins (I have a terrible time seeing and handling the plain-topped ones), and some more sponge-brushes.

I called my Dad to wish him happy Father's Day. I had to track him down actually - Mom and my half-brother and his wife had managed to pry him out of the house for a barbeque. Yay!

I had a nice long chat with some friends I haven't talked to in far too long. Talking smack counts as chatting, right?

I took Oreo out for a short walk. He's such a little gentleman for me when he knows I'm having a rough day physically, and I was today. Lots of near falls shopping (I'm very good at catching myself, even if I do wind up looking like a total dork in the process) and the lack of sleep is catching up with me in the form of aches and pains.

Then I chopped up an old long-sleeved t-shirt sleeve (well, Tom did), wrote identifying info on the pieces with a laundry marker, and used the new safety pins to attach the tags to each of my remnants I picked up last week. (Thanks again, G!) Otherwise I would never have been able to keep straight which was which and what cost how much, etc., etc.

Tom has kindly taken the lot down to the laundry room to wash it for me. I'm hoping I'll be up for getting photos of it tomorrow.

I'm planning on spending the better part of the coming week working on some more print-block designs and hopefully doing a bit of sewing. I'm probably going to start out with a crochet hook case I've been meaning to make for myself as a way to get warmed up before I start in on the "special" stuff I'm planning.

Tiring but good day

I didn't sleep very well last night and had to be up this morning for an appointment, but today still managed to be a good day.  My dear friend took me out to do a bit of shopping, including a visit to Vogue Fabrics.  Drool!!!!!  We spent a generous amount of time rummaging through the remnants and I got a great haul of stuff.

Going through some of their other lovely stuff has also reinforced my need to get sewing again and build up some skills so that I can go back and buy some of their lovely silks, for example, to make clothes.

As it is, I have some wonderful cottons to work with for bags and for table linens.  Enough, in fact, that I'm looking around as we speak for some basic accounting tools in order to take the next step toward starting a little product line for sale on Etsy.  

I know myself well enough to know that I need to start keeping books from the get-go, even if the whole thing fizzles.  Otherwise, I may wind up in a mess of receipts and papers and no clue what is going on.

I also need to figure out a few other "business-y" things - like tax stuff.  Groan.  Anyone with any resources to share, I will be immensely grateful.

I am now exhausted, though, and probably need to stop with the thinky stuff for now before I get thoroughly confused and frustrated.

Shopping IS Therapy, Dammit

Today I slept most of the day due to the exhaustion of the most recent skirmish in the mouse wars.  I had actually set an alarm for 11 AM, figuring that would give me more than enough sleep.  I woke up, was still really stiff and hurty, and so decided to read and stretch a bit in bed before getting up.  The next thing I knew, Oreo was barking and wagging his tail in my face because Tom was home from work.  Sigh...

Anyway, I had been wanting some fusible interfacing for some projects I want to work on and Tom had wanted to go to a Home Depot to poke around, so we set off.

I scored my fusible interfacing (at a discount, because the instruction sheet had left marks on the interfacing) drooled over fabric, grabbed some canvas tape, and a bias tape maker.  Serious fabric drooling.  I should just get over my cheapness in not being willing to pay $8/yard for pretty quilting cottons, but then again, if I did that, we'd be even more poor than we are and be buried in fat quarters or single yards fabric useful only for making bags and pillows and stuff. Mmm, bags...

Ahem.

Anyway, we also dropped by a Best Buy, because the stupid vermin had chewed through the cord on the motion sensor for the Wii.  Shows you how much Wii we've been playing.  We also (after much wandering and annoyance) discovered that Lego Indiana Jones has finally dropped in price.  Sweet!!!!  As it seems to also be good for my motor skills, all the better!

Then we went to Home Depot and wandered around the nurseries.  We now have baby sweet basil, mint, rosemary, lavender, and Italian parsley nestled happily in a trough planter and smelling delicious.  The aloe has been replanted in the pseudo-Predynastic pot.  And our seedlings of oregano, curly parsley, and lavender seem to be doing well despite early depredations by the vermin.  The papyrus plant seems to be doing okay as well.

I am very excited by our little garden - I've never done much with plants before, so I'm having fun pestering Tom with questions.  I'm also looking for either  some better options or tricks in iCal for reminders so I will remember watering and other household chores (this has become a major problem for me).  And I'm looking forward to cooking with fresh herbs, figuring out good drying methods, and making sachets.  

Therefore, I am in an extra good mood this evening, despite the lateness of this post. Tomorrow I get to go for a haircut, which will make life even better as I'm currently getting uncomfortably close to a mullet in the back (I cannot stand hair on my neck anymore).   Better, a friend is taking me, thus sparing Tom from having to hang around a girly salon for an hour. He gets to stay home and play Wii.  :P

Customizable Shoes

CraftyStylish has posted this cool way to update plain canvas shoes using decoupage and scraps of fun fabric .  I love the idea of decorating my own shoes and considering how inexpensive plain canvas shoes can be, this looks like a blast

How to Recycle Fabric Scraps...into Restyled Shoes! - CraftStylish