See that fabric? It’s the first one I’ve designed myself. I’d been thinking about doing some designs up just for fun, but then I saw that Spoonflower was hosting a contest for fabrics with an “Outdated Technology” theme. First thing that pops into this (not a) geek’s head is old floppy disks.

I think it still needs some tweaking. The print itself is really quite small, and I think it needs more of a background color to make it look a bit less stark, but overall I’m pleased. And I should be, I did a LOT of fighting with Illustrator to get the darn thing cropped correctly.

So if you get a chance and are so inclined, head over to the contest page and vote for me!

 

 

Remember this painting? Well it’s been finished for a while, it’s even hanging in the hallway at home.

I love how the eyes turned out, and I love that it looks like Chris, but what the heck is that thing in the lower left corner? I mean, it’s not his neck, it’s like his face has been contorted into an odd shape. It’s not bugging me enough to take it down and redo it. :)

Here’s the newest attempt at painting. I’m going to hang it above the desk/sewing table in my sewing room. You know, the one I keep blabbing about, but never actually show you? Heh! Don’t look at the feet on this painting. Besides the fact that it’s not done, I was really struggling at getting color AND form right on the feet. It might just be that I need to paint on a huge scale. Part of my problem I’m sure, is that I like stiff stiff stiff brushes, and I only have one brush that is both tiny AND stiff.

Anyway, maybe I’ll show the finished product some time in the next half century. You know, the same way I’ve been promising pictures of the sewing room all clean and shiny.

In other news, Etsy is having a costume contest and I’m going to enter the kid’s Shego costume. Judging by the entries I’ve seen, we should have this one in the bag. But that’s me getting too overconfident. I’m actually pretty sure I’ll hear nothing. Chris has even made these great green glowy light things for her hands to emulate Shego’s magic powers.

I have no idea how we will top this next year… And I hope we don’t have to, because this costume was a major PITA. I mean, I basically had to cut the body suit pattern apart and put it back together with the correct colors in the right places. At one point, the kitchen table was covered in butcher paper copies of the pattern so that we could cut them out with seam allowances intact (This because I am essentially stupid and would forget to cut out seam allowances).

So other than painting, cleaning and making costumes, I’ve been sewing black cats. I have sewed something like 8 black cats in the last week. (And sold them all in my Etsy shop) If I had more black felt, I’d make more cats, but I don’t. Oh darn!

I’ve been working on cleaning out, and rearranging my sewing room for the last few weeks. I did a bunch of research, looked at other people’s ideas on flickr, (copied a few,) and started purging junk I will never use. I also managed to talk the husband into selling the daybed that took up way too much room in favor of an antique “murphy” bed that we found on craigslist. It’s really more of a hide-a-bed that folds into a cabinet, but it takes up a LOT less room. I even bought a new set of shelves. In total, I’ve spent about $75. The furniture cost me $25 (after the sale of our daybed), and I spent a fair bit at IKEA buying hangars and boxes, but so far I’m happy.

I even spent a whole evening folding fabric uniformly. I figure if it’s out where I can see it, I’ll be more likely to use it. And hey, I don’t have nearly as much as I thought! I guess it’s time to go shopping. Ok, not really. But I’m pretty happy seeing it all neat and tidy like.

I just wish I could bring myself to photograph it. Unfortunately, as I don’t feel it’s quite done, you get no action shots. Soon though, I promise.  I’m even painting a picture to hang over the sewing desk. I hope it comes out ok. And then I’m going to splurge on this really nice easel for my birthday (only 21 days to go – yikes!)

But in my search on flickr for the best craft room ideas, I came across this completely ludicrous photo. It was posted as sort of an ironic, “yeah whatever” photo, so I don’t feel bad in the slightest ripping it to shreds.

And so I present to you, Pottery Barn’s idea of a craft room.

Honestly, how inaccurate can you get? Most craft rooms are a messy little corner completely over stuffed with way too much junk that the crafter can never find, much less USE. In fact, from what I can tell from my research on creating a good studio, most craft areas are really spread throughout the house in places that are deemed unusable by other members of the family. Under beds, in the back of closets, etc.

So what kind of dreamland do you have to live in to envision a room with enough natural light to be the breakfast nook? Where your work surfaces are clean and shiny? Where are the ink stains and other miscellaneous crap that builds up on the flat surfaces? Who can keep rolls of wrapping paper in an open cubby like that without their 3 year old walking in a chewing on it? And then the dog comes in and knocks it all over and tramples on it.

The lamps are in such a place that any crafter worth her (his) salt would be bent over working hard and suddenly sit up to recieve a severe knock on the head from them. Oh and while we’re at that desk, don’t get me started on the stool. All I can think is I would need to alternately see my chiropractor and massuse every day to recover from sitting on it.

And now I’m just getting nit-picky, but are there any actual crafting supplies in that room? To me it looks like a really nice place to wrap presents and enjoy a cup of tea… but that’s it!

Ok, rant over. Time to go back to cleaning…

It’s been a rather long weekend. Kiddo was sick, so I was home from work on Friday. Not a great thing with a deadline looming ahead. However, I managed to finally full this bag that I knitted over the holidays. It shrunk so much that I was extremely surprised. But, like many things, the end result was a pleasant surprise.

Knitted bag

I also started another painting last week. I need to put some more work into it. This is only the rough in. So far, though, I am really pleased with it. I’ve never done a face before because I’m always worried it won’t look anything like the person I’m painting, and I’ll get frustrated and start throwing things (and not in the constructive way). So here it is, my dear dear husband trying to fix the camera. *Click, OMG I’m blind!!*

Chris painting

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