S.C.A.M.P.S is Born...Well Almost

It was supposed to rain tonight, but when I woke up this morning it was already drizzling. I guess the clouds didn't read the weather report.

I'm starting a group called S.C.A.M.P.S. which stands for Sewing, Crochet, Art, Metalwork, Patchwork, Superstars. At least I want too. It's still simmering in the back of my mind. The main problem is I want to have the meetings during the week, and most people can only come on weekends. I don't like to tie up my weekends in case I have to go out of town or do a craft show. Always a dilemma. I need a week with 5 days in the weekend, and 2 days in the week.

I'm working on a hat band for a bonnet I knitted. I should have finished the hat already but my hands got too aggravated and I had to lay off the knitting for a week. My friend thinks I have RMI or repetitive motion injury. I can't even turn a doorknob with my left hand. But enough about me. What are you making today?

Rocky the Cat

Two New Paintings

First thing this morning I grabbed my canvasses and my paints and headed outdoors. I spent much of the day painting. And I'll be able to post them on Deviant Art now that I started using that again. The first one is an idea I got from a flash of a TV show. It was hanging over a bed in one of those home remodeling shows.

The second painting is of succulents growing in my backyard, So I'm calling it Succulents at Twilight. I wish the sun hadn't gone down at 5:30 PM. I had to stop painting for the night. It was too chilly for one thing and too dark for another. It felt good to be painting again.

SNB Fountain Valley Jan 2010

Yesterday was our monthly Stitch-n-Bitch in Fountain Valley, California. Here are some photos of people and their projects.

Heidi works on knitting a blanket.

Amelia models a knitted hat inspired by the Jayne Hat in Firefly. Her mom Marianne made it.

Amelia is making a critter that doesn't have a head yet based on an anime cartoon.

Guy carries the bowsocks he's making out to the truck.

He hand dyed every one of those.

The beaded heart brooch / pin I'm working on.

We snacked on blueberries, blackberries, apples and marbled bread. Marianne was carding wool and alpaca together to make gray fiber. Roseanna was making a beaded bead. Danny and Ellen came to visit.

Cross-stitch Bison

Yesterday I took a day off. My hands have been hurting like crazy, particularly my left one. I can't even turn a doorknob without pain. So I avoided all knitting, dishes, crochet, and heavy typing. My hands feel less stiff today but still painful when I try to grab heavy things like frying pans or bags of  laundry. I did do a bit of cross stitch last night. I worked on my bison. I'm thinking of making  it into a cross stitch picture frame with animals around the border. It would be a good gift for a man who likes to hunt, camp or fish. It's on beige aida cloth. I'm not sure how to turn it into a frame, but I'll figure it out.

I have to take it easy with my hands again today. Tomorrow is our Stitch-n-Bitch so I hope I can do something there.

Spiral Necklace

I fell in love with these glass spiral focal beads. Being a hypnotist, I have a thing for spirals. I just listed it in my Etsy shop last night. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39468335 I know I have a red one somewhere too. I'm not sure if it's on a half finished necklace somewhere. My beads need organizing. I was talking to Matt Nix of Nix creations last night. He has something like 38,000 followers on Twitter. I wish I did. I don't think I have even 1000.  Do you twitter? I think my follow twitter button is over in the side bar if you want to follow me.

I've also been knitting a pixie hat in maize colored yarn with little baby blue and white flowers. I should have that done soon. This Sunday is our stitch-n-bitch in Fountain Valley CA, so if I don't get it finished before then I'll take it to that.

Sewing and Rain

We knew rain was on the way, so I spent as much time outdoors today as I could. First I got my juggling practice in. Then I started a cross-stitch project that's super portable and took it out to the garage. I'm making a bison. It's little and will be a magnet or something. I want to offer more cross-stitch in my Etsy shops, and big projects aren't practical. They take forever and no one is going to pay for the hours spent making little x's. So the next best thing is little things like bookmarks, pendants, magnets, and so on.

I also worked on my Purple and Black Attack slouch hat in crochet. That's coming along but I just wasn't in the mood for crochet today. My boyfriend is out in the garage sewing on his industrial Mitsubishi machine. He's making bowsocks for bows (archery). It started to sprinkle so we came in for lunch. Now it's raining pretty good and gettting dark, but he just went out to sew again. I might go out too, but in the dark I can't do much. The only good lighting in the garage is the one right over his sewing machine.

Assorted Crafts

Crocheting a slouch hat

Alphabet and Barnyard Sampler

Time to crochet with another color

Heart motif in knitting

Working on a cross stitched cow

Beads beads beads for a beaded collar.

It was a fruitful weekend and I got a lot done. But I also bought myself even more work to do. Here are some photos I took of my current projects. Just to show you how much photographs can vary, those two hats are the same hat, taken outdoors in natural lighting one day apart with the same camera by the same photographer. So remember when you order on line, you can't be too in love with the computer monitor version of what you are buying. Don't be mad at the artist if the hat that looked hot pink on line may be cherry pink, rose pink or fuschia when you get it.