Jayne Hat and Santa Gourd

Two people have been begging me for Jayne hats like in the movie Firefly so I'll be on the look-out for yarn to make those. In the meantime I have plenty of other projects to work on, both knitting and other stuff.

But first I need to finish Nanowrimo or the National Novel Writer's Month.  I'm almost done one way or the other because the contest ends on Nov. 30, 2012. Right now I'm at the library typing like a fiend trying to finish everything I can't do on my dial-up connection at home. It's amazing how many sites I have to change my address on, like for my resale number, for Amazon, for Hubpages, for Google Adsense and so on and so forth.

Then I'm going to the tourist shop called Two Little Indians to buy some beads I had my eye on from last week.

My new art studio is shaping up. I need more lighting in there. I only have one desk lamp now and after it got dark last night I could barely see my dark blue knitting stitches. That's an easy fix though.

Me at Medieval Marketplace in LaVerne CA on Saturday.

Santa is still looking for a new home.

Tricolor Knit Scarf

Hello my lovies,
With a major holiday behind me and another looming ahead, I spent the day knitting a tricolor fashion scarf to offer for sale eventually (hopefully before Christmas). Then I need to start a commission of a baby cocoon for a photographer. As soon as she sends me the yarn I'll begin work on that.

Here is a sneak preview of the scarf. I'm happy to have all new backgrounds for my photos.

I just have to sew in the ends and add fringe and this one will be done.

 I got the vintage hummingbird feeder from the old house mounted onto a fence post so I could enjoy the hummingbirds while working in my new backyard studio.

A blacksmith gave me a pony skull. You know how artists always need skulls around for drawing practice.  But it looks pretty cool hanging there and it's my tribute to the goddess Eponia.

Baby Booties

Last night I was bored out of my mind so I started sorting a huge pile of knitting needles that we inherited from Guy's grandmother. None of them are matched.  I needed to find some that would work for baby booties.  An hour later I found the sizes I needed and paired them up so I was able to get on with the knitting. About 11 PM I called it quits.  I got a little more done today. I cast on two booties on one needle so when I'm done I'll have a pair. In the past I've made one booty and never gotten around to making the next one, so that should solve that problem.

Santa Gourd is Coming to Town

I finished my Santa gourd yesterday and wrote a brief tutorial here: http://whenallelsefailspaint.blogspot.com/2012/11/gourd-santa.html I also listed it him my Etsy shop since Christmas is just around the corner. I always think I will make a whole bunch of them but there is never enough time.

Crafting Makes Me Happy

I've never lived anywhere before that you could get a good view 360 degrees around.

Not all crafts have to be complicated. This 'bowl' was a leftover from a gourd drum.  I just drilled 3 holes, tied twine to it, and instant bird feeder. The little guys love it too.

Faux ivy

Remember the bread dough roses I made the other day? Here they are on a photo frame.

This little guy is dominating the entire feeder.

It's been a busy few days. I made a bird feeder, finished a photo frame, worked on a beaded heart, practiced my photography, and made some faux ivy with glue and cardboard.  It's nice to be back to crafting after our big move.

Photos From My New Life

Saturday morning self portrait

 Since I have dial-up at home I haven't been able to share many photos. My computer won't open Blogger most of the time, much less stay connected well enough for me to post photos.  Right now I'm at the library  learning to use a remote flashdrive. Pretty nifty.

Over the weekend we had a severe windstorm which lifted up a corner of the roofing material. So they are supposed to come out today and fix it before the next windstorm.  Guy climbed on the truck and put firewood on the corner of the roof to hold it down.  It is calm now so hopefully they'll get it fixed today.

Guy splitting wood.



Wallop enjoying a rare moment outside.



Fayme and Guy




Splendid skyline



Picturesque Woodpile



Bread Dough Roses

Last night I worked on the bread dough roses.  First I tried generic white glue and a bits of white bread.  That was a disaster. The concoction looked like pink Spackle and I never could get it to smooth out. I tossed that batch and started over. This time I followed the directions and used the Aleene's Tacky Glue...1 Tbsp. to 1 slice of white bread without crust.  Then I colored it pink with a little acrylic paint. I only had about 1 Tbsp. of the glue in a tiny bottle so I only made the one batch. I'm sure to get better with practice but it was pretty time consuming so I think I'll just use Sculpey next time.  After I made all the roses and leaves I could with that batch I re-read the directions and each petal was supposed to be as thin as a piece of paper.  Mine were much thicker  so try try again. At least I got it to work.
I decided it would be easier to paint the leaves green after everything dries. 

Winter is On the Horizon

Today while unpacking and organizing stuff, I found some wooden snowflakes I can paint up for Christmas ornaments.  I'm thinking maybe some opalescent glitter.  This will be my first Christmas/Yule at the new house.

I also found some granny squares that I need to join together for a lap throw. I never needed one before but it's so chilly even with the wood stove burning.  We had snow on the nearby hills the other morning.

We had a 2 day windstorm with gusts up to 50 mph and some of my jewelry gourds and bigger gourds blew all over the place. Finding them all is like a weird version of an Easter egg hunt. Maybe some of them will go to seed and I'll have gourds next spring.  That would be nice.

We assembled the wood shelves that used to be in our garage and set them up between the two containers to make a nice work and classroom area. I hope to have some gourd craft classes soon. We are going to put shade cloth as a roof between the two containers.

We have a clothesline now which will come in very handy for dyeing things and hanging them up to dry. I hope to plant a dyers garden this spring. I'm happy to read that you can use eucalyptus leaves and bark for dyeing and I have two of the trees in my yard, each a different variety. So as soon as we get unpacked I want to start dyeing roving and yarn and silk. Fun, fun, fun.

Bread Dough Roses and Sweat Pants

I haven't been able to get blogger to open with my dial-up connection in a few days. So I'm crossing my fingers that this goes through.

Someone gave me some books of old Aleene's craft projects and I'm fascinated with their bread dough flowers, so I got some white bread and glue and I'll let you know how it turns out. Even though this book was from the 80's, they were way ahead with the upcycling of items that would normally be discarded, yet could be reused in crafts.  Things like cardboard, margarine tubs, soda cans, glue tops, brown paper bags and tissue boxes can all be put to a new use. It's amazing what you can make with some cardboard, some glue, and some paint.

Meanwhile, we've had to deal with severe winds and cold temps.  There was snow on the hill behind us this morning, and a biting wind blew all day. I had to go to Target for some sweat pants and I haven't worn sweat pants since gym in high school in the '70's I think. Of course now I'm looking for some way to fancy them up,because sweat pants are truly boring.  One of those ubiquitous clothing items that hardly scream 'runway model.'

And yesterday I saw a beautiful rainbow. It was so broad, I couldn't get it all in in one photo.  I sure wish I knew how the panoramic feature on my camera worked. I'll have to find out.

I've been busy with National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo).
And I'm still knitting the yellow scarf that I've named Buttered Popcorn.
Hope you are all well. I'll post again when the Internet cooperates or Verizon figures out how to get us hooked up to DSL.

Garden Craft Ideas

I've been in my new home about a week. Since we ran out of space in the 4th moving van, I had to leave all my plants and pots behind except one dish garden. So I raided the .99 store for the after Halloween sale and picked up a big orange Halloween candy bowl and 2 cauldrons.  Then I swung by Lowe's and bought 4 plants as my house warming gift to myself.  I bought a butterfly bush and some marguerite daisies for my butterfly garden.  I just found out hummingbirds like the butterfly bush as well and it smells so good because its in the same family as lilacs. I bought a gardenia and a peacock lily. I bought coleus seeds and brown eyed susan vine seeds to replace the vine I left at my old house.  And finally I have tons of space to grow gourds, though those won't get planted until march. 

I'm going to use the big orange bowl to start seeds in and the 2 cauldrons as catch pots for two of my potted plants. It's totally the wrong time of year for planting here, so I'll just leave things in their nursery pots until spring.

I noticed today when I read the labels that the butterfly bush is a  petite version.  I was at a craft sale this morning and next to the Senior Center was a 12' tall butterfly bush covered in monarchs and the smaller butterflies that look like monarchs only with the ragged edge on their wings. So now I'm determined to buy the full sized version of the butterfly bush and maybe grow it next to the laundry shed. Yes, my new place is shaping up, though I still have a million boxes to unpack.

If you want to turn your plastic containers into planters, make sure you make some holes in the bottom for drainage and put in some gravel or broken crockery in the first 1/2" or  up to 2" to keep the holes from getting clogged and all your soil coming out.

I'm a bit worried about frost. It's been a long time since I lived somewhere where things froze in the winter. It's a learning curve for sure.