Decorating the apartment – the artwork

After over a year of living here we finally thought we’d “finish” decorating the apartment. which means of course that I got sucked into numerous home decor blogs and I know think that decorating your home is like building a wardrobe – you never really finish. Well unfortunately I don’t think I have that kind of time and energy to dedicate to making my tiny tiny tiny apartment into House Beautiful, but I can take some time to find some art I like!

Through a stroke of fate I happened to find myself on the EBSQ art site where I found Cynthia Guajardo as the featured artist. I was immediately captivated by her work and ran over to her etsy shop. Her rendition of Night Terrace Cafe as a fabric postcard was gone of course, but I emailed her and she agreed to take a commission of one of my favorite artists, Paul Klee! She is creating a fabric version of Mazzaro, you can check out the progress on her blog – and here is the original painting:

I am so excited! She also agreed to make Night Terrace Cafe again, thank goodness. Now I just have to find the perfect location on our practically blank walls to hang these lovelies. I think they are going to look great matted and hung in our sky-blue living room!

let’s get it [re]started!

one of my resolutions this year was to do more crafting, especially more green crafting.  and by golly it’s gonna happen!

I’m also trying to focus on having a healthy lifestyle, with the help of this site.  Actually I have a gazillion resolutions, as I am a resolution person.  I am even tracking my progress on all of them in an excel spreadsheet.  I’m sad to say that some of them are not working out so well.  (exercise?  um, not yet)

In the meantime, I have indulging my craft book addiction.  A new book on quilting, on working with color, on knitting, lace crochet, and probably more that I don’t even recall now.  Also, we are focusing on making this place more like home, so we’ve been spending lots of $$$ on house stuff, including our first piece of artwork!  Which we purchased from Etsy.

And I still haven’t finished the scarves I posted here earlier, although we did make a lot of christmas presents, none of which I was smart enough to photograph, so you’ll have to take my word for it.  I’ll list them here:

Mom & her partner:

• sushi print oven mitt (because they love sushi)

Sister:

• t-shirt with a funny saying (iron on, we bought the t-shirt)
• fabric scarf
• knitting scarf (with the Misti Alpaca posted about earlier)

Aunt & Uncle:

• gardening apron
• washcloth with gardening can decoration

Grandpa:

• crocheted scarf

Partner:

• crocheted hat

Ok maybe that’s not a lot, but considering we started extremely late, it’s a lot.  Really, really, I’m not waiting till the last minute this year!

Crafty book club

craft books are my absolute weakness. I am even more prone to buy craft books than I am on buying craft supplies. and you know that’s bad. So I somehow got enticed to join a craft book club. It was only $1 each for the first 4 books, and I think I only have to buy 2 more at “regular club prices” which are more expensive than Amazon, but I think I still come out ahead.

my books came yesterday! too exciting. you can’t choose from all of the books for your first four, but I got:

The Yarn Girls Guide to Beyond the Basics

Vogue Sewing

Quick and Easy Handmade Cards

and Knitting in No Time.

Knitting in no time is terrible, I wish I’d read some reviews first instead of being too lazy to hop over to amazon and read them, but I’m really happy with the other 3. I wanted to buy Vogue Sewing anyway, so I was doubly happy.

Now how long do you think it will be until I actually make something out of these books? Let’s see, I have yet to make anything from Happy Hooker, and I bought that about two months ago. Yet to make anything from Mason Dixon, purchased last month. Sew U, at the same time, read through and put on the bookshelf where it stares at me willing me to try sewing. Origami Boxes? Years ago, still haven’t made anything. (my partner made a cute box once though. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s much craftier than me)

I did find a great free pattern on the internet that I want to make though – it looks like the perfect hat, and even better, it doesn’t require crazy expensive yarn, and I even have some Wool-Ease around. here is pdf link to the pattern. she even made little checkboxes on the pattern so you can easily count your rows!

maybe a hat I could actually finish in a reasonable time; I feel like these scarves will never be done! I can’t believe it’s November and I have yet to finish a single present! aaaargh!

Crafts Supplies Inventory

I really have no reason why I should not be crafting constantly. I have tons of supplies! You saw the fabric in the pic from a couple of days ago. Off the top of my head, here are all the crafts I could be working on:

Knitting: I have the knitpicks needles! and tons of yarn! and free patterns! Not to mention, I just bought the Mason Dixon knitting book, and the Vogue Knitting book is always useful

Crochet: this is my number one crafty skill, yet I haven’ t picked up in a hook in I don’t know how long. Again, I have hooks in all sizes, yarn, and I even have steel hooks and thread if I had a sudden urge to make some snowflakes. I just bought The Happy Hooker, and I have about three other crochet books, so again, no reason not to be crocheting!

Papercrafts: I have a scalpel, cutting mat, decorative-edge scissors, handmade paper, mat board, gluesticks, a color printer/copier, colored pencils, watercolor paints and even doublesided foam tape (that I got from the east bay reuse place yay for reusing!) I just ordered a book (I somehow found myself signing up for a craft book club, I’m so weak when it comes to books, and when it comes to craft supplies, so there is a multiplicative effect there and I am unable to resist craft books) on quick and easy cardmaking, and I always have my favorite bookmaking book to get ideas from as well. I even have a 2 year old UFO that really, really, I need to finish because it’s going to be so cool.

Other crafts: I have shrinky dink paper in all formats – dark, light, inkjet printer, etc. I have make-your-own-snowglobes stuff. I have all the stuff to make magnets.

You see? there is no reason for me to instead of crafting, spend hours surfing the internet looking for more crafts to do! I have plenty at my fingertips!

the good news: I’ve made more progress on the best friend’s scarf. my partner and I have been hanging out constantly though, so I haven’t been able to work on his.

and I’m sorry, I know I promised a picture… next time, really! I put links to sites with pictures, can I get partial credit for that?

You can’t tell, but I am working on things

I am too busy lazy to take a picture, but I really am working on things. Specifically:

this scarf for my partner but in a lovely soft grey

and a knitted scarf of my own “design” for my best friend H. it’s too simple to call it a design, but I think it’s turning out great. except I missed a stitch and didn’t know how to fix it, so now it’s kind of messed up. as my partner said, “it looks like it got caught in the crossfire and had a hole shot through it”. But I am certain H will like it. I’ve made a huge list of things I need to make for “giftmas” and I’m starting to panic about having them all done in time.

I just bought this yarn on Friday. It’s so beautiful, soft and lovely. Cost a fortune, but it’s for a dear relative, and she’s worth it. I think she’ll love it. Now I just need to find a scarf pattern for it. I have this weird notion that I should design my own pattern, and it will be more special that way. Of course, I’ve only been knitting a few months, so that’s a pretty ambitious goal.

I promise I will have pictures of WIPs in the next post! Just so I can mock my own feeble progress towards christmas…

I’m going to get back to blogging!

I’ve just been soooo busy at work. well the good news is today I organized my craft space. I love to organize. being organized makes me all happy inside. here’s a picture:

On the bookcase in the colored boxes are my works-in-progress (actually, they aren’t in there yet, they are still in plastic bags, but they will be there!) and on the left in the closet is fabric, in the drawers are, top to bottom: embroidery supplies, papercrafts supplies, other craft supplies. Not visible, on the left side of the closet, is another hanging sweater thing with yarn, and a very small three drawer thing with tools and small supplies, e.g. my scalpel for cutting paper, and beads.

Now I’m ready to do some craftin’!

Earthquake!

We had a small earthquake today. I haven’t checked the reports, but I’d guess it was only like a 4ish. Earthquakes don’t really scare me – I’m a native Californian – but there’s always that moment after you’ve realized, yes, you really are experiencing an earthquake, that you think “oh my god, is this the big one?”. Today, it wasn’t. I talked to someone on the phone right after and they said “that was kind of exciting!” and I said, yes, but it’s hard for me to be excited when I’m worrying if the epicenter is a 7 something somewhere and people’s lives are really being affected. Today, it wasn’t.

How did I miss this?

ok, I know, I’m late to everything (like the last person to get a blog) but I just discovered the time-wasting joy that is youtube.com and have spent the past hour very entertained. how cute is this one? A guy made it for his bride on their wedding day – I think I almost cried. And watched it like three times. And this one of kittens taking their first steps – awww! Surprisingly I found a video by Jon B. – he had like half a hit a thousand years ago, I can’t believe people still even remember him. (I was mocked heavily for buying his cd, what can I say, I was young and it was catchy!) And the Jesus version of I Will Survive – at first I was enjoying it but I really didn’t like the ending. Beware. Uh oh, a new way to waste time is really not what I need right now! I have things I should be doing! Painting the office! Doing laundry! Knitting! Making clothes! Ok, just a few more minutes… to watch the wedding present video one more time…

I’m terrified of sewing

That must be it.  There is no other reason for me to stare constantly at my meager stash, bring out all my patterns and plan what I will make someday, and then put them all back, close the closet doors where my stash is hidden, and pick up my knitting again.  Part of the problem is that I am too afraid to make a mistake that I can't undo.  The whole cutting thing!  It's so much easier with crochet and knitting, you can always rip it out and redo it.   The other problem is that I really don't have a good enough stash.  I think I only have one piece of fabric that exceeds 3 yards, and I am saving that for a skirt for work after I learn how to put in zippers.  (which will be soon – I've already signed up for a class!)  I am trying not to buy fabric new as part of my goal to reduce my ecological footprint, but I don't seem to be one of these lucky people who finds gorgeous vintage fabric or lovely sheets at the thrift store.  Maybe I just don't go enough?  Despite this, I have been wanting to make the Denyse Schmidt quilted scarf for a while, and I think I have enough coordinating fabric to do it, but I can't bring myself to cut up the fabric!   Oh well.  The only thing I feel semi-confident to make is another bag, but I really don't need another bag.  Just to leave you with a picture, here is one I did for a swap a while ago.  I even "drafted" the pattern!
 

The Compact – a summary so far

I’ve bought new :
Denyse Schmidt Quilting book (paid for with a gift certificate)
a hanging sweater thing
2 suits for interviewing
1 shirt for interviewing
knee-high stockings for interviewing
2 pairs of socks (but they had books on them!)
a little bit of new exercise clothing (no way was I buying that used!)
3 new magazine subscriptions (Veg Times, Scaba Diving and Martha)

craft stuff (which is kind of excepted by The Compact)
new bamboo knitting needles
new embroidery hoop
new embroidery needles
new sewing machine needles
sewing patterns
new thread
E6000 glue

and the positive steps I’ve made: (not just for buying, but for reducing my ecological footprint)
- signed up for a CSA (organic and local fruits and veggies!)
- take showers and lower temperatures
- increased the bulk foods I buy and decreased canned and packaged
- increased the time in between shaves to decrease razor use
- buying more organic foods
- serving on the advisory board for an eco-fashion startup
- got a lot of stuff I needed via swaps, bought used, or given to me

Ok, I’ve still got a lot of room for improvement, mostly due to my own laziness, but I am happy with some of the key steps I’ve made. I have definitely been much more aware of how my purchases affect the planet and I am still continuing to improve. As my skills improve (sewing, fixing things, building, etc) I think I will be even more independent from stores. I think my lifestyle is becoming more closely aligned with my values, and that has made me happier.