Another lovely crafternoon!

So in the holiday vacation, I was lazing around the house, when my mother called and asked me to go spend our well-earned JoAnn's gift certificates. I was, of course willing to oblige.

We had a lovely lunch and spent lots of time pouring over wonderful craft supplies. After using up the gift cards, I headed home. But not before calling Bohemiangrrl and inviting her over for hangouts, dinner, movies and crafting.

We crafted, devoured burritos and watched Thirst (totally gory/R-rated vampire movie, btw) and since it was so messed up, we watched The Neverending Story. I found out that the movie I loved when I was little is still pretty awesome!

In the middle we did some crafting, mostly me trying to pick a pattern for a new project while Bohemiangrrl did some actual crocheting and Joe was fashioning some awesome costume parts.

I have to say, it was pretty great!! Now I have to make tons of stuff tomorrow!

Happy crafting all!


<3 ~Magpie

Post-Holiday post!

WHEW! I survived!!! I made a lot of things this year and feel really good about them, but I'm gonna show off my newest sculpt, since I haven't really sculpted in a while.

He is a baby red dragon I made for a friend who collects them.

I'm not gonna lie, I wanted to keep him!!!

I loved making him, and I miss him already!

Mitzi Scarf

You may notice a new (free) pattern to the right of the blog. The Mitzi Scarf is something I whipped up yesterday when looking for a cute, fast crochet project for gift giving.

I hope you like it!! I'd LOVE to see pictures of Mitzi Scarves people have made so feel free to sent them in!!!!

Yumcakes!

So J found a fudha.com deal for a dozen cupcakes for half price.

So he placed an order and we popped in. The shop, (Bakery Gingham) was tiny but adorable. Definitely something I'd love to own! They had our order ready and we were out the door in three minutes.

We had to run errands and forgot we even HAD them until about midnight thirty!! So, being the responsible adults we are, we busted into the box and nommed!


I had a "Snowball - coconut cake with coconut buttercream icing" and J had a "Ultra-violet White - white cake with pale purple vanilla buttercream icing". They were DELICIOUS!

I think we're going to go back and see about them making our wedding cake!

I would highly recommend this shop!

YAY! I did it!

So I kinda just threw this together, but I'm pretty pleased with it all in all!

Circles

I've seen this kind of necklace on several websites and in magazines, but was too anxious to try it.

But I decided to give it a go today. Mostly it involves making rings of various lengths of chains then sc or dc around in a ring then weaving them together. I'll post more when the project is done.

Decem-brrrrrrrr

November and December are the busiest months of the year.

Preparing for holidays, traveling and making gifts. On top of it all, we had to move back our wedding date 5 months! So we just lost 5 months of planning!! EEK!

So I'm just trying to make it through the holidays. In the meantime, I have been making more necklaces and Mary Jane Slippers for gifts.

You might also notice a new crochet pattern on the right hand side of the blog. I painstakingly re-created a pattern from a 30 year old stocking, who's designer was long lost. I really loved the process though despite it taking several months, and I am interested in making some of my very own designs. Please feel free to support my site and download the pdf for your own holiday creations!

And keep coming back, and I promise to try to keep up with the posts!

Finally a home for ancestors!

We finally made a space in our home for our ancestors.

It makes me happy to have a place dedicated to remembering them!

Busy 24

So I've been pretty busy the last 24 hours!

I started NaNoWriMo yesterday and hit it off by going to the first Columbus write-in. I really had a blast! I went way over the word count, but trashed a large portion of it this morning. (Bad internal editor, bad!)

And now, I've found that if I am writing anything, an e-mail, a work document, I feel like I'm cheating on NaNo. Right now would be one of those times.

But I wanted to take a second and post two pictures. One of the gi-normous wedding cake J and I made this weekend...and one of the drawing I did last week of Apollo. Also to mention that I did go out early this morning to vote and I highly encourage you to go do the same if you are American (I have a couple of Canadian followers). It is one of the best things about a democratic government and it is a privilege that not everyone in the world has. So get out there and vote!!


Yes, this is a coffin-shaped wedding cake. As was requested by the bride and groom, being married on Halloween. I have better pictures to be posted later when I have some more free time. It was close to 80 lbs of cake. Red Velvet cake with dark chocolate cream cheese icing and sculpted modeling chocolate roses.

The undertaking took two people 21+ hours of labor, 3 dozen eggs, many pounds of chocolate, flour and sugar and what was left of my sanity. But we were really proud of it and it seemed to go over well.

Here is my depiction of Apollo. He is often found depicted as a young man, long hair and carrying a wreath or a branch of laurel. As may be evident, I'm not particularly good with drawing human anatomy. But I enjoyed learning about his stories.

I had better get back to NaNo, before she becomes jealous!

It is NaNoWriMo time again!

Yet again, I am going to give a go to NaNoWriMo. It is a month-long challenge to writers to write every day and get fifty thousand words written.

This will be my fourth year giving it a go and hopefully I will get more than a few pages written this year.

I am encouraged by some words of advice given this weekend. So I am going to give it another try.

If there is anyone else joining in, let me know and I'll add you to my NaNo buddies!

How I became a fairy... (pic heavy)

It started so simply. See, I had to pass out candy to the children in the neighborhood, but I had no costume!

And I really heart Twig the Fairy and wanted to try and see what an evening in her wings might be like!

So I found a few things lying around the craft room.

And I tied the dried eucalyptus into a circlet.


Then took off leaves from a glittery fall garland and started sewing them to the eucalyptus.


And tied gold, red and brown ribbons to them.

Voila!


Then I grabbed a pretty autumn ribbon for a belt, butterfly wings and a cornucopia...and "Belindalyn" was born!


Apparently, not all fairies are smiley and fluttery. Some are a little scary. But he was nice enough and I asked him to help me with the "tricks" portion of the evening.

What a silly couple we make!!



My favorite quotes from the night:

After scary fairy jumped out at them...

"Lady, you could have told me he was real."

"I'm a big kid...but that was pretty scary."

One brave boy was debating going back past him or not to get back to the sidewalk. I was worried he was scared, so I said to him, "It's okay, you can cut through the yard..." But he took a deep breath, faced scary fairy, clutched his candy bag to his chest and bolted past him. So brave!

One tiny witch was leery of getting too close to the scary one, but I gave her candy anyways. Her eyes didn't leave him until her mom said "Look honey, a fairy!" Her face lit up and she rushed to me, shouting proudly "I'm a witch!" When I told her it looked like she had lots of candy, she held up her plastic pumpkin and said "Yeah, want some?" How sweet!!

It was a lovely night and I'm glad we're still happy to celebrate and share this great holiday with happy kids!

When you ask....

...sometimes you get more than you hoped for. I'm not going to lie, I prayed for a guitar. As silly as that sounds. Last week I really wanted to get back into making music. I didn't know how I could afford one, with the wedding and new car shopping that will have to happen.

I wasn't holding my breath, but I really hoped I would get one.

Fast forward to today.

It was a pretty rough day. A lot of unpleasant memories and panic. Weddings, while beautiful expressions of love of a couple can also be a lot of stress and familial obligations and I really wanted to take to the road with a hobo bag on a stick and run away.

But as the boy got home, we headed out and saw, what I call, the sky blushing. It's amazing how quickly I can start to feel hopeful. With one simple glimpse at the pink sky, I felt better.

So we headed to an old NERO friend's place. Apparently he got an amazing job in the road with Monty Python's Spamalot and the touring show. As such, he had less than a week to offload his earthly possessions.

While I didn't get my guitar...we came home with this:

Who says prayers don't get answered? Not this girl.

Aphrodite

Here is my watercolor pencil and ink of Aphrodite.


I wanted her to be soft, but beautiful. I kinda goofed on her face a bit, when the pen I used smeared with the watercolor, which hasn't happened to me before. I might redo this one, but I was glad to have finished.

Next picture will be Apollo!

Special night...

So we celebrated a special evening last night. It was the anniversary of a talk that cemented a friendship that turned into a partnership that turned into love.

So I thought I'd be clever and send the boy on a mad dash around town, following clues that would lead him to a spot that was significant in the beginning of our relationship. There he'd find another clue, that would lead him to another location and eventually, he'd get a few small gifts along the way and find me, waiting for him, with a nice dinner at the end.

In case there was any doubt to the location of the clues, I also left chalk hearts around town, leading the way.


I was apparently only a few minutes ahead of him, and he met with me shortly thereafter, all grins and with a present in return for me! I was pretty proud of my own cleverness and we ordered tea. He missed the present I had left at one of the locations, so he debated making me wait to open mine, but in the end, he couldn't wait and had me open mine.

A bit of background on the present. When I was a teenager, I really wanted an American Girl doll. They were pretty new and fantastically expensive. So I mentioned to Joe that I always wanted one. So when I unwrapped my present, it was really sweet that he found a miniature version of the doll I wanted. I was really pleased and took his hand and smiled.

But he just kept looking at me, expectantly. So I thought maybe he wanted a bigger response from me, so I opened the box and this is what I saw.

If I'm not mistaken, I was speechless for a long moment, followed by a "Are you for real?"

He said, "For real, for real. I'd have done it three years ago. But if you're willing to have me I'd like to be your husband. With the one concession that I get the permission from your dad since he's the only one I haven't talked to first." (My dad works night shift and sleeps during the day).

In the end, I said yes. And proceeded to feel humbled and speechless by his superior cleverness.

You out-did me this time, sir.

Now we wait for dad's approval and then begins the terror of planning a wedding.

Catching up

Sorry I've been absent for a while. With J's sister's wedding and getting sick, it's been a real struggle for time this week.

I did want to celebrate my second etsy sale! Wewt!!! I'd love to get more stuff on the site to sell more!!!

Also, in case anyone thought their boss was awesome, here is what mine brought for me today!!!

In case you can't tell, that little silver thing is a ruler! This is a foot and a half of twizzle-joy!!!

It's gonna be a good week, I think!

Little Butter-friend

Clinging onto my window.

In hindsight, he might have been a moth...but I still loved that he hung around my window.

He was a welcome visitor.

Hestia

This was an amazing week, I'm a little sad to see it go.

Here is the Hestia watercolor & ink.
(Carrying the lit hearth fire)


(A close up of her face, which I wanted to be soft)

Shawl Pins

So I saw these gorgeous shawl pins at the fiber fair and though.."Well, I could make that."

So I did.

(I'm gonna call this one "Purple Haze")

Bardic Guild Quilt pics

Hera

This is my Hera ink and watercolor.

(Sitting on a throne with a lotus scepter.)

I think she turned out alright. Though I wonder if her posture and garb belies her stature.

(Close-up of her face and scepter.)

I hope you like it!

Spoonflower

So I was introduced to the site Spoonflower.com. It allows you to upload your own designs and have them printed on fabric.

Anyone with a few bucks and an image can create their own fabric!!!

I decided to give it a try and uploaded two designs, one I downloaded of three cranes and a fleur de lis pattern I quickly sketched up in MS Paint. Really, the interface couldn't be easier and they also have an editor program that you can use to add designs or edit the pictures as well.

They promise an 11 day turn around to ship. My swatches were ordered 9/2 and arrived last night (9/15) So from order, to printing to delivery all told took 13 days!



I am pleased with the turnout, as well as the turn around time. I have yet to wash the fabric, but it looks like it will hold up alright to gentle cycle.

For people who either quilt or just can't find the perfect fabric for their product, you can be a fabric designer!!!! I highly recommend giving it a try!

Also, if you like my fleur de lis fabric, it can also be bought there at my designer page! And they allow you to sell original designs that you've purchased swatches of and you get a percentage of the order profits! So if you are better than me, you might be able to sell something and make a little money too!

Love is....

coming home to a handmade, candle lit dinner.

It was delicious and really sweet.

<3 you.

Zeus - Watercolor Pencil and Ink

So I wanted to do a drawing for my week with researching and learning about Zeus. So I found an image off www.theoi.com of Zeus from a vase and decided to try and give it a shot. It seems that the majority of early paintings of Zeus were pretty simple and not too complicated.

My version seems to have turned out a bit cartoony, but all in all, not the white haired dude chillin' on Mt. Olympus that I had imagined.

I'm not a drawer or painter by any stretch of the imagination, but I wanted to try anyways.

First come the mediocre sketches with a #2 pencil.

Then, I picked the wider one vs. the taller so you could see his arms. And I started filling in with water color pencils.

....and promptly remembered I should have outlined in ink first.

Continuing with the colored pencils, dseciding on this orange for the background because I thought it was a good "vase" color.

This is the picture all colored in with watercolor pencils.

The picture after the brushes did their pass over the pigment.

I really do like how it turned out, despite the cartoony nature of it. But I got some good insight into Zeus and I really think he appreciates the effort I put in to try and understand him.

My Joe

This is my Joe.

(Pretty handsome, huh?)

Most people may not know, but he's a pretty amazing guy.

He's clever and witty and isn't afraid of being downright silly.

(Dressed as a ballerina for Halloween)

He is the slayer of insects and the defender of our home from drunk guys trying to do yardwork against our will.

He cooks way better than anyone I know and has a close, personal relationship with Alton Brown.

(Ouch.)


He is the man who teaches me, questions me and is the one who knows how to put my pieces back together when I fall apart.

If I ask him a question he doesn't know, he goes to find out the answer because he likes learning as much as I do.

He is an amazing (if not occasionally frustrating) master of debate.

He doesn't mind my insatiable thirst to be something greater, to learn something better and to go experience more things in life with the stupid awe of a kid.

He doesn't mind me taking pictures of him cooking, spelunking, opening presents, making books, hundreds and hundreds of pictures.

When I wake up from the middle of a nightmare, he tells me I need to go back to sleep because he was just about to come save me. He makes me feel safe.

No matter what happens, I know he is my partner, in every sense of the word.

(I love you)