TYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Crafty Diversions: May 2007

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Frenzy

My apologies to my swap pals for being a little slow to post the goodies I've been receiving. I received this earthy-color themed package from my Secret Pal 10 swap pal a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely love the fancy fabric, and the colors of the cashmere yarn! The chocolate is also to die for -- I actually bought and ate a couple bars of this chocolate when hubby and I went to Belgium for the Soccer World Cup last summer.
From my Dye-No-Mite swap pal, I received an adorable and thoughtful card with cute and furry sheep on it.

Since Aubrey's wedding is fast approaching (this Saturday!!), I've been helping her with wedding sweatshop (photos here) and other wedding things. I just finished making her chapel length veil, made of silk chiffon trimmed with a rat tail lace at the bottom and a pearl and rat tail trim to match her fancy lace dress. Aubrey hired my friend Linh, who's staying with me, as the florist, so we've been running flower-related errands as well. The wedding is days away, and I still have yet to alter my bridesmaids dress. I have to shorten the straps and take it in near my armpits. Luckily, the empire waist means that I don't have to take in the rib/waist as well. I had to buy a size larger to accommodate my abnormally endowed bosom, which my friend Tedd claims that I stole from all the other Asian girls we knew in college.

As far as my other crafty activities, I'm trying to be an overachiever and spinning lace weight alpaca as my 3rd spinning project. Needless to say, the yarn keeps breaking on me -- I keep underspinning or overspinning and somehow failing to spin somewhere in between. This spinning project is testing my patience and tolerance! I don't think I have more than 15 yards on the spool at this point, and I started about a week ago.

I've also been dyeing the past two weekends. Last weekend, I painted some yarn and rovings for by of my swap pals in the Dye-No-Mite swap and Secret Pal 10 swaps. I also handpainted and listed this in my shop:

Then, this past Sunday, I hosted my 5th Wine, Dye and Knit party. No one got drunk, but my klutzy talents did not fail me -- I spilled half a bottle of red dye on my blonde bamboo floors and all over Robert's (from my knitting group) shoe. Oops! Luckily, I didn't spill on anyone else -- I guess it was a good lesson on what not to do for the 3 dye virgins that came. I'm fortunate that only one tiny spot on the floor turned a little pink, but it's barely noticeable. I'm actually pretty proud of myself because this is only my first major dye accident.

And last but not least, I finally remembered to photograph the purse I made for Aubrey's bridal shower gift.


The inside has 2 pockets, 2 magnetic snaps and a key ring hook.

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posted by Anne at 10:06 PM 9 Comments

Friday, May 11, 2007

If Only for a Moment

I woke to this morning to find one of my items featured on the front page of Etsy. Unfortunately, being on the front page can last from a few hours to 1-2 days, and I think mine was a few hours. It's no longer on the front page, and I failed to capture the image. Darn! Here's the image of the collection that was featured though:

Lately I have been sewing away, not just in Aubrey's sweatshop, but also in my own. I've spent the last 2 weeks designing and tweaking a couple of purse patterns. I made one for Aubrey, but I forgot to take photos of if before giving it to her.

These two bags below are for my godmother and my stepmother. I decided to let them decide between the two of them which one they want:
"Gigi" tote w/ paisley lining
"Gigi" bag with paisley lining
"Gigi" tote w/ paisley lining"Gigi" tote w/ paisley lining

"Fortune Cookie"
"Fortune Cookie" bottom view"Fortune Cookie"

I'm call the first design "Gigi" and the second one "Fortune Cookie." I currently have another "Gigi" in the same striped outer fabric but with a fun martini print lining in my etsy shop.

I also made these 2 headbands for the shop, but of course, I also made 2 additional ones for myself to wear. :)

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posted by Anne at 12:22 PM 6 Comments

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Lucha Libre!

I was perusing some bloggers from the Dye-No-Mite swap and came across Teresa's. She had a weird looking picture, which was apparently from this website from the Netherlands described as "a fine collection of random stuff such as cool inventions and people with really bad days."

Well, part of the collection (#26) included some knitted masks that look like lucha libre masks! This is my favorite from the knitted mask collection. The masks were created by artist Chrystl Rijkeboer, who's work centers around her "astonishment about human life." She describes on her website,
"My work is figurative and recognisable but shape and proportions are not necessarily correct or 'beautiful', what matters is the sensation they evoke. You can always view my work in two ways: kind, pleasant and innocent, or frightening, condemning and guilty."
Not only are the artist's art and projects creative, odd, intriguing and ingenous, they are provocative and progressive. Many of her projects are made from human hair. Yup. Here are some film stills featuring human hair getting spun into yarn from her 2005 "Stolen Identity" project. She has so many intriguing projects that it's really hard for me to select a favorite...There's the hair-covered medicine cabinet highlighting the vain consumer in all of us, the odd hairy balls with teeth illustrating society's fear of immigration and multiculturalism, the gnome army symbolizing the violence in peacekeeping and occupation, and there's this hairy chair which was the artist's commentary on social and sex discrimination:
There are so many things to show, you might as well go to her website and check it out yourselves!

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posted by Anne at 1:37 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Gluttony

1000 apologies to my swap pals. I was preparing for a weekend of gluttony and did not post the lovely things I received from them. First, I must thank my SP10 pal, who got me a generous $25 gift certificate to Earth Faire for my 30 something 29th birthday. It was frustrating trying to order, as I came across many snafoos and glitches in their online ordering and coupon redeeming process. However, Ellen, who runs the shop, was very responsive and tried her best to be helpful. I ordered a bottle of Soak, Opal yarn and some yummy beads.


My second thank you goes to "Pippins," my Dye-No-Mite pal, who sent me the lovely package below. It's a good thing that hubby prefers milk over dark chocolate. Otherwise, we'd sure have a fight over the mouth-watering dark chocolate in my package. My pal also included a skein of Henry's Attic Kona that she dyed herself, and a bar of handmade natural soap with tea tree oil.
Whitey Coyote and Brownie just had to inspect and supervise my photo-taking. After taking the photo above, Whitey Coyote drooled over the yarn and rolled and rubbed herself in it when she thought I wasn't looking. Of course, she pretended to be innocent and disinterested when she realized that I saw her. Sneaky brat.

Gluttonous Weekend
I spent the weekend with Aubrey and her freinds at her bachelorette party up in the Santa Ynez valley. It almost felt like a college vacation, especially since we stacked ourselves in the rooms like sardines. Although I must say that the nice beachfront hotel with heated pool was certainly more preferable than the cheap motels my friends and I stayed during our excursions. If can can recall correctly, we drank, ate, drank, ate, toured wineries, drank, drank, drank, ate. And as if we didn't have enough already, prior to driving back, a few of us had mimosas and bloody marys during brunch. A few of the many highlights of this festive weekend:

Left: Sadie, the winery pooch, with whom I fell in love and wanted to dog-nap. Right (l-r): Me, Kim, Aubrey, Derrick and Sadie.


Above: We spotted this baby goat in the back of a truck driving in front of us. This cutie looked frightened, tense and very unsteady in the back of that truck. With every little bump in the road and bounce of the truck, the poor goat looked like it would topple over the side. I couldn't help but think that the accident would be imminent and the poor goat would end up under the wheels of a passing car. The goat looked tied and appeared to be blocked in by a bale of hay, but as you can see from the photos, there were no other safety features (like a rail) to prevent the goat from falling off the truck. :(
Above: The beautiful bride-to-be in a vineyard.

Above: At our last vineyard stop, I spotted this amazing tree with beautifully angled and twisted branches. The leaves seemed to glow with the sun shining through, and when I looked up, the branches looked like they were preparing for an intimate embrace.

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posted by Anne at 12:06 AM 2 Comments

Thursday, May 03, 2007

So Early!

Ok, finally, proof that I am not a liar. The first episode we shot for Uncommon Threads is airing at 7am on HGTV PT/ET. I hope we don't look dorky on TV, but I don't know if that many people will see it anyway, since it's airing awfully early.

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posted by Anne at 2:36 PM 7 Comments

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

:: sigh ::

Well, Magknits never published an April issue, and as I said before, waiting sucks. So now it's May. The May issue is up, but my pattern is not in it. I did not get an email about why April was never published, nor did I get one about why my pattern is not in the May issue either. I sent an email to the Magknits editor again this morning and am waiting for a reply. If they're going to publish it, I wish they'd do it already or let me know their intentions, instead of letting me hang. I very much appreciate courtesy emails. If they've changed their mind about publishing it, I just want to know so that I can either self-publish or submit it elsewhere.

I'm starting to wonder if people think I'm a liar. I submitted the pattern to Magknits in November 2006 and still have nothing to show for it. In September 2006, my friends and I taped 2 episodes of Uncommon Threads, which started airing in March, but they stopped the airing schedule midway. I don't know when they will resume, but our episodes belong in the unaired batch. Knitty Gritty probably won't air for some time either (but that's not too big, since I was only a knitster). Well, at least I have this.

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posted by Anne at 11:54 PM 2 Comments