Struggling with Cherry Blossoms

Tonight I did some crocheting as Tiger Daddy listened to music.  Finished another Easter Egg and then decided to try my hand a making a cherry blossom flower... hahaha!!!  FAIL!!!  I am trying to get the petals just right and boy am I struggling with it. If the petal looks right, the flower itself looks too squished and the center is ginormous.  If the flower isn't squished, then the petals just don't have the proportion I am looking for.  (I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.  Right now I'm exhausted)

Well, on the bright side, for us Cherry Blossom ends this weekend with the (2nd) final weekend of the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival.  So I fully accept that I will have nothing for this weekend.  I hadn't planned on it so, no big disappointment there.  So, I'll have a whole year to keep working on an original crochet pattern for a cherry blossom.

Variables to work with: Right now my blossoms are coming out looking chunky instead of delicate.   I am using worsted weight yarn.  I am thinking of trying out something lighter, not as chunky.  Play with hook size.

Yet another project to add to the list.

Past Project: Christmas 2007 Amigurumi Dolls and Photo Collage Boxes

I was going through my digital photo albums today and found pictures from my 2007 Christmas projects.  Every fall I find projects that I belive will be meaningful, thoughtful gifts for Christmas. And every December, I am scrambling to get everything done.  Each year seems to get more and more elaborate.  Last year was a magnet shop, turning out over 300 magnets, as well as snow flake ornament factory, a candle factory and few other projects.  In 2007, I had two main projects: the Amigurumi dolls, pictured above, and (behind them in the picture) photo collage boxes.  Considering last year's goals, 2007 was a light year, though I was still scrambling at the end.

The amigurumi dolls were crocheted from patterns I found at Lions Brand (boy pattern here and girl pattern here), but I changed the colors to suite the recipients. I love to crochet because I can pretty much do it anywhere - on the bus, at work, in front of the TV.  And these dolls were pretty easy to make.

The photo collage boxes were a lot more work because I went through hundreds of digital pictures as well as scanned dozens of older pictures from my in-laws.  I can't remember what exactly inspired this box, but I did not use a how to, just winged it. 

The basic design is fairly simple:

1) Get a photo archival box (as it would acid free and the recipients could store pictures in it if they choose).  I got 3 boxes of $10 or so at a photo store that has since closed.

2) Measure the dimensions of the area to be covered for both the top and the body of the box.  I have to admit that I did not cover the bottom of the box.

3) Choose the pictures you want and print on acid free paper.***

4) I used Mod Podge to glue it to the box. 

5) Once dry, spray with clear gloss to protect - I used some Krylon product with a matte finish.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, in my anal desire to make everything fit just right, I used Photoshop to make 1:1 digital templates of the surface that needed to be covered. Then I took the pictures I wanted put on the box (tailored to the recipient) and arranged them on the template to make sure important areas of the pictures were not cut off.  I resized pictures as necessary.  On the band of the cover, you'll notice that pictures fit the height of the band almost perfectly.  In Photoshop, each picture was a separate layer. After I got everything arranged just the way I wanted, I copied each picture and pasted them onto 8 x 11.5 templates, so I could fit as many pictures on each page.  I had my husband print them from a laser printer on acid free paper (he was smart and made 3 copies of each page).  I cut the pictures out and using my original template as a guide, I mod podged the pictures to the box.

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 I don't know if I conveyed the amount of work it took to make these boxes, but what I thought would be an easy project turned out not to be.  It's probably because I am a perfectionist at heart and when I make personalized gifts like these I agonize of each aspect, such as which pictures to use, which pictures to "feature", i.e. make a little larger, where to put each picture...  I don't remember how many hours I spent just arranging the pictures, but I imagine it was a ton.

But, this is potentially a very easy project, if you don't sweat the small stuff like I did.  And in the end, I was very, very pleased with the results.  My only disappointment was that I chose not to cover the bottom of the boxes, and that is a minor disappointment.

Thanks for going down craft memory lane with me.

Happy Crafting everyone!

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Reunited

I was reunited with my crochet bag this weekend.  Tiger Daddy inadvertently left it has his mother's house before we went to Reno in an attempt to be more space efficient.  So all of last week I had to fight the urge to buy some new hooks and yarn.  I knew that we would be visiting again this weekend to celebrate Tiger Daddy's grandmother's birthday, so I could not rationalize buying new equipment and yarn.

Since being reunited with my crochet bag I worked on some of Easy's Easter Eggs and Measured by the Heart's spring flowers:

 The eggs are for Nana Bear's class and hopefully I'll make plenty for the family as well.

The spring flowers are being sewn onto ponytail holders.  I had made a few just before vacation and gave them to Nana Bear and the Wild L's daughters, Red and Sosie.  I was afraid they might be too big in proportion to the girls' heads, but they looked fine.

My eggs don't hold a candle to Easy's, but I'm happy with them.  Dare Bear is very fond of them.  This afternoon he spent rolling them around his in little yellow school bus and squeezing them in and out of the door.  I think I'm going to invest in some yellow yarn and a multicolor yarn that is more suited for boys.

Tiger Daddy and I have been once again pondering my opening of an Etsy shop.  The problem is I need to finish some salable product.  I think I am going to start with my hand warmers and maybe some of the ponytail holders... I also need to start pricing.  Fingers crossed that we open shop in the next couple of months.

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Today's Inspiration: Magic Wishing Stones at Craftbits

It's been awhile since I've published "Today's Inspiration" as vacation and the back to work and life busy-ness took over.  But today I was at Craftbits and saw this post: Magic Wishing Stones.  I like their idea of taking natural rocks and making them magical and special.  I think Nana Bear's classmates would enjoy them. 

However, my delusions of grandeur self envisions something slightly different.  Instead of making a wish and throwing the rocks, I envision using flat marbles and gluing icons to them, such as a heart for love, holding hands for friendship, an airplane for travel, etc., and people can rub or hug or sleep with them under their pillow.  I could even make a small pouch for storage.  hmm...  inspiration.

Well, I probably will do the Craftbit rocks for Nana Bear's class - I can just see them throwing the rocks and giggling.  But I am somewhat enchanted by the bigger project... I can't believe there are only 6 weeks of school left.

Happy Crafting!

Bling Bling does not equal Love

It's not the size of the diamond nor dreams one promises to fulfill, but the reality one brings that matters most. Money comes and goes, and dreams are never ending, but the qualities of character one has now... those are everlasting.

Nana Bear has been telling everyone how she wants an engagement ring and could she wear one to school and ask a boy to marry her.  All very cute for a 5 (and a half) year old and Tiger Daddy and I don't know whether to laugh or cry at these stories.  What I do know is that between the tween shows on TV (which we don't allow Nana Bear to watch) and other outside influences, I have to be ever vigilant about instilling a non-materialistic outlook in my children.  I even have family members telling us that Nana Bear should not accept engagement rings less than 1 carat.  If I personally believed that, Tiger Daddy and I would not be married, and I would not have these two wonderful children. 

Now, I'm not saying that financial stability shouldn't be important or shouldn't be a factor in choosing a spouse.  I knew that Tiger Daddy and I would be able to live a comfortable life with pretty things even if we didn't yet have those things (and in some cases we still don't).  I had faith in us, in our collective ability to carve out a good life.  And everyone is different and has different desires in life, different qualities they want in a partner. My list of needs in a partner will be different from yours, but I hope that Nana Bear (and Dare) learn that the important things in life and in marriage rarely come from money and a rock on her finger will not ensure that her mate will take care of her, nor is it in proportion to how much her mate loves her. 

Fabric Hunting

With my crochet projects and needles in Sacramento, my crafting is a little blocked.  I like to multi-task, and in this day and age of Facebook, Twitter, TiVo, I have found myself with a short attention span.  So I often have two or more projects in process at a time (and sometimes dream up more to do add to the list).  Right now I have my crochet eggs, flower ponytail holders, and a number of sewing projects. To sew, I have to go to my parents, where my sewing machine has space to live. They are only two doors down so it's not too bad, but it means I can't watch TV with Tiger Daddy at the same time. 

So last night, we watched Castle and NCIS: LA and I perused the Fabric.com site for fabrics for future projects.  After such success and ease of sewing with the make-up bags, I decided that I wanted to make them into dop kits for the men and that I wanted to try using vinyl or laminated fabric instead of the iron vinyl.  So I searched through Fabric.com's vinyl, indoor/outdoor, and oil cloth sections and found some combinations for the guys and lots of fabrics for make-up bags.  Then it dawned on me that I could use the indoor/outdoor and heavy weight upholstery/home decor fabric for these bags.  They would be heavier duty and easiery to clean on the outside too. 

With taxes due the middle of the month, I'm in a look only mode for fabric right now.  But with the new job starting in May and the corresponding, if not ever so slight, wage increase, I can look forward to purchasing some in May - in time to craft for Father's day gifts. 

Don't you love it when the light bulb goes on and you come up with some good ideas?  So re-energizing.

Happy crafting all!

Home Sweet Home

And we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Our spring break was wonderful, surpassing our expectations.  We managed to drive to Vancouver, WA in one day and got to see our very lovely friends, The Wild Ls, for two nights. Mr. Wild has been friends with Tiger Daddy since high school and they were groomsmen for each other's weddings. They have two daughters age 8 and 6 (well almost) who got along famously with Nana Bear - they had Princess Fashion Shows, built forts, and basically had two nights of slumber parties.  Dare Bear, while not as involved with the girls, had a wonderful time with them too, being that Mr. Wild is also a train enthusiast.

The Wild Ls took us to the Oregon Zoo in Portland, which is fabulous. One of the most gorgeous zoos I have seen (not that I have seen many).  Their Northwest exhibit is awesome as it winds down the natural landscape.  They have a little creek running through the exhibit and at different points talk about the salmon spawning, the insects supported in the ecosystem, the types of tracks you would find, etc.  The piece de resistance is their Eagle exhibit.  They have two bald eagles and the creek empties into their habitat.  The creek contains live fish for the Eagles to feast on.  Next to the Eagle habitat is the otter and beaver habitats and you could see the otter having a grand time jumping into the water and swimming about.  It was a drizzley day, so after the Northwest exhibit we rode the train.  After exiting the train, we were met with a sudden downpour and quickly hightailed it to the car.  Dare was so tired from all the activity, he fell asleep on the way back to the car.

After our wonderfully relaxing visit with the Wild Ls, we went to Portland, where we stayed at a gorgeous hotel.  As part of the deal, we got upgraded to a suite.  We put the kids in the main bedroom area, on a nice King sized bed and we slept on the pullout sofa.  Sounds a little backwards, but we got to sleep together on vacation for the first time in a while.  Usually, Dare Bear and I take one bed (as he is quite the mommy's boy) and Nana Bear and Tiger Daddy take the other.  So I was very happy at the sleeping arrangements.

We visited with Tiger Daddy's family, which was lovely. We hadn't visited them in quite awhile so it was quite nice to see everyone.  Tiger Daddy's brother and sister-in-law had flown up the day before and we got to introduce her to the rest of the family. 

On Monday, we went to OMSI - Oregon Museum of Science and Industry - where everyone had a great time playing with all the hands-on science projects.  It is like the Exploratorium but more polished.  The kids did not want to leave.

After Oregon, we went down to Sacramento to visit Tiger Daddy's mom and relax a little before we picked up my mom and headed to Reno, where we spent the last few days of our vacation.  No one won big, but the kids had a great time at the arcade, where the family won 1,046 tickets. 

Not much crafting was done - a lost my yarn needle and forgot my batting at home.  Now my crochet equipment and WIPs are in Sacramento... So this week may be light on the crafting. 

All in all it was a great vacation, but I am glad to be home.  I have a month at my "old" job and then I start my new job at the beginning of May.  So lots of tidying and organizing before I leave.