WIPWednesday: Christmas + Books

Between Thanksgiving, my birthday on the 2nd, and a crazy busy week at work I haven't had much time for crafting, but I made time yesterday. I found some reindeer at the local craft store for fifty-nine cents a pop. So of course I grabbed a bunch.

I didn't finish this guy because I had to clean up and get ready for work- boo. So far so good though, yeah? I used pages from Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. I also plan on some sheet music reindeer, too. I should have a whole mess of these little guys soon!

Finally finished: Friends bookshelf project!

I actually finished this a while ago... and never got around to blogging it. Go figure.

I'm really quite pleased with how it came out!

It feels so nice to have it done.

Have a great weekend!

WIPWednesday: Vintage Ribbon projects.

I have a ton of really awesome vintage ribbon. A couple years ago an old neighbor gave it to us; she was a secretary in a ribbon factory in the '60s and she'd hung on to it all this time.

Isn't it so awesome?? The problem I've got is that I'm kind of terrified to use it. It's so special and unique and so I end up hoarding it. I've used it in cardmaking once or twice, but never ever to wrap a gift! I'm trying to find projects that use it in ways where it won't be thrown away.

My first idea? Clear glass bulbs.

I'm not entirely happy with the result. To be honest, I'm kind of tired of the glass-ornament-filled-with-stuff look. And it was a pain trying to force the ribbon through the small opening at the top of the ornament.

Ideas? I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you would do with ribbon like this!

A late Halloween post

I've been slacking a bit.

I have been busy... but not that busy. Halloween party with my little brother, work, visits from family friends, and another trip to San Luis Obispo.

Kyle and I spent a lot of time and probably too much money on decorations and stuff. I made a ton of chocolate skulls for the occasion.

I used candy melts because they make it so easy-peasy; no tempering the chocolate, plus they came in bright orange! The molds are from Wilton. I picked up the super-tarnished platter at a local thrift store. Isn't it neat? I carefully covered the bottom with cellophane and double-sided tape because it was kind of gross.

Making them all was kind of a pain the ass. The big skull mold was not designed to be hollow and it took more than a whole bag of candy melts. All the skulls, big and small, are poured in two parts and had to be chocolated together. Like I said, big messy pain in the ass. Chocolate everywhere.

But they look so cool. At the risk of sounding like a seventeen-year-old with "YOLO" plastered across her t-shirt I'm gonna say it was worth it.

WIPWednesday: Scarf

Whew! It's been like a week or something since I blogged. Last week I was getting ready for a garage sale, mostly, and sorting through stuff in the garage. (I made seventy bucks, but I still have so much crap that didn't sell!)

Yesterday on my day off I went to Jo-Ann's for some glue. The one in town just moved to a giant new location and I wound up in the yarn aisle- oops. Don't need any yarn. Bought some anyways.

I figured I need a new scarf anyways though, right? I got some beautiful Besnat roving, and popped in a DVD a coworker had loaned me (Crazy Stupid Love). I poked around Pinterest for some ideas but kind of came up with my own pattern.

It's going quickly with the bulky yarn. I could finish it today if I didn't have to go to work. I haven't crocheted anything in something like eight months, and I didn't realize how much I missed it.

WIPWednesday: sidetracked

Not much crafting this week. I'm trying to clean out my closet and read some of the books I've got laying around. I've got a big stack that I want to read but probably aren't keepers, so by reading, I'm also cleaning and decluttering! My logic is sound, right??

I did work on this WIP for about five minutes before I got distracted. Ok, maybe ten minutes.

I traced out the letters using an old drafting pencil- light lines, and a long, sturdy lead to get into the tight corners of those letters! Once I glue them down I'll have to do some trimming with a razor, but they turned out pretty well!

I started looking for my mod podge and instead I found... some tiny toys.

I got totally sidetracked taking pictures of them and never found my glue. 

So now I still haven't finished this damn project (that really should have taken, like, a day) and my desk is littered with PVC figurines and micromachines.

I suppose it could be worse.

Paperback Correspondance: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

I love love love writing letters and kind of hoard stationary. I also love making cards, and as I mentioned in my last post, I made some with an old copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

I first read The Wizard of Oz in fourth grade for a board game making project. I vividly remember staying up late the night before with my mom pouring green sugar over swirls of Elmer's all over my board because we didn't have any glitter. To my delight I learned there were several other Oz books and I read them all. I didn't see the movie until I was in high school (though I watched Return to Oz all the time on TV as a kid).

It is absolutely one of my favorite books and I had so much fun making these cards.

I made one for each of Dorothy's faithful companions- the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion.

I also made one with an illustration of the Munchkins, too. I plan on making more this week!

I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I don't know if I'll be able to bear actually sending one of these away!

WIPWednesday: My craft stash, my life.

Alas, I have made no progress on last week's WIPWednesday project. I did sit down to work on it on Monday, because I found the perfect copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz- falling apart, beautifully yellowed, and with illustrations. I couldn't believe my luck. Buuuuuut as per usual I got sidetracked and started another project. I made some greeting cards with illustrations (similar to this one and these others) and they turned out really well! Hopefully I'll have them up later this week.

This week's WIP, though, is my stash of craft supplies.

I'm a packrat, through and through. I got it from my dad. So of course, my crafty stash of buttons, beads, scraps of paper, bits of fabric and ribbon, and other odds and ends is too big. Not to mention I'm organizationally challenged.

I hastily moved back to my mom's after a painful but definitely for-the-best breakup mid-July and so much of my crap is still in the garage, totally unorganized. When I packed up all my craft stuff at the old apartment I had probably seven different ongoing projects on my desk, and we literally just threw everything into these little plastic boxes we had handy.

I hadn't touched them until today, when I got the organizing bug. Part of the difficulty is that I don't have a space in the house to put everything yet. Maybe eventually in the extra bedroom, but Mom will take some convincing...

It felt really good to work on all this stuff today. I went from a dozen little boxes of totally unorganized odds and ends to four designated boxes. Slowly but surely I'll sort through all this crap, figure out what's worth keeping, and where the heck I'm going to put it.

Finally fall... sort of / / cupcakes and boots

Here in California it rarely cools down before November. Fall is a hot season, and we often hit triple digits in October. Today, though, was not super hot. It was just cool enough to pretend it's boot weather. And I've been absolutely dying to wear this pair I picked up last month.

 I'm seriously stoked about these boots. I picked them up for seventeen bucks at Ross. The best part is that there's a zipper down the back so you don't have to do all that crazy unlacing to take them off!!

In celebration I decided to make cupcakes. Naturally I hopped on Pinterest and searched for pumpkin cupcakes. This recipe for pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting caught my eye, from the Frustrated Cowgirl.

These are possibly the best cupcakes I've ever made. Not that I make that many cupcakes, but I crank out a batch now and then. I definitely recommend trying out the recipe.

What's the first thing you do when the weather starts to change?

Linking up with the Bloglovin Bloghop over at Happy Kids Inc this week. You can find me on Bloglovin here.

WIPWednesday: bookshelf decoration

Several months ago I found this little thing at a thrift shop- very pink, very cutesy, probably intended for a little girl's room. Something about it caught my fancy and I hid it away. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it, but I'd spent a buck on it, so it just gathered dust...

I pulled it out this week to finally let it go. Instead I decided to paint it and decoupage book pages over the front of the letters. Because books are friends!

The pink shows through a little on the letters, but that'll be covered up. I was all ready to finish this project but I didn't have the right book. I'd like to use an old favorite- Wizard of Oz, maybe. I'll check out the little used book shop at the library and see what I can find!

Haven't done much work on last week's WIP. Maybe next week!

Caturday: Tommy the Tabby

A few weeks ago I went down to visit a friend who had just moved to LA. I had a fabulous time. We went to The Last Bookstore (which is amaaaaaaziiiiing and I want to live there), Universal City Walk, and Disneyland. It was an epic weekend.

And her roommate has an epic cat, Tommy the Tabby!

It's hard to tell from the photos- but he's MASSIVE. The biggest tabby I've ever seen. I mean, he's kind of chunky in terms of weight, but even without that he's huge.

King of the castle!

Time to get ready for work. We got a new movie yesterday (The Spectacular Now- it looks great), and we're showing the 49ers game tomorrow, so it should be a busy weekend!

Happy Caturday!

Work-in-progress Wednesday

I think I'll start trying to post a work-in-progress or two every Wednesday. I haven't had a great track record with this sort of regular weekly stuff (or, you know, blogging period), but I'll give it a shot. WIPWednesday is nothing new, and hopefully doing it myself will both encourage me to finish projects and connect with other WIPWednesday-ers.

Yesterday I started working on something for my mother- a special book-plate to mark a shelf at the library that holds her personal recommendations for patrons.

She found the image with the ship and text, but wanted something more. She loved the card I made last week with book pages and asked if I would help her with something similar. Of course I was happy to!

We'll probably glue the image down over what I've done and trim it into a border for the image. One reason this is a WIP is that I'm out of glue and couldn't get out to the store for more.

I'll be sure to finish the finished project!

Getting back into blogging...

Well! I have done nothing for this blog over the summer. I've spent my time moving, adjusting to change, working, introducing my mother to Dr. Who (she loves it!), and reading. Lots of reading. I do want to try giving this blog another go, though. Maybe this time I can make it stick.

You may notice that crafting (of any sort) was not mentioned in my list above. With moving and all the other things I've had going on, I have not have time; it doesn't help that all my buttons, beads, papers, glues, and tools are still packed away.

I've made a start though. I'm slowly starting to catch up on blogs I used to follow, though I really don't spend much time online anymore. I also made a card a few days ago, and finally got around to snapping a picture of it this morning.

 

Do you like it? I used pages out of a beat-up collection of Hauff's Fairytales to put it together. The book is filled with wonderful illustrations and I plan on creating many more cards from its pages!

Caturday: Big cats like boxes, too!

This week's caturday is unofficially brought to you by Big Cat Rescue. I saw this video on Pinterest and it's one of the sweetest things I've ever seen!

Big Cat Rescue is the largest accredited sanctuary in the US dedicated to abused and abandoned big cats. One of their most recent efforts was in Kansas, where eight cats (and two skunks) were abandoned in small cages without food or water. Big Cat Rescue worked with the local sheriff's office and other non-profits like the Humane Society to save these animals and place them in Sanctuaries.

BCR has a whole mess of videos of their cats on their youtube channel, but this one is my favorite- a montage of big cats playing with cardboard boxes!!!


If you think this is an important issue and feel so inclined, you can donate via paypal on the BCR website, or you can give through purchasing from their shop- they have quite an array of cat-related items and gifts for cat lovers!

Like I said, this post was UNOFFICIALLY brought to you by Big Cat Rescue. They have no idea I exist :)

More wine charms!

I'm having some nice me-time here at home. I've been bouncing around between laundry, crafting, reading, dishes, and working on the photos for this post all afternoon, ADD-style.

That light box came in handy again today.

I made these a while ago and I love them. Each button is different. But this project required making custom D-rings for most of the buttons- what a pain that was!

This set of four is Christmasy... Yes, I am aware it is june. I can't wait to use them in six months, though!

Here's another set with vintage buttons.

Tomorrow is another day without work! Hopefully I'll be as productive as I was today.

EEK

Lightbox! + wine charms

YAHOOOO I finally buckled down and finished my light box! I don't know why it took me so long, it was so easy! I took it outside to play today. I used a tutorial I found at Flax and Twine.

 Not much to look at... especially sitting on top of our cobwebby grill. But it seems to do the trick!

 I grabbed some wine charms I made recently. I've had these glass beads (the large ones, not the seed beads) since high school- like, eight years at least. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

 I still have a lot to learn about my camera, etc. But this is a huge improvement, and a huge step in the learning process!

Here's another set I made after I ran out of the beads above :)

ANYways it is late here in CA. I had a late night at work and it is past my bedtime!

EEK

POST SCRIPT! In my haste to post this late last night I totally forgot to mention that I'm linkin' up with a couple bloghops!

The first is the Make the Scene Monday hop, from Alderberry Hill

The second I've hopped in before... the Bloglovin' hop over at Happy Kids Inc!

 Don't forget, you can find me on Bloglovin' here.

Caturday: SAY IT IN CATS.

This week I made the most amazing discovery ever via Neon Fresh: A website where you can type in whatever text you want AND IT SPELLS THOSE WORDS WITH CATS.

This. This is what the internet was created for. You can say whatever you want in cats here. It's a Japanese website (go figure) but it's easy to figure out. (the four options between the text entry box and the button that makes it go are size options- largest on the left).

Happy Caturday!

No patience

I have no patience for this photography thing.

It doesn't help that I took this on my dumbphone!

My skills have not advanced. And it's not for lack of resources. I have a fancy camera. I just haven't sat down to learn it other than point and shoot. Not to mention the bajillions of tips, tricks, and tutes out there on the interwebs. I also haven't really made an effort to create a space for photography. I did start making a lightbox with instructions from Flax and Twine today, but for some reason I am so easily discouraged when it comes to photography.

On the upside I spent some time working on organizing my workspace this week. It stretches along one side of the bedroom and consists of a large desk, a big metal cabinet, and a three-drawer plastic storage bin that doubles as my night stand. Aaaaaand I have way too much stuff! Not to mention I usually have three or four projects going on at once- my ADD brain works better that way, in spite of the chaos and clutter.

Hopefully soon I'll have that lightbox up and running.

EEK

A tisket, a tasket... fake pears in a basket!

The other night I sat down to crank out some wine charms but I just wasn't feeling it. I picked up my pliers and tried, but felt so uninspired. I sat for a minute and let my mind wander, and on semi-autopilot I grabbed my size P crochet hook and some jute and started crocheting.

Maybe an hour, hour and a half later I had this little basket! I really just let my mind wander with this one, and after I had finished the base I realized I was making a basket. Which I figure is great, what with Easter coming up! I didn't have any cute easter eggs (and eggs looked a bit small in the basket) so I grabbed some fake pears I had lying around and three fit perfectly.

Have you ever been in that semi-autopilot state? I've made some terrible crochet mistakes in different projects that way... but I've also made some pretty awesome things that way, too! Brains work in mysterious ways, no?

Linking up again this week with Meg at Happy Kids Inc! Her Bloglovin Blog Hop has really grown in the past couple weeks, especially with Google discontinuing Google Reader! You can follow poppyrocket here.

Happy THursday everybody!

Photos: 35mm film equipment

I may have mentioned I work in a small movie theater.

Tonight as I was waiting for the digital projector equipment to shut down I snapped a couple photos of the old 35mm film equipment. I just used my Samsung Flight- a texting phone with a very unfancy camera. They turned out surprisingly well!

The front of the projector with a flat lens

This one above is my absolute favorite. I used no filters and no flash, and did not edit them. They're a bit grainy, but they feel so nice and vintagy. Without a smartphone/Instagram, I have to make do :)

Meters on the side of the bulb house.

We went digital in December, so all of the old film equipment has been pushed against the walls in the projection booth

Film rings- about 12" diameter, these were at the center of a movie when the film was in use.

Going digital made my job a lot easier and a lot less stressful. With film projecting, there were a lot of little places where you could screw up. With every show, a manager had to go upstairs to carefully thread the film through the projector and start it right on time- not easy to do on a busy night! Now it's all automated (as long as everything is scheduled correctly).

This style of reel was before my time; not sure how old it is. It's huge- 3' diameter!

Still, I miss film even though I only projected for about seven months. Most movie companies are discontinuing film printings because it's too expensive- that was the impetus for our switch last year. Sadly, some theaters in the US will be put out of business because going digital carries a huge up-front price tag. I'm so glad The Vine will still be around!

Have a great week, everyone!