Happy 2012!

So, first post of the New Year! I hope that 2012 is much better than 2011. Last year was pretty shitty for several personal reasons and on a global scale, I don’t believe many people had a “great year.”

Right now I’m sitting listening to “Writing Excuses,” podcast with Sal. He’s drawing on his new Bamboo Tablet. I’m feeling pretty hopeful for the new year. I’ve got a solid project set-up that I’ll be blogging about, I’ve finished the first Milestone on Rosetta Stone German Level 1 and feel pretty good about my new German skills. Conversations are rough as they’ve mostly been with a computer, but I’m feeling good about this item from my bucket list. I also really am enamored with Rosetta Stone. Expensive? Yes. But worth it! So far I feel so much more confident with my ability to describe items in German and that’s more confident than I’ve felt when learning any language.

My Kindle Fire is a solid addiction, but I’d love to use it for inspiration activities and the creating side of my life. I feel like I haven’t even smashed through the initial using of the Kindle, but that’s ok. Slow introductions are good.

I’m extremely happy with the kindle cover I made for my Grandmother for Christmas, and now I’ll be making a cover for myself and a project Sal requested. I’ll be making a kindle cover out of material from his old denim jacket. I’m excited, and naturally nervous, but since I’ve done it once already, I think I can do it again.

I need to get a better handle on fabrics. Like a painter needs familiarity with paint, I think my weakness is the fabric’s feel, weight, and how to sew it together. I’ve been looking for some literature to help teach me these traits.

This year I’d like to keep track of accomplishments in everything, including what I’m reading. I’ve never read The Hobbit but I think that it’s a perfect book to begin the year with.

It is Sunday. I may be posting some Gawks if I find some great ones. Otherwise, I’ll work on crafting.

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This Christmas I wanted to make at least 1 handmade gift. For one thing, it feels nice. For another, it’s difficult to find things for my Grandmother that she doesn’t already have! I knew that she had recently received a kindle, and even though she probably won’t be traveling far, I figured I could make her kindle all snazzy and personalize it a bit to suit her taste!

I went to the fabric store and picked out a nice red denim (red’s her favorite color) and a cool black and white printed cotton for the inside. I also snagged a pretty gold button, some white ribbon and some black elastic (to hold the kindle in place).

I don’t have the in process pictures, but I do have photos from this finish line. Overall, this project probably took about 3 hours (start to finish). I made the pattern up as I went and I’m pretty pleased with the result!

My photo for the inside is a bit large. I’ll upload later. In the future I want to add in a stronger material on the inside. I tried heavy, fusible interfacing, but that did not give the intended result. So then I stuck a piece of cardboard in there.

Sal and I made a ton of heath/chocolate chip cookies, they are DELICIOUS. They are also the only thing we’ve eaten today.

I got a Kindle Fire! It is pretty awesome, I’ve been basically using it for everything since I got it, tablets rock! I can even do quick and easy posts from it which makes me super happy!

I’m glad to have made a handmade gift this Christmas! I want to do more! It was exciting, and while what I made isn’t perfect, I think it’s a fantastic start. Also, my grandmother seemed to like it!

 

Project Peace-Bomb

Just a quick note this holiday season to please head on over to Project Peace-Bomb and read/watch about this cause.

I find I’m unable to vocalize how much this cause resonates with me and I’m going to be purchasing a bracelet very soon.

I’ve got my eye on this one, maybe in Chocolate wrap color, though the orange certainly is bold!

Being able to help the artisans of the country of Laos, as well as contributing (in a minor way) to the clean-up is exciting. Some of their other “Buy the Bomb” items are amazing as well. I encourage my readers to have a look.

Let’s Gawk; December 4th Edition

What has been great about having to swap turns with Sal during Skyrim playtime is that I’m able to sit, re-watch episodes of Glee (Netflix streaming) and look through crafty blogs and gawks.

Lots of inspiration, no risk taking. Just the way I like it.

This week is less on the Craftgawker and more on the Etsy blogs. For one, I’m having difficulty with my webbrowser accessing my gawky-favorites, for another, Etsy and other sites have a wealth of information that’s really great and deserves reposting.

  1. I find myself incredible interested in The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. There’s an Etsy Blog post on it. I don’t care for the differentiation of women as a rule; yet it does resonate that women, and particularly mothers are drawn to crafting/crafty businesses. I think I’ll be “Kindling” (or downloading on my kindle) and sitting down with a cup of hot-cocoa for this one.
  2. This article on creating a hat inspired by a garmet or fabric accessory from Etsy is seriously inspiring! Look at those vintage fabrics, colors and lace!
  3. Last but not least, I find myself continuing to ponder what I’ve read on Etsy about Art CSAs. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is very popular in Western MA. When I took my Molecular Bootcamp course, quite a few people from the area who attended were involved in the local CSA. I’m not sure if a CSA format in it’s typical form would completely work for the arts community, but it’s something to consider. Perhaps a creative twist on a CSA involving shares and actively “investing” in a cultural shift is something that communities would like. There must be some reason why artist communities and cities exist. People like art! Just something to consider.

Lately I’ve been considering a few different types of growing a small business. At a recent renaissance faire, Sal and I sampled Honey Wine and it was delightful! Ever since, I’ve wanted to purchase a bottle (or several) for enjoyment and found myself dissapointed with “accessibility.” Which of course instantly sent me to the internet to research homebrewing and it’s a really interesting topic! As a biologist, I think there’s a part of my soul (and the soul of other biologists) to fiddle with and at least attempt homebrewing. Except my colleagues typically head for beer! I dislike beer, and am generally turned off by wine (even a nice Riesling) because of the sulfites that are added to wines. I’ve recently learned that I have a mild-sulfite allergy and it makes it difficult to enjoy wines when one cannot breathe. Homebrewing honey mead may be a solution to this issue.

A few weeks off

Sorry for the silence. I was doing pretty well listing regular gawks. Then I forgot one Sunday, had intended to make a “Thanksgiving Gawks,” but Sal and I had traveled to CT for the holiday. But now I’m back. I’ll be posting the gawks later today.

A few words first on plans. I feel a bit distracted. I feel pulled in many directions; laziness, creativity, science and I feel like it may come to a head. I’m working on becoming more organized because I feel like that will help with crafting. Sal and I are still playing quite a lot of Skyrim (cause it’s fun) and that takes a solid chunk of time, particularly as I have to keep restarting my character (which has been frustrating). I’m still working on ideas for Kindle Cases, I think I’m just scared of destroying my “good” fabric and while Muslin mock-ups are great for most things, I feel like I need a tangible feeling to work with actual construction of “harder” concepts.

The blog-o-sphere has been fascinating lately. I had originally been thinking to launch a lot of product prior to Christmas, but it’s too late. So now I think I’ll get organized and if I’m ready, I’ll launch items in the store for the new year (as I have vacation the last week of December).

We shall see.