Progress and a New Style!

So, there hasn't been too much going on this week.

Last week at TADA, I somehow got volunteered to teach the group how to make working paper clocks. Luckily, I managed to talk my way in to making it a Christmas event, meaning I have until December to figure it out. I have a general idea of how I'm going to do it, but need to fine tune it.

But, on to the more important things! My project that I've been slaving over. I'm nearly finished! And I made sure to take lots of progress pictures!

I finally finished this, the body, after so much trial and error - meaning the fail attempt from last weeks post. This little body only took me about five days to do - mostly because my hand was sore from the previous attempt. And from here, it was joyous, I'm most of the way finished!

Then I made this little cuties. No, they're not a single piece. The foot and the leg are two different pieces sewn together. And now, this is where the fun begins!

There is wire in both the legs - my first time using it! Let me tell you, wire makes sewing on the body part sooo much easier. There was next to no effort. <3

I forgot to take pictures of the little circle pieces that go on/above his legs, but they're just a simple, generic circle. Here's a side view of how nice it looks.

I just love how it's turning out so far! Only the upper body left to go!

This is the arm, wire and all! I've been really enjoying working with the wire. I'm sure you wondering about those three tips sticking out. Well, soon you all shall know what I'm working on - if you haven't figured it out already!

These. Are. Annoying. They also hurt my hands - of course, if I stopped for more than a day to rest my hands, they probably wouldn't hurt. I've had to make a few of these. Luckily I got it right the second time I tried making one of these. They go on the three wire pieces coming out of the arm.

Pretty epic, no? I found it was easier to sew the arm to the body first, then attach the green bulbs. Just one arm left to go, and the head piece!

And here is where I'm conflicted. Females have a longer head branch then males. But, I usually prefer my things to be male. I'm thinking, for the sake of my sanity - working with small things is maddening - that I'm going to make this a girl.

I'm hoping to be finished the arm and head piece some time tomorrow. I only have one green bulb left to make, an arm and the head piece. From there, I just have to do the details on the body. Which brings me to my next topic.

I finally invest in this.

Needle felting! I had already tried it out a bit before I thought to take pictures; my excitement got the better of me!

I knew I couldn't try it on my main project, that would just be a silly idea. Then I remember something I made ages ago, but never finished because it was so tiny and I just said screw it. A Kirby!

I don't remember where I got the pattern for it, as it was one of the first things I made when I started crocheting. But, it's tiny, and as no face. Until now!

Well, not really, I got the white of the eyes in, and then while I was trying to do the blue to the eyes, silly me went and broke the needle. D= I had only been working with it for maybe ten minutes before that happened. I'm not surprised, I actually saw it coming, and yet I didn't buy replacement needles when I bought this. -.-

The nice thing, though, is that I had two 40% off one item coupons. So, the needle - which was expensive - was no longer so pricey. And I used the other coupon on one of the roving felt kits. Even more good news, I have another two 40% off coupons! I just can't use them until the 25th - tomorrow. That is when I shall go out and replace my needles. No point today, as I don't need them yet. :)

But, that I all I have to post about for today! I just figured I should because it had been almost a week! I'll be back in a few days with more things to talk about! And hopefully more crafts finished. <3

Here I am! Exciting New Things!

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while since I've posted. But, I have a pretty good reason for that. We'll go in order.

First, that Thursday, I was out with a friend of mine all day, she was teaching me the torture of using a sewing machine. See, my boyfriend - Alex - and I have a bunch of nice, nerdy shirts we just don't wear anymore, so I figured, why not turn them into pillows?! It's a good idea. I didn't manage to get all of the shirts we had into pillows, but I can go back when she's free again!

These are the four shirts I did - out of the six I brought over.

These are the shirts Alex and I got at our first Fan Expo together. :) We never wear them, and we couldn't figure out what to do with them, since we didn't want to throw them out - sentimental value, and all. I didn't make these ones into pillows, my friend, Amy, did. I asked her to because I'd never used a sewing machine before and I really didn't want to mess them up. We decided to leave Alex's as almost the full shirt size - he's not a small man - and to scale mine down a bit so we know whose is whose. Though, the smaller one is still pretty much the size of the shirt. Haha

Here is my Fan Expo shirt stuffed, though it could use a bit more, I ran out - I had tried stuffing Alex's first, just because I wanted to surprise him when he got home, but there was not nearly enough! I didn't have too much left to begin with, but I didn't think it was so little. I used it all here - which puts a halt to any amigurumi ideas I've had running around my head - which were quite a few!

Here is just a side/bottom picture of the pillow, just to show how the zipper looks - Amy called it a hidden zipper. I really love how it turned out, and I can't wait to get more stuffing - I was told of this place, it's a bit of a ride away - we don't drive, so we have to take the bus, and the bus we take, it's like the Lion King, everywhere the light touches is good, and the light doesn't touch this street. haha!

But, I've been buying my stuffing at Wal-Mart. 32 oz - I think - for $20. Apparently, this other place is a lot more for the same price, so I really want to check it out. I'm going to need a lot, with all the shirt-pillows we'll be making!

These are two shirts that I love, but I never really wear, a friend of mine that used to work at EB got them for me. :) I figure, why throw away perfectly awesome nerd shirts - I really love Batman and Assassin's Creed - when I can accessorize with them?! I did these two, as you can probably tell, before I've even posted the close ups.

This was my first attempt. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Amy had the brilliant idea of adding zippers to the bottoms, to make it easier to wash and if they get too flat - Alex likes to sit on things and not realize. XD - I can take out the stuffing and fix it. But, anyway, the top stitching going across the zipper was my very first try with the sewing machine. And then bottom part, I have no idea what happened. But, apparently I'm a pretty quick learner, as I didn't break the needle or even mess up too badly. :)

From there, we used her machine called a Serger. It was pretty scary at first, but it was so easy and so much more fun than the sewing machine - I still think their evil. >.>

This is the second shirt I did, it turned out pretty good at the zipper. :) I'm really happy with it, even if I was panicking a bit while doing these. In the end, I was getting the hang of it. I was sad, though, I had one of those pregnancy headaches kick in, and it wouldn't go away. So, I ended up having to go home, instead of finishing the other two shirts that I brought with me. But, next time! And I will bring Tylenol - it's the only thing for pain I can take during pregnancy, not that I take it very often to begin with.

I would also like to take a moment to let you all know that my friend Amy has her own Facebook page for her sewing - she usually makes corsets, but you can commission her for most anything. :) Check her out - Ravin Apparel.

And now, this was all on Thursday. On Saturday I was working on a bookmark with a Robin Williams quote, the first attempted didn't turn out so well.

I thought it would be easier to read once the background was filled in. Nope. Not only that, I forgot an E in bee. >.> So, I scrapped that pretty quick, however, I didn't start again until Tuesday. And this is why.

This cute little fellow is a kitten that we rescued from a not so good situation. There are a few areas in my city - as I'm sure there is with all cities - that have a very bad reputation. I follow this group on Facebook, a buy and sell group that I'm in for my crafts. Anyway, there was this guy, he only had the kitten for two months, and didn't want it anymore. So, you know, I decided to check out his profile, see what sort of person he appeared to be. Almost instantly I decided that we needed to go get the kitten. At first, I just knew that he was the "thug life" kind of guy, so that probably didn't bode well for the little kitten. Then, after I said I'd take the kitten and we found out the address, we had to rush over their immediately! It was in a very bad, bug infested area of the city.

We knew, before we even left to pick him up, that he didn't come with a carrier. And when we got there, he didn't come with anything. No bag of food, food dishes, toys, nothing. He was so shaky, and timid. When we got back to our apartment, before we even went back inside, we checked him for fleas, he had those. And we noticed he was quite under weight. So, I spent the night in the bathroom with this little guy, with a flea comb, making him clean. After first giving him a bath - the water didn't bother him at all, I hadn't cut his claws yet and they were long, but I got no scratches. :)

Anyway, I managed to get rid of all the fleas and eggs before we introduced him to my other cat, Dinah. This is her and I, in our usual morning snuggle pose - as soon as I wake up, she instantly goes to my chest and assumes the little spoon position, she always has.

Anyway, Dinah and the little kitten didn't really get along at first - but I don't think most cats do, initially. And Dinah has always been Mama's girl, so she was getting jealous of the kitten. From Sunday morning, until Tuesday night, we tried so hard to find the little kitten a forever home, but nobody wanted him - the prospect of kittens that are six to eight weeks seemed so much better to people than an almost four month old kitten - it actually pissed me off, the messed up priorities of people. "Oh, let's get a kitten, we can give it a home." Yet, when there is a kitten - he's only 14 weeks, according to the vet - in dire need of rescuing, nobody wants it. It's stupid.

So, we decided to be that forever home for him. :) We just couldn't bear the idea of putting him in a shelter. And we wanted to know he'd go to a good home, he's been through so much already! We are a good home. Dinah is a good influence on him, and he's helped Dinah out a lot. Dinah has a mild case of Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome. It's not bad, it's just had to deal with some times, especially when she starts twitching, or gets aggressively hyper. But, those episodes have really died down since we got the kitten.

We really weren't going to keep him. And then this happened.

The first happenings of attachment on Dinah's part - we knew it might be hard to separate them at this point. So, we took him to the vet yesterday to get him checked out. He's perfectly healthy, just underweight, which we've been trying to get him to eat - he won't really touch hard food, though, only soft, so we think that's all his last owners fed him, which would be why he's so skinny, there is no nutrients in soft food, really. Not enough to sustain life, at least. Anyway, the vet double checked that he didn't have ear mites or worms - though he did get a deworming just to be safe. I have been raising and rescuing animals most of my life - I lived in the country before moving to the city. I know how to nurse an animal that is only a few days old, to what to look for in terms of infections, bugs, parasites, mood problems. :) So, I was pretty dead on with this kitten - it even surprised Alex!

So, yesterday, he got his first booster shot and is scheduled for his next one in three weeks, and after that, a couple of weeks and we get him fixed - I don't want him spraying everywhere, that stuff smells so bad!

We had issues figuring out what to call him - before we decided to keep him, we didn't want to call him anything, because it creates attachment, so we had just been calling him buddy. Which turned in to Buddy. We tried calling him something else - Ash - but it just didn't seem right, Buddy did. Even though it's more common in dogs to be called that. haha.

Here is when we knew we couldn't let him go, at all. :)

He was sleeping next ti Dinah, went to get up, and she didn't let him. Put her paw on him and pinned him so she could clean him, and clean she did! It was the cutest thing ever!

Now, moving on, I have restarted the bookmark, and it's coming along pretty good now.

I outlined the B because I was trying different ways of making it, but how it is now is the best way. :)

I couldn't decide which colour to use, so I decided that the one on the left will be the inside background, and the one of the right will be the border. :)

Here is how it started to look after filling it in. I rather like it!

I ran into a minor set back here, I didn't realize that I had placed the E over one line, it was no big deal, I was able to fix it in a heartbeat.

Now, here I was left with a little bit of blank canvas, and I didn't want to just fill it in with blue, I don't think it would have looked good. So, I this, instead!

I've been told you can tell it's supposed to be a bumble bee, but, it just looks like a striped square to me. lol From here, all I did is fill in the rest and add the border - I had doing that part, so much. >.>

Voila! The lighting is kind of crap in the picture, but it's enough that you can see the difference in colour between the background and the border. :) I think I will be taking a better picture of this before I post it on my DeviantArt, though.

And I think that is all I have to post for now. Hopefully I'll be back in a few days with something new and exciting to post about! Until then, I leave you with this awesome picture my boyfriend took. :)

Just ignore the kitty litter and boxes - we're still not fully unpacked yet. Anyway, in this picture, I am 19 weeks and two days along. :) And I already feel the baby kick. It's magical. <3

Slow and Steady

Hey all! I know, I've been inactive this last week. But, that's because we finally moved! I love our new place, but we're still getting settled. In the mean time, I have been working on my plastic canvas project. And I've been taking lots of pictures of the process. But first, a picture of the near complete one!

I really love how it's turning out so far! Though, it has been a long process!!

I had to make a total of 34 of these little guys. I really like the pattern I decided to use, it goes well with the rest of it.

This was a tricky little bigger to work with, especially sewing it on, but I managed successfully! And I only had to make two, which was good.

In hindsight, making all the stairs as one and then connecting them to the side panel was a baaad idea. And I learned from my mistake.

It was not fun trying to see the other side panel on to this, as it liked to move as though it were an accordion! You can imagine the frustration of this. Like I said, it was a bad idea.

And here we are with the back panel on, but it a still not complete! I didn't have any more canvas left at this point, so I started on the second set of stairs, which I tackled in a completely different way!!

I decided it would be a smarter idea to attach the two side panels to the stairs at the same time, doing the top stairs and bottom indent - which was the hardest part on the first stairs - first. and let me tell you, it has been much easier to work with.

I am hoping to finish these by the end of the week - hopefully sooner! But, I have a lot of appointments coming up in the next couple of weeks, all for the baby's sake. :)

However, I finally bought more canvas do that I can work on this whenever I have the time! Sadly, the craft store didn't have the sturdier canvas I prefer to use, but the stuff I bought will do the same thing - I just don't like the feel of working with it, it's so...flimsy.

But, good news! When this project is complete, I have a couple more lined up.

Yesterday, I went out for lunch with a close friend of mine, and then we went to the mall. And during our mall trip, my friend bought me these!!

Aren't they awesome?! I have a bunch of yarn like this that my grandmother gave me - I call her Nanny, Nan for short, and is how I shall henceforth refer to her as, I just wanted to let you all know that Nan is my grandmother.  Papa is my grandfather. Anyway, my Nan gave me a bunch of yarn like this, but only pinks, whites and a ...maroon colour, I think it is. I think once I'm settled in my new place, I'm going to take picture of my yarn stash, as tiny and insufficient as it is!

Also, more good news! While I was at the craft store today, I found more of this stuff!

This is the yarn that I used to make the Ruffle Scarf! I just couldn't resist buying more of it. I had so much fun making the last one, that I just had to make them in all the colours the store had in stock - I'm tempted to go back and get one more of each colour. 

And yes, I will be selling these once I've made them - I think $15 is a fair price. :) If anyone is interested, please feel free to let me know. :)

And I think that is all I have to blog about for today. 

Wow I just realised, this is probably my longest post yet! I chalk it up to being inactive for a week. Hopefully you'll hear from me again in a few days!! 

Piggy Bank Progress

Today I spent the day working diligently on my piggy bank. And it paid off, mostly.

First, I would just like to show off how neatly this panel turned out.

I think it's made all the better by the fact that I wasn't paying too much attention to what I was doing - I was kind of focusing on a horribly great documentary on Bigfoot. I really love watching/listening to documentaries of mostly any kind.

Anyway, I managed to get the bottom of the piggy bank together, having spent most of the day getting to this point.

When I finally finished the box, I realised that I needed to devise a way to keep it closed - I really didn't think this project through before starting it, but it's worth it. I decided Velcro would be a good idea. I managed to find something around the house that I wasn't using that had Velcro on it I could salvage, I didn't need much.

You can see here where I attached the Velcro to the little white squares. On top of sewing them on, I ensured they stayed securely in place by adding a bit of crafting glue I had kicking around underneath. 

I crocheted these little guys to attach to the top, they were quick work. Again, I sewed and glued on the Velcro pieces for added security before I attached it to the top piece.

Now, all I have left to do is line the top panel, I've been procrastinating on that because I'm a bit nervous about trying to cut out the coin slot in the material and, sadly, I don't have anything in the place that would rub off on the fabric as a guide. :(

From there, all I have to do is touch up the plastic canvas edges and attach it to the rest of the box, then I'll be finished! I'm so excited, I think it's going to be awesome when it's finished. 

Anyway, it's very late and I'm about ready to go to bed. I decided to write out this blog tonight because I know myself well enough that I'll end up lying awake thinking about posting until I actual do it, might as well skip a step and make everything easier for me.

Hopefully I will finish the top tomorrow and won't procrastinate. Then, I can get back to working on my friends scarf, I've finally stopped being upset over my major mess up.

Anyway, good night, everyone. :)