I got an iPhone 4S! Also nyancat!

If only Siri could know what she's wearing now!

Bought case off eBay for $6, it's essentially 11 count adia, stitched with 3 strands of floss. Would use two strands next time, even if 3 is right for colour coverage, because it made the case buckle a little bit, but it's all good, cos it's only a tiny little bit which I'm sure will fix itself. (or I'll stop noticing it, either way!)

I did promise you nerdy:

I took these, and turned them into something awesome. As you are all clever people I think you can guess what I was making already:


Thats right, a bob-omb!


Here he is, newly manufactured and exploring my house:



Checking out my Buffy DVD's:



And meeting one of my cats:

Necklace Display

So, until recently, I stored all of my necklaces on an old coathanger wrapped with ribbon. It worked quite well, because you clip the necklaces around the bottom strut, and they hang quite neatly in a row. But I decided that wasn't pretty enough for me.
So I came up with this:



I bought a wooden cutout board from Spotlight, a pretty piece of scrapbooking paper, some buttons, a few shiny baubles and some hot glue sticks for my hot glue gun.
I cut the scrapbook paper to the shape of the board, I painted around the edge of the board with silver metallic paint, and glued the scrapbook paper to the wood, then I glued the plastic bauble things to the paper.


Then I glued the buttons to the board in a random pattern that hopefully also evenly distributes the weight of the piece, using the hot glue gun
Wait for it to dry, and then hang your necklaces!

My army is getting there

Ok, so its been so long since I updated, they changed the interface of blogger! I kinda like it, its so neat and clean! But I've been seriously crazy busy and stressed due to Uni, but, ironically, now that classes are back on, I've got time to craft again. Gotta do something with my hands while I'm sitting in lectures, otherwise I fidget and make a general nuisance of myself. :)

So while I can't post my new project until the glue dries, here's some more angry birds:

And my sister and I playing with them:

Tomorrow, I'll have actual pictures of my newest favourite thing I've crocheted: HINT: its GORGEOUSLY NERDY. :)

Portal Project is Complete!

I finished my Portal project!!! Actually I finished stitching it last week, it's just taken me forever to frame it because I wanted to mount it properly. Remind me next time I decide to do a huge project how much I hate framing things, yeah?


Took forever, because black, as much as I love blackwork, gets a bit boring after a while! And it's twice the size of the others.





I love making things this size, they can be complex, but still a quick little piece to stitch :)

And just to brag, this whole exercise of taking the photos and writing this post happened solely from my new ipad 2! :D

I'm back, with Angry Birds!

I fiiiinally got some spare time for craft, so I made these for a friends going away present. :)


see his tail?!

I used the few crochet images I could find to help with the over all look and shape, but really I made a ball and went from there. There was one pattern I'd saved on ravelry, but apparently the pattern maker got a cease and desist letter and had to take it down? Sad cos they were the best ones!! But really, it's easy as to figure out what you have to make, and they are so cute!! I stuffed them with pellets, so they are pretty solid too. They both have 9mm safety eyes also.

Another two weeks!

Ok, so my month was a really bad estimate :)
Since my last update regarding my being really busy with uni stuff, I went to Hawaii for a family wedding for three weeks, missed a whole heap of school and have been furiously trying to catch up. I did buy some cute wool while I was away and wanted to craft, but there just hasn't been time! But assignments are finished in a week (hopefully) and I get almost a month off! I'll try and make at least a start on some things, but I might get distracted by all the books I bought while I was away.... I have so many new ones, I LOVE how cheap books are in America. Totally jealous too, why aren't Australian books that cheap?!

I also have to play Portal 2 at some stage. I'm so looking forward to it!!

Study Hiatus.

I'm still alive, I just got seriously swamped with work and uni - I've worked 39 days in a row now without a day off - and have very little time left in which to sleep or eat let alone craft, so crafting has been put on the backburner for the time being but I should be back in a couple of weeks with some new things!

Dinosaur!

I didn't think I'd taken a picture of this little guy before I gave him as a Christmas present, but I found one!

This is my very first entirely freehand crochet thing. I had no idea what I was making, I just started and after a while I decided he was a dinosaur. He has weights in his feet to help him balance, because poor little Stumpy-Tail isn't entirely proportioned. I love making crochet toys, I really do, and he is the first evolutionary step to making my own patterns! (hahaha, evolutionary.)

I made a string bag! And used my sewing machine!

I turned three balls of string and half a meter of material into this pretty thing!



ISN'T IT JUST SO PRETTY? I am so happy with how it turned out! And I'm overusing exclamation marks I'm that excited!




I love this material, bright and kinda retro. Totally gorgeous.


I PUT IN A ZIPPER! OMG. Wow. This is a massive achievement on my behalf, and the first time I've put one in in about 9 years. And I made up my own method of putting it into the panel, so I have no idea if it will stay properly or not, but I like it. I had fun playing, and I made something! Hooray. :D




Still in bits!

I crocheted it all in one sitting, and I have to say, twine is tougher to crochet than I assumed it would be, even after hearing others complain about it. Poor fingers were a bit tired and sore after trying to keep the tension on that rough material right!


EDIT: I forgot to link to the pattern!! Can be found here: Ravelry - Quahog Beach Bag

Pattern notes: I made my bag 8ch longer to begin with, to make it one pattern repeat wider. I doubt I could repeat performance making the lining, but as the pattern just says 'make lining' I'll try to give some more pointers: I can say that I double lined it so the pretty material showed on the inside, and through the string. I cut a small hole in one side panel and sewed in a zip I'd already sewed to a bit of material that served as a pocket lining. I learned that you must first install the zip and THEN sew up the pocket, otherwise it will end badly. Iron the seams flat at all opportunities, it looks so much nicer if you do. Once I'd finished both halves of the lining, sew them together, pretty sides facing each other. (I didn't sew a bottom on the outside layer) Then turn the right way out, and sew the lining to the string. I chose strategic spots to sew in the lining, both sides of the corners, and the handles instead of sewing all the way around. I hand stitched the bottom of the lining to the bottom of the bag so it stays in place.

I took it to the beach with me for my work staff party, and it was a fantastic success. Hooray, it holds my beach towel, some water and a few books! And is now full of sand. :P

Portal Project; Parts 2, 3 & 4 of 10

Part one was completed all the way back here:
We Do What We Must Because We Can

Tetris has my heart.

I love the look of black aida, but I didn't really like the finished look with this piece, it just didn't pop properly. Pattern is the same one for my previous tetris heart, which when I'm not half asleep and on my slow computer I might even link to -- but I enlarged each block to be 4 instead of 2, making it bigger.
I outlined everything and put some detail into each block using a shiny white thread, which was an absolute pain to back stitch, let me tell you. Totally best off using a shorter piece of thread than you usually might to stop it getting tangled.



A photo of the white shiny detailing.



And showing off my macro setting on my camera, an obscene close up!

Back to cross stitch!

I felt like cross stitching yesterday, so I made a Kirby :)


I'm making a background, and its awesome but I'm not showing it until its done, and I could postpone this post until it IS done, but I feel like posting now. :P


ETA: Updates! And finishing touches


A pretty white star bg... THAT GLOWS IN THE DARK!


Yes, it's a crappy picture, but its hard to get a good glowing photo at any time let alone in the middle of the day. :)

So its been a while...

For starters, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that stuff.

I got a bit busy with all the Christmas things, and then working pretty solidly since (just had my third day off since boxing day) so my craft time has been limited, coupled with the fact that I went on a huge reading kick...

But I'm back! With a Shark Hat.



That is me, wearing my half completed Shark Hat. At the moment its just tail and body/hat but I'm finished that part and now just have to make the fins!

Here it is lying flat:


I based it on this pattern but that hat is for a kid, and I wanted it to fit an adult.. or rather, me. So I made it up as I went along, and could never ever write a pattern for it because it was mostly 'oh, lets increase here, and a couple more times in the next couple of minutes" which might have been spaced over three rows, or just one, I'd never know.
Not sure if I want to do the teeth the same as that pattern, or if I want to make up another way. Trial and error I guess. :)

I've got a sewing machine in the boxing day sales ($300 down to $80!!) and acquired some circular knitting needles, and a whole heap more wool and some embroidery floss, so I'm coming up with some projects to play with all my new pretty things! :)