Tuesday, December 27, 2011

After Christmas Catch up

I couldn't post about this before Christmas, because it would have spoiled the surprise.
I have found a craft that I kind of fail at. The Home Made Snowglobe...

I decided to make Matt a snowglobe for Christmas, because he doesn't have one; you heard me, he doesn't have even one snowglobe. So I went about collecting materials for this thing (you know it is REALLY hard to find a jar when you actually need one) I found a sauerkraut jar, a bear toy, some glitter, and some crazy explody glue and started gettin crafty.

The first bit went ok, the glue expanded and took the glitter well to look like snow around the bear, I let that set for a while (read as more than a week because I procrastinated and also because Matt was always around) and ended up taking it to work to finish it because it was the 23rd and I had run out of time to get it finished at home.

I boiled the water

I cooled the water

I poured the water in the jar

I dumped the silver glitter into the jar to be the snow... and it all floated on top of the water.


damn


so I scooped all of the silver glitter off the top of the water (except the few pieces that didn't float) and used the rest of the white glitter for the "snow" and then came sealing the lid (dun dun DUUUUNNNN) this is where it went bad, I put glue around the inside of the lid and then also around the outside, I didn't realize the glue would break free from the lid inside and stick to the bear's face... and then the glue on the outside went all crazy and expanded like whoa and glues the jar to my desk through a paper towel... Goo Gone is my best friend.

I finally got all the extra glue drippings off (mostly) and attached the base and gave it to him when I got home from work because I didn't want to put the still sticky glue in my bag to sneak it inside.

without further adieu...

 Stuck to his face!


Now for the Spartans

#s 58, 59, and 60

58 is named Karanus and he is homeless, the poor little guy


59 is named Padronis and is going to my dad


60 is named Hilarious (oh yea, I did that) and he too is homeless





Welp that's all folks, tune in next time for The Big Announcement Of DOOM

Monday, December 19, 2011

Crafty Christmas Corner Part 3

The Me Edition

I've shown you awesome craftiness that spans the generations in my family and now I get to show of some of my own. It's not my most impressive works, but I give away most of my really good pieces (I can't help it, I love my friends)

I have a few cross stitched ornaments I've made over the years; starting with this tree
I think this was one of the first ornaments I made, I really don't remember (it was a long time ago and I've killed a few braincells since then)

I remember finishing this picture and going "now what?" I kind of cobbled it together with the hanger from a different kit and got this ornament




(really wish I had dated these things...)


I was given these kits for snowmen ornaments done on plastic canvas and I finally got around to putting hangers on them this year


aren't they precious?

This year's big project was a wreath for our door, we can actually have decorations for the holidays of the year because we actually have a place to store them (such a novel concept) so I got an old wreath from mom
and took all the bits off of it (it was all in bad shape) and went shopping for new bits to make it pretty again
I've made wreaths for mom before and always used a metric feckton (technical term) of hot glue on the adventure. Well living in TX is not conducive to storing things held together by hot glue, it really does get hot enough here to remelt the glue and screw up your decorations. So I decided this time there would be no hot glue and surprisingly, it worked.

I started with the ribbon, wrapping it in the branchy bits of the wreath and making a big bow (oh yea, I got skillz)

and then began adding things from there until it looked full enough
 some of this and a little of that and a huge poinsettia, per Matt's request.
 wiring everything in place instead of the gluing, there were many pricked fingers by the end of it
and then I wired it to the door and we stood outside in the evening in shorts and tshirts, bare foot, in the middle if December and admired it.





ooooooooh
aaaaaaaaah

I kind of adore it really

anywho, I have no Spartans today, I will try for a mid week post with just the little guys, but between work and this week being a beetch and drinking far too much this weekend (don't judge me) I wasn't able to get them together, even with the 2 and half hours I spent in Starbucks crocheting yesterday morning.
Oh how I wish I still had that little bit of lead I lost, alas...

Have a good Monday everyone!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Crafty Christmas Corner part 2

The Grandmother Edition

Apparently the craftiness runs on both sides of the family, I have for you today a few ornaments made by my mother's mother (the same Grandmother who painted the owls from a previous post) She used a jigsaw to cut them out (not sure if they are her designs) and hand painted several hundred of them over the years, pretty much everyone in the family has at least a few of them. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a box of unpainted ornaments and last year painted a few of my own and spread them among friends, I still have quite a lot left too (I'm sure I'll do something with them eventually...)
without further adieu...






The little soldier boy is one I have blanks for, I think I even painted one last year. I know I have more on my tree, but I couldn't find them (I like a full tree)


The other item I have for you today is a ceramic snowman, this was made by my Great Great Grandmother on my Fathers side, her name was (I shit you not) Daisy Dearing and I have been told she was a brilliant artist, especially with ceramics, and a mean ole bit..... uh biddy... yea biddy was the word my Great Grandmother and Grandmother and Father used. Right, anyways, here it is



I think I have another piece she made, but I'm not certain if it is actually something she made.


Now for Spartans, I have 55, 56, and 57. All are homeless and unclaimed.

55 is named Numerius, he has a petite shield because it was the last piece I made one evening and I was tired and didn't start with the correct number of stitches but made the shield like normal, this resulted in the smaller shield. This project is not about perfection, so I left it as a piece to be used, I think it's cute and it makes this otherwise unremarkable Spartan a little unique and comical.



56 is named Claudius (I love his quirky smile)



57 is named Ovidius



welp that's all folks, see you next week!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Crafty Christmas Corner

It’s time for Crafty Christmas Corner, The Mom Edition!
 
I will be the first to tell you I get my crafty skillz from my mom, she has always encouraged me to learn new crafts and helped me excel in them when she could. I wanted to brag on her wonderful xmas decorations that she has made for me over the years. Unfortunately I had to pick and choose, because she has made me a lot of decorations!
 
I’m going to start with my stocking, she has made a cross-stitch stocking for each of us kids, I like that mine is not too busy, just a simple carousel horse with a teddy bear
 
I can’t remember what year she made this one, but it was for my American Girl Doll (I had mine before they were cool; no really my doll is older than my baby sister, who is 16) Her name was Kirsten, but that wouldn’t fit on the tiny stocking (the background is inch squares for size comparison

I still hang it on my tree.
 
This one is one of so very many of these she made (I think I have 2 on my tree…)
It’s even smaller than Kirsten’s stocking, which is impressive. I’ve made a bajillion small ornaments and the tiny detail that goes into them will always be impressive to me.

 
This is a wonderfully whimsical ornament, another cross-stitch piece, it is actually a pocket that you stick a candy cane in and that becomes the cats tail (I need to get a candycane…) All the girls got these one year and the boys got hobby horses of a similar design
 
This is one of my very favorite ornaments EVAR and it’s a fairly recent one too. The technique she used is called smocking, it is not a technique I ever picked up, I tried at one point and after breaking 5 or 6 needles and popping a few threads and having to start over I called it quits.
But this is a gorgeous ornament and I love it


This is a lap size quilt she cross-stitched for me (notice a theme?) I think the date is 2006 and this is the first year I’ve gotten to display it, this is really the first year I’ve had a place to decorate.

It is actually a combination of cross-stitching and embroidery stitches
 
Those are all the pieces I’ve chosen to show, I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much  as I do.
 
Now for Spartans!
Well first some Spartan news; I have decided, in order to preserve my sanity Iwill be reducing the number of Spartans I make each week to only 2, beginning in January, I will be going back to school in January and I don’t think the added stress of trying to crank out 3 soldiers is smart. So all but one week a month will be only 2 Spartans, there will be one week I do 3 (probably the last week of each month) this is going to add about 7 months onto this project, which made me cry a little on the inside, but I think the over all preservation of my sanity is worth it (and I’m sure Matt is sick of hearing the many versions of “GO**@MN MOTHERFU*#!NG SPARTANS! I HATES THEM!!!” fo reals yo) I think I’ll be able to get them done faster and even get a head some if I am only making 2 of everything at a time. We’ll see how that goes once class starts…
 
Anywho, here are this week’s boys!
 
#52 is going to my dear Sami (featured in the Cloud 9 post) his name is Trouble and he has his own cloud


 
#53 is homeless *sadface* his name is Calavius

 
And 54 is going to my brother’s girlfriend(?)
His name is Aulus

 
 
 
 
 
Sorry for the late posting today
That’s all Folks!