I'm still here! I've just been incredibly busy, so fun things like maintaining my blog have kind of been shoved over to the back burner. :/
I honestly haven't had anything really exciting to post about anyway, but I did want to take time to update about the Souvenir Swap today. It's been so long since I joined up that I don't quite remember when it was now (February, maybe?)...I know some of you joined the swap too, so you probably remember. Anyway, my partner was a really nice girl from Spain, and in the photo above are the super cool items she sent me. That souvenir plate is now one of my all-time favourites, and easily the prettiest one I own. It got cracked during shipment, but I whipped out the good old E-6000 and attempted a little plastic surgery, so I think it will be okay. :)
I stupidly did not think to photograph any of the items I had sent to her (is anyone really surprised about that? :P), but they were mostly vintage Illinois souvenir items (like plates and other porcelain items), plus some postcards, small local souvenirs, and a couple non-Illinois items I hoped she'd like. :)

Anyway, the swap was really fun and I hope to do more like this when my schedule calms down somewhat.  What have you guys been up to lately?  Did any of you do the souvenir swap, too?

Tagged: souvenir, swap, photos, update

A few days ago I finally finished folding, stringing, and hanging all of my cranes and finally got around to posting photos. I can't believe I got them all done after all this time! It's silly that it took me so long but I'm glad I didn't throw in the towel. :)

Here's a picture from underneath the mobile. I made it with an embroidery hoop, a bunch of tiny screw-in loops, some white seed beads, and lots and lots of string. It's surprisingly heavy for just being a bit of string, wood, and 1000 tiny pieces of paper (the papers were 2" square before folding).

So that's my 1000 cranes! :) I'm hard at work on a few other things as well so hopefully I'll have some pictures to post before too long!

Tagged: 1000, paper, cranes, projects, completed

Tagged: survey, abcs, random

I've been working on folding 1000 paper cranes since March 2007. Yes, 2007! It's taken me a long time because I didn't always work steadily on them. I did fold some each year, more some years than others, but I was just kind of puttering along working on them whenever I had time or needed something to do with my hands. If you were to add together ALL of the cranes I have folded since 2007, I am sure I would have more than a thousand by now, but I am only counting the ones that came from the box of 1000 papers I bought in 2007.
Anyway, I had around 500 folded when I last worked on them back in 2010. I started folding again at the end of last month and have worked on them nearly every night for the past couple weeks. I fold as many as I can while watching Fringe and Law & Order re-runs before bed, and I'm up to 877 cranes now! That means I only have 123 more to fold to make my goal! I started breaking them down into groups of 100 after I reached the 500 mark to make the task less daunting, and I think that has helped me a lot. By tonight I will have folded at least 23 and will be on my last stretch of 100 then! For a while I thought I might never complete a thousand, but even though it has taken forever, I'm almost there! :) I'm so excited! You can expect to see a post with pictures of the entire group of 1000 in the not-so-distant future! ^_^

Tagged: 1000, paper, cranes, goals, projects

Tagged: handmade, necklace, vintage, key, jewelry, mothers, day

After I finished the redesign of The Prids' website a couple months ago, Mistina (bass/vocals) sent me the most awesome package of Prids memorabilia and goodies, including a very old poster with amazing hand-drawn art and a band logo I'd never seen before. Of course, I fell in love with it, so I just had to make a t-shirt using it. :) I finished it yesterday and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

 

This is the scan I made of the original artwork. I simplified it a bit and made a vector image of it so it could be enlarged and printed to make a stencil from.

 

This is the stencil laid across the shirt. I hand-cut it from freezer paper with an X-acto knife. I had to do some on the fly simplifying when it came down to it because there were so many little delicate lines that wouldn't translate very well into a stencil.

 

Here's the stencil ironed onto the shirt with a some of the paint added. I used Neopaque applied with a foam brush. Every time I use Neopaque paint, I think to myself that next time I will try watering it down a little, because it's very thick, but then I always forget to do it! Note to self: Try watering it down next time, for real! :P

 

All done and drying on my laundry rack! I can never wait to remove the stencil and a couple times I have messed up my work a bit by removing it a little too soon. This time I made myself wait a lot longer, but some of the paper stuck a bit and had to be carefully picked off with a tweezer. Can't win, I guess. :P

 

Here's how it looks on me! Well, sort of...if it weren't reversed. :P You get the idea, though. :)

Anyway, I've been working on a lot of other things lately, but I couldn't resist taking a bit of time to do this stencil. Do any of you do any stenciling or home fabric printing? If so, what are your favourite techniques or methods? If you have any tips you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them. :)

Tagged: stencil, tshirt, the, prids

 

These are two of my eggs. The one on the right is wrapped in black and white crochet cotton. The one on the left is wrapped in necklace chain and grosgrain ribbon with small pyramid studs attached. Devinn said it was my "badass egg", lol! Yeah, my fingers are totally nast, by the way. I know it. u_u;

 

That's Adam's egg in the middle. He only did one, but it was a doozy! He hand-drew the design with a micron pen, and I think it looks amazing. :)

 

This is the first egg Devinn did, and it looks totally awesome. This is what she was going for, in case you're curious.

 

Devinn's hands, post-egg-painting.

 

Here are all the finished eggs together! L-R back row: my two wrapped eggs and a panda, an alien, and a pokeball, then Adam's egg. Front row L-R (all Devinn's): Rush's first album cover, Tumblr logo, Pikachu, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart, and Geddy Lee. :)

So those are our eggs! I realized while we were making them that it's kind of silly to wait for a certain day of the year to decorate eggs, and that we could really do it any time we felt like. It was a lot of fun, so maybe we will do some again randomly. :)

Tagged: eggs, decorating, crafts

Tagged: photos, this, week, easter, projects

1. Weird bugs and things, like velvet worms, millipedes, and cicadas.
I am terrified of bees, wasps, and spiders, though! And I don't like centipedes! D:

2. Catholic Iconography and Patron Saints.
I was educated in a Catholic school from 2nd-8th grade, and I spent a lot of time reading about the lives of the saints and martyrs in the old books at my school's library. I still collect statues, medals, prayer cards, and other items depicting saints. One of my favourite saints is St. Dymphna, pictured to the left.

3. Found Objects
I love finding unexpected things and I have the oddest collections of random stuff I have found over the years discarded or tucked into something I bought secondhand.  The image on the left is of an old letter from a mercantile company I found tucked into the back of some antique sheet music I picked up in a thrift store.  You can click it to see a bigger version.

4. Abandoned buildings, or just old buildings in general.
I don't know why, but I've always been fascinated with old buildings, especially if they are abandoned.  It doesn't matter if it's a farmhouse, a school, a factory, or an old motel--I love them all, but I'm especially partial to old hospitals/institutions and factories. :)  The picture on the left was taken on the grounds of an old state hospital several years ago.  All of the old buildings there have been torn down since.  I kept a piece of a brick that I picked up near a collapsing structure once, and it always reminds me of exploring back there in the old days. :)

5. Asparagus.
Asparagus is pretty much my favourite vegetable and always has been.  Even when I was little and was picky about vegetables, I loved it.  I don't care if it makes your pee smell weird--I still would eat it every day if I could! :)

6. Vintage Souvenir Plates.
Okay, so I really like pretty much any kind of vintage souvenir, but I am very fond of the plates and have a large collection of them from various places.  Some are places I have been to, some are places I wish I had been to, and some I just picked up because I thought they were pretty.  The picture on the left isn't one of mine, but I do have a very pretty "Colourful Colorado" plate of my own that I really love. :)

7. Sign Language.
I started learning sign language when I was very young.  My grandmother worked in a facility where it was necessary to know sign to communicate with patients who were hearing impaired, and she started teaching me some basic signs.  Many years later, I worked in that same facility and learned even more sign language.  We were required to pass competency tests annually in order to maintain our bilingual pay bonus, but even if there had been no bonus I would have loved it anyway.  Even though I no longer work there, I still keep up with my sign language and even find myself using it simultaneously while I talk, just like I used to do at work. :)

8. Coffee.
My love affair with coffee goes back a long way.  I'm one of those people who has to have coffee every morning, but I don't drink it just to "wake up", I drink it because I love it, and it's part of my daily "ritual".  I am not a coffee snob and will drink almost anything as long as it isn't disgusting or too weak, but I do love espresso when I can get it. :)

9. Labeling.
I looooove getting things sorted out and neatly organized, especially when it involves labeling.  I have a Dymo embossing labeler and a Letratag as well (just like the one pictured at left).  I am always looking for opportunities to whip it out and print labels for things.  It just gives me some kind of weird satisfaction to know where everything is and have it all in order. :)

10. Singing.
I have loved singing for as long as I can remember.  When I was in grade school and jr. high, I even sang in the church choir.  If I had a better voice, I definitely would have pursued it as a career, but even just doing it for fun brings me so much happiness.  I sing all the time--in the car, playing Rock Band with Devinn & Adam, to my dogs, and just for no reason at all.  I'm  always singing along with something or making up dumb little songs, and if I'm not doing it out loud then you can be sure that there's a song on repeat in my "internal audio player". :)

So those are ten random things that I love. :)  What about you?  If you do one of these lists, definitely let me know so I can check it out. :)

Tagged: lists, favourite, things, loved, random

So what have you been up to this week? :)

Tagged: post, week, photos