Anyone here ever try it?  I tried a search for it but didn't see anything much.  I inherited most of my Grandma's bizarre crafting tools from a lifetime of crafting.  She's got some stuff I can't even identify.  The collection of rug punching needles had me scratching my head.  I'd hooked before(the police told me to get off the corner  ) but never seen anyone rug punched.  Thank God I just started a crafting night at church.... I mentioned the punchers and one of the other gals talked me through it.  I'll take a picture when I'm finished.  But its insanely addictive.  And a wicked awesome way for me to use up my yarn stash and random burlap coffee sacks.  I was curious if there were some secret punchers lurking around.

so we're on a remodeling kick and we're on a major budget.  i have the need to make a hanging dish rack for over our old school farm style sink.  but try as i might to find an actual set of plans online, i can't.  i'm sure i could wing it but i've never done any actual wood working that looks presentable... any of my saw wielding craftsters know where i could find something?
this is what i'm wanting to replicate.... see, it 'looks' easy lol

so i'm working on some wedding dress prototypes and i'm stumped on how to close this one.  the pattern i based it off of is a vintage dress and they have the option of closing it with a couple buttons or with putting in a casing and draw string on the top hem and the waist and tieing it shut.  i've thought about putting a zipper in but as you'll see, i don't know how well that would suit the part on the skirt.
here's the front to give you an idea of the style... the front of the skirt overlay is going to be cut upward into a half circle... i just haven't gotten to that part yet.


and another thing to consider, the dress form is a 36" bust i believe, but i cut the dress to fit my 33" friend.  so it looks odd because i tried to see if i could pin it closed.  didn't work


i had thoughts of just putting a button or tie at the top and letting the back be open since a bust that size can get away with no bra.  but i think the slash goes too far down to keep it semi modest.....

okay, so for years now, i've said i was gonna start an online custom plus size clothes site.  and years go by and i flake and slack off.  i say "ohhh i'll just get a web site built"  but then never follow through on trading someone who knows how to build sites.  so my question is.... where do you girls shop or even just window shop for unique stuff in our sizes?  i've thought etsy, but etsy seems a bit flooded with stuff and i worry i'd just get lost in the throngs of hand made clothes.  i've done ebay and i reallllly am not a fan.  and i don't know how to whore out my goods on myspace to folks who don't know my work already.  helllllllp   is there some place other than here where plus size gals go to find links to shops?  i suppose if i set up etsy and just got my etsy page posted around like other mamas on craftster do, then i wouldn't be quite so lost.  hmmmmmm i seriously need to sit down and write up a business plan to get my stoner hippie ass focused.

i've had this thing for yearrrrsssss.  and only wore it once or twice.  i always thought it made me look weird.  uni'boob and my waist looked bigger .  but recently i put it on when going to a wedding with the inlaws.  i put on this stretchy brown shirt that i hated on me but matched my new wrap skirt.  and wouldn't you know it!!! suddenly, the brown shirt doesn't look frumpy and accentuate my bulges.... it simply fits my curves.  and the wrap skirt that i made up suddenly hangs correctly, instead of the skirt hanging down my butt and the ties way up high on my waist.  and i may be wrong, but i think the added squooshing of the boobs makes them look firmer and a little more bettie page sexy rather than looking like 'jugs.'  so thank you body slimmer... and i'm sorry i left you in the drawer with the other girdle'esque things my mom insisted i own over the years.  underwear...    will wonders never cease to amaze this dirty little free ballin' hippie girl. 

so here's the pics of the 2 wedding gowns i've made.  the first was my own.  made it from a mccalls pattern i believe.  easy as pie once i got the fitting right.
here i am in the fitting stages.... never mind the mess.  roomate and i were both preparing to move cross country. the fabric i used was this lucious hemp silk from dharma trading goods.  the description for it was"if this fabric was a person, you'd want to marry them."  and damned if they weren't right!  its flowy, shimmery, and the color is so subtle and romantic.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid113/p2710f7b103aa22c65bbe4d7046ac5859/f8ed7bfa.jpg
and here's a nice classy shot of me and some of our groomsmen LOL
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid132/p0b6e70a190a7ca4eb77a57bc8756df58/f7a2d28b.jpg
sorry, i can't find better/clearer shots right now.

and this is my friend carly's dress.  i wouldn't personally classify this mama as plus sized but she was indeed bumpin out at 4 monthes into her pregnancy.  so i wanted to make her dress so it would accomodate if baby Blue decided to grow really fast the week before.
here it is in the planning stages
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid178/p360fb2a7e8ebe88a947393d38b99a304/f32ffe4b.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid183/p88c3af5161a393c56b6f12249be633b5/f29f517a.jpg
i don't think i have any really good pics that show the detail to the dress. it was absolutely gorgeous and flattering on.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid183/pf10efee919d7c3c1e3da4855932ea80a/f29f4a3d.jpg

bored with too many record bowls lying around the house... i started poking holes in them and here's what i came up with...
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid204/pf55d45b8df82f1c3eb1c7a9aaf1af271/ef7b4e18.jpg

here i epoxied some little pots filled with chives in em.  works well cuz the drain holes line up perfect.  i just water the top one and it then drains into the other
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid204/p023c31814c75c9a80210f06f5263b52c/ef7b4c74.jpg

and this one i made for a swap. i threaded buttons with wire onto the jute.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid203/p1484300863a39f4dbd5ff907e645b03b/ef94531f.jpg

thinkin i might take one and see if the record shop owner would wanna sell em in his shop....

while it might not pass as all that crafty, i'm quite proud of my ghetto crate potting bench.  it started with my obsession with snagging the milk crates the milk guys leave outside our coffee shop.  i tryyyyyyyy not to take them.  but when they don't pick em up for over a month, i say they're fair game.  so i think my husband was starting to get irked with my pile of crates and what not so i made them into my seed starting boxes.... seen here
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid204/p95bece4e93844d87525f4fdb2f2b7a15/ef7b4ded.jpg
why i'm starting by seed... i don't know.  especially since last year i SWORE i'd never start from seed again.  but i digress.... here's what i whipped up out of said crates and a piece of plywood i found in the garage.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid204/pdfbea8115d787da5911ebb071d180406/ef7b4ba8.jpg
and even the recycling crates are sheltered now.  and i also took a tip from readymade and made a little watering can out of my recycled detergent bottle.  it pours just gentle enough not to dislodge the seeds from the dirt.

helllllllllllllllll lp~!!!!!!  my dog is a poop addict!!!!  be it bunny or cat, she can't get enough.  she knows its a bad thing in the eyes of mommy and daddy but she can't help herself.  as soon as i'm not looking, she'll rush down to the basement and inhale as much as she can.  we've tried putting the cover on the box but it doesn't bother her.  we try to keep up a baby gate but inevitably, it gets left open as we go in and out.  does anyone here have some undiscovered trick to keeping the box accessable to the complaining cats but keeps it protected from a dog?? 

i'm curious what others did for their gifts... my hubby got his groomsmen pint glasses and stuff.  i knew the last thing my girls needed was stuff to fly home with.  so i got everyone subscriptions to BUST since i knew at least 3 of them had never seen it before.  so now, they think of me when they get real mail