Awesome octopus stuffy! That picture of the baby just planting its face in it is priceless

I sent to Sandra22 and she received last week but hasn't quite got around to posting pics so here are a couple of what I sent. She had asked for something to organize her crochet hooks and needles, so I used a free pattern I found online @ Craft Leftovers to make the crochet hook caddy, and also made a matching needlebook.

Okay everyone... here is my package from titaniumhip. First, here is a group shot of almost everything.



One of the items was on the other side of the table getting dusted out by my girlfriend. You will be able to see it later A couple of things in the package that I didn't get close-ups of... the mushroom door hanger, that is now hanging on the door to our bedroom; some star candies in an awesome tin that hints at invincibility; and, a bag of Scrabble tournament tiles! AAAHHHH!!!! I just read a book about tournament Scrabble so this is incredibly exciting for me. Apparently, her friend is an international tournament player... what's their ranking, eh? This is so freaking cool, seriously.

Ok, first up for closeups is a giant pillow with the theme for Wonderfalls stitched on. The back is a really soft and comfortable flannel. We chatted alot about Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies during the swap.



Next up is a hand painted robot pillow that may potentially live at my work in the near future. He has the Drupal logo on him--the CMS that I use at work for all of our websites!



She had mentioned that even her fiance got in on the craftiness... I knew they were both great artists, but I didn't really know what to expect... well, here it is, his first ever print! It was a little dusty from the trip, but my girlfriend fixed it up a bit and it is now ready to go up in our living room...



Freaking Particle Man, people!! Along with his friends Triangle Man, Person Man, and Size of the Entire Universe Man. Is there anything geekier than They Might Be Giants art? Doubtful My girlfriend just noted that Person Man looks a little like a Nac Mac Feegle. I think it is the red hair.

Another Wonderfalls related item was this vintage Viewmaster that she got off the ebays. It came with a whole mess of really old reels, like this nifty Dracula one.



All of the slides have sort of developed a sort of red tint, making the Dracula reel especially creepy in a delightful sort of way:



Ok, we are coming up on the home stretch here. Everything I got was fantastic! Well made, super geeky... seriously, I was squeeing about everything in the post office parking lot... everything is totally me and totally rad. I absolutely adore everything, but if I had to pick just one thing that was my favorite, it might be this:



An international Scrabble by mail challenge! There's a hand colored board and an envelope with the letters all cut out from paper. She even included 2 US stamps to get the game started on my end. This is the best idea I've ever seen. It will probably take a year to play a whole game, but it will be totally worth it.

Thank you so much, titaniumhip, for all of the amazing goodies! You were a fantastic swap partner and I look forward to playing Scrabble with you

I solidified plans for 2 of my items today, one of which is going to require a trip to the craft store for some extra supplies. I have tons of other ideas, but I need to do some more research, I think.

I purchased a couple of extras, too, while I was out and about this weekend... here's a teaser



Wheeee!!

Here are some pics of my swap package from Jenicat. If you haven't seen it already, go check the swap thread for a picture of her daughter modeling the pirate hat. She wears it much better than me!!

First, here is a shot of all the loot... minus the robot t-shirt she made because I was wearing it at the time.



In there you can see the pirate hat (from my wists), a huge tub of 1" buttons, little chicken keychain, her fantastic zine, two pairs of earrings for my girlfriend, the extensive accompanying note, and lots of yummy lavender sachets!



She made these earrings with sterling silver hooks, but then oxidized the metal with hard boiled eggs to give it a gunmetal finish. How amazing is that?!??



The fabric for the sachets were so cute! Most of them are in our dresser drawers (no more clothes that smell like pressed wood! yay!) and one of them went in the dryer last night with our blankets. The whole laundry room smelled fantastic!



Adorable chicken I think we have the same eyebrows.



A group shot of the buttons. Seriously, there were a million and they were all super cool. Here are some close-ups of my favorites...







I think this was a clue as to my partner's identity, though she was my number one suspect and I just somehow knew it was Jenicat as I was opening everything. I only found out she liked elephants when I was reverse-stalking her later.



Okay, and lastly the photo of me wearing the pirate hat and robot shirt. I was trying to do my best gnarly pirate face.



Everyone I have showed this hat to has just laughed and laughed. And almost everyone here has said, "Hrmm... you could actually wear that as a winter hat." It does get crazy cold here, so this is not really a bad idea.

Thank you so much, Jenicat! Everything was so incredibly thoughtful and well made. You are a rock star

I made this for superhooker in a recent swap and wanted to share the pattern here. The idea for the phrase isn't mine--it was on a different cross stitch on her wists and I have seen it on t-shirts and whatnot all around the intertubes.

I looked up actual "In Case of Emergency Brake Glass" signs and saw lots with those arrows pointing to a circle in the middle, where I guess you are supposed to aim your hammer. So... the idea for aiming at a boom box instead was born. 

I did the math to figure out how big I wanted the finished piece to be, then did the design in Photoshop really tiny, pixel by pixel, so I could upload it to knitPro to convert it to a chart.

Here is the original gif I uploaded to knitPro ...my source code, of sorts:



Feel free to do the same! Choose "big" for the grid size and 1:1 for the stitch size. I stitched it in white on red 14-count aida cloth, but you could just use whatever you've got on hand.

Please post a pic here if you decide to stitch the pattern!

Some old friends and I always exchange gifts at Christmas time. Because I have to fly to see my family for the holidays, I am usually pretty broke. This year was no exception, so I made these economical ugly sock dolls for everyone using 2 pairs of socks from the dollar store, some stuffing, and 2 packs of doll eyes I got at the craft store. 4 gifts for under $6



I gave them each names and my sisters helped me develop some little stories for them. They are, from L-R: Chris, Bruno, Zorboink the Terrible, and Francis.

Hey everyone, here is the stuff that superhooker sent me a while back. 

First is a group shot of everything, including a really cool hat and scarf set, some toys for the kitties, and a giant bag of homemade fudge. The green thing is a spider on a long string. I don't have any good action shots of it because the cats just go nuts batting it around and there's not enough time to snap a photo! They're too quick!



Next we've got some action shots of the kitties with their catnip fortune cookies and of some dork (me) wearing the hat and scarf set. The pattern is really cool and you could see it best in this picture... the close-ups I took didn't really turn out well.







Thank you so much, superhooker! I just got back from a week-long work trip... I am finishing up a couple of things and should be sending my package shortly.

OMG, rectangel... she is so awesome! Definitely worth the wait... now I just can't wait for it to cross the border and make its way home. So fantastic! What you couldn't have known is that my gf has a star tattoo in the exact same place as your pirate. She exclaimed as much when I told her to come look at what you had done. Then we both looked for your signature... she turned her head upside down even and we still didn't see it... we will have to wait to see it in person! I'm so excited!

I finally finished my last towel today, too. It was SewSew's crazy animated food towel. I was worried about finding a design that would fit. I couldn't find any food eating food that I liked, but somehow I came across a website of a Japanese mushroom company that has all these crazy mushroom mascots. I didn't know there could be such a thing as mushroom fan art, but I became enamoured with them and so here they are!



I hope you like it, SewSew, and that it returns to you in a speedy manner so you can post a pic of the finished towel!

ETA: I am also loving the sea monster.

I sent Crafty McGluestick's apron back off into the world today... I noticed on her profile that we share the same all time favorite band, so I made up a design based on a They Might Be Giants song.

To the untrained eye, this bird may appear to be a bluebird; however, it is actually a mythical bird called the Blue Canary.



My chain stitch has gotten so much better because of this swap--it's like forced practice.



And here is the whole thing so you can see it in context...



This one was really fun for me because of the personal connection to the subject matter I hope you like it, Crafty!

I'm running late for an appointment, but I wanted to get a picture up of ritapizza's towel before I ran out for the day.

Here is Emo Pegasus and his friend Chatty Daisy.



The pattern is an Andrea Zuill (badbird) free pattern that I've been dying to stitch.

And here's a pic of the placement on the towel...



Sorry I don't have time to comment on all the awesome stuff that's happened lately!