[8 lb box]

That's hilarious about the Xmas pickle.  I get pickles every year from my mom, and I have since I was a kid.  I LOVE pickles.  There's usually a jar or two in my stocking, although I think some years I've received them for my birthday.  It's hard to remember, since I open my Xmas and Birthday presents together.

Anyway, I've received all my packages and finally found my camera charger!

From Zelda.Suicide, this lovely crocheted scarf:



From sheepBlue, an awesome octo stenciled shirt (it's SO soft I've slept in it every night since I got it!) and some goodies for resin:




I think it's time to clean the mirror

From thanate, an 8 lb box of vintage knitting/crochet magazines, a pair of vintage needles, some vintage sewing notions, AND some vintage yarn with a delicious goodie:




My bunny Marilyn took a nap on the pile

One thing I think is highly amusing: I actually HAVE some of that yarn already.  In fact, one of the ornaments I made for addicted2knitting is made out of the green.  I liked the yarn, but only had a small ball of it I found at a thrift store.  Now, I've got enough to make a sweater or a lap blanket!

thanate received the mitts I sent, and asked me to post a picture!



Next time, I'll ask the boyfriend to not get the bathrobe in the picture

I got my scarf from CJKJ today.  I absolutely love it!



I opened my present right before I went out for a walk to the beach, and it kept my neck nice and warm.  Thank you!

I'm doing a hardcore kitchen remodel, and I'm painting everything right now.  The walls are going to be white, and all the trim and accents are going to be teal.  I've been painting the teal, but my kitchen has some weird spots and I'm not sure where the teal should and and the white should start.







All the teal stuff used to be the bright orange.  Right now, I'm not sure how much of the remaining orange I should paint teal.  I had most of the walls redone, except for the wall by the shelves, so there's a texture difference (sheet rock vs. wood boards).  By the door there are two vertical wood pieces that stick out.  Should those be white or teal?  What about the left corner of the orange bit (right by the shelves)?  What about the orange "ceiling" part between the shelves and the top molding?

I've thought long and hard about all of these, but I'm really not very good at visualizing the different combinations of color in my empty kitchen, and imagining how they'll look when my kitchen has been filled with luxuries like flooring and cabinets.  Thanks in advance!

[all ten]

I'm leaving for a camping trip tomorrow after work, and I really wanted to finish Berta's square before I left.



I've named this pattern "Holy Carp," as in, "Holy Carp I'm never doing this block again!"

Finished my square for 1boy1girl1kitty2, and I found a way to use all ten of the fabrics she sent!



It's a modified version of Another Pineapple Block from Quilter's Cache.  The original is for a 7" square, and I needed one a little bigger.

For j_q_adams:


Four & Twenty Blackbirds from Quilter's Cache.  The colors are a lot better in person and I LOVED working with them.

For athenamat:


This is Irish Plaid from Quilter's Cache with a border I added on to make it 12".  The Irish Plaid pattern was for a 10" block.

For carodiynamite:


Pattern is Poinsettia Star from piecebynumber.com.  I had a lot of fun doing this block!


Toothed Star for ajanderson


Golden Wedding Rings for homerof2

The last four blocks were my own patterns, designed with the hope that they would be fast and easy.  I was more or less right!


Whoopdedoo_5


glittergirl


flashleyashley


angelbum

[specialty]

I had a REALLY hard time picking one picture for this challenge, since my specialty is macro photography.  This jelly is at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California with a bunch of his friends, and just barely beat out some awesome lichen from Crater Lake in Oregon.  I actually think the lichen is a better picture, but I was a little biased (look at my username).

Full-size image

When this challenge was announced, I immediately started thinking about ideas.  What awesome things can I make for under $10?

Then it hit me: A CORSET!  I went to my dollar store with this end goal in mind, and after a week of blood, sweat, and tears (good thing I keep the band-aids in the craft room), I came up with this:

The materials:

3 Silk-brocade pillow cases, 2 for $1.95, 1 for $1.50 (you'll find out later why one was cheaper)
1 package of zip-ties, $1.65
1 pink kid's scarf, $1
TOTAL: $8.05

I'd picked up a package of snaps and a grommet setter, but I decided not to use the snaps.  The grommet setter?  Well, you get what you pay for... Totally didn't work.

First things first: the lacing.

Farewell, pink scarf, I barely knew ye!


Yarn tripled and chained with a G hook, then that chain was chained with a K hook.

I really wish I had pictures to show of my process making the corset, but my craft room lighting is the worst in the world, and I rarely get home before it's dark out.  But!  I'll tell you what I did!  First, pictures:

Completely lined and reversible!

The pillowcases had fronts and backs.  The fronts are the pretty swirly brocade design, and the backs were a plain green that matched.  I used my seam ripper to take the pillowcases apart, then I interfaced both sides to high heaven (dollar store pillowcases, what can I say?).  I made my own pattern by wrapping an old scrap sheet around my dress-form, and pinning it to fit snugly.  I sewed the sheet, marked up my seams with a pen, then cut out the pieces and used these as my pattern.

I cut each piece of the corset with my outer and lining fabric together (right sides facing!) and realized after I'd cut out all my pieces that I'd accidentally cut out two right sides!  I was dead set on NOT doing this, so I made sure I flipped my pattern pieces, not realizing that instead of the brocade fabric on top, I had the lining on top.  So yeah.  I'd only bought two pillowcases, but after this mistake I had to go back to the dollar store to get one more.  Luckily, since I didn't use the snaps or the grommet setter, I could afford it!  Even better, the person only rung it up for $1.50!

I sewed each brocade and lining pair together at the top, and then each panel together at the sides.  When all the pieces were together, I sewed the edges of the end pieces and turned it right-side out.  I pinned up the seams to make sure they were even, and stitched in gutters for my boning (the zip-ties).  After I squeezed the boning in, I sewed up the bottom, then installed the grommets.  After lacing it up, I was DONE!

There are definitely some things I'd do differently if I could: drafting a pattern on my dummy was all fun and games, but I really should have done some MATH, too.  The pictures of me wearing it don't show that I had to stuff a scarf in there to make the sides not look incredibly bunchy.  Here's it without the scarf:

It's too late for me to go in and stabilize the waist because the brocade is cheap and will completely fall apart if I undo the seams.  My problem was I made the pieces too wide at the waist.  Next time, I do math.  But hey, it's not bad for my second corset, first one without a pattern?

I was given 6 balls (a total of 360 yards) of Tahki Taos for my birthday a few months ago.  It's super bulky, and I looked through my knitting books to see potential projects for this yarn.  I decided that I had just about enough to do the Carie Cropped Cardigan in Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel. 

So I cast on and knit!  And knit...  and knit...  and knit...  By the time I bound off, I had a full length sweater jacket.  I did some lace in the back to add shaping and match the bell sleeves.  I still have no idea how 360 yards could go this far.







For those of you interested in making the original pattern but don't have the book, this pattern is free on the DIY network website!

I've been in love with Intolerable Cruelty since the pattern was published a year and a half ago.  It was one of those "some day..." projects, and after scoring some awesome SWTC Bamboo for really cheap, it's finished!

I knit the size Small, but probably should have done more decreases to get the more fitted look on my toothpick thighs.  Either way, I'm VERY happy with it and the yarn drapes like a dream.  It was a REALLY easy project, and I probably would have gotten bored from all the stockinette if I wasn't reading and watching movies the whole time I was knitting it.

I tried my first glass etching project last week.  I made these for a gift exchange and they were well received.  I used plain glasses from a store, took some blank glass stencils for glass arts and cut out some snowflakes, attached them, and etched away!  I used the Armor Etch cream, and left it on for about 60 seconds.  The stencils ripped when I took them off after rinsing the etching cream off, so I didn't bother keeping them.  I made sure to put masking tape along the tops and bottoms of the glasses to leave a clear rim.  They turned out pretty well!

I made four total, two with etched snowflakes, two with an etched background.  I "signed" the bottoms.







A friend's mother loved the glasses, but she didn't end up getting them.  I'm making her a set with her grandson's names on them, but this time I'm using fabric paint like Onyxnox did.  It's saving me a TON of time!