Hello my lovelies!

I just finished this cross stitch today. This is my second cross stitch ever and I was happy to find it easy, fast and wonderful.



Sorry for the poor photo quality. I finished the piece off by finding an old wood frame painting it gray and adding a bit of trim.

Here is my inspiration piece from a talented artist.

Uh...So the guy I am seeing just had his car stolen. Yeah...it was in front of my house when it went missing too. So I feel terrible. So awful. I have never ever had trouble with stolen goods in the two years I have lived here and now BAM a car gets stolen. 

So I feel really bad and want to make/ give this guy a bit of something nice just to say "Hey, that sucks. I'm sorry some people are jerks". I do not want to go down the sappy gross pukey gift route as it is a new friendship thing.

I was thinking of making him a nice dinner......but that seems so trite. Then I thought maybe I could make him some cupcakes or cookies. But I don't know if that is too.....odd. A bottle of wine, maybe? I thought it would be funny to get a nicer bottle of wine and put a note on it that said: "I knew you wouldn't be driving for awhile so I thought you could put this to good use." haha. Maybe I'll go to the used book store and look for some of his favorite authors and make him a little card.

What do you think? Should I even bother?

Alright fellow crafters. This is my first challenge entry as well as my first attempt at stenciling and glass etching. Impressive no?

Well, let me get to it. I live in Toledo Ohio. Toledo is known as the Glass city because we are leaders in making glass. We are home to several glass factories including Libbey Glass (which is where I got this vase). I don't particularly enjoy living here because of current economy problems and the lack of interesting night spots. However, as I get nearer and nearer to leaving the city I am realizing that hometowns are important. That old adage "Home is where the heart is" I suppose rings true in some case. I wanted to create something that I could proudly display anywhere I might live in the future and think of home when I do. So here is a vase that I made to pay tribute to The Glass City, Toledo Ohio.

Empty.




Action shot, full of Carnations. I was looking for Red ones (ohio's flower) but they didnt have any!

I have been in a cupcake craze lately! I make the cupcakes from scratch along with the frosting. However I always run in to some trouble! The frosting will melt or fall or taste odd. I'v tried an easy peasy buttercream frosting...but it melted and made the cupcakes taste alittle....ick. Any hints? My grandma suggested I use a pouch of that dry dream whip and shortening....but that hasn't worked well either for a big flavor other than plain vanilla. Not to mention I hate deaing with shortening.

So what do you say can you help me?

note: I do not have a standing mixer! I do this all by hand baby!

I know there was another feminist swap not too long ago but I missed out! It would be great to swap feminist crafts with women and men united under the umbrella of smashing up patriarchy!

Anyone else with me here?

Feminist crafters are awesome. We all know it.

alright, well a friend of mine is getting married at the end of May and I am thinking of making my own dress....As this is my first clothing project I have a few questions.

First off I've been looking at this pattern:
http://www.voguepatterns.com/item/V2903.htm?tab=vintage_vogue&page=1
Or something similar. I am a pretty curvy shape and hope this will look ok because of the lower waist and full skirt. (Any suggestions on patterns that are becoming of a hot curvy lady are welcome too!)

My first question is what kind of fabric(s) should I use. The package has suggestions but...as it is an evening wedding I am not sure. I do not want to appear too formal and would also like to avoid the use of sateen fabric. The wedding party is all wearing sateen fabrics and I do not want to mesh in that way. also it sucks to sew.

Secondly, any other noob suggestions that might help me with this?

For my friend's birthday  I reconstructed an old book about hairstyles. In our town there are alot of really funny hair salons with very odd pictures on them. We have always laughed about them. So I figured I'd make her a hair themed book. I tore apart the book and glued all of the orginal drawings together so that none of the books text could be seen. Then I made an embroidery embellishment to each page that had been glued. Then I inserted my photo pages (I just printed each photo on to high quality cardstock). I also added pictures of her that show off her lovely locks. Then for the end pages I added funny pictures on heavy watercolor paper to keep the cover in tact. For the binding I used a sewing machine then used a tapestry needle and embroidery thread to bind all my sewn sections together.

**This is the first book recontruction or book binding I have attempted and feel pretty good about the way it came out. I did not follow any tutitorials really just trail and error.

I love all of the strings that are coming out of it. It looks really DIY

Front cover and first page.

Hand sewn dedication.

Book mark (made to look like hair) and a photo of a weird hair salon.

Page of orginal drawings and embellishment

Back cover. She likes to wear fake mustaches so I glued one in there.


Thanks for looking!

Here is my house. Almost everything was crafted or thrifted.

My living room


Note the books arranged by color.






Kitchen



My room

I made these record coasters by using the same method as making record bowls. Just melt and cut. The record will be very hot when you take it out of the oven and will cool down quickly so work with a sharp pair of scissors and oven mitts. You may have to reheat the record to finish cutting.



I also made this pen holder for my fridge out of a gum container from a coffee shop. I just decoupaged a piece of paper around it and got super strong magnets from the craft store. You can glue the magnets to the back or just put them on the surface then stick the container to it because it is metal. I did not glue mine so that if I wanted to change the picture I could do so easily.

Here is a painting I did. It is supposed to look like a stenciled piece but it was not.


I am thinking of doing another piece with the same woman but I'm not sure if I'll get around to it.

Here is another painting I have done a long time ago.

I used the rough outline of the 1970's wonder woman as a model for the woman's body (which is a big part of understanding the painting). The matting on the outside was ripped by hand and then painted.