Socks and Sand...

My sister has been visiting so my attention has been a bit scattered but things have been happening. Oh, yes, THINGS. You know that sock puppet I was talking about making a tutorial for? Well...it actually won and they asked if I'd like to make one of her producer too. I figured I might as well, I had a lonely sock all ready to go. So! That made my day and I'll be sharing any new news on it later too.

Have a look, if you haven't already: Ingrid Michaelsock Winners
(That's my name on the grand prize winning sock! That's both weird and awesome.)

How cool are all the puppets? You can tell there was a lot of work into the second place puppet (it looks like a muppet and there's embroidery on her shirt! That's some serious detail going on.) and the third place puppet definitely showed creative use of household materials. False eyelashes probably aren't in every household but they make the puppet look really friendly and pretty as a puppet can be. Also, hair elastics for her glasses? Brilliant. Got to love all the details on the rest of them too, you can tell everyone had a lot of fun making these. I got a kick out of the idea to begin with, it's the main reason I entered. 

As much as I like my puppet I don't know how I won. Maybe it's the mouth...it's rather unique.

I made an awkward video with the use of my brother's digital camera of both of the puppets but I think I'll refrain from sharing it until they've done what they're going to do with the puppets. I don't want to ruin the effect. Plus, I didn't know what I was doing so it's very awkward.

One of the other THINGS was that my dad, sister and I went to the coast. We may or may not have gone specifically to go to this little out of the way restaurant (it's set up like an old school diner on the inside) for fish and chips. My dad had gone there before with a cousin of mine after they'd gone fishing out in the ocean and was really taken with their fish and chips. It was really delicious and they had 3/4 size pirate mannequins on the outside of their restaurant which amuses me greatly. They kind of freaked me out at the same time, though. I got my sister to pose with them, she thought they were creepy too but you wouldn't think it by her exuberant pose:

Afterwards we went for a walk on the beach and Chloe had a blast, I think she had my dad carrying about 10 lbs of seashells and rocks by the end of it and her pants were soaked up to the knees from the surf.

My enjoyment of the whole thing had a lot to do with how much fun she was having, that kid really does love doing stuff. I got my dad to take a picture of us:

After the walk we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory were Chloe got to see how they make their cheese, I don't think she'd ever been there before. We also got ice cream and it was delicious. It might be gross to some but I think their white licorice ice cream is mighty tasty (it tastes like black licorice but I think I know why they don't make it black. That would be rather nasty.). They also have peppermint ice cream which was my favorite and always seemed hard to find anywhere else. It was a great little trip.



Inanimate object appreciation.

Indispensable tools. If I did not have these I would be emotionally distressed.

Pliers.

Seam ripper.

Needles of various sizes and uses.

Thread.

Mechanical Pencil. (I'm addicted, thanks Dr. B)

Clear 2x18'' ruler in 1/8 increments. If it wouldn't be so crowded I'd almost love a 1/16 one. I feel disloyal saying that though. (Also addicted to these because of Dr. B)

Chalk wheel (the Clover brand one specifically. I have one in white and one in blue.)

Embroidery scissors. I've only had them for about a year but I seriously don't know how I functioned without them. Great for itty bitty thread cutting and maximum close up snipping control.

Sharp sewing scissors. My first pair of sewing scissors were actually my great grandma's (actually, so was my first sewing machine) but they were really old and I think I didn't know enough then to not use them on paper or whatever I needed to cut. They were dull as all blazes. Hellishly so. I got new scissors my sophomore year in college and...it was like the heavens opened up. Angels sang, even.

Rotary cutter. Just don't be tired or absentminded with them, seriously. Fingers can be lost and I really love my crooked skinny fingers and all the things they're capable of. You should love your fingers equally well. Yeah, I just told you your business. Still, appendages are best while still attached to your body -more often than not.

Music. Seriously. The kinds of Cd's that I can listen to completely through from start to finish ranging from chill to headbanging depending on my energy needs. Chill for de-stress, headbanging for getting things done with some oomph. I like oomph.

Even while I was at school and didn't take crafting or artsy stuff with me, I still took everything I listed. With the exception of the rotary cutter, the mat took up too much room and there wasn't a really good reason to have it if I had my sewing scissors.

For some reason I just felt like honoring my tools of the trade. I'd be crazier without them.

This is really the only reason you should call first...

Steps to answering the door to unknown persons, Sara style.

1. Assess and/or rectify the decency of your clothing as it pertains to proper fit and cleanliness. Possibly put on a hat.
2. Climb over furniture and things to get to the one window where you can see who's knocking and then climb back out.
3. If the identity of the knocker cannot be determined, locate something to defend yourself should it be needed.
4. Debate what would make a concealable (so you don't inadvertently creep out friends, family or harmless bystanders) defensive weapon that would still be effective. Bonus points if it's a crafting tool of some sort.
5. Determine if the knocker is still there (usually involves jumping to see through the top of the door).
6. Open door with neutral expression and hello ensuring makeshift defense is within easy reach.

I am aware I'm neurotic and paranoid. Also, kind of a hermit. However, this process does weed out people who don't actually need to talk to me or who I don't want to talk to anyway. You know, proselytizers, door to door sales people, people looking for directions or, like today, some random dude I don't know. Family and friends are always welcome...just know you might have to wait. But, *Simultaneous hair flip* I'm worth it.  Or you could just call and I'll skip everything except #2 or substitute #5 for everything.

Flowers...

I haven't forgotten about blogging. I've been preoccupied with revamping my Etsy (it's going slow...) and making new things. I've also been working on the sock puppet but it's not top priority so I've been working on it intermittently. I really like it though. The more I work on it the more I want to keep it, the more I want to keep it the more I'm hesitant to submit it. Not because I think I'll win but because I might not really want to. Kind of defeats the purpose of making it in the first place, though. Then again, I do have a sock without a match now so I could just as easily make another one. I've been taking photos at each step so I think I'll post a tutorial on how I made it when I'm done and the contest is over.
Right now, I want to give props to the woman who owned our house before us. She had some mad flower planting and planning skills. We have a really pretty flower garden we had absolutely nothing to do with and it has most of my favorite kinds of flowers. I'm not really even into flowers so that's saying something. She even planted them so there's always something blooming except for in the part of the year were everything is grey tinted and looks all dead. I think my sister gets the most out of them though, every time she comes to visit she picks some and brings them in the house. Here's some pictures of only a few, right now the peonies and irises are particularly glorious.

There are pink, white and red peonies. I didn't take a picture of the red ones, for some reason.

Irises, so pretty.

I pretend I'm an artist by doctoring photos. Still, I'm tempted to put this one on my wall. It'd go, uh, interestingly with the bright blue.



I've never made a sock puppet...until now.

After a lackadaisical last couple of days (and a weird eyelid ailment that's still happening) I started a new project of sorts. A sock puppet. I've never made a sock puppet before but Ingrid Michaelson is having a contest, the person who wins said contest gets their sock puppet featured in a video and a signed poster. I've got nothing but time on my hands while I look for what is termed "a real job," and making more fiber rings, embroidered pendants and papier mache masks, so I figured I might as well give it a go. I first googled for instructions on how to make a sock puppet and then improvised past their suggestions/instructions. I can't even follow the rules when it comes to sock puppetry, everyone will just have to deal. Then again, I doubt anyone will lose any sleep over my sock puppet rebellion. So far all I've gotten done are the mouth and lips but I'm likely making this more of an endeavor than I need to.
Scratch that, I just started doing more work on the inside of the mouth but I'm not sure if what I'm doing is an actual improvement or not. I'll be posting in process shots after I have it mostly finished and figure out how I want to do the eyes.

Mmm, Saturday and new materials...

I got feathers and necklace chain and findings in the mail today. I had forgotten or hadn't ever admitted to myself before opening the package today how much I really like feathers. They make my heart happy. My favorite from the batch are these guinea feathers...sooo pretty. The chain components are a definite upgrade quality-wise, they're sparkly and pretty and make everything better (I already said that on my facebook page but it's true). I'm liking that all of these things came from Etsy sellers, too. It's symmetrical. New materials are like new toys to me. Time to get down to having some fun. Lots more embroidered pendant necklaces are coming. If something weird weren't going on with my right eye I'd still be embroidering daisies. The last few I sewed turned out wonky so I stopped, there's no use in embroidering more until I can focus and make daisies I'll actually use.

Yay for new materials! 

Weirdness...

Today is being weird. Or maybe I'm being weird and today is being normal. Actually, that second one is probably the right view. My mind is all over the place, I'm a space cadet. I ate oatmeal for breakfast, isn't that supposed to be like starting the day right so then everything following falls into place? At least brain-wise? No? Oh... well, never mind. I just started craving tacos...mmm, tacos.

Anyway, I got some more materials in the mail today. Every time I do it feels like Christmas. More pendant blanks since I want to make more pendants and then some grass green necklace/choker pre-made wire things. I think they'll be fun for my daisy pendants (I haven't assembled them yet but I have embroidered them already). I'm already planning on making one for myself, they're going to be cute. I have some other stuff coming in the mail that I'm looking forward to also.

I've been working on making a different style of fiber ring today and I posted another pendant.

Take a look, if you want. I listed another one yesterday but didn't want to go overboard on "Look, look at my stuff...." It makes me feel like when I was a little kid and tried to get people to pay attention to me, subtlety was not the rule.

I was playing around with adding watermarks to my photos on Etsy but decided against it. Here's one of the new kinds of rings I've been working on with a watermark.

The watermark doesn't look bad, rather, I didn't see the point to spend the extra time in marking the photo.

Hmm... I was hoping to be more entertaining today, my brain is just not into it.