anxious to get back to cutting, sewing, stitching...

Real life has taken over. No seriously. I haven't had a chance to sit and make anything all because my in-laws are in town. They are staying in our super-tiny (one bedroom, one living room, one tiny kitchen and a bathroom) flat, and as you can imagine, things are a little tight. My flat was really made for about 1.5 people - even Ori and I don't fit in there sometimes! So I have been completely unable to get our my crochet and get hooking. I'm a bit upset about this, and I'm getting fidgety. I really want to go splurge on lots of supplies so that as soon as I get to crank open my bag, I will be armed and prepared with heaps of wool. Yes, I think will be caving on the supplies limits that I have imposed for the last couple of months. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm totally obsessed with making sweets and cakes right now, so hopefully I'll have a chance to finish off and photograph a couple to post this weekend.

On another note, I'm also really wanting to get on the scrabble tile pendant trend. I know that there are a lot of sellers in this boat already, but they look so amazingly cute to make, so I want to give it a try. I'm currently sourcing supplies as we speak. One of the really frustrating things to discover is that supplies in the US are sooo much easier to come buy, and much much cheaper. So I doubt I'll be able to compete on cost. It will have to be down to originality then. I have heaps and heaps of postcards that I have been collecting over the years and this is the perfect project to use them on. Unfortunately, this has resulted in me becoming totally addicted to ebay looking for tiles, vintage ephemera, and other bits and bobs. Wow! I can see how people get totally addicted. I may have accidentally bought around 600 scrabble tiles just through the sheer excitement of winning auctions. Yes, that is rather sad, isn't it? Particularly since I have no real idea if this will take off. I guess I can always sell them as destash on etsy at some point if I don't manage to get rid of them though.

I can't wait for the weekend to actually get back into making stuff!

crochet, summer days, and an amazing new find

Whilst I haven't been posting as much recently, I haven't been sitting around doing nothing. Truth be told, all the lovely sunny weather has kept me away from the computer a bit, and I've been satisfying my blogging through extensive twitter usage. I have also been enjoying making my latest critter - aren't these guys awesome? The middle chap is already for sale here. The other two are going on sale later this week. I have had a bit of a hard time thinking of what to call them. Paintgranny and AntiqueBasket think they are stumpies, which I'm happy with, but if anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be pleased to hear them. My boyfriend thinks they look like little pills - I guess they do a bit! Amigurumi happy pills!

Right now I'm really obsessed with making play food - I spent far too much time on flickr last night looking at some amazing stuff, so tonight I'm going to be experimenting with making a cake. I used to make crochet cupcakes, but I found that lots of people made them, so I couldn't really differentiate myself, but maybe I'll go back to them soon enough.



I was also reading the embroidery blog feeling stitchy where I came across the ohmigod amazing hensteeth. I absolutely adore ephemera, but I am completely hopeless at actually capturing the whimsical beauty that I want, and that hensteeth has managed to do so well here. This is embroidered on a vintage envelope, and it just takes my breath away it is so wonderful. She has a blog here, and an etsy store here as well. Go check it all out.

a rest is as good as a change...

It is no secret that I have been taking a break from crafting. I had been planning to take a week off; in fact, I ended up taking two. I find that a break here and there is great for the soul, and good for understanding why it is we do what it is we do. (I'm sure that's a song lyric that I have stolen from somewhere). I had a good time - reading books, running in the late evening sun, playing tennis, but I also caught myself being mildly bored by the internet (there is only so much jezebel, whowhatweardaily, and fashionista that a girl can read!), whilst watching tv (oh, who does any single thing at a time these days?!) but not doing anything about it. I've now realised that that extra time that I was being bored with - that's my craft time! So last night whilst watching brothers and sisters I started my new crochet monster, and I'm so happy! I was also enjoying crafting under my own steam. For the last two months or so, I have been crafting to deadline, as there were fairs I had to get ready for. Now, no longer! Just what I want to make, when I want to make it. No doubt I'll still make my super long lists of things I want to make, but this time I can actually experiment and get back to being chilled about it. I'm very excited and pleased about this. I'll be doing a good lot of crocheting I think over the next few weeks, before getting back to felt monsters and that sort of thing. I admit that I haven't been doing as much online promotion as I ought to have, but that's okay for the moment as well. I'll catch up with some myspacin' this week, and post a little on the forums and flickr, but taking a natural from everything one in a while is great for the soul.