What I'm up to and other stuff...

I've been working long and hard on a swap item for fellow craftster Rackycoo. It's been a labour of love and I'm well chuffed with the results. Take a gander here! I think it's pretty spiffy.

I've also been working hard to use my craft area rather than letting my crafting take over the entire house. I've cleaned up my space a bit and taken a few photos...









I've got loads of projects that need to be finished. It's not that I don't want to finish them, it's finding the time to do it. The other issue is that current projects and future projects have so much appeal to them. Hopefully I can muster some the lost momentum of those past projects and get them done. My plan is to keep the items in plain view so that I can't forget about them any longer. Let's see how that works out...

A wee bit of exciting news to share too. Peanutbutterpie profiled little old me on her blog! How cool is that? Here is the lovely entry (on her lovely blog). ALSO the fantastic superhooker asked me if I would like to be a featured artist in the Misc. Topics section of craftster.org. Are you kidding me?! I gave a big fat 'yes'! You can see the 'interview' here.

A to do list....

I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve, and I don't go in for resolutions, however I decided that it might be fun to draft a list of things I'd like to do this year. Most of the things on my list are crafty things I'd like to do, and some are unfinished projects.

1. Paint portrait of hubby's grannie
2. Portrait of Dawn French
3. Luchador Series *started on 5 paintings!
4. Fairy Godmother Book *back stories started
5. Clock
6. Knit something for D *Done! Skull Beanie
7. Knit something for P
8. Knit a sweater *only one sleeve left!
9. Finish Alex's Quilt
10. Portrait of Blackadder
11. 'Gypsy' Quilt Block for charity *done and sent!
12. Finish Shrunken Heads
13. Ferret Painting for Nathan
14. Magnificent Halloween Window
15. Do something with the zillion glass xmas balls that are in my stash
16. Create a coven of witches
17. Create a "Sin Eater"
18. Start a Grimoire from the stampbook
19. Knit a Dr. Who scarf
20. Finish fairy box series
21. Create side-show themed something
22. Finish the black shrine on the go
23. Create a large shrine for the House
24. Make pineapple-upsidedown cake
25. Luchador costume for D
26. Make skirts from stash
27. Make outfit suitable for fancy attire
28. Make fabulous brooch and accessories for fancy dress items above
29. Make D's Halloween costume
30. Try to cook something new once a week (okay, maybe once a month)
31. Create a giant collage of D's drawings and school work
32. Make t's for Paul
33. Tree Man Box
34. Create 'memory boxes'
35. Photo's for hallway
36. Finish painting walls/ceiling that are sitting half done
37. Create an experiment with colour
38. Finish oil paintings (ug!)
39. Make book of D's photos
40. Make Fruitcake for x-mas
41. Make something spectacularly Halloweeny
42. Make something teeny weeny
43. Finish Christmas snowmen
44. Make Michelle's recipe box *box bought, now on to the making
45. Paint a bigger painting
46. Crochet something other than a grannie square
47. Make a family cookbook
48. Make some monsters
49. "Last Supper" pillow
50. Fondue!

I really want to bust my stash of crafty supplies this year. I want to see just how much stuff I can make. How far can I push myself? I have loads of things that I've picked up from second hand shops and I really need to do something with all of it. It will be exciting to see just what can be done in a year.

Yule is on the way!!!!!!!!

I'm really, really, really excited about Yule and Christmas this year. I can't wait for more snow and for that real wintry feeling. It has snowed here but now I'm greedy and want more! I love the white stuff... just enough to have fun in, not enough to leave me waist deep in a snowbank.

Last year most of our gifts were hand made and it was great to give prezzies that were so well received but it took A LOT of time and effort. This year I'm scaling back and concentrating on the two other Knickertwists. It's so hard to reign it all in but when the wee fella says what he is most looking forward to is our feast... well, I know where to put my efforts.

I'm hoping to start a few new traditions this year including
- not lighting the Christmas tree until winter solstice to represent the coming of the light
- leaving gifts (bird seed/twine balls) for the nature spirits on winter solstice... I have an idea and I'll post it if it happens to turn out.

What I'm really hoping for is nice, cozy and happy. I think those are pretty good hopes.

It's 1am and I'm afraid to go to sleep.

I've been having nightmares lately. Over the past couple of weeks I've had some doozies where I wake up, quite literally, scared stiff and don't really want to go back to sleep. Being the total sleep hog that I am, I do manage to drift back off.

Tonight, I'm not looking forward to what awaits me when I close my eyes.

Earlier today I had heard a number of accounts of a body laying in one of the main intersections downtown. I thought that it was a terrible thing but really didn't give it too much thought. That is, until someone gave me an account of the gory details. Apparently someone she knows saw the accident first hand and she felt compelled to share. I really didn't need to hear it.

I love movie violence. I adore Hollywood blood and gore. I root for the zombies. The more disgusting the better as far as visual effects go, is what I say. Real violence and gore... not so much. Christ, if I were a witness to anything like that, I'd need therapy for life.

I'm not exactly the most sympathetic person you'll ever meet. After people relay a sad story to me I've often been told that I'm heartless or mean. I think that people misinterpret my reactions as cold when they are really just logical. After all, most of those sad stories could have a completely different ending if someone had just applied common sense at some point.

Despite what others may think, I'm not totally indifferent to the affairs of others. This accident has really gotten to me. What about the poor driver who hit the girl? The victim? Her family? Her friends? The people passing on the street? The police who had to work the scene? There must be hundreds of people affected by this. I was nowhere near the place, don't know a single person involved, and yet I still do not want to go to sleep for fear of having a dream about the damned thing.

So, I've been trying to keep myself busy tonight by making things, but glue needs to set and paint needs to dry and I must go to bed at some point because there's a meeting tomorrow and loads of work to be done. If only it weren't so hard for me to clear my mind. Perhaps I'll try focusing on something pleasant instead. Pumpkins. Lovely, pumpkins. Fingers crossed I'll only dream of lovely orange pumpkins with Jack-o-lantern grins.

It's that time again...

The harvest is upon us which means that the Mr is away. I haven't seen a whisker in two days :( He's gone before I wake up and gets home after my tired ass has fallen asleep putting the wee fella to bed. Although it's very nice to say 'I'm a graphic designer and my husband is a winemaker' the truth of the matter is that at this time of year it's not a very nice reality.

In other, not so depressing news, I've been making my fingers to the bone. Here are a few of my newly made things...



I'd really love to get some items up for sale but I despise pricing things and I seem to make things best when I'm making for someone in particular. *sigh* One of these days, very soon, I'll put a few things up for sale. The Mr is getting right annoyed at the amount of things just sitting about.

Perhaps I'll be more inspired to do some selling after visiting the crafty Thanksgiving fair in Vineland this weekend. I love seeing other peoples loverly things :)

Packing in the oils...

I'm restless.

Another creative spurt has struck and I have no idea what to do with myself. I'm sitting at work at the mo' thinking what I can possibly splash across the blank canvas that is waiting for me at home.

I've sketched up another faerie portrait which I rather like far more than the last... somehow pencils have made themselves comfortable in my hand :) I haven't really pencil sketched in ages so it's a nice change of pace. Creating with pencils is lovely. All that smudging and erasing... oooohhhhh.



Perhaps it's the sort of lack of 'hands on' that it frustrating me with oils. I really thought that I'd love them. I don't. Oils are messy, and not in that fun way that other mediums are. Ick.

Just to ensure that I didn't lose my arsty painterly touch I picked up my old friends the acrylics and did a portrait of Dexter bowling. He's not totally done (I'm always bloody saying that) but here he is a detail of his face so far...
I'm fairly chuffed :)

I'd rather be at home

We've just had a lovely long weekend together. Playing and doing loads of nice things as a family makes going back to work very hard. There is so much more I'd rather be doing than sitting at my desk. When I'm not swamped at my 'day job' it does give me some time to become inspired by all of the wonderful stuff other people are doing. Here is a really swell link full of inspiration that I've stumbled across today... Elemental Craft Blog

I seem to be quite sleepy lately and have let my creative midnight habits go by the wayside this past week or so, falling asleep with my wee one rather than keeping myself awake doing any sort of making. That said I've got a few things on the go and there are a number of ideas floating around in my head.

While I wait in frustration for my oil paintings to dry I've started making a few faerie portraits. I've based them on some old photographs that I bought off ebay a while ago. Here is the first done in watercolour and pencil crayon.

Next on my list is a rather large shrine... fingers crossed that I can find the perfect base for my mad creation :)