DragonBlog

Artsy-Craftsy!

Oh, man. I've got pictures I want to post. Thoughts I want to rant or ramble about. I've probably written about 20 or 30 blog posts in my head since the last actual one...

But, time is at a premium and lately I seem to spend my "free" moments knitting.

...

Yes, I did just say that, didn't I? I spend my free time "knitting".

I have two brand new paperbacks calling for me to read them, as well as a really cool new book on jewelry. I have bunches of jewlery-making stuff calling me, begging to be put to use...

and I'm knitting.

The little play scarves I've been making the kids also seem to double as roads for matchbox cars to drive along. Yah.

There goes the last shreds of my tomboyishness, eh? One of these days someone is going to make me turn in the keys to my SUV for a bright pink minivan or something. *shudder*

We started knitting in the parent-child class I take with Kayla, and it all kind of came back to me from when I was knitting years ago during Civil War reenactments. (It gave me something to do with my hands other than smoking - which was not considered "period" for civil war women) While I haven't a clue how to make anything complicated, like a sweater or mittens, I can make simple squares and rectangles. So now one of Kayla's babies has a brand new knit blanket, there is a small red dish towel for their play kitchen, and two long stretches that could be scarves or belts for play, but seem to be mostly used as roads for the matchbox cars.

Jareth keeps insisting I make more "roads" too... I think he wants to stretch them all around the room. The little slave driver...!

I'm also coming off of making over 100 little sewn felt flower buttons on clips for the May Faire that Jareth's school held last weekend. I had other people making about 50 or 60 more of them, but I made over 100, despite claims that I cannot sew. The claims were made by ME by the way. *rolls eyes*

So much for THAT theory.

I also made some polymer clay critters. It's the first time I really played with polymer clay, and frankly I was pleased with the results. Despite the fact that Kayla has already managed to rip both the tail AND the head off the cute little kitty she got to keep out of the lot... Yeah. That's my little girl. El Destructo.

I did keep the first "bunny" I made. I shall have to post a picture at some point. I named him "Proto", as he was the prototype (although we have had several "Proto Lives!" jokes as a result). There's a story in my head, relating to Proto, however, that was part of the reason I couldn't part with him. Perhaps I will relay that when I get the pic up. We'll see...

More later. Knitting now! (Or maybe I'll actually start to READ one of my books...)

Current Mood: weird

TidBits...

While perusing the web, I happened across this Art of Rain site. Technically a niche market, but I think it's kind of cool, especially from a metalworking / making something ordinary asthetically pleasing perspective. I may just have to get me one of these some day, when I settle into a dwelling I intend to stay in for a good long haul.

In other news, Brian's folks were kind enough to drop by and bring us leftovers from the Thanksgiving dinner we missed, so we did not go turkeyless after all! (Thanks again guys!! Yum!!) We nearly overdid it on our delicate tummies, indulging in the goodies they brought, but we managed not to "rent" any of it.

Jareth, on the other hand, was throwing up more yesterday, so as a family we're not out of the sickness woods yet. Nonetheless, our friend Matt still came to visit us (something we'd already had planned) even though we warned him how sick we've been. We just made sure there was no sharing of kitchen utensils, or likewise, since this is primarily transferred through direct contact and not airborne. Fortunately, Brian thinks to ask those questions when we're at the doctor. My tummy is still feeling off though, so I've been taking it easy on the food front. I also fought my way through a nasty headache last night, but overall we do seem to be on the mend.

Meanwhile, some stuff is starting to catch up to us again. Like the fact that tomorrow is going to be the end of the nice long weekend we've had over the holiday. I will have had Brian home for a wonderful four and a half days! This is unheard of in recent months, so I've been basking in it, personally.

In other words, screw blogging more right now... I'm going to go spend more time with my family now! Nyah!

More soon. Pics still coming. Honest.

Current Mood: grateful

Bats and Spiders and ... well, more Bats, actually... Oh MY!

I stepped up to be the "craft mom". Well, someone had to do it. I have two Halloween parties to take the kids to tomorrow and since I was already bringing food to the afternoon/evening party, I said I'd bring crafts to the morning one.

heh. heheheheh.

*rolls over in fits of maniacal laughter*

So...

Now that I've spent the day cutting more than EIGHTY bats out of construction paper to make darn sure I've got enough of them for the TWO different "bat crafts" I have lined up... I nearly got a blister on my fingers from the scissors, I swear! But we have BATS. Oh yes. And spiders. Or, rather, pipe cleaners and buttons with which we will make spider rings!

Jareth and I have each already made one of each craft. He LOVES his spider the best. It doesn't skitter though. It spiders around places. He holds it up, making it walk around on things, saying "spider, spider, spider..." for the sound effect.

heehee!

One of the bats has a clothspin on back so it can hang onto stuff. The other one has holes for kids' fingers to come through. I'm hoping they go over well. And, I've managed to avoid the dangerous mix of paint with kids' Halloween costumes. Not glue, mind you, but at least no paint. Paint could be baaaaaaaad for Halloween costumes, even if it was washable. Because kids... well, are kids. Messy. Yup.

So still no pictures up here for y'all. Sorry. At least the blues from the other day are somewhat better now. For one, Brian finally got news about his job hunt! Pop on over to his blog for more details on that. For two, I moved back to the allergy meds I normally take. I'd been stupid enough to give Claritin a second chance. Tried for a whole day and a half before I had to bail and load myself up with extra meds to come back from it. I wanted to roll myself up into a little ball and cry. Actually, I did do that. A couple of times. T'was not good.

But soon there will be Brian's new job. And then, will come benefits. Which means INSURANCE! *gasp, sob, sigh*

Guess who's gonna go see a doctor?

Okay, I mean AFTER I get the visits for the pediatric allergist in first... lol.

Why is it I feel like I build up these medical problems so that whenever there is insurance I go into the doctor with a shopping list of things I want remedied?

In other news, I think Lissakatt may have had her baby. In another blog she keeps, chronicling her pregnancy, she mentions her water breaking and prepping to have the baby (she's been planning a home birth). Then - nothing. Silence on that front. Another forum she posts on mentions for people NOT to call her. That was the 24th. I'm waiting in anticipation of a post. Hopefully with baby pictures! I'm SO hoping everything went well, but I'm scared to call and bug them when they have a brand new baby in the house. I remember too well how exhausted I was those first days...

That's all for now. I've got TONS of pictures to put up. And I'm sure to take more over the next couple of days. At this rate I'll have to put up a separate gallery for this month alone! We'll see.

For now, sleep. I have to be crafty in the morning!

Current Mood: creative

I'm a Deviant of Many Talents now...

This makes me want to learn how to do Flash animations. If I had time to do such things that is. I could play with that little skeletal dragon guy for hours if I had such time. Poor guy. He just wants to eat my mouse pointer is all. He hasn't been FED.

So I made a DeviantArt account finally. I won't be using the journal function, since I do that here. But I'm popping up some artwork and photographs I've done. I still want to put more of my photos up, but their upload stuff is a tad slow so I'm just putting one or two up now and again as it occurs to me and I find myself able to point and click. Typing is tricky while breastfeeding, unless she passes out. Which she just did, so now I'll have to get to work while she's not noticing so much...

Naturally, her eyes just opened again. She's been REALLY needy today for some reason. I'm wondering if those top teeth are pushing at the gums now that the two bottom both seem to be fully out.

Can I just say - OW? Not often, mind you, but sometimes... OW!

Her bite is actually about equivallent to her mind-shattering, piercing, over-dramatic wail from hell bark. Ow. At least she usually remembers the difference between my breasts and her toys. Usually. But damn - don't get your fingers too close...

More another time. I think she's drifting back out again, so I've gotta make good use of my ability to type.

Current Mood: busy

Pumpkins!

I'm putting this one in the "Arts & Crafts" category. I think I did the best pumpkin carving project I've done yet in this year's batch. Not on my own pumpkin, mind you, but on my son's. Behold! The Pumpkin-Kat!

Brian has always been bigger on the decorating than the pumpkin-carving activities, so I take over on pumpkins for children too small to do their own yet. I even did a teeny little one the year I was pregnant. I didn't do that this time (sorry little unborn one!) as having to do both Jareth's and my own was more than enough work! In fact mine, which was supposed to be "insane" actually looks like it's yawning instead! How appropriate! Brian's turned out to be what I call a "winking willy"...

The decorations, however, aren't really going to go up after all this year. With Brian's work schedule and everyone being sick this past week, there just hasn't been enough time. I had a perfectly good pile of dirt in my front lawn too, but couldn't find an arm to stick in it as if someone was clawing their way out... Oh well. Ya win some, ya lose some. I would have made up a tombstone to go with it too. Maybe we'll do something fun with decorating next year instead.

G'night!

Current Mood: creative

Wanted: One Proper Workshop

I need a workshop. A proper place to have all my jewelry tools that isn't necessarily right next to my computer. Or else I'm going to have to get used to the new, strange smell that came in with my new Grizzly flex shaft grinder that arrived today. It was a far sight less expensive than some of the other, similar tools I could have ordered. We'll see how it holds up. The foot control pedal seems to jump up to fast pretty quickly, so I'll have to work on learning just how much pressure to add to get slower grinds too. We'll see how it works. I've rigged it up so the motor itself is hanging from a hook in the ceiling so that the casing doesn't touch anything when it gets hot. There was a hanging bracket in the box, but the way the room is set up I would have had to hang it too high on the wall for me to be able to use it properly. I've also set up a box lid with one side cut open to try and contain some of the mess that will be created when I start using it. It's going to be tricky to keep the area clean and childproof while still functional from a jewelry standpoint. At some point I hope I can afford an honest-to-goodness workbench at least - something high enough that little hands can't explore it very easily. That would help a ton.

At class last night I think I've managed to muck up my piece. For some reason the solder I was using just wouldn't flow and solder the two metals together properly. I'll fix it tomorrow I hope. In the meantime, I haven't gotten to actually use the flex shaft yet, so I'm hoping to clean the debris off the peice some tomorrow during the day to test it out some. I went out today to run errands and went to American Science & Surplus and picked up a bunch of bits to use in my new flex shaft. Little grinders and buffers and so on. Whee!

I know, maybe it doesn't sound as exciting to you, but I'm excited. I do enjoy creating artistic stuff out of the metals. Even when the designs aren't exactly what I wanted to do in the first place. I refuse to be discouraged here. *grin*

Also last night, after class was through, I took some time out to hang with RainMoon for some coffee. Although, technically, neither of us had coffee - she had tea and I had root beer. But you get the point. I also had nachos. That may not have been the best idea for a nighttime snack. I'm having heartburn issues with the pregnancy to being with. Those nachos sure didn't help. Doh! But the company was fun!

Enough for now though. I'm going to wind down and try to get to sleep early tonight.

G'night!

Current Mood: optimistic

Checking out Heritage Fest...

Today, Jareth and I spent most of the day at Heritage Fest. My mother-in-law joined us and we checked out all the arts and crafts booths as well as most of the "kids area". I have to say that they have one of the best showings I've seen for arts and crafts all summer long. I've checked out several different town "festivals" over the course of the summer, specifically looking at the arts and craft areas to scope out what kind of jewelry is selling or at least what's out there for sale currently. I want my own stuff to be original, but not so different from the norm that it will never sell. The stuff I'd seen prior to Heritage Fest has been disappointing - a lot more Pampered Chef and Tastefully Simple vendors than actual artisans or crafters. I think the only show I checked out that compared at all to today was the Crafty Crafters show I went to a few months back. Looks like there is another one in Aurora coming up on the 25th, but I'm going to be busy doing that yardwork I mentioned so I won't be going to that one. Heritage fest had quite an impressive showing of original work compared to the other town festivals I've attended, however.

There was one woman, Lisa Williams whom I was especially impressed with on a jewelry perspective. Her work was high-quality original, and hand-made - all qualities I look for when I'm scoping out these shows. She had the type of showing that I'd like to emulate but not imitate if you can understand the difference. I love the work she's done, and am tempted to purchase a piece tomorrow, although I don't know if Brian will say yes, considering I'm learning silversmithing myself.

Seeing her gives me hope that I can find my own niche one day and manage to compete with all the mass-produced, quick-fixed stuff I've seen that comes directly out of the jewelry supply catalogs to be slapped together and presented to the mass public as "jewelry". At least I did see less of that today, even the people doing primarily beadwork looked to at least have beaded the strands themselves - taking the care to do it right instead of just putting out stuf they bought bulk. I got my first catalogs from Rio Grande today (wow, they arrived FAST too!) and found that they have an entire section of pre-assembled jewelry that people can buy and then turn around and resell. Personally, I'd rather wait until I have enough inventory to make a worthwhile showing of my own handcrafted stuff, than just buy something made entirely by another jeweler so that my table looks full. They way Lisa had her items displayed and the quality of her work suggested "wearable art" to me. That's where I want to be one day.

Overall, we had a great time. There were two playgrounds along the way that we let Jareth out at to run around and play. One was by the Civil War encampment where my father-in-law and friends were set up with their cannon, which they fired a few times throughout the day.

As for Jareth, do you think he's got his Grandma wrapped around his little finger yet? I think I have proof that it is so...

Not only did he hitch a ride on her shoulders for a while, but he got to wear her hat too! This kid sure knows how to work his cuteness magic, I'm tellin' ya... He pretty much wore both of us out before we finally headed home so he could have a nap. Jareth and I did go back again later, for a late dinner and to see Brian, since he'd been at work all day and gone straight to the festival afterwards. I'd forgotten how hot I think my husband is in his Civil War uniform. Made me want to take him home with me tonight anyway, but he already had plans to hang out with "the guys" and his dad at the encampment tonight. I'll remember to bring the camera again when we go back tomorrow though. He'll still be in uniform and I want current pictures to add to my collection. Perhaps I'll even share a picture here too.

I'm wiped though. Between my usual "hardly any" amount of sleep last night and all the extra walking today (and running after Jareth who kept wanting to explore whenever we let him out of the stroller), I'm hoping I sleep pretty well tonight. Especially since the neighbors a couple houses down are having a LOUD party. I can hear it in the far end of the house in my basement and it is slowly grating on my nerves. I get really, really, REALLY tired of getting next to no peace and quiet in the damned neighborhood. Really. If it's still going at 2:00 am and I'm still awake - I'm SO calling the police. Mind you, it's not even midnight yet. I'm hoping I just pass out before it ever comes to that point. *sigh*

G'night!

Current Mood: irritated

Back from the Abyss...

I've been meaning to blog for a couple of days now, but between it being the weekend and my being sick it just never really happened.

I'm feeling much better now. There's still a slight feeling of "under the weather" on an overall scale, but that's mostly due to the large-scale snot excavation that is now going on in my sinuses and lungs. Fortunately it doesn't look like there was as much drainage into my lungs as I feared, so there isn't as much to cough up. This is a good thing. I really, really, really hate coughing up big honking gobs of snot. Yep. Not on my "favorites" list whatsoever.

Today was spent catching up on a couple of things and getting some crap out of my e-mail inbox. Every time I get down to five or six e-mails in there, I turn around for five minutes and come back to find twenty more have arrived. Even after dealing with a bunch today there's still 13 glaring at me in there. Fortunately two of them are relating to the tomato plants I'm going to pick up at someone's house tomorrow. Brian has mentioned wanting us to grow some stuff in a garden in the back, and a lady on freecycle is thinning out her garden and offering up tomato plants. So part of tomorrow will be spent getting them and another part will probably be spent putting them into the yard in back. It will probably also involve a stop at the hardware store's garden shop for a couple of items, but the ends will justify the means when we eventually have some tomatos growing happily in the back. Yum.

The other new craze around here is making hemp jewelry. I've decided to get back into the jewelry-making art form, and until I can take a jewelry class to brush up on my silvercraft skills and have access to a kiln and other necessary stuff again, I'm throwing myself into beadwork and knotting. I've ordered a couple of books to give me some new knotting ideas so that I'll have some variety to work with. There's method behind this madness, really. I could do this - it's addictive!

I've been making a couple items per day at least - even while sick - and have found that there's something about the hemp itself that I find soothing. For one thing, I can smell it! Well, I smell something anyway - somewhat floral in nature - and it also has been leaving some oiliness on my hands that is making them soft in the process.

To be honest, it's nice to do something that doesn't involve the computer too. I need to remind myself to step away from my keyboard now and again and see the things around me. And Jareth loves the beads. He knows the words 'beads' and 'string' now and is quick to come watch while I select the beads I'm using for a particular piece. I made a bracelet and anklet child-sized for him, although he'll only wear them for a little while before he wants them off again. He's not used to having things hanging on his wrist or ankle like that...

I'll have to learn how to make beads too - my mom was doing some of that. Then I can really make stuff that's personalized. Anyway, once I've got enough made to have an inventory maybe I'll start getting a table/booth at some of the local craft shows and see where it goes. I think it will be a fun change for me. I thrive on the artsy/creative stuff. Brian is being very supportive about the whole thing, but then there's some changes floating around in the possible future for him as well. But I'll let him be the one to mention those when he's ready to. In the meantime, I'm still going to do the web design work that comes along, but eventually I'll phase it out if the jewelry thing looks like it's going to go well. We'll just have to see how it all goes.

Yeah, I know. It'd be nice to see me pick one thing and stick to it eh? Why don't we just say "creativity" and I'll stick to that. In the end, that's what I need. To be able to have an outlet of creativity. So, in the meantime, this is the scene hanging next to my computer screen:

G'night!