Oh man, I'm such a slacker.

Ugh. Seriously, it seems every year I do this. And by this, I mean I completely neglect my site and I get a little slackerish on the crafting. Lots of things have happened since I last updated in March. I moved out of the city and moved into a house in the town of Bedford, Nova Scotia and I got a new job and am now working as a travel counsellor. No more apartment living! No more crappy job where I get no respect or am appreciate for my hard work! Hooray!

The kittens have gotten huge. They are no longer kittens in my eyes but rather small cats. The younger of the two, James, went to a new home last week. The other kitten, Magnets, is staying with me and her mother Vega. As much as I would have liked to have kept both kittens, money is tight and if they had gotten sick at the same time, I wouldn't be able to afford to take care of them. James ended up going to the home of a friend of mine where I know she (yes, she, we got the sex mixed up when she was born but the name James stuck) will be taken very good care of. Plus, when you knit and/or crochet and you have three cats, people start calling you a crazy cat lady. I'd rather avoid that if possible :)

Maggie sitting pretty in my bedroom window. She's totally not a kitten any more!




Baby James relaxing on my bed. I love the little white stripe on her nose :)

Now for some crafts! So I've done a few things. Made a couple of hats, a few pairs of slippers, half a dozen dishcloths, a couple of handbags and a few other small items. My new bedroom happens to have a glass door so I needed to make something to cover it. Today I made a curtain to cover it.

Before

After

I love this fabric! The purple has a pretty sheen to it and it matches my room perfectly!

Alright, time to sign off. I hope to start posting more often! If not, have a great summer :D

 **** Come visit my new site at www.thecraftinista.com ****

Hats, hats and more hats.

I love making hats, I really do. They are quick and easy and there are a million different ways that you can personalise each one.

Recently my friend Kate, whom I knew back in Calgary, was in town with her kids on their move from Vancouver to London, England. The last time I had seen her, her son Sebastian was only a few weeks old and his little sister Rigby was years from being born. While they were visiting, Sebastian and I discovered that we share a love of dinosaurs and the colour pink. Any 5 year old boy that loves both is cool in my books. Rigby spent most of the time visiting, trying to find the cats, who seemed to have hidden from sight as soon as they realised tiny humans were in the house.

I decided to make both of them hats based on our short, but enjoyable visit!

First up, Seb's pink and black dino hat...





This is only the second time I've attempted to line a hat with fleece and I gotta say, this time it turned out waaaaay better than the first. The first time, the lining was just too small and didn't shape the head properly. So this one is pretty much a success in my books!

Rigby's kitty hat....





Try and find the thread that I used to sew the purple fleece into the ears, I dare you!



One problem that I've encountered making hats for children. I have no idea how big their heads actually are. When I'm making a hat for a friend, I can just try it on for myself and if it fits, I assume it'll fit theirs. Oddly enough, children's heads aren't as big as mine though, so I'm always a little unsure of the fit!



I've also completed two other hats (including my first knit hat ever!) but unfortunately I have not gotten around to taking a photo of either yet. I'll try and post a picture of at least one them in the coming days. Until then, I bid you farewell.
 **** Come visit my new site at www.thecraftinista.com ****

And.......GO.

Alright...so I'm sorta getting back into the swing of things. I've completed a few projects that were started months ago and I've been doing a lot of baking. A lot. My baking skills continue to grow and I'm trying new techniques and recipes that I would never have bothered with before. Recently I've made a couple batches of chocolate chip cookies, a few varieties of cupcakes and even tried my hand at homemade tortillas! Both the cookies and the cupcakes turned out awesome and the tortillas were pretty good, that is the 3 of the 6 that I rolled thin enough! At least next time I know how thin to make them.



These were a French vanilla cupcake with white chocolate buttercream frosting. Yes, I did say white chocolate buttercream frosting. And yes, it was delicious if I do say so myself. And I do.

But wait....



What is that I see? Oh yes, a surprise inside too! Field berry curd! These turned out to be a winner and I saw many being inhaled when I brought them to work.

Also...delicious cookies...



I'm really in love with this recipe that I've tweeked. I've made about 3 or 4 batches of them so far and every single one has been a complete success. This time I made them with ghirardelli chocolate chips, white chocolate chunks and pecans. If these don't give you diabetes, I don't know what will.

I've been busy with the craft side of things too! I've finished two handbags that I had started six months ago. Both of them were completely crocheted but needed liners and decorations of some sort.



I love shell stitch, I really do. It works up quickly and gives a nice texture to the fabric that it creates.



Ooooh, I even tried fancy stitching!

I also got around to finishing a bag that I had finished crocheting back in May but put aside and was forgotten about. It's another Starling Bag that I've done a million times. For this particular bag, I had to hand dye it black because for some strange reason, I have never been able to find black cotton yarn in this city. Ever. I'm positive that it doesn't exist. Don't try and prove me otherwise! And I loooove the fabric for this one. I actually bought it over a year ago but was waiting to use it until I found the previously mentioned non-existent black cotton yarn.



The embroidery on the front is kind crap but I'm still learning. I wish now that I could redo it. Oh well.



A pocket!



The inspiration for the embroidery on the front.



There is also some needle felting on the front too!

And now I must go watch last night's episode of Glee and get to bed. I wish to run in the morning!



Captain Claws says Goodnight!



**** Come visit my new site at www.thecraftinista.com ****

It's a jungle out there....

My HLM asked for a handbag with zebra print lining. The only zebra print I could find was faux fur. Tacky? Yes. Does she love it? Yes. Success in my books.



And as a surprise, I made her some découpage zebra print picture frames. Score!

**** Come visit my new site at www.thecraftinista.com ****

Just a lil' somethin' that I just whipped up...

Actually, I started it weeks ago, finished the entire crocheted part of it one day at work and then sorta forgot about it. I had seen a similar pattern on another website but at the time I was way too impatient to follow a pattern so I just made it up as I went. I'm not super thrilled with the lining as the tension of the thread was a little wonky when I sewed it but I was too lazy to redo it.That tends to happen a lot as my laziness gets the best of me. Plus, I love making stuff but I loathe repairing stuff. Just the thought of having to hem a pair of pants just makes me want to shudder. Ugh.









I'm off work tomorrow because my mum and I get to go shopping! It's been awhile since we did a good day of shopping together so I'm looking forward to it.

The end.

Crap. So I published this post and then realised that I forgot to mention something else that I made. One of my oldest friends in the world, Allison, who I met back in grade five when I moved back to Greenwood, wanted me to make her a bag. She said she liked my brown and green plaid one so I made her one with the same sort of idea. Instead of the needle felting that I did on my bag, I decided to do some bead embroidery....Fffffffffff......man, did I ever regret that decision. It took fooooorever. I was so bored of it by the end because I was literally doing the same thing over and over again. Sometimes less is more and you learn from your mistakes.





I was so happy to use this fabric again, it's one of my favourites :)

Alright, this time I'm done.

The end (for real)

Starling, sweet starling.

I made some bags. I've actually made a tonne of bags but they are all in different stages completeness. Most are like 90% done - add handle or maybe a liner, embellishment, that sort of thing. I know I should finish one project before I start another one but it's not the way I operate. I get bored easily. When I start working on a project for a couple days in a row, I tend to put it down and work on something else for a bit. Below are three bags that I made from futuregirl's Starling handbag pattern that I pattern tested for her back in the spring. Loves.



Now this one I sorta, technically made for my sister. And then I sorta started using it so I'm keeping it for myself. Sorry Beck, I'm sure I'll make something to replace it. Promises.



The reason I kept it was because of the fabric inside. I sooooo love this fabric.



I like this one, it's a little more reserved.



It's even classy on the inside.



This one I made on the 6 hour train ride I took from Halifax to Miramichi a couple weeks ago when I went to go visit my parents and check our their new house (which is awesome by the way). I think I ended up making three or four bags that weekend. My wrists were burning by the end of it. Burning.



I think I might use this fabric again for another bag but one in white or black. Ooooh, black, yeah, black. Now I just need to find some black cotton yarn in Halifax. I swear, I can't find it anywhere.

Top Secret Projects! Oh, and a scarf.

There are a few projects that I am working on that I unfortunately can't show or talk about because the recipients of said projects, happen to be readers of my site. But I'll show a wee bit of what I've been working on!

I love this fabric



I also worked on a knitted scarf this week. I went with a camo yarn that I once made a hat out of (and an evil ex-boyfriend stole the hat) that matches my fall jacket. And apparently I knit oddly. My Aunt happened to see me knit and asked me if I was left handed, which I'm not. She then looked at me strangely and said "Oh". I have a feeling it's because I'm a crocheter and I don't hold my yarn in my right hand. I've tried holding it in my right hand but it feels awkward. I'm so used to holding my yarn in my left hand as I work across a project. I really wish I could learn how to knit more things but I can't grasp knitting patterns quite yet. It's only recently that I was able to understand crochet patterns and I've been crocheting for a couple of years! I'm sure one day I'll figure it out.

My last day of work was yesterday. I got laid off. This has been a horrible year for my "career". I start at GM next Thursday so I have a whole week off. I intend on working on as many projects as I possibly can. Especially considering on my last vacation (which was only two weeks ago), I intended to make a lot of Christmas presents but only got around to working on one very large project. I think this time I'll work on a bunch of small projects so it seems like I'm accomplishing more.

I got burned by my hot glue gun. Fantasic.

Last week I was at Woz's house to pick up a few things before we went back to my apartment for Glee night. As we were walking out the door she turned and asked me if I needed a lamp. Why yes I do, I said! I've been meaning to pick up one for my bedroom forever. The problem was, it was green. My bedroom has no green in it whatsoever. Oh, but I could change that - and I did.

After some paint, (skull) fabric and a wee bit of ribbon (which I wish now I hadn't put on but I can't take it off without ruining the entire shade) and I have a new bedroom lamp.



I also finally got around to putting up the rest of my framed concert tickets. I only bought them (the frames) in April-ish. 5 months ain't that bad!



This weekend was beyond busy. Greg came home. Went to dinner at my Aunt's. Went shopping. Saw a movie. Went out to dinner. My mum, cousins and I also got to drive down to Peggy's Cove while the weather is still nice enough. Here's a pretty effing cute picture of my cousins. Nothing says Nova Scotia like a picture of a lighthouse!

A rather productive weekend AND I was out of town!

To be honest, I am quite awful at both reading and following patterns. I find that a lot of patterns look like they are written in Greek and the few that I do understand, tend to slow me down. I like getting caught up in a project and not have to constantly refer to a pattern to make sure I'm doing it right. But when I came across Alice's handbags over at Futuregirl.com, I had to make one. They are super cute and quite simple looking without looking boring. So when she was looking for people to be pattern testers before she released the pattern to the public, I jumped at the chance. I'm glad I did because her pattern was super easy to understand plus it forced me to learn the foundation single crochet stitch which is bloody amazing. There is nothing that I hate doing in crochet more than having to crochet into a chain. So painful. But no more! I ended up making two bags this weekend - both the small and medium sized bags that she wrote patterns for. I was also down in the Annapolis Valley this weekend visiting my parents and sister (she finally arrived from Alaska on Thursday) and found this adorable black, purple and pink (my favourite colours) fabric with guitars on it. Perfect for a bag lining! I stitched up a lining and finally attempted some needle felting on a finished product. Functional and cute. Two of my favourite things!