I'm A Table

I know it's not exactly craft-related, but I'm extremely excited to present to you today -

the extremely generous bundle of birthday gifts that my dear best friends S & B brought me back from Japan! I was just about beside myself by the time I finished opening every individually-wrapped gift. Even now, the next day, every time I think about them, I do a little leprechaun dance! Here they are:



This is what I received:
♥ Kitty cat tote bag
♥ Harajuku Girls magazine
♥ kawaii socks, 3 pairs
♥ bento box; food picks
♥ beauty products sample pack
♥ handmade stoneware chopsticks rest
♥ Minnie Mouse tophat hairclip
♥ wall-hanging cloth
♥ Fujichan notepads set
♥ washi oil blotting papers
♥ silicone drink bottle lid covers

Thank you S & B, you're amazing!!

Yes, I've started a 3rd blog. Because I don't already spend enough time on the internet. Ahem.

My new blog is called dedicated to beauty products. It's called ShyCat Beauty.



There will be reviews, opinions and just general goings-on. I will also be doing some make-it-yourself beauty projects, and I'll post links to those here, because I think they count as crafty projects. In fact, I've done one already, for a DIY Hair De-Tangler Spray. I hope you'll have a look.

So perhaps you've been wondering what I did over Easter? During the highly anticipated 3 Days of Craft that I was so excited about? Actually, I spent the majority of my time on the computer, reading blogs and such. But I did manage to do a few things, and get a few things closer to done.

Firstly, the closer-to-done things. I worked on the scarves, both baby and adult.


Baby Sunlight Scarf.

The baby scarf is half-way done now. I'm using the same technique as I did with the Harry Potter scarf. I really love the tube effect with no visible joins. Unfortunately though, that means knitting half of each row at a time, so it's pretty slow going. I guess I forgot about that when I decided to make the new scarf the same way!


Chequerboard scarf, "front".

The adult scarf is pretty slow going, too. Firstly, I made a base of simple filet crochet. That part was easy. Now I'm up to the hard part. I'm crocheting a second filet grid, but attaching it to the first one as I go along. I've never seen anything made like this before, so I basically have to make it up as I go along. I don't think I could even describe how it's done. Every time I put it down, the next time I take it up again, I have to figure out what I did before! So it's very slow going.


Chequerboard scarf, "back".

Then for some bizarre reason, Husband and I decided to break out the Crystal Mining Kits that we'd had in the back of the cupboard for a couple of years. Inside the plaster brick are 8 crystals. You use the provided plastic hammer and scraping tool to excavate them. It's quite fun. I've excavated 2 so far. But again, it's a very slow process. The brochure even warns that you need to have patience, just like a 'real geologist'!



But the best thing I did - the thing I actually finished - was I tried out my Fuse Beads kit for the first time! I bought it a few weeks ago, but didn't have time to try it until now. Fuse beads are little plastic beads that you can arrange to make a pattern or a picture on a peg board. Then you iron them so they melt slightly and fuse together. There are a few different brands of beads out there. Mine are the Hama Beads brand. Here's an example of some fuse bead projects from the intertubes.


Source: Uploaded by user via ApartmentCat on Pinterest.

As you can imagine, this kind of format lends itself really well to things like pixel art - characters from old computer games, anime, pop art, etc. There's a lot of geekery in the genre! Having said that, I've also seen some gorgeous examples based on Navajo and European folk art. Here's a link to a Tumblr with lots more examples (it has a giant Totoro!).

There are a couple of advantages to the properties of fuse beads:

They're made of plastic, which means that -
They're washable and relatively durable. You can use them to make coasters, for example. (Though, seeing as they melt and fuse with the heat of an iron, I wouldn't use them to make a trivet or anything like that.)

It also means that -
you can easily glue them together or glue things to them.
You can make several sheets and glue them together to make a 3-dimensional box or basket. Or even a figurine. They'll stand up straight if you make a little stand for them or lean them up against something. You can glue decoden to them, such as bows, cabochons, googly eyes, etc.

Also -
They have little holes in them, so it's insanely easy to attach split rings or other findings and make them into jewellery - necklaces, rings, earrings, phone charms, bag charms, etc. Also, instead of fusing them together, you can use Native American weaving techniques to string them together into a flat or 3D piece.

Anyway, here are my and Husband's first projects!


Hama bead projects.

Here we see: a coaster that I made using the circular peg board, a star shape that I'll probably make into a hair clip, and a smily face that Husband made. Later he turned it into a fridge magnet.
We've made a couple more things since, but I'll post them later.

To wrap up:
well, this 3 Days of Craft was more like 2 days on computer and 1 day of craft but - hey - I did what I wanted to do and I have no regrets! At least my Startitis has abated a bit. As the saying goes, it's much easier to start than to finish. (Well, if no-one has said that, someone should have!)

I was scratching around for something nice to make for Easter Saturday breakfast, and I found some pastry in the freezer. For a while now, on and off, I'd been wanting to make an egg quiche kind of thing. When I realised I was pretty sure I had all the right ingredients, I thought, why the heck not?

I had some eggs - check! I chopped up some pumpkin and pre-cooked it in the microwave. I had some leftover pancetta from a roast a few days ago. Chopped that up, too.



The sheet of pastry had shattered in the freezer, but I managed to cobble the bits together to make 4 tart cups. Crossing fingers that they don't leak and/or stick to the pan!



I put some pumpkin and pancetta in the bottom of each cup, then beat up the eggs with some salt, pepper and herbs. I poured the eggs into the cups. I had 7 eggs, and thought it was way too many, but I beat them all up anyway. I'm glad I did! They only just filled up the cups. There was much joking about chickens not being as generous as they used to be!
Husband grated some cheese using our whizzy new over-sized grater, and I sprinkled it on top.



I had no idea how long to cook them for, never having done this before. I started with 20 minutes. They were way underdone, so I gave them another 10 minutes. They came out looking scrumptious!



After some judicious work with a butter knife, they came out relatively cleanly. And they went down extremely smoothly! I'm proud of my Pumpkin and Pancetta Breakfast Tarts:



Nom!

My creative juices have started flowing again at just the right time. It's Easter, and I get 4 days off. 1 day is reserved for socialising, so that means I can inaugurate another ...

3 Days of Craft

I'm so very excited and I've drawn up a list of projects I'd like to start, finish and at least make some progress on. I've come down with a terrible case of Startitis lately, so it'll be good to get some progress happening on some of them.

So, there'll be a full update in three days, but in the meantime, here's a lovely picture.


Source: sarahlondon.wordpress.com via ApartmentCat on Pinterest.

This is exhibit no. 1 as to why Pinterest is good! Such a simple way of joining a granny square blanket, explained in a single image, and pinned away for future reference.

THEMES FOR 2012
CREATE....................MEDITATE....................MOVE....................MAINTAIN

March flew by just about as quickly as February did. I'm still acclimatising to my new job. They say the job isn't the person, but so many other things have to change when your job changes, that I feel like I've changed in some ways.
So how did I do for my March Things To Do?:

* Complete a small baby project. (CREATE)
At some point I decided that this goal also involved getting out all of my craft patterns and cataloguing them (the baby ones anyway) before I could even start a project, so I got a bit behind! But I did start the Sunlight Baby Tube Scarf and am nearly halfway thorough it.
.... Part Done!

* Finish body of Tomten Baby Jacket. (CREATE)
I got this out and worked on it once, but I'm not feeling very enthused by it at the moment. It's too big to fit a small baby, so there's really no urgency to it. I'm really not fussed at all that I didn't get this done.
.... Try Harder Next Time ....

* Write in my Happiness Diary every night. (MEDITATE)
I remembered to do this nearly every night. It only takes a few seconds to write down 3 good things that happened during the day, but it really helps to re-set my mind to a more positive, relaxed state before bedtime.
.... Done!

* Walk at lunch time, twice a week. (MOVE)
Hm, well. I think I managed to do this twice in all. Things kept getting in the way. (The more realistic among us might call them excuses!) Finally though, at the very end of the month, I bought the sneakers that I thought I needed, I bought the little bag to carry my ipod and inhaler in that I thought I needed, I'm more prepared to take the me-time that I know I needed, so I'm feeling very positive that I can do this next month.
.... Try Harder Next Time ....

* Repair and/or alter all clothes that need it. (MAINTAIN)
I got out all of my clothes from the repair pile (not to mention a couple that needed repairing/altering that I was still wearing!) and tried them all on. I made notes about what repairs and/or alterations needed doing with each one. That was a bit of a job in itself. I didn't actually start doing anything to them yet - I'm feeling a bit sewing machine-averse at the moment - but it's on my list for the Easter 4-day weekend.
.... Part Done!



April is my favourite month! It's not too hot or too cold. The Comedy Festival is on and the city is at its most crazy and exciting. Most of my friends have their birthdays in April/early May, so everyone's happy and excited.
Now for April's Things:

* Make a pair of baby booties. (CREATE)
* Try out my Hama Beads kit. (CREATE)
* Try a new relaxation app every week. (MEDITATE)
* Do my toning workout twice a week. (MOVE)
* Make my home desk more drawing-inducive.(MAINTAIN)

Suddenly, inspiration has struck!

I was walking around the city the other night after work, killing time while waiting to meet with someone, and I saw a lady with the most glorious scarf! I gasped; my heart started beating faster; my head span. I had to recreate this scarf! Without any input from my rational mind, my brain automatically calculated how far it was to the nearest wool store and how much time I had. Lincraft ... 650 metres ... 70 minutes. Yes!

Here is my haul:



The Halo is for the scarf. It was sort of a grid pattern with cream on one side and purple on the other, but intertwined. Tough, but I think I can visualise it. But of course I didn't stop there! The PomPom is to make a fairy-style scarf or capelet. The brown chenille is to make a forest-girl style flower brooch (and probably many other things too!). And the mint-green Fairy Floss, I bought because of this:



Yes, I bought the Spotlight pompom loom a while back, and tried it out for the first time the other day. The pink pompom is in the small size, and the blue one in the large size. I wrapped the yarn around them as many times as I humanly could, and still they came out looking, well ... limp and floppy. The pompoms I see in pictures are firm and abundant.
a la:



Source: copyepaste.com via Copy & Paste on Pinterest.


Mine are more like how sea anemones would look if you took them out of the water. Not happy!
I thought that using a fuzzy yarn might help to make them look plumper. That's why I bought the Fairy Floss (and I could try it with the Chenille as well.) In fact, chenille is going on my list of favourite words. =)

More updates as they happen...

I am so excited about this project. Months of slogging ... and paid off with a very happy customer! Not to mention an item that turned out exactly how I imagined (which, lemme tell you, doesn't always happen!)

So without further ado, here it is! It's a Harry Potter scarf.



It's being modelled by Boy/Man. As you can see, it's insanely long! I just kept slogging away at it until I thought it was starting to get ridiculous. I used a slip stitch to create a tube so that both sides look nice and neat.



Isn't it glorious! The ends of the tube were automatically closed off by the casting-on/casting-off process. Then I had to weave in all of the ends. That's the job I hate the most. I cursed and moaned and self-medicated to get me through it, but finally all the ends were secured. Then I added the tassels. They came out even better than I'd hoped.
Here is a mega-close-up showing the stitching, cos I'm just so proud:



I calculated that it took me approx. 64 hours to make this scarf. As with all craft, it's a labour of love. I would only do it for a dear friend. And I need a bit of a rest after that!

Having said that, I'm planning Top Secret Project #3 now. Intriguing!

There's been a sudden flurry of crafting activity over here at Casa de la Apartmentcat.
I've finished a big project and started 2 new ones! I won't tell you about the finished project just yet, as it's still a surprise, but I'm excited about the new ones.

Firstly though, I want to share the mini-haul I got on my trip to the country on Sunday. A relaxing train trip with some lovely friends to a pretty country town, and to my delight there was a Sunday market on! (Sure, there were only 3 stalls, but I was still excited!)
I hit up the little old lady in the middle, and got these:



Here we see a knitting bag (so retro!), 3 balls of wool (one came free with the knitting bag, the others are so retro!), 2 coathangers with knitted covers (so retro!), and a knitted jumper that the lady convinced me to buy even though I'd already told her that I was going to make my own projects for my friend's baby. It was so insanely cheap that I felt really guilty. But something like that would have taken me absolutely ages to make myself. And of course I'll divulge its not-made-by-me status.

The knitting bag promptly became the project bag for the Man-Hat:



Yes, I'm making another Jayne Cobb hat! This time it's for Man. I offered to make him one for this year's Serenity screening. I believe they're normally in August, so no pressure to finish it too soon. I want to make one for myself as well, but I might play around with the colour combination.

The second new project is a baby scarf in a nice pastel yellow. I thought I'd ease myself into my baby-themed project adventures with something nice and easy:



This picture is particularly bad, sorry, but you get the idea. I'm already pondering trimming it with some pompoms perhaps? Or I might stick with the traditional tassels. I'm completely obsessed with pompoms at the moment, and looking for any excuse to make some.

It's been so long since I did a What I Wore (let alone anything, really!), in fact the last one was in December 2010. However, I wore an outfit that I liked so much on the weekend, that I was inspired to draw it. I've increasingly interested in Japanese fashion styles in the last few years, and I've been experimenting with adding an accessory here and there. Last weekend though, I finally got up the courage to try a whole ensemble.

My favourite style is Mori Kei ("Forest Look"), and this is what my outfit is based on. In a nutshell, it's what a girl wears when she's wandering around in the forest, taking pictures with a Holga camera and communing with nature. Or, if she lives in the city, she can be seen in a coffee shop writing in her journal, staring dreamily at the clouds from a street corner, or just watching the world go by.

There are many interpretations of the style, from "I'm a prairie girl about to build a barn", to "I'm an ethereal deer spirit who decided to wear every lace item I own today". Unlike many Japanese fashion styles (I'm mainly talking Lolita and Gyaru, here), there are really no rules, and you can pretty much interpret the aesthetic however you like. And guess what! Handmade items feature very heavily in the style, which sings to my need to crochet and sew little treasures to my heart's content.

Here's a description of Mori Girl attributes (both fashion and lifestyle), and here are some Mori-themed tumblrs for visual reference.

I call this outfit 'Semi-Mori' because it would really need more layers and accessories for me to be entirely happy with it. In the end I had to rush out the door, so I didn't put as much effort into the finishing touches as I would have liked. But I think it isn't too bad for a first go!



I'm pretty happy with my drawing - considering I haven't drawn at all in over a year! I even had a go at drawing proper hands. I found quite a few half-finished sketches in my art journal (mainly other What I Wore pictures), which made me a little sad. But I felt so good after I finished my drawing, that I'm determined to take it up again regularly. Since I started my new job in January, I've been too tired to put any energy into creative pursuits, but it's time for that to change!

I'm excited to announce that I've almost finished Top Secret Project #2! It just needs the finishing touches and then I'm handing it in to its owner tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going to go through all my projects, evaluate them and hopefully finish a few off. I want to clear the board in readyness for ... baby season! No, no NO ... I'm not the one having a baby, no fear there! But, to paraphrase the song, "All my friends are having babies".

Stay tuned for more crafty things!