the anti-procrastination craft weekend part 2

Well kids, The Anti-Procrastination Craft Weekend was a sucess. I think that telling as many people as I could that I was going to be having a crafty weekend really encouraged me to live up to what I had been saying.

Sooo... here is what I achieved:

I finished the dress for flatmate- so very important, it was great to see it finished.

As a thankyou gift/payment she gave me this great origami book, called The Origami Handbook by Rick Beech (also known as The Handbook of Origami). I love origami, and some of the designs are quite amazing. I couldnt resist making the cute little origami bunny (it is now just asking to be made in gingham origami paper).

And I finally mended those jeans (whew!).

My favourite part was working on this dress for my niece. It was meant to be for her 4th birthday, but since I chose to make a size 5 dress I am confident that it will fit her. Puffball shapes and kids work so well together since they are both fun.

I made a decent dent into the scalloped neckline top ( I now have a bad fear that it will kind of resemble a bad bridesmaid's dress from the early 90s.....). I got that pain that is called bias binding done (yaaaay!), and the majority of the top together. Now all I have to do is the hems on the sleeves and the neckband facing, which I will reserve for the weekend.

Oodles and oodles of bias binding- so how will it all turn out? Will keep you posted...

the anti-procrastination craft weekend

At the best of times, I can procrastinate a little with my craft. But when theres several things that need to be done- or finished (after a year or so on hold) it is time to take action. This is where The Anti- Procrastination Craft Weekend comes into its own.
What i need to complete is....

1. Dress for my flatmate. Juuust have to finish hem and tidy it up. I will try and get that done tonight.
2. Fix a hole in my jeans. This a job that will take 10 minutes, but I have put it off for about 3 weeks (this means I haven't been able to wear jeans for about 3 weeks now, especially when one pair has gone AWOL). I think I have procrastinated on it because I couldnt be bothered threading my sewing machine (!).
3. Complete the scalloped neckline top that I started this time last year. I think I abandoned it beacuse it had self- bias binding that I didn't want to sew.
4. A dress for my niece, abandoned, half finished because I couldn't decide on a trim (I have decided to go for buttons now), and the name on it is only half- embroidered.

Thats quite a list, but would make for ahomely weekend.

the haints

Just to let you know....

.... if you live in Wellington The Haints of Dean Hall are playing at The San Francisco Bath House at 8pm on Thursday the 15th.
...then onto Napier at Latitude Live on the 16th, again at 8pm.
....then back up to Auckland where they play at The Schooner Tavern- at 8pm on Saturday the 17th.

Please go and see them!

PS. I made a mistake before and have fixed up the times and places because they were wrong. Ooops!

trees and balloons part two

Last Sunday I finished the WallTree- part of this work came from wanting to finish what I had started... and also a desire to clean my roon (scraps of paper were floating around my floor and slooowly inching their way out the room. Not good.) I want to take a decent photo of it and perhaps get that printed on canvas... will talk to my sister with the Good Camera.

I've finished the tree in my embroidery- since my last update it has really blossomed. I have worked mainly in French knots for the tree- I liked the idea of having more texture- at first it was to be a combo of French knots and other patterns- but as they were nice to stitch they quickly became the whole tree. I have added a scalloped edge to the tree, a tweety little bird and an owl in the hole in the tree. After looking at a copy of The Gruffalo, I have also decided to add a toadstool at the base of the tree by the button flowers.

I like embroidery because it is addictive- you just want to keep continuously adding more and more and more detail, and your mind races ahead with more ideas before you even have a chance to complete the motif you are working on. I havent yet dealt with the large gaping hole in the centre of the embroidery, but I'm still wanting to keep reworking older areas, which I will do until I get my mad genius idea of what to put in the middle (am potentially going to add a horse (Number 1 Show Pony), a Clarice Cliff style house, and a fox. That won't be all I tell you).

Speaking of crafty crafters, I am still in awe of Jane from yarnstorm's amazing pineapple tea cozy. I am also very excited that she will be publishing a book. I think that one of the main things with blogging- and possibly the hardest thing - is being able to write in a manner that engages your reader (or viewer)- and she achieves this. I also think that writing without acting pretencious is difficult as well. It will be fantastic to see a book.

I have also added a few new blogs to my little rooms list, and they are..
....Little Birds Handmade, which has cute plush toys and lovely images.
...Six and a Half Stitches which has gorgeous prints and (again!) lovely images.

prettifying my blog

I'm on a mission to bring a bit more life to how my blog looks. Ive finally managed to get my header up, and will eventually figure out how to get rid of the default title (thanks so much to Julie for her advice!) sooner or later. And I'm also going to design a new profile picture. So bear with me!

Bonjour Paris!!!

Cute Eiffel Tower fabric from Fabric Attic.

The other day, I decided to act on a mad idea. I made and executive decision that next year, I am going to Paris. Nothing like a foreign country for a good dash of inspiration! I have so far brought a Lonely Planet travel guide and set up savings plans... but still don't know how long or when I will go. I do know that I want to have a stopover in Hong Kong (the most far away place that I have travelled to date), which is a city that I thinkis fanatastic- and chalk and cheese to Paris. So there is alot of planning to be made- and I will now be picking up my high-school French- I really want to speak the language. My relationship with the French language came to an abrupt halt when I gave it up and sold my soul to learn accounting (I thought it may be useful when I have my own fashion business... however when I had to take it by correspondance in the school library reading Time magazine took over. Much more interesting. I think I probably learned more from that than the accounting papers).

I think this trip will come at the expense of the little luxuries that I like to have- but not for my plans for new digital camera! I think that will be one thing that I will definately need in Paris...

trees and balloons.

Last night, when I had just got to bed, I had an idea. But it had to wait-! I needed blu-tack and double sided stitcky.

I wanted to take these patterned wrapping papers (!) that I had been using for poster/artwork. I had reached the point where I had decided that they were a little boring.

So today, I pulled them down and cut them up. I wanted to make a mural thingy on my wall that was less boring to look at.

So I created this tree on my wall... its not finished yet... I am going to add some clouds towards the bottom with the pink paper ( I also have this print on a bag. I like it so much). At the moment I'm a little over cutting and am having a rest and watching X-Men on tv....

My other cool news is that I am into the Peter Minturn Jewellery School night classes, which I really exciting. I start in April, and will be creating pieces in silver. I hope to make a ring and perhaps a pendant- but we do have to make some compulsary pieces :)

Bye bye.