Sunday, October 31, 2010

Winner!

The random number generator declared comment #5 to be the winner which was left by Stephanie!

Stephanie, please send me an email (turning.into.gold@gmail.com) with your mailing address & I will get that package sent as soon as possible!

 

Thanks so much to everyone who entered, I'd really like to do one of these again in the future!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Far Away Hearts & Minds Skirt


All done! Finished my last fittings late one night. My favorite proportions for clothing are things which come in close at the waist, but since this was my own design, I got to leave ample space for wider hips. Take that, commercial designs! Thanks for the nice comments on the "in progress" post for this skirt, it really motivated me to hurry up & finish!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Tentative Pages: Love & Letting Go




I'm never sure if it's a good idea to share work in progress, but I did make some time to work on layouts in Blurb.

Friday, October 22, 2010

A Tale of Two Teas

boba.


orchid.


Tea is wonderful & therefore, it is often in my daydreams. An ode to two of my favorite treats, boba & orchid flower loose leaf, vastly different, but both delicious!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I Want This to be Yours: An Ugly Bird Giveaway!


I've never tried something like this (giveaways), but once upon a time I went to this really great store called Yarns Unlimited in Santa Monica & picked up some yarn & buttons. I made a neckwarmer to send to a friend of mine, but ended up having enough material to make two! So as a way to say, "thanks for taking interest in my little projects", I would like to send this one to a reader.


All you have to do is leave a comment telling me where you would fly off to if someone offered you use of their hot air balloon for the day. I will use a random number generator to choose a winner at the beginning of November, so you have until midnight of October 31st to submit something. One entry per reader only please!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Pieces



Ever since I made that afghan, I've been way into the idea of making things that consist of a bunch of separate pieces that are joined together somewhere along the way. This was actually finished quite some time ago, but I never got around to posting about it. Anyway, I found a very beautiful pattern online for a cowl here, but I didn't actually follow it. Not because I didn't like it, but because sometimes I get weird about things on my neck & wanted something quite a bit looser & a bit more casual since I tend to dress so fussy already. So basically, I studied the pattern & ended up with something following the gist of it, but a bit different. Anyway, if you do choose to follow the pattern, I think it'll look wonderful & be a fun project as the pattern is very clear & easy to keep up with! Plus there are other really cute patterns on that site, I kind of want to make this, not for bridal purposes, but just because I think it would be fun to wear a garter.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Mailers



One of my favorite things about having moved & having friends who have recently moved further up north is that I can send things like these all over California!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Oh How I Miss the Great Outdoors!



I keep visiting gardens in my spare time (the above are from the Mildred E. Mathias garden right on UCLA's campus) to feel a little more calm, but the very planned, manicured feel just isn't cutting it. Nothing sounds more appealing to me right now than camping. Or Big Sur.



Anyway, Hannah Kirk wanted to see a picture of the library, so I went to a very pretty one:


Friday, October 8, 2010

In Progress: Love & Letting Go



It's been quite some time since I updated about, "Love & Letting Go". As I mentioned before, while this project is similar to "Plant Collectors in Bolivia" except instead of piecing together bits of words from years & years, it would be an edit as you go, one year project. The name was chosen in May & is proving to be an accurate theme for the kind of year I've been having. When I chose the title, I didn't know I was going to move yet, I think I was still seriously considering online school because of the cost factor. But here I am & I find myself needing to let go of a whole mess of things in order to get on here.


Love & letting go are so linked, they are part of each other. I, like many people in the world, am prone to falling in love. Not necessarily in the romantic relationship kind of way, that has only happened once, but rather in every other way. I fall in love with the world, with someone's laugh, with the way the light is coming in at that window over there, with the wind, with the way certain books smell. Nothing is forever & these tiny things that are so easy to fall in love with are gone quickly. My heart is broken a thousand times a day, but it isn't something to be sad about. We all love, we all let go, we do it constantly, every day & I think that is the most endearing & wonderful thing we can do.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

I Want a Workspace!

a friend's temporary workspace


One thing that was really awesome about taking an art class in school was access to a studio. Floors that were meant to be mopped at the end of the day so you needn't panic about spills, tables that were large, uncluttered, ready for anything you had in mind. Because of the fact that I live in an apartment & am not an art student, my workspace is always very temporary. I pick my keyboard & mouse off my desk & lay out newspaper there, or I take my work on the road. Crocheted things can be done in parks, on the bus, in a cafe. Painting can be done outdoors, but is more difficult to manage. Sewing is most restrictive, I am attached to an outlet for my machine. Music is relatively portable as well, luckily I am not a pianist or something.


But still, a permanent workspace would be so wonderful! I feel it would be conducive to bringing together all the different mediums I like to work with if they could somehow be allowed to be out all together at once.


For those of you who create, where do you do it? How do you deal with the necessity of a place to work?

Monday, October 4, 2010

Shakespeare is not Amused, Ugly Bird!


Work was a little slow tonight so I spent a few minutes doodling on the back of an envelope I received from payroll. It is no t-shirt, but here is a picture of a bird on Shakespeare's head. Excuse the picture quality, my cellphone doesn't have the best camera.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

In Progress



This project is mostly done, but not quite. Everything is put together, but I just need to do some fitting. I like to sew a garment a little large, put it through the wash to see if it'll shrink much, & then do a few final alterations to make sure it fits. With this skirt, I created a pattern on paper, which was the first time I've ever tried that. Usually when I sew things without a pattern, I just make it up as I go, but this time, I decided I would like to be able to make the item again or at least that I would like to have a pattern to work off & make small alterations to in order to create new patterns. It worked out a lot better than I was expecting, so you should expect to see my next sewing projects be a lot of skirts. When I saw this fabric, I instantly was reminded of a man's button down shirt so my brain was on this office wear trip, but then I really like things to be feminine & was having a conversation about the importance of details with a friend of mine so I thought adding some crochet work to the skirt would be a good idea.

One side note, Wordpress stats are really amusing & today I discovered that one of the top searches to bring people here has been, "t-shirt with bird on shakespeare's head". I think I might like to make a drawing of a bird on Shakespeare's head very soon.