Well, if it's good enough for the cool kids (faninohio and faryfly)...

I've decided to do a Christmas in July contest thingy as well! I'm bored with ceramics at the moment (besides which, they take SO LONG to make, and cost a fortune to ship), and I'm in a bit of a sewing kick. So I'm going to offer to make a grocery tote for one person who comments on this post. It will be the perfect size for running to the grocery store, and will keep you from having to use all of those earth-killing plastic bags!

You know the drill... comment before 7/15 and I'll draw a name out of a hat.



Feel free to send other people from your flists my way, if you think they'd be interested.

ETA: I changed the deadline from 7/31 to 7/15. I'd most likely forget all about this if I waited that long to start! I think a week should be sufficient!

Since faninohio referred to me more than a few times as her "Mute Friend Jersey" this weekend, I think it's only fitting that I stick with pictures and leave the talking to fan and phetch.

They're grainy, because I suck ass at photoshop and I attempted to lighten them up a bit. If anyone wants to use them for art or just wants to try to make them look better, I can send you the originals. Oh, and I didn't bother cleaning up the red eye either. Sorry, I just suck.


( More tall boy in a small chair here )

...at metalwork.

I know it's not much to look at, but this little ring started as a gnarly piece of copper wire. I'm just proud that it's round and it fits!!

I'm sure this will come as a shock to no one, but I come from a crafty family. I grew up surrounded by people making stuff, from my Aunt and grandmas knitting me blankets and sweaters, to my mom starting a business from the woodworking she did (little shelves and stuff like that).

Last year, my sister-in-law proposed that the women in our family do a "Round Robin Quilt." Basically, each person sews a 16" center quilt square, then passes it to the next person on the list. That person will add a border, using specific rules (one row must incorporate triangles in some way, the next rectangles, etc.). The idea is that after 6 rounds (and 1 year - each round is 2 months), you get your original quilt back, and each of the women has had a part in making it. You have no say in what they do, and don't get to see it again until it's done.

I adore this idea, but I'm not very good at sewing/quilting (which you will see in the pic below). It takes a lot more patience than I have. But I'm going to do my best! Here is the fabric I bought, and the square I made:





Sorry the pics are such crap. I generally like the way it turned out, but there are a few spots where it puckers more than it should. The person I pass mine to is a REALLY good quilter, so I'm kind of hoping she fixes it for me! *hee*

I actually managed to see all of the Best Picture nominees this year, and a good number of the best acting nominees, so I had pretty definite opinions about who I thought should win. There were some categories where I COMPLETELY agreed, some where I did not AT ALL, but none of that mattered after this:

It would just be a tragedy to lose an amazing show like this!!!



Click on the insanely hot boy above to sign the petition, and find more Save FNL banners.

As I'm sure all of you know, tornadoes ripped through a big swath of the south on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, Memphis was in the path of the storms. My family and I are all okay, we had no damage to our houses, but it was still terrifying. I think I read that 32 people were killed in TN alone. A local mall was hit, and a piece of it ended up in my front yard (the mall is about 15 miles away as the crow flies, takes about 30 minutes to drive there, at least). It's just insane and completely surreal.

My mom just sent me these pictures of Union University. My sister used to go to school here... it's about an hour east of us. Amazingly, no one was killed there, though a few students are still in critical condition.

So, do any of you live in a place where tornadoes are completely unheard of, or at the very least very rare? If so, I may be moving to your neck of the woods soon!

If you know of anywhere I can post this, let me know! I have one LJ craft community that I posted it in.



Leaping Lizards Designs

Something else I did this weekend was watch "Once." It's SO beautiful, I just loved it. And it's taking every ounce of my willpower not to go out and purchase every Glen Hansard/The Frames album ever right now. I'm forcing myself to start with the soundtrack only (which I just bought from Amazon, along with the Juno soundtrack).

This song was nominated for an Oscar:



PS On an unrelated note, I've never used the "enthralled" mood before... LOVE!!!!!

I had a lazy at home kind of weekend, which let me get caught up on some things I've been planning to do for months. And I took pictures!!

First, I recently read this blog about photographing your merchandise with props (faninohio, you should check this out... it has great tips!). I decided to give it a whirl. What do you think?


( a few more attempts )

Next, I decided to jazz up some little side tables I bought to go in my bedroom. They started out with solid wood tops, painted black. I removed the legs, upolstered the top with this cute black and white striped fabric, tufted it with the button and screwed the legs back on. This is how they looked when I was done with them:


( a few more angles )

Last, I finally got around to hanging some pictures I'd bought, matted and framed forever ago. The pictures are from an amazing photographer named Alicia Bock. Unfortunately, I could not afford full-sized prints, so I bought note cards and framed them in large frames, with white mats that I cut myself. These are from her Through the Viewfinder series, and I am madly in love with all of them. I am SUPER happy with how they turned out!!



So, that was my weekend! How was yours?

Back in the Day: 5 TV Shows You Loved As A Kid
1. Family Ties
2. The Facts of Life
3. Growing Pains
4. The Wonder Years
5. Blossom

( snagged this sucker from shing_ )

Yes, I ran it really, really slowly, but I DID IT! I'm so excited, and relieved, and proud, and a little depressed that it's all over, but I DID IT! My knees and quads ache, but I DID IT!!

I'll post more about it later, when I can include some pictures, but I wanted to let you all know that I made it across the finish line.

ALSO (and most importantly), I managed to raise $4100 for Cancer research! A BIG, HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who donated. You have NO IDEA how much it meant to me to have your support, and I will forever be grateful. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

The boss is out, and I need to find SOMETHING to make this day pass a little more quickly.

Stolen from bruwinchester:

A. Pick 20 of your favorite movies. (if you don't have 20, just do however many you have)
B. Then pick one of your favorite quotes from each movie.
C. Post the quotes in your journal.
D. Have those on your friends list guess what the movie is.
E. Either strike out the quote once it has been correctly identified or place the guesser’s user name directly after the quote.
F. Extra points for knowing the actor or character’s name.

( Quotes )

So, it's been almost a year since starting my little business. I listed my first item for sale on January 31, 2007 and made my first sale on February 8th. I've been EXTREMELY pleased with how my work has been received! According to the officialEtay counter, I have sold 186 items, but since some of those were multi-item listings, it's actually a bit higher. If you add together those, plus the sales I made at the festival I did back in September, I'd say I probably sold upwards of 250 pieces this year (if I were a better business person, I would know exactly how many... maybe next year!)

I thought this was cool. Here is a map of all of the people I've sold to through Etsy:



I love how spread out they are!!

I have a ton of new stuff up, and it's not too late to get it before Christmas, if anyone is still looking for Christmas gifts!!

Leaping Lizards

I have been working on a bunch of Christmasy crafts the last few weeks. I finally finished the Christmas Stockings I've been thinking about making for the past few years. Granted, there was nothing wrong with our old stockings, but I saw some really cute ones in an Anthropologie catalog a few years back, and I ripped out the page. I came across it a few weeks ago and decided to give it a whirl!

I drew a pattern onto posterboard, cut the stockings out of some basic felt, and embellished them with more felt, plus some antique lace and buttons I found at my mom's house. I'm really happy with how they turned out!

Here's the whole mantle:



( And here are close ups of the individual stockings )

I love how he sat all folded up in his chair. SUCH a cutie! And the outfit is absolute perfection, too. I'm always a little jealous when a man has better fashion sense than me!!



( More Steve )

It just cracked me up how they made such a big deal in the program about Jensen and Jared being ON STAGE - TOGETHER!!!!! Like it's a Beatles reunion tour or something. The first few are from the Jensen-Jared switch, and the rest (the ones with Jensen wearing the Sam t-shirt) are from their joint Q&A.

Actually, this first one is from the Q&A, but it's quite possibly my favorite pic of the whole weekend, so I want it before the cut - Jensen impersonating Sam!!


( ON STAGE - TOGETHER!! )

FINALLY, getting to what we all came here for! I'll start with Jensen (obviously):



( more perfection this way )

There are a few more that I didn't post here, but you can find them in this album.