And here's the time of year...

...when I am thrown back into the pile of accomplishments, thoughts and shames that have hailed me this twentieth year of my life. It becomes more and more of a process, each year that passes, to take what I have experienced and knock it down into 'have' and 'have nots'.

And it's become increasingly important to me how those 'have' and 'have nots' affect not only myself, but my family and those closest to me. There are many places where my mind is and should not be, and vise-versa. There are many things I cannot do, and as I progress in years - that childhood paradigm of 'anything is possible' rapidly dissolves.

Notice: here's a nostalgia studded, 'sigh I am getting old post'. Just putting that business out there. Apologies, this blog's become rather emotional. Hoping it'll get back to the same old when... well, I don't really know when.

Another notice: I share a birthday with Alan Rickman. Yes.

Birthday/Fathers day coffee sleeve.

I finally got to give this to my dad on Monday, which he promptly left in my mom's car before leaving back home. I'm fairly proud of it, it was taxing at times and it's a wee bit large for your standard coffee cup, but that is easily amended. So it's made from felt, red and black as you can see. I'm not that great at/don't have the right tools to do embroidery, but it still turned out alright.

Anyways, I guess I should stop stalling. I need to start scrubbing my floors, which are filthy. *sigh*. Or maybe I'll make food first... well, procrastination always wins.

Birthday Coffee Sleeve #1!

A coffee sleeve for Julie's 20th! It ended up being a little smaller than I wanted it to be, diameter wise, but I think it'll still do the trick. Up next: my dad's combination birthday/father's day coffee sleeve.

Shark Shark!

Yay! It's a hammerhead shark! This little guy is for Mary, who's birthday it is on Saturday and who's christmas present got lost in the mail. I think he's pretty cute. I really like how his eyes turned out!!

Completed penguin iPod case!

So here's the completed iPod case for my mom. See the work-in-progress post here. It took a long time to figure out how everything would fit together. The clasp mechanism (aka embroidery floss and button) ended up being pretty useless, but I don't really have the gusto to redo it. It would have been a lot better if I just did a fastener like the thread around the button (like those legal envelopes!) but I only thought of that after. I did get that puffy look in all of the penguins as I wanted. There are lots of layers on that back pannel! The adult penguin was 4 layers, the baby was 5. The ice at the bottom isn't as 'icey' as I wanted it to look. It was supposed to be sort of a cross section of the ice, but it looked a lot better on paper. It's also a little too wide for an iPod, but I couldn't really fix that by the time I figured that out! I think I just thought about this project WAY to hard, haha. Anyways, here are the pictures.

The back of the case!

Felted iPod case WIP

I figured I should post the 'in progress' photos before the finished product. So here are the pieces of the iPod case I was making for my mom's belated birthday present! Penguins? Yes.

Mamma penguin + intense iPod schematics. I did a lot of work trying to plan out how to construct the case itself. How it turned out was less spectacular than what I had planned, but on well!!


Mamma and Baby penguin!!

Some baby penguin love!

Stay tuned for the completed case!

Books books, lovely books!

Last night I just finished reading this tasty little mystery by Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. It was recommended to me when I was working at Cafe Books by a coworker! This book is just quirky enough for me to love it. The character of Flavia de Luce is an 11 year old chemist, enthralled with the art of poisons and chemical compounds. She's clever and sneaky, but can she solve the murder of Buckshaw and prove her father's innocence?

Anyways, this is a super fantastic book for anyone who's looking for a fairly quick read filled with old fashioned alchemy and the rich writing style that Alan Bradley has. The next book, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag is due out this March!!

Check out the Flavia de Luce fanclub!

In other news, I'm just sewing away at my mother's belated birthday present. Close to being done, it has been a frustrating one. I just hope the end result turns out better than I expect! Pictures to be posted shortly.

Dad's Birthday Card!!

I've had the concept for the front for a while, and it didn't really turn out the way I'd imagined it to. I can't draw bicycles very well, as you can clearly see. I should have layered the front a little more, raising the bike frame so it could overlap the buttons and not just look like two buttons with scribbles behind it!

 

  

Bender the Offender

I made this for my dear friend John for his 19th Birthday.

Birthday-ness for Eli

So here is felt birthday card number two. This one took me FOR EVER to do! Especially because of the metalic thread. I had never used the stuff before... it's like stitching with tinsel and it caused me a considerable amount of rage. But it did turn out pretty nice, though I think the felt could have been darker or the thread could have been lighter. The blanket stitch around the edge wasn't supposed to be yellow, it was supposed to be red. Unfortunately I misjudged my embroidery floss stocks, thinking I had red, but ended up having every other colour!

Birthday-ness for Amanda!

So last week I had an idea to make felted/embroidered Birthday Cards. After two of them I decided they were a tremendous amount of work... but they do look pretty awesome. With this project, I have CONQUERED THE BLANKET STITCH! Thank you internet!