Blog #2...

So, I've decided to start a second blog. I know you may think I'm crazy, as I hardly have the time to update this one, but I hope to be able to keep up with this one a bit more as it doesn't rely on me having time to craft. So I encourage you to check out my new fashion blog:

Freddie

The layout and such are still in progress but do let me know what you think! Meanwhile, it's winter break for me, and although it's a short one, I will hopefully have some crafts/DIY projects to show off to you soon!

Happy Holidays

Well, I'm home from school for Thanksgiving, so as I wait for our wonderful meal to be ready, I thought I'd leave you all with a little mem I've been saving since, well, this summer... just like everything else non-school related in my life. haha



What you do:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

I didn't really have definite answers to most of these questions, but it was still fun ;) ... I dare you to just try and guess what I typed in based on these photos- hah, I know I couldn't!

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I also realize I still have swatches I made for someone or others swatch swap this summer... I know I'm awful for never sending them :/ summer just ended so quickly, and I have them in a little tin (a rin tin tin tin... ironically enough, haha) up in my room in Ithaca... so if you sent me a swatch (I think I only got 4 or so, since I never did send mine) please let me know and I will send you one!!

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Anyway, hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and I will "see" you in December! ;)

Eep!

My apologies for falling off the face of the blogosphere before summer even ended... I've gotten super busy, but at least I have been doing some crafting- for swaps, friends, etc. I promise I'll have some things to show off before I go back to school in two short weeks. For now, hope all is well! I'll try to blog soon.

<3

These are... my favorite thrifted finds

So I'm sorry not to take new pictures for this week's this is... my favorite op shop find (though in the US we call them thrift stores- I think it's the same thing, yes? - theme thanks to lino forest) but this way I can actually post it on Sunday! Actually... it's 11:55, so I better hurry up! haha

One of my absolute favorite finds is my $12.50 Jessica McClintock/Gunny Sax dress which I almost wore to my prom last year. I found it at a flea market when I was visiting a friend up at Bowdoin, and it was just meant to be, especially at that price, which I am so proud of ;) I ended up finding a different dress for prom, but wore this to a formal this year instead.


I'm also in love with my $35 Marc Jacobs cardigan which I found at a Buffalo Exchange last year on our spring break trip to San Francisco.

old picture... my hair is so much shorter here :o but you get the idea ;)

And just for fun, a cute little mug I found a little while back at the housing works by my apartment.


Oh darn, it's 12:03. Well, I tried- right? ;)

On my desk... per se....

ok, so my desk is actually pretty empty now because it is still fairly clean from last week's revamp, yet my laptop has now migrated back to the couch- go figure. However, I wanted to share what was quite recently on that table my mom and I squeezed into the shower that I spoke of last week.


and the stamp - next to the sink actually, not on the table. Oh technicalities... ;)

Almost everything I used for this project was purchased in my shopping spree last week (which was more than paid for with the birthday money I got from my grandparents yesterday- hooray!), with the exception of my carving tools. The new speedy cut was such a pleasure to work with! (I used to cut all of my stamps from erasers) I was afraid it was a little crumbly during carving, but that did not seem to have a negative affect on my final outcome. I was also extremely pleased with my new brayer, which made inking so much easier, though I do sort of wish I had sprung the extra $6-$7 for the inking plate, which at the time of said shopping seemed so unnecessary. The fabric paint and fabric were also purchased on the same trip and I am really pleased with the colors.

The print is now hanging next to my desk waiting to be washed and cut up for jesse's swatch swap :)

see who else is playing on my desk here

This is...

my personal style. This week's theme thanks to kitty's kaboodle. And yes yes I know it's Monday, I'm a day late with the meme thing as usual, but what can you do?

I couldn't pick just one outfit to express my personal style because my style is so eclectic and variant, especially from summer to winter. But here are a few highlights of Natch's summer style: (My apologies for the cruddy bathroom photos... but that's what happens when I have to photograph myself)

Polished Summer Casual:

The Sandals that go with it:

This summer I've been rotating between these (from target, and quite comfy!) and my t-strap Birkenstocks

Lazy Summer Casual, mostly because this is my favorite t-shirt (from Threadless):


And then finally, Summer Classy/Dressy, which I wore to my little birthday celebration this weekend:

This dress was my biggest purchase at Renegade this year and I am head over heels in love with it... even if I did have to shorten the straps. The dress is by this lovely lady.
and the shoes:

which I got from ebay a few years ago and absolutely adore, though they are a tad small and therefore a tad pinchy in the back.

And speaking of Renegade, I know I've kept you waiting on the other photos I promised!
So, here we have my friend Helen and I posing for a photo outside of the Etsy booth:


and then 'the postcard machine' which very much cracked me up. She even said she was smiling for our picture ;)


Since the dress was a large purchase, the only other things I got at Renegade this year were a letter N typewriter key ring and three magnets- 2 for myself with my initials "NB" and pictures of a nest and a bird- how perfect! And an I for Ice Cream for my mother, Ivy, who certainly does love ice cream.

Anyway, sorry for the slightly rushed post, but I've got a surprising amount going on lately... I really meant to post this yesterday, or earlier today.

Until we meet again, check out more "this is..." on three buttons :)

On my desk...

Nothing! :o

I know I promised to blog about Renegade (and I still will!) and I know it's a day late for the meme, but I am just so elated about my revamped desk area that I wanted to show it off. I wish wish wish I had a before picture so you could see how horrendously messy it was, but just imagine piles of papers and trinkets everywhere rendering the entire surface unusable. My sewing machine lived in a corner of the living room and my laptop on the couch, or on the floor next to it... never could I have dreamed of fitting either on my desk, let alone both! I am so excited that for the first time ever I actually have a usable craft workspace. Though, knowing me, I'll still do half of everything on the couch ;)

And the room revamp doesn't stop there. My mom and I squeezed a table (now trust me, that was interesting) into my shower (which is never used- I use the "guest" bathroom- mine was always filled with cat stuff, but I figure Casper should be able to share) so I can have an area for printing and cutting and things, instead of crouching in the bathtub, haha. I still need to do more physical cleaning of the shower area before I use it though, the dust that was caked on everything was pretty ridiculous... Well, hopefully I'll be inspired to keep cleaning and make even more room for crafty storage and etc now that I actually have a workspace. :D Yeah I know... still kind of can't get over that ;)

Anyway, here it is:

Probably still looks rather crowded to most of you, but to me this is practically empty ;) haha I'm also excited about how I hung my scissors, brand new rotary cutter (hiding behind the old computer), and voodoo pin cushion on my bulletin board/bed. (Yes, this whole shebang is underneath my loft bed).

And here's above the desk:

You can see the underside of my mattress ;P as well as the spool and bobbin storage I'm so proud of- I just stuck straight pins in to the bulletin board at an angle! Obviously I have some more to put up there, but I'm super happy with it for now :)

Other people's prettier desks can be found here. ;) And I suppose this also goes well, though rather late, with last week's this is... because this is the space in which I will create!

Finally, yesterday I also went to Dick Blick, Pearl Paint, and a few random fabric stores to stock up. I got:
A rotary cutter
A cutting mat
A smaller squeegee (preparing for my gocco already ;P)
2 more colors of fabric ink (dark purple and dark green)
A sheet of speedy cut
A rubber brayer
More stencil plastic
Tracing Paper
"Friskit Film" - something new for me to try :o
3 yards of interfacing
3 yards of muslin
3 yards of a plain grayish cotton

I don't think that's too shabby for under $100 in NYC. Oh, but another thing I'm bouncing out of my pants about: I also bid on and won this print gocco - I'm so unbelievably excited! It looks like it should be in full working order and oh I hope it is, because with shipping and many special extra fees to get it, it obviously comes to a lot more than the 3600 yen listed... but should still amount to about $50 less than getting a new one from printaddict or somewhere else... so, my fingers are crossed! I don't know how I'll be able to wait for it to get here, because it's also much slower than getting one from printaddict... could be a couple of weeks. Also, it looks like it might be missing a blue filter, and I might need to get some other inks, but I'm trying so hard to prevent myself from placing an order with thinkink or anywhere else until the gocco is in my hands and I can properly assess it.

Now, what I really need to do is stop spending my birthday money before I get it ;) ... less than a week until I'm 19, time really does fly.

Bicycle bicycle bicycle

I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

So, I meant to blog about last Friday's bike ride much sooner... last Friday or Saturday perhaps, but as usual got distracted with other, more useless things. So, I will blog about it now. Simply put, it was a lovely ride. Sometimes, living in the city that never sleeps, with construction making my daily commutes an ever changing maze and cranes collapsing down the street, I forgot that it takes less than 10 minutes of easy peddling to get to something as delightful as this:

Which is free for the crossing, and quite fun to ride down the other side of. And on that other side, it's like a different land, where you can chase ferry boats,

or stop and get distracted by some pretty horses,

or even a mother and her lovely ducklings.


This place is called Ward's island, and I used to bike here with my mom when I was a kid- it is just a short ride along the east river to the bridge- and while the island has great potential to be creepy and sketchy at night (I do believe it is home to some mental wards... though strangely enough, that is not how it got it's name) it is really lovely during the day... at least, the part they aren't doing construction on, haha, I guess some things never change. It seems they are renovating a great deal of the park right now, a lot more of it was bikeable when I was a kid, I think they are trying to redeem it for it's former status as a home for all things undesirable (garbage, bodies, the insane...) and make it more useful/open to the public. Point being, I need to take my bike out more, ride along the water, go to Ward's island, and other parks too. I mean, that's what summers are for, right?

I will end this entry here as to stay on topic... but Renegade was this weekend and it was grand! Though, maybe not quite as grand as last year... due to the rain perhaps? Anyway, I will blog about it soon... my main reason for waiting that I have yet to photograph my goodies ;)

And happy belated poppa's day to all you fathers out there. I hope you had a good one :)

On my desk.... ish.

Well I've been busy browsing some beautiful photos from the Wednesday on my desk meme, begun by Kootoyoo, and I must say I'm having a little bit of desk envy. I tried to make one of those cute little mosaics of some of my favorites but it didn't seem to work. boo :( Guess I still have some blogging tricks to master. Well, anyway, my envy spawns from the fact that at home, I can't say I really have a desk... I mean, I do, but it contains my old, not really working desktop computer, and piles and piles of paper, rendering it rather unusable. My main workspace is the living room couch and floor and so things have a tendency to become very messy and unorganized. In fact, I hardly spend any time in my own room at all... it's become more of a storage area :/ And at school, well, my desk is all full of boring school-type stuff, and nothing lovely and crafty.

Well, yesterday in my beloved flamingo print dress (thanks to e-bay for the photo) I found myself in a 1950s housewife sort of mood where I wanted to clean and organize and perhaps make my desk and room into something usable once again! However, I was working most of the day (from 11am-12:30pm and from 3pm-10:30pm) and so didn't have the time. Today, I have had all the time in the world but haven't had that same punch of desire to organize, no matter how many photos of pretty desks and clean craft closets I lust after.

Alas, for now, even though It's not Wednesday, I did want to show you a picture of what's on my "desk," aka the couch, which is what I've been working on today rather than doing any sort of cleaning whatsoever. I'm pretty excited about it, but can't show you much more as it may end up being for a craftster swap I've just signed up for... though this is still kind of a trial run.


And speaking of swapping, head on over to Jezzeblog and check out her Swatch Swap which I think is an absolutely fabulous idea. I've only printed fabric once or twice before, but I had a great time with it, and if you do too, or if you've ever wanted to give it a try, you should head over to swap some swatches too!

Anyway, time to whip myself up a quick dinner and perhaps I will feel a bit more inspired after I eat...

The school year: journaled

Well, I have been back from my freshman year at Cornell for almost 3 weeks now, but have done little crafting and no blogging. It's strange, I've knit a little, finally begun a dress I've meant to make for a while, but for the most part I've been feeling relatively uninspired. Maybe it's my lack of a good workspace here... not that I really had one at school, and not that I really had crafting time at school, but sewing on the floor and such has been bothering my back even more than it used to. And it feels like it's twice as crowded here as it used to be... I haven't finished unpacking because I just don't have a place to unpack the rest of my things in to. haha. But anyway, I am back, and the one thing I have been working on throughout the year is my visual journal, which I began last July. There are a few months, especially during the beginning of school, that are a bit barren, but I've kept up with it for the most part and I thought sharing some of the pages with you would be a good way to return to blogging again.

So, without further adieu:














and a memorial page for my cat Madison, who I had mentioned passed away over my spring break.

The rest of the pages, as well as larger versions of these, can be viewed on my flickr along with a page of Shows I've Seen and an indefinitely incomplete page for a show I was in last semester, the Bourgeois Gentleman. Perhaps this post will inspire me to really return to the world of crafting and blogging? I hope so... because I really do need to do something with myself (besides watch Lost which some friends at school got me addicted to :K) haha

More Craft Therapy

This was started Monday Night and finished Tuesday morning out of a need for more (somewhat) instantly gratifying craft therapy. It is based on the 1 hour bag from ric-rac but took me much longer than one hour ;)
A lot of my supplies are up at school (not that I ever have time to craft while I'm there) so I had to do some improvising. The fabric is from my stash of upholstery fabric from my mom's office (I am very fond of this print though... almost makes me think of Mary Poppins? hah) and I didn't have my magnetic snaps or cover button kits so I made that flap and attached a hook and eye which is a tad annoying, and covered my buttons the old school way... and then attached them with hot glue because they were too sloppy to sew on. haha. Two layers of upholstery fabric meant it was sturdy enough without interfacing though, which is always nice. Anyway, I am very happy with how it turned out, though I do wish I had made it a tad bit deeper. Ah well, it's a pretty perfect size for my essentials ;)



action shot/close up:


Last night there was also some therapeutic brownie baking. I may be doing some therapeutic gaining a pound or two, haha, so much for eating healthy/getting in shape again, I'll just have to do lots of circus this summer. I am going to one class this Saturday before I leave, but I'm going to be a real weakling.

Unfortunately, the rest of my week has been, and will most likely be, too busy for crafting, or much else for that matter. I'm sad to say it, but this may be the last you hear from me until the mid/end of May (I go back to Ithaca on Sunday). Happy crafting all, and I hope to be back this summer in full strength!

Spring Break

While, I arrived home for Spring break around midnight Friday night, and it has certainly been a bumpy ride. As usually, my crafting up at college was limited, though I did make good progress knitting my thermal, that was mostly last semester during Bourgeoisie.



I also did manage to break out my sewing machine the night before I left and resize my size large dragon day shirt into a nice, fitted girly small. I have no pictures of the shirt, but I'll show you a few of the dragon for good measure.




In short, dragon day is the day where all of the overworked architects go crazy (not that the rest of us at Cornell aren't overworked, but the seem to have it particularly bad). The freshmen archies build a giant dragon float the day/night before and all of them have a big parade full of many many entertaining costumes and many wasted upperclassmen. Then, at the end of the parade, they run around like maniacs and set the dragon on fire. A very old Cornell tradition, sound quite civil yes? Hah, well, it was indeed a lot of fun to watch.

I wish I had taken more pictures this semester, the dragon day ones were pretty much my first. And while Ithaca is freezing in the winter, it is indeed both gorges and gorgeous, and I wish I had captured a little more of that. No matter, I have three more years, and I'm hoping and praying that Ithaca will be ready for spring when I return.

Now, I know what you're thinking, Spring break? bumpy ride? Seems like you're doing well and having fun. Well, I was, as I mentioned, overworked at Cornell, but I am loving it a lot. However, yesterday is where the not so happy facts come in. To make a long story short, we took my cat, Madison, into the vet because he had lost weight and was looking rather lethargic. He had been to have blood work in November and was perfectly fine so we figured he was just a bit dehydrated, the vet would give him some fluid, and off we would go. Not so much the case. Turns out he had developed an extremely aggressive cancer in almost no time at all and would have to be put down. After an hour stuck underground due to the annoying MTA I surfaced and called my cousins whom I was supposed to have brunch with, they told me to instead call my mother, and I got in a cab and rushed back uptown immediately. We got to spend some time with him, but no amount of time could have been enough to say goodbye to my best friend and truest confidant of 12 years. I grew up with Madison, from 7 to almost 19, and now he's gone. Goodbye baby, I will miss you more than anyone will ever know. I love you.



My family spent the rest of the day wallowing at home and after knitting more of my thermal in front of a few silly movies, my mom and I decided to bake. Baking is therapeutic, correct? So we made oatmeal chocolate chip, one of my favorites and I made a play list of extremely upbeat, happy, shiny songs. If anyone has any suggestions for that list, I'm still looking to add to it. Then, a dinner of Indian food, a few more cookies, a few more silly movies, and a bit more knitting later, I decided I needed to craft. I painted a page in my journal for Madison, but I only did the background because most of my supplies are up at school, and it also took some time to dry. Around 2 am I glanced about my room and saw the packages of yarn from the long ago Rapunzel scarf swap that I did. I took them out and started laying pieces across my living room. By 3:15, I was done, chopped the loose ends with a seam ripper because I didn't want to wake anyone by going to look for a scissor, tried it on, and then went to sleep.




I'm quite happy with how it turned out. So springy and wonderful. And it reminds me how much I love crafting. It helps take my mind off things, and make me feel better. I just wish I had the time for it up at school. Alas.

A Year in Pictures

I've noticed this on a few other blogs, and I thought it was a charming idea. So here goes, a picture for every month of 2007:

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:
(ok, I cheated a little... this is also a December photo... but November was so busy with my show and such that I just didn't have anything good...)

December:


Happy New Year Folks