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

Thrift

So, I don't know where the rest of you folks out in blog land thrift, but for the most part, the thrift stores in my area are the homes of the old and grimy, rather than the cute and kitschy. However, the other day I made this little, adorable discovery at Housing Works:

There was another identical mug as well, and while I felt a little guilty separating the pair it was hard to justify another $4 for the second one, let alone for the first. (Another thing, our thrift stores aren't always that terribly cheap either.... I suppose that's NYC for you).

Too cute though, the mug has a label which says it's dishwasher and microwave safe so you can heat up soup in it ;) It's also says it's circa 1989, the year I was born.

Well, it's almost the new year... still haven't done any crafting since finishing that hat, but I need to make those mittens before I go back to school or I won't have them until next winter :o We'll see what happens ;)

The Houndstooth Hat, and other holiday fare

New yarn and goodies from knitpicks arrived lightning fast and I began on my Center Square. Once I got the hang of the fair isle (this was my first project with colorwork!) I decided I wasn't happy with how the colors were looking in the pattern. So, I frogged the thing and then this morning, started again, using a houndstooth colorwork pattern instead. I finished it about an hour ago, and I am incredibly happy with it! So this is also my first finished object in a single day ;) (and I still had time to beat my dad at risk, and loose at various other games, including a very close game of scrabble in which I had a 40+ point move! We also ate wonderful homemade pizza (pesto, potato, carmalized onions, and goat cheese) and cookies and other things... so overall, a very good day!) Anyway, here is the hat:




Oh, and another cute Christmas thing: on the way back from my french lesson yesterday I noticed a Christmas tree stand selling "Charlie Brown Christmas Trees" for $1 each. I thought it was way too adorable, and since it's been a few years since we've had a tree, (we don't really celebrate Christmas, though we used to get a tree when I was little and call it a "Hannukah Bush" haha) I thought why not? It was extra fun because my dad and I called my mom telling her we got a tree and she was a little angry because of all the work she would have to do... until she got home and say this:

needless to say, she cracked up ;) And my dad thought it was appropriate that our tree be smaller than our menorah (which was still out yesterday since we had a belated Hannukah celebration when I got home from school)
(The trimmings are all my doing of course. And yes... those are earrings ;) haha)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all who celebrate! And to everyone else, I hope you had a fabulous day ;)

A Lack of Posting: brought to you by college

So, here I am. My first term of college is done, and while it's been fantastic, it left me with almost no time for crafting. I was so busy... there just wasn't even a moment. For blogging either in that matter. From classes that were hard, to the show I was in--yes, I am quoted in both articles ;), and working as a newscaster at the radio station, and acting in a student film, and new friends... I could go on and on. In the past 4 months all I managed to do craft-wise was to finish this unicorn for a swap:


and to start knitting my first sweater, thermal. I'm a bit further along than this poor picture portrays as I was stuck in Ithaca for an extra day after my exams ended due to snow. Beautiful snow. So what did I do? Knit of course.



brought to you by:


Anyway, while I'm going to miss my friends, my cast mates, and so many other amazing things, I'm excited for more knitting and sewing and crafting over this break. I hope to knit some mittens and maybe hats too, work more on more of my thermal, stitch up some gifts... perhaps... (suggestions anyone?) and maybe even make that dress I've been wanting to start since the summer. I don't know... there are always plenty of things that I intend to do, though one of them certainly is to blog about whatever does get created, and if I don't do this- yell at me! haha. But first... to unpack the exorbitant amount of stuff I brought back with me, including a lot of craft supplies who were sadly neglected up at school.... ah yes... I'll get to that...

Once upon a time there was a girl named Natch

Wow... last post August 1st... 17 days later I left for college and the rest is history. So, yes, basically, I am still alive, but now that I'm at Cornell I have almost no time to craft, let alone blog. I am doing my best to keep up the visual journal I started in July, though I had to cheat and make September after it happened, and maybe I'll share some of those pages with you at some point. However, other than that it looks like both blogging and crafting will be primarily a winter and summer break phenomenon. So, don't forget me, I'm around, and I miss the crafting community oh so much, but my school work, rehearsals, and choices about what I may be doing with the rest of my life come first. haha. Keep crafting and enjoy, I hope to be back here more permanently soon, though likely it won't be until December. :(