Whoops!

and we're back! Sorry about the mini hiatus - It's been busy busy busy around here! 

Along with my full time job I've started coaching high school track for the season 

(I threw javelin and discus in high school/college so I'm in charge of the rowdiest of the team)

I don't know if I'm doing a good job or not but I was just informed that I owe one of the kids a cake since I gave them the challenge of "if they threw over such and such distance they'd get a cake for javelin, cupcakes for shot put or cinnamon buns for discus"  And of course last Saturday, one of the boys threw a 134 in javelin so I'm going to have to own up to that 7 layer cake in the school colors that I bragged about

(and I'll be sure to take pictures all along the way - maybe even throw in a shot or two of a gang of high schoolers devouring it!)

Okay let's move on cause I tend to get to lengthy and I have actual things of a craft nature to show!

I managed to carve out some sewing time but I'm not sure you'd want to see the majority of it - fixing buttons, mending rips etc etc... I did however finally finish something thats been sitting under my bed for at least a couple of years now (I'm getting better honestly- this is major progress for me)

Once upon a time, one of my old roommates was sweet enough to send me a scarf from California because she had been with me when I bought a quilt for my bed and had heard all about my dream designs for my room.  I decided to turn it into a pillow but was stopped about half way through when I was stumped by the problem of not wanting to cut the scarf. I gave it up for lost and moved on with my life while it sat next to my bed unfinished and dejected until this week!  
I ended up cropping two of the sides but it was worth it now that I've got a perfectly matching pillow for my room <3 

 (and just for good measure here are some shots of my room since I got a little snap happy with my camera!)

Embroidery WIP

Slowly but surely I've been chipping away at this (mostly during my lunch break while I watch Mad Men)

It's been fun trying to figure out where to put things and trying out new stiches but I really want to just finish it!

I thought I'd throw in this close up on the first time I worked with high-texture embroidery

I didn't finish the whole thing but I'm still in love with this tiny piece

Feeling Blue

I've been down in the dumps lately and one part of it is that I'm in a real art block.  

To try and cheer myself up I messed around with a blue pencil, I've just got to get back into the swing of things!

The Table part 2

(Click here for Part 1!)
Finished my table! I'm so happy with it.  I didn't expect to love it so much but it's really become a part of my room.  Soooo! heres the fun part!

Before....

                                                    

and After!

I bought raisers because the table is surprisingly low to sit at at it's regular height.  

(I must be a giant compared to people from the 1950s or those termites ate more than I thought they did...)

All the hardware was bought at Anthropologie, I think they add a nice simple touch to the table! 

(and it helps that I get an employee discount on them!) 

The only problem is that top handle is a little bigger than I would have wanted it to be but since I won't be using that little sliding table top very much everything works out!  

So there you have it! My new little-

okay well old huge would be a better way of describing it I guess...

-worktable is all ready to go!

Post Holiday Mishmash

Whoops! Things have been super crazy around here and of course I wasn't joking when I said that I procrastinate (but I'm working on it!), soooo better late than never..... 

Happy (really really belated) holidays!

My friend Dottie (who just set up her own fantastic blog) was sweet enough to include some hand spun yarn in my christmas gift this year which also included a drop spindle for me so I can start too!

I also started to knit a terrible scarf with it... hopefully I'll finish it before spring...

Among my Christmas presents this year was a case of new Windsor Newtown Inks.... 

(The Blue and the Red are my favorites, the Orange and Brown are horrible)

.... a Sunprint Kit from my Pollyanna at work, which I was over the moon to get.  I don't think she realized that I used to love doing Sunprints as a kid!

....and the biggest one of all (which isn't at all big now that I think of it)

A new Cricket Loom!

(which I have to set up to start weaving soon! Only problem is that I kind of hate warping....)

To wrap up this belated post here's part of the Pollyanna gift I gave - A mini wreath!

First off, no one had the nice actual wreath shapes so I finagled it with some hot glue and cotton balls...

Next came the fun part of wrapping it up evenly in yarn... 

and then finally knitting the bow, which I have to say, is not my strong suit but I have a simple way of making bows.  I knit a long thin piece, long enough to wrap around the wreath, and stitch that piece up.  Then I knit a shorter yet wider piece...

...and then wrapping yarn around the middle of the rectangle to form a bow!

All that's left is to stitch the newly formed bow to the wreath....Tadaa!

 and another shot for good measure! 

and here's one last bonus holiday craft....Christmas rainbow cupcakes!

Pre Holiday Mishmash

Hello! I'm running a little busy with the holidays coming up but I have been working on some embroidery during my breaks at work and I should be working on my pollyanna gift (I better get cracking at that before I leave it till the last minute!)

Here's a preview of The Table from the last post - I'm not officially done yet, the drawers still need some love'n and I bought some great knobs from work to finish it all off!
(Also you get to see how messy my table is at the moment and this is in medium messiness mode!)

For my embroidery I really wanted to try out some high textured embroidery - I fell in love with it when I saw AverageJaneCrafter's entry for the NASA craft contest which you can see here .  I actually have tried it out before but it was during school for a project and....let's just say it got a little out of hand and is still unfinished (It was for a painting class so only god knows why I decided to try my hand at some extreme embroidery to be mixed into my piece) 

The plan is to try out a simple piece that I can frame and hang in my room.  Here's the beginning of the project. I usually use simple white chalk for my embroidery projects if the fabric is too dark for my fabric marker.  I started using it when I was panicking on a school project and swiped a piece from a classroom in hopes that it would help and it does! (Just as long as you make sure it doesn't smear too much but I usually just go over the lines again before I start working again)

Also I'm almost ashamed I'm calling this a part sketch blog and haven't posted anything drawn yet!

I've been feeling iffy about my drawing skills which kind of explains that I guess! 

 I just haven't had much time to actually sit down and do something I'm proud of so I've become rusty since the summer. I had time last night and decided to brush off that rust and mess around with some inks and watercolor.  This is the only thing of note from the night but that's because it took me most of the night when I decided to crosshatch the background...

The Table part 1

This may or may not be sacrilegious to some artists but...I got rid of my old drafting table.  It was all for a good cause though! Because I really needed room for my newest find - This lovely old girl!

(Okay well trust me, the charm is under the grime...)

So here's the story... My grandmother is moving out of her house and its a pretty big place (I think 7 out of 9 of my aunts/uncles lived there at one point of time) It also doesn't help that I think I got my touch of pack rat tendencies from that side of the family, so the house was still pretty well furnished with odds and ends.

The Table was actually found in a shed hidden in the backyard and the strangest thing is that my grandma doesn't even recognize it.  My guess is that my grandfather might have found it in the trash at some point in time (another trait I picked up) and stuck it in the shed and forgot about it.  We think it may be from the 1950s (this is going on my mom's Antique Roadshow knowledge which I have to say is pretty legit)  

After a rocky move, which involved an open car trunk and me holding on to The Table while my mom drove, washing off and scrubbing down the table was one of the most satisfying things I've done in a long time.

I wasn't there for the unearthing of it but apparently some mice made a home out of the drawers and it looked like some hungry termites might have gotten to the legs so I took it upon myself to give the whole thing another good scrub but this time with a bleach solution.

The thing that really drew me to The Table had to be the table top - I think it's made of porcelain but it's got this strange silhouette scene inlaid into it that's just so bizarre that I can't help but think of a story every time I look at it.

Day two was sanding day - Which as it turns out, is a pretty darn good upper arm workout! I was throughly surprised to find a white coat underneath the green paint and even more surprised that even with me putting some elbow grease into my sanding - it was a real pain to get down to the wood so I decided to cut my chances and just take off the top coat. To finish out the day I used some wood filler to fix up the legs where the termites had nibbled on, let it dry and then sanded again to fix up the wood filler. 

To be continued in The Table... part 2! (dun dun DUN!)