Books Read in 2006:
1. Modern Girl's Guide to Life - Jane Buckingham
2. Super Crafty - Susan Beal, Torie Nguyen, Rachel O'Rourke, Cathy Pitters
3. Seven Types of Ambiguity - Elliot Perlman (yes...still in progress...it's a LONG book!)
4. Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker - Debbie Stoller
5. Dollar Store Decor - Mark Montano

Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: I love this book. The instructions are easy. Crocheting into the chain stitch has been the hardest step for me so far, and it was comforting to know that it can be annoying, if not hard, for people who crochet all the time. Her instructions reminded me of something I read while learning how to knit. Sometimes you just have to let yourself be new to something for a while...eventually you'll pick it up. There are so many projects in the book that I can't wait to get started on, I also love how many non-clothing items there are, I really don't want to make a halter top for myself, or even a sweater.

Dollar Store Decor: Blech. Really not worth the money in my opinion, luckily my library had a copy. It's a wonderful idea, I love the idea. But out of 101 projects I only might want to try four or five?! Some of the stuff looked plain cheap. Others were repeated so many times it was ridiculous. An example of that is where he shows you how you can cut designs out of gift bags and decoupage them to a lamp shade. Good idea! Then, a few pages later, he'll show you how you can cut designs out of gift bags to decorate a tray...well, okay. Then how to decorate a box, then a something else, and on and on. It should've all be included in one, not to mention the fact that crafters can figure out that if you decorate THIS item with this dollar store item, you can also decorate THAT item with the same $1 store item without being told. It just bothered me, kinda like I was cheated out of a few ideas because the spread the same one out. But the book isn't exactly horrible...other people might find more projects they like...maybe less.

So, I learned how to sew last week...kinda. All I did was finally figure out how to thread and run my sewing machine. It's a Singer from the 50's (the 301A, not the Featherweight one) so it only does straight stitches I think, so it's no big deal. I may have to get an inexpensive one that I won't use often for zigzag and other "fancy" stuff. My goal is to be able to make doll clothes and kid clothes like my mom did when I was little. I loved my handmade Cabbage Patch clothes better than the ones she bought at the store. I also had a beautiful Christmas dress that I only wore ONCE with a black velvet bodice, ruffly skirt and poofy sleves made out of red, black and white plaid. My favorite was that she sewed bells into the skirt. I absolutely loved that dress, and it's what pops in my head whenever I think of my clothes when I was a kid. I didn't appreciate the months of hard work when I was that little though considering I played Dukes of Hazzard with my cousins, jumping around and diving under tables in a dress that took so long to make. ;)

It's been a pretty productive week. Thanks to my new book, Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker I also learned how to crochet finally. It's still a bit icky because I was using hooks I bought at Target's $1 Spot that were made out of wood and VERY rough. I couldn't really see the stitches because the hook was separating each ply of the cotton yarn when it wasn't shredding it to bits. But today, with a nice little 50% off coupon for JoAnn's grand opening sale, I bought a set of aluminum hooks. I'm still in a little practicing mode, I've done a few rows of single crochet so far. I want to get a little more done so I can see what it's supposed to look like, and then I'll hopefully be able to learn the other stitches as fast. I accidentally started doing the stitch you use to make flowers, or a round hole. I kept stitching into the same spot thinking it was the next stitch. Oh well. :)

It's also not been a very productive week though, considering I spent most of it learning NEW things instead of finishing projects I've already started. I've already convinced myself that I DON'T need to buy any more supplies. I need to finish what I have...or at least half of it...before starting on something where I have to buy new stuff.

Valentine's Candy Box

I made this for my husband for Valentine's Day. I was going to get him a promotional Saw II poster from work, but they had already put it up in the display (which ruins the poster). I also learned later that my husband already got a Saw II poster from where he works.

I covered a box with regular red paper and then used a Valentine's Cardmaking Kit from Target's $1 Spot. I was lucky enough to be there when they first put out their new season stuff a couple months ago, because all the really good stuff was gone really fast. I grabbed a bunch of gel pens and a star shaped scrapbooking hole punch thingy, whatever they're called. Then I just used a glitter pen to write on the box after I was done.

I filled it with Valentine's Day M&M's and cherry flavored Blow Pops.

This is an embroidery of a Virgo design. I think they were vintage patterns, I got them from someone else. I have one other one, my husband's sign, Aquarius. After stitching that on another color of flannel, I'm going to turn them into both sides of a small pillow. The embroidery's about 4 inches across, so it will probably be 1/2 the size of a regular throw pillow. I may add a fabric or ribbon border, I don't know yet.

This one is done on purple flannel (that's what I had) and I love stitching on flannel, it's great, plus it's soft and the ends don't fray. I printed the pattern out and had to use transfer paper to trace it onto the fabric, you can see a little of where my traced line was off in a couple places (like the bottom of her sleeve...)

In other news... :)

I went to our new Jo-Ann's Supercenter. It's freakin HUGE! I only made it through half the store before I had to leave. It just opened two days ago, and there were a million people in there. I love it though. It's bigger than our new Michael's and has a much bigger selection. The best thing is I can even walk there. Michael's used to be w/in walking distance, but they moved over to the "cool part of town" where all these businesses keep popping up, it's still like a minute and a half driving distance, but still. So Best Buy, Target, all kinds of big stores moved out there, so Jo-Anns moves into the old Best Buy building. Yay for me. :)

I used Sublime Stitching - Craftopia patterns for this. It's all in shades of brown and mostly light blue (a couple darker shades of blue here and there). I am not completely done, and it may be years before I am. I still need to sew a ribbon border along the top in light blue. And as I collect buttons in the future, I will sew on my favorite blue and brown ones. Maybe a couple craft-themed charms if I see anything like that.

It's just a plain canvas tote bag in oatmeal from Michaels.

Books read in 2006:
1. Modern Girl's Guide to Life - Jane Buckingham
2. Super Crafty - Susan Beal, Torie Nguyen, Rachel O'Rourke, Cathy Pitters
3. Seven Types of Ambiguity - Elliot Perlman (in progress)


Quick reviews in case you were interested.
Super Crafty: Amazing. Best money I ever spent. Gives all kinds of different project ideas, while leaving room to adjust and inspire crafty minds to think of their own versions. I love the little extras like "Crafty Disasters" and "Crafts from the Past" My favorite projects and ones that inspired me the most to get crafting: Sock Monkeys (I've always wanted one), Super Cool Appliques (felt! I need felt! why is it taking me so long to buy some stinking felt!), Bejeweled Baubled Purse, the entire "Reduce, Re-use, Resparkle" section.

Modern Girl's Guide to Life: It's okay. Some tips are helpful, some aren't. Like dinner parties. I've never known anyone who has ever had one or has been to one. I will likely never have one that doesn't consist of everyone grabbing a plate of food and sitting around the living room and dining room. Plus her section on flowers annoyed me, because it was wrong. I spent a couple years working as a florist in the store I still work at. She said something about skipping roses and buying a more durable bloom since the rose will die in a day. What the heck? Roses can last a week (if you know when to buy them). There are more durable flowers, but roses are fine. I just haven't been able to get past that comment.

Seven Types of Ambiguity: I discovered this through his new book at Barnes and Noble (The Reasons I Won't Be Coming). It looked like it might be pretentious, but I tried it out anyway. He has the most beautiful writing. It's like a river of chocolate syrup. The new book was checked out at the library, so I got this one instead. It's a pretty thick book, but it's really holding my attention, so it shouldn't be too long before I'm done. I'm just about through with the second part, there are seven. All told from different points of view centered around the innocent kidnapping (a weird way to put it) of a little boy.

It's winter again. The past few weeks have been perfect. Not warm, but not cold either. Now all of a sudden it has to snow again (just a little, but it's still there) and be freezing damn cold. I think we've had our heater off for two months. I love cold weather, but this is actually cold enough to turn on the heater. It's 27 (feels like 15) degrees. I think 32-35 must be my breaking point for turning on the heater. My most favorite place to be is in bed, in winter w/ the heater off (maybe even the window cracked) in bed with puffy blankets, cozy piles of pillows all snuggled up with my husband and two kitties.

Right now I get the second best thing. Watching some Scrubs on DVD cuddled up on the couch with some furry blankets and furry kitties and knitting something warm. I might even add some hot chocolate to my little fuzzy warm day. Best thing about it, I get some crafting done so I can post some more pictures!