A tale of Sock Monkeys

I've been waiting to post the blog about sock monkeys until I had all the parts assembled and ready to go! And well.. They are done!

The process began at the beginning of the summer when a friend of my boyfriend tasked me with making 12 of these little guys for her son's 1st birthday.  I had until August to get them cross country.

I started with dying them (with your standard tye-dye dye).

After this I had to do the sewing machine thing.  I had to sew what I could on the machine in order to make the process much quicker.  After this, I had to assemble the monkeys.  This is a mid process picture.. monkey parts everywhere.

After this.. I was well on my way to getting these little guys finished!  Its a bit of a time consuming process, but I really don't mind those kinds of things.  (Clearly) And here is what I ended up with:

My little signature on the monkeys

Monkey Butts!

They are all a little different. They all have slightly different cuts, but my mom said to me during the process, "Don't make them feel bad about themselves. They are all going to be a little different because they are handmade. Its what makes them special."

What a wonderful way to put it mom. 

So now I get to say goodbye to my little friends and send them off to live with new families in California! What adventurous lives these little monkeys will have. Adios Amigos!

For Lisa

Yesterday I found out that one of my good friends from high school passed away. She lost her battle with cancer, that she had been fighting since January. I don't think that I let it really set in until today, and felt that I needed to post about her.

We met when I was a Freshman in high school and she was a Junior.  She adopted me into her circle of friends and made me feel welcomed and accepted for being the oddball that I was.  I learned of her love of Beck and crafty things and horror and we shared many fun times together. I spent so many days with her during high school, and met so many wonderful people through her.

We lost touch after high school, as many people do.  I wish now that I hadn't.  My sister is getting married 4 states away on Saturday, so I cannot even make it to her service.  I decided that all I really could do was make a card for her family.  I'd like to think that Lisa would have appreciated it.

I will miss you Lisa.  Life is too short and I wish we had been more in touch over the years. Love you friend. I hope you are in a better place.

A little bit of this and that

So I have been contemplating what crafty thing to do lately... but have been finding it hard to get that motivation.  It seems like when I have time in the morning to do it, I just want to drink coffee or go lay in the pool. Hah.

But, I have have a few times the past week or so when I was able to focus that sporadic energy into something crafty.

I found some little crafty card things at Big Lots (of all places.. I know.. but sometimes they have cool things).  I made these cards out of the little bling things that I found as well as these cool chipboard letters that I used on these cards:

Also, I finally got around to trying this melted crayon art stuff that I wanted to try for so long!  This is the only  completed one that I have so far: (well.. mostly completed)

I've been doing a whole lot of cooking lately too. I think maybe that is where my craftiness has been channeling through.  Last week I made a few interesting menus:

1. Radish and bulgar wheat salad; steak; apple stuffed buttercup squash
2. Baked fish with brushetta topping; corn on the cob; baked jalapeno poppers with a homemade greek yogurt ranch dipping sauce
3. Baked chicken; home made tatziki sauce; home made hummus; tabbouleh 

Ok.. that's all I can remember, but they were all pretty tasty meals. 

Next week the family is trekking up to Pennsylvania for my little sister's wedding.  9.5 hours plus stops. Hah.. Long trip.  I have to find something to occupy me in the car.  I think the sock monkeys will be taking a trip with me as well to get them finally completed.  2 are complete; 7 are assembled, but need eyes and a mouth; 3 still need to be assembled.  Its close though. I think that I can finish all that in 9+ hours.. ok.. well I guess it would be more like 6+ hours because I'll be driving for part of that time too. BUT! They will get completed.  

Oh.. and I repurposed a large shirt into this:

Shoulder strap with eyelets! I love how this looks!

Owl midriff 

What the shirt looks like as a whole

Anywho. Happy crafting all! And happy Friday!

Sewn cards

Another day of summer break.. another blog post... another set of cards!

On Pinterest (broken record here) I saw something about how to make a mini-book out of a single piece of paper...  And from there this is what happened..


I got a box of random scrapbook paper and stickers for free! One of my mom's co-workers knows that I make cards and she picked up this box from someone off of Craigslist. For. Free.  Say what?? But awesome. So I got a box of free paper. That is always okay with me!  So looking through this box, I saw papers that had stitches on them, which looked so neat! Also in there were papers that looked like home made paper, which is really a neat effect. I decided to use one of those home made looking papers to turn into a book/card. Then I hand stitched around the edges to hold it together.  After the second card, I decided to try to sewing machine.. which miraculously made the process much easier.  Who'da thunk? Hah! Anywho.. here are the ones that are just sewn, not decorated:

And this is the finished one:

Outside view

Front of card/book

Second page

Third page

Last page- left blank so that it can be written on

I also spent part of my day trying to make french bread, which turned out tasty, but not very nice to look at.  And also I made this as an experiment based on stuff people had posted on Etsy and Pinterest:

Ribbon and pearl bracelet

And the biggest news of all: 

I opened my Etsy shop! And if you are interested in any of the stuff here, you should check it out! 

Have a wonderful day everyone!

First day of freedom: craft time!

Schooooooool's out for summer!

And so are teachers.

My school year ended teacher workdays yesterday around 1:45. I came home and contemplated life and what to do with my summer.  I have some home repairs to do (and by some I mean a lot- and the thought of it gives me a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, so let's not talk about that right now). I went out with some friends yesterday who took my mind off the things that made me want to be upset and so today I felt ready to be crafty.

My secret pal at work gave me a final gift of card making stuff and a $10 gift card to A.C. Moore! So, of course, on my first day of summer break, I went over there.  Before that though, I spent a while talking crafty stuff with a friend who moved away (also, the person who got me started on Pinterest!). So, I was ready to go!

I got these flower beads off The Plaid Barn recently.  I had seen some in California last summer, but have not seen them ANYWHERE since! I was super pumped to see them on The Plaid Barn!  (The Plaid Barn is a really neat site that only sells one thing a day, but at super awesome prices. If you are crafty its a fun little email to get every day!) So this idea came to me while I was in the craft store:


The flowers are linked to a green chain.  I like to think of it as a vine holding the flowers. The earrings are that dark gunmetal color that I so very much love on jewelry. I think they are pretty fun and I'm thinking I might start my selling on Etsy with these beauties!

Next up: Gift for the boyfriend.  Random. Inexpensive. Thoughtful.

Its a wooden scorpion that had to be assembled.  I colored it with a brown marker and mod podged it.  I think its pretty awesome, personally. And, seriously, what California, born and raised dude would not love the gift of a wooden hand colored scorpion from their girlfriend. Right? Right!

Moving on: Cards

While the staff at school was cleaning out the supply closet, they decided to throw out this large roll of long stripe stickers. I scooped it up and decided to use it on cards.  Free stickers for cards? Yes, please! I have another roll of similar stuff, but that is more like Easter-y or baby shower-y.  I'll keep it in mind for those sorts of things because I know I'll have like a bazillion more of those things to go to. So these are the cards that I ended up making today. One with seashells off a cheap necklace; one with woven stripe stickers; one inspired by pinterest:

Last up: Duct tape craft (also inspired by Pinterest!)

I gave it to Mom. 'Cause Mom always deserves flowers.

So yeah.. I guess it was a productive (in a crafty way) day.  Now what to do with the REST of my summer. Hah!

Things I'm working on still:

• Sock monkeys
• Bridesmaid dress
• Loading stuff on Etsy to sell
• Twirled paper cross

Labor intensive twirled paper

Something you might not know about me: I enjoy labor intensive crafts.  I have no idea what sparked this interest, but i can stay involved in the same project for a ridiculous amount of time. I guess knitting can be categorized into that category.




Anywho.  After church on Sunday, my parents and I and another friend from church went to lunch at Cameron Village.  My dad wanted to stop into Ten Thousand Villages to look for something and I, like always, wandered around looking for new crafts and stumbled upon this. Ok.. I know that some woman in the Philippines worked a long time for this, but I wanted to try my hand at it instead of buying it.  So I took a mental image, went home and immediately started cutting up newspaper.  I started with long strips and folded each side in then folded in half so no raw edges were showing.  Then is the fun part. You just start wrapping it around itself.  I worked on those coasters for about an hour and a half.  Then I thought, well, they had a box for them at the store.  I bet I could figure out how to make that.  And I did! (2.5 hours later it was done!) Then I just mod podged the mess out of it (and yes that sentence makes sense to me). This was the final project:

Also, along the same lines, I am working on a gift for my grandparents who have a collection of crosses.  Its not quite done yet, but I think its coming along nicely!

Current projects:

• set of 12 small sock monkeys for a 1 year old's birthday party
• personalized cards for my secret pal
• personalized cards for my grandparents
• Dress for my sister's wedding? Maybe? 

Also, just for some more picture viewing... here are some recent cards I made for a few people for their graduation!

I know this one looks blurry, but it turned
out really neat!

Knitting and such

So during the winter (which it is not right now) I like to knit.  Something about being covered in yarn during the summer makes me hot thinking about it.. and being overly hot makes me want to hurt someone. (Kidding mostly.)  But anywho... sometimes I like to knit from patterns, while other times I like to just go with it and see what I can make.  Sometimes it turns out well.. and other times.... well.. the projects get pushed to the wayside and buried in a knitting bag somewhere.

Last summer I went on a summer long trip to California, with the boyfriend, for him to get back home to his friends and some family, and my reason? To get out of town for a while.  Sometimes the school year can really drag me down (or life.. or drama.. or any number of things). Anyway.. I had a lot of free time.  Also.. I wanted to make something for his mother, who we would be spending the summer with.  All he told me about her was that she liked cats.  Cats? That's all you can give me? Hah! Well.. it ended up being all I needed! I made a "sock" cat (as in sock monkey) except that it was all knitted and not made of socks.

So this picture was while I was working on the tail (note the double pointed needles seeming to be sticking out of his rear end).  But whatever.. I thought it looked awesome.  And no pattern on this one! It became a really fun project and she ended up loving it.  She told all her friends about it and put it on the ornamental fruit on the island in her kitchen.  Its nice when your gifts are appreciated!

While I was out there, I also made this (which was from a pattern):  

What a fun Elephant! I sent this one back home to a friend who was having a baby and happened to be setting the theme of her daughters room to be purple.  What newborn doesn't need a knitted baby elephant.  

I have a partially made turtle sitting in a box in my bedroom that was made out there as well.  Seriously only about 3 hours work left on it, but for some reason I have not completed it.  Maybe this summer! (although I won't be going cross country, but I think I might have some free time on my hands.  

And just for your entertainment (the few of you that might happen to read this..) I made a zombie head during a snow break from school a couple of years ago, at the request of the boyfriend (hah) and it is now in his possession.  My favorite part is the eyeballs so there is a picture of just those as well! (My brain has some really strange ideas sometimes!)

Keeping fingers and minds busy

Hola,

Today.. I had free time after I ate dinner. Wow.  Who'da thunk? Getting to the end of things at school... working on the end of year program.  Last year we did a fish song and I knitted all the kids headbands with top fins on them (hilarious and awesome). This year we are doing a barn themed thing.  I was toying with ideas in my head about making sewn headbands for the kids to wear that were for their particular animals... then I thought again... Its so much work.  And as much as I love a tedious task, it also requires buying fabric.  And a rooster head would be SO complicated! I don't know.  Thoughts? Would it be worth it?  I love the kids, but .. I don't know.  So while these thoughts (among others) were streaming through my noggin, I decided to make an end of year gift for my secret pal at work.  I don't really care to buy anything else.  So, I decided that cards might be the way to go.  I made 4 of them. All different from each other and all reflecting some of her style... I think. Not that I really know style.  I know MY style.  Real people style? Meh. No clue really. 

Anywho... This is what was created in my 2 hours of work:

Card #1 was inspired by a Stampin' up class I went to on my trip out to California.  

Card # 2 was inspired by views of things on Pinterest.  Also, I want to note that I love when I can buy cheap packs of color coordinated papers! Many on this page were from one of those that I got for $1! *what what*

 Card #3.. also a little inspiration from pinterest, but also.. enjoying my distressed ink.  Its a recent discovery and purchase.. but duuuuuuuuude.. so cool.

And last but not least, Card #4.  Not really inspired by much other than my need to stick brads through ribbon to see what will happen.  I really like the effect on the yellow ribbon.  The blue ribbon flower made me want to throw it a little bit... BUT... I eventually finished it.

It kept me busy.. gave me a little release of stress.. I say, all in all, a good use of my Tuesday night.  Three more days til the weekend! What craftiness can I get into tomorrow...

Adios Amigos.

Let me give it a go!

Hello all,
Welcome to a view of my life: the crafty side.  So today, like any other Monday, I got home from work, refused to touch anything until a deep cleansing, promptly took a shower and relaxed for a little while.  After dinner I decided I needed to search for more ideas of things I needed to make.  You never know when you might need to make a gift or two! (or when you will need something to fill some idle {too much thinking} time.) So whilst searching the blogging world for the craftiness.. I though I might try my hand and this insanity.  I make enough things with my time, that man.. I should be able to share this with the bloggers out there that might be interested in my wackiness.

Lately I've been really into the cards. I look up new ideas of interesting designs and roll with it.  One of my latest designs that I've been playing around with is this (the directions are here: crazy card tutorial) :

Man that thing was time consuming.. but now I've made three of them.  One for my sister's graduation, one for my good friend's wedding, and another that I just stare at sometimes to help cheer myself up when times are hard. Because seriously. Awesomeness. 

I've recently (as in the last month or so) fallen deeply in love with pinterest. Its become this little alcove to hide away all the little crafts that I see online that I so badly want to attempt some day (and not clog up my bookmarks section on my browser!).  I love that when I've feeling particularly stumped on what kind of card to make for someone, I can fall back on my ideas saved there!  Its a wonderful escape too! When my brain is all full of things that make me not so happy, I fall back on pinterest and start thinking about the different things I can make that will turn that frown upside-down!  

After a week like last week, when I felt like I had no time for any sort of down time, I'm looking forward to this week of craftiness and such.  And sleep.. that is an important one. 

Later Gators.