s'truth!

i have just discovered that i am not in fact a libra, but am a virgo. yay! that libra sign never made much sense to me anyhow. apparently astrologists are behind the times and that due to "precession" the place in the earths sky that we see constellations has altered 36 degrees to the west. thereby placing the astrological constellation, the virgo, in the nights sky on my birth, and not the libra. after reading the write up on my new sign, it all makes so much more sense. i don't run my life by the zodiac, but it's interesting nonetheless.
oh, and the phrase "hoist with his own petard" comes from the time of the stuarts and is when an invention that was used to blow open gates blows you (the bearer of said device) open instead.

not just for me

my narae also has a new pair of shoes. it took much longer to find her a pair. you would think that making such small shoes would lend itself to a world of creativity; stuff that's just not possible, or plausible for flesh and blood feet. sadly, that is not the case.

most shoes available to the abjd connoisseur are usually clunky, gothic, boring, and/or limited to a palette of black, white, red, and brown. one that fits the narrower feet of the narae, is above average, and not having a trace of black or white (sole not counting), would seem to be in the realm of impossible. therefore, having found the beautiful shoes she is now wearing is very exciting! her first pair, wow. only took me two years. this awe-inspiring article of essentiality came from the wonderful cobbler at dale rae designs. there will be more purchases in the future.

my weekly stimulus

there's something magical about the series pushing daisies. the characters are colorful, entertaining, and cleverly defined. the visuals are all eye-candy, with acrylic like colors and storybook sets. the wardrobe is retro, yet modern, and entirely gorgeous with so many textures, patterns, and colors. something that could be overly gross, yet interesting, the morgue scenes are often times hilarious and always distinctive. i love this show, each and every episode. it's like a burst of anti-depressants every wednesday night. it saddens me that it might bite the bullet; so much like another show that i loved to watch, wonderfalls. why is it that such creative and vivacious shows such as these are forced out, and unrealistic oh-so-very-not-appropriate to todays economy reality shows are left on the air?

a head is such a lovely thing

what fun! a picasso head program. now you too can have an original picasso. well, maybe not. i wouldn't try to sell it. but it is fun. here's what i made:

the ombre that felt.

so lately i've been playing around with boiled felt, and have discovered certain aspects of the process that are not so fun. one, dyed wool does not retain it's color when boiled for 20 minutes, but natural undyed wool survives the process just fine. two, there is a certain aroma that boiling wool exudes, something along the line of that hair you pull out of the bathtub drain once a month.
i love felt, it is extremely gratifying to create and the texture is lovely and bumpy and just so tactile. ombre is the mixing of lights and darks that blend into each other, sometimes monochromatic and at times multi hued. prada had a lot of ombre felt going on in their f/w 07 collection, it was gorgeous.
i've been planning a cover for my ipod so that it gets less scratches when thrown into my bag. not that it doesn't already have a nice case to protect the actual ipod, but i wanted something soft and colorful. through the blogging process i've run across several very nice felt covers, but i'm a girl of embellishment if nothing else, so none satisfied. but an ombre and embroidered cover? now that's something i could make. here are the results of my felting, sewing, and embroidering:

front, with doppelganger.

back.

front, detail.

back, detail, look at that cute little apple!

music to my ears

i've been obsessing over this band called chairlift. their music is quite fun and the lyrics are always interesting. you may have heard them if you've been following the ipod commercials. colourful, bouncy, upbeat, charmingly naive; but not really, i love all of their songs, each has its own flavor. i hope this group goes far, i want to listen to more!

ze pillow.

i recently bought a euro sized pillow after drooling over the absurdly large pillows that kirsten dunst was sprawled across in marie antoinette. do they even make pillows that large and fluffy? i wish i had three or four of them, then i could sleep in a fluffy dream every night. yum! so anyway, i bought one pillow (they're pricey you know!), and decided to make a pillow cover from some of the hoard of fabric i collect. i used a print from the the mendocino line of heather ross; a fantastic mermaid and orange-bottomed swimmer against an ocean of palest pink.

the backing is a standard sized pillowcase that lost its mate somewhere. so i seam ripped and ironed mercillessly until i had two hemmed pieces. the pillow back needed some omph in the form of embellishment; luckily that's where my obsessive collecting comes in handy, into my ribbon stash i went. the turquoise blue ric rack matched the blue octopi very well, and now i only needed a closure. i also have a small collection of buttons, and found a large orange one that would look lovely.

when sewing most seams i love to use the french seam whenever possible. one reason is that i don't have a serger, another is that it makes a clean fray-free edge.
i wish i could be more adventuristic with my linens, but there's something about all that white softness. it's like newly laid snow, all fluffy and billowy.

pretty!

because she is, ya know.

this is not just a post showing you my anea, it is also a happy post about my new digital camera! i am so happy to finally have one after so many months. it's weird how you become so reliant on something. it's a canon powershot a590is. i loves it.

creation

in order to maintain creative goodness to last through the upcoming holidays i have been making a list of stuff to create, adding to it as i go. in the last two weeks i've done:

knitted gauntlets
painted new miniature chair
boil felted wool
embellished purse
created a new shirt out of an old one
made a new skirt from nani iro fabric
sewn a cover for euro sham
made a small sketchbook portfolio containing loose paper

here's a sampling of photos of some of the above things. and a photo of my desk during the creative process. it becomes a wreak of strewn things from books, to sketches of ideas, and receipts.



absolutely love this yarn, it was a dream to work with. it didn't unravel even though i had to pull out my stitches at least three times, the softness is similar to organic cotton and the dye lot is amazing. i want three more skeins of it.

a dolly house remake

well, i've unpacked and put everything to right in the dollhouse. as i was going through furnishings i decided to change the layout a bit. there was also a couple of new additions to the place in the way of new furniture, plants, and groceries.

gourds and squash are all the rage in the dollhouse now, being as it's the fall season.


a new modernica chair, i repainted it an oatmeal color and darkened the legs.

the child's bedroom now has a nice bed i stole from the upstairs apartment.

i like this more colorful version of the hallway.

i even managed to make a rough noguchi lamp for the bedside.

for more images take a gander at my flickr page.