I made another pair of booties this week. I found this fabric when I purchased the fabric for the tree skirt and I just had to get some! I have a feeling that I will be making a few more pairs because it is just too cute. These little monsters will hopefully ward off those that typically live in closets. Safe, cute and warm. I have a couple other newer postings as well, including the Bianca scarf (a white version of the Brooklyn) and an upcycled polish star ornament.



Tater Tot has been a cuddlebug as of late. I think most of it has to do with the change in weather, but it could also be that she is at a point where she feels more comfortable with us. She has been snoozing in sleeping bags, on top of our coats, underneath the covers and anywhere she can get. I had extra fabric from the tree skirt and decided to make her a dog blanket. Now she is cuddled-up on the couch, wrapped in a sleeping bag and dog blanket. I need to take photos yet and when I do, I will post them.

Goodnight!

Last weekend, we went to a local coffee shop to spend some time. I sewed on the appendages to the giraffe. Just the eyes, nose, spots and clean-up to go before she is completed.

As I had posted earlier, my sewing machine had kept jamming. Tonight, Ryan and I performed surgery on it to fix it. I don't know what the part was called, but it was loose and so it caused another part to scrape away the plastic of the case and then get stuck in it. Thankfully, the surgery worked and I was able to sew once again!

Once fixed, I was able to finish off a couple pair of kimono-style baby booties. Eventually I would like to add more embellishments to them, but for now I enjoy the simplicity. The first are a pair of Baby's First Christmas Booties and the second are Yellow and White Plaid Booties.

Yesterday, I had decided that I would make something new for my shop. Unfortunately, this is the day my sewing machine decided to jam and after a couple frustrating hours, I decided to leave it be. My next craft I tackled was much more successful.

From http://www.etsy.com/listing/61802441/natural-paper-star-urchin-christmas

From http://www.etsy.com/listing/59478142/paper-harvest-decoration-natural

I had been admiring these polish star/sea urchin ornaments for some time but could not quite justify the expense of buying one (let alone enough for my tree). I scoured the internet for directions to make my own. The first that I happened upon was from a Disney Fun site of which I could not make sense. I chalked it up to being a difficult craft. Then, I happened upon this YouTube video that explained it so well:


After watching this video, I successfully completed my first polish star ornament on Sunday.

After I had cut out 12 circles and cut 8 wedges out of each.

The stars after folding and gluing the segments around a pencil tip.

Stacked up

Pulled tight into an ornament.

They seem fabulous! I now have two of them and hope to make a third tonight.

During our trip to NYC and Brooklyn a couple of weekends ago, I started work on a new, thinner scarf. Here are a few photos of it. Tater was also a good sport and let me try it on her as well. How good it is to have pet pals!

I listed a new scarf today. It is made of two kinds of fibers, one is bamboo and the other is a mystery. I love searching through the odds 'n' ends bins at craft stores and the mystery fiber is the one that I came out with. It is a small gauge, so I twisted three of them together to be roughly the same thickness as the bamboo (grey) fibers. Check out the listing here.

What do you like to make your scarves out of?

(Please note that I do not and am not endorsed by CB. It just happened to be what I was wearing!)

The horns, ears and one arm are attached. I have three more limbs and a face to attach, as well as tuck in all of the loose ends. I am so excited that I can finally read a crochet pattern!

It has been a couple of years since I have gone anywhere for Thanksgiving. This year, we are going to NYC. This will be my first time in NYC and my mind is getting dizzy with what I should pack to take on the trip (dressy? casual? leave space for shopping? do I take food?). Part of my preparation is to change over all of my items at the shop to a Black Friday Sale. With the code BLCY30, you can save thirty percent off the purchase price. Click the image below to be taken to the shop. Below are a few of the items available at our shop.

Support handmade, local goods and small business! If you search Etsy's site for "Black Friday Etsy" and "Cyber Monday Etsy", you will find more good deals across the site.

After watching a video on how to make your own wreath with re-purposing an old book (which I have a hard time doing even though I like the idea because I love books too much to do that to them), I decided to do the same with fabric. I had two old shirts that I was going to throw away but I decided to save them for fabric scraps after I cut out the unusable parts. The flowers turned out really well. I wrapped the body in the rest of the shirt fabric and then a silver snowflake ribbon. I still want to buy some pirate trinkets to add to it, but for now it is finished.

Last weekend I worked on making larger images on larger jars. It went pretty well I think.

While testing image transfers on some items (mostly recycled glass and tealight candle holders) and talking with one of my friends, I decided that I would transfer some wedding images onto glass for a wedding reception. Here are the results:

I am pretty pleased with the results and will be using the method on larger objects in the near future. To see the listing on Etsy, click here.

This is the progress on the amigurumi giraffe so far. The body is complete (with no eyes, nose or horns yet) and I have started one of the legs.

We are reaching the off-season for wedding photography. Not much happens in the winter and so I've been muddling around with various crafts. The first one was that I wanted to teach myself how to read a crochet pattern. I have made simple scarves for some time now and whenever I would try anything else on my own, it would not look at all like I would like it to. I didn't even photograph the toy container I made our dog because it was just too embarassing to post anywhere.

So, off to learn crochet patterns I went.

First, I found that Lion Brand yarn has free patterns on their website. Then, I discovered that some people had made YouTube videos following these patterns step-by-step and explaining as they went. The pattern and video I started with was for an amigurumi giraffe.



Not having yellow and brown, I decided that I would use two shades of green, since that seemed to be what I had the most of.

So far so good.

Once I got to the fourth video clip, I was able to read the pattern on my own and continue making the giraffe. I almost have the body finished and would post photos of my progress except that it looks phallic at this stage.

I am so excited that this giraffe is actually turning out according to the pattern! I look forward to making more amigurumi animals, including octopi and turtles.

Shot a wedding as a second shooter last weekend at the Asa Waters Mansion in Millbury. This time I played a little more with the tilt-shift function, which was most fun in the evening. You can see examples of it in the photos with bokeh.