3. 2. 1.

Somehow, I feel like this is not the eve of the new year. I am not quite ready for the new year. I would rather enter it prepared and ready, but instead I'm going into it in the middle stages of reorganizing and clearing and such. We made a couple of successful trips to Ikea and bought things we needed to do all of this.

New spice bottles and a couple spice racks (they were sandwiched between the top of the microwave and the cupboard).
Two shelves to put up by the door for gloves and hats and the like.
Plastic bins for recycling (my entire front closet was taken up by recycling. Seriously.)
Floating candles for the beautiful new bowl from my mom's friends (photos soon!)

I've done a few things around the apartment to help make our lives easier. I call it deep organizing. Believe me, things get messier before they get better.

Cleaned out all of the recycling from the closet and took it to be recycled (whew!)
Put spices in the new spice jars and we just put the racks up (photos soon also)
Made a new look for the coffee table (huge improvement)
Got rid of a lot of mugs and glasses that I don't love (keeping all handmade and sentimental)

That's most of it. Oh, I did three loads of laundry. Considering I have to dry each load twice (that's how awful and old our dryer is), that's a pretty sizable feat.


I'm very sorry I'm not telling you about how I feel about the new year or this past one, I guess I'm just not sure. Also, it doesn't feel like a new year, so I'm not feeling much about it. I think for me, the new year is really the new school year, so I feel like I still have a week and a half before my new year. I have a lot of goals and plans, but who knows if I'll achieve them? It seems that whenever I make a goal (specifically for my Etsy shop), everything else gets in the way. Even though I've been off school for quite a while, I still haven't had much time for working on Etsy. Hopefully I'll remedy that this week and next. I have a new plan in the works, and I bought a spot in the Feather Your Nest showcase at Etsy for next week, so that is definitely a deadline. We'll see what I come up with!

I hope you are ringing in the new year with loved ones and are having a great night! Eric and I are hanging around, probably watching Wall.e or The Office.

Happy New Year!


(Sorry there are no photos, I can't find my card reader!)

A bit of blog love.

Hello! I realize I've been missing for a while. I've been at home, half busy and half relaxing. It's been great being home, but man. I really miss Eric and being at my other home. It's weird how that happens over time. My first year, GH was still my hometown and my parents' house was still my home. Now, it's a home. And my apartment is my home. Of course, it helps that Eric's there. I'm still not sure how I feel about this. I'm partly ok, but at the same time, my roots go so deep here in Grand Haven. Oh well, I guess it's all part of growing up.

On a more cheerful note (not that that was meant to be sad or anything, just a thought), Eric and I are going to Ikea tomorrow! Hooray! I need to go over to their website and browse so I have an idea of what I want there.

Also, I just found a great pattern design/silkscreening business in Melbourne, Australia that I'm particularly excited about! I think I'll try to post about them tomorrow, or maybe Tuesday.

Since my camera died (yup, forgot the charger), here are some photos from a few of my Flickr buddies!

This first is from the ever lovely Rebecca at The Clothes Horse, whose blog never fails to supply my daily need of not only eye candy, but usually a good thought to think on.

Rachael, a class mate of mine, is a graphic designer by day and a fiber artist by night. This is a beautiful batik she did this semester. And it's rayon. Love the colors.

OMG! I have to OMG at this one. The lovely and talented Lisa at Lil Fish Studios finally had her little baby! Her name is Erin Grace and isn't she sweet? That's her son Avery, clearly telling the world that little sisters are pretty cool. Hooray!


These two are both by the ever-inspiring and talented and lovely Heather Smith Jones. Love the two beach photos together. One so soft and the other etched lines.

These are some tea towels put together by Danielle at Of Paper and Thread. I love the lines and the soft neutrals. Mmmm.

And last but not least, the lovely purses and clutches by Katie of MadebyHank. I love the sweater and the mocs and the angle of the photo.


I promise I'll have some of my photos again soon. Although, you may be happier with these lovelies! Have a wonderful late Sunday night and Monday morning.

I think I'll be showing off some more of my favorite blogs and Flickrs soon, because I've wanted to for quite a while now. They deserve it.

Christmas (Eve) at Home

These two were very intent on watching the birdies out there.

My parents' pretty tree! And that's my Noel ornament. I was due on Christmas, so my middle name is Noel. When I was little I secretly wished/made myself believe that all the Noel stuff was for me. I was so naive.

Molasses & Glass

Picked these up at an antique mall.

Miscellany

Yup. Birthday. Yesterday. 21 indeed.

A surprise present! I got my Freshly Blended Press notebooks in the mail yesterday. They're really well made and the perfect size for a list-making, random note-jotting book of paper.

Beautiful birthday present from Eric's grandma! I haven't gone through it all yet, but I peeked and it looks wonderful!!!

Luscious alpaca from North Star Alpacas in Ithaca, MI. It's so light and fluffy. Like frosting. And it came with a delectable lavender sachet! Mmmmmmm...

My mom made delicious fruit-infused vodka a couple weeks ago and just opened the jars and made me a homemade cosmo to celebrate my birthday. It was really good once I diluted it with sparkling water.

I have tendinitis! Urgh. Which means I can't type as much, because it hurts. If I don't comment on your blog as much, I'm really sorry. I'll still be reading everyone's and try to comment as much as possible. I have to take the hardcore prescription ibuprofen for two weeks. I hope I don't get belly aches. My momma says to eat lots of food when I take them.

Let It Snow

We had a fire alarm at work today. Panera burnt their stupid cookies.

I foot-shoveled the sidewalk while we waited for something definitive.

Then the firetruck finally got here and turned the alarm off.

Tree!

Candy canes!

To Notice

verb. to become aware of.







I was drying my hand-dyed warp the other day and as I was taking pictures of it, I noticed how lovely the floor was. The places where the paint has chipped off are so interesting. Rivers and lakes and puddles.

The warp is for a scarf I'm weaving for my mom. Only problem is that I couldn't go to school because we had a huge snowstorm last night. The loom is there, so I think she'll be getting it after Christmas... I'm knitting her handwarmers for the time being.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Ok, maybe only a little. We dressed our tree. Which was no small feat, as it's very pokey (wish we had thought about that) and the lights were brand new so they were all accordioney. Oh well... There are multi and white lights on it. It's cute. No dream tree, but it'll do for our first one. I put candy canes on it (so cute, just like being a kid!) and the three hand-blown glass ornaments I have, along with three of my recycled wool hearts from Lisa at Lil Fish Studios. Also, my manager at Sbux gave us all clear glass ornaments with coffee beans inside. Mine says Brittany. It's pretty cute. And smells good! Yup. That's our tree. Oh, our tree skirt is vintage plaid fabric from the flea market. Kinda homey and nice.

I had visions of modern trees in my head, with all white lights and lovely ornaments and the like. I like this too. I'll have pictures of ours later tonight hopefully, or in the morning maybe.

What are you doing with your tree this year?

Have a lovely night everyone!

Rayon Cotton Linen Alpaca

Eat this, Teresa! Haha :)

Those are the ingredients for my final weaving. Yum. I love the warp yarn (cotton/linen/rayon), it's awesome to work with. And oh man. Do I even need to talk about the weft? Alpaca. Alpaca. I love it. My favorite animal fiber, by far! Every chance I get, I touch alpaca. I'm watching a 20/20 show about a high school putting on a "real high school musical". I do get distracted by these things... Anyway. My scarf is the softest, warmest thing ever. I wear it every single chance I get. Always. Mmmmmmm. Alpaca.

Found on Flickr, Desert Culinary

I got (well, Eric got it for me as a treat!) some Dove Raspberry ice cream. It's so very delicious! I still have the raspberry taste in my mouth. Not in a gross way. In a terribly yummy way.



Have a good Monday night and Tuesday morning! I'll be scanning slides in the library. And reading books on the side!!

Final Silkscreen

Sorry about the glare and general darkness and uckiness of this photo

Ignore the blotch on the bottom, I'm cutting it off or dyeing over it

See the scouring?

This is my final project for my silkscreening class. I chose to do two different panels. Basically, I wanted to explore patterning and repeating and breaking the pattern. So, I did a background of a steady pattern repeat with the ogee form. Then, with the same unit, I placed it in a non-repeat pattern. So, it was a study in pattern, and it was also a study in material/technique. I used the same color - bamboo green - because I wanted it to be very simple so that the emphasis was on the pattern and the treatment.
With the linen I dyed it green, then used thiox to bleach out the pattern. I used the more delicate unit for the all-over background pattern, then with the bold unit, I did the non-repeat elements. I know I'm rambling. Don't worry, it'll be over soon!
To do the organza, I used green for the background repeat and a silk scouring technique (with our silk organza, it makes the parts that have been scoured very soft and "silky" and luminous) for the non-repeat. It doesn't show up so well in the photographs (they're pretty ucky, I know), but maybe I'll take better pictures later.


So there it is, my silkscreen final. Hooray! My teacher, Sue, wants me to continue this idea with the organza, but with lots of layers. She knows a mounting technique that would let me mount lots of layers together with a bit of space between each layer, so the light can get it. I'm pretty excited! I'm going to do some samples over break :) I'll keep you guys updated.

I'll post about my weaving final tomorrow! It's already on my Flickr if you want a sneak peek!


Edit: I'll definitely take better photos.

Peek-a-Boo

Just popping in super quick to say hi! and to let you guys know that Noel Night went really really well! My seed packets and jewelry were really well received and I look forward to listing lots of them this coming weekend. This time I'll really be able to, because school will be done! Hooray! I bought a few things from other artists who were there and I'll be showing you those things tonight. Like a dummy, I totally forgot to take a picture of my booth. Urgh! But, I'll tell you about it.

Hello and have a wonderful Sunday!

Jess, I swear I'll do the blog tag thing soon :)

Broken Promise

I know I said last night, but things got a little crazy... I forgot about an assignment that was due today and was a madwoman trying to pull it together.

Anyway, here are my test prints!

Remember me?

Sorry I've been so sporadic lately... You were warned! I keep taking picture I want to show you guys and thinking of things I want to write about, but I have no time for it. I'm just popping in to celebrate another sale! Woohoo! This beauty has been in my shop for much too long. I guess it just needed a bit of clearance pricing.

P.S. I did my first test prints of Queen Anne's Lace and it looks pretty good! The screen is tricky... Kind of frustrating, but whatever. I'll make it work. I'll show you some pictures of that when I get back from the store(s). I'm so not in the mood to go shopping...

Darn

Hey everyone! Jess from Lobster and Swan brought it to my attention that I don't have an Etsy widget on the side. Which one did all you guys use??

So it begins

The holiday season. The real holiday season, not that crazy September stuff. Christmas music is about the only stuff you'll hear for the next month. I do love it. I really love the bigger sense of community this time of year brings. I've already given tons of change to the bell-ringers; there's one right next to the door of my Starbucks. People have been asking about the Christmas Blend for almost a month now!

OK, obviously I'm not trying to advertise Sbux on my blog or anything (I need to advertise myself!) but, every "Holiday Trio" drink you buy (espresso truffle, gingersnap latte, and peppermint mocha twist), Sbux will donate 5 cents to (Product) Red. I think the parentheses are on the right word... Anyway, that's a really really huge thing. Huge. Think of how many Starbucks there are. This campaign will give so much money to the AIDS crisis in Africa. I'm not telling you to go there, but if you do, get one of those! They're all really good. The ET is really rich, so beware.


Enough of that. In honor of the biggest consumerist push of the year, I'll be offering 20% off in my Etsy shop today through Monday! Yay! I'll be listing lots of stuff tonight and tomorrow, so keep checking in. I'll be listing recycled Tazo gift tags, jewelry, seed packets and maybe a few felt bowls. We'll have to see how much I can get done and then get listed.

I'm getting my sewing machine today! I am so very excited. I'll be able to do my homework at home! Wooooo! I'll also be able to make more seed packets and eventually more exciting things! I'll be burning my new screen on Sunday, so in the next week, I'll hopefully have some seed packets with that image on them too!

Happy shopping and relaxing everyone!

Queen Anne's Lace

This is my new pattern for the gardening theme. Queen anne's lace! I'm going to change the stem and make it more dynamic, interesting, etc.

What do you think?

12th Week

That means I won't be around much for the next three weeks. I'll comment when I have a bit of time and I'll try to post my work as it is made. I do have a small announcement though...

I'm getting a new sewing machine for Christmas!!!!
And I'm getting this coming Saturday! Woooooo! I can't wait. I am so so excited. I'll be able to sew at home. Yes yes. So happy. And I'll be using this lovely fabric to sew some new seed packets!!

I'm Late

Ok. I know I said 8. It happened that we were at dinner at 8, so... sorry! But, I did just do the drawing and it was very exciting. Seriously. This is how it went:


I wrote down your names. This was done in all caps for maximum readability. I then cut these up and put them in a nice soft, furry felt bowl. I had Eric hold the bowl while I swished the names around (above my head, of course) and picked one!

Carrie Strine! I can't wait to send these little packets out to you!

For the rest of you, I'll put a few in this weekend, I think. I have a full weekend and a full next three weeks with the end of the semester. I'll try to get them in, though. It's now or never with the holidays, huh? Why my these holidays coincide with the end of the semester?

Two weeks til Noel Night. I try not to think about it. Which isn't the best strategy, I'm sure. I need to take some photos for Moo cards tomorrow and get new business cards maybe. I may change my shop name. I need something that includes everything. And I need to design all of my signs and make all of the stuff to sell and. and. and.

So many things to do for the end of the semester. Oh my goodness. I'll keep you guys and gals posted with my work and such. Like right now. Weaving! I'm weaving a lace pattern. My tension is totally screwed up from a mistake I made in the setting up of the loom. Oh well. I think it'll be ok once I wash it. Which means I have no idea and am just hoping.



To-do list for tomorrow:

- Go to work
- Go to back
- Go to school
- Clean studios a little
- Refill chemicals
- Organize dyes
- Strip screen and re-expose it
- Test print
- Print lining for garden totes
- Finish making mock-up of garden tote
- Decide which patterns I will make for silkscreen
- Make a pattern for my garden totes

I'm sure there's more, but I won't bore you more than I already have. Needless to say, I have a lot ahead of me.