Hi guys! I've got a few great entries lined up for you, but first I just wanted to call your attention to an amazing giveaway on one of my favorite blogs, Daddy Likey.
I mentioned Winona in an entry a while back, and I just want to re-iterate how awesome this woman is. She's hilarious, her blog is fantastically fun, informative and down-to-earth, and of course she's putting on this ridiculously awesome giveaway to promote her new book.
If you're a sneaky, clever reader, you'll realize that one of the ways to get an extra entry into the drawing is to blog about it. So yes, I am totally pimping out NT for a hot minute here. But I promise you, I have wonderful news later today pertaining to an exciting craft that may rhyme with Shman Shmolo Shmelt...
Stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, head over to Daddy Likey to check out the giveaway!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Bento Boxes
I haven't had much time lately for official crafting, but I did take a minute this weekend to treat myself to a hobby I haven't indulged in in a while: making bento boxes.
Brandon was in town for the weekend, and I like to pack him a lunch for Monday at work when he's in town. I decided to throw together some traditional bento recipes, with a bit of a twist.
You may remember my spicy carrot salad recipe from back at my old craft blog (the imported entry is here.) It's one of my favorite bento staples. It's very salty and spicy, so it adds a bit of zing to a mostly-white-rice bento.
I was out of sesame seeds this time, so I didn't add any. But it was still yummy.
Then I tried a couple new things. Firstly, I have some homemade cole slaw in the house, which is new. Brandon showed me how to make it, it's way easier than I thought. In any case, I usually use yogurt as a creamy balance to all the salty soy sauce-based dressings I make. But I found this time that cole slaw works wonderfully!
Lastly, I wanted something with a bit of tang. Brandon doesn't like plain hard boiled eggs, so I knew I had to marinate them in something, so I used red wine vinegar. It gave the egg a lovely pink color, which contrasted beautifully with the yolk once the egg was cracked open. However, I don't think I marinated them long enough. Lessons for next time.
Here is the completed bento!
So, there's green peas for nutrition and color. And that's rice seasoning on the rice for flavor and color. And some chocolate gold coins for Channukah in the corner.
It turned out really well. I loved the balance of colors and flavors. I just need to do it again, fix my mistakes from this time, and make it PRETTY! I'll post a photo when I have a more professional version of this bento.
Back to crafting soon, I promise!
Brandon was in town for the weekend, and I like to pack him a lunch for Monday at work when he's in town. I decided to throw together some traditional bento recipes, with a bit of a twist.
You may remember my spicy carrot salad recipe from back at my old craft blog (the imported entry is here.) It's one of my favorite bento staples. It's very salty and spicy, so it adds a bit of zing to a mostly-white-rice bento.
I was out of sesame seeds this time, so I didn't add any. But it was still yummy.Then I tried a couple new things. Firstly, I have some homemade cole slaw in the house, which is new. Brandon showed me how to make it, it's way easier than I thought. In any case, I usually use yogurt as a creamy balance to all the salty soy sauce-based dressings I make. But I found this time that cole slaw works wonderfully!
Lastly, I wanted something with a bit of tang. Brandon doesn't like plain hard boiled eggs, so I knew I had to marinate them in something, so I used red wine vinegar. It gave the egg a lovely pink color, which contrasted beautifully with the yolk once the egg was cracked open. However, I don't think I marinated them long enough. Lessons for next time.
Here is the completed bento!
So, there's green peas for nutrition and color. And that's rice seasoning on the rice for flavor and color. And some chocolate gold coins for Channukah in the corner.
It turned out really well. I loved the balance of colors and flavors. I just need to do it again, fix my mistakes from this time, and make it PRETTY! I'll post a photo when I have a more professional version of this bento.
Back to crafting soon, I promise!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Jayne Cobb Hat
I made this hat that looks like the one Jayne Cobb received from his mother in the show Firefly. It was for Kittie for her birthday last January, but I only just finished it today.
It is knit with Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn and size 10.5 needles.
Apologies
Hey guys! I know it's been a while. It's been busy around here with the holidays and preparing for Gini to move in, and honestly I haven't gotten ANY crafting done for a while.
I just wanted to pop in and let you know that we're not dead, we will have new projects for you soon, and also, Happy Channukah!
Bundle up, it's cold out there! We'll be back in a bit with more geeky crafts. ^_^
I just wanted to pop in and let you know that we're not dead, we will have new projects for you soon, and also, Happy Channukah!
Bundle up, it's cold out there! We'll be back in a bit with more geeky crafts. ^_^
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Harry Potter hats
Hello! I haven't been blogging or crafting for awhile, due to school. But I just made these cool beanies in Harry Potter house colours, and I'm itching to show them off.
Here is William modeling the Slytherin Hat:
And me looking smart in the Ravenclaw hat:
Here are the hats themselves:
Gryffindor and Hufflepuff coming soon!
Here is William modeling the Slytherin Hat:
And me looking smart in the Ravenclaw hat:
Here are the hats themselves:
Gryffindor and Hufflepuff coming soon!
Second scale skirt!
So after seeing the first skirt I made another friend decided to commission one for herself.
I finished it a while ago, and finally gave it to her last night.
Back view:
A closeup:
A closeup of the choker:
The skirt is made from large aluminum-clad steel scales, with black steel for the trim. There were a few stylist changes, in order to differentiate it from the other skirt; smaller and more frequent petals, no belt, different metals, etc.
There are about 1500 scales total in the skirt. It's all held together with butted rings.
The choker was made from scales I had leftover when I finished the skirt, and was sort of a surprise gift. She had mentioned that she liked the idea of a scale choker, and it seemed appropriate.
I finished it a while ago, and finally gave it to her last night.
Back view:
A closeup:
A closeup of the choker:
The skirt is made from large aluminum-clad steel scales, with black steel for the trim. There were a few stylist changes, in order to differentiate it from the other skirt; smaller and more frequent petals, no belt, different metals, etc.
There are about 1500 scales total in the skirt. It's all held together with butted rings.
The choker was made from scales I had leftover when I finished the skirt, and was sort of a surprise gift. She had mentioned that she liked the idea of a scale choker, and it seemed appropriate.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Valerie: Zelda Quilt!
Alright, big news (for me) today!
I've been working on this project since our NimbleToad business meeting a few weeks ago, and I learned a ton along the way. One of the things that we focused on was finding something geeky that we're passionate about and creating related merchandise.
So, this is my first geek-inspired project.
The Legend of Zelda was my first video game love, and nothing has ever quite come close. I watched my (much older) brothers play the original game when I was young, and Ocarina of Time was the first game that I ever beat on my own, and one of the only games that I've played through more than once. Since then I've played almost the entire series and it still never gets old.
The wheels started turning, and I looked over my huge bookmarked list of 'I'll try these eventually' projects and came across this one: Modern Organic Fabrics: 3-2-1 Throw. The design was simple enough that I thought it wouldn't be too hard to spice it up with applique.
I'm going to be brave and show you my rough Paint brainstorm:
I made the basic design and then spent a long time browsing Google and zeldawiki.org for items from the games to use, copying and pasting and changing the background colors. I originally thought that I would use items from Ocarina of Time, but I wanted to open up and use items that appeared in more games. Then I dug through my fabric stash to find out what colors and fabrics I actually had, and things changed just a little bit. I settled on three Triforce pieces, a heart container, a bottle, and the magic sword (from the original game, but it's a good representation of the Master Sword).
I drew the shapes by hand and then taught myself hand-applique to attach them to the blocks. I found hand-applique (using the needleturn method, good tutorial here and here) to be really relaxing, and I loved the near-invisible results.
So ... without further ado the finished result:
The back is a cheery yellow.
And the quilt is perfectly lap sized!
(Excuse the poor picture quality, it was dreary today!)
It took me probably 20 - 30 hours of work, but it should go much faster next time because I thought ahead and made stencils of the appliqued pieces, so I don't have to start from scratch n_n I'm so pleased with how it came out, and there are definitely many more in the future!
Edit: Now up for sale in the Etsy shop!
I've been working on this project since our NimbleToad business meeting a few weeks ago, and I learned a ton along the way. One of the things that we focused on was finding something geeky that we're passionate about and creating related merchandise.
So, this is my first geek-inspired project.
The Legend of Zelda was my first video game love, and nothing has ever quite come close. I watched my (much older) brothers play the original game when I was young, and Ocarina of Time was the first game that I ever beat on my own, and one of the only games that I've played through more than once. Since then I've played almost the entire series and it still never gets old.
The wheels started turning, and I looked over my huge bookmarked list of 'I'll try these eventually' projects and came across this one: Modern Organic Fabrics: 3-2-1 Throw. The design was simple enough that I thought it wouldn't be too hard to spice it up with applique.
I'm going to be brave and show you my rough Paint brainstorm:
I made the basic design and then spent a long time browsing Google and zeldawiki.org for items from the games to use, copying and pasting and changing the background colors. I originally thought that I would use items from Ocarina of Time, but I wanted to open up and use items that appeared in more games. Then I dug through my fabric stash to find out what colors and fabrics I actually had, and things changed just a little bit. I settled on three Triforce pieces, a heart container, a bottle, and the magic sword (from the original game, but it's a good representation of the Master Sword).
I drew the shapes by hand and then taught myself hand-applique to attach them to the blocks. I found hand-applique (using the needleturn method, good tutorial here and here) to be really relaxing, and I loved the near-invisible results.
So ... without further ado the finished result:
The back is a cheery yellow.
And the quilt is perfectly lap sized!
(Excuse the poor picture quality, it was dreary today!)
It took me probably 20 - 30 hours of work, but it should go much faster next time because I thought ahead and made stencils of the appliqued pieces, so I don't have to start from scratch n_n I'm so pleased with how it came out, and there are definitely many more in the future!
Edit: Now up for sale in the Etsy shop!
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