Craftster Challenger

I just entered the latest Craftster challenge, the Dollar Store Round 2. My entry is here.

Craftster is addicting. Consider yourself warned!

UPDATE: Voting is now open. Vote here.

UPDATE 2: Voting is over. The dollar store wedding dress won, clearly. Wow! I'm so proud that 15 people voted for me when stuff like this was in the running. Congrats to everyone, and thank you!

Spock be Prosperin' - T Shirt

So what did I tell ya, huh? Geeky?

This is a design I did for the Threadless competition. After it did somewhat poorly in the voting, I decided to bleach stencil it using this process. The image was then touched up with fabric pens. I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Action shot:


This will officially be the first item for sale in my Etsy shop, should be up by the end of the day. Enjoy :)

I Painted Something

I found a cheap easel at Ikea, and was inspired to start painting again. I wanted to do something simple and pretty and saccharine; I also have a deep love for morning glories.

This is based on some photos I found on flickr. The medium is acrylic on canvas. I get all my supplies at Continental Art Supply on Reseda Blvd, the best art store in the valley.

How is this geeky, you ask? Where is the geek?? Just wait. My next post will be so geeky, you'll have to take a shower.

Almond and Honey Easter Cupcakes

I found some cooling racks at the dollar store, and was compelled to make cupcakes. Here's the recipe, inspired by Epicurious and chockylit.

Almond Cupcakes

    1 cup all-purpose flour
    1/2 cup natural almond meal (almonds ground very fine)
    1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
    1 pinch salt
    1/3 cup butter
    1/2 cup sugar
    1 egg
    1/2 teaspoon almond extract
    1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350°:F
In a bowl whisk together the flour, almonds, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer cream together the butter and the sugar, beat in the egg and the almond extract. Then beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition.

Divide the batter among 12 paper-lined 1/2-cup muffin tins and bake the cupcakes for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Turn the cupcakes out onto a rack and let them cool completely.

Honey Frosting

    4 ounces or 1/2 package of light cream cheese
    2 tablespoons butter, softened
    1-2 cups sifted powdered sugar
    2 tablespoons thick local honey

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and honey until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like.

Frost and garnish with a whole almond.

Color Crisis

Ahhh! Why do I always do this? After I spent hours embroidering these pillow cases, I decided that the gold floss just doesn't work. I had doubts at the beginning, but for some reason did not listen to them. Why?!

So, I think I have to rip out all the gold and replace it. I'm thinking ice blue (like the pearl). It seems rather obvious now, these are going on a blue couch, I don't know why I thought gold. What do you think? This is how it would look (yay Gimp)

Miz Bear TP Cozy

When I was growing up, my mother had one of those oft-insulted toilet paper cozies. It was crochet or macrame, and it had a face - a cat I think. It was a little silly. But you know what? There was always toilet paper near the toilet when you were doing your business, and that is important.

So I really wanted a toilet paper cozy. I spent some time on Etsy and I found these, by LK Craft Creations. But I couldn't find the color I wanted, and really, the crochet might be a little much.

So I went thrift shopping trying to find a doll, a beat up abandoned Barbie, maybe, and I couldn't find any. It was weird. But I did find that bear, it was a Hallmark bear that sang a terrible song. I gutted her innards, removing the awful music box. I picked some fabric from my scraps that matched my wallpaper, then I sewed the dress and the ruffle and the hat around her.



Her name is Miz Bear, because she may be related to Mistah Bear. I think the hat makes her look very official, like a concierge. A concierge with toilet paper.



"Oh, my goodness! How embarassing..."

Fabric Store: Sally's Fabrics

I'm trying to start going to fabric stores that are not Joann Fabrics. Because Joann Fabrics is kind of lame. I just found Sally's Fabrics, in the Fox Hills Mall. There is also a Sally's in the Fashion District, but it is so much easier to park here. They are in the process of moving right now, so everything is 30% off. Which means I spent way to much $$ in order to spend less, sometime in the future. Very sensible, yes?

There are a lot of really nice fabrics here, but not much else. This is a fabric store, not a craft store. The sale prices are great. Unlike Joann's, they have a lot of "real" fabrics - nice linens, silks, and soft cottons for reasonable prices. The staff is friendly and fast. And I like that it is in the same mall as Old Navy, JC Penney, and Forever 21.

I Bought a Print

I just bought a giclee print from Terrace Gallery on Etsy. I plan to put it in my living room, somewhere. I've always had movie posters from my oeuvre on the walls, but these are starting to seem pretty uninspired and juvenile. Also, most of these movies suck.

So here's to a first step towards growing up my living room... :)

Fun with Fonts

I love dafont. Not only are there tons of useful free fonts, but there are also a lot of not very useful, but really cool, fonts.

For example, they have fonts emulating logos from Blade Runner, Battlestar Galactica, Nightmare Before Christmas, Star Wars, Star Trek, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, The Godfather, Narnia, Signs, Scream, Futurama, Trigun, Naruto, Dragonball Z, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Halo, Yellow Submarine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Harry Potter.

Now, if only this served some purpose...

Another hot loser

So I've mentioned that I cosplay. I also drag my husband along on these adventures. He's quite game for it though; he loves to ham it up (see above).

As mentioned before, we forgot our camera, so this photo is culled from flickr. Some random person has a picture of me eating a pretzel... forever. Thanks, flickr!

Geoff's costume is made of swimsuit material, fake leather upholstery, pvc piping, and hand painted acetate wings. I think my favorite part may be his ridiculous facial hair, made out of furry yarn, jewelry wire, and attached with spirit gum. The eyebrows are key!

Belts from Ties

I like colorful accessories. I think this project is a great way to turn ties that would be hideous with a suit into belts that would be cute to wear with jeans. You can find bags of bright, otherwise useless ties at most thrift stores.


Tie Belt

I think I may use this idea as part of a costume for Geoff's new short movie.

G4 is Go!

So, my Mac is back up and running, good as new. I'd like to take a moment to tell you a little bit about my dear old Mac, our long relationship, and how she got sick.

My G4 is from 2001. I know I bought it way way back in 2001, because I bought it right around 9/11. It's a Quicksilver, 866 MHz (whoosh!) her name is Ruffian (after the famous filly), and she has run fairly consistently for over six years. I do have a new Mac Pro, an enormous monster of a tower, but it is really for video editing, 3d animation, and compositing... the heavy stuff. And mostly Geoff's stuff. For photo editing and blogging, I still use ye olde Ruffian.

So, I was reading about the phantom load and decided that since I don't fire up Ruffian all that often, I should unplug her power strip when not in use. I did this when I went home for Christmas. But uh-oh! The Daily Green did not mention that my particular G4 does not like being unplugged. When I plugged it back in a week later, it would not turn on. Horrors! After six years of faithful service, was Ruffian gone from my life?

When I searched the internet, I did eventually find out that this is a known issue with these computers, usually found after a power failure, and that there is an easy fix. There is a button next to the battery, inside the box, that you press to reset the PNU or something (I'm posting this in case anyone else is still attached their G4). Then the machine magically comes to life. So, in the future I'm going to unplug the printer and monitor only, and leave poor old Ruffian alone.

Stuffies from Children's Drawings

Aren't these stuffies inspired by children's drawings just wonderful? They've been custom made as gifts for the child artists. Although, I wonder if as a kid, we'd want to be confronted so three dimensionally by the oddness of our own drawing, um, techniques. Really cool idea, though.