The ARK!

i finished up my nephews' presents, an ark they can both play with. Matthew is 2 and a half, Michael is 6 months. i have been obsessed with what i call 'elemental animals', boiling down an animal to its most recongizeable elements, proportions, patterns, etc.

i made the ark first, the 'lid' is attached at the back, and the elephants and the giraffes fit inside. i had thought originally of making more animals, but they won't fit inside! these elephants are pretty chunky. tee hee!

so i am pretty pleased with my attempts at making these kind of animals, after a couple of sad little prototypes which I didn't photograph. sometimes I feel like Dr. Moreau, my studio is littered with things that look a *little* like what they're supposed to, but with a leg or arm or tail or fin out of place....i wish val kilmer would show up to be my assistant. anyway. here are the photos of the ark, giraffes, and elephants. enjoy!

Dala Horse Ornament Tutorial

FAMILY MEMBERS:Do not read unless you want a preview of part of your Christmas package!

Since my family is Swedish, we usually like to celebrate the season with swedish-ness. The bright cheery colors of Karl Larsson and the traditional handcrafts of the Swedish people lend themselves very well to Christmas, and we like to make crafts and give gifts that feature the Dala Horse.
If you came to my house right now, you wouldn't be able to swing a Lutefisk without hitting a Dala Horse. They are awesome and if I ever get a tattoo, I would consider getting a Dala Horse.

Anyway-My mom asked for my help in creating an ornament for folks to go out with our holiday packages. She had the idea originally to do a 3-D standing horse, but multiple prototypes proved that it would be too hard to get enough done before Christmas. So I convinced her to let me do this 2-D version! Enjoy!


Whatcha need:
Dala horse images (search the interwebs if you don't have them all over your house)
Tracing paper
Scissors (paper and fabric)
Pins
Needles
Thread
Red Felt
Batting or stuffing (or you can just use another layer of felt)
Rick-Rac, Ribbon, and Lace (or another color of felt)
Whatcha want:
Sewing machine with fancy stitches

Step 1:
Trace a dala horse shape on your tracing paper (or print out one from the web), cut it out with the paper scissors. Layer the felt, batting, and felt, with a looped ribbon between two of the layers. Pin all the layers, and then cut out a large rectangle around the horse. It will make it much easier to do the embroidery steps later.


Step 2: Using the machine (or hand stitching) sew a straight stitch as close to the pattern as possible. If your machine has the setting to end with the needle in the fabric, this will help with turning the corners. Sew all the way around, then using the scissors cut about 1/8th an inch away from the stitching all the way around, being careful of the ribbon!

Step 3: My mom picked up some super sweet mini-rick-rack, so I decided to sew them together to make them more colorful. Use a zig-zag stitch, and offset the rick-rack so that the valleys of one fit into the peaks of the other. You could also sew mini-r-r on top of
regular r-r. Or not. It's up to you.


Step 4: Cut out a lace element (or felt) that looks sort of saddlish, and pin a r-r harness and tummy strap under the saddle, hand stitch it all down.
Step 5: Using a decorative stitch, make the harness on the horse, using white thread. You could also use r-r for this step and hand sew it on. I used a very simplified version of the harness, just three little lines.

Step 6: Hand sew on a little lace for the mane, and you're done!

did i forget to tell you?

my hat pattern got accepted to the one-yard wonders book!

yayayayayayayayayayay!!!!!

supa dupa exciting! more information, such as publishing date, as it becomes available, i promise!

my sister has this particular hat in her collection now, sara has one and my mom has another. i am sure i will make a few more during the beta-testing phase. look for more photos soon!

Now at Benevolent Acorn!

the elephant in the room arrives this weekend in st. paul. hope they have a grand old time!

you can purchase your own elephant finger puppet or other interesting animal at benevolent acorn on the old and established, grand ave!

coming VERY soon to my etsy site, some buttons to show your support for the donkeys!

BRING ON THE HOPE!!!!

birdies!

just a few shots of some paper mache birds, similar to ones i made for the holidays about 3 years ago. people went NUTZ for them, and i think these ones are even better quality and shape, etc.

i mostly used wrapping paper from my nephew's birthday party (BOX OF STRING TOO SMALL TO SAVE) and ribbon, trim, and fabric from the giant stash i have in the garage. i still need to give them EYES, but the ones i'm going to use are still at my apartment. so after i lunch with my friend colleen and her daughters, it's back to the apartment to attach said eyes.

they MAY end up at a floral store in south minneapolis. if not, they'll be on my etsy site.

home again, home again

the move is (mostly) over. i am now a hugonian. again.

spent the night on the airbed in st. paul, after that experience, i will be sleeping here in hugo from now on.

spent the AM with my gram, came down to hugo for lunch, then my mom and i ran into 'town' to stop in at Truly, one of the stores where i sell my fine wares. i picked up some old favorites that they had tried to sell, for whatever reason they were still there! so i re-listed three animals today on etsy.


since we got back, my mom and dad and i have been talking about jobs, etc. i applied for a few promising ones. keep your fingers crossed for me!

barren landscape of jobbiness

oy. the job search continues, fruitless as a fig tree at mcmurdo station.
strangely, they have several job listings on craigslist for antarctica. maybe i should check it out. i wonder if they have coffee shops down there yet. maybe i should open one! all drinks iced at no extra charge. badum, CHA!

that reminds me, i heard from an ex-barista about a guy who came in to his store once and ordered a 'tai chi' instead of 'chai tea'. he tried to correct the guy, but the dude didn't listen and the next 50 times he came in, he still asked for a tai chi. later that same night, i saw a vanity plate that read, 'TAI CHI". how weird is that? pretty weird.

anyway. back to today.

i submitted a hat pattern (similar to the one i'm wearing up there) for one-yard-wonders and dropped it off at crafty planet. love that freaking place. walked around the neighborhood, johnson street is hopping! there's a lovely old abandoned theater building. wouldn't it be great to open my very own performance/art space in the thriving northeast community? wouldn't it be great to be hit with a meteor made of million dollar bills?

loafed at b&n for a few hours, and then went to borealis yarn to cash in my birthday gift from my cousin ing-marie. got two skeins of recycled silk sari yarn. don't know what i'm going to do with it, but hey, has that ever stopped me before?

all in all, a pretty freaking awesome day to be retired.

been a busy sewer...

i have been conscious to try and make new uglings out of the scraps i picked up off my floor, instead of cutting into whole sweaters. it is amazing how many finger puppets and whole birds i have gotten out of these scraps!

here is just a handful (er, rather, two handfuls) of birds. i dropped about 20 finger puppets off at i like you, and have given a few others away.

i'm going to try to make a few of these into a mobile. wish me luck!

New blog crush

Check out Meet me at Mike's!

What a cool store!

Been happy with my recent sales, and hopefully have some big news on the horizon!

Next Show:1 week away!

Crafters in formal wear. It's what everyone's dying to see, I know. I may even break out one of the tiaras......

hello CU!

Curious Oddities linked to Renata the Raven-hello to new readers!

Kat is also a fan of Steampunk! Whoo hoo!

In other news, I'm picking up a box of striped sweaters from a fan tomorrow, so look for new lovelies next week.

And mark your calendars for May 4th, the next Handmaidens show at the VFW in Uptown. Sweet!

Goodwill Bounty

Ok these are some of the treasures from Goodwill on New Year's Day.

A slightly cracked Le Cruset teapot, half-off $3.99. The purse was 1/2 off $4.99, and I think the plate was 1/2 off of $1.00. Brilliant!

And here are some shots of my first wool felt pillow. I really like how it turned out. I am planning on making a second one with blue, white, and bits of red, to go with my couches and rug.

Just getting settled, and.....

I've started my more permanent administrative job @ NWC now, it's just a lot of getting to know how the various departments work, where to get a PO from, etc. It's a steep learning curve, but it's going OK.

Our Handmaidens Craftmas show was un. be. lieveable. I had a fantastic response from everyone, and sold all but two animals. I brought along some sweaters to work on small bits if I had time, and I ended up selling polar bears RIGHT off the tree! I hope to bring some more in to I Like You this upcoming week, for anyone who needs a last-minute gift.

I made a new bag for my laptop, with red, black, and red sparkle vinyl, lined with black-n-white dots and with a child's safety seat strap and foam inserts (thanks ax-man) and a new flamingo.

I made my Christmas list, and boy, do I have a lot of work to do before the big day! Got to get to knittin'!

There's some exciting news in the pipeline regarding a more permanent live/work space, but I'll just leave you with this for now. GO BEARS!

Just a quick little photomontage of a new bun, and a photo I took last year of a lotus from the rain garden at the Como Zoo.

More tomorrow, I'm going home and sewing up a bunch more buns tonight!