This is cute...

I got this off of Kris' blog. Give this a try Swedish Furniture Name Generator

I am:



The 2 brain cells collided tonight and a light bulb went off that I'm going to have to exorcise tomorrow. I now have to hunt for that perfect picture so I'll probably be attached to the camera all day tomorrow or however long it takes to get it.

Stitching

I just love the look of stipple stitching on quilts. It just gives the finished product that much more dimension. So, I've been playing with trying to reproduce it on a scrapbook background and I've realised a couple things that should be glaringly obvious but I'm just a sucker for torturing myself instead of listening to common sense. I just need to see how something will work out.

Stipple stitching on quilts requires that the presser foot be raised while stitching so that the piece may be moved in any direction freely. When stitching on cardstock, if the presser foot is lifted, for some reason, the needle punches these GIANT holes in the paper and the result is not pretty. Not what I was looking for. I used an 80/11 needle, which was the smallest one I could find, I've ordered some smaller ones but I don't think it will make that much difference.

Polyester thread works better than cotton which works better than handquilting cotton. It could be my machine but I couldn't get handquilting thread to work, just couldn't get the tension right. The metallic threads work really nicely.

It's infinitely easier to work with a small piece of cardstock over the full 12 x 12 piece (DUH!) but I thought "Oh, it won't be that bad". Maybe it's my reliable 10 year old machine.

So I had to keep the presser foot down but because there's no nap to catch on the feeder dogs, the cardstock moved fairly easily but only in a forward direction so it can only be spiraled and the radius can be pretty small and the turns can be spiraled both left and right but for some reason, turning the cardstock counter-clockwise is more natural.

The top image is a finished one. I sprayed and stamped the background first and then ran it through the machine. I chose the yellow because I found I had this spool of metallic yellow thread from some distant project - not gold, metallic yellow.

This is the layout after I scrapped on it. Not bad, the stitching added a bit more dimension but I'm not done playing with the machine yet.

Waaahhh!!! I want to knit

But it's too hot here in South Florida. With the high humidity we've been having the last few weeks, my hands are always moist. I did a bad thing and went to the Knit Picks website and now my fingers are itching to feel all that lovely baby alpaca running over them.

That's the other thing about living down here. Even on the coldest days, it's too hot for a sweater. I might need one if I'm going out in the morning but by 10, I'm shucking out of it. I haven't yet been converted to cotton knitting either, it doesn't have the same feel to me and I'm yet to get used to the reduced elasticity in the yarn.

I've knitted and crocheted flowers a la Miss Nicki Epstein but it's not the same as completing a garment and to add insult to injury, my new Vogue Knitting and Knit Simple magazines have arrived. *SIGH*

I have no stash left either, I gave about 90% away when we moved from Sydney and I really want to order more but I don't have room with all the scrap stuff I have yet to go through. I really need to organize myself more...

This is a response to a product challenge from Scrap 4 Life where the challenge is to use non-scrap items. I used a paper towel, tinfoil and popsicle sticks. Actually, they're the sticks from the rubon pack so they're a little shorter than the popsicle sticks.

Not something I'd normally do but that's what a challenge is all about and I'm quite happy about it. I did figure out what wasn't sitting right with me about it and it took a while, it's the plain green cardstock that I backed it on. I think I would have been happier with a patterned but my thought at the time was that I didn't want to overwhelm the paper towel. Or maybe I should have used white or black instead of the green.

Colour Story Challenge CS7

This month's Colour Story Challenge is done :)

I love the fact that they pull inspiration from a variety of ads and pick both colour combinations and design elements from it. This month's was based on primary colours: yellow background with scattered red, teal and pink accents.

I kinda stepped out of the zone a little for this one as I have a really hard time with buttons and ribbon but I DID it!! I'm pretty happy with the results, the empty space at the bottom and left side could probably use a little something extra but I think I'm OK with how it is now. I might look at it again in a couple days to see if I feel the same way.

I must say, I'm really enjoying the Colour Story Challenge blog :-)

A breather :)

DH is home!! The kids are rapt that Dad's home again, the fun one's back. Hah! What they don't get is that for the next 2 weeks, Dad's going to be sleeping all day so he can watch the Olympics live all night so he WON'T be any fun during the day.

Won't matter much soon anyway, school starts in 7 days - that's 189 hours from now and I'm still scrambling on finding ways to make those hours fly past. I love the fact that they're always wanting their art box and we're working on cleaning up after they're done using the art box but that'll just need some more re-inforcing me thinks.

OOOh and Club Heidi's back and I am LOVING the new Heidi Swapp website! I'm not into the current kit, clocks don't really do it for me but I'm looking forward to see what else is coming down the track. Patiently waiting for the new Tim Holtz products and my new Gel-a-tins stamps. Wendy's so cool...

Tagged by Jude...

Ten Years Ago:

August 1998: Contracted to Chrysler for application development

5 Things on Today's To-do List:

1. Pick up photos
2. Mid week shopping
3. Tidy up rumpus room
4. Clean bathrooms
5. Organize dinner

Snacks I Enjoy:

Anything crunchy and can be dipped :) Chips, raw veg, pretzels....

Things I Would Do if I Was a Millionaire:

Ooooh...

The responsible thing would be to set aside enough for children so they could attend any uni of their choice and there probably wouldn't be much left after that. I also have a long list of causes that I'd help if I could, I'm very supportive of any cause that gets women and children off the streets and allows them to be self sufficient for example *unashamed plug* companies like Dhoo Dhaas in South Africa. I'd also like to buy some patience because lately I've been in short supply and I need to stock up.

The indulgent thing would be to have a house in Bali and go diving there when ever the urge hit. Second thing would be to set up a studio with just my stuff - no more taking the dregs of space left after everyone's dumped their crap all over the place. LOL - probably in the house at Bali.

Places (or areas) I have Lived:

Trinidad and Tobago, Toronto (Ontario, Canada), Dallas, Detroit, Boston, Weston, Philadelphia, Sydney(NSW Australia)

4 People I am Tagging:

I'm pathetic and don't have any friends that haven't been tagged yet. I'll have to come back to that...

Facelift

Trying to get my groove back and I decided to give the blog a facelift. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but it was a pain getting that sidebar image just right so it would tile nicely. I love those coffee ring stains, a little slice of my life I guess. I see enough of them around me HA!

I'm fixing to rig up some ribbon and hooks in the kids' rooms so they can hang up their creations, just trying to decide where and how many and I need to track down clothes pegs. After being in Oz for so long, I'm surprised how scarce they are here - not that I hung out clothes down there either, but clothes lines are not the norm here. Even in Florida, just rains too much and the humidity's too high and it ALWAYS rains when no-one's around to bring the wash in so you have to do it again otherwise it starts to smell. Maybe out west in Arizona there's more of them.

Ikea's calling me, this could be interesting...

And it's only Monday

Well, day 1 of DH being away. I should be used to it by now, his usual MO is to be away for 2 weeks out of the month. I guess I got used to him being around since this is the first time he's traveled since the move and that was in March. No-one told me that 3 1/2 year old boys needed a full time keeper either. He's starting to feel his boots too and he thinks that they're too small for him. I'm mis-speaking though, it's because he's 3 and not a he. It seemed like I was yelling at DD all the time too when she was that age. He just needs to grow out of it and fast. Is it wrong that I'm counting the hours until school starts so someone else can deal with him for 6 of his waking hours?

6 more days to go until DH get back and currently 320 hours until school starts...

Tapped out

I've hit the proverbial wall. Out of the blue, I've gotten lethargic and just want to veg, I don't even want to read and that's never happened before. I'm in the process of making my to-do list for next week but since DH is away for the week and camp's done, I don't know how much I'll be able to complete. Maybe that's why I'm feeling tired. No mojo either.