Another Introduction!

Hello everyone! I'm Jezebelle, Curly Girly, Jennifer, or Jen. :) I answer to all, and in fact, I chose my name here as Jennibelle, because that sort of sums them all up (except for the curly girly name which doesn't really fit well with anything but it's fitting). Ok, have I mentioned I like to ramble? Anyway, hello!

I met queenofsheba and thepooh through my radio show, and Kathy suggested that I join in, since I am a bit of a crafter myself. Except, the only talent I have so far is with cross-stitching, and you should see the amount of unfinished ones I have lying around! I think in the past 10 years, I've probably started about 20 projects, and have only completely finished (meaning: mounted and framed) three of them.

Here's one that I did for my friend Heather's wedding. It's relatively simple, but it's the only one I have a photo of online. I'm working on this immense one about cats at the moment, but so far I only have the "C" completed. Cross-stitching really attracts me because it's so soothing. I always do counted cross-stitch. There's nothing wrong with stamped cross-stitch, but I like the counting aspect. I blame the math teacher in me.


Actually, while I was looking for pictures of cross-stitch projects, I came across a picture of another craft project I completely blocked out of my memory. I made this little stuffed penguin one year as a christmas gift. He was a pain in the butt to make, and I hated his little hat, but I love this picture of him all propped up with my sister's cat Krusty. I probably posed him about ten different ways and took pictures, but this is my favorite one. :)



I am also a big fan of this picture, mostly for the look on my cat Sunshine's face. I guess she's not as thrilled about penguins as Krusty is. :)

That's it for now. I'll probably take pictures of my progress on some other projects (including yet another wedding cross-stitch). Thanks again for inviting me to the group!!

Mars Needs Links

I just posted a couple of my favorite craft sites over there in the links section... or at least the ones I could think of here way early in the morning. Leave a comment with some other ones we should post and we'll add 'em.

I've been going through and adding a few labels to various posts so we can reference them later - following the lead of my sister they are things like "knit" "unfinished" "scrapbook" and the like. Feel free to add labels as you like to Posts of the Future.

also, I finished that half a sock. but then I went and watched Pirates 3 and so I have not started my little mosaic project. Maybe I'll make some I-cord coasters. or something.

A sock and a half

My job is about time. Specifically, that point in time when some part of what I'm making is "done". All day, I'm getting to that moment, and preferably making that moment happen before it needs to be on a plate in front of a living, breathing, opinionated person.

And it had better be pretty dammit.

So I admit that the appeal of doing these crafty projects is that there is no deadline, mostly. There is a desire to finish, sure, but the projects that make me most crazy are the ones I feel need to be done by X time. Then it just feels like work.

Maybe that's why I am so bad about getting birthday presents to people on their birthday.

But, there in the part of my brain labeled Virgo (what's the scientific name for that spot, Julia?) all of these half projects laying around make me kinda tweaked. Because I really like starting new projects and can't help but wag the finger and say "You can't do that until you finish something!" Case in point. I painted my table:


Now, I still want to do a seaglass mosaic on the top, because that color is screaming for it. But, since I haven't done a mosaic before, I want to jog over to the thrift store this second, find a footstool or something and make that my weekend thing. I could even do a budget challenge for myself and see if I could do it for like 20 bucks! Whee! I'm excited! Sounds fun!

But there is half a sock.

How many half projects is it ok to have?

Planning ahead

So, let me start this off by telling you a little bit about my daughter. Bless her heart, she's as cute as a button, but sadly for her she got her Mommy's ears.

Here, I'll show you:


Given that combined with the fact that her hair isn't coming in very rapidly, I figure she will still be pretty eartastic come this Halloween. One of my motivators for learning to sew is that I really want to make my kids' costumes. My mom always made ours, so that's just something I want to do for them. All of these factors combine to inspire me to dress her up as a little fairy/sprite/pixie (choose whichever moniker you like best) for Halloween. I started poking around on the web & found this:

Fairy Costume

Now I will be doing more of a Spring color scheme, because as you can see, little Miss Julia is not an Autumn, but that's the basic idea. I have the slip and a good handful of the flowers (thanks, Kathy for going with me to buy a bunch of them.) I also have the glue gun all ready to go. Now I just have to hope that the slip I bought will still be big enough in 5 months. Hrm, I think I should try it on her when I get home today...

Mini Scrapbook Updates

The Grandmas loved them!!!! Yeah!!!
That was the first project in years that I started and completed in less than 2 months. I wish I could say it took that long to make them, but no :(

Introducing...

I thought I'd say a quick hello and introduce myself to all of you. I am Gardenofevils, Auntie Ball, Sammy, Samantha or Sam depending on who is in the room at the time. Gardenofevils is my online name. Adoxograph and I met through that guy she lives with on Livejournal. Sarcasmo and I have been friends for about 5 years now, and little did he know that Kathy and I would become close friends too. So in a roundabout way, that is how I got be apart of this fine blog.

I am not the crafty type, or so I think. I went to school for theatre and ended up doing design work. I designed sound for shows, some lighting, and even a set. Most of my crafty ideas are born in my head and never make it out. I have stenciled in the past but more propaganda art rather than the flower stencils you see in a craft store. I've tried knitting but the results were apocalyptic. I just can't make art with my hands, but on occasion I do try.

I have nine small frames that are currently taking up occupancy in my hall closet. The idea was to stain them three different colors and hang them above my fireplace. Well, I've hand them for about six months now, and it doesn't look like I'll be staining them any time soon. I have a stack of art magazines that have some pretty cool images in them. I thought of maybe cutting stuff out, a la high school collage, and gluing them to the frames. We'll see.

Well, this turned into more than a short hello, and I apologize. If I end up making anything, I'll let you know. For now, I'll just look at all the cool stuff you guys make and kick myself for not doing anything.

and what shall I do with this?

Grabbed a small amount of this yarn in my last craft store excursion. The sample swatch in the store shows that it knits up with some bulky parts and some wee tight parts. I thought about doing a critter with it, but I'm afraid of where the bulky parts will appear in the finished product - I don't want my end piece to be something titled "tumorous bunny". But the yarn is so fun....