The Tiara is Up!

See Pompom Tiara And Wand and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

The book review is posted now on Cut Out + Keep.  I also photographed a tutorial and I share that here next week.

xoxo,

b

Halloween Hold-over

Okay kittens, I've been a time management mess lately. So please excuse my absence, but in my chaos I've decided to keep Halloween around for awhile.  This means I'm still making costumes and crafts. Eventually I'll move on to Christmas, but does anyone else ever feel like Christmas is a big holiday bully?  It's always crowding the others and overshadowing their presence; it always creeps in just a little too early.  Well, that needs to stop.  I also tend to feel like the general public doesn't accept an extensive Halloween celebration, but they'll overlook the overzealous celebration of Christmas.  Also, be honest, those light up lawn decorations have nothing to do with being good Christians so it isn't about being religious either.  The flashy holiday celebration is pure commercialization.  Just admit you like the pretty lights and presents.  This concludes my unscheduled rant.

Anyway, let's look at what's been happening during the great Halloween hold-over of 2012...

Life Aquatic Costume Pieces

I don't believe I ever showed you how the Team Zissou shoe DIY turned out.  I'm content with it and it was much cheaper than buying the actual shoes.

Spider web poncho

Next up is this poncho.  I have two versions of it going.  This is the one that I prefer.  The other is my first effort.  I'll finish them both and model it up later.  The poncho is inspired by this one I found while aimlessly browsing (aka collecting visual research).  It's out of stock, but it's also out of my price range.  I'll show you my version of this too when everything is finished.

Fancy Bat

Then came Fancy bat and the kitty cat attack on sewing...

Napping with the fabric.

Complicatting the fabric cutting.

Lining my fancy wings.

Making progress...

Occasionally, they got up and I was able to work.  At other times, they attacked my marking pens and my sewing thread.  The wings feel like a blanket and I suppose they'll end up being sort of quilted.  I cut the fleece wrong in the beginning so it became a liner fabric as opposed to a finish fabric.  Now my wings have some weight and will probably keep me warm (because you know when I'm dressed as a bat in December, I don't want to be cold.).  Tonight it will be on to pressing, top stitching and the addition of piping.  Oh, and I should also add some sort of closure.

Here's hoping for more organization and better photos soon (my camera is repaired and shipping back to me today!).

xoxo,

B

Glitterati

Life is getting busy and messy.  I spent many hours last weekend completing the final step of my "balloon add-ons / bits n baubles".  They are now complete.  212 pieces have been punched, primed, coated, and sealed; ready for stringing.  The last time I did a mass glittering was December so I was indoors.  That got icky, stinky, and messy so this glitter fest was located on the front porch.

xoxo,

B

My Left Thumb

I'm just not certain that my left thumb will make it.  It's taken a lot of abuse lately and you'd probably be surprised to know that I completed a BFA in Furniture Design without any kind of "worth a mention" injury.  Am I being careless?  Am I working while too tired?  Or...  Am I the victim of a wedding related curse?

Recently, while wedding crafting, I was embracing the wonders of the rotary cutter and I rolled over my thumb.  Scary, but the blade was new (which translates into clean) and I wasn't applying much pressure.  The cut turned out to be not that bad, just a few days worth of Band-Aids.

 Anyway, it is good to respect the rotary cutter and it's slicing power.  I was re-labeling confetti poppers when I did this one.

This is what last night's episode looks like.  Once again, I was wedding crafting (a curse?) and my thumb tangled with a box cutter.

  I had the t-square out, my lines were drawn, my cardboard was ready to go, and apply force!  Get through that board!  Let's go!  Oh, wait, oh, my god, that's my thumb!!  Everything drops and I go running out of the room holding my hand and screaming profanities (well, mostly just one profanity preceded  by "Oh!").  Of course I couldn't find the right things to wrap it so I ended up with a big mound of gauze and masking tape on my hand.  The neighbor came over to give me an opinion on the need for stitches and I decided to wait until morning for the doctor to get in.  In this house we don't get those luxury, emergency room stitches (well, I don't, the Lady Bean would).  This morning though stitches still sounded kind of scary and I couldn't get a human on the phone at my doctor's office.  I did have my back checked today though and I decided to see if I could find any takers for the thumb while I was there.  I did and it looks so much better with the proper tools!  Also, no stitches!  Just weird yellow adhesive and things called Steri-Strips (tape for your skin).  It feels so much better now that it's wrapped tight.

To Review:

A chunk taken from my thumb via rotary cutter.

Immobilizing lower back pain while moving Future Husband's items into the home.

A slice through the thumb via box cutter.

Is there a wedding curse?  Hmm?  I don't know, but I have 17 weeks to develop a better theory.  Also, what does an artist/bride do when something like this happens?  She does her best to stop the bleeding and protect the wound, cleans up the blood, makes sure nothing important was stained, and keeps on cutting pinatas (while making sure her fingers are safely behind the aluminum straight edge).  Boom!

My left thumb during happier times.