things i love thursday!

i've been wondering lately if i come across as a really negative person. a friend of mine was saying that in her household "hate" is a bad word, she doesn't let her daughter use it, and she doesn't use it herself.

i use the word hate all the time. i hate this, i hate that, etc. but i use the word love all the time too! i never seem to just like or dislike anything, i either love it or hate it or don't have an opinion. i think this is a trace of my old drama queen self!

it's also an interesting thing to think about because i'm so lefty, and right wing people always seem to complain about how "negative" lefties are. in reality, when they call us negative, it's usually because we pointed out something that they'd rather not think about, but still. lefties get the reputation for being negative because we're willing to point out things that don't work, that need fixing (like health care!).

so maybe we need to make more of an effort to talk about the things that DO work, that don't need fixing. i don't know. i don't feel like i'm a negative person, but i worry that others might interpret me that way. bitchy, yes, negative, no! ;)

but on the note of talking about the good things, here are some things i love

- basic grey scrapbooking papers. i love them! they always have the coolest designs. 9 times out of 10, if i fall in love with a paper design, it's basic grey. there are others that i like for specific looks (like sassafras or pink paisley, both super cute), but for regular gorgeous paper, basic grey wins.
- cats! cats in general, but especially my babies. i put them on the list everytime, but i love them everytime!
- also loving everytime, my bed! mm, so cozy. i love my bed and my bedding. getting an actual duvet was the best thing i ever did.
- b&w photocopies. i love photocopying shit, my ex used to joke that i could live at kinkos. it's true! i knew which machines were the only ones in vancouver that would do the reverse copying that i loved so much! i love toner, how it looks when it's printing too thick, and how it looks when it's printing perfectly.
- vintage valentine images! but you probably already guessed that from recent entries, right?
- megan at the upstart crow in ladner, bc. she's so awesome. the store is fabulous, and so is she. i saw her the other day and it was wonderful.
- the mod girls. i love them to pieces, i really do. they're amazing.
- friends who get me, who know that it's nothing personal if i hibernate or can't come out that night or forget that we were supposed to hang out because i feel so crappy that my brain is all fuzzy. i'm so extremely lucky with the people in my life.
- iron on transfers. so much love! (but only when they actually work....)
- cleaning my studio! or rather, the result of cleaning my studio (not so much the cleaning itself!)
- gyosas. mmmmmmm... i've been craving them lately!
- skirts. i love skirts. they're the perfect use of 1yd of fabric and so quick and easy to make.
- hand embroidery. i've really been loving it lately.

things i love, craftster best of 2008, and a bit of an update!

i've been very neglectful of this blog lately, and of blogs that i follow! healthwise i haven't been doing too well, i seem to just get progressively worse, no matter what we try. i've decided that "horrid" is a particularly apt word!

but there are still plenty of things to love out there! i missed last week, so here's a love list for both -

* rows of small buttons. i love how it looks! i noticed a trend in all of the clothes i've bought lately - my new winter coat has a row of buttons on each cuff, the AMAZING black leather gloves i got on sale have tiny little leather covered ball buttons along the wrists, the fingerless gloves i bought have rows of buttons, and the new stripey knee highs i bought have rows of buttons too!
* stazOn ink. when you see my valentines, you'll understand!
* no more snow! i love the snow, but damn, being stuck at home was starting to get old!
* codeine. opiates are my new best friend! see above for my new love of the word "horrid", these two loves are related!
* polka dots. just in general. i love polka dots. i bought fabric for pencil skirt with big chunky polka dots.
* coloured animal prints. same as polka dots (but the fabric was animal print!)
* the cheesiness of valentine's day!
* acrylic and plexiglass. i've been obsessed with this for SO LONG! i took an acrylics class in jr high, and then moved after the first year. i'm glad we moved here, but i've always regretted that i didn't get to take more acrylics classes! truthfully, i'm not sure i would have, as the teacher was a complete jerk (typical old school shop teacher who didn't think girls should take shop). today i bought a book that i've been eying for ages, Plexi Class. it's super inspiring!
* the jewelery that this etsy artisan makes, it's incredible. i bought a few pieces from her and i adore them. she's local too, which is always exciting!
* january sales. both my joy and my curse!



i've been trying to force myself to keep up with things, but i can only manage so many at a time! i'm trying to get caught up on stuff on craftster (check out the new changes! i love it! amnd batgirl/lori's writing awesome blog posts now!), so most of my online time has been spent there. i've been trying to get myself back into swapping and papercrafts, so i'm running a few swaps right now, the alphabet atc STU swap (i keep trying to write STFU!), and the love/hate atc swap in time for valentines day. the love/hate swap is still open, signups end at midnight PST tomorrow (friday)!

craftster also did a best of 2008 list that's really awesome, and you should definitely check it out! one of my projects was in it, the machine embroidered buttons i made for the brother campaign! they're not quite as exciting as my project that was in the best of 2007, so i guess i'm lucky that the machine embroidery board is small!

here are a few other MUCH MORE AMAZING favourites of mine from the list!
embroidered jelly fish bubble skirt - oh my freakin god!
bleached skeleton onesie - why didn't i ever think of this! it's awesome! it would have been perfect for torrin when he was littler!
ballet flats - one day i'll get around to trying these!
Re-imagining Alice in Wonderland - these costumes are AMAZING! absolutely incredible.
felted stone rug - i want one of these so bad!
anatomical heart batik - i'm so fascinated by batik, and i LOOVE anatomical hearts!
veins, hearts and ovaries silk screened fabric - ohmygod incredible! i love this, i want a skirt made out of it so bad.
cast iron squid sculpture - i hadn't seen this before the list, but it's incredible!
woodburned skull, raven and tulip - this is incredible. just when you think that woodburning is totally kitschy, you see this.
lady adventurer steampunk atcs - one day i WILL try beeswax! these are super inspirational!
a book of hope - this is a fabulous fundraiser that alteredmommy put together, with pages from so many amazing craftsters.
freemotion embroidery of a spanking - this is gorgeous! i love freemotion embroidery like this.

see? super inspirational!

things i love thursday!

11:56pm, i barely made it!

i haven't been blogging as much the last few days because i felt pretty yucky, and i've been trying to get caught up on stuff at craftster.org. however,i HAVE been crafting! i've been working on my current embroidery project, creating the pattern for another, planning valentines, and searching for tea towels for the embroidered tea towel swap.

i've managed to do something crafty every day, and that makes happy!

so! things i love thursday!

- daily crafting, obviously!

- boxing day sales at the scrapbooking stores! i don't think y'all in the US have these massive boxing day sales, you guys have yours after your thanksgiving, but in canada, they're huge. i never go anywhere on boxing day, because the crowds just aren't worth it to me, but most stores have extended their sales this year (because of the snow, most likely!) and today i finally got to go check them out. i managed to score some awesome technique tuesday stamps, which normally i can NEVER afford ($60 for one of the sets i like!), as well as a neat tag shaped punch, TWO melting pots for less than $10 each (one's for angie!), a whole bunch of rub ons, some non-cheesy xmas stamps, and so many more goodies!

- getting my car out of the snow! we've had incredible amounts of snow here, and it's been stuck for DAYS. it was completely buried for the first few weeks, then we unburied it, then it snowed AGAIN, then we unburied it, then i got it stuck in our driveway, then the snow started to melt so i'd be able to get it out, then the city plowed our street for the first time in weeks and blocked it in again! i've been basically housebound for weeks, only going out when i was able to borrow my mom's jeep in the evening, and i was starting to get a little cabin fever.

- my kitties! i know i say this every week, but it's TRUE every week! i had one day last week where i was miserable, absolutely miserable, a combination of med side affects and my regular health stuff. i felt so weak i couldn't even lift my hand to pet sofie sitting beside me. my babies were awesome, sofie curled up on my pillow for a bit, then right beside me, and louie curled up against my legs. such sweethearts.

- books! i'm so addicted to books and magazines, i just can't resist buying more and more, even as my shelves overflow higher and higher. any recommendations for good craft books? they're my biggest weakness!

where'd thursday go? oops!

i missed things i love thursday this week, obviously!

thursday evening was busy putting together something that i REALLY love though - a shelf!

my area of the house is set up in such a way that i have my bedroom, my studio, a little hallway to a door outside and a door into the house, and then i have a little room that connects to our crawl space. it's pretty full of stuff, it has an upright freezer, two filing cabinets, a dresser full of patterns, and two of those rolling bin things full of sewing supplies. the room itself has a very low ceiling, and we have storage on top of it as well (full of my little brother's crap, mostly). it has to stay fairly clear, because you need to go through it to the crawlspace, but a few weeks ago i got the idea that i could put up a shelf and clothes rack above the rollybins and the shorter filing cabinet. i kinda obsessed about it for a while, but i was scared to go buy the supplies myself and i bought the wrong thing!

so on thursday i finally convinced my dad to go to home depot (by threatening to do it myself - he was worried about me buying the wrong stuff too!!), so we went and got the supplies, and came home and put the shelf up. omg, i LOVE it! i made certain that the shelf was low enough from the ceiling that i could stack several containers on it, and now i can keep all of my organized supplies in there!

as much as my studio is an absolute disaster, some parts of it are extremely organized. that's my big cleaning avoidance technique. i should be cleaning, but instead i decide to sort the giant grocery bag full of zippers by colour and size, or organize all my stamps, etc.

i actually took pictures of the stamp organizing a few months ago, intending to post them here, and never got around to it. i have A LOT of stamps, it's quite ridiculous.

here's what i started with -

pile #1, from my bathroom


the overflowing rubber stamp bin


the overflowing clear stamp bin


and pile #2, also from the bathroom (that's my little stamp cleaning station, with the vintage holder, toothbrushes, ink removers, etc)


i didn't even take pictures of the overflowing ink bins!

it was impossible to find anything, and i kept making projects and then later remembering a different stamp that would have worked better. blegh!

so i organized.

the new clear stamps containers (blocks and alphabets on top, most everything else in the lower)


the new rubber stamps containers (foam stamps at the very top, alphabets and unmounted in the middle, and mounted stamps in the bigger one on the bottom)


and the inks (stazOn on the left, pigments and embossing powder on the right, and waterbased inks, alcohol inks and various other things like flocking on the bottom)

since then my dad bought me a whole basket of embossing powder at a silent auction, so i have another container just of them.

so now all my stamping stuff is nicely organized! except that until thursday, these bins were all over the studio, getting in my way all the time.

hence why i love my shelf! i can put all my papercrafting bins in there, as well as my jewelery bins (that rarely get used) and some of my less-used sewing supplies. and when i need them, i can just pull them out! the rod underneath is used for all of the sewing patterns that i've traced onto cloth or old sheets over the years, they hang on pant hangers, and clothes that i've made over the years that i can't bear to give up.

oh, so nice.

of course, looking at my studio, you'd never know that i just took all those bins out.... i have a lot more cleaning to do!

things i love thursday!

barely! i almost missed it this week. my little sister is over tonight, and i'm helping her with some last minute sewing for a project due tomorrow, and it's taking longer than i'd thought. my sewing machine makes very skookum buttonholes though!

so, just a quickie, cause i need to get back to it.

- east vancouver. oh commercial drive, how i love you. not just for the hot folks of all genders in funky clothes seen while people watching, not just for the thai take out, and not just for the people's co-op bookstore. i also adore you for your CHEAP organic and vegan food, and if i hadn't been so pressed for time and energy today, i would have come to see you, instead of paying suburb prices at the big chain nature food store. one day i'll be back with you.

- my friends! especially the mod girls, even though i've been feeling so crummy lately and have been pretty non communicative, they love me anyway, and they're always there for me. plus they're crafty, what more could you need in a friend?

- the snow geese that are resting in my area while on their way south. so pretty!

- sofie and louie, my kitty baby and my kitty nephew. they're such good cuddle monsters, and they're all about the lovin'. louie knew i felt crummy today, he crawled up my chest to nuzzle my face, and sofie curled up beside me. aw.

- pj pants! mmm, flannelette! i snatched up a couple very fun prints at 50% last night to make pj pants with, and i can't wait. one print glows in the dark!

there was something else.... i think of things to write throughout the week, and it never fails that i've forgotten half of them by thursday! i'll probably think of it just as i'm falling asleep!

things i love thursday!

* my kitties. i'm so happy to see them! i missed them while i was away, especially my sofie-bean.

* the AMAZING package i received from gingerquilts!

* mm, my bed! even more so now that i've been sleeping on relatives beds and in the car for 10 days!

* craft and political magazines. god, i read too many! i'll have to do a post about that soon.

* vintage christmas! i have so many new purchases to photograph!



i might add more later. i know i have more, but it's naptime i think!

i made it!!!

so i started this with about 15 minutes left of thursday, here in prairie time, but then the damn laptop died. so it WAS on time, and we'll just pretend that it still is! this is the first time i've been online since i left, and it was a bit of an adventure. i'd like to point out once again that i HATE dial up, and that this laptop HATES me!

so! things i love thursday!!


*prairie thrift stores!! mmmmmmm.... so cheap, so many great finds!

*vintage buttons. see above!

*snow! i wasn't too impressed with the icey roads last weekend - my lack of winter tires meant that my plans were foiled, but oh well. i love the snow anyway. it's snowing outside right now, and it's gorgeous. pretty little flakes that glisten in the yard light, and actually look like snowflakes when they land on your coat. so pretty.

*dry cold! west coast people don't get this at all, only prairie transplants do. but the cold here is VERY different! i've been whining back in BC about freezing in 10 degree weather (i don't know what that is in fahrenheit, look it up, i'm on goddamn dial-up dude!), but today i was running around in a hoodie in 1 degree, and it was fabulous.

*embroidery. i've been embroidering like mad while i've been here! most of it's for presents, but you'll see it eventually.

*birds! i saw a magpie! and a bluejay! i haven't seen either of those in YEARS and YEARS.

*my family. as much as they're all batshit crazy, and regardless of how many times i've been THIS close to strangling both grandmas in the past week, i love them anyway!

*mmm, venison. and the farmer sausage that the hutterites make.... (um, my spellcheck says that hutterite should be "shutterbug". right....) i know the venison one is controversial, and trust me, i HATE sport hunting (one of my grandpa's friends shoots things for the status - bear rugs, etc, and we all refer to him as "the guy who kills things", he's gross), but i'm more okay with hunting when it's going to be used for food. we use pretty much everything, since my uncle has a butcher shop set up in his garage, and that makes me feel better. and i love venison, it's a much drier, lower fat (not that i care about that) meat than most. and i've been eating poultry practically everyday here, so i'm looking forward to variety! (i had wild turkey yesterday - can't say it tasted much different than store bought!) tomorrow morning i'm going to fry farmer's sausage, and i can't wait! i wonder if we have room in our cooler to bring some home with us????

that's it for now! i'm kinda braindead, being here is pretty damn exhausting, but it's good to be here. but it'll be nice to be home monday too! (i miss my baby and my mom!)

wahoo, i remembered!!

things i love thursday!

just a quickie, because i'm leaving on a trip in about 5 hours, and i'm so not ready (but i still can't resist watching ER!)

- my new black hoodie. i made it to test the sleeve alteration on the pink fleece hoodie (i added WAY more gathering to the pink version, good thing i tested it!). it's so cozy and warm, i love it.

- clearance halloween fabric! i got such a great score at joanns on friday night!

- owls! i tried to resist the trendiness, but they're SO DAMN CUTE!

- snow! i love snow. i hope it snows while i'm in manitoba!


and that's it! i'll be back in a week and a half!

things i love thursday

it's thursday, and i remembered this time!

last week i remembered on tuesday, and then again on sunday. oops.

so! things i love thursday! on time!

* embossing powder. once i post the halloween atcs i made, you'll see how obsessed i've been! it's just so frigging cool! it's like magic!

* having a cutting table again! i think i mentioned the leak in my storage shed in august? all of the wet boxes got hauled inside and dumped on a tarp in the middle of our dining room, and my sister and i (mostly i, since it was mostly my stuff) sorted through everything and put it all into rubbermaid tubs. however, since i can't carry anything, the tubs have been sitting in the dining room ever since, waiting for someone else to carry them back out, and the table was covered in treasures we found while sorting. monday was thanksgiving, and i was determined that we should sit at a table like a family, so i busted my butt pushing the tubs around, and made enough space to pull the table out and clear it. wahoo, i have a table!!

* thanksgiving dinner!! mmm, stuffing. i LOVE stuffing, and none of that fancy shit stuffing. bread, spices, an egg to help hold it together, celery. it's the food of gods!

* having time to craft what i want! i finally finished up and sent for the altoid tin swap, for the jar of whimsies swap, and for the halloween atc swap, and it feels so good! i was really excited about the swaps, and honestly i still am, but EVERYTHING i worked on for the last few weeks has been an epic saga! the two big ones have been received, so i'll post pics soon, and you'll see what i mean.

* on the same note, time to blog again! i didn't realize how behind i was until i started catching up! it'll take me a little while i think.

* llamas. yes, llamas! i drive by a field at least 4 times a week that has sheep and 4 llamas in it (3 adults and 1 baby now. i remember when it was 2 adults and 1 baby, but it grew!) they're the funniest looking animals, their butts make me giggle every time, they look like they're wearing jodhpurs!

* kitties. we've got 5, which is about 1 too many, but we love them to pieces anyways. i have two that spend their days in my part of the house, the non-outside cats (my sofie baby, and my sister's cat, who we recently adopted), and then at night we close the cat door and let mine out to fight with the other three. i adore cats, and i don't really trust people who don't... i say that jokingly, but honestly, i realized the last two people i dated were dog lovers, which might be a sign! i can't imagine not having cats.

* crosstitch. i don't know where this obsession came from, but lately i've been REALLY into crosstitch! it's incredibly time consuming, and i'm surprised i like it, considering the amount of counting required, but i do!

* my mom. my mom's a really amazing person, but lately i've been even more proud of her than i usually am. she's a writer, though she hasn't done much writing just for herself in recent years, and during the summer she finally wrote down one of the ideas in her head, and came up with a one act play. one of the theatre groups she's involved with decided to put it on, and last friday they performed it. it was incredible, and i'm so proud of her. this weekend they're taking it to be performed at a provincial one act festival!

things i love...... saturday!

okay, so i'm late, i know!. i was wanting to start doing a things i love thursday post, but this week was just ridiculous, and i didn't manage to get a post done. thursday was filled with errands and cleaning, and by the time i got home thursday night, i fell asleep on the couch, and friday was more of the same.

so! things i love...... saturday!

* flocking. mmm, i LOVE flocking. it's the most amazing thing, the ability to make anything you want soft! i love flocking on purchased items (i can't stop buying scrapbook paper with flocking, and i'll never give up my vintage my little ponies that are flocked), but i also love any opportunity to flock things myself. one day i'm going to suck it up and buy an actual flocking applicator, but for now, my uhu glue stick and my fingers seem to work for the things i want flocked! flocking is like glitter (which i also love), but FUZZY! how could anything be more awesome than that?

* halloween! i imagine this will be on my list all month! halloween is my favourite holiday for gothy crafting (x-mas is my favourite holiday for vintage crafting, fyi), and i love all the STUFF available! we don't have as awesome stuff in canada (super jealous of target), but it's still pretty damn awesome. i love wandering the halloween aisles... and the CRAFT SUPPLIES available! oh, halloween.

* the sound of train whistles. oh, how i love the sound of trains. i always have, as long as i can remember. when i was in grade 5, we lived in a house that was about 2 and a half blocks from the train tracks, the perfect distance - you could hear them, but you didn't have to HEAR them constantly! i used to lie in bed and listen to them. as a teenager, i could hear the ferry whistles from my bedroom, which wasn't really the same, but when the wind conditions were just right, i'd hear train whistles too. when i was 18, i lived in ontario for about a month immediately after living in the yukon for 3 months, and i was starting to get a bit homesick by that point, but i could hear the whistles at night, and that made me feel better. now i live about 8 or 9 blocks from tracks that really only have trains in the middle of the night (which is much handier for daytime driving!). i can lie in bed and hear them throughout the night, and it's so lovely and comforting. i love that sound.

* dressew! though they're a pain to get to, they're SO worth the trip! i've been trying to get in there since the spring, and just never needed anything bad enough to make the effort. the other day i had some time to kill downtown, so off i went! i was in a bit of a rush, so i didn't even let myself look at fabrics, and as a result, i think i spent the least i've ever spent there before! (good for my new budgeting resolution!)

* my bed. another thing that will show up on this list regularly! i LOOOOVE my bed. my parents bought it for me when i first started getting sick, wanting me to have more support for my back. it has support, but it also has a thick pillowtop, and i've added a memory foam pad to it. the frame is one i had bought myself a few years before, my very first "grown up" furniture purchase where i went to an actual store, not a thrift store, and bought something without intending to make it over! it's silver metal, and sturdy as all hell. i took a friend with me to help me load it, though i learned a lesson - taking a guy furniture shopping with you is like an instant session of heterosexist frustration! the salesperson kept talking over my head, and it was terrible. but anyway. i have multiple pillows, including a memory foam one, and a big duvet (with a cover made of flocked fabric, incidentally) and a comforter on top. my bed is like a soft cushy cloud! a soft cushy cloud full of cat hair! sofie and i have a nightime cuddle routine (it's the only time she lets me cuddle her), and she often sleeps at my feet once the cuddling is over. a few months ago i "adopted" my sister's cat, who is about twice sofie's size, and loves to sit on top of me. he sheds like the dickens, and prefers to sleep right sprawled smack dab in the middle of the bed. he and sofie are like siblings now, ripping and tearing (literally - the little brats have ripped my sheets with their claws!) around the room, usually in the middle of the night, and then settling down to sleep about a foot apart on the bed. though they're both black, their hair shows up grey on my black sheets and duvet. i resorted to vacuuming my sheets the other day, honestly!

* dylon! oh, i so love dylon! i love dyeing shit, and will at the slightest provocation. dylon hot has served me well for years now, and i have a plastic container full of a ridiculous amount of little dye tins to prove my love. i mostly dye trims, laces and stuff, though i've also dyed about a million slips over the years, rubber duckies, and yesterday, baby trees! i save all my dye in large glass jars, and reuse it. it's very handy for small things, i don't even have to dig out one of my dye pots, i just plop the bit of lace or whatever in the open jar and stick the whole thing in the microwave. easy peesy.