Love is Blue and Yellow

My name is Jennifer and I'm an IKEA-holic.

I love to look at all the rooms they have set up and I love being able to sit on and mess with and poke and prod all the different home furnishings. Everything is so modern and cute. Not to mention the strange feeling of pride I get after putting together my own furniture and the customizability of everything being in parts. (Check out the IKEA hacker blog for lots of neat ideas.)

So how happy am I to have an IKEA right here in my very own town? Very, that's how happy. Especially considering that even after living here over a year and half I still don't have a good way to store my ever-expanding fabric stash. Right now I have the old thread fixtures from my previous job. They have large drawers at the bottom, which is great for my scraps and fat quarters, but the rest of it is kind of a big...pile. (It's even worse since that picture.) But I think I found the answer to my prayers:

The EXPEDIT bookcase. Each cubby is about 15" square, and about the same measurement deep. (15" cubed? That sounds weird.) Plenty of room to store most, if not all, of my fabric and I can organize it by type and color. Yay! There are even fabric boxes that fit perfectly in each opening for my fat quarters and scraps.

I'm also planning to get a 6 foot long table top (I already have legs) and shelves for my toy collection. All for around $200! Hopefully I'll be getting them this weekend, I'll post before and after pictures, as embarrassing as my studio looks right now.

Old Things

I did a little redesign, that counts as crafting, right? I think the bright colors are a little more me, not that I'm particularly bright but I'm certainly loud and I demand lots of attention. ;) The header is a segment of this picture, my first attempt at teaching myself to treble crochet and some snazzy buttons. I'm rather in love with that absurd shade of citron.

Since fiddling with colors took up much of my morning (along with laying around in bed and checking my e-mail), I thought I'd post some older pictures. These were my first professionally done pictures, I got them in trade at Craft Attack. These were shot by Danielle Anthony who, in addition to being talented, is a total pleasure to work with.

Conspiracy Theories

Question and his counterpart Rorschach from Watchmen.

It's a Zombie Kind of Day

So I had kind of an awesome today. This morning's project is above, a little zombie dude. Why did I make a zombie, you may ask?


Because I got to see this awesome gentlement this afternoon. That would George Romero, creater of the modern horror movie genre as we know it and director of many outstanding zombie movies. I'm still spazzing out a little. :D

Etrigan

Little Etrigan may be a demon, but all he really wants is a hug. I modified the pattern I used for Bats, making the head a little bigger and adding demon features of course. He's about 19" tall and made of fleece with some felt details. This was originally going to be for sale, but I love him way too much. So this little fella is going to be my prototype and I'll make a different one to sell. On the next one I'd like to use a more yellow fleece (this was all I had on hand) and make his horns a little smaller.

Crap, now I'm thinking of all the other DC characters I want to make. Atomic Skull, Green Lantern, Copperhead, Question....I have a feeling I'm going to be busy.

Valentine's Presents

Felt applique. Each piece was cut and then stitched to the background using a wee blanket stitch.


Repainted Indiana Jones Mighty Mugg (I needed the fedora). This is my first repainted vinyl toy, and he came out alright. I gave him a coat of primer first and painted him with artist acrylics. Then he got a clear coat to protect him. I made the notebook of paper so he can take notes about the connection between boy bands and deforestation and so he doesn't forget his dates with Huntress.

The Internet is a Series of ... Threads? (1/365)

I think I just need to start my 365 over. Can I do that? I was being good, but there was a lot going on last week that was more important.

Anyway, on to some actual content! While my blogging has been terribly erratic, my crafting has not.

Why so serious, indeed? How can one be serious when there are emboridered internet memes?

Disgusting and adorable, it fills me with glee. (Don't go look this up if you don't know what it is, don't.)

There are more on my flickr.

To Do List

- Maybe send out some resumes
- Finish my profile on Monster.com. (Is it just me or that thing like applying for a loan? Geez.)
- Take some decent pictures for my etsy
- Actually list some things on my etsy
- Take pictures of crafty things so I have something for a blog entry
- Update my blog (oh god I'm awful at this)
- Maybe eat or something

So Now I Just Need to Actually Have Things to Sell...

I just had to pop in to give a little cheer. The CPSC is apparently not made completely of idiots and has granted a one year reprieve for handmade toy makers! Handmade toys and childrens clothing has been granted a one year stay from mandatory testing for lead and phthalates. Hooray!

I have been crafting everyday, it's once again the blogging that is sticking me. The weather has been most uncooperative and I haven't been able to get any good pictures. Soon though, I promise.