Fun With Fluff

Last week, I got rid of some spinning stuff I never used that was just taking up room in my closet (for the curious, it was a flyer for a wheel I didn't have and, sadly, will not be getting anytime soon). I was able to make a trade with someone on Ravelry for some old carders and a bunch of lovely dyed fiber! I got a beautiful assortment of Merino, Corriedale, Alpaca, Mohair, and even some silk!

After I opened the package, stopped drooling, and watched a few tutorials on Youtube, I got to work with my new-to-me hand carders! I blended some of the red mohair with Ellie's white hair at about a 70/30 ratio and got this:

Guys, it is SO SOFT. I made about 5 rolags of it and found an appropriate home for the delectable fiber. It even smells like chocolate now!:

Since then, I've spun two rolags onto one of my drop spindles. At first I was terrified to mess up, but you know what? I've got a renewable source of fluff in my back yard. If I mess up, I mess up, and I'll learn from it and move on. Here is what I've got so far:

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it as I don't really know what qualities these two fibers have (memory, drape, etc.), but whatever I make, it is going to be SOFT! I'm thinking probably fingerless gloves. Easy first project for my first hand-carded fiber :)

Also, for anyone interested, the person who traded with me has an Etsy shop. You should go check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Taneliearth

Have a good Monday, everyone! :)

Gardening Woes

I love gardening. Where I grew up in the middle-of-nowhere Michigan, we had beautiful black soil, and our yearly gardens flourished. I always helped my dad plant and care for our gardens. My favorites were always the tomatoes. There's nothing better than a plump red tomato, straight from the vine, still slightly warm from the sun. A close second would be the root vegetables because I loved pulling them up at harvest time. I think  I enjoyed the surprise. You have no idea just how big that carrot is going to be until you pull it out of the ground.

Maybe it's because of the poor soil, maybe the heat, and maybe it's because my dad's not here to help me weed and water (let's face it; he probably did most of the work anyway), but I have had the worst luck with gardening in Arkansas. The soil is hard clay, and the summer heat is much, much hotter than I'm used to. I've tried planting in the raised bed garden that came with our rental, I've tried container gardens out of 5 gallon buckets, and I've tried hanging plants. Everything I've ever planted has died horribly, save for the herbs in the pots on my back porch. But still, no sun-ripened tomatoes for this girl. I had all but decided to give up when my bunny gave me an idea.

Oh that's right, I haven't introduced her yet! Meet Eleanor:

I call her Ellie :)

So, Ellie and I have this idea to turn that garden spot into a little run for her, like what I used to have with Neville, only bigger and with bunny-safe plants sown into the soil. My plan is to till it up and plant stuff like strawberries, dandelions, grass, timothy hay, wheat seeds, oats, carrots, and other various bunny-safe herbs (that aren't used for specific medicinal purposes). Hopefully planting mostly grasses and herbs will make it easier to keep alive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

So, while I may not have the pleasure of plucking tomatoes off the vine or pulling up giant carrots this summer, I will have something growing in my back yard, and that will be enough.

Sep, Oct, & Nov

These are projects from September, October, and November. There are some doodles, sketches, digital work, and an oil painting.

August (and a bit of July)

Here is a dump of what I have done this last month:

New Digs

I have my VERY OWN STUDIO in my house Yep! My hubby and I rearranged rooms and instead of sharing an office and having a guest room, we put the guest bed in his office (which is bigger and doesn't contain a guest-frightening reptile) and I got the guest room as my own office! I moved in my bookshelves and computer desk, then I got a sewing table AND a glass drafting table! And some other goodies, but I don't want to brag...

...ok, I totally do want to brag! On top of a new drafting table, I got a Bamboo Create and a set of Copic Sketch Markers!!! Set 72A babay!!! WOOO!!! I've been using them and LOVING them! The only complaint I have is that there aren't very many skin tones to work with :\ Oh dear, that just means I'll have to buy more, I guess

Here are some pics of my new digs:

Anyway, I've definitely been drawing more now that I have my own little space. It's been awesome! I'm really excited about this next year!! Bring it.

Summer Fun!

My my, it has been quite a long time since I've blogged! Now that's a familiar phrase. If you go back through my older posts, you'll find that I say that, or something similar, an awful lot. I...I think I'm a binge-blogger. I have a problem...

Anyway, I am currently working on quite a few projects. I recently opened an Etsy account with the intentions of selling crafty things, hoping that will offset the money I'm not making while taking classes. It won't completely catch us up, but it's a more fun way to make money anyway, even if it is less :) I've got a bunch of milk rings ready to be made into earrings, some sculpey waiting to go in the oven, and some recycled bottle cap earrings ready to be posted!

On top of earrings, I'm thinking about indulging my inner snark with some "crapestry" projects and some re-designed paintings. Crapestry is a type of needlepoint that takes the cutesy, kitsch craft and adds a bit of humor (sometimes quite dark), making it more relevant to those of us with an ironic taste in home decor. I don't know if I'll go so far as to depict grotesque scenes of mass murder in a Thomas Kinkade vista, but I may add some superfluous facial hair and top hats to a couple of unsuspecting bunnies. Re-designed paintings are old thrift store paintings or prints that have been tweaked to add humor or interest. The ones I've seen tend to be sarcastic as well, but less irreverent than the crapestries. My favorites are ones that add giant monsters to landscapes! Time to get my garage sale bargaining on!

Lastly, something I'm working on just for me :) As some of you already know, I am a bit of a fan of My Little Pony, especially the most recent TV series, Friendship Is Magic. One of my groups on Ravelry is doing a Pony craft-a-long for this month of June, which entails going to the Pony Creator, making your own pony, and then MAKING your own pony! This is what "I" look like :)

She's so cute. Her cutie mark is a light bulb with butterfly wings to represent creativity. I did have a pencil and a paintbrush as antennae in my sketch, but I couldn't get them to look right when I Frankenstein'd it in Photoshop, so I left them out. I think the point stands anyway. Now that I made her in the Pony Creator, I'm going to physically make her using yarn and a crochet hook. Without an actual pattern... Well, I'm *kind of* basing it off of another pattern, but I'm changing so many things, it's going to be a completely different animal  (pun somewhat intended) when I'm done. Should be fun! Right?

Of course it will be :)

Adventures in Probiotics

Well, it's been a couple of months since I got my water kefir grains and my SCOBY for kombucha. I must say, I am pleasantly surprised by the kombucha! It really does look gross when it's sitting on the counter fermenting, but it tastes pretty darn good! By itself, it smells strongly of vinegar. I haven't tried drinking it plain, but I've mixed it with grape juice and let it ferment a second time in the fridge. It gets so fizzy and delicious, you could replace pop if you wanted to!

If you want to know how to make the kombucha or the kefir water, watch the tutorials on this website: www.culturesforhealth.com

And here's the photographic evidence:

This is the baby SCOBY that formed on top of my kombucha. A new one of these grows with every batch!


Closeup of the baby.


The mother SCOBY in fresh tea.


Closeup of "Big Mama."


My bottled kombucha! The airtight seal is essential for prime fizziness.


Closeup of my water kefir. Look at the bubbles!!


The kefir water is harvested every two days, but the kombucha takes much longer to ferment. I give it ~10 days, but you could go up to a month. So, if anyone wants a baby SCOBY in a couple of weeks, give me a holla! ;)