yay halloween! ok this entry is a few days late, but i had to wait till i had photos of this year’s costume, and since we didn’t party over the weekend or anything, no photos were taken until last night. but before i get to that… i want to show you some of my favorite costumes of the past, since it’s my first halloween with this blog. starting with little lee costumes, these are my two most creative years: at 7 years old in ’89 and 10 in ’92.

then i had a whole lot of uncreative years; high school has a way of squashing a girl’s creativity! so sad… well i actually can’t remember what i was most of high school, i can only remember alice in wonderland my junior year, that’s not terribly uninteresting i guess. so then i was a pirate my second year of college (but before the pirates movies, so it’s not so bad) and then i finally started getting creative my third year. so here is me at ages 20 and 21:

(that’s also before the johnny depp movie, i was always a step ahead of johnny! hehe) ooh i almost forgot to mention that i went as margot alone – my 2 brothers just happpened to be at the party i went to, i didn’t even know the guys! …then at 22 i really loved my costume, mostly because it was so comfy!

(by the way, that’s the first time i ever made a pair of sock mitts. i had planned to knit mitts exactly like hers, but ran out of time, so i found those socks and the rest is history!) so at age 23 i had a partner for the first time, so we were one of our favorite couples (ok, not really a couple, but a cute pair anyway):

then last year we decided to be super nerds, but i/we got the best reactions of any costume i’ve ever had!

and this year! i loved it, even though not one single person even knew that i was in costume. the best was the year i was clementine and wore the costume all weekend to work (because halloween was a sunday) and i think 2 customers knew who i was, but when they did it was so exciting! i was hoping all day at work that one person would get it, but alas, i looked too modern day vintage, or something…

and pete:

i wish we could go back and retake the photos. pete forgot to take off his glasses, i forgot to put on my black gloves, and we didn’t get any shots where you can see my dress under the coat! i got this gorgeous dress from frock to wear as mary, but mostly for myself, hah! it’s red with a black nature-y print; it’s very japanese influenced, the tag says “geisha chic”. not exactly mary’s style, but it is 70’s looking, and it was only the bottom peeking out under the coat anyway.

notice all the crafty elements of my costumes over the years… i made the wood finger for margot, the hat and tie for willy, sock mitts for clem, hats for both marios and a crocheted tail, and i think i’m most proud of mary’s knit hat! i totally improvised it, and i couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. i didn’t think it would ever be worn after halloween, but it’s totally going into my everyday hat rotation!

and i’ll leave you with this halloween shot i really like. me, the super serious clown, and my brother matt the bee:

ok no time for my halloween post yet, i should have been asleep awhile ago, but i just want to show you what we did tonight. we’ve had the supplies for about a month and just hadn’t had time/energy to put it all together, so i’m so happy to see it done! our new headboard:

we have an extremely tiny bedroom, so no room for bedside tables. our alarm has been across the room at our feet for the last month – it’s no fun hitting snooze when you have to get out of bed. so this shelf-headboard gives us the reachable shelf space we need, and it puts some color into the blah little room. perfect!

if you want to copy – we got two of the cheap (but nice and solid) flarke bookshelves, and enough ikea fabric to reach from top to bottom on both (i think 4 yards total). we wanted to use the fabric that came hemmed, so it doesn’t reach to the sides, but that’s convenient for power chords, and i think it looks fine still. when you build the shelves, instead of nailing the white backing on, nail on the fabric, so easy!

i had a super fun handmade-overload day today – hung out with diane and susan all over east portland! we ate at tiny’s on mlk (yum!), then hit union rose, frock, redux, and trillium artisans. SO much brilliant stuff being made in portland!! it’s really inspirational seeing all that amazing work. i think frock was my favorite, but i really loved all the stores in different ways. i especially love how much of the work is being made with recycled materials, woo!

happy birthday diane!!

i’ve been meaning to post this for awhile but have been so busy, so i’ll take this lazy day off opportunity to catch up. back in august, immediately before the move (like, on the way from la to portland) i shot a wedding. i don’t shoot weddings, but a college friend asked me if i would, and i figured sure, why not? it went really well, i’m super happy with how the shots came out, but i don’t think i’ll ever be shooting another wedding. well, unless it’s for a really close friend or a family member, then i would. it was just so much work – i finally got everything done and mailed off to the bride a couple weeks ago, and the wedding was august 12th. that was some serious editing. 6 gigs of memory full of photos. yeah. anyway, so the point of this post is to show you the bit of craftiness i incorporated into the job. i am always using my photography to show my craft creations, so i wanted to bring some craft element to my photography, fun stuff!

the front is freezer paper stencil printed, and the case is all made from pieces of fabric i had which matched perfectly with the bridesmaids’ outfits. (in the photos, the inside fabric looks almost white, but really it’s a light turquoise-ish blue, as is the lace ribbon, which matches their lacy fans.)

maybe this will inspire those of you out there who do different kinds of creative things to bring them together… or something…

since i’m on the subject of knitting with my blog here, i’ll mention this promo for vickie howell‘s podcast.  i’m a huge podcast fan in general, in the car, walking, in the craft studio… so i’ll definitely be checking this one out.  i heard vickie howell being interviewed on a craft podcast (i don’t remember which one!) awhile back and she was fun to listen to.  and i’ve been watching knitty gritty whenever i find it on since i first discovered it about a year ago – that was a happy day!  cosy wrote a little mini-review of the show on her blog, i pretty much agree with everything she said, including skipping the episode with the dog sweaters.  (except i think i know less about knitting than her, so i learn even more each time i watch the show!)

ok i do have plans to write about crafty wonderland (it went well!!) and i had been planning to write something for blog action day, which happened yesterday, but there was no time dammit!  so it would be stupid of me not to write what i was going to write just because i missed the day, so that will come soon.  and there is more on my blogging plate, but just so little time, if only i could blog at work!!  life would just be so much better… for now, i am already running late for that dreaded day job, so off i go.

i submitted my first pattern to knitty yesterday! not just my first knitty submission, but the first pattern i’ve ever written! i feel so accomplished; i can now call myself a designer and have something to show for it. it probably won’t actually get into knitty, i’m trying not to be too optimistic about it. i mean, it is my first pattern ever, come on. but, if it’s denied, i’ll post it here on my blog for all to see. i wish i could show photos of it – pete took some beautiful shots – but it’s not supposed to be shown anywhere before knitty. so i made some sneak peek cropped images just for fun…

and in other knitting news, i got my ravelry invite a few days ago, exciting! i’ve had such a busy week though, i haven’t had time to play yet. i’m sure the next week will be filled with much raveling…

ooh ooh! i almost forgot! do stuff! is gonna be distro’d by whammy! yea! whammy! is super rad – i just got the “surprise fun pack!” (at the bottom) with all kinds of neato stuffs, including key lime pie lip balm and awesome buttons, and zines of course! yay!

i got tagged! by elizabeth of the crafts of destiny. so the thing is: list 7 random things about yourself and then tag 7 more people to do the same… here i go!

1. i grew up thinking tofu was super gross because of clarissa explains it all, and now it’s a staple of my diet and one of my favorite things.

2. in the 9 years since i turned 16 and got my first regular job (paycheck, non-babysitting), i’ve had 11 jobs, counting every one with a normal paycheck (so this does include operations manager at my college radio station where i got paid $35/week, but it does not include teaching photography at an after-school program for several months because i just got one check at the end). i’ve never been fired, i have been laid off once, and many of those jobs overlapped.

3. i’m terrible at keeping my computer cleaned up and organized – right now i have 27 firefox tabs open (all sites i plan to use and/or check out soon!), and 164 unread emails in my yahoo account (all just comment notifications and stuff, no personal emails).

4. when i was little i hated the color orange – it was by far my least favorite color – and now it’s my favorite, funny how those things work…

5. after a weekend trip to scotland during my summer spent studying abroad in england, glasgow became my favorite place in the whole wide world and i wanted to live there someday (but only temporarily because of the weather), so a couple weeks ago while exploring ancestry.com or one of those sites, i was so happy to learn that my great great great grandfather (or maybe one more great…) was from scotland!

6. i love film, and hate that it’s getter harder to buy, and wish more people would shoot it, buut i’m totally embarrassed to admit that since i got my digital slr in january i haven’t shot one full roll of film. boo me!

7. in college i went to tons of little indie shows – after i turned 21 my average was probably 3-4 a week – but my first concert ever was the kroq weenie roast when i was 17, where i saw lovely bands like blink 182 and sugar ray! hah!

ok and now for the tagging: i choose amber, jessica, diane, christine renee, kristin, susan, and pete. not a big deal, do it if you want to.

yesterday i had a super extra creative day off, i’m so happy with what i made, so i want to share it all with you! i tried freezer paper stencils for the first time. i’d been wanting to try them since i first read about the process in my favorite magazine, craft. here are my first and second batches (my kitty and my guy), done on fabric scraps because i didn’t want to risk ruining a favorite clothing item, but i’ll cut them into patches and sew them on stuff:

if you want to try it, here is a great online tutorial with a rad squid stencil, and this guy used bleach instead of fabric paint, which i plan to try next time (he inspired me to make a stencil of pete’s face).

and, i spun yarn for the second time, my first time using roving that i dyed (with food coloring and kool-aid), so i feel like it’s really my yarn, because i designed it and made it happen. so exciting! one strand is orange + yellow, the other light blue + dark blue with some purple, spun kind of randomly back and forth, and plied together.

and here are the 2 single balls before plying (there are more shots in my flickr, i take a lot when i’m excited)

so i was checking out all those sampler contributor sites i linked to yesterday, and when i noticed how familiar her etsy shop looked i realized that i actually know christine renee of re-conceived. i custom made a camera bag for her a few months ago. so my favorite sample item was made by someone who carries something i made for her, so weird! such a small crafty world!! yeah, that’s all really, i had to share that… oh, she has a rad blog by the way, and not just because she mentioned me in it today, hah! she talks about recycley craft stuff like “frogging” sweaters to recycle the yarn, yay!

to everyone going to the maker faire this weekend, have super awesome fun times! i soooo wish i could be there! when i didn’t get into the bazaar bizarre as a vendor i lost my excuse to take the time off work and the travel expenses to get there, when i’m trying so hard to save for the big move to portland. stupid money! always needing it…

woo, this is a good week! first, on monday, do stuff! got mentioned in an interview with reference librarian Laural Winter about zines in portland libraries on Sister Diane‘s DIY Alert! website. yay!!

then yesterday i got home to work to find my sampler package in the mailbox! i hadn’t been expecting it for a few more days, so i was extra super excited! it was my first time contributing, and also my first time getting one. here are my favorite samples!

the octopus is an iron-on patch silkscreened on recycled fabric, designed on a manual typewriter using only the letter “y”. it was made by christine renee of re-conceived, and designed by her brother nathan veech, and the octopus’s name is phil! the so so cute “congratulations!” card is by andy pratt design; there’s a “happy birthday!” card too. i love the nut and bee button!! the “wee ninja” by shawnimals is totally going on my car. and the “i love you a latte” card by fancy is so me! cofffeeee mmmm….

and then i have these magnets by adee art and manic trout on my fridge already:

yay!

and just so ya know, i do have plans to try to blog more… i have a couple tutorials planned, i just need to write them… at the moment i actually need to be finishing up my wristbands for next month’s sampler contributions. but soon, i promise, some fun tutorials are on their way. yess!

i know it’s a bit late for an earth day post, but i just read a quote/monologue by Bill Maher that inspired me to recommend something everyone can do to help. stop using plastic bags! well, stop tossing out plastic bags. just say no to bags whenever possible; when you’re going somewhere where you know you’ll need a bag, bring one with you to use. use a huge purse all the time like i do, or get yourself a big tote bag that can fold up and be shoved into a smaller purse or pocket, or bike basket or whatever. if you’re lucky enough to work in retail like me, for smaller purchases always ask the customer if they need a bag, they say no at least half the time. when you do get stuck with a plastic bag, save it for later use. all the obvious things, like trash bags, pooper scoopers, etc…

and now here’s where the project comes in: if you are capable, knit or crochet a big tote with those bags! i’ve crocheted one little practice version, and i’ve just started a big knit project, which i plan to make nice and huge:

here are some links to get you started:

• one way of making the “yarn” – long single strands
• another method – double stranded (this is how i do it)
• diy network’s knit version – requires sewing pieces together
• marlo’s crochet corner’s simple crochet version
• photo of another bigger crocheted bag

there are tons more tutorials and pictures all over the web. also, the awesome book craftivity has a tutorial for a crocheted tote, featuring a photo of an amazing, unique bag by Diane Bromberg. this book is just super rad all the way through, i highly recommend it as an all-around cool crafts book.

i am not a great example for these kinds of things (i watch too much tv, drive a car, accidentally leave lights on, the list goes on), but i feel the need to remind anyone reading this to just do what you can. change over to the good kind of lightbulbs, walk/ride a bike/use public transit whenever possible, reduce reuse recycle…… just be aware.

i’m posting the long quote behind a “more tag” which i’ve never used before, i hope this works.

(more…)

i’m back! and i mean that on multiple levels…. my server was down for over a week (it was horrible!) so i have lots to report, it’s been an eventful week!

i spent a long weekend in portland with pete, seeing all that we possibly could, and very quickly confirming our plans to move there. when we arrived saturday morning we were saying “if we move here…” and by dinner that evening we’d officially switched to “when we move here…”. by saturday afternoon, i had my zines for sale at in other words and reading frenzy, and a copy in iprc‘s zine library. on sunday we got to attend both crafty wonderland and church of craft! we met sister diane, of craftypod fame, who was super friendly, chatting with us about p-town in the middle of her own crafty meeting.

some of my favorite places we got to see/experience: scrap (school & community reuse action project), the bins (overwhelmingly massive goodwill outlet!), pub theaters (we went to the clinton, but there are at least three in town), the aforementioned crafty wonderland and church of craft as well as the multitude of handmade-stuff stores all over town (and also awesome yarn and fabric stores!), amazingly delicious vege/vegan food everywhere (dots, laughing planet, paradox, juniors, lots of great pizza…), and of course all the fantastic bookstores!

so, our plan is to move up in mid-august. we’ll either find a cheap place with a month-to-month lease, or find a temporary sublet or something, so we can search for our perfect dream place once we arrive. i can’t wait!!

in other news…. alison gordon of wonderland q, an organizer of bazaar bizarre and sampler contributor relations superhero, had an emergency surgery last week, with no health insurance. the crafty community has jumped into action helping her out; her friends set up this etsy shop with all proceeds going to alison. i’ve just sent in my donation of a colored 7″ record bowl set. if you make things, they’d love more donations, and whether or not you make things, there are awesome things in the shop for sale!

and lastly, last week i sent in my first ever batch of sampler contributions, exciting! i contributed 10 zines and 15 wristbands/cuffs. yay fun stuff!

if you have issue #1, you can now check the links page to find links to every site mentioned in the zine, and related sites. sorry it took me so long to do that. oh, if anyone wants to exchange links i’ll be happy to add you, i’m always looking for fun new blogs to read and stuff, yeah!

i’m excited to say, i’m going to start contributing to the sampler! i’ve been hearing about the superrad marie, who takes in all kinds of handmade stuff, buttons, zines, etc to send them out as sample packages to subscribers, for awhile now, through craftypod and craftsanity podcasts and various sites and blogs, and now i have my zine to contribute (along with some other stuff), so i’ll be starting with the may sampler. yay!

i took this photo for photogamer on flickr, an awesome group that posts photo challenges every thursday night, to be shot and posted by the end of the weekend. i’ve been playing for 4 weeks now, it adds extra fun to every weekend, you should play!!

it’s a photo of me, proudly (and awkwardly) pointing to the zine i made, which features a photo of me in 2nd grade, proudly (and awkwardly) pointing to a painting i made.

well i broke my first needle while binding zines. now i know where to draw the line for thickness of recycled cardboard covers.

in other news, i’m anxiously awaiting a starter kit of dyed roving (from an etsy seller) to try spinning yarn for the first time. exciting!

edit on 3/30: just want to post a couple pictures of my first attempts at spinning, so neat!

well that road trip didn’t quite work out – we got snowed in just before the oregon border and had to turn around, so we spent the whole time in the san francisco area. the zine can now be found for sale at needles & pens in san francisco, and in the zine library at rock paper scissors in oakland. i’m slowly getting it out there. if anyone knows a store that would like to stock it, especially in the la area, let me know. (it will be at open in long beach after they move to their new location on 4th.)

for online orders, i had been underestimating my paypal and shipping costs. i thought about raising the price of zines ordered online, but decided against it, that would be lame of me. it would help me out to have orders of more than one zine at a time, so i am going to include some free gifts to multiple zine buyers. (you and a friend both want one? one for you, one for a gift? heh maybe….) so, i’ll throw in a couple leethal buttons with 2-zine orders, and i’ll include a leethal mix cd with 3-or-more-zine orders, as well as buttons.

in about 8 hours i’m leaving on a 9 day road trip up to san francisco, portland, olympia, and seattle. i’ll be trying to check my email in coffeeshops every few days, but if you order a zine i won’t be able to send it out till about march 2nd. just letting you know! yay road trip!