purely conjectural
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Day two: Wall art part one, and Interim: Vintage ShoppingHere is part one of my wall art. It was quick, fun, cute, and I made it easily while my friend crocheted next to me and a favorite episode of TNG played (a two-parter, but still). I have a vaguely nautically themed bedroom with red, white, blue, and yellow accents, so I made a mobile of me, Nick, my sister, and my brother with his girlfriend.
Gentlemen, behold!
Also, can I just say that I *adore* Lawrence Antique Mall? I went shopping for Week 2 supplies (ha.ha.ha) this weekend and found the following treasures:
A beautiful starburst clock (arms need reattaching, fingers crossed that it still works!)
A really versatile 70s skirt that fits like a charm
Adorable 60s springy dress (take that, overpriced Modcloth)
This pretty trivet
Melamine cups still in their packaging
Material for my quote embroidery pillow (You cant make it out but it's orange, yellow, and blue)
A crewel piece to add to my vintage wall (after I just bought one on etsy, dammit)
The final piece to the pyrex set that I needed
OH AND DID I MENTION THIS TURQUOISE AND MUSTARD REFURBISHED HOOSIER CABINET THAT WAS ONLY 120 BUCKS. No, I don't think I did. I almost passed out when I saw it and then again when I saw how cheap it was. I don't think I've ever found a piece of furniture I've loved so much and I now have a craft table in my library, after shifting two books around.
Next time: the other piece of wall art, a toolbelt craft apron (IF I can figure out how to make my sewing machine work)
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Project 1: Faux Vintage Brooch WreathWell, a week later and I've finally finished a project. (Hey, it was the first week of class!) Plus making a yarn-wrapped wreath is a lot more time consuming than I had expected. I think my flowers look a little goofy, and my nails prevented me from sewing the buttons onto the flowers the way I liked, but overall I'm pretty pleased. I made it to match this yarn painting I found in Hot Springs, AR, at a flea market, and eventually I'd like to make the whole wall full of fun vintage stuff. (My yarne was vintage ombre stuff, as you can probably tell, that I found in my town's thrift store).
Wreath:
Wreath detail:
Wreath, in wall context:
Nails of great impracticality:
Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention that also keeping my house trashed and my time full was the process of making EIGHTY-ONE ATCs. Seriously. I have no idea what came over me. Proof!
Ah well. Everything is getting caught up, and I even have a long weekend to work on it. I also added a few pages to my style file:
That's my cover page; I'll upload more later. Next entry will be a couple cute pieces of wall art: one for my bedroom, and one for a different living room wall.
Labels: crafting, style school
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Day 1 and then some: Style File collecting
Although I am still off to a rather rocky start, some things are progressing. Nick and I spent most of our Monday busily trying to track down supplies for the projects for this week. Two of them involve sewing, so we hit up Sarah's, an amazing fabric store on Mass Street, and got an amazingly expensive amount of cloth for an apron, a covered sketchbook, and then whatever random things I need scraps for. This, although incredibly exciting aesthetically, is not something I can continue doing: I dropped 75 bucks alone at the fabric store before even heading over to Michael's. But oh, I'm just in love with what I got.
This material is for my apron:
And this is for my sketchbook. I'm quite iffy about the checked felt, but I did love it inexplicably when I first saw it. {And yes, I'll have a kitchen-themed sketchbook).
Most expensive was this set of nautical themed 10x10 inch material which I am forever and ever amen in love with:
But not all is lost. I have made my style file with pieces of scrapbook paper, mainly from my lovely Studio Calico kits, but it's also full of pieces with excellent patterning that I've always found too busy to scrap with. It's a bit haphazard and full of brown, but at this point, I suppose that's exactly how I'd describe my aesthetic. In fact, that's one of my style goals: stop being so messy and so brown!
Unfortunately, laser printers, while contributing meaningfully to academia, do not work as well when trying to print out pictures of clothes, nail polishes, vintage campers, and Pyrex, so my style file is still pretty empty. And empty it shall likely remain, because of my final problem: School starts Thursday! I begin teaching Friday! I've selected books I'm too stupid to teach! I start my comps reading Thursday! I have 81 ATCs I need to mail out tomorrow and I've only done 54! I have my Marx reading club tomorrow night! I had to return things to Anthropologie today! I work Friday and Sunday this week!
In other words, the largest pile-up of responsibility humanly possible has accumulated this week. I WILL catch up, although hopefully it'll be cheaper in the future. I have a partner, Crissy, whom I'm supposed to be impressing (or at least supposed to be cheerleading), and I need to catch up!
Next blog will (hopefully) feature a more completed style file, a wreath, and perhaps some pretty wall art.
Labels: crafting, spending too much money, style file
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Style SchoolNow I have a bonafide goal to write in this blog: Elsie & Leigh Ann's style school. Through this craft class, I'll be developing my own personal style and working on crafty things every day. Since it's structured like a "school" class and, God help me, I don't think I can function without something analogous to class, I'll be making 5-7 crafts a week for the next 6 weeks and will post my progress here.
...not that this is a great start. My first project is a Style File, which is a scrapbook-esque documentation of how my style evolves over the course of the six weeks. I have made the pages (out of pretty scrapbook papers), but since I don't have a color printer at home (gobless the laser printer for seminar papers, but...), I will have to catch you up on that tomorrow.
My goals are to a. branch out of scrapbooking, b. learn how to crochet and sew better, c. make more homemade things instead of shopping constantly, d. try and create in colors other than what may be classified as Hipster Springtime, and e. shower my family and friends with homemade gifts next Christmas, when I will have graduated and will likely be jobless with a master's degree and an attitude.
Wish me luck!
About This Blog
Name::stochastic
From::Lawrence, Kansas, United States
In Petrucci I trust.
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About Me
Name::stochastic
From::Lawrence, Kansas, United States
In Petrucci I trust.
View my complete profile
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