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Archive for June, 2007

meet wolfgang, my second amiguri…

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

i hope this image isn’t too big…okay, so i made him from a feathery fun fur yarn i had on hand and wondered why i had even bought it, but it looked fantastic. i did a freeform pattern, gave him really long arms and no legs, i am thinking of building a little wheelchair or cart for him. i made teeth out of some moonstone (?i think) chips i had, although as you see in the last photo, which was him before i added the nose and mouth, i wasn’t sure if i should have added teeth or a snoot. i will do another without the mouth i think. and then i made the little vest and cuff from felt i dyed myself, and plan to dye more to sell, i keep meaning to see it and then i use it. i trimmed the fur around the yes and mouth and hands. i really dig him.

so, wolfgang is a parapalegic. he lost his legs in the war between bears and smurfs of 1983. for this reason, he hates anything blue and due to his shell shock, will go crazy if he sees anything blue. so be warned. additionally, he has a severe drinking problem…nehi grape. he drinks so much that he is now diabetic. don’t try to talk about it to him. he will call you a smurflover. he loves listening to mozart on his “cans” or giant headphones, because that is his namesake. he plays the triangle in a local softy orchestra and teaches reading to illiterate housepets. he loves playing with matches, so be careful. he loves to burn matzo. he says he loves the smell.

Posted in amiguri | 7 Comments »

the fruits of my labours…

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

whoa. that is all i can say. i am sitting down for the first time today. jakie went to new york for a business trip at the last minute, so i took the opportunity to get lots of stuff done. lots and lots.

i got up early to start dyeing, i will post pics to-morrow of the rest of it. i did lots of superwash merino, some merino/soy silk blend, some locks and some soy silk. lovely. i will be listing some to-morrow i think. i would do it tonite but i am so out of it that i can barely see straight. okay, so here is a pic of the yarny stuff for the day…

i also did some sewing, trying to make some baggy crappy shirts into something special. again, i will be sure to keep you posted. i had hoped to get em done tonite, but i am just too tired. i overdid it, i fear. i was just non-stop and then i was in the sun hanging up fiber and messing with it, cleaning up the back deck, bringing the fiber in. i cleaned the kitchen, the studio, organized a bit, did some sewing, is that all? literally, i only have one eye open. so. so. tired. i was sweating so much outside that my pain patch partially fell off. gah.

last week (i think?) i took this cheapo top that i have in olive as well and embroidered it with this vintage kitty “gardner”
and then did some other decorative embroidery and i now like it much better. i haaate wearing white. i feel large in white and it doesn’t look so good against my skin in its yellow glory. anyway, i may still dye it, but i do like how it came out. i used those patterns from aunt lydia (is that the name?) and the stencil looks like a coloring book page, it irons on in a second, literally, not like the other patterns and pencils i have attempted to use, you can use them multiple times and the pattern is black black black, and i accidentally ironed it on through the front and back and it washed out! and it was cheap! i like to embroider my own drawerings, too, but these are really nice.

okay, i am spacing out and i haven’t even checked email yet today, and i reckon that i won’t, either. gah.

mwah!
n.

Posted in dyeing, embroidery, yarn | 7 Comments »

whoa! luxe.etsy.com update! go. look. some stuff still left! more coming today!

Monday, June 11th, 2007

gay bomb? i saw this whilst doing my blogging on lj. frightening.

Posted in gay bomb, update | No Comments »

monday, monday

Monday, June 11th, 2007

hellllooooo…nothing much to report from here. i have been keeping really busy, making loads of stuff. wanna see? really really wanna see? well…okay…you are twisting my arm…firstly, the yarns, which will be listed a bit later today on www.luxe.etsy.com around 5ish methinks…

willy and nilly are similar crazy yarns, one plied, one a crazy overtwisted single. let me tell you it is HEAVY. crazy heavy. aloha lite is super soft merino, soy silk (the green shiny parts) lots of sparkle in bright green, hot pink and fuschia, a bit of fuzzy bright green novelty yarn and white, pale pink, brighter pink and pinky/white silk flowers plied in. loverly. and shine on is super soft merino, sparkle city in green and some hot pink with squares of silky fabric strung on the plying thread and plied in. i adore this one. i plan to do some more today. i need to dig through my scraps. i must say, now i know what i saved those scraps for. you know the wardrobe remix thingy? i am trying to do something similar with crafty, artsy and spinny stuff. i wanna attempt to use what i have and get rid of some of the stuff i am not fond of. i did that with the willy and nilly and other scrap yarns i have. if any of you seamstresses out there have sewing scraps you have saved for reasons unknown, send em to me if you fancy. one of my clients sent me her scraps that included really skinny strips and bits of yarn only a couple of inches long. i can use em. i use em fast though, i really pile em on.

okay…what else have i made? well, i got the plush-o-rama plushie making book and used a pattern from there to make this…i did it a bit different. mainly, i learned that you can make softies with scarcely any pattern and it will come out fine, and my lack of precision crafting abilities…okay, i am too slapshot really, still works out fine. so i can take an idea and do what i want. so, here he is…blinky palermo…and if you know who blinky was, leave a comment, i will be impressed for shizzle. i hand sewed him from the handpainted wool/rayon felt i did a while ago. i handsewed because we had butter and his lady over and i always need to keep my hands busy or i get fidgety. the back of him is reversed color scheme. cute?

i had some unfinished mixed media things i was working on that i keep messing with. this is the next version of them….oh, and a pic of my desk mess, too.

in cuteness news, yesterday jake was totally crashed out, i think it is an allergy issue. he gets the “allergic shiners” as they call em and is on allegra for it, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference and got up and then fell asleep for a while whilst i was spinning. his little son pavel was asleep next to him using the tivo controller as a pillow. ha. too cute.

in humiliation news, i went for groceries and i tend to use my paypal debit card because i can’t bounce anything accidentally. well, i didn’t have a lot in there, but i should have had enough for groceries and a bit. i forgot that i had bought some stuff at the bookstore with it. i took all of the credit cards out of my wallet (except for our prescription on, my bank card and my macy’s card) and when i checked out i didn’t have enough money. um. i gave her all my cash ($7) and it still wouldn’t go. i gave her my checkcard which had next to nothing in it and told her to take a bit out of there, plus the 7 bucks, plus my checkcard. it went. sigh. so so humiliating. this is why you should leave a credit card in the wallet. in case you need it, fool. sheesh. the worst part is that jake told me to take his card and i didn’t want to. i haven’t listed new stuff in ages, i have been totally out of the loop due to my mom being in town, being on vacation, being sick, so i am way more poor than usual. so humiliating. sigh. gah. good thing i didn’t go to joann’s or target first, eh? i would have been totally frakked.

lastly, my younger brother is still having lots of issues with his eyes and migraines. they actually don’t sound like migraines to me. i think the eyes and the migraines are totally connected, if you can imagine wearing a really crazy prescription eyeglass that isn’t yours all the time..bad things would happen. really really bad things. i hope that nothing bad is going on inside of his head and i hope he will go to a different doctor that will do more to figure out what is going on. so. it always surprises me how it drives me insane to see other people in pain. i never understand why people worry about me, yet when other people are miserable, it drives me crazy. i want to do something. give them something. tell them something. hm.

i am off to do some work. do pop by luxe at etsy.com and see what i have. it is mostly all art yarn and some lovely limited edition sock yarns. i will most likely dye some stuff this week to list soon.

mwah!
n.

Posted in collage, josh, softies, update, yarn | 2 Comments »

peeps can’t peep

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

i spun some yarn and worked on some paintings today and then we took peep to the vet for her appt. we had to wait a while and peepp was not happy about it, poor girl. jake was very lovey with her, and fell asleep with his head on the carrier. yeah. anyway, there was a substitute vet who was really nice and takes a lot of time with everyone, hence the waiting. anyway, firstly, she told us that peeps has a fairly serious heart murmur, and was shocked that no one had ever told us that. it was a 3 on a scale of 1-6. she said it just needs to be monitored and it should be okay. odd. 11 1/2 and no one ever noticed? um. also, she said that she didn’t think peep had a blockage because her bladder wasn’t full, which i thought too because her bladder wasn’t tender if i felt around on her. so it is most likely just a UTI and she is on antibiotics for the next two weeks. it wasn’t until yesterday that i noticed that she is having a hard time peeing, it doesn’t seem to hurt her (i hope) but little or nothing comes out and usually she is peeing all over the place in large volume. i told jake that it is her way of expressing herself, it is like taking a paintbrush away from an artist. ha. anyway, she is eating and seems okay, hopefully she will stay that way. how about another cute peep shot?
how nice is this… natasha yarn? ah carrie, such a sweet lady…

i gave myself a headache from overdoing yesterday and today a bit, and managed to deal with it before butter and his cute girlfriend came over. we had some pizza and hung out and went to the bookstore where i got the new fiber arts magazine (yay!) and checked out some really gorgeous new books, including shannon’snew felt book and the secrets of rusty things which is an amazing book on the assemblages of michael de meng. i think some crafters might think it is a how-to book, although i guess if you were able to work with every medium concievable, it could be, it is more just to see his process, and what each piece is about and the amazing amount of process that goes into each piece. ah i love process. there is no faux technique that can kiss multiple process’ feet. i love labor intensive art. i just do. you can see it, feel it. it is a different animal. i love layers. layers and layers and layers. i am actually messing around with just that idea. i will take some process photos tomorrow, i swear.

i checked out this book also, which is really gorgeous. there is so much going on in every page that i don’t know if my brain would let me absorb much of it. again, it is meant to give you ideas, but isn’t really a how-to. just more about growing creatively.

okay. tired. sore hands. gah.

xo
n.

Posted in books, cat UTI, cats, peeps, vet | 2 Comments »

my first amiguri. be kind.

Friday, June 8th, 2007

i meant to blog yesterday but was exhausted. i woke up feeling wretched and tired and decided that i wouldn’t do nothing again, so i took one of my prescription “pep pills” and got into overdrive. i spun 3 skeins of crazy yarn…

i did a scrappy one with fabric and scraps of yarn and sparkle, i did 2 crazy scrappy ones with bits and pieces of fiber and sparkle and then i have one that is 3 commerical yarns spun into supercoils. it is really fuzzy, vegan, and nice. what else?

here is my first amiguri.

i have no name for him. he is a cat, if you wondered. any name ideas? he is incredibly lazy, i think he might have sleep apnea because he snores like crazy and is tired all the time. he claims to be a soapbox derby champ, even though he has only existed for a couple of days. he says he is in a “acid” bluegrass band, playing the triangle and zither (?). he is on a macrobiotic diet. he uses cute overload.com as pr0n. creepy, eh? he claims he dated miss piggy “when she still had her figure”. whatever that means.

also, i got my hair done (finally!) and got rid of the blonde…i fear it is too dark. what do you guys think?

ms. peeps has a urinary tract infection or kidney stone, i fear. still the pink pee, but now, she goes to pee and only a little bit comes out. she doesn’t seem to be in pain, but i see her go to the box to pee and nothing happens. i feel dumb that i didn’t just take her to the vet when i saw the pink pee first. i thought it was the beets in their food. as someone who has had chronic UTI’s and kidney problems since i was born (i was jaundiced when i was born and in and out of the hospital as an infant) i should have taken her sooner. i feel like an arse. anyway, she has an appt at the dr. this afternoon. i am sure she will not be happy about it. hopefully she will be back to pissing all over the house like usual. sort of.

i best go do some work. i was just too tired to blog last night. oh, does anyone have any good amiguri links or books to tell me about? i don’t tend to follow patterns, but i do like to see how things are done so i can learn how to do things. anyone?

mwah.
n.

Posted in amiguri, cat UTI, yarn | 5 Comments »

gah

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

well. well well well well. my wedding band (actually my granny’s) has been making my finger itch lately, to my dismay. what the frakk? huh? driving me cwaaazy nutsy. gah. i am behind on everything. i have yarns to list, i swear it and i haven’t done spinning or painting or anything that wasn’t just pissing around or doodling in weeks. shameful. after my mom was in town, we were on vacation, i didn’t have my beloved mac, i am too um..frakked to use a non-mac and do anything with it, so i am behind on every damn thing. all of it. shameful.

so, how many cool boys do you know that do fine arty things, sew, make yarn, make short flims, dance, you name it…how many? tell me? well! this cool boy does! i think he may have thought i was mocking him…au contraire! you make crazy knitted things? with your own handspun yarn? and you made your shirt? badass! my description of badass. instant friends. just add hot water. hee.

also, i little while ago, i got emailed that i was in indie fixx but i am not sure if i told ya or not. so, i was. cool? new to me, on account of my memory is that of a goldfish. got it? gah!

so today, one of my mom’s old neighbors called me out of the blue and we talked forever, i love that woman, she is a massage lady, i wish i could afford to get one. every. hour. did i say that out loud? anyway, she is from the andes when she was a kid, and had no idea i did fiber stuff and got all excited and told me that her granny and relatives would walk around with their drop spindles and spin yarn as thing as a hair and weave amazing things and she knows how to knit and crochet and all manner of crafty stuff. anyway, i told her i would give her a spinning lesson, and she said she wanted to try out something on me. i love talking to her, she is such a kind person.

so after dinner (we put some organic chix on the grill-yay for non poisoned food we can find around here! yay!) and i whipped up the spicy coleslaw that jake goes nuts and eats by the gallon, if he could, we went for a walk around the neighborhood and attempted to take peeps. she made it half a block before she started to get alarmed that she was too far away from the house. she even forgot that there was grass to eat! so we took her back home. it may be better just to keep her on a leash in the backyard when i am back there.

speaking of peeps, she is peeping pink again. i know it could be the food, but it was darker than it had been. and again, we had run out of the new food and used a fancy organic food that may have had even more of that in it, the food was very dark, so it probably did, but still, i am a bit worried. the other cats pee in the litter box like they are supposed to, so i don’t know what color their pee is. also, peeps has pooped on the bathmat two days in a row, which she doesn’t do unless something is up. so i think she is going to have to go to the vet. sigh. i will keep you posted.

one other thing…you know i always have strange dreams, usually nightmares…last night, i had this nightmare dreamed that jake and i moved into this crazy giant house in a new town that we had bought from ZEEPO! he had left behind all kinds of strange stuff, like a pet parrot that wouldn’t come near me and an orange cat that i couldn’t get near either. the town was scary, and people wanted to kill us and eric stolz was in it. strange. who knows? not me.

okay, i heart a scuffle downstairs that sounded like a cat unsuccessfully climbing the new sheers, so i best go see.

oh, i did my first amiguri. i used a japanese pattern and figured it out myself despite my fear of charts. i got tired of the original pattern, the cute cat that everyone does, it is a free pattern, and did my own crazy lumpy ugly one. i will post pics tomorrow. don’t get too excited. he is a bit ugly. everything came out huge even though i only used sportweight cotton yarn and teeny hook. what size do you guys use? huh?

the weather is amazing here. unfortunately, our ghetto section of the neighborhood has rude people that at 1 am are screaming back and forth, or the scary lady from the upstairs appt across the street and sits outside with her radio blasting old crummy music and hoping to wake someone up how will come and hang out with her so she can rant about crazy things that i hope are not true. she also asks for rides. not me. but everyone else. she is one of the drunks that say they “can’t work” because they are disabled. actually, they just drink. sigh. pray that she is drunk and asleep. okay? for me? even still, this weather is amazing. amazing. lurve. mmmm. berries.

mwah.
n.

Posted in armiguri, nightmares, pink pee, zeepo | 3 Comments »

another meme

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007

from my friend katrina…first answer is me, second is jakie
1. What time is it? 11:52a

2.What is your name? natasha, jake

3.What do you fear most? someone i love getting ill or dying.ditto.

4. What do you drive? mazda 3, vw GTI

5. Have you ever seen a ghost? yes. i actually have felt like i was pushed down stairs by one and i used to see my black cat egon out of the corner of my eye, and
would be in the shower and the door would be shoved open and no one was there. he used to do that when he was alive. jake:nope.

6. Where were you born? capetown, south africa. jake:uniontown, pa (in fayettenam)

7. Ever been to Alaska ? NO and no

8. Ever been toilet papering, decorating trees or egging? yup and yup.

9. Croutons or Bacon Bits? CROUTONS. i looooove croutons. ditto.

10. Favourite restaurant? casbah in shadyside, pa. oh, i love alibaba too. looooove middle eastern food. ummmm! jake: spice island (lemongrass beef and sweet patoot samosas) and redfish in hilton head, sc.

11. Favourite flower? poppies, jake: none

12. Favourite sport to watch? strong man. jake: moto gp (motorcycle racing)

13. Favourite drink? i am sure it is supposed to be alcoholic, but we don’t like that so much…black coffee with a teaspoon of raw sugar. umm. i also love guava juice. ummmmm! jake: posh rootbeer

14. Favourite ice cream? mint chip. jake:choco peanut butter type stuff.

15. Disney or Warner Brother’s? neither. not a cartoon person. i know, gasp! i am not a born american. gimme a break. henson. that’s what i choose. jake: emphatically warner bros.

16. Favourite fast food restaurant? aunt annie’s pretzels. cinnamon sugar pretzel and a diet lemonade. i really don’t enjoy fast food much. i will eat it, though. jake: boston market-beef sirloin dip with mashed patootles. plus horton heat does the eat steak song for it. bonus.

17. What colour is your bedroom? a pale sea blue.

18. How many times did you fail your driving exam? NONE

19. Before this one, whom did you get your last email from: material whirled list jake: jazz guitar gazette

20. What do you do most often when you are bored? something artsy or craftsy jake:play guitar or peruse guitar pr0n

21. Who will respond to this post the fastest? dunno.

22. What is your favorite season? spring/summer…i love fall but it lasts a second and means that winter is next. so it bums me out. jake:SPRING

25. Favourite TV show? deadwood, ugly betty, rob and big, 30 rock jake:ugly betty, house, rob and big

26. Ford or Chevy? neither.

27. What are your favourite colours? i love em all. not pastels much. jake:brown
28. How many tattoos do you have? more than most. jake:a biggun on the arm and a smurfette on the bum. not really. i made that one up.

29. Do you have any pets? 3 kitties and an army of dustbunnies.

30. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? magical chickn

31. What would you like to accomplish before you die? feel happy and make the people i love know how much i love em. jake: get out of debt to take n to south africa, australia and/or europe (awwww)

33. What is your idea of fun? hanging out with my peeps, playing games or eating or talking. making stuff. being with jakie. jake:being with my lady and hanging out with friends and familia and playing guitar (and or looking at guitars in shops, online, etc, etc, etc.

34. favorite music? i still love all of my new wave from when i was a kid, i love so much other stuff…nick cave, tom waits, michael penn, bob mould, squeeze and on and on. we have such voracious musical tastes, i can’t even get going. jake even more than me. he loves rockabilly, blues (especially old school) most recently, and then all manner of other music. i am proud to say that he has pretty good taste and a really fantastic knowledge, especially since he had a christian upbringing that didn’t allow him to listen to “secular” music. sob!

anyone that wants to do this meme, leave me a comment so i can go check it out.

Posted in meme | 7 Comments »

boom chug-a-lugga-lugga

Friday, June 1st, 2007

i got nothing done today. i had a doctor’s appointment, didn’t sleep at all, took a shower around 5:30 this morning because i felt yucky and then had a headache for the rest of the day. and now…tired. grrrr. tomorrow. i swear it. so. i have been making notes for links to tell ya about…
a handbag making blog u-handbag
have lots of scraps of fabric? wanna know what to do with them (that sounded rude) tipnut.com has some answers!

whilst cruising shannon’s new booksite i found some more good links…sew hip and the blog for adorn magazine that is actually a really great blog. the first and only issue of adorn that i read was not so exciting, although it was their first issue and i wonder if they weren’t sure what direction it was going to go in? anyway. the site is really good. craftzine or whipup-ish.
and more!

somewhere else, not sure where, i found this fantastic one:sewmamasew fabrics and more!
swapstyle clothing swapping! and it’s FREE!

redifining craft really incredible for those of us interested in the crossover between “art” (use air quotes) and “craft”.

need more hobbies? well, here is the book for you!get a hobby!

a little while ago, i read about alison of wonderlandq having emergency surgery and not having any insurance. her shop is not even up at the moment. you girls know that for our shop to be down, or our crafting and artsy endeavers screeching to a halt, things must be bad. kind people have started an etsy store on her behalf. you can donate stuff, or buy stuff…here is the post about it with the links to the etsy store. also, tess of madebytess.com has adopted a really sick dog that needs expensive treatment, so there is stuff for her, too…go here. can you believe how incredible the craft community is? it blows me away. and from her LJ, these hilarious kitty pics i am sure i am the last to see them, but they are hilarious!

i am hoping to make myself some new tanks this week. i got rid of most of my wardrobe, which was fine, because it didn’t fit anyway. i have a couple favorite shirts that fit really nicely, so i think i will use them as patterns and see how they come out.

oh, i was rummaging through my purse today at the pharmacy and found pavel’s favorite ball in there. it cracked me up. he has been carrying it in his mouth. excuse the pic, it is hard to catch him carrying it and get a photo without him moving. unless he is sleeping, he is really hard to take photos of…

i went outside to tend the plants this evening, and the scary woman who recently moved in across the street started to talk to me about how her boyfriend (?) tried to burn her up and cut off her hair and she still gets rides from him…you know, because she has no car and has had her license taken away. and has no checking account. among other things. you know those people that don’t work, may or may not be under the influence of something all the time, or it could just be their fantastic personalities. who knows? anyway, thankfully, jake came home and i was able to just wave goodbye and go in. i need to remember to stay in the backyard. hopefully she won’t start asking me for rides. sigh.

i am getting sleeeeepy.
xo
n.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

luxe

Archive for June, 2007

meet wolfgang, my second amiguri…

the fruits of my labours…

whoa! luxe.etsy.com update! go. look. some stuff still left! more coming today!

monday, monday

peeps can’t peep

my first amiguri. be kind.

gah

another meme

boom chug-a-lugga-lugga

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