your face is where blogs go to die

Orange it prettttttty!

2007-07-20T07:27:00.000-04:00

I wanted to try drafting my own full bodice pattern and decided on a cowl neck style. I got this fabric on clearance for 1$/metre to try out jersey style pattern drafts before using my good (read: more expensive) knit fabric. but turns out I really like this fabric too (common problem which stops me from testing out things with fabric originally bought to "test things out")!

Anyway I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. There are some issues - some which I know how to fix in future patterns, some I'm not too sure how to fix (such as a gape in the back neckline)

The pics are a bit dark but here they aaaare!

Jumper on the band wagon :)

2007-07-18T09:45:00.000-04:00

So I really like those jumper style tanks and dresses that are popping up everywhere
I like the look of the ones gathered in front but question how it'd look on my. So I tried making one
one of the straps is too wide (oops) and I think I gathered it TOO much in the front. next time i'll gather it less and only gather it in the centre, not the whole width (it make me look a tad well preggo shall we say - actually when I eat my tummy balloons right out and it seriously looked like I was pregs last night. the boy face didn't appreciate me saying "look at ma bebe!" repeatedly so much...)

right so here's the shirt with a couple of different ways of wearing it:
(excuse the silly faces, I'm really bad at posing for photos)

The original style - no belt but can wear belt as a headband or necklace-scarf thingie...

with some waist definition:

with the low hip belt, kind of ancient greek-esque no? would look better with a wide brown hip belt me thinks

The high waist/under bust belt

ugh that too wide strap is really noticeable and now it's bugging me. sigh it's going to be SUCH a pain to fix! Times like these that I hate being a careless crafter...

Long time no post

2007-07-18T09:21:00.000-04:00

I have HAVE been making things though! kind of...ok not really
I made a skirt which turned out nicely, will post the photo later
actually in general i'll post photos later :)

I've mostly been getting into the whole baking/cooking/eating cycle
I am obsessed OBSESSED with these muffins
I use all fresh blueberries, gluten free flour and didn't have the spices around so I went without and they were still ridiculously delicious
I actually tried them last night with 2 cups of blueberries and non of the topping and they were still wonderful and only like 116 calories each and I could feel they were healthier although in all fact you're only getting like 1/16th of a cup of berries each muffin so...

**CORRECTION: you'd actually be getting 1/6th of a cup blueberries per muffin which is not bad, not bad at all!**

and this quiche but with this slightly altered recipe instead:

VEGAN QUICHE

1 Package, Firm Silken Tofu
2 Tablespoons Tapioca Starch
1 tsp Curry powder (1.5-2tsp if you'd like a curry flavour - which is very good as well, add a bit and then taste, repeat)
2-3 Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast Flakes
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon Salt

I added in cherry tomatoes, black olives and mushrooms sauted first and then stirred in and I didn't use any crust.
cooked the whole thing at 350 for 25minutes
and it was deLICIOUS. next time i'm going to add spinach to make it extra healthy

and AND FINALLY I've been eating a boatload of hummus. I really want jalapeno hummus but apparently the stores by me don't sell any jalaps (grrr!). But yes here's the recipe I've been using:
1 can chickpeas
4 cloves garlic (we really really like garlic)
cayenne pepper (to taste - i like it spicy, i like everything spicy)
3 tbsp tahini
lemon juice (about 2 tbsp)
1/4c water (sometimes up to 1/3c, start with less and add a bit at a time till you get the ideal consistency)

food process the sucker up and serve with carrots, celery and cucs

oh and (one more recipe I promise): PEACH CRUMBLE!!!
actually I'll leave my crumble recipes till next time :)

Ninjas, Superheroes and Cupcakes YAY!!!

2007-06-08T20:32:00.000-04:00

My friend Jarnifer gave me this really cool monkey superhero tank for my birthday but I felt that a full superhero monkey top was a little too much for me so I reconstructed half into the following wallet and am going to put the other half into a top for me (if I ever get around to having time to make things for myself rather than other people)...

Wallet guts...

My second cupcake coin purse ever...just need to get my act together and make a bunch to put on Etsy...This one doesn't have a zipper because well I have no money at the moment and was trying to just use supplies I had. I like how it turned out though :)
It's a ninja in case you can't tell - ninjas like cupcakes right?

The exposure is a bit off around the face piece actually...oh well

Tool swap take 2

2007-06-03T17:48:00.001-04:00

Ok so my original swap pack got lost in the mail (booo!!!!)
so I said I would make another for my partner
but then May was horribly busy so it didn't happen for a while
but it's finally FINALLY done and here it is!!!!

the colours are bright and summery because well it's summer and she likes girly-esque things
and I think they fit nicely with the lyrics

let me tell you: hand painting things with a paint brush and faric paint is really not all that fun or easy. more frustrating, painstaking and annoying

for noncompressed/crappy quality version of photos check out my flickr

wallet:

purse:

close up on detail:

firstly Rogers sucks

2007-06-03T11:01:00.000-04:00

Ok I haven't blogged ina long while but I meant to post this when it happened...

So my internet just stopped working one Tuesday and with it my phone since we have Vonage - a broadband phone.

So I call Rogers to have them come and fix it. They refuse because since I don't have a phone there is no way for them to conirm someone is home and thus no one will actually come. So after being transfered among different people finally they agreed to come that Friday sometime between 11:00 and 2:00 (previously they said between 9 and 5) and that they would put in a confirmation code so the person would just come without calling.

So...I take Friday off work and wait. and wait. and wait. finally at 2:15 I call from a pay phone to ask why no one came. I am informed that they called and since no one was home they didn't come. So I once again explain that I have no phone because the internet is not woring, he confirms that yes they put in the code so the guy would come anyway. So why didn't he come? Because I don't have a phone. So we continue in this circle for about 20 minutes (I wish I was joking), and then 10 mnutes after that is this "customer service" guy blaming me saying that I should have a cell phone and really it's my own fault for not having a cell phone. So I said you know what? I'm switching providers this is ridiculous. He blames me a bit more and I give him an out saying give me the month for free and we're fine; but he refuses.

Finally Saturday some guy comes (I had to use my parents as the confirmation number), this guy is really good and nice. He looks at the cable to see what's wrong. want to know what was wrong?

well when the Rogers people came to connect my neighbour's cable they decided to just cut our cable. Not even joking, it was just a clean cut straight across.

So in short, Rogers is the worst service provider ever and I am switching when my contract is up at the end of the month.

Community Garden

2007-05-12T21:01:00.000-04:00

Ok these photos are from a while ago I just took forever getting them sorted out. These are from the very first day of the gardening season for the Eglinton Park Heritage Community Garden. I've been going to that park for years and it turns out where I always sat was more or less right next to the garden and yet I never noticed it. So I'm really excited because since university I've always wanted to be part of a community garden.

Right but these photos are from the first day of the year when we cleaned up the garden from the winter time - weeded, aerated, etc... The day I got heat(sun? what's the difference) stroke yay! other than that it was a great day.

I have a cool photo stitch shot that I set up while there so you can see the whole thing. However a) I forgot to take an after pic. but still cool. I think I'll do one each time I go so that you can actually see it grow. that's the current plan anyway

b) I haven't got around to installing the actual canon photostitch program

all that green stuff is garlic. there was so SO much garlic. I love garlic in a garden, I love the whole idea of it, I love the colour and I love the actual garlic

that side of the garden was absolutely insane. these were part way through the day and compared to the photo up top you can see how much work we had done by this point

____

their website: http://www.ntgc.ca/EPGevents.html
my flicker for the garden: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7534516@N06/
article written about the clean up day: http://www.insidetoronto.ca/to/centre/story/3952190p-4564427c.html?loc=centre

what a struggle

2007-04-29T20:41:00.000-04:00

What a struggle indeed. Mostly to do with my stupidity and lack of attention paid to details. I've been working on this quilted heating pad cover for a swap. And it was looking so pretty, with its variety of pink fleece and flannel prints! and I measured and measured again after my fiasco with making a shirt that I clearly didn't measure at all and which ended up not coming anywhere close to fitting me

So all that was left was to add the zipper which I bought today, even though I had made the actually item like 1 week ago. This is when I realize...I've sewed 3 of the sides shut already...Needless to say it was a huge HUGE struggle and ended only after I unstitched the whole zipper after 1 try, added in more fabric and broke my needle (!!!!) because I forgot I was in overlock stitch and it hit the zipper foot and flew in my FACE!!!!!!!

It still looked a little weird because it was a 12" zipper for a 15" length. So after trying a couple of things I finally arrived at what I feel (read: hope) is a suitable solution.

nice weather :(

2007-04-21T17:31:00.000-04:00

Well I have a ridiculous amount to do over this next week starting with a lot to do today

This morning was my first morning at the Eglinton Community Centre Heritage Garden at Eglinton and Avenue Road...It was also really sunny and definitely in the 20s temperature wise. Plus side: beautiful, amazing day perfect for gardening. Down side: i'm pretty suree I got heat stroke. I could hardly walk to the subway station which was a block away. and then when i got home I just lay in bed for a couple of hours. Not conducive with getting a lot done like originally planned...

but at 5:30pm i'm kinda getting back on my feet and out of the groggies...hopefully at least.

i'm working on a graphic design project that I had hoped to finish last night but was way too tired last night to even begin to do anything about. And then I'm going to post some pics of my WIP for the OWS21 happening on craftster.org. Hoping by tonight to finish that and a 1920s inspired shirt I'm making for this jazz thing i'm going to tomorrow evening (Sonic Bloom - spoken word to jazz).

Then after i'm done that I can start working on the communications plan I'm supoosed to be meeting about tomorrow at noon.

GAH!!!!! back to work!

swap swap SWAP!!!!

2007-04-14T12:02:00.000-04:00

Got my package for the Heavy Music Swap yesterday and it's completely, truly AMAZING!! Thanks Peihan17 sooo much!!

She made me this amazing NIN purse out of FELT and a really cool logo t-shirt. why is it that there's nothing i love more than band logo shirts...am i the only one in that boat?

Of course the cats got to it first so I took on my designated role as photographer of them enjoying themselves...

block party!

2007-04-08T23:11:00.000-04:00

Wow what a cheesy post title, I know.

Here are the first set of blocks i've ever made! I'm so excited about them
one more and I can send them off to my swap partner

The one to the left is quite upside down in that it's, well upside down, and the pink stripe-y fabric shuld be on the left hand side.

This was great as a way to test out quilting and see how I feel about it. I'm sooo inspired to make a quilt for myself now! Although I'm concerned it'll take my whole life considering how long these took me. Though I guess by the end I was going much faster. I'm thinking a quilt in the green/blue fabrics (that I posted earlier with the ones I made these blocks out of) will go great in my bedroom as a summer blankets. My bedroom feels very unfinished or something as of now. The walls are a minty type of green, navy/off white bedding situation and white/birch furniture. I've been thinking fabric pieces canopy-esque from the ceiling. But rather than a canopy that comes down, it'll be more a billowy, multi layered and textured covering of my ceiling - in a variety of prints and chifons. though i'm a bit concerned about dust buildup because of my weird allergies I seem to have developed. Also been wanting to do a mural for a long time. Trees budding in the spring with birds and butterflies or that flow-y, curly line style.

...

where was I going with this? Right, the quilt will add a nice touch of something to the bedroom, hopefully helping to make it a bit more finished. and will go well with the other decor plans I have in mind. Especially if some of he fabrics are included in the ceiling refashioning.

GAH!!!

2007-04-08T10:05:00.000-04:00

What a day!
It's 10am and already this morning I've managed to:
1. burn a pot on the stove very badly
2. burn the linoleum floor when i was freaking out about the pot and put it on the floor so i could open the door to let the smoke out
3. burnt my finger on the iron

I'm really seriously scared to do anything else today that requires anything that's capable of burning something/someone

On a chirpier note, I made my first quilt block ever!!! I'm a little concerned with the seam allowance around the raw edges and how that'll work out. It also was weirdly difficult to get the block to be 6"x6" (weirdly so because the template i used WAS 6x6)...

Fabric!!!

2007-04-07T17:31:00.000-04:00

So I'm in a swap and I'm going to be crafting some quilt blocks for my partner. Which is cool and exciting since I've never quilted before, yet also kinda terrifying for the same reason. I sketched a bunch of ideas but think that I'm going to settle on something relatively simple involving stripes.

But the really exciting part was the uber fun fabric I got today at Fabricland fabricland. So pretty and colourful. I've been eyeing it for a while but didn't have anything to make with it. I was toying with the idea of a circle skirt esque type of creation...perhaps after I do these blocks...

clean, clean, CRAFT

2007-04-06T23:52:00.000-04:00

Yep. THAT'S my bedroom/where I keep all my sewing supplies. That photo with the floor by the radiator? That was all just garbage. How disgusting is that??? I blame the Space Bunny and the cats. The cats tend to chew the blinds up and the Space Bunny has taken on my disgusting habit of leaving used tissues everywhere. The black cat is Pixie who likes to get in the way a lot and did a nice job of blending in to the chaos. Let me tell you, when your crafting stuff looks like this? When where you LIVE looks like this? You don't really feel like doing much. Really zaps the life and motivation out of you. I cleaned up a bit but it's still in process. Will show pics of how clean and organized I'm sure (read: hoping) it'll look when i'm done :)

I had plans, really I did. But then it turned out that my walls didn't support shelves so...in a small apartment that really doesn't help organization matters at all.

I HAD steely resolve to only buy what I needed for an immediate project, finish that project and then start over. No UFOs, no long standing WIPs, no NUMEROUS WIPs

...

then Fabricland Fabricland kept have "once in a lifetime sales" (note the 2 Fabricland bags on the floor, strewn amongst the mess) and yeah...
you'd think I'd have figured out by now that they have such sales every other week...but they won't always have the fabric I want right NOW right? right?

riiiight...

Tool swap!

2007-04-06T23:11:00.000-04:00

Through Craftster.org I joined the Heavy Music Swap. My partner wanted Tool items. It was kinda frustrating because 1. how many band-related items can you really make? I mean other than the standard t-shirt right? 2. I rely heavily on wists to figure out what my partner will like and, well, she didn't have one.

So yeah, hopefully she'll like what I made. I like it at least. Well I like the wristlet (I freaking love wristlets) and the cuff the best. I tried some fancy stitching detail on the cuff. Had serious issues with the button hole though as I forgot how to make one (i've only really made one before) and it took a couple of tries and redos. I went for a frayed look on the button hole fabric, a style I'm into and taht I felt Tool-ized the cuff a bit...(you have to click the pic to see an actual good version of the photo - sorry bout that)

The doll is meant to be Maynard - I copied the idea of a doll from someone who did a tool swap previously. Her's is more Maynard like though and can be seen here. My doll looks more Howard Stern-esque sadly. Based off this pic. The wig and clothes are removable
But yeah, really unhappy with how his face turned out. like at all. sigh. well i guess it's way too late to make another since I'm sending out in the morning...

sigh.

2007-02-26T13:40:00.000-05:00

Well I think it's clear that this is in no way going to be a place I post regularly. Though i should if not just for venting reasons

I like many others have joined the facebook community and I am finding that it's really nothing more than yet another place for me to feel inadequate and like I'm doing nothing with my life. Everyone I know/have known are off traveling or doing other things with their lives and generally just having a life. I am not.

The inspiration in general is running low. Haven't done anything in a while. I took thursday and friday off but didn't end up doing anything at all. well i planted a bunch of stuff. But then my heater broke so it's freezing cold in my place and I doubt if anything will grow. Although my wheatgrass does seem to be showing some promise. must plastic bag greenhouse the others...

Alas

2007-01-15T14:32:00.000-05:00

Ah yes, yet another crafting/knitting/look how cute my cats are blog.

The truth is that I started this blog for 2 real reasons:
1. because i wanted a blog titled "your face is where blogs go to die";
and
2. to keep me on track with my projects

the thing is that since i discovered that I can watch The Office online my projects have been suffering. horribly. and then I watched all 3 seasons of the US Office and all the seasons of the UK Office. So alas I could get back to work. but NO i HAD to discover Zelda which it turns out I was horribly deprived of and was really missing out on. And so I hijacked the BoyFace's Gameboy (the very one I mocked him so much for buying) and preceded to play Zelda nonstop for, well, a very long time

Anyway, just needed a starting post to see what my template looks like

I'll post more eventually. probably not all that often. maybe not even at all. we'll see