Retro Pattern Surprise

I was surprised today with a gift of these (and more!) awesome retro patterns found at a garage sale by my friend and co-worker. I can't wait to start sewing!
What outfit would you make first?
I'm having trouble deciding.

Some Spooky Set Building

I've been keeping myself busy these past few months with loads of new projects and ideas. Today I worked on something that's going to be a pretty fun project in itself. I can't show or tell you why I'm building this teeny spooky set yet.... but I can show you how I built it.

 I am sculpting stones for a floor from the surface of a three inch thick sheet of Styrofoam. I'm using a steak knife and several different exacto or art knives and scalpels. I'm trying to keep the stone shapes irregular.

Here I'm sculpting some brick shapes for a wall.

 I cut out a rough arch window and added a sill with some hot glue.

Here the floor and wall are stuck together using hot glue and dowel. I've also added some stones to the edge of the window.

 I used some Great Stuff insulating foam in a can to fill the gap between the floor and the wall and to build up a little seating area under the window. I'll be able to sculpt this foam out into different shapes later if I need to.

Here's a shot of the can just in case you were interested in it. I suggest covering everything up that is near your work station that you do not want foam on. Wear gloves and eye protection and work outside. This stuff is sticky!

I sprayed the foam with stone effects paint

I'm pleased with the results. This is all I can show you for now. I'll make sure I keep you posted on the results of the whole project when I can finally share it. I can't wait to finish and fast forward into the future so you can see everything....

Giant Werewolf Progress

Maggs has been working away on her final art project for the school year.

Some of you have been asking how it's going so Maggs has allowed me to post some progress pics. 

She has made some cool wolf bits out of STAEDTLER fimo air basic. She has to include found items in her piece so she has added a shark tooth and reproduced many more teeth that are the same shape.

She's using our tutorial for doll eyes but she's replace the fimo polymer clay with the STAEDTLER fimo air basic. She has also increased the size by four times.

Here she has painted the base colour and is adding lines radiating from the center. She used acrylic paint.... Mostly Golden.

Here she's adding a dot of black to the center of each eye with the brush end.

They're pretty cool eyes! 

I helped Maggs mix up some resin to fill these things and give them a glossy coat.

She made sure they were liberally smeared and then blew on them a bit to get rid of the bubbles so the resin would cure clear.

I think they're going to be pretty fabulous giant werewolf eyes. I'll get better shots in the daytime. Maggs kept working even though the sun went down. Makes it hard to take process shots.

Here is her actual werewolf sculpture. I helped her mix the chemicals to fill it with expanding foam yesterday evening. Some of the foam in the nose didn't cure so I had to cut it open for her so she could drain it. We took precautions and wore gloves and eye protection. We also worked outside and covered any surface that could be damaged by the foam.

Maggs likes this pic because it looks like her wolf is getting sick....... 

She's a funny duck, but we love her bunches!

We'll keep you posted on the progress of this project.... It's going to be humongous!

Radishes!

We've harvested our first homegrown skid garden veg and they're delicious!

Mr. Jimmy and the radishes!

Just plucked fresh from the skid garden in the back yard.

Here they are all washed up and presentable. They are the long white radishes we planted about a month ago. You can see that the radishes got all curled up on the ends where they grew too big to fit between the skid planks. I'm still loving the whole skid garden concept. Have any of you tried this way of gardening yet?

Mom's Been Crafting! Colourful Paint Chip Book Marks

Mom's been busy making pretties for Auntie J and The A Man. 

They're a gettin' hitched and living the good life.

We all love them both so much.

Mom has crafted them these bookmarks from paint chips. 

She found the idea on this facebook page (but I'm sure it's an idea that's been around for ages).

Mom used my Martha Stewart punches and some thin ribbon to dress these colourful bits of cheer up.

Doodle and a Really Big Werewolf

I'm a doodler....

I've been playing with my STAEDTLER triplus fineliner colour set. I'm always amazed by their vibrancy and colour range. They're cool little tools to have at hand for jotting down ideas.

I've been working away on some exciting Halloweenie projects for publication. Can't show them off yet, but I can tell you that they're going to be loads of fun and they're eating up almost all my time.

Maggs has been busy too working on final projects in school. She had decided to make a life size werewolf sculpture from chicken wire, duct tape and fun fur for her final project. She needs to relate it to a master work and has chosen the girl with the pearl earring by Vermeer. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. Hope you're all having an inspired weekend.

Bead Making 101

It has been pointed out to me that there are a bunch of folks reading my blog who may just be trying STAEDTLER Fimo polymer clay for the first time. I would like everyone to see how easy and fun it is to be able to make your own beads. If you already know how to make basic beads I have also included a technique for colouring translucent clay that you might not know about.

Here goes!

Materials:

1 56G block of STAEDTLER Fimo effects colour # 014 translucent

a set of STAEDTLER Marsgraphic Jr watercolour brush markers

Tools:

A rolling tool or a piece of plastic pipe for flattening the clay

Skewers for poking holes in the beads

Cutting tool

a clean protected work surface

an oven

a non food use baking tray

I started by cleaning my hands and work surface. I also covered my work area with a sheet of parchment paper. When I work with light colour clay I take extra care not to contaminate the clay with swirls of dirt. Light clay acts like a dirt magnet and it will pick up oils from your skin and dust from sweaters. A little bit of prep to your work area will keep the colours much truer.

I conditioned the clay by warming it between my hands and kneading it for a minute or two to make it more pliable. 

I rolled the clay out to a 1/2cm sheet.

 I'm kind of in love with my Marsgraphic jr watercolour markers right now and have been using them for everything.

  I decided to try to add some colour to my translucent Fimo by colouring on it with the markers.

 I even coloured a stamp with a black marker and transferred the image onto the clay to see if it would make a difference to the blended clay. It didn't. It was a very cool effect though and I'll experiment with that more later.

I covered the coloured clay sheet with an even thinner sheet of translucent clay. I rolled over it a couple of times with my rolling tool to get rid of air bubbles.

Next I rolled the clay up into a worm shape and twisted and re rolled it until I had a marble swirl effect. happening. 

 Next I made a 1cm thick worm out of the swirly clay and cut sections from it that were about 1cm long.

 I rolled the clay sections into little balls and poked the sharp end of a skewer just through each ball.

 Pull the skewer out and put it back through the other side of the bead. Double poking the hole helps keep the beads roundish shape. Poking through one side only tends to make teardrop shaped beads...... they're cool too but they're not what I was going for here.

 I loaded a bunch of beads onto each skewer leaving about two cm clear of beads on each end of the skewer. I put the bead load skewers cross ways onto a baking sheet so the skewer sits on the edge of the tray suspending the bead over the middle of the baking sheet. You can use some kind of tin foil contraption to hold the skewers up if the tray is too wide. Basically what you need to do is to make sure the beads aren't touching any surfaces while they bake. If the beads rest against the baking sheet they will have a flat side.

Bake in a preheated oven set to 260 degrees for fifteen minutes and allow them to cool.

I really like these beads. They're quick and easy to make. It's a cinch to match an outfit. Before you know it you'll be over run with beads! You'll have to call in the Girl Scouts to help you use them all up.

Steak Supper Cooked Over an Open Fire

It's probably a pretty unusual weekday supper......... But Mom got the fire built and the embers were ready when I got home so I could cook these beauties. A little bit of teamwork is all it took.

Smells just like the cottage did when I was a kid.

Mom made some gorgeous mushrooms and a salad with hard boiled eggs. When I was a little kid I seem to remember someone asking what we all thought the rich folks were eating when we dined alfresco like this.

Don't worry, Sebastian got a few slivers of grilled gristle and maybe even a chunk or two of my precious crunchy fat. How could I resist?

Spring Spider Baby Ball

This isn't a post for the squeamish or faint of heart. 

I suggest anyone with a spider phobia (Auntie J)  just not look........... 

But these little guys are soooooooo frackin' cute!

Mr. Jimmy and I spotted this little ball of spider joy hanging off the side of the front porch this weekend. Mom said she's been watching it for a couple days.

This is how far away the wee ones have skittered while we watch them. We saw these ones emerge from the cluster in a dizzying show of speed and agility. 

I asked James to put his hand under the web so I could focus. These little guys are almost too small to get a clear shot.

Here they are without the hand background. I wonder how many of these guys will actually make it out there in the big wide wilderness of our yard. Does anyone know what kind of spider they are?

A Week Full of Flowers

These last few weeks have been busy. I've been working 50 plus hour weeks at the day job and haven't had much time or extra energy for creating. To cheer us all up I've been bringing flowers home and I did manage to get my nails prettied up.

Mr. Jimmy and I had a date and went to see The Avengers. I loved it! I picked up some inexpensive kids nail stickers and slapped them on over some turquoise polish. Not my most creative design... but cheerful.

Mom's got the porch all set up and looking welcoming. There are so many flowers at our house they're even spilling out onto the porch.

Our skid garden is growing well. I'm optimistic about our first food/herb garden in this yard. It's long overdue. 

Our lilac topiary has begun to bloom. I love that the scent blows into the kitchen.

Mom and I went and picked out some pink hydrangea to fill the empty pot in front of the house. We lost a topiary last year so we are looking all lopsided. Hopefully this colourful bush will help. Looking forward to things settling down a bit at work so I can open the summer sewing studio / cottage / garage. I've purged my closet and need to start making some summery clothes or I'm going to have to spend the summer in my jammies!