Lucy just left today

*sniff* Lucy is gone and on her way to Ohio to spend the summer with her host Paula. I am excited since I have never been to the Cleavland area. And Paula has hinted at a surprise summer trip that Lucy will be going on. In exchange, I am getting sweet little Pierre for the summer to show him a good time around Minneapolis!!

Do I have something on my face?

Hubby and I were playing photographer this weekend and caught the girlie girl with this face. Did I mention she is my most favorite project I have ever worked on?

Life happens

That was my motto this weekend as I watched the hours whittle away. I had all these plans for crafts but life just kept happening and there was nothing I could do about it. Oh well. I did have fun though. We finally got over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on Saturday. It is a short walk there from our house but we always forget to go. I hadn't been there since college and it is always fun just to see the people milling about. That is the hubby above getting frisky with some of the artwork in the pic above.

Anyhoo, I finished two clothing recons for my Wardrobe Refashion pledge. The first is an old maternity sweater that was way too stretched out in the belly region. I chopped that off, sewed some buttons on and also shortened the sleeves.

I kinda was mad about that after the fact since I could have left the sleeves as is and just rolled them up in the summer but oh well. I really like it though, it turns out to the be the best little cover up when the wind picks up at night.

Then I made up this little number trying to make a yoke. I REALLY struggled with this one mentally. For some reason I thought it would be a super simple "cut out this and sew in that" project. But I had cut too much of the patterned shirt (which is better than not cutting enough) and just could not figure how to get it all to line up in the end. I have learned a little since starting to sew and I just made sure to baste stitch the whole thing first. I had to redo it a couple times but it is a helluva lot easier to rip out baste stitches. But then I decided I didn't like the sleeves of the black tee shirt so I made some different ones. I hadn't really made a sleeve before either, so this whole shirt is a whole lot of experimentation.



Now today I just bought two patterns from the "Built by Wendy" line. One is for pants and one is for shirts. I am REALLY bad at patterns but I have to keep trying I guess. I really had wanted to work on these all weekend but life happens and I just couldn't get to it.

Friday Bento

Well I am just smitten. Although I may not be a fan of Super Target, I still love Target. While there last night, I found cute bento-like containers! Best part is that they were only $4. Only sad part is that the way they are constructed, you are really limited what you can put in the top part.

Sorry for the horrible picture. Anyhoo, it is hard to see but there is a flap above the lower portion (in this pic, the part without the sandwich) that folds down and then the sandwich part fold upside down over that. Which results in you only being able to put large "dry" objects in that compartment (if I am making ANY sense). But I am happy to have found another alternative to expensive bentos from Japan. Plus they hold a lot of food. Like twice as much as our bento boxes we have right now. And I was excited to have thought of the idea to make cut-outs of fruit roll-ups for the sandwich.

I have a lot of plans for the weekend (craft-wise). I am going to try my hand at fusing plastic bags to make a re-usable grocery bag. And I am going to make a trip to Jo-Ann fabrics to get a "Made by Wendy" pattern for pants and a shirt. And I am going to make up some more greeting cards with the gocco. Also, my website should be up by Monday *crossing fingers*.

Happy Friday!!

Lucy is going on vacation!

Name: Lucy Rose Havana
Age: 3.5 years old (24 in cat years)
Birthday: May 30, 2003 (Gemini)
Sex: Yes, very much. Oh-I mean female
Occupation: Student studying Graphic Design
Likes: Tree climbing, traveling, art, reading, spending time with friends, volunteering
Favorite band: "Cat Power"
Favorite color: Green
Favorite food: Tofu
Dislikes/Fears: Water, conformity, spiders, vacuums

I joined the "Little Visitor Swap" on craftster and I made up Lucy here to go on an exciting trip somewhere in the world. I should find out later this week where exactly, I am rooting for somewhere overseas or on one of the coasts. Then I will get a visitor for the summer from my swap partner and we will have adventures around of the city and take pictures. I am excited to start! Lucy is made of a combination of felt and polka-dot satin. And she has a little wire in her tail so that it can bend. I made up the pattern and kinda just winged it. I took some more pictures of Lucy saying goodbye to her friends:


Here she is saying good bye to her best friend Sweeti. Earlier they had a spat about a boy but they have made up and Sweeti promises not to move in on Pitter while Lucy is gone.


Here is Pitter, Lucy's boyfriend. They just started dating but things were getting hot and heavy so they agreed they need a cooling off period.

And of course Lucy had to say good bye to the basket of buddies she has.

Tuesday Bento

Only took a picture of mine because hubby's was exactly the same. Usually I have to make small changes to his since we don't always like the exact same things. We are again needing to go grocery shopping so it is a kinda random mix of food. We made the spring rolls for dinner last night and they turned out really well despite our rice wrappers kept on breaking. So on top there is tofu spring rolls (mint leaves for decoration), peanut sauce in the cup, and edamame/broccoli mix. On the bottom, Savory rice mini's nacho flavor, wasabi peas, cottage cheese with cinnamon, and a chocolate under the rice crackers.

I applied for a PT job at a local gift boutique. I really need to get out of the house more and the extra income won't hurt. So hopefully I will have a reason to make bentos for lunch/dinner everyday!

Etsy artist feature - DC design

The number of talented artists on Etsy numbers in the hundreds. But every now and then you find a shop that will stand out in your mind. One such shop for me is DC designs. She has such defined style that I am able to easily spot her work and I always enjoy her creations. She was kind enough to answer some questions below!

A little about myself and my background:
By day I teach five year-olds to read and write and share and count and be happy while I'm in my disguise of Mrs. Culberson, kindergarten teacher. But at night, I whip off my teacher facade and become a mad claying artist and frenzied beader. But seriously: I often hear, "Oh that's so cool! Did you make it?" Then I often get asked by friends why I spend my spare time playing with clay and stringing up beads. When I was a kid I could always be found coloring, painting, drawing, etc. In middle school (man I'm old now!) we had a great art program and I got really into watercolors, pencil sketching, and pen and ink drawing. My freshman year of high school I learned to hate what had always been my favorite class. That's right by the end of my freshman year I hated art class. What brought me to this most unfortunate fate? Hmmmm maybe it was the hours spent copying transparencies of line drawings and not EVER creating anything your own. Hmmmmm maybe it was the guy who sat next to me and would roll joints under the table (first time I ever saw a drug, sheltered child that I was). Or maybe it was the guy who sat on the other side of me and would look at nasty magazines with freakishly strange people in them and try to get me to look at them. (He was scary!) Maybe it was the teacher who would walk in flip on the overhead say draw this and sit back at her desk to file her NAILS the whole class period. Anyway, I abandoned art classes! Sad eh? I kept drawing and painting on my own but then I got a boyfriend, a job , a new boyfriend, a car, etc. went to college and was very practical. Never thought twice about taking an art class. Fell in love with kindergarten switched to be an education major and boom there you go. Soooo when did I start claying? Why did I start claying? I needed something fun, I needed a creative outlet, I needed that wonderful feeling that a six year old gets when they open up a brand new 245 count box of crayons! I needed to do something I love for no other sake then to just do it. I stumbled upon polymer clay quite accidentally and became hooked. It started out as a great stress reliever. Then I got into jewelry and I'm now hooked on beading. Beading is a very zen thing. Working with clay is exciting and fast paced. Beading is very meditative and allows me to just enjoy not thinking as I concentrate on the patterns of the beads. It is an escape. The mother of one of my teacher buddies owned a piece of a co-op craft store. They encouraged me to put some of my work in the little shop. Three sets sold and yay! DC Designs was born. What was once a hobby and stress relieving activity has now become a part-time second job that I absolutely adore.

What inspires me:
I'm inspired mostly by nature, color and of course words. Sometimes a piece is inspired by a word or a saying that I think of such as my pocket mirrors. I thought of the "If only you knew how beautiful you really are" saying and then tried to think of what I could put it on. My tweet tweets and wave necklaces sort of came about by just messing with the clay. Tweet Tweet just kind of emerged one day when I had a little lump of clay left over after making a batch of leaves. i'm also inspired by materials. I try to pair materials that might be surprising to find together like wood beads and Swarvoski crystals.

Favorite Artists:
My favorite artists from the polymer clay world are Kathleen Dustin, Meredith Dittmar, Lisa Pavelka, and Sarajane Helm, I also love the claywork of my friend Heather Powers who is also on Etsy now. One of her flower canes inspired my Perfect Wave Necklace.

Best/Worst job
I have to say that the best job I ever had was bagging groceries while in high school. Its how I met the hubby of almost nine years. But I do love teaching kindergarten and making jewelry and other tidbits from clay. My worst job had to be waiting tables downtown on the riverwalk. The money was great but drunk tourists are not fun at all when you are trying to carry giant trays loaded with platters of bbq across a crowd.

Be sure to also check out her blog and her website, both equally awesome.

Wednesday Bentos

Bentos, bentos, bentos. I have become obsessed with making them. Here are the ones I make for Wednesday, mainly just of our favorite foods.

Hubby's bento with Morning Star veggie hot dog rabbits, a cup of mustard, pita bread, and edamame on top. And then apples, cheese, brown rice crackers, and peanut butter. Also some starburst candies mixed in. Az said that this was his favorite bento I have made so far.

And here is my bento with basically the same thing but no crackers (no room!).

Also, I did make the deadline to join Wardrobe Refashion for June. I am pumped to start making things, already have my first idea cooking.

More cupcakes

So I finished the cupcakes for Amelie. I had to adjust the pattern a little otherwise I was getting a bubble butt bottom and they would not sit up. I also made another one that is not pictured for my friend's daughter who is turning 5 in July. Hubby kept on saying all weekend, "Are you still making cupcakes?" Yes and now I just have to put them away until Ame is a bit older and can play with them. I am thinking I am going to move onto making her some felt strawberries next.

Tuesday's Bentos

Our refrigerator has gone on overdrive and decided to freeze everything. Yuck. So we had to toss a bunch of perfectly fine food because it was beyond edible but I tried to scrape together some bentos from what remained.

This is the hubby's. On the top carrots, Italian dressing, wasabi peas, and strawberries. On the bottom, broccoli, edamame, and tofu noodle casserole with carrot stars.

Mine is pretty much the same except I added kumquats to the top.

I sometimes struggle with what to put in a bento since you really have to think out what will fit and what will look good. But last night, being the true nerd that I am, came up with a bunch of ideas on paper to help me out. Also, I am really considering making bentos for myself for each meal. They really make you think about what you are going to eat and make you portion control your food. Dinners around here are normally "fend for yourself" since hubby and I have different tastes. And it would be nice just to grab a pre-made meal from the fridge every day. Otherwise I get low on time and just grab something fast (read: unhealthy).