new-ish crafts

I know I was supposed to update a while ago, but I've been too busy doing all sorts of crafts. New skillz include woodburning and soap making (insert "squee!" from me here). Most of those pics aren't available yet, due to making them for a swap, and having yet to mail them.
But I promised pictures from the last swap, and so here they are! These were for a Lammas themed swap last month on craftster.org.:

Lacey altar cloth, knitted in summer/fall-type colors, merino wool.

cute leafy stencil, soy based paint on canvas

Lavender besom-lavender from cool herb shop around the corner

Hoopy! Corn in heart and tree embroidery

Also I have cleaned the kitchen, and used it for baking, crafting, soap and lotion making, and lots of cooking in the last month! Let me dig up pictures...
Clean-ish kitchen (Kay, so the only good pic I had of the clean stove had to be nixed, due to my BF playing guitar in the background in his undies. I nearly left it up, because you could barely see him, but felt considerate to his feelings, and erased it. :P) Look at my neat freshly cleaned kitchen shelf instead!

I love my crappy apartment if only for this old rickety kitchen shelf. The Uhura mug and Ghostbuster car and owl pic are all new finds.

The reason for cleaning: baking bread. 2 of 3 loaves made in one day at the beginning of August.

One of my new passions. Forgot to take a picture of the 3rd special loaf, but it's there wrapped in foil in the back.

My birthday was last weekend and this is one of the best presents ever, outside of craft related presents and cupcakes.

Anyone remember Twin Peaks?

So I'm due to send out my craft items for the Mabon swap at the end of the week, hopefully I'll get the pics of those up as soon as he receives. Any new non-swap related crafting I do in the mean-time I'll put up when I can. I've done some soaps and lotions, and a couple beginner woodburns that I'll end up keeping, so maybe those will be up soon.
On a side note, I had to buy a new set of knitting needles because I lost an entire project, the Noro scarf! WTH! My apartment is eating my stuff! I also bought a ball of special yarn last weekend that is no-where to be found.

cleaning house

I hate cleaning. But the less I do on a regular basis, means the more I gotta do later...Attacked the kitchen today, preparing for baked bread for next weekend. I gotta little more to do in the kitchen tomorrow, then I gotta get to the craft area...That might take a couple weeks. I live in a teenytiny apartment, and the craft area is also the living area...which means that everything gets shuffled together.
Lots of crafting has been done by the way, but I can't show pictures until someone receives the package I sent for a craft swap...Hopefully by Monday she'll get that, & I can show off what I made. And because I'm lazy, I'll wait to take & post pictures of current projects till then too. I learned how to do these by the way!

upcoming craft spree

Wondering why I call this "craft blog awesome" when you haven't seen a craft post outside of gardening in months? It's true, I've neglected my knitting needles and embroidery hoops in the last few months, and I still have 2 scarves in progress, but I have been dabbling here and there, writing, and drawing mostly. Also I recently discovered the craft addiction that comes with "swapping," so I guarantee you will see some things soon.

This is one of those fortune teller things I learned how to make in like 4th grade, that I recently made in a paper craft swap for midsummer. It says Earth, Air, Water and Fire around the outside.

The inspiration came from here (pintrest).

I also made some ATC's (artist trading cards) but lost the pics I took (you can see the very upper corner of one in the pic above, I think that was a poem by Shelly, with a watercolor flower). That takes me to new ATC's I'm working on and plan to finish by this weekend. Expect more pictures soon!
And I just signed up for a new swap, but won't be able to post pictures until I send out, close to the end of the month. ...Well, maybe I'll post teasers...
Anyway, thanks for reading!

Aphids are horrible creatures.

Lady bugs are apparently really good for the garden, so I'm off to Portland Nursery tomorrow after work to get a bunch to combat the aphids. Maybe it's a bit extreme but I'm sure the other gardeners in the building could benefit from them too. I just sprayed the Morning Glory and the Sage with soapy water which is somehow suffocating to aphids, but I'ma go out tonight to rinse them off as per the directions I read here. Also they don't like Basil much, weird because something has been munching on it. Slugs? I'll try putting pennies in that pot, a trick I heard off a craft board.
Mom, the tobacco spray sounds good, but it might be a waste of good tobacco too... :D
Urgh, I feel like they're all over me now.
Horrible horrible creatures.

A da garden

Cilantro and basil are the newest addition to the patio. Unfortunately it looks like some pest is munching on the basil...

I feel like the chamomile is my greatest achievement, going from that teenytiny thing that nearly died to this.

Pretty damn tall!

This was doing so well unil about a week ago, when I noticed it is also being nibbled on...

Blurry, but the thyme is flowering and I'm pretty sure the rosemary is getting bigger. Yay!

The remaining hens & chicks, lookin pretty cute in that damn can!

I replaced the morning glory that was in this cutty sark pot. The morning glory got huge but then started to shrivel.

I have no idea if the color change means it's dying or if that's just something it does...?

One of my spinach starts. I've got pots and organic soil for them, but due to pesty munchers outside, I need to find something to support it near the window so's I can keep it inside. (Pardon the dirty window, I realized I need to wash it when I saw the pic...)

So that's what's going on. The eucalyptus died, and I had already given the rest of the seeds to a friend.So now I'm off to get a bunch of books from the library, mostly field guides to finding edible plants, and some kinda shelf for the window for the spinach. And I got more seeds...calendula and hollyhock. Oi, what to do with all these plants!

photo-less post

Well, I've been a while in posting, but I have been rather active. In the last couple months I've been to The HP Lovecraft film fest and Wonder NW, the coolest geek fest in town. Unfortunately my camera batteries died, and I just keep on forgetting to get more...
My garden is doing alright, but the anise, which looked strong and healthy in my last post, is now dead. :( On top of that the eucalyptus isn't lookin so good either.
The chamomile is doing great, and the morning glory...WOW, the moment I brought it indoors it shot up and up and up! I've gotta find a bamboo stick or something to let the vine wrap around something. For now I've put it back outside so it doesn't eat my blinds.
I also started a new triangle scarf with red fingering weight yarn. The pattern is super easy, and weirdly, I can't find it anywhere anymore... Essentially you just do a yarn over increase near the end of each garter row. Use larger needles and get a lacier effect. Mine's not so lacy.
So hopefully I'll remember to get batteries and take pics of my loot from geekfests and crafts and plants soon enough.

Eucalyptus & other stuff

First, finally pictures of my Noro scarf in progress! I guess I burned out about 3/4 of the way thru the first half. Haven't worked on it in a while although it's not really scarf weather anymore here in P-town.

Feathers and fan lace Noro scarf

There is a teeny tiny sprout in my eucalyptus starter! It is about half an inch tall and the leaves are nearly microscopic, and it's a sort of redish and greenish hue. For the most part I left it in my bathroom because it stays warmer in there, but on sunny days I'd try to put it in my kitchen window. I think I'm going to designate it my indoor plant, maybe try to train it to be a bonzai tree?

that teeny tiny seedling!

So I just read the back of my morning glory seed packet and the flowers don't bloom for 75 days or until late summer. Meanwhile the leaves themselves are getting prettier...But it was left outside for a while, and I noticed a dusty white spot on one of the leaves...too much sun? I took it back inside.

Mostly the one in the upper right looks questionable...

The Anise looks good, getting big, but checked the chamomile yesterday and it was limp and all floppy. I brought in the chamomile for most of the day yesterday, and watered it outside last night. Still looks sad today tho.

Anise

Chamomile :(

Sage, rosemary and thyme! Lookin good!

Most of the succulent terrariums are doing alright, except the hens and chicks in the coffee jar outside don't seen to be doing well. I don't know, maybe the colder mornings or too much sunlight or too much/not enough water. Thinking of getting a couple more jars and breaking it up into more gift terrariums.

 

My new favorite terrarium, the hens & chicks in the really tall glass.