Craft swap items I've made

It's been what, a year...13,14 months? I have been really busy crafting though, just not writing...There's these things called craft swaps over at craftster.org and I have been making and sending and receiving items...it's pretty addictive.
Keep in mind I get a lot of ideas from pinterest...
These photos are just what's on my newer computer...

zombie bunny egg cozies, some perler bead magnets and a Wonder Woman shopping bag for a nerdy easter basket swap
 

felt skull garland for a skull swap
 

felt skull embroidery/applique

knitted prayer flag-robin and nest (one of the things I am most proud of)

penguin pin and device cozy

enchanted forest shadow box

batty tarot pouch and wand

close up detail of wand, that's tangerine quartz and amethyst.

knitted bat

solstice pillow filled with lavender

antlered headband

Moving

We did it, we finally decided to leave the current apartment complex (New Soviet Russia, I call it) and apply for a new place, a duplex a block or so away on the exact same street. It has 2 bedrooms and a washer and dryer, and RED CARPETING. Red carpets to me were a little weird at first, but then I thought: Twin Peaks themed living room. We didn't tell anyone about appling for a while out of superstition, AND we GOT IT!
Now all we have to do is clean. And pack. And clean some more. It's 11 days til the apartment is available for us to move in, and another 5 to get the current place cleaned up for the final walk thru. For normal people it probably wouldn't be panic time but I know me and my tendency to procrastinate, so I'm trying to pack and dispose of things now so that we can just up and walk things down the block come the first, then spend the weekend doing the final cleaning. It's funny to watch me go, I'm sure. I do 5-10 min of sorting, packing into various bags or adding to a give away pile, and then 5-20 min on the computer, facebooking or pinning, sometimes with the excuse of looking up tricks to pack stuff or what-have you.
I've blogged about being something of a hoarder, and lazy to boot, and different cleaning projects I've taken on in the last year or so, but there's nooks and crannies I've overlooked for a while, and it's been awesome and annoying, this journey I've taken. For example, finding all sorts of crafting supplies I bought on a whim and squirrelled away: both annoying and awesome. Clothes that don't fit. Clothes that fit. Finding a whole $10 roll of quarters and some cool books I thought were lost forever. All awesome. Except having too many books now. UHG. oh, and finding a million hair doodads and like 10 pieces of old nicotine gum, which I haven't needed for 7 months or so. (Cigarrette free for over 9 months now!)
Then there's the shoes. I won't start on the number of shoes that I found under a chair, covered in dust, that I really like even though I haven't touched some of them in over a year, maybe even 2...They're in the washer in today's "craft project" which is how many pairs of shoes can one wash in the washer without breaking/ruining anything. I took advice from this page, so hopefully they'll be alright.
Oh my goob, look at me, procrastinating yet again. (I'll include any photos I find hilarious, but as long as they're not too embarassing.)

Just some things I've been working on

Sorry, we've been watching episodes of Deep Space Nine obsessively, and I've been pinning again, since we got better internet, so yeah, I've been lazy. But every now and then I get a bug, and then there's crafting frenzy. I try to remember to take pictures.

Knitted bangles. Easy I-cords. I try to connect the ends in the bind off.

Mini pies! Links to recipe for the crust and the inspiration below

Cherry and mixed berry filling, by the way.

Stencil paintings to add to the creepy/cute wall of art. Not that these are creepy...*shrug*

Right: my pies. Left: half of a thin sliced pork sammy from Shut up and Eat

Mini pies: I mixed berries with a bit of sugar in one bowl and pitted fresh cherries with a bit of sugar in another bowl. Eyeballed it all. The only thing I measured was the ingredients for the crust, as it's the first time I ever made pie crust. After a few hours of everything chilling in the fridge, I pre-heated the oven to 375 degrees, like the inspiration pies, cut out and filled them, sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar over the tops, let them chill for about 5 min. in the freezer, and baked them for about 19 min. Since I eyeballed the cutting out, and in the interest of not over working the dough, I didn't pinch the tops to the bottoms like real pies. Oh well, they still taste amazing!
Crust recipe
Inspiration

Wonder Northwest Photo Dump!

I didn't do the LSP cosplay, more on that later.
WNW was smaller this year with more focus on cosplay and artists booths. There were still some comic booths, there was a cute "soap in the shape of cute things" booth, couple of game & toys booths, but everywhere I turned there were artists selling prints, paintings, drawings, zines, or awesome bags...The people attending all seemed younger too, hence all the cosplay. So I *think* some of the art for sale was not being sold. On Sunday when I was getting ready to leave, one person eating outside said, "Oh my god, my friend was so happy you bought her bag!" Whoa, for a minute, I had no idea what she meant, then found out that I was the only person to buy one all weekend...Same with this cool clay/painting thing below, from a table that always sells buttons and magnets. I guess the market was different this year? All in all, it was still fun, but in the future, I think instead of a weekend pass, we'll just get there early Saturday morning.
And even though I used to dress up all crazy as a teen, for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to dress up as a lumpy space princess.  Sad...
On to the photos!

Wrapped in Plastic, 7 issues. The gentleman who sold these to me gave me a 50% price cut. I should have bought them all...

I figured it's best to buy issues of comics in bundles now. Unless I'm searching for that ONE issue of whatever...

First, "Just another Snake Cult" bag. Conan the Barbarian reference. Artwork by Adrienne Tilley Illustration. Links below.

Oh my god, Gir, cupcakes and candy, all crocheted. I don't buy knitted stuff because I can usually figure it out, but crocheted? I'm buying. Chibi Sayuri's Shop of Cute.

Left: sharpie art. I forgot the artists name!!! Right: thedancingbrothers on etsy.

They took a picture of me when I bought this! Anyway, one of the arms fell off in transport, we superglued it back on to the best of our abilities.

Dream King, from the guy who sold me the Twin Peaks mag.

The card in the top left corner is "Nicolas was..." Neil Gaiman's christmas card. 

Links:
Snake bag: adriennetilley.com
Crocheted cuteness: etsy.com/shop/chibisayuri
Clay on Painting: etsy.com/shop/TheDancingBrothers (currently an empty shop?)

Seeing the clay painting thingy made me want to create a wall with cute kitchy, cute/creepy things. Why have I not thought of this before? The crocheted goodies need a candy bowl or cool pastry plate, near the wall of creepy cute art. I don't know what to do with the Neil Gaiman Christmas card. Any ideas?

New melt and pour soap

So far I've made a few batches of melt and pour soap. I have yet to be super pleased with my results, but every time I'm a little closer to awesome.
This is layered soap (honey!), with benzoin and fullers earth clay, colored purple, with various things peppered in. Lavender and rose buds came from the awesome Stone Cottage. This is also the first time I've used this mold.

top two are rose buds, bottom left is lavender and right is dried mandarin orange. that was a last minute idea.

I should make little cloth bags for these so the herbs don't clog up my drain.

closer look at the layers. Should have waited a little longer to pour the second (top) layer.

I melted the soap in glass jars placed in a pot of hot water instead of in the microwave. I used red and blue coloring to make a purple soap. This is also the first time I've used white m&p base, as well as clay. Didn't use any scents, figured the flowers would be enough.
Also found some grapeseed oil, and am infusing rose petals right now.

My next idea is to use the left over calendula and rose buds from the infusions in the honey soap too.

Apothecary day

I know I was supposed to clean this weekend, but family's coming to town so I'll have to slowly pick up when I can. Luckily no one is staying at my apartment.
The box of tulle fabric was delivered quickly, I got it on Thursday. I still don't know what to do with it all! I mean obviously make a petticoat for my LSP cosplay, duah. But today I worked on a different project.
A month or more ago I bought some wild cherry bark and dried calendula petals and got to work. I made a tincture out of the cherry bark via an article from the 2013 herbal almanac. I infused what little almond oil I had left from making lotion with the flower petals, which I hear are good for acne and wound healing. I let them steep a lot longer than was probably called for but I don't think it's too bad. In the mean time I collected inexpensive glass bottles and strainers and what-not to successfully bottle everything up. Sorry there's no progress shots, I wasn't sure if I wanted to post it.
There are actually 3 little bottles all together for the oil, which comes to almost a whole whopping half cup total. There's almost a full cup of the cherry bark tincture. These bottles came from Joanne's for a buck each. The canning jars I used for infusing/steeping were from Target for pretty cheap too, I think like $5 for 4 jars.

Calendula infused almond oil on the left, cherry bark tincture on the right. Pretty bottles!

This week before I bottled the calendula oil, I dipped into it a little, adding a drop or two to my regular moisturizer. Maybe it's just my imagination, but it seemed to me my face (combination skin, acne prone, acne scars) looked a bit brighter and cleaner after the first day. But now I have a pimple on my chin and another on my temple. It's still oil so I gotta be more careful. 
Yesterday I also bought the fabric paint I need to paint my white sketchers purple. To be on the safe side, I also got some '80's themed sharpies, which was the only purple sharpie I could find. Will get started very soon on these shoes: (pardon the dirty soles...)

While I'm at it, I've been reading all over the internet how creating perfect pictues for blogs is a good way to get more traffic so I've started experimenting with putting together better shots. I made this for the apothecary shot:

A box, a white thin piece of plastic that I think came from a shopping bag? some fancy sparkly tulle-like material I picked up from value village for $4 or $5. I almost took it outside but my neighbors were about and it was looking kinda gloomy too.
So hopefully I'll get started on the shoes soon, after a bit of tidying up. It seems like a good project to work on while I'm doing laundry.

Getting ready for geek fest

...It's been awhile. I know. My apartment is a mess. The mania I had right after quitting smoking wore off about the time I quit the nicotine gum (btw, 6 months smoke free!!). Mostly I do sudoku at work when it's slow. I've gotten pretty good at sudoku, surprisingly. I still work out a couple times a week and take half hour walks on my lunch break, but when I get home I sit. And pin. Not quite all the things just yet...but close. OH and there was Voyager. Remember when I said I wasn't really interested? Yeah, that apathy didn't last long. I swear I cried at more episodes of the last couple seasons than I did at during all of Doctor Who series 6. I digress.
BUT (this seems more out of place now that I've added the bit about Voyager)
Wonder Northwest (aka geek fest in my household) is coming in May. I've never cosplayed before (I've participated in live-action rpgs, not that it counts). However, I've always loved dressing up, dreamed up all sorts of costumes but never had the energy or means of actually putting them together. My main obsession in high school was Tank Girl, and with the exception of the hair, I did come close a few times, seeing as how a lack of money really works in favor of said character.
So now I'm taking on a bit of a challenge. I have 39 days (and roughly the same amount of money) to put together a costume for LSP, Lumpy Space Princess of Adventure Time. These are more what I had in mind.
Oh my glob. Mah Lumps...
Pretty much have the attitude down these days, that's for sure...
In the last few weeks I've considered Capt'n Janeway, Jet Girl, and Daria. But I think mostly it's LSP's charm (and that awesome purple dress) that really did it for me. Plus, Adventure Time. Need I say more?
Anyway, this is where the crafting part comes in, because I don't have much cash. I just scored an awesome purple dress at Ross for $15, and I already have some yellow felt and hair bands for the crown, plus a pair of white sketchers and some purple markers (since it's like a comicon, I'd prefer comfy shoes over heels, and rather than buy shoes I'll only wear a couple days, I'd rather modify some ugly free ones). I know where to get a cheap ass purple wig, which I will order after payday. But to make a pretty purple princess costume LUMPY, I feel a petticoat is in order. I have 2 black ones, but ...I need purple...
Petticoats are expensive usually. I spent at least 2 hours looking up petticoats last night, and the cheapest I can find in my size (40" waist), is $36 but will take 13 weeks to deliver. Or I could spend $60-100 for a custom made skirt. WOWZA. I could just risk it and spend about $40+/- for a one-size-fits-most (generally up to a 36" waist) and hope that I can shed 4+ inches off my waist in a month...
OR for $18.50 shipped, I can buy 40 yards of purple tulle from Amazon. And dig up the sewing machine I haven't touched in 4 years. I mean, how hard could it be? This is the tutorial I found via pinterest: Petticoat Please, A tutorial, from Girl.Inspired. Mostly I plan on winging it. I mean, the bottom part is the only part people will see. And I'm kinda lazy when it comes to sewing.
Except my apartment (size wise, about two large walk-in closets with a bathroom and kitchen) wont fit 40 yards of fabric. I mean I am out of space. srsly. There's stacks of books next to my 2 bookshelves. The second "couch"(don't ask) we brought in for company this winter is covered in more books and yarn and the debris of my writing and every day living...Don't get me started on the actual craft table.
And just think, in a week everything else will be covered in purple tulle. ...yay...
So this weekend I'm planning a major cleaning spree. After that, I gotta figure out if my sewing machine still works. (Probably should have done that before I ordered all that tulle...)
Also in the mean time I'll post pictures of the shoes, crown and whatever else I get done. And the petticoat, obs. Some one please wish me lots of luck...