Saturday, April 22, 2006

Ack! Too many crafty ideas not enough time!

The semester is starting to wind down which means lots of work to finish! On top of all of the work I am doing I have a million and two craft ideas that I want to try.

My knitting is coming along...I am having the problem of the occasional dropped stitch but all in all it is going well. I have a project I want to try (which I won't mention in detail just in case my swap partner is reading) and it invloves felting! I have never tried this so it could go horribly wrong. We shall see!

I have been researching felting and I have all sorts of things working against me. Living in NYC generally means you have to use public laundry machines either at a laundry mat or a laundry room in your building. I do have a laundry room, which greatly reduces the public aspect, but our machines are front loading. Wouldn't it figure that a top loader is recommended for felting. Go figure! I have been brainstorming a few ideas to increase the friction and agitation that will give me good felting results.

First- friction. There are recomendations all over the place for using a bag to control fibers that could ruin the machine plus recommendations for including towels for friction and agitation assistance. So I think I am going to fashion a towel bag to control stray fibers AND add extra friction directly to the item to be felted.

Sencond- agitation. I definitely do not want to put too much in the washer so that there is as much movement as possible. I do want to include some heavy items to help out though. Jeans seem to be prefered. I am thinking one pair of jeans and a towel or two. I also imagine a couple of washings will be needed. When time comes to felt I will post my progress and techniques.

I haven't had a lot of time for ATC production the last few weeks (with the holiday and all) so I made three last week. The theme of "God" is still in progress but I stretched it a little to include "goddess" as well. Here is what I came up with...







Saturday, April 08, 2006

New ATC Theme for April

This week was a little slow on the ATC front...our organizer for the Craftster thread is on vacation and didn't get to post the new theme right away. This was probably a good thing since I had a relatively busy week.

The new theme is "God"...it can be open to whatever we interpret that to mean. I went with my first impulse and copied the definition from the dictionary. I then found an image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that fit my non-denominational definition (in my opinion anyway). We only needed to do one card this week. I think other weeks I will try to use ancient Gods & Goddesses. So here is my ATC for this week...



A Warm Color on a Drab Day...


Red is my favorite color...I am not at all like the emotional association for this color like fiery, hot tempered, spicy or anything like that! Maybe I wish I was though.

These photos are a corner of a door jam at school, a knob for a very old fire hose rigging (also at school), and an architectural motif on a building on the Upper Westside (near school).

Better late than never!



Yeah it is Saturday alrady...but I did take these photos yesterday! I started the transfer process from one PC to another so it is taking a little fanagling to get everything running the way it should.

Technically I did not get another new toy...just the hubby's hand-me-downs. Daron got a new gaming pc a little while back and I get his old one. Of course the computer I was using prior to this one was the previous hand-me-down. I can't complain really. I get a machine that is capable of doing all that I need it too...probably even more so since the gaming pc's are designed with great processors and video cards. This makes running my Adobe programs a dream!

I had a wonderful afternoon running around the Upper Westside of NYC taking photos with my new camera! Flowers are blooming, the corner stores have lovely displays of fruit, veg & flowers. It was kind of a gray afternoon so seeking out color was sooo refreshing! So much so that I have a double dose of orange!




1st Group: Oranges at Garden of Eden, tulips at a flower shop and gerber daisies at a corner deli.

2nd Group: Wonderful paper in the office where I work, my necklace from Lin Glass on Etsy, and a few Prismacolor pencils.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

I did it!

Yes...I went out and got that little Canon PowerShot I was lusting after. I love her!!! I took all of the above photos with her. I think there is a huge difference already...but the hubby couldn't tell. Maybe the difference is really in me. I have a sweet little camera that I love to use and therefore take pics I love. It could all be psychosomatic...but I am happy!!!

All of the above pictures were taken at school...either inside or in the immediate area. The photos in the top left and bottom right are motifs from an old elevator shaft. It reminds me of the one they describe in The Timetraveler's Wife (a very cool book btw). I love it for the motifs and definitely not the dust whici makes the wrought iron look white/gray. The other two photos are a corner of a door jam and a good ole' NYC sewer manhole cover. It is one of the few I have seen that does not have that horrible looking insulating coating. I understand that coating serves a purpose, but man is it ugly!

Well these are my black/white/brown photos for Thursday. Tomorrow is orange...that should be fun. I am so excited to tote my new little snappy with me.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Spring Greenin'


I never think of my apartment as very colorful. I guess that is one of the reasons I am so excited about this color day process. I see color everywhere now! Granted the newness of Spring certainly helps, but I have been focusing on what I have inside since it is a little harder to find. I am so anxious to get a new digital camera to replace my crappy clunker. My Kodak has served my well, but the size and quality no longer suit my needs...and it feels like it may just gie up on me any dayy. It will be a well loved back-up for sure.

I am lusting after the new Canon PowerShot SD600 (shh...don't tell my Kodak). It is small and has sooo many more megapixels than my current camera. I have been pretty restrained about buying it...but I don't think I can hold out much longer.

Oh yeah...my pics today (from top left to bottom) are my rescued jade plant, my shiny new bag I bought from SugarLust on Etsy, and Boylan's ginger ale bottles waiting to be recycled.

I love my little jade plant. I have been wanting to get one forever and I found this in the hallway near the trash shoot. Why would someone toss this lovely little plant!!! My Mom had one when I was growing up that grew to the size of a small shrub and took up the whole front picture window until it caught a parasite or mites. I was so sad that it went from a luscious (giant) plant to a sickly mess. Hopefully mine does not have some wierd disease and that is why it was trashed. If it lasts for a few weeks I will upgrade it's ugly copper pot so it can grow bigger and bigger. I want my little jade to rival that of my Mom's!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Yes, it must be the colors!


I found a lovely blog (Mecozy) that suggested a color focus for each day of the week! A few other blogs that I peruse are in on the fun and I want to play too...it is a nice way to see things around you in a new light (or should I say color!) and capture that vision so others can share.

Since I just stumbled upon this fun little challenge I snapped pics of things around my apartment...(from top left to bottom right) a lid from a ceramic container a friend brought me from Mexico, a party hat from New Year's Eve '05/'06, a detail of my niece's fingerpainting she gave me for Christmas (she'll be 3 in May!) and two bead bracelets.