It is a well known fact that the economy is in the dumps right now.  Gas prices hit record since-the-80’s highs, real estate sales and prices are down, commodity prices are creeping up and we have been no exception for experiencing it.  Since my mother and father divorced, I’ve always had an enjoyable time (read: not) of shuffling back and forth for the holidays, trying to fit in my schedule with everyone else’s: step parents and their kids, extended families, boyfriend/husband’s family… it’s not something I ever look forward to because someone’s feelings are going to be hurt and I just can’t please everyone.  In the past couple of years I’ve just let everyone tell me what they want me to do and I’d find a way to work around it.  The older I get and the less flexible my life has become, the less I can make my obligations and everyone else satisfied.

Continuing, traveling to all of these places requires the purchase of gifts.  Now, while shuttling back and forth between the places and the resultant drama that preceeds and follows are not things I enjoy in the least, I do love giving presents.  The anticipation when the gifts are piled under the tree, excitement when they’re passed around, the studying of the wrapping and finally the smile on people’s faces when they have seen what was given.  The only problem is the economy.  My mother and father have both remarried, and with the new step mother or father comes their kids.  Now while the opportunity to give more presents isn’t daunting, the cost of such things are.  In the past, I’ve just charged whatever I was going to give and pay it off throughout the next half of the following year, but this year I’ve lived a bit leaner than others.  I’ve paid off a good deal of revolving credit accounts and racked up a bit of savings in the meantime.  The thought of charging stuff after all that hard work didn’t sound great to me, so this year I decided to only get what I could afford, or afford to make.  This year is the year of the Industrious, Creative, Crafty Heather that comes out in a pinch.  Here are some things that I’ve made for gifts:

The bag on the left was for my stepmom Carol.  The one on the right was for her son’s wife, Amy.  They’re floppy reversible totes that are ideal for small grocery shopping trips, gym bags or whatever else might be handy for having a shoulder strap bag.  There is a pocket on the inside that is big enough for a phone, keys or anything that might need to be separated from the main contents.

Soap making is a new thing I am trying, and so far it’s fun but very messy.  Above is a new concoction that I created for my stepmother’s daughter and her wife.  These soaps are made of animal free glycerin and human grade food ingredients.  I call them “Chocolate Pomegranate Cinnamon Tart Soaps.”  I haven’t actually used them in the shower like they are intended, but they were ok when I used them to wash my hands.  Hopefully Debbie and Betsy will be able to get good use out of them and give me decent feedback on what I need to improve them.

This is for my grandmother from Mexico.  The last time she came to visit, she came to my house for a taco dinner and kept telling my mom that she liked my paintings.  I figured I could make one up pretty quickly for her to take back to Mexico.  It’s not finished yet as of this post – I need to refine the hands a bit with the shadowing and length, but as I probably won’t repost a finished image, here it is unfinished.  Perhaps in the next post I will, as I need to finish up some other homemade gifts for people that will receive them for Christmas.

I’m hoping that over Christmas break I’ll have more time to work on some crafts that I’ve had piling up – reconning some clothes, making new clothes, a laptop sleeve I’ve needed recently and some Nintendo coasters for a friend out in California.  I just have to remember to wake up before 11:00am.

Currently on break in my vmware class testing an app on my Droid for creating posts in wordpress. After posting to ohheather.com it should upload to facebook. Comment to let me know if it worked please.

Insert image:

And testing adding text after adding an image.

Bambi is an internet friend of mine, we met on the SomethingAwful forums.  She lives in Anderson so really just up the road from me, but I’ve never met her in person.  Well there was one time I tried, but she wasn’t actually at work.  So she’s having a baby girl, so I wanted to test out my skills at making stuff by surprising her with a diaper bag.  Only, I couldn’t wait for it to just arrive on her doorstep, so I sort of ruined the surprise a few days ago when it was about 80% done and sent pictures through email.  Since she knows about it now, here it is for everyone else to see.

Like?  Want one?

*slightly larger images on my OhHeather.com blog.

We’ve had our house for about a year and a half, and I’ve been pretty lazy on making it my own.  We painted the downstairs living area all in a camel color to spare us from the plain white walls.  It’s very subtle, but I think it works.  It makes everything homey.

Go upstairs, and it’s a different story.  The bathrooms are stark white, but the bedrooms are all… weird.  The master bedroom is a decent green color, but it’s flat paint.  The second bedroom is white on top, dark navy blue underneath separated by molding.  The room that I craft in and keep the cat stuff is this horrible green color that made me upset just to see it.  So being on vacation, I had the time to change it.

Before:

After:

I keep my camera equipment, photo magazines and my diploma on top, sewing stuff in the compartments.  The desk and hanging lights are by Ikea; there is enough room for my sewing machine and serger.

Here’s where I want to do a little more work.  I have a very old sewing machine under the small desk there that I want to get rid of.  The cat tree hasn’t been finished in a few years, so I need to finish carpeting and roping it.  The TV is currently on top of the old vanity from my bathroom project.  I haven’t decided if I want to get an LCD (read: spend money) and place it on top of the bookcase/desk, or keep this (read: free) and just refinish the vanity to a darker color.  If I get rid of all of that, I want to put a sleeper sofa for guests.

Last view of room.  Inside the closet is where I keep the cat stuff and storage that I rearranged today.

There’s my self dummy with a dress project I’m working on, along with my beads and various other things.

I’m happy with how it turned out, I’m just not sure it’s finished yet.

I haven’t blogged in awhile, mostly because no one cares about reading them and I feel like blogs tend to be a bit on the braggy side.  I suppose that’s what this is about, but in my mind I’m doing it to list off the projects and goals that I’ve set and completed.

Since derby has taken up a good chunk of my time, I haven’t had much time to devote to photography.  There’s also another reason why but I don’t feel like talking about it right now since I’m still pretty hurt about that.  Anyway I’ve had a few jobs here and there but I’ve not really talked about them.  I’ve got a few scheduled for the spring and summer, and if I can get time to redo my website to something flashier (I despise Flash websites but apparently it looks more “professional”) I’ll probably try to do that.

Roller derby is kind of my new thing right now.  It’s a lot of fun, the girls are wonderful.  I like that I can have conversation with women and it not be about kids all the time.  I kind of fear women these days because everyone I know that has kids wants to just blah blah blah about them and since I don’t have them, I’d really rather talk about something else.  A lot of the derby girls are mothers, with full time jobs, and they still manage to kick ass on the track every week several times a day.  They’re great role models and they’re very down to earth – my kind of people.

Now on to the things that have been occupying my non-derby time.  Since I’ve got knee troubles, I’ve been trying to use my craftiness more instead of going bike riding and such.  I’ve been doing little projects so far just to build up my confidence.  It’s possible that if I can get the effort going and the time that I might set up an Etsy shop and sell some things through LaBellaFlor.com, but that’ll be a little down the road I think.  I’ve got a few friends right now that are pregnant and I am going to make little baby trinkets for them.

Here’s what I’ve completed:

The first thing that I’ve done in this flurry of creation is an Infinity Dress.  It’s basically a circle skirt with two long and wide strips of fabric that is sewn onto the front of the skirt and then tied in any fashion that you choose.  There are millions of ways to tie this thing, but without a guide I have no clue.  I have a second idea for this and it’s a bit closer to the version that American Apparel sells.  On that version there is a bodice sewn on the skirt and the long strips are then connected to that.  It makes hiding skin on the torso a bit easier and you can use it as a dress, skirt or shirt much easier than the original Infinity.

Second thing on the list is the beginning of the master bathroom remodel.  When we bought our house, it was severely under market value.  In addition, we were successfully able to talk them down another $10,000.  Now with a house that low in price, it’s expected that there would be a little damage to some things or other things not right or just ugly.  Luckily there weren’t too many things wrong with ours, the exception being permanent discoloration of the vinyl flooring in several rooms due to rugs.  The master bathroom has this issue, but also has no color on the walls and a plain-jane oak-laminate vanity.  Menards was having a sale on vanities and tops, so a few months ago we purchased an unfinished oak vanity and a granite/silkstone sink top.  I spent a couple of days staining the vanity with a mahogany color that is both romantic and warm.  The new vanity has pull out drawers now so that I might be able to remove the little one I have in there for makeup and other essentials.  Next is ceramic tile and a new coat of paint.

The third thing that I’ve completed is another circle skirt for roller derby.  I really only have one skirt that I use and it’s from when I was in high school.  It’s a bit long and I don’t really want to hem it shorter, so I just made a different one from some corduroy material I had sitting around.  It looks alright with my referee shirt, but I was playing around with it and it looks pretty neat with some other clothes I have.  Dual duty!

Finally the last thing I’ve completed is the standard window curtain.  Andy and I went to Ikea not too long ago and I saw this wonderful fabric there and had to buy it.  I would like to make a business card holder and maybe a tote bag out of the remnants, but for now I’ve made a curtain for our kitchen window.  Before it was a horrible plain brown curtain from Walmart (I had to get something different from the stupid plaid one before in a hurry!)

and now it’s a fun gunmetal grey pattern.  This will look sweet when we paint the kitchen olive and put tiles as a back splash above the cabinets.

Speaking of kitchen, another project I’d love to try is painting the counter tops.  This *sounds* like a horrible idea, but I’ve found a tutorial that makes it look exactly like marble for about an 1/8th of the cost.

So now on my plate are more clothes (I’ve got a few dresses in the works), messenger bags, a few more totes/purses and the aforementioned baby stuff.  House improvements, planting trees, making more coasters, reupholstering the chaise lounge I bought from CraigsList and I hope to finish my new skate bag before try-outs in the summer.

I haven’t sewn anything in awhile, not since Joe’s Dark Tower laptop bag and my penguin fleece sleepy pants. I bought a crap load of patterns at Jo-Ann’s Fabrics a few weeks ago when they were all $2.99 instead of the ridiculous $18.99+ at MSRP. I decided that if I’m going to start making apparel that I should make sure that my measurements are exact. Real dress forms cost at a minimum $179, so I figured I’d just make my own.

halfway done

I managed to pull some hair with the neck thing

It got pretty hot in there, so I couldn’t wait to get cut out of it.  I’m going to stuff it this evening with either batting or maybe try the thousands of plastic bags from grocery stores.  As long as it gets to the correct thickness I think I’ll be alright.  Then I need to mount it on something like a stand so I can just hang my creations on for fitting purposes.  Should be fun with my sewing machine and new serger that I love.

Next stop:

I’ve got several fabrics and ideas for two versions of this.

This will be in green.

Always keeping busy.

Chiquita bananas.  Hell yeah.

and all I got was this crappy knee.

I have an artsy side that just begs to come out, so because this year was really slow in photography, I’ve been crafting!

Glassware etching:
Some glasses I made for the neighbors.  Dan and Luke in NASCAR style, Barb’s had a sun under her name.

UFC themed glass with Andy’s name on it.  I also made a coaster:

Coasters:
Speaking of coasters, I’m making a set of them (meaning there are more than just these made):

Purses and bags:
I have been making purses lately, and recently I made a laptop bag for my brother:

(that would be the Eye of the Crimson King for you Dark Tower fans out there).

I’m thinking about selling some stuff.  Anyone want a custom order?  I’m making purses, tote bags and all kinds of stuff.  Laptop bags come fully padded.

I’m also thinking about selling my photography in poster size, mostly my landscape and floral prints.

Suggestions?

Sometimes I just grab my camera and capture the world.

A praying mantis was on my Lilac

The Perseid Meteor shower last night