Scribbles & Bits

Quakes On a Plane

A quick post since I'm backin town.  The graduation was awesome and it was great to see my family under positive circumstances again!  

Really, the only downer was the leg back home: the flight was quite turbulent.  After we landed and we were sitting on the tarmac, the woman in front of me gets up, turns and gets back in her seat on her knees so she's facing me.  She tells her husband, "I'm so sick to the stomach!  I wish I'd taken some Dramamine!"  I would say that that is pretty close to the top of the list of things one doesn't want to hear from the person facing them....

A Little More

I'll hop a plane tomorrow to go see family for a few days.  Yay for graduations! I'll be away from the internet so I figured I'd post a few more pictures to continue this project.

A Hobby I Haven't Mentioned

That title probably sounds a lot more nefarious than it should.  Is now the time I admit to devient behavior?  Nah, not this time.  This is the time I admit that I have a paper journal that I keep (with not a lot of regularity either.  See?  It doesn't just apply to the digital format!).  I've read a lot about visual journals and the tips and talents out there are staggering.  Looking around, I started to feel that mine paled in comparison.  Now I acknowledge it for what it is: a learning experience in progress.  So I've decided to excerpt some of my favorite pages (w/ all the truly personal whining blocked out) and mention some of the techniques I use (just in case there's something helpful here)!  The first two excerpts just show use of colored clip art.  I know my drawing skills can be lacking sometimes and really, it's pretty satisfying to photocopy some clip art and just sit down and color!  The second excerpt shows the direction I thought I would head: entire pages devoted to favorite quotes.  For some reason I got out of that mode and now just write them on pages (usually interlaced w/ other things) in a different color so I can pick them out easily.

A lot of the pages are just pictures of things I like w/ some form of decoration around them.  The thing I really had to get over was not always being able to think of something decorative right then.  There are several pages even now that have a picture or two glued to them and are blank all around, just waiting for some pretty filler. 

In some cases, I've pre-painted the pages just because, but I tend to veer away from that b/c who wants to be writing about something sad on a bright yellow background?  I'm just odd about stuff like that, I guess.  I also used to veer away from putting jokes and stuff like that in my journals, but thenI read that da Vinci did that, so now I'm over that.

I've found it's a good place to experiment w/ new rubber stamps, too.  So random doodles, random things I like out of magazines (like the lady in the astronaut helemt from an AARP mag), random rubber stamps, and random doodlings.  Fits me, right?

Of course I do actually keep track of my personal ideas here, too.

This is a pretty picture-heavy post, so I'm going to just stop for now, but I'll probably post some more pages in a few days just for fun.

Short and Sweet

I've completed the card!  I'm happy to say that it turned out just as I imagined, which is happening a lot more now that I've been crafting with more regularity.  This is the first time I've mounted a cross stitch like this so that was an experience.  I used double-sided tape because that's what I've read your supposed to do.  It worked really well and I ended up using double-sided tape for the other elements.  Why mess with a good thing?  And, in case I didn't already mention it, this card also worked for my New Year's Resolution since it came out of a book I had yet t craft from, so double yay!!!!

A Small, Random Post

When I haven't been working or reorganizing my craft room (a.k.a. The Repository For All Homeless, "What-Are-You", and "Someday-I'm-Sure-You'll-be-Useful" Objects), I've been working on this 3"x3" cross stitch.  It will become a card for my cousin/godson who is graduating in about a week.  I will be flying back to see him and, in the process, run into half my old teachers and some classmates since he's graduating from my old stomping grounds (and, actually, the same high school both his mother and my mother graduated from). 

The pattern is from Cross Stitch Card Collection: 101 Original Designs by Claire Compton and the original version is actually shown on the cover.  However, I changed it to the school colors.  Ahhh, the perks of handmade!

Now for the truly random part of this post: I am bothered by the newest Danactive commercial (I would post a youtube link, but oddly it's one of the few things ever televised that hasn't made its way to youtube yet).  So Jamie Lee Curtis is in a grocery store passing out yogurt samples because honestly, what's left after fighting off Mike Myers (the villain from Halloween, not the comedien, although she may have fought him off, too.  Who knows?  Anyway....) and some woman walks up and call her the Danactive lady.  Jamie looks a little sad as she looks to the camera and says, "That's my new name."  Then there's some patter about how supercoolawesome Danactive is and, aside from that moment of wistfulness, it seems like a normal commercial until the end when a random woman stops by the free sample table to announce that she's been using it and now she's "loving life."  I can do a pretty decent job of suspending disbelief (that's how I can love opera), but not when someone announces that she is "loving life" because she's started eating a yogurt that makes her regular.  Beyond the fact that strangers don't normally announce that sort of thing to each other (at least not around here; please let me know if this is normal grocery store conversation in your neck of the woods), I have trouble believing eating yogurt would be the thing that turned her life around.  Either she was so blocked up that that was truly the biggest problem in her life (lucky her) or this is some miracle yogurt.  Maybe there's more to the commercial that got edited out.  "Danactive paid off my student loan, my car, my house, resolved my broken relationship with my sister, offered free marriage counseling to my friends, makes my bed, and unblocks more than my creativity!  Now I'm loving life!"

Yeah, that must be it.

Doing Things is what I Like to Do

It's always nice when I manage to do the things I've talked about and yesterday I started accomplishing two goals I've talked about before.  The card is inspired by the book Paper Quilts.  I saw the picture and, to be honest, didn't read the instructions so I have no idea if my way of creating it was according to the instructions or not, but I really like how it came out!  This one is destined for the card box at work.  They have a box of cards handy for birthdays, sympathy, etc. Sound familiar? Yeah, I've talked about that idea, too.  Anyway, the last time we went hunting through, one of my coworkers made the comment that everybody's gotten a version of the cards in the box.  I couldn't help it: it sounded like a plea for a refresher.  And I liked how the card came out so much, I decided to make 6 more: 3 as Thank You cards and 3 more of the "Just for You" cards.  I'm keeping one of each and sending the duplicates to my grandfather and aunt.  I think they'd like a backstock, too.  I'll definitely hold off and make a bundle so it doubles as a gift, though (another idea I mentioned a while back) So yay for fulfilling a New Year's resolution by doing something crafty out of a craft book, and yay for starting my backstock and double yay for actually starting to plan ahead for the next gift-giving occassion!

I know I mentioned a cross stitch piece I'm working on (Frank Lloyd Wright again).  I figured I'd post a progress pic as well as an image of what it's supposed to look like when it's finished!  I'ts going to be great and I'm not going to stress that I probably won't be posting again until Monday.  Hopefully I'll have tons more pictures (and maybe even a before/after of the train wreck of my craft room: the one room that hasn't received ANY attention since the move.  Well, except for the amazing adding of more boxes while I pretend the walls of that room are made of elastic.  You say they're not?  La la la!  I can't hear you!)

Frost/Nixon Has Nothing to do with Robert Frost

Ok, technically, I knew that.  But that's the show that's in right now.  We bid a fond farewell to Rent, but not before I got to see a 6'+ guy in 6 inch stiletto boots.  I in no way object to his choice of footwear, just to the fact that he didn't seem all that steady on them.  I just wanted to go up to him and tell him he's ruining it for all the guys who CAN walk steady in their 6" stilettos.  I was hoping he wouldn't trip and fall, although my inner 5 year old thought that might be one of the more fun incident reports to write.  It probably wouldn't have been my favorite, though: that title continues to strongly sit with the incident report about the guy who accidentally handcuffed himself to a rail at a children's holiday pageant.  

Rent was followed by a performing group that protested Communist China but was fearful of protests from people.  That was very odd, to say the least.  Their security guy was convinced that Communist spies lurked around every corner.  I felt bad that I picked that day to wear that red sweater, but it does such a good job of covering my hammer and sickle tattoo.  (disclaimer: I don't think communism is funny, but this guy's paranoia was).  And I don't know what he was doing to his "security" staff, but he was short-handed the first show, just as short plus an additional 4 shorter for the second performance, and so short by the last performance that he didn't have enough people to man the lobby.  After all his over-the-radio freak outs at me, I enjoyed the moment when he informed me of such (well after lobbies were open) and I informed him that I had noticed and already posted people in those spots!  I also enjoyed telling him later that I didn't think much of his observational skills when I'd been introduced to him as Virginia, wore a name tag with my name printed on it, responded to every radio call identifying myself, yet he persisted on calling me Victoria.  No wonder they've had such disasters at other venues!  I was pleased that there were none here.  Why?  Because my staff is amazing and competent!  Another amusing note from this event: many of them thought I was from Canada because of my accent.  I said y'all enough times that I can only presume they meant southern Canada.  :)

  I love a lot of things about my job and one of those things is staff meetings.  Yes, sometimes (even most of the time) we all sit in a room and put on a serious face and talk about budgets and upcoming shows and problems, but sometimes we get to go someplace and have fun!  That was the case with our last staff meeting.  We went to the botanical garden where they had glass works by Chihully. I by no means consider myself a photographer, but I was happy I brought my camera and gave it a go anyway.  I won't barrage this post with every picture, or even all of my favorite pictures.  I'll conveniently litter them among the next few posts.  It was such a great experience to go to this.  To be honest, due to this job, I rarely go out anyway, and when I do, going to something like this would not have been my first pick, but I loved it!  Perhaps I should make trying new things more often a New Year's resolution.  It's not too late to add that one on, right?  It will look great under "No more procrastinating!"

Still, as great as this staff meeting was, I can't beat the one where Garry Marshall sang Happy Birthday to me!

Geez!

Well....  It's been a while since I've written anything.  Truth is, I've been swamped and I've felt uninspired.  There isn't a reason, it's just the way it's been.  So I'm going to try to get back into the routine (like I've sworn to myself I would about 8000 times now), but I'm not going to try to stick to a topic.  Think of it more like a restaurant chat.  It'll probably still be about crafts mainly, but I've censored a lot of what I've written to stick to a topic and it's just not working for me.  Perhaps I've read too many horror stories of the people who talked about their jobs and then got fired.  I'm not naming names and I'm probably not going to talk all that much smack, so hopefully it won't come back to bite me in the bum.  And hey, I'm pretty sure no one's reading anyway.

So what's been happening?  A 5.5 week run of a show (which seemed like it was going to be soul-crushing, but, in the end wasn't too bad).  Right now we have Rent in the building w/ the original Mark and Roger.  The cast is overall excellent so it's been a pleasure to listen to.  I say listen b/c unless I take a night off, I'm not comfortable popping into the house to see any of the performance.  In many ways I feel that this gig would have been more suited to someone who doesn't like theatre.  But really you have to like it and have to be supportive of it to be willing to be here for 14 hour days.  You have to like it to think 8 shows over 6 days is a normal life.  You have to like it to be ok with getting home at 12:30 at night (and not b/c you've been out drinking) and turn around and be back by 9AM.  You have to like it to put up with being cussed out by people who consider the show start time listed on their ticket to be a suggestion, not a hard and fast rule,and are then upset because they are missing part of the show.  You have to like it to be treated as the bad guy by the audience, the traveling company, and sometimes your coworkers and staff and still come back.  Or maybe I'm a closet masochist.  Nah, pretty sure that's not it.  And, to be honest, 97% of the audience doesn't cuss me out, people who I'm supposed to be on the same team as don't gripe beyond all reason, and life runs much as it should.  But when you have a bad run, it just sticks out in your mind. 

Thank God for the crafts, right?  I've been working on another Frank Lloyd Wright piece (no pics yet), also on linen.  There are solid sections of color so there's not the mind-numbing frustration of changing the needle after a minute of stitching.  But w/ no events last week, there was time to really clean the house and realize that to hang up two other pictures next to each other, I needed a third one also in black and white.  Enter the Taj Mahal! Click it if you want to see it in its full-sized glory.  It's from the book Cross Stitch Silhouettes and still took me about a week to stitch despite its smaller size (approximately 6x8).

Making this piece served another great purpose: helping me start my New Year's resolution (starting a bit late, aren't I?).  I love craft books.  Anyone who knows me knows that!  I have decided that over the next two years, I want to create at least one thing from every book that actually has project directions in it.  Obviously books I've already used are immune, so time to start tapping those with the projects that I "absolutely have to make right this very minute or I'll die a scissorless death" and then promptly don't get around to when I see I lack all the materials (or the sheer gumption to get off my duff and make it).  Since I seem to have a similar obsession with cookbooks and a need to expand my meal preparation repertoire, they'll probably make it into this resolution as well. 

So yes, a more chatty, crafty, picture-taking, cooking me.  Let's see how long all that lasts....

The Good, the Not-So-Good, and the Stacked

  First, the good!  I made this thank you card for the Technical Director.  She stayed late and took some of the staff for a tour backstage.  I've had this card envisioned for a while, so I was really pleased when it came out just like I pictured it!

My grandmother always had a back stock of cards for all occasions.  Forget a birthday?  Check the box.  Need to say thanks?  Check the box.  Forgot to mail a Christmas card?  Forgot an anniversary?  Friend get an ingrown toenail?  The most I've ever been able to stockpile are Christmas cards and that's just because they come in a big box already.  So, long story short, I've always felt bad that I don't have some sort of card stash.  And really, there isn't a reason.  I love making cards and I've talked about making that as a gift for people before so maybe I need to practice on myself.

Now the not-so-good: at first glance, these look like great-looking, problem-free socks.  Sadly, In every way possible, I went completely mental with these.  Let's start with the vastly different toes.  When I started working the toe decrease the first time, I decided to just switch to stockinette every row instead of staying in pattern (like the pattern said to).  I got a not-unwelcome substantial toe.  The second time, I listened to the pattern and now I have a lovely, but lacy, toe. 

Also, as this next picture demonstrates, I must have measured my foot on a crazy swollen day because I decided my feet were 10 inches in circumference which has made for an incredibly, ahem, roomy fit.  But only on one foot. 

Because on the other one, I started the gusset decrease and forgot that I was only supposed to decrease every other row.  That actually worked out in my favor, except I forgot that I turned the sock right side out to try it on so I have a couple of rows of reverse stockinette.  In the end, though, it doesn't really matter because I can totally wear these to bed and maybe the next time I try this pattern (crosshatch lace from More Sensational Socks to Knit) I'll get it right!  The two final details I left out: the color is Kalamata by Yarn Pirate and I knit them on #2 DPNs.

Now for the Stacked: I'm working on the Short Row Hat by Veronik Avery.  It was a pattern in one of the Interweave Knits, but they also offered it on line for a while (which is how I got it b/c I am new to Interweave, but I digress.  Anyway, I have started this hat probably 6 times now and managed to mess it up somehow every time.  The biggest way I manage to mess it up is by running out of stitches.  The last time, I just started adding stitches and that might be how I knit a pair of breast-like protrusions into the hat.  They are the most obvious in the last picture.  I gave up and unraveled it after that.  About the time you starting knitting bust shaping into hats, it's time to call it quits. 

A Stitch in Time

How lame are my titles getting? Anyway, here are some nice clickable pictures of my new tea towel.  The lantern outline is from the Sublime Stitches book.  I just photocopied them (I've got this thing about actually ironing on the iron-on transfer.  I know: I'm a dork) and then traced around them, for the most part eliminating the designs that were drawn in.  I really wanted to use this as a chance to experiment with different stitches so something "no pressure" like a tea towel was perfect.

And, on the knitting front, I'm almost done with a pair of socks and I'm aching to try my hand at designing something.  I'm actually leaning toward a scarf right now.  Can I even call that designing?  Oh well, gotta start somewhere.