De Lurker Day

Hey all. Did you know it's delurker day? This is the day that all of us who read blogs all the time are asked to step up and say "Hi!" Don't worry about being witty or entertaining, just let me know you are there. I know I read a tonne of blogs and rarely feel the need to jump in with my comments.

Thanks for reading, but please, take a second and say hello. I'd love to hear from you.

Give Away Bonanza

The amount of fabulous giveaways going on right now on people's blogs really is incredible. I can't win them all so I guess I'll share. Don't say I never did nuthin' for you!

This post is inspired by Mary Lou's Art [AD]Venture. She's giving away the beautiful bracelet shown at the top of this post. Head over and enter, you have until December 12th.

Satin Doll is giving a way a cute little cell phone charm here.

Joyful Spirit Photography is giving away prints through facebook.

Daniel Montoya Studio is giving away digital Collage Sheets here.

Last but certainly not least is an amazing giveaway of an heirloom blanket over on Irish Rose Creations. I know how long it takes to make a blanket like that and I'm amazed that anyone would give that away to a stranger. Go give her some love!

After all that... I'm going to go and give some love to A Cup of Jo. She does these linky type posts all the time and I had no idea how much work it was!

CBC

Hey everybody! I'm going to be doing Talk of the Town on CBC radio this morning. Coolio! It really is amazing to see, even with the little bit of effort, what this blog has brought to me. Contacts and conversations with people completely outside of my everyday sphere.

I like the interwebs.

Wish me luck!

D'oh!

I have seen the error in my ways. Not having a link to my favourite place to hang out, the best coffee in town and the unending supply of entertainment is horribly remiss.

Check out Chat Noir Books. Owned and run by the fabulous Jennifer Fournier and Paul McClaren this is a place of sanity and some damn fine coffee. Also, for a fun time, check out their blog. You never know who is going to be coming through town and available for general adoration and swooning.

and please leave a message at the beep......

What I did today

-laundry, it was nice and sunny out to dry on the line
-fed chickens, gathered eggs
-brought an entire load full of garbage to the dump out of my basement. I'm sorry, it went to landfill but just because there is too much stuff in the world does not mean it had to live in my basement
-got more sand for the chicken run (grit)
-worked on the chicken tractor (it's almost done!)
-pruned the tree over the driveway (finally)
-visited with a friend
-lunched
-fed the chickens their greens (dandelion)
-poked at the compost (does this count as productive?)
-dined on local bison and fresh homegrown veggies (thanks Jenn & Paul!)
-squished my dog (mental health time)
-didn't feel like writing a real blog post... goodnight!

Etsy and Me

I have been working to get some more things up on my Etsy site. One of the definite challenges is photo editing. I'm not very good at it but I'd like to think I'm getting better. Currently I'm using GIMP which seems to be a really decent open source software. (Down with microsft!)

First step, what to shoot. I had this waspie I made a while back to test out a pattern and it's prototypes like that which I intend to clear out of here. So I found the closest, cheapest, most available model and got myself dressed and cleaned up a bit.

Second step, figure out the timer. HA! At the time I only seemed to be able to set a 10 second delay. So I spent a while screwing around, hitting the button on the tripod and leaping back and trying to get stationary before the flash. Yeah... sure. Much leaping about being a goof ball, laughing my butt off. But finally I figured there's got to be a shot in there I can edit down to something. I had no intention of this shot really being about me but rather edited down to show the waspie.

Third step, download and laugh. One shot, I looked so stunned I laughed and laughed out loud at. So, not being particularily proud I sent it on to my friend Matt so he could laugh as well. Now this is Matt Ficner of the Creepy Puppet Project, so he is swamped with the fabulous response he's getting from the latest, Dusty Zombie.

Fourth, open mouth in amazement. A couple of hours later I checked my email to find me, 'touched up' and looking rather fab if I do say so myself. Fierce. I may just use this photo for everything....

Sunset on Wendigo

Yep, been hidin' at the lake whenever possible. Me, a book and a beverage in my prospector's tent! mmmm.... quiet.....

I've been up to a million things, I'll try and get to them one by one but for me the most momental thing has been finally opening up my Etsy shop.

Did you get that link?

Check it out! I'm super excited.

Happy Canada Day!

I got pointed at this by the Yarn Harlot and her fantastic Canada post. As usual, she says it all so beautifully, I'll just follow up with this great song. I too still love it ever time I hear it.

Technical Issues

Oops.. I seem to be having technical issues. Lappy may have to visit the tech support lab.

In the mean time, the trees are pretty close to finished. They have been tucked away in the grove for a bit to mature while other things step to the top of the to do list.

Today I
-built a old lady puppet body (which got reworked but was way fun to do)
-tailored her the ugliest dress ever (pic to follow)
-tailored a gown for a skelton
-made various little things like dyed shirt, bow ties and opera scarves\

Over all it was fun build day. Pictures to follow when I get onto my own computer.

What I've been up to...

This is kind of What's Not on the Table. I've been working a day job, while doing fabulous things for my health and outlook on life, I haven't been doing much else.

Here's where I spend my time. Of course I try to make my day fun... so I got a new brain last week!

And now for something completely different...

I don't often sit down and actually write for this blog, a random smattering of pictures is usually how I communicate. Ask anyone who loves me, I'm not the greatest at talking about the important things. So I'm not sure where to start, maybe I'll just point you all over to Causaubon's Book. http://casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/

She's got a lot of important things to say. Let's start there, maybe later, I'll tell you about the chickens....

Can I hear a 'HELL YEAH' from the crowd?!

Christmas busy

Hi all. Can you believe it's been almost two months to the day since I've posted? I can. A lot happened in there. In fibre talk a LOT of Christmas knitting that I couldn't post, a suit and a pile of little sewing bits. I started a new day job, spent a little short of a week in Ottawa working on another Creepy Puppet Project and started learning to belly dance. No point in getting bored!

So I'm going to back up a bit in blog land and tell one story at a time as not to completely kill those of you with slower download speeds.

Intelligence Quotient is the latest film in the Creepy Puppet Project series. Give it a watch here.



Maybe I'll post some of the pics of the wardrobe in partially done stages later. For now, a belated Merry Christmas!

Soap box time people!

Put very simply, I make things. I make things with my hands, one at a time and no two things are alike. Labels for what I do and how that defines me vary from seamstress to craftsperson to artist. Making things is as essential to me as breathing, just something I do and have done since I was a child.

The part that gets me is that what I do and how I do it has little or no value in our society. Oh, people will pay lip service, however that comes to a screeching halt when I tell them that making their dream dress will take me a minimum of two weeks full time labour and explain the costs of supporting me for those two weeks.

Those same people who claim to ‘understand’ and ‘respect’ what I do are the first in to the end of season sales at the chain stores, later bragging about their $10 dress. That dress what made by someone, perhaps a minor, working in sub prime conditions for little of no pay in a county with lower ‘standards’. While those of us lucky enough to live in our society with higher standards crash our financial systems because we want more.

As a society we carry more debt that any before us and as much as we all talk about how this is unhealthy, it sure doesn’t seem to be going away. Even when we are paying next to nothing for the ‘stuff’ we buy.

Just for a second imagine that we had to pay for everything we own based on supporting the same standard of living for the ‘makers’ as we want to maintain for ourselves?

It's Raining

I do not have babies, I do not want babies. In fact I tend to avoid babies (nieces excepted of course!), so why the all encompassing fixation on cute baby hats? Come on, tell me this hat doesn't make you smile on even this rainy cool morning! It doesn't even have a future owner yet but I had to make it.

Strechy unnamed cotton from Lettuce Knit in Toronto. They are small skeins but I may be able to get a second baby hat out of what's left.

Psst... Violet. This sure would look good on the Daily Chum next week!

I'm baaacccckkkk!!!

Sorry bout the silence there all. Nothing personal. It's summer time so I have been running around lots, soaking up sun and fun and too many fish fries! I also had a couple of weeks of being pretty low energy, I finally have my chiro to thank for a quick diagnosis, I got some antibiotics and I'm almost back to my old self.

So what have I been sewing/knitting? The mystery stole 3 has taken over my world. I stay up late knitting it, drag it around with me. I'm loving the twist of it being assymetrical. I really am enjoying the process. I'm finding however that how I hold my needles doing lace is doing bad things to the tendons in my wrists. Looks like lace knitting cannot become a long term addiction. Oh well, I have lots of addictions already.

I'll leave you with a pic of Trevor, aka a miner in Heist. I haven't gotten any more recent pictures lately. Don't worry, this was dress rehearsal, everyone received a warning about shiney shoes.

Does anyone else do this?

So.. if you get bored or frustrated with some aspect of you life, do you take it out on your hair? I do....

What's On the Table

I am so excited. I bought a new camera. WOOT! The first pic ever is of the camera cozy I am making for it.

Also, welcome to a new blog theme, what's on the table. I have a massive sewing table and often friends are over and are intrigued at what's on the table, AKA what am I working on. So now that I am all camera capable I will take the odd photo and show everyone what's happening chez B.

Edited to add finished pic.... The monster head may be a tad high but, that's ok. It makes me smile.

Ummm.. yeah

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know.You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems.Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green.Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

http://www.blogthings.com/themuppetpersonalitytest/">The Muppet Personality Test

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

So the talk last night was the degree to which we were going to get slammed by a storm. Seems it's all for naught at there's not sign of it on the horizon of the weather sites. Oh well, I'm still off to do errands which for me, oh small town dweller that I am, involves the best part of a day. Of course factor in a little socializing in there for balance.

The scanner thing isn't really working for me. I'm not really pleased with the scan of my mittens, the Hedera sock isn't all bad but this morning I tried some Jaywalkers. Nope, they don't really fit on the platen, the shaping won't lie flat, over all it turned some nice socks into some nasty looking stuff. So... I hereby declare that I will buy a camera. I'm not going to sit and wait for the cash to fall out of the sky for the ulitmate coolest camera, the little one will do for blog shots and web work for now.

So to keep things interesting, here is a small pic from the hard drive. This dress was destined to be Ms Scarlett although politics rendered it useless. Too bad, it's pretty. It's a pattern of my own and the lovelyest red taffeta.

Have a great day