<3 Julian!

I'd like to introduce you all to my little prince, Julian Roderick Harris. He was born 9/19/11 at 9:23pm. About a week earlier than expected but Terrance and I couldn't be happier. <3

I started having contractions during the Mayweather fight Saturday night. Sunday morning my water broke. Then after a long struggle with an induced labor and a locked fortress of a cervix, Julian was born.

Despite being a long labor the experience was actually quite nice. My fiancé, Terrance, my mother, and my sister were all there for the ride and highly supportive. All my worst fears about a not liking the hospital staff or being forced to have a c section were quickly laid to rest. This made me feel comfortable with the idea of getting an epidural. It wasn't my original plan but after 24+ hours of contractions, no food, and no sleep I needed some type of relief. After I got the epidural I was so comfortable I crocheted through major contractions without even the slightest discomfort.

Interestingly enough 9/19 was my Dad's birthday. Part of me feels like his spirit was with me during labor and that it may have had something to do with Julian's early arrival. Another part of me Thinks that's absolutely ridiculous.

Still.

The way my labor happened was uncommon. On top of that, there were a lot of things that could have gone wrong that didn't. I didn't even need stitches. Plus, I lucked out with one of the best birthing rooms in the ward and the recovery room right next to the buffet--oh and the best nurses the ward had to offer. Could my good fortune be karma or coincidence? Or was someone looking out for me?

Who knows.

All I know is that I'm happy and so so in love with this little guy. <3

Cereal Trail Mix

Ingredients

- Stick pretzels or mini pretzels (or you can get the big thin ones and break them up)
- Chex cereal or Life cereal or whatever your favorite wholesome cereal is.
- M&Ms (I prefer ones with peanuts)
- walnuts, almonds, peanuts, or all three
- Raisins
- Granola chunks

Procedure
- Put ingredients in a big bowl with a lid. They not to put too much of one thing or it'll over power everything else.
- put lid on and gently turn the bowl around on its side to mix or carefully mix it with your hand (don't want to crush the cereal!)
- pop open the lid and enjoy!

Notes

- travels best in a solid container
- Cherrios make a good cereal alternative
- Craisins can be used with or instead of raisins
- pumpkin and sunflower seeds go well too, but make sure all nuts and seeds are deshelled for easy snacking
- some people like to season their mix but I wouldn't overdue it
- experiment with different ingredients that are your favorites to make a mix that's uniquely yours.
- don't forget to make a lot so you have plenty to share!

Day 10 Challenge: Crocheted Brooches

Part of my goal for this challenge was to show people (as well as myself) what I'm capable of.  So far it's really succeeded in doing that.  In fact, it's succeeded so much so that a friend of mine, Janet, asked me to make her some special favors for her 30th birthday.  Janet has been so supportive of Stray from the beginning, so of course, I said yes!  (Plus 30 unique brooches in less than 2 weeks is too tasty a challenge to just pass up P:)

We decided on brooches because they're just the right size and I feel I have an adequate amount of time to complete 30 of them given the time.  (Even if that means halting my 23 day challenge :P)

Thing is!  The only brooches I've made are the little rose and the big rose ones (which is also a hair clip).  I wanted to offer Janet more options so I tried different ideas.

I wanted to design something a little more sophisticated so I played with some geometric shapes until I came up with a nice little pattern I was happy with.

Janet, bless her, loved all of the designs.  So I'm going to make her a whole mixture of brooches. 

After we had already came to an agreement I finished another one that I kind of like.  She hasn't told me yet though what she thinks of it, though.

Overall, I love them!  They're so cute!  I hope I can make more than I need so I can keep or sell a few lol.  They're going to be so awesome on hats and scarves when the weather gets colder. 

I'm not going to post pictures of them during the process because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but my flickr will be full of them after her birthday party. 

BTW, today is her real birthday so--
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANET!!!

23 Challenge Current List: 14 left!

Here's a list of the current projects I have left as well as some changes.  I (potentially) have a big commission coming up so that's going to eat a lot of my time. XP

The list
1. Finish baby blanket for Julian
2. Crochet a wallet
3. Crochet or knit sweater for Biscuit Start website for Terrance.  Biscuit can wait and I need more digital work in my life, lol.  Plus all this crocheting is really going to kill my back.
4. Crochet matching hat for Terrance and Julian
5. Make baby mobile for Julian's crib
6. Make anything from Twinkie Chan's book!
7. Make a candy wrapper purse (any material, any way)
8. Make two tiny amigurumi pins; one just a face, one a body Simply changed to make crocheted pins (may be part of my commission)
9. Crochet leg warmers for Biscuit.
10. Find something...anything to do with the awesome (yet hard to use) yarn, my sister gave me, made from recycled material. I decided it'd be dumb to force myself to use yarn.  This project is now "crochet a new bag"
11. Bake oatmeal raisin cookies from scratch
12. Bake and decorate sugar cookies
13. Bake those delicious looking strawberry scones my friend made.  Yummy. Too much baking, I really need to cut back on the sweets.  But the change for this one is top secret.  Code name: SL for S.
14. Reupholster my ugly, ugly computer chair This chair needs to really just need to be replaced.  So I'm changing this project to my autotune idea.

OKAY!  So that's the updated list.  The pins will be next!

Day 9 Challenge: Drawstring Hat

Awhile back my grandma gave me this cool book by Eugenia Kim, "Startuday Night Hat."  I loved the hats, but the drawstring hat was always my favorite because it was so versatile (and floppy hats seem to work best with my curly hair, no matter the length).  I never put the book to proper use because--even though I have some basic sewing skills--sewing really intimidates me DX

When I studied abroad in Florence, Italy I took a soft sculpture class and the work I came up with proved that I COULD sew if I put my mind to it.  There's just something about sewing that makes me super anxious.

For this project, though, I figured the pattern was simple enough that I couldn't eff up too badly.

I decided to use the scrap fabric I kept from my screenprinting practice runs in Florence.  It seemed appropriate to bring Italy into this project since it was the last time I seriously sewed anything.  Plus, the constant reminder that I can do this because I have done it was a nice little motivator to get the project done.

I followed the pattern pretty accurately, only making a few changes to the height of the body of the hat so I wouldn't have to chop up my phoenix (that way if I ended up hating the hat I could take it apart and not lose my artwork).

I still think the fabric may not have been the right choice.  Even though it was lightweight, it didn't quite fall right when I was done.  On top of that I couldn't find any stores nearby that sold ribbons so the hat is temporarily held together with shoelaces--which would be pretty cool if the design was more edgy and urban...but it doesn't go very well with the phoenix design.  It'll have to be replaced once I get the proper materials.

Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I succeeded in that I followed through the pattern well and my sewing was not too shabby.  In retrospect, however, I feel like I should have chosen a fabric with a smaller repetitive pattern--the big phoenix is kind of difficult to see with the hat on.  Or I would have done it in a bright bold colour--the canvas colour kind of makes me think of a chef's hat lol.  I think I was also a bit disappointed that my hair is currently too short to try out all the suggestion styles Kim drew in her book.

Maybe as my hair grows my like for the hat will grow too :)

Challenge Detour: Jade Cowl

So my next project was supposed to be a crocheted version of one of Eugenia Kim's hats in "Saturday Night Hat."  The headband part came out easily, but I hit some trouble when working on the body of the hat.

My first concern was that the yarn I was using was a poor choice for a hat.  The "Alpaca Dance" yarn from Premier Yarns is my goto choice for making amigurumi characters because it is so soft, and sweet, and the fuzziness of it really brings the creatures to life, IMO.  However, fuzzy hats are not entirely practical.  From experience, I know that they can get dirty a lot quicker and when they catch on things (say a velcro strap on your jacket or something) they get damaged quite easily.  BUT I am on a tight schedule, and--as I've mentioned before--don't have much time (or the means) to travel to the craft store.  So!  I decided to work with what I had.

The second issue was how looong it was taking to crochet the body.  I probably could have sewn 3 of these hats in the time it took to crochet this body.  Plus I've been having problems with my back on the right side (mostly do to the pregnancy, but crocheting too much definitely aggravates it).  So not only was it taking long, is was uncomfortable--even painful--too.

The last thing that came up that finally made me decide that this was just NOT going to work was when I realized how thick the body was.  The hat I wanted to make utilized a drawstring.  Anything chunky would just look wrong.  Even though the body was quite light and thin for something made of yarn--it was very thick for something that was supposed to be fabric. 

Now I was met with a dilemma.  Make something else out of what I had been working on or continue on the project until it was completed.  I knew I was going to be hella pissed if it didn't work out and I am so behind on my other projects.  I decided to rain check the crocheted hat alternative and see what I could make out of what I already completed. 

A neck cowl was my first thought and when I tried it out, I absolutely loved how it looked (and felt!).  It was perfect--absolutely meant to be.  I'm going to be soooo warm when the cold weather hits with my new scarves haha. 

This was an interesting experience and I'm really happy with what I ended up with--even though it's not what I planned on at all.  I learned that sometimes projects take lives of their own and I have to be willing to veer from my path once and awhile to see where else I can go.  By accepting change I ended up with something I didn't expect, but really loved--instead of something I planned on, but made me completely unhappy!

After I was done I decided to sew the hat after all.  I'm nearly done with it.  All I need is some ribbon :) 

Day 8 Challenge: Cookie Cozy

Cookie (short for Cookiepuss) wasn't my first family pet, but he was the first pet that I felt truly bonded to.  We adopted him from the ASPCA when I was around 10-years-old.  At the time I considered myself more of a dog person and wasn't entirely thrilled about getting a cat, but was super happy to have a pet. 

Cookie is THE reason I now consider myself to be a cat person.  He was cute, friendly, cuddly--but not suffocating--and somehow he always knew when someone was having a shitty day and knew exactly what to do to make it just a little bit better.  He was already a few years old when he adopted him, but we had him up until the end of my sophomore year of college. 

Even though he's gone now, he still lives on in my art.  He'll pop up in random doodles or beside drawings of me as my little sidekick.  It's my way of keeping him alive.

For the challenge I wanted to make an amigurumi version of him, but after doing the mermaid cozy, I thought it would be really cute to make a Cookie one for myself. 

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that I had basically NO white acrylic yarn in the house.  What the heck!  This wouldn't be a problem if I was still in NYC, but now that I'm in Poughkeepsie, finding a craft store is like a day's adventure.  JoAnn's and Michael's are okay, but I'm used to paying half the price for the same materials and it's really difficult for me to travel there (since I can't freaking drive). 

So, for this project, I had to choose between putting off a project I really wanted to do now or find a way to make it work.

I opted for finding a way to make it work.

Instead of making the whole cozy Cookie's body, I decided it would be more of a Cookie motif.  I decided the actual cozy would be this nice blue colour I have but rarely use. 

After I made the blue cozy, I added a top pocket in white for Cookie's body and a flap which would be his head.

I knew before I started that I wanted his tongue to slip through a hole in the flap's mouth to act as a button and secure the cozy close.  I used a coarse pink yarn for the tongue so it wouldn't slip open easily. 

Next I added Cookie's patches, face, ears, and tail.  I thought about adding little arms and legs but when I tried it out it just looked sort of silly. 

Lastly I added a strap so I could wear the cozy easily. :)

Overall, I'm happy with the outcome.  I mean, I ended up not being as thrilled with it as I thought I would be--but I think it's because it took me much longer to finish than it really should have with everything that was going on this weekend.  Also, it isn't quite as detailed as the mermaid one so it wasn't the best follow-up project.  I think I'm going to have to let it sit awhile until I decide how I really feel about it.


Its saving grace is the fact that it's my little Cookie. <3  (I hope Biscuit isn't too jealous :P)

Challenge Break: Paper Wallet

My sister came to visit me this weekend.  She wanted to make sure she got to see my belly one last time before the baby was born. :)  We hung out the whole time so I wasn't really very productive with my challenge.

However, she loved my envelope wallet and had asked me to make her one.  Of course, why not :)

I used this video when making my first envelope wallet as a guide.  But after I made my duct tape wallet I had some ideas on how I could change the design a little.

My sister has a serious sweet tooth.  She LOVES candy (so much she even worked at Dylan's Candy Bar), she loves to bake yummy cupcakes, and it's real hard for her to say no to dessert.  I'm pretty much the same, except I'm not that into candy--but I looooooove baked goods (cookies, cupcakes, cake, pie, yummmmm).  She wanted her wallet to reflect her so we decided on a sweet tooth design.

Instead of using an envelope I used a 9 x 12 sheet of bleedproof paper from one of my sketch books.  I chose this material instead because I felt it would be much more water resistant than a regular envelope.  Even after I covered my envelope wallet with tape I was still concerned it might get water damage if water managed to seep into the inside folds of the envelope--all the places I couldn't reach with the tape.  The bleedproof paper is much sturdier, in my opinion, and since it's just a sheet of paper there are no openings for water to leak in.

I covered the back side in duct tape to aid in the waterproofing and sturdiness of the wallet and drew the design on the front.  My sister doesn't feel very confident in her drawing abilities, but she loves to colour so that was her job. :)  I'm glad too, I think she came up with a much more unique colour palette than I would have come up with.  Doesn't it look so adorable (and yummy)?

Once everything was coloured it was time to make the folds and incisions and what not.  The trifold wasn't an option for us because I forgot to count in the material the envelope flap adds when making an envelope wallet.  Our sheet of paper was too short :( ....but we got over this quickly and decided to just make it fold in half.  No harm done!

I really liked the ID holder that the duct tape wallet had so we decided to put one on the front.  When I finished it, I was a little concerned that her ID might fall out though since it's on the outside.  But she's using it as a MetroCard case instead I think, so it's not going to waste :).  In NYC, easy access to your MetroCard is a MUST!

We were both really happy with the outcome, even though I had to use boring plain silver duct tape to border the edges.  I don't think it detracts from the design though.

Anyway, she loved it and started using it right away so I'm super happy :)

Day 7 Challenge: Crochet iPhone Case

I didn't have high hopes for this project when I started it.  

I wanted to crochet an iPhone case that would allow me to use my iPhone while the case was on it.  Most of the crocheted cases and cozies I've seen covered the phone completely--sometimes only leaving an open space for the head phones and the charger.  

At first, I didn't want that.  I thought the reason those were the only crocheted cases out there was because people didn't want to take the time to figure out how to cover the the thing properly so that everything works well.  So, I gave it a shot.

And now I know the REAL reason why no one does this.  

Crocheted iPhone cases (or at least the one I came up with) are really uncomfortable and way annoying!

I mean I got pretty far in the design...I covered the front just right so the yarn didn't cover the touch screen, I left an open space for the headphones, the power button, the charger and speaker, the silent switch and volume buttons and the back camera. 

The trouble only revealed itself when I tried to test out my phone in the cozy.  It was so uncomfortable! And it kept sliding around.  Granted...It MAY not have slid around so much if I had stitched it a lot snugger.  But by the time I thought up that solution I was already fed up and ready to start from scratch.  I had also decided that even if it didn't slide around, I didn't like how the crocheted case felt--smooth plastic was definitely more my thing lol.

Normal, plain jane cozy it was then...but as I crocheted the bright green yarn I was working with I thought about the mermaid doll I had made.  That was the last time I had used this green and I found myself thinking, "it really IS such a pretty color for a mermaid tail."  Then I thought--HEY!  No plain jane cozy for me!  I'm making a MERMAID cozy!  

And thus the project I had begun to lose hope in was revived. :D

I really wanted to give my mermaid cozy red hair--like Ariel (The Little Mermaid was my favorite Disney movie growing up before I became obsessed with 101 Dalmatians :P).  But I don't have any red yarn... (it's because every time I see red yarn in the store it just doesn't look right to me...it puts me in a bad mood.  Idk why honestly.  But then I get mad when I actually need red).  I tried orange first but...I just couldn't.  I kept thinking of carrot top and I couldn't.  So I went with the same colour scheme as the mermaid doll.  Whatever, it's pretty, it works.  Next time I'll get over my weirdness and buy freaking red yarn.

I wanted to avoid doing the torso for as long as possible by working on other things, like adding the flap (which is her hair) and button and what not.  I knew I wanted a belly button, star fish pasties, and (of course) a face--but I've never worked so....blocky...before, so I was really nervous about how it was going to turn out.  I was also worried I may have made the tail portion go up too high and might have to start over as a result.  When I thought of that I figured I better try doing the torso before I put in the work for everything else only to be mad later.  

I really like what I ended up with.  I mean...if I'm unhappy with anything it's the face. I don't know why, exactly, it's just sort of boring I guess--but the starfish pasties came out so cute and (in my opinion) make everything work out just fine.  Haha.

By this point I was basically done.  I added a little flower (did make the face more interesting), her fins, some cute stubby arms.  I could have said it was done there, but then I really started to think about what I would like from an iPhone cozy.

Last year a friend of mine gave me this awesome Hello Kitty cell phone cozy that I used all summer.  It had a strap so I just wore it like a mini purse/wallet.  I stuck my ID in there, my money, my credit cards,  my chapstick (if I felt like wedging it in there).  It was a real tight squeeze though and a pain when I wanted.  I was thinking about this as I worked on this project and I thought about what could have been added to that bag my friend gave me to make it better.

I already added a hole at the bottom for the head phones to come out, so the charger part is up where the flap is and the phone could be kept in the cozy, with the headphones, in while charging (this may seem like a "whatever" type of thing, but it actually WAS a bit of an issue with my over cozy.

More needed to be done though and I thought about all the stuff I tried to wedge in my little cozy.  It really wasn't very safe for me to have things like my ID, money, and credit cards wedged in with my phone.  I took out my phone so often, any of that stuff could have fallen out and gotten lost.  A separate pocket for that stuff though, would be perfect!  I could take out my phone as much as I wanted and the rest of that stuff would be safe.

When I decided to make the pocket I wasn't sure at first what colour it should be.  Then I thought it would be even MORE perfect if I made it "invisible" so no one would even know it's even there unless they checked it out.

I wanted to add a strap as well so it could be worn like I worn my other one.  I debated adding yet another pocket to it just to wedge the strap in, but was concerned that it was was going to start getting too bulky.  I figured that the crocheted material had enough yarn that if I (or someone else) wanted to tuck the strap away they could wedge it in the secret pocket too.  Or in with the phone itself.

I wanted the strap to be able to be tucked away for times when the cozy wasn't worn but put in a bag or pocket or something.  It was really annoying when the strap from my other one would get tangled up with other things.

Overall, I loved this project.  It was an unexpected success and I'm really looking forward to making more of these in the future.  In fact I might...real soon. ;) There's really not more I can say except that.  This was a lot of fun and I'm proud I made something cute AND functional.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures right now with my phone actually IN the cozy, because my iPhone is my camera D:  But when I get the chance I'm going to borrow my fiance's phone and take some more pics of the cozy "in action."

For now you'll just have to enjoy these :)

Day 6 Challenge: Baby Onesie

This wasn't originally on my list of 23, but I replaced "start a scrapbook" for it.  I had received a few cute hand painted baby onesies as a gift and thought that it would be fun to make the baby one myself.

Going along with the lion thing I started by making a sketch of what I wanted the design to look like.  It took me a couple tries before I drew a design I liked, but finally I came up with something I was happy with. 

Translating that design with paint on fabric proved to be the true task for me...

Painting really really isn't my strong suit...and on top that it's been awhile since I've painted really anything.  My lack of skill mixed with puff paints that sprayed and what not made me feel like maybe this project was just going to end up a big mess and a bad idea.

I kept at it though--determined to finish the day with something I was happy with, but was very cautious not to mess with it so much that it just turned into a sloppy mess.

Overall, this has definitely not been my favourite project, but I don't think it's the worst either.  What bothers me the most is that it doesn't look close enough to my pencil sketch.  It's not bad though and Terrance likes it, so I'm happy.  I'm sure Julian won't complain. <3

Day 5 Challenge: Custom MLP

I made one of these a few years ago, back when I was going through a My Little Pony phase.  Unfortunately, I did not do my research and didn't know nail polish was not the best thing to use on MLPs.  Long story short, RIP Spike, you will live forever in my memories--and my deviantart page.  Anyway, while I was going through this phase I collected quite a few ponies--some with the sole purpose of using as bait. 

When it came to this project I decided to do a little research before I started.  I got a little nervous because apparently MLPs from the 80's are sought after, so I didn't want to use some of my baits annnd I don't want to use any other ponies that might be valuable. 

I did have some generic ponies, though.  So I decided to use one of the generic pony babies I had for this project. :) Especially since I still didn't have proper materials and I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted the design to be.  Thanks to my friend, Jaime Lynn, for giving me these ponies!  She probably didn't expect them to be used this way but I'm sure she'll be happy anyway :P





Taking the pony apart was way easy.  The tough part was thinking what to do to customize it.  In retrospect, I probably should have planned this out BEFORE I took the pony apart--but I just didn't have that foresight haha...

I decided to do a Stray mascot with the Stray logo as the symbol, but stiiill what to do? 

Acrylic paints and dye are the best way to simply customize these things, but I don't have any of that (or I should say, no dye and all I have is expired acrylic paints in weak colours lol).  Sharpie markers, I read, aren't necessarily the best way to customize them--but aren't as bad as nail polish, so I decided to take a chance.

I was happy with my results as I was colouring the pony in.  The only thing I'm a little disappointed with is the eyes.  When I get some fresh acrylics I'll probably go back and touch those parts up properly.  For now though, the crappiness of the eyes isn't SO noticeable. 

Next to do was the hair.  I was still making stuff up as I went along so I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.  I knew I wanted very bright colourful hair to balance the all black body (and the emoness of the Stray logo haha). 

I went through my art materials and realized that embroidery yarn would be perfect for the hair because I could easily root the pony with it whole and then unravel it so the thin threads of the yarn could look more like hair.  Plus, I could get a really nice mixed rainbow effect by mixing the threads.

 I started with the tail and then rerooted the head.  Braided the tail and added some beads.

Overall, I'm content with it.  I didn't really find this project as fun as I thought it would be.  I guess I'm really over the whole MLP thing, haha.  I have a few more I could use.  Maybe if I have clearer ideas in the future I will try again and enjoy it more.