The 100th Post!!!

It's the One Hundreth post on APT-203!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay! I hope you like the dancing doggy ^.^ It's making me smile.

On to the yarny-goodness!  Monday night I finished my second striped scarf. It's a tri-color with 3 even stripes. I really like how the colors work together. I mean I wouldn't have chosen the bright green for this scarf if I was picking colors free hand.  (Yay for the Fall2012 colors- again!) But it looks totally great ^.^

Granny Stripe Scarf Pattern 2

Close up

I'm currently working on the third scarf which will be 2 colors.  I have really been on a serious crochet kick lately. I guess I shouldn't call it a "kick" but more like under the influence of serious motivation. I mean, if I want to get my yarn & hook when I get home and get to work making my things and it's not "work"- that can't be bad... It actually feels good to have patterns and colors popping around in my head while I'm at work during the day then get home and make the ideas real. Too bad I can't crochet at work... oh well.

Here is the beginning of the next scarf.

Hello wormy looking crochet :)

Well, I suppose that's all for this special What's on my hook Wednesday/100th post post... chuckle. I'm going to work a few more rows on this scarf before going to sleep. Thanks for reading ^.^

Oh! One more thing- Kiva & Toot got new collars today. So of course I took a picture like the good Doggy Mommy I am :)

I love how this picture shows their personalities perfectly. Kiva is the calm attentive one & Toot is the blur of vibrating energy.

Not So Blue Monday #13: Puppy Love

Hi ^.^

I hope you had a great Monday. I was evidently quite tuckered out from a day full of office work because I came home and promptly passed out for an hour... Much to the dismay of my pups who need to be fed...

Anywho, not a lot happened today not-so-blue-wise, but I did take my dogs to Petco to get groomed and after one escape attempt by Kiva and a whole lot of barking from Toot, they finally got handed over.  After work, I came to pick them up and was surprised with this:

Yes, that is red nail polish with yellow polka-dots! How cute!  Finally, Kiva has been "girly-fied"!!! People always think she's a boy. So now she's a fancy pants girl :) lol. I got a real good laugh out of her paw-dicure. 

Well, I'm off to feed them dinner and then get down to the night's crochet work :)

Peace!

Weekend Gallivanting

Hey there :)

I ventured out to the flea markets again yesterday :) I only got two things and they were a bit more pricey than what I normally spend on much of anything...

The enamel flower pin was from this lady's booth who only sells vintage jewelry at the Limestone Flea Market. She has A LOT of pieces. I took some time to talk to her before buying the pin. She told me that most of her pieces are purchased from estate sales so they're authentically vintage and not "vintage-style".  I think that my roommate will really like her booth. There were a few brooches that I saw that reminded me of some of my favorite bloggers, so that was kinda cool :) I paid $8 for the brooch and had super strong buyers remorse on the way home, but after doing some Etsy research, I found that $8 was a good price for a vintage enamel piece.

The pot is from the Ghostown Flea Market. I was super excited to find it in a "corner." I put the quotations around corner because the Ghostown Flea Market is outside in a really dirty, dust-bowl of a side of the road type location and I found the pot next to one of the shanty buildings complete with spiderwebs... I got it for $10 and I'm looking forward to dyeing all types of things in my new dye pot! Yay!


Here are some shots of the Ghostown Flea Market. It was creepily cool and for a while I was a smidge nervous because of the 'Redneck & Proud' signs around and the out of town location... but the people were really friendly. I even ended up talking to the guy who sold me the pot about what plants I can use for dyeing. That was pretty cool.



Welcome to Ghostown Flea Market Highway 72

Inside the "Hard Times Thrift Store" at the market.

There's a haberdashery!

I don't think they actually make hats at the haberdashery though... I couldn't go inside because the owner was off at a nascar race. Maybe another day.

That's all for my flea market adventures. I hope you're having a great day :)

Crafternoon #13: Tool Making and Granny Stripes

Hello there ^.^

After all the gallivanting I did today (flea marketing, a bowl-a-thon, and a poetry club meeting) I did manage to get some crafting/crocheting done. The first project I did was to make a niddy noddy. I went to Home Depot to pick up the needed pieces of PVC piping...



I got a few quizzical looks while picking out the piping, lol

Piping, elbows, & caps all ready to go :)

...and popped them together to make this:


My lovely niddy noddy ^.^

In my crochet-sphere, I've started another granny stripe scarf. This scarf will have even stripes of color lengthwise.


Color Scheme: Ultramarine Green, Bright Chartreuse, French Roast

Matching yarn from my current stash.

Even though I want to purchase I Love this Yarn to make all my new scarves, bows & whatnots- I still have quite the current yarn stash.  So yeah, it seems that having the color pallet set is helping me stash-bust. The perks keep coming!



Color scheme: Titanium, Tangerine Tango, French Roast.

First granny stripe scarf. Pattern 1

 Sooo... that's about it for my crafty Sunday crafternoon ^.^ I hope you had a great weekend!

Color Ideas & Inspiration

Hiya there!

Just a quick post today about colors.  I have been thinking about shop stocking and whatnot pretty often these days. I have a bunch of ideas in my head and needed some way of organizing them to actually be able to make the products.  The solution I came up with to streamline my process is to use a specific color scheme.

So off to google I went, and found the Pantone Fashion Color Report: Fall 2012.  I plan to use the 13 swatches to create products for the shop. This way, I can purchase specific colors of yarn and work from them only. It will really cut down on the whole choosing colors process I have (which takes a while).

These are the colors in the women's section.


source: Pantone

These are the colors in the men's section. (sorry about the small picture, that's all that was on the site...)


source: Pantone

So anyway, I went to Wal-mart & picked up paint chips in all the colors so that I have the ability to physically see the color combos together.  Then I sat and made 25 different combos (10 2-color/ 10 3-color/ 5 4-color) with the women's colors.  I still have to do the combos for the men's colors.  I can't wait to start making things with the schemes.  Now that I have my colors set for the season, I just have to nail down the patterns and get to work.

I think this is really going to be a big help motivation & design-wise for me! I'm excited to get going & I'm already researching colors for winter 2012! ^.^

~Goodnight~

Natural Hair Woes...

Ok. This post is not crafty in the least bit, but I gotta get it out..

UGH! I am so frustrated with my hair right now...

I decided to blow dry it out to loosen the curl pattern. But since my hair is SOOO THICK and SOOO TIGHTLY CURLED that I've been working on it for 30 mins and have only gotten through maybe a 4th of my head. le'sigh

Sometime I really want to just chop it all off, but I think about how long I've had it... My BC (big chop) was in the spring of 2007 and I've been 'growing' it ever since.  I've had a nearly 4 year old set of locs and picked them out out of curiosity. Now I have a head full of loose natural hair that comes roughly to the middle of my back when it's pressed.  When it's curly the texture is something like 4B-4C.  I'm terrible at styling.  I watch these lovely ladies on youtube being awesome and creating beautiful with their hair... I wish my hands were talented hair-wise.

Somebody help me with all this hair!!!!

Oh well... I'm going to water down my hair to curl it back up now... and put a bit of conditioner in it.

Twist out here I come...

Not So Blue Monday #12: When You Listen, God Speaks

Hi there. [This post is very text heavy, but I needed to share it. I hope you are blessed.]

In all honesty, today was streaked with blues.  Tears were shed, anxiety was rampant,  woe was me... I suppose it all started when I woke up late this morning. I slept thru all of my alarms (I really think my phone was on silent or something) and had to rush to work.  I still got there before pretty much everybody, but that doesn't really matter.  One of my coworkers asked me how my job search was going and if I had applied for any of the open positions at the University.  So I told her I had, but didn't get any of them- which was a bummer of a conversation.  The bulk of the cruddy feelings came around 11:30am when I was updating my Project 52 list.  I realized that there are only 19 weeks left in this year. Only 19 weeks left in 2012... and I had this overwhelming rush of 'where has my life gone'... I thought about how there are so many things I'd love to be doing, so many things that evoke creativity... things I want to see, places I want to go, but I feel a bit trapped on my current chapter of life. I feel like someone is flipping the pages past me before I can fully experience them and soon the book is over... 

So this afternoon I prayed and told God that I'm having a super hard time seeing where He wants me to be or go. I told Him I'm looking and looking for direction, but I just can't see it.

After I prayed this, I heard, quietly in the back of my mind, 
"Then stop looking and listen."

So I tried. I tried to quiet my mind enough to hear whatever God wanted me to listen to. But if you've ever tried to do that, you know that as soon as you want to quiet everything down- that's when everything starts to get wound up.  My mind went on chatterbox mode and silence was stinking impossible.  I prayed my apologies to God and packed my things up to head home.

On the way home I decided to stop by Hobby Lobby to look at yarn.  When I got inside, I walked a different way around the store and passed this sign:

As soon as I saw it, I laughed and thought, 'wow... God saw the trouble I was having quieting my mind to hear Him, so He just wrote it down.' I ambled around the store for maybe 15 more minutes telling my mom about the day and the message from God when I saw this stamp:

I saw this and knew that God was just reitterating Himself... driving the point home. It was so plain.

"Caleisha, chill out. Trust Me and My plan. Your plans and perspective of your life is not what I see. Trust me and I will guide you, take care of you, and prosper you. You trust. I work."

 So I guess, all things considered, this was a Not So Blue Monday after all.

Shooting Film

Hey there :)

I decided to bring my Pentax out to play on Thursday at the last Art Stroll.  I was feeling experimental after reading a tutorial on double exposures :)  However... the tutorial I read did not work properly, so I ended up with a bunch of split exposures.  Even though they didn't come out exactly how I dreamed, they are still interesting. Here are a few of them.

Left side: double exposure of my & Lamar's faces. Right side: double exposure of my lap/a plant.

Left side: the other side of the lap/plant double exposure. Right side: half of a plant/Lamar double exposure.

I also took some regular exposures around the Art Stroll.

Atlanta-based musical group, Unknown Lyric was the live entertainment.

Post stroll eats at Sam & Greg's. They have great pizza and gelato.

Honey Goat Cheese gelato... sounded terrible... tasted AMAZING!

Accordion player outside of Sam & Greg's.

That's it for my film photos. The next roll of double exposed film will be proper doubles. I can't wait. I think I'm going to plan out the shots before so that they are specific and not just of my lap and a plant... lol. I hope you had a wonderful day.

Peace :)

Crafternoon #12: Upcycled Tote How-to

Hi there!

Today was very eventful for me: spinning, carding, flea marketing, & crafting :)

The project for this crafternoon was all about fusing the mountain of plastic bags from under my sink.  After watching a couple youtube vids about the process I got down to the business of ironing plastic grocery bags.

Supplies: iron, ironing board, scissors, parchment paper, & plastic bags.

Make sure you have ventilation- very important :)

The first step (which I just realized I don't have a picture of) is to cut off the handles and bottom seam of each plastic bag and turn any printing to the inside. According to the etsy tutorial, 8 layers makes the best material, so fold it twice and you're ready to press.

Step 2

Sandwich your folded bag between two pieces of parchment paper and iron on a medium setting (silk or wool). The plastic will shrink from the heat so make sure to move the iron quickly and evenly to maintain as much of the rectangular shape as possible.

Step 3

After fusing all of your bags, it's time to sew! Use a zig-zag stitch and sew your front panel and back panel together. Trim the sides evenly. (I also pressed over the seams to kinda close up the needle holes a bit.)

Here are my two panels.

Step 4

Cut pieces of fabric for the bottom and sides of the bag.  I used some velvet-like scrap fabric from my stash. (Hurray for stash busting!) Stitch them to the plastic panels with a zig-zag stitch. (I sewed the short pieces to the longer one to make a long strip... it was a bit easier for me to put together that way.)

Stitching stitching stitching

(Step 5) After you finish attaching the sides and bottom, cut two long pieces of fabric for the straps. Fold the strips in half (right sides together) and sew a running stitch down the long side. Turn it inside out so you have a tube. Press it flat and sew them onto your bag with that good ole zig-zag stitch.

I decided (as an after-though) to add a pocket to the front of my bag.  If you know you're going to want a pocket on your bag, it's best to sew it on before attaching the sides/bottom.  I definitely did it the hard way, lol.

Here is the final bag!

I tried 3 types of bags for this project: Wal-mart, Kroger, & Target.  I ended up using all Target bags because they were made from thicker plastic which kept its shape a lot better than the other two stores.  I think that the Wal-mart & Kroger bags could work better if I layered them more. Like maybe 10-12 layers instead of 8. 

If you try your hand at fusing your plastic bag stash, I'd love to see a picture.  I'm excited about how my bag came out and will definitely do this again. The only difference will be that I will have a specific design before I start sewing, lol.

All ready to go to the farmer's market or something like that ^.^

Goodnight!

What's on My Hook? #13

Good evening!

I am [once again] crocheting & blogging from Books-a-Million.  It's cool though, just reminding me of life before internet at home, lol.  It also seems that every time I come here there is something interesting happening. Last night was scrabble club & I observed how intense scrabble games can be. Tonight there was a guy listening to latin music with headphones. The funny thing about it was not only could I clearly hear his music, he would randomly start mumble-singing along. The other people in the cafe' would look up very awkwardly every time he did it. -chuckle-

So! On to what's on my hook tonight!  I finally settled on a bow pattern. I started with this pattern, but ended up modifying the stitches and whatnot...

2ply handspun for the bow body.

It was so cool to see how my yarn works up. I'm a bit excited and already thinking up other colors to spin. I think I'm ready to start spinning with blended batts ^.^

1ply handspun for the bow's middle bit.

At first I was a little miffed about the inconsistent thickness of the single... but after crocheting it up, I actually like the texture.

All together. Only missing the brooch back or hairclip.

The finished bow measures 5" wide and 3" tall. It's a bit big for a brooch, but a good size for a hair bow. So I'm thinking about putting both a brooch and hair clip on the back.  I mean imagine this little bow as a bowtie with a collar shirt... ^.^  I think that'll be cute.

So yeah, that's what I was working on tonight. I can't wait for Ms. Laurie & Ms. Melissa to see it tomorrow. I hope my excitement doesn't make the work day stupid long though...

Have a great night & a wonderful morning.

Good Lookin' Out

So I was just about to write a sad and ranty blog because that's kinda how I'm feeling right now, but I decided not to.  When I deleted it, I noticed I had a new comment on my post from yesterday. 

One of my favorite bloggers, Meredith from One Sheepish Girl, took the time to write a little message.  I'm sure that she doesn't think that her comment would mean that much, but it does.  Especially when I'm catching myself thinking (more often that I'd like to admit) what am I doing with all these crafts?

I want so badly to make something of myself and do it in a way that doesn't eat my spirit for dinner and my creativity for dessert.

So in the midst of my dreary self-deprecating moment. A short message lifted me a bit.

Thanks God for leading me to delete that post when I did.

Tuesday Favorites #7: Warm & Cozy

Hi :)

Let me give you some background on how I'm feeling today... Yesterday it rained... a lot... and I had to walk in it to my interview with another department on campus... My little flats were soaked through and it was COLD.  Now, it's been pretty warm and summery lately, but after yesterday's rain storm, the temperatures have dipped back down.

All that being said... I just want to go back home and snuggle up in a blanket and sleep.

So, since that's not happening until I get off work, I decided to browse Etsy for pretty, snuggle-y, yarn-y, blanket-y goodness ^.^  Enjoy!
 



source: Allies Handmade Blankets

source: Fortune Crafts

source: CanterLily

source: Props4Play

Well... It seems that I have a pattern preference and a color preference :) I do love a simple chevron afghan, but I just can't get myself to commit to all that single crocheting!  I did see a granny chevron stitch once upon a time, so maybe that will be my next blanket project.

I've always been drawn to warm earthy colors (as you can see). They just make me feel happier. I really want a blanket like the last one pictured. I like the 'vintage' feel of the color scheme. Very "That 70's Show" I think.

Maybe I should do a granny chevron blanket in those colors... That could work ^.^

It looks like I have my next big crochet project brewing. I can feel myself getting excited... I'm such a yarn nerd >.< lol

[PS. since starting this post, the weather has changed again... It now feels like 87 degrees outside... ugh. These temp changes are going to make me crazy!]

Calli's Crafty Weekend Pt. 2

Good Morning :)

This is Part 2 to my Crafty Weekend post... but I guess you know that from the title... (rolls eyes at self).  Anywho, I wanted this particular craft to have it's own post because I'm so excited about it! I would say guess what I made, but that's kinda dumb since you're reading, but here are the pieces that added up to something pretty awesome:

I make two (count 'em 2!) drop spindles this past weekend!  One was from the parts shown above and the other has a clay whorl.  I'm so proud of myself. I found the steps for the wooden spindle on Joy of Handspinning & the steps for the clay spindle on Instructibles.  (Make the Wooden Spindle // Make the Clay Spindle) Both sites are full of a lot of useful information.

Anywho, it was harder than I expected to make the spindles. Primarily because you have to drill the hook hole in the center of the dowel or the spindle will wobble. Needless to say, both of mine wobble, but it's not really bad.  So here they are :) My two new spindles!

The dowel measures roughly 12 inches on each.

The notch in the whorl is to help the yarn stay in place. Works well.

The wooden one. It looks like it needs color desperately!

There you have it. The second part of my crafty weekend. As you likely saw in my last post, I've already used the clay spindle and it works well. I like the weight it has compared to the wooden one. I want to figure a way to add weight to the wooden one... I feel like it won't be as useful, but I guess if I wanted to spin something really dainty I could use it. I suppose so.

I had a lot of fun making these spindles and I'm planning to make another clay one eventually.  And who knows, maybe I can make a little money with them when I get the steps down well. A lady can always use more pocket change ^.^

That's all for tonight. I hope you had a pleasant Monday and made some time to do something you love.
~Peace~

Calli's Crafty Weekend Pt. 1

Hi there!

I have set up my crochet workspace at Books-a-Million again. Unfortunately the internet isn't working at home right now, so until further notice, I'll be blogging from work or BAM.  It's cool tho, it gives me a chance to do more public crafting.  I still get a little butterfly-stomached whenever I'm packing up my yarn and hooks to take out of the house.  I feel like people are going to stare at me like "What the heck is she doing?"  So far, that hasn't happened... I'm just paranoid. *shrug*

SO! On to the crafty weekend I've been having. =D

Friday afternoon, I went to Fiber Art Works to pick up the contrast color fiber for my handspun yarn.  I came back with a gold-ish colored fiber. (I forgot to ask Ms. Nina what kind of fiber it was.  When I find out I'll update this.)  Whatever it was, the length was maybe 3+ inches and it was a DREAM to spin. I spun up the whole ounce of fiber that night!

I am really loving Fiber Art Works.  Ms. Nina is very helpful and quick to give tips and assistance for fledgling fiber lovers like myself.  I feel like I have found my own yarn store ^.^ lol.

OK, Sabbath evening, I finished spinning the yellow fiber I've had for a few months & this morning I plied them together.  At first, I wasn't sure that I was going to like the two colors together, but after the plying was underway- it grew on me. Here's what it looked like.

(Check out the spindle I made!  WOOT! I'm so stinkin' proud.)

Now, all I have left to do is crochet up a little something with my yarn. I'm leaning towards a bow or a quickie project.  I forgot to measure the yardage before I wound it into the ball... oops. Next time I'll remember to do that.

My newest project on the "crochet front" is a set of slippers. (I wrote about their beginnings -here-)  I have successfully finished them today in BAM. I did resist the urge to put them on and walk around, lol. I'll save that for the privacy of my home.  They look pretty cute, and give off a bit of an east indian vibe... not sure why... Anywho, I like them and I think they'll be well used- as long as Miss Toot doesn't think they're her new chew toys.

BAM workspace

Completed slippers ^.^

Well that's about it crochet-wise regarding this weekend. I'm going to get ready to head home and work on my finished object with the handspun.  Wish me luck!

(I have a part 2 to this post that will go up tomorrow. I didn't want to write an obscenely long post.  I'm looking forward to writing it because the colors in the pictures are... yummy... for lack of a better word.)

Last thing!
I wore my hair out today and I'm so very in love with it!

Ok. Peace y'all!