This week on Instagram {3.14-3.24}

Good Friday, friends!

I'm combining the last two weeks because I didn't post as much as I usually do.

My phone (Sony Xperia) stopped working.  And I mean it completely bricked it self.  It took a few days to get a new one.  Then 4 days later, it bricked it self again.  I'm now on my third in 9 days.

Awesome.

Anyway.

Instagram, yay!

1. My biy is crawling.  It's an awkward jerky random crawling.  But it's also effective.

2. Baby's first mythos.  I love Greek mythology and Neil Gaiman.  Both of my kids are named after personifications and characters in Gaiman's The Sandman.  Violet Moirae (fate) and Westin Oneiros (dreams).  As it is Greek, there are beautiful explanations.  Google it.  :)  

3 and 4.  My dream catcher I won on a giveaway.  It beautiful!  It's by BettyB.  Like her page.  It's totally worth it to see what she makes. 

5.  New business cards with a preview of the new wordpress site.  This is my incentive to get the site going.  We're maybe 50% done now.  My husband is a software engineer.  I get domain names for my birthdays.

6.I bought a uke.  I hate learning to strum.

7.  Instamatic.  I need to take some photos and count and catalog all my old cameras.  So many are just so well made and good looking.

8. Sugar n Cream.  I love this color so much.  For an ex goth I really love these springy colors.  No shame!  I forget what I bought this for, but at the time I needed it.  :)

9.Size 6 toddler bowling shoes.  We took the kid bowling for the first time.  She's a smash and grab kinda chick, so she loved the concept.  My husband and I met through mutual friends at a bowling ally in 2002.  So, this was a bit of a special outing for us.   He's still a much better bowler than me.  Jerk.

10.  This afghan was started in September for a baby that was born 4 weeks ago.  :/  I'm not usually so behind.  I also like bright socks.

11.  A local theater plays free movies Sunday morning.  I took Vi to see how long she would last in a theater.  Longer than me.  This movie sucks.  But it was really fun watching her reaction to a theater.  She asked me for popcorn.  I have no idea how she knew. 

12.  Middle of the night exhausted selfie.  I still need a profile pic to put on everything that's recognizable.  As my "brand".  

13.  My boy is sweet and cute.  :)

14. My best friend most of my life moved to Italy in January.  I'm sending her a little care package.   This one is a little different from the other's I've made and I like this line up a bit better. It's tiny tho.  If her husband wasn't so tall it would fit in a 3" hoop.

15.  An antique wheelchair.  We were congregating in the hospital waiting test results.  They were not good.  I take photos when I'm upset.  And I have a thing for old medical equipment.

Do you have an instagarm?  follow for follow?  ;)

{How to} Stitch on the Unstitchable

OR- How to stitch on stuff other than fabric.

Don't get me wrong, I love fabric.  But I like this a teensy bit more.  

I don't make things that can be made in a simpler medium. Meaning if fiber doesn't add to the art I don't make it fiber art.   A cross stitched portrait is beautiful.  But it's time consuming and I would rather just hang a photo.  

What I love is to combine mediums.  I'm not an artist.  I'm a try-er.  

And this is something I had to try.

First - get your materials

In this case I had a cardboard box from Hobby Lobby.  You know those brown boxes.  I think they are cardboard.

A phrase printed big enough to put onto said box.

A large needle, tape (double sided and normal), scissor, thread, ruler, a pen and a "poker" (an Awl tool).  An Awl tool is used for leather crafts.  It's near the jewelry at Micheal's.  You can use a needle too but the eye hurt my fingers when I pushed it through so I switched to this with it's comfy rubber handle.   It works perfectly.

Use double sided tape to adhere the phrase to the box.

Double sided works better than normal tape because it's somehow not as adhesive.  It comes right off, not ripping anything.

Figure out where you want your holes to be.  I chose to split up the larger lines so the thread wouldn't easily get caught on anything.  I used the ruler to make it uniform.

It ended up looking like this.  The purple dots is where I poked the holes.

Poke your holes.

Here's the back.

Your holes should be somewhat uniform, so try to give the same pressure with each hole punch.  This will take a while.  Longer than you would expect.  I had to stop to rest my wrists a few times.

I used a simple backstitch and all 6 strands of DMC.  And this is the result.

Added a border.

You have tape to tape down the excess when beginning and ending thread.  I don't try to tie them in simply because this is easier and it holds firm and flat.

I've used this method to stitch on paper, cardboard, boxes, canvas, and leather purses.  At some point I want to stitch on wood.

 At the moment I'm trying to decide if I should stitch on my new coach purse I got off ebay.  Hmmm.

{instagram giveaway} MadebyBettieB Dreamcatcher.

I never win anything.  I'm making* cranes to try to put some positive luck out there.

*  hahah I haven't made one in a week.  Sigh.

I made 10 in one day and reposted this

A few days later I was notified that I had won!

"Betty" is extremely friendly and creative person.  The whole experience was a pleasant one from start to finish.

I'm still in shock, especially when I received this beautiful dream catcher with a phrase from T.S. Eliot.

"Anxiety the handmaiden of creativity", that I picked it out.  :)

The stitching is beautiful.  The colors are gorgeous.  I honestly couldn't have been more happy with it or impressed.

YOUGUYS!

Lookit.

 Support my new favorite artist at facebook or instagram.  

{photography} Couple Shoes

One of the things I love about photography is the attempt to tell a store purely with images.  We have all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words.  I feel the real trick it the picture being worth the correct 1,000 words. 

What do you think their names are?

Stitched: Little Leather Purse.

I found this purse at a local thrift store and picked it up for 2 bucks with the intention of stitching something on it.

I'd say 90% of what I work on is hair brained ideas I've had and HAVE to try.

I decided on the word I wanted on it and drew it up on some graph paper.  I got a cute little graph paper notebook at Target a while back.

I've been looking for a 12X16 notebook of graph paper but I can't seem to find any.

I then straight pinned it to the purse and stitched right over it.  It just took some tweezers and a little patience to rip the paper off.

I love this teal.  DMC 3849.  It seems all my favorite colors are 38 something.  Interesting.

It's going to be summer soon. This is my light summer purse.

¹cache

 noun \ˈkash\

1

a :  a hiding place especially for concealing and preserving provisions or implements

b :  a secure place of storage

2

:  something hidden or stored in a cache

3

:  a computer memory with very short access time used for storage of frequently or recently used instructions or data —called also cache memory

Do you stitch on anything that isn't made to stitch on?

Profile Photo - Help me to decide.

I'm been working on a conversion to wordpress and with it I'd like to have one photo for the blog, Instagram, facebook, google, everything.  I'm having a hard time deciding which I like better.  Help me decide.

Hard, soft or just start over.

What do you think?

It's really just good advice. { a cross stitch gift }

Did you see this fb status that was going around after the New Year?

I did not "like" this status.  I did, however, have two friends post it.  I make things for people constantly.  That's really all I do.  I don't sell much at all.  And I don't make things for myself.  I do commissions and lots of gifts.

Roz posted this status and then we had a conversation about a cross stitch that she saw that was funny.  So I decided to make her one without "like"ing anything.  It jumped to the top of my list because It was fun to do.

I wanted to make it as unassuming and "granny" as possible.

My week on Instagram {3.8 - 3.14}

Another week has gone by already.  The days are so long, but the weeks are so short.  The kids get older everyday.  The weather....the weather doesn't change much.

http://instagram.com/daisiesforviolet

1. Jeff and I went to an art show of bootleg t-shirts.  I write a little about it here.  There were t-shirts covering the walls of The Yetee.  They operate out of a building in our downtown.  It's a very interesting building and they open up to art shows every once in a while.  We also see all our artsy friends there.

2.  I'm convinced that when I make a bunch of cranes I have good luck.  I was able to knock out 7 that day.  They still take me forever.

3 & 15.  I went to Ulta to get a haircut and picked up some nail polish too.  I wore black nail polish from 13 to 27.  Honestly, like every single day.  Then it popular and as a true goth kid, I dropped it.   I began experimenting with different colors, even got a couple manicures.  But it didn't stick.  It's too much maintenance now.  Vi likes me to paint her nails so we both did the pink.  I have filters on each photo so you can't see the true color.  I really love this pink.

4.  The chick that cuts my hair is awesome with it.  The first cut last year we did from waist to shoulders then a couple weeks later we took it up to a true pixie.  I can't see myself any other was now.

5.  I love quilts with a modern geometric feel to them.  But I can't quilt so I've been working out making a "quilt" afghan.  It's at the bottom of my To Do but Its one of the things I really want to play with.

6. My mom keeps finding these with these pretty badly done off centered needlework butterflies and bees in them.   Best hoops ever though.

7. I have a shelf above my desk with just stuff on it.  I'm a fan of stuff, but I hate clutter so it's really a delicate balance. Skeleton nutcracker from Halloween 2011.  2011 was a big year for us.  A Bell & Howell camera.  Stylistically, it's one of my favorites.  A giant palmistry hand.  An anatomical skeleton book page, "Find Something Beautiful" is really just a reminder to be positive in my attitude.  My first "paper quilt", and a few cranes.

8. I'm still working on getting all the DMC colors.  I don't wrap them as soon as I get them by any means.  I love the look of loose floss so I just kind of stall.  No one really needs 50 reds.  I just WANT them all.  Pokemon style.

9. Teensy stitches.  These are for earrings.  I have them in the tiny button but I have to put backs on them.  They were for a show, but that show go canceled so they are mine now  :)

10.  Experimenting with the video function.

12. I honestly feel like I'm stealing with I take more than two these.  They were for boxes for that show.  So now they will just sit on my desk until the next show.  :)

13. We made banana bread.  As she is stirring she sings, "Maaaakin' maaaakin' i's maaaakin'.  Momma! Wook!"  It's the best.  And nearly erases how stressful it is for me to let her experiment and not worry about a mess or imperfect banana bread.

14. Maker problems : Nails to long to make anything.  Cut them.  Nails too short to make anything.  It's true.  The tips of my fingers get all sensitive with my nails are long.

15. The top of the box for my Package Pal.  I love how this turned out.  I'd don't normally aim for "pretty".

Package Pals - What I sent. {Make Something Beautiful}

This is what I got.  ( add link  )

Here is what I sent -

Lindsay mentioned that she wanted to learn to sew.  I can't teach her to sew but I can set her up with a kit to learn to embroider.

I got three boxes from Hobby lobby and hand stitched them.  It was important for me to send her a kit, but also something that I made so if she doesn't choose to learn to embroider, at least she has something pretty.

This includes

1 hand stitched 8'x8' box containing full kit
1 hand stitched box to hold floss
1 hand stitched box to hold needles and sharps
2 vintage gold sharps
14 various Sullivan's floss colors and floss bobbins
1 6” embroidery hoop
2 tear away stablizers
2 pieces of fabric
1 Aunt Martha's pattern pack

The only thing I didn't include was a scissor.  

I really enjoyed doing making this and putting it all together.  95% of the time I'm making things for other people.  I don't remember the last thing I made for myself, let alone finished.

It's really just more fun this way.  I like to make stuff then give it away.    

-Teresa

Package Pals - What I got.

I WAS a part of package pals.  :)  Read about what it is here.


It was pretty fun.  I said a little about myself and what I'm in to, as did some other people.  I was matched up with someone and told to create something for them.  It's a very cool idea.  I was matched up with Lindsay at mycreativedays.com.

Lindsay's style couldn't be further from mine.  She loves burlap, wood, home DIYs and chalkboard paint.  She got me out of my comfort zone.  And I love a good challenge.

What I got -

She was quick!  I got my package on 3.3 and we didn't have to be done until 3.31.

Violet was as excited as I was.

We've got burlap, burlap stickers, woods shapes, twine, glitter, a notebook, washi tape, stick pins and some sweet smelling things.  Vi immediately ripped open the cute little line art stickers and stuck them to their own packaging.  Oops.

These are all crafts that I didn't have before.  I'm not sure what I will do with them just yet.  But I'm sure I will find something that Lindsay would be proud of.  :)  Thanks Lindsay!

My week on Instagram {2.29 - 3.7}

Two posts in one day!  OMG.  Fast or feast my friends.

If you feel so inclined you can follow me here. http://instagram.com/daisiesforviolet

(Starting at the bottom this time because I realized this made more sense)

1. My kid is freaking cute.  She is just starting to keep glasses on and smile for the camera.

2.  I got these shoes for her at Buy Buy Baby  I wish they came in my size.  She loved the "dots" and she can take them on and off herself.

3.  Vi's mittens.  I finished them (hopefully) late in the season but they should fit her next year too.  I love them.

4.  Stitchaday.  February. Dead issue.

5.  Saturday was my cousin's 13th birthday.

6. It was also my birthday.   My mom, dad, and brother came over with cake.  Violet blew out my candles.  Lil jerk.  :)    I'm 32 now.  I feel 24.  I guess that's where aging stopped for me.  

7. I got this at Target or $8.  The hand was a little bent but it bent right back.  My house was built in 1954 and i try to add thins to it that look like they belong.  1945-1960 is the best era for design anyway.

8. and 12.   A gift.  She's on Instagram so I can't show it till tomorrow.  :)  I fell for these little flowers and blackwork.  It's more traditional than usual and I enjoyed doing it.

9. and 11. Mr. Eric Sholtz Monster and the beginning of Mr. Gutter Punk Monster.  They are for the ArtBar show.

10.  We went to the Land of Nod outlet.  Better than the park, I swear.  I do confess, I wanted this as much as she did.

13. Obligatory cat pic.

14.  I got some Pantone paint colors at Lowes this week.  I want to paint Violet's room finally. I don't want pink, just cause but I also thing I have bee unfair to pink.  I can't decide.

15.  The Pantone Swatches.  There is something so satisfying about seeing this many great colors together.

16. and 17.  My hair is too long.  I'm trying to postpone a cut.  It's not working.

18. My boy is 5 months old and he is belly laughing.  It's the best.

19.  I made this purse.  It says cashe.  I have a blog scheduled about it for next Tuesday.  :)

20.  This morning was.  EPIC.  The whole world is against me.  Bad luck on bad luck.  I'm going to chase of that luck with my Wolves teeth.  Holla.

How was your week?

Aurora First Fridays, Artbar: Toy Show.

Every first friday of the month Aurora gets real artsy.

Tonight we have a few places to be.  First Violet drew a picture with about 15 other kids to participate in First Fridays over at Culture Stock.  We are at the bookstore a lot and I love it there.

Next we have Kevin playing at The Yetee.  Kevin is a good, old friend.  But I watch him play like a fan. I love his music, and knowing him and his family and my BFF/ His wife Jen so well it adds something to the music.  :)

I want a shirt. Fb invite here.

Finally we have the artbar.  We go every month and either me or Jeff is in it always.

Always a TON of great art.  There are more artists every month.

My contribution are these guys,
from Left to right.
Mr. Gutter Punk Monster.
Mr. Bela Lagoofy Monster
Mr. Eric Sholtz Monster.

See you tonight!

***UPDATE***

See those three little stickers?  That means I sold all three!

 Here's a few works that especially loved that night.

Jessi is a badass that makes badass clay figurines.

I'm totally amazed by Brittney's needle felting.  She's also a photographer.

I don't know Anne Bruckner but she made this amazing Frankenstein.  I like of love Frank.