About Me

My photo
Lapsed anthropologist-turned-burlesque performer and post-modern punk housewife/homesteader living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with a hunky husband, gorgeous daughter, adorable corgi, fluffy rabbit, and three clucking fabulous chickens.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Artist Trading Cards Swap


This week, I made my first ATCs, or Artist Trading Cards. My friend, Desiree, organized a swap party with some of her artist friends and invited me as well, even though I'm not really an artist. I had absolutely no idea what to do, so I took a bag of random supplies to the weekly craft day I attend, and pulled these together:



I went for a general fairy tale/literary theme. A '1001 Tales' card, a Harry Potter card, Kuan Yin, Fairy Tale cottage, pirate ship, etc...




The backs I designed in photoshop and paint, and then Mr. Bear cut them out for me on his laser. I sandwiched them all together and stitched them on my machine.







These are the cards I chose at the swap:


Mr. Bear made the circut board cards with a dead board(though it still hurt his heart to cut it up). He etched his signatures onto the backs.

I want to organize a swap with all of my crafty friends now, but half of us are planning weddings or having babies and we're all so busy!


Pin It

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Dust Ruffle Bunny

Butterscotch is almost 4 months old! I can hardly believe it! It seems like just yesterday I was dreaming of bringing my adorable baby bunny home. Being that she's almost 4 months old, it is high time for a hare cut. See what I did there?

German angoras do not molt, so they need to have their wool sheared every three to four months in order to prevent wool block. Since this is Butters' first shearing, she was understandably uncooperative and skittish. I used regular long bladed craft scissors(since I had them on hand and cannot afford shears yet) and started by clipping the wool off her back in small tufts, being careful to avoid second cuts(bits of fluff that get caught up in the tuft being sheared, resulting in shorter staple lengths). Over two sessions I was able to get all her prime fiber and some of her secondary fiber, but I won't be able to get her sides, chest, or belly, until Mr. Bear can help me keep her still.

She has a decorative dust ruffle, currently.

After putting up with two shearing sessions, she earned herself a good long play session without any fuss from me.

Apparently nibbling my skirt seemed appropriate payback for making her bald.

I gave her a nice pile of towels to burrow in and play with.



Oh no! The scissors!

I got more fiber off her than I would have thought for a young bunny. She's going to be much larger when she's full grown, so I forsee a lot of shearing in the future.

A large bowl of primary angora.

A start on the Secondary Angora.

The angora is so soft that when you press your hand into the bowl full of it, you can barely feel it against your skin. I'm planning on spinning her primary fiber(blended with some wool for memory) between now and the wedding and knitting them up into a pair of wedding wristers. Specifically these. So pretty.



Tuesday, July 5, 2011

4th of July Tiki Lounge Party

Mr. Bear and I have become quite the party animals. Our beautiful house, dubbed Ft. McAwesome, has become the entertaining house in our circle, something we've worked for. We threw a 4th of July/birthday party for our friend this past Saturday, and it was a blast. The theme was 1960's Tiki Lounge, and people were encouraged to dress up.


My potting bench was cleaned and brought inside to be set up as a bar for one of our friends who is a professional bartender and had offered to work the party as a birthday gift to Jana. Crystal brought her collection of tiki-themed barware to serve drinks in and came up with a drink menu for guests to order from. I supplied her with fresh mint from my garden for the mint juleps.

Early in the evening, when everything was more or less organized and fully-stocked.

She's one of the best bartenders in the city, and I don't just say that because she's a friend.

The swizzle sticks were a big hit.

Many, many drinks later...

The menu.



Butters got some love early on in the evening, but she got way overheated later in the night and I moved her downstairs in Ponyo's kennel. It's much cooler in the basement. Butters is going to get sheared here pretty soon. Ponyo loved all the attention she was getting, but the disappearance of her kennel left her a bit agitated.


Jana, the birthday girl, in pink, and surrounded by stylish ladies.

All told, I think we had around 35 people. I'm happy our house was able to accomodate that quite comfortably. Much better than the tiny house we lived in previously. The back deck is perfect for barbeques. Mr. Bear brought my cutting table down from the craft attic and set it up like a buffet table outside, while the kitchen table held dishes, silverware, and buns. We went through dozens of burgers and hot dogs, meat and veggie alike. Mr. Bear is very good about keeping the veggie and meat foods separate.
Everyone got into the costumed spirit of the evening, most having obtained somewhat-retro styles at the thrift stores earlier that week. The hair was amazing in of itself.


Both these women are hairstylists and have awesome color in their coifs.


Even the badass Goths among us got into the retro action.




Mr. Bear, having his first alcoholic drink since we've known each other.

I spent a large chink of the evening shucking a dozen ears of corn for the grill, after which I indulged in quite a few drinks prepared by our awesome bartender, and the evening is a bit blurry. I remember hula hooping and playing the ukulele at the same time, which no one had a good picture of, and everyone playing Just Dance 2 on the wii. I also discovered a myriad pictures on my camera that were taken by many guests and paint a colorful, if disjointed picture of the rest of the evening. I leave you to piece together your own narrative:
















Happy 4th of July!


Pin It
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...