Begin, Again

I know, I know.  I’m awful at starting something and not finishing!

I’m, also, really bad at taking on much more than I can handle. (Hence the lack of time to finish what I’ve started!)

This week I plan to do some serious soul searching.  I will be writing down all that I’ve gotten myself into, and then figuring out what’s truly important to me. 

As some catch up: I went off my self-medication for 3 months for the doctors to do some tests with nothing in my system.  Not only did she waste $200 bucks of my $15,000 lifetime allowance by classifying the visit as reproductive related, but she didn’t even do the tests!  I started hemorrhaging, again, due to being off my meds.  So from then til now, I have been taking them, again, and trying to rebuild my blood loss (without another blood transfusion!)

We have, also, moved into a cabin the size of our former master bedroom!  And Travis lost his job!  This has been such a difficult several months. 

I decided it was finally time to come back to the blogging that I love so much.  I will be freshening up this blog, and I am starting a new blog about our tiny house journey. (livingonafootprint.blogspot.com)  I would love for you to check it out!

Thank you to those that checked in on me in my absence.  I’m sorry, for the unexpected disappearance.  Please, don’t give up on me! 

Also, I may not be reviving the facebook page, as I am fairly certain I will be leaving facebook completely.

Egg #2-Rovi

Tonight’s egg is named Rovi.  I named it after one of my fav phone games.  The game is made by Rovio, and I think you can see why I picked that game.  (Angry Birds)

Rovi has some “battle wounds.”  After all, an empty eggshell is easy to break.  But she is still solid enough to last until Easter.

If you want to know why she is so angry, it is because little eggy, green pigs destroyed her egg babies!  (The nest above was destroyed by the wind and the 5 eggs that were in it came crashing down.)

So after that, she followed the 3 little pigs example and left her straw home for a wooden one.

But that home was taken over by a wasps nest (from last year.)

Now, Rovi flies in-between the living room and dining room of a brick home.  (A home with evil cats that are keeping their eyes on her.)  I wonder where she’ll fly off to next?!

Of course, inside her are seeds that birds love…sunflower seeds!

If only you could see how silly I look with her!  The feathers flap in the wind.  So when I brought her in, I was running around the house like a little kid helping her fly!  LOL

The feathers came from a boa I used to wrap golf clubs to make pink flamingos for my un-birthday party.  The eyes were from the pack I bought to put eyes on silk flowers for the same party.

Good News and Crafty Goodness-Egg #1

Let me start out by saying typing that NONE of this is an April Fool’s Day prank… Shall I continue?

Ok so maybe by “was going thru an emotional time”  I should have said “was, AND STILL AM…”

Since my experimental, self-medication to stop my hemorrhaging, and further self-med to give me a more regulated cycle, I have ovulated 3 times!!!  I am so excited! (and scared!)  So let’s celebrate: (I hope I’m not premature in my celebrations…)

So as a celebratory act, I decided to make a dozen “Easter” eggs!  Doesn’t sound like much, huh?  Well, I’m not simply dying them.  I’m giving them a more creative wardrobe!  I got the idea from a project in Family Fun Magazine. They had a project similar to today’s egg. (Which I named “Scuba Steve!”)

Of course, as usual for me, I didn’t follow the tutorial.  I just looked at the end result and made it my way.  In the end, the only real difference is that I gave mine a swim cap, more colorful goggles, and mine is filled with California Giant Zinnia seeds that were handed out at a local event!

Yup!  Ya see—I’m not Christian, therefore, to me, “Easter” is more a day of celebrating spring with a planting frenzy!  But half of our family is Christian, so I end up doing the fabulous egg hunt with them.  So here’s my mix of the two.

BTW—I am not affiliated in any way with Family Fun Magazine!  I just really like it!  If you DO decide to subscribe, here’s some words of advice:

DO NOT PRE-PAY!!!

I liked their mag so much I bought both of my sisters gift subscriptions for Christmas last year.  For the first time ever, I pre-paid!  Neither ever got a single issue!  And when I emailed them, they sent me a robot message stating that in order to help me, I had to give them the blah, blah, blah number from the back of my sisters’ magazines!  How can I get a number from a magazine that they never got?

I’m Baaack!

I’m sorry I disappeared!  I was going thru a rather emotional time, and I felt it best to take a break.  And what do ya know…I end up taking the opposite of a break!  LOL

A dear friend of mine threatened that if I didn’t help her make costumes and props at the theater…  Oh who am I kidding!  LOL  All she had to do was ask!

The baby pictured was the first one.  The straw coming out the eye was supposed to enable the actress to drink “blood” from the bottle stashed inside the webbed baby body.  In the end, I think they decided to forfeit that idea.

I didn’t photograph everything. (I know, shame on me…)  There were multiple versions of the goggles.  Most of them looked fabulous, but were not light enough for stage activity.  I’ll do better next time.

Most of it was winging it, and creating the patterns as I went along.  The darker brown jacket had to be made twice!  Ugh!  But didn’t they turn out fabulous?

The play was a Steampunk version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.  Both jackets are the same pattern except the sleeves.

So there’s some of what I’ve been up to.  The rest will be gradually updated soon.

Valentine Theme Week-Day 4

Today’s project is another classic Valentine gift.  Well, technically, it is a classic gift for most occasions.  After all, who doesn’t like a darling little teddy bear?

He was originally going to be bigger and somewhat different, but he kinda morphed himself into what he wanted to be. 

He is made from stretchy velvety material that used to be a shirt!

I was, also, going to make him like the Mad Hatter, but then Travis mentioned how much he looks like a mouse, so instead I made him into the inebriated mouse from the tea party.

Tea Party Mouse VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

What a big mistake!  He has gotten completely out of hand!  He’s been partying to all hours!  I tried to have a talk with him about it, but he just scurried off in a spiral, and passed out! 

Valentine Theme Week-Day 3

Well, my ADD took over again!  LOL  I did finish 2 projects for days 2 & 3, but one of them is not what I started yesterday!  Let’s start with the one I did start yesterday:

Valen-time Capsule VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I am limited on time for me to work on surprises for Travis.  It is hard to hide works in progress from Travis and our destructive cat at the same time!  Technically, it wasn’t finished by the time I took the photo.  I am waiting for the development of old photos that we hadn’t seen in a while.  Once they are in, There will be a ribbon around the top.  Not everything in it was photographed.  Most of the stuff wouldn’t make sense to anyone but us.  To everyone else these things are senseless trash, but for us, these things are treasures from different points of time in our history together.  I have:

• a dated broken pool stick tip
• a dated red-orange golf ball
• a fuse
• a paper football
• an old car key to a car we don’t even have anymore
• a little plastic pirate coin
• old tickets and wristbands
• and lots more priceless, crazy treasures!

Also included is the second thing I finished today:

What better for a bass guitar player that works in construction/restoration, than a trio of guitar picks made from a sample of Formica?!

Since he plays bass guitar, I should have known that the sushi guitar picks would be too thin for the thicker strings.  He played til he broke them!  LOL  So now these are thicker, stronger, and less feminine.

If you are wondering how the picks fit the theme:  They are handmade Valentine’s gifts that were made with love!

PS:  Most of the graphics can be found on the Graphics Fairy blog!

Valentine Theme Week-Day 2

As I said I would make something every day this week;  I have in fact been a busy bee today.  Two halves do make one whole, right?

I won’t give away too much, but I will give a sneak peek into “day 2’s” & “day 3’s” projects that were both started on day 2, and will both be finished on day 3.

You may be asking yourself why I started the second project before finishing the first, today.  I started with the sewing project and my back got sore from all the hunching over while sewing, so I had to stop.  Well, half a project wasn’t good enough for me.  So I figured:  two halves make a whole! 

 

 

To be honest, much of my problems today revolved around poor time management.  That seems to be an ongoing problem with me. 

 

 

I don’t regret all of it, but I do feel really bad that I caused my best friend to miss a lecture he really wanted to attend.  We bought him dinner to say sorry, tho.

 

 

However, we wouldn’t have found these cool masks or paper valentine’s dresses if we were on target. 

Valentine Theme Week-Day 1

I decided to make up for missing week #4 by making something every day for this week’s theme!  I begin with a small project.  Just some hair clips I made from the flower decorations from my unbirthday party. 

I only took a pic of one of each, but both of them have a matching pair.  I thought in my poorly lit house, that taking a pick of just one at a time would make it easier to see them.

Aren’t they cute, tho?  I thought they looked too cute to just waste them, and a classic Valentine’s gift for ladies are flowers.  The pink ones are actually backed with flowers I got off a lei that I’ve had for a long time.  (I’ve gained quite the collection of leis.)  The petals don’t look even because they are curled, but they are even.  The beads in the centers were in a pencil sharpener I found.  Weird things are often left in weird places.  LOL

Handmade Earrings For My Sis

Let me start off by saying that I changed my mind about offering more gifts for the time being.  7 are yet to be claimed on our Facebook page, so I think that is a good number to stop at for now.

So anyways…

My sis gave me a ring that would fit my tragus because I my old ring wouldn’t work right since my surgery in spring 2010.  Since then, my hole closed, but I re-pierced it at my unbirthday party on January 29th, 2011.  (The day after my actual birthday.)  She gave me a replacement hood ring, too.  (Technically, they were a pair that I chose to separate since my tragus and hood wear the same size.)

Well, I agreed to trade her a handmade pair of earrings for the pair that she didn’t want from her new 6 set.  And here they are:

I had a hard time photographing them.  This pic really doesn’t do them any justice, but it was the best I could manage at night in my low light house.  (She actually gave me that polish in my birthday present, too.  I don’t paint my nails often, but I love the color!)

The earrings are glass and metal beads.  I really wish yall could see them better. 

I am surprised at how much I love these!  I knew I wouldn’t finish them until I liked them, but I’m not usually a big fan of yellow.  Yet, I seem to be drawn to purple and yellow this year!  Odd me! 

They weren’t made of recycled stuff like my sushi box to guitar pick earrings or my recycled glass bead earrings, but I think they were worth it.  The purple thing is a piece of a birthday card envelope glued on a piece of thin cardboard stuff that was folded over a sticker that I found.

I hope she likes them!

Week 5? What Happened?!

The theme this week applies to the garment as well as the missing week #4.

In case you are wondering.  My un-birthday went so-so.  But the week prior and week since has been hell!  (I’ll spare you the details.)

I would start this post off by showing you my “failed” Alice dress for week #4, but I only failed in time constraint.  However the dress itself is still on the right track and will be finished and presented later, so I don’t want to spoil the surprise!  But there will be a make up garment soon for the missed week #4.

So this week’s garment was actually not what I was planning on refashioning this week.  This one is less of a “refashion” and more of a “save from a landfill!”

My sis gave me a bag of clothes for fixing, refashioning, and some she just didn’t know what to do with.  One of the garments was a knitted top that had many popped stitches and large runs.  I wasn’t sure I could fix it, but I set to work….

I surprised myself with how well I did at recovering all the damage!  I thought it looked better with the belt than just thick and boxy like before.  Like my new earrings?  (It was a birthday present-so I still haven’t used ANY of the $260 USD budget!)

For those that have “liked” Henthorne Handmade on Facebook:  More gifts will be posted tomorrow!  Sorry for the delay!  The PC’s and handmade gift sign ups are still open!  Check previous posts &/or the “Discussions” area on our Facebook fan page! 

52 Week Wardrobe Refashioning Community

I decided to create a community blog so that others may participate in the 52 Week Wardrobe Refashioning Project, too!  And if they must pledge, then so must I!  :)

I, ANKH, pledge to join the Henthorne Handmade 52 Week Wardrobe Refashioning Project by turning to my refashioning skills and turning old and boring into new and exciting. I am happy to be part of the 52 Week Wardrobe Refashioning Community where we can encourage and inspire one another to be green, frugal and creative.

I agree to follow the rules, and understand their purposes. I further pledge to at least contribute inspirational goodness once a month (or more.) And to show fellow contributors the same courtesy I would like to receive from them. Including sharing my positive thoughts in comments.

Signed,

ANKH

Week 3: Wishful Thinking

Although I love the cold weather, I do wish now could be spring!  I’m preparing plantings and looking at all the seed packets with all the beautiful colors.  I keep thinking of all the pretty dresses I want to wear this year since I’m not bedridden or wheelchair bound this year!  (Knock on wood!!!)

I am drawn to a different color every year.  I don’t know why.  I just am.  This year I can’t stop thinking about the color of most of the pansies that I am seeing all over the place.  I wish I had some!  I never thought of myself as a purple kinda gal, but this year I just can’t seem to get enough of it!

This week I captured a bit of that in this dress.  I know I should’ve had a better shot, but I was so busy goofing off in it that almost all the pictures came out blurry.  I like the dress.  I do need to tighten under the arms a bit, but otherwise I am very happy with it!    Sorry, no previous picture.  It was just a plain broom skirt.  Isn’t the umpire waist awesome?

I bought some red dye, too.  I probably should have done a purple project during the Amethyst month and a red project during the Garnet month.  Oh well! 

Some Good News

Sorry!  No craft for yall today.  I have been uber-busy all weekend!  There are just some things I felt like sharing:

I finally got more reliable internet!  I am so excited!  Since Travis’ pdaNet quit working properly, I have noticed one thing after another blocking me from doing…well…one thing after another!  LOL

The last straw was finding out I could no longer blog!  Oh, uh-uh!!!

So we had our own line hooked up!  While we were waiting for Monday to come, I found out I couldn’t comment or reply to comments!  YIKES!!!

But all is now super groovy on that front! 

For those that don’t know:

I was a Christmas Warrior for an orphan with Down Syndrome in 2010.  Well, I signed back on as his New Year’s Warrior for 2011!  If you would like to help Sheridan find his forever family, you can:

• Donate to his adoption fund on Sheridan’s page on Reece’s Rainbow.
• Donate to his adoption fund by mail to avoid PayPal fees by mailing a check or money order payable to Reece’s Rainbow DS Ministry, and don’t forget to make note of Sheridan (38).  Don’t forget the (38).  It lets them know which orphanage he is in.

Reece's Rainbow

PO Box 4024

Gaithersburg, MD 20885

• And a third way you can help is by FREE SEARCHING!  All you have to do is download Sheridan’s free benefitbar search bar, and use it like you normally would any other search bar!

Download Sheridan’s search bar by clicking here!

The last thing I am going to mention tonight is…BABY DUST!!!

This past Saturday, I started another round of fertility medication!  This time it is something new with great reviews!

LOTS OF BABY DUST WANTED!!!

We want a boy and a girl so we don’t really care if you give pink baby dust or blue baby dust!  All baby dust is accepted!  LOL

(Yes!  Even TWIN DUST!!!)

Week 2: Couch Potato

I’m a little later than I wanted to be in posting this week’s refashion tonight.  Travis’ pdaNet quit working.  So we had to go find Wi-Fi to post.

This week has been pretty chaotic, and yet, I bit off a huge chunk of a challenge!  (Almost too ambitious for this week!)

And here it is:

My new leather jacket!  And it was refashioned from this:

Forgive the crappy jacket picture.  The pile was photographed in the daylight, and the jacket was at night.  I don’t know why part is absorbing the light and part is reflecting it.  Maybe it is the way I have my arms.  I saw a jacket in a magazine that was one of those “not supposed to close” kinds, and I loved it.  However, I’m not as excited about my version.  I have more leather left, so I will probably be RE-refashioning this one.  I think I like how the cuffs tie.  I might keep that.

Overall:  Not bad for an experimental pattern used on leather that used to be a COUCH!  (The title makes more sense now, huh?  LOL)

The leather cost me nothing since it was given to me some time ago by a friend of mine whom repairs furniture.  Therefore, my $260 for the year has remained untouched!