Friday, December 19, 2008

Live Auction Goodies - First Come First Served

Two years ago bf and I started attending local live auctions to look for items to sell on ebay. I was hoping to make a killing, and have a part-time income. Bf's mother is a Powerseller on ebay. If his 60-something mom can rake it in, how hard could it be? Turns out it's not hard if your auctions are in New Hampshire where the bids on quality goods are at least half what they are in Massachusetts. Jump to today, someone has boxes of auction goodies that didn't sell on ebay, or wouldn't sell for enough to make a profit. Vintage treasures that one usually sees in antique stores, but now are a dime a dozen online. We are moving soon (yay! hallelujah!), and I don't want to trudge these boxes from place to place.

I was going to give these away free, not including shipping. I've since decided to ask for donations, if anyone wants any of the items I posted below. I will show better pictures asap.  The donations will go to my new local charity: Westfield Homeless Cat Project. I'm donating all of my ebay stuff to them for their giant indoor tag sale on February 7 and 8 at St. Rocco's Club at 300 Elm St. in Westfield MA. They are still accepting donations of items, too, so if anyone has any stuff they'd like to donate, I'll bring it to them.

My new apartment allows at least one cat, so I might try to get my cat from this wonderful woman's nonprofit. I guess then I'll become a crazy cat blogger.

This was my previous offer: Here's my offer: every day I'll post one (*maybe more*) auction treasure. The first commenter who describes their favorite teeny.tiny.cute craft or object (not mine, necessarily) and puts a link to my blog on your blog will get the treasure, free. I will post your link, too, of course.

Please have paypal, and I will post the approximate shipping costs that you will have to pay. In the US, I usually ship via the Post Office's Priority Mail, and they have flat rate boxes/envelopes for approximately $9.60 or so. This is almost always cheaper than the weighed and measured First Class rate.

Here's a sneak peek:






"Westfield Homeless Cat Project:
We will be having a TAG SALE on February 7th & 8th to raise funds for the Westfield Homeless Cat Project.....A no kill cat and kitten rescue located in Westfield MA. It will be held at St. Rocco's
Club at 300 Elm St. in Westfield MA. If you or anyone you know would  like to donate items please contact us Thank you for all you do for the animals."

Sunday, November 9, 2008

too cute to eat

Recently went out to eat with bf, his coworker friend, and his friend's fiance. The thai place had gluten-free food, yum, but the presentation was too kawaii. Sorry for the grainy dark iphone pics.

Look at the tiny mushroom radish!



Just look at it! I dare you to eat it!






siam square thai restaurant

Monday, November 3, 2008

Long Time No See

[12.6.08 gah, I just reread this post with my boyfriend. I guess I must have been in some pain,, in my HEAD! What a load of errors! ]
I've finally recovered from my cold. Speaking of cold, it's freezing here in Massachusetts. My knees and elbows are not happy. So, instead of hearing them complain all winter, I made some knee warmers. (Hang on there elbows, yours are coming.) I cut one of my bf's old socks in two, snipped the toe off, and had two useful knee warmers. You can also see my mis-matched socks: I wear his old socks when I wear my boots, so the boot tops don't rub against my calves. No one's going to see them, so I don't care what they look like. The knee warmers feel so soft and toasty, I even went outside with my jeans on and felt comfy as a kitten in a sweater sleeve.*


















*edited to remove blindingly pale thighs, credit to goma and ichc

Thursday, October 9, 2008

send help. stop. head exploding. stop. please send this to me asap. stop. am running out of kleenex. stop.




Monday, October 6, 2008

Green Blog Carnival - guess who got invited?



I was asked to submit one of my posts to the 6th Carnival of Green Crafts by the carnival's originator from Crafting a Green World. The 6th one is hosted at the cutest canadian craft site: smidge.ca. Check me out! I'm absolutely thrilled and honored!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Fabric dollhouse start with Brimfield finds


Okay, I've finally started on my version of uklassinus.blogspot.com's fabric dollhouse tutorial. I had been wracking my brain trying to figure out an alternative to the counted cross stitch plastic interlayer. I a. didn't want to use plastic, if possible, and b. didn't want to have to buy something new. I was debating using cardboard, plastic from takeout chinese food containers, wood. I thought book covers would work, I just can't bring myself to break apart books in the name of craft. Finally, at the Salvation Army I decided to look through hardcover non-fiction and the kids' books. My bf found the perfect victim first: ALaddin, the story from the Disney movie, not even the original Aladdin story. Next I found a marketing book to children: a Precious Moments, A Day at the Circus Golden Book. Both only serve to sell products to children, I think, and I abhor circuses with animals. So, no guilt, and the item they help create will be for a child. I need a few more pieces of book board, so I looked through one of our many "Free" boxes we put out on the curb, and found an early 80's, thus outdated medical technique book: Craniographic Positioning with Comparison Studies, with slight mold on its covers. I'm going to use the covers for the dollhouse after washing with white vinegar, and we're going to save the best skull xrays for crafts. The leftover pages from
all will be tossed into a free box for craft supplies for a lucky scavenger.

I plan on covering the dollhouse with fabric from my Brimfield score, and use the buttons for the closures. Stay tuned for the next part, hopefully on Saturday. We're going away on Friday overnight and I'm busy all day Thursday.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Winged cat discovered in Northampton Mass

Me, my friend Bee and one other curious man at the Northampton DPW (Department of Public Works) Trash/Recycling Center saw one of these. Really. It was tan. I thought, hopefully, there was another cat lying on top of it, how cute would that have been. Delusional, I was. It was super skittish, but I swear it had things growing out of each
side of its back. I drew it for my bf, he was only kinda excited until I showed him this photo. What weird timing. My sighting was about one month ago. I even tried to find out what it was by googling. Little did I know I saw a tiny mythical beastie.

Winged cats discovered in western China - Boing Boing
Winged cats discovered in western China



Posted by Lisa Katayama, August 28, 2008 8:00 AM
Winged cats have been known to exist since the 19th century, but only a handful of people have actually seen—let alone owned—one. This woman in Sichuan province watched as her beloved kitty grew angel wings on his back last summer after a bunch of female cats tried to mate with him. "Many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow," she said.

Geneticists have a less romantic theory. They believe it could be a genetic defect, a skin condition, or the result of poor grooming.
Want even more on winged cats?

"Ready for take-off, Tiddles? Meet the cats which have sprouted wings"
Original dailymail.co.uk article

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I got Busted

I finally got my blog admitted to Bust's Girl Wide Web. For some reason, though, they put me in the "Me & My Obsessions" category, and I wanted "She's Crafty." But, hell, I'm not complaining!
BUST Magazine - Me & My Obsessions

Monday, September 8, 2008

Brimfield

So, my bf and I decided to drive the 45 minutes to the Brimfield Antiques Fair on Friday. He had never been, I've only been there once before about 8 years ago. It's the biggest antiques and collectibles fair in the USA. Meaning, approximately 5,000 vendors. I made sure that we both had specific items to look for, because otherwise it is just too overwhelming, and you end up buying way too much, or nothing at all. I knew I would use craft supplies, so I looked for fabric and notions, and vintage clothing. He wanted to find vintage mens' clothing, including old hats. I wasn't having any luck finding affordable cute things, even at a half off table. It didn't help at all that we were melting from the heat.

Finally, at a gorgeously designed booth, I found mason jars of mixed vintage buttons for $4 each. Most places were selling buttons by the piece, like 50 cents each! I bought two jars, and was tempted to get three lots of pre-cut 3" quilt squares from vintage fabric. I just wasn't sure when I'd get around to making the quilt(s), and I have enough supplies and WIP's to tide me over for many many months.

I did buy a ziploc baggie of vintage fabric scraps for $5. Turns out most was vintage, some new. I was looking for pieces that would be nice for appliqueing.

My final purchase was a return to a vintage clothing dealer, a really nice woman. I bought a 1970's pink toile Villager cotton shirt. She charged me $8, down $4! I'm going to take in the waist, to make it less boxy.

A successful trip. Here are some pics:


How adorable is this print? Two different birds, and butterflies.



Some of the more detailed buttons.

The fabric pile.

Fabric.com Coupon Corner







My favorite prints, look at those squirrels!

Monday, September 1, 2008

lucky lucky


I finally found the lucky duck who designs and sells her stuffed goodies at anthropologie. Here she is:







Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Mr Obvious



Max really thinks a bird is going to land while he's waiting right under the bird feeder. He's losing his touch. He kept moving his head around, too, such stealth.

local cutie patooties






We leave our door open to the porch as much as possible. I love inviting in the friendly bugs, the mosquitoes and flies ( unfortunately for them) get caught and fed to our house spiders. We are such weirdos, I know. My father makes a pity face at us whenever we talk about how cute they are, or the babies that emerge. I know he's thinking: these two need a kitten, or even a human baby.

Thankfully, our neighbor has an indoor/outdoor cat (he is only one of two of our neighbors grandfathered into the no cats policy) in which to indulge our need to coo and pet and fuss. Max is street smart, he never seems to venture far, just around the complex, and through the field, I mean, his field. He will not tolerate any other animal in there. We've finally sweetened him up enough to come in and hang out (tuna always helps). Sometimes he even takes a 1 minute kitty nap in the homemade meant for shelter animals cat bed I made.

Here he is:


We get tons of ladybugs, endlessly circling the edge between the wall and the ceiling. I've finally started taking pity on them and moving them outside. Here is a photo montage of my releasing her, using macro on my digital camera. She went under the teeny tiny maple tree (I think) to hide and drink some moss water.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

HIPSTER

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters
I‘m sipping a scummy pint of cloudy beer in the back of a trendy dive bar turned nightclub in the heart of the city’s heroin district. In front of me stand a gang of hippiesh grunge-punk types, who crowd around each other and collectively scoff at the smoking laws by sneaking puffs of “fuck-you,” reveling in their perceived rebellion as the haggard, staggering staff look on without the slightest concern.

The “DJ” is keystroking a selection of MP3s off his MacBook, making a mix that sounds like he took a hatchet to a collection of yesteryear billboard hits, from DMX to Dolly Parton, but mashed up with a jittery techno backbeat.

“So… this is a hipster party?” I ask the girl sitting next to me. She’s wearing big dangling earrings, an American Apparel V-neck tee, non-prescription eyeglasses and an inappropriately warm wool coat.

“Yeah, just look around you, 99 percent of the people here are total hipsters!”

“Are you a hipster?”

“Fuck no,” she says, laughing back the last of her glass before she hops off to the dance floor.

Ever since the Allies bombed the Axis into submission, Western civilization has had a succession of counter-culture movements that have energetically challenged the status quo. Each successive decade of the post-war era has seen it smash social standards, riot and fight to revolutionize every aspect of music, art, government and civil society.

But after punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”

An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Cardboard kitty cat chaise lounge

Surprise porch visitor

Two nights ago, I turned on our porch light at 800pm in order to collect bugs for our pet house spiders (more on that in another post). Around 930pm my boyfriend comes in from his cigarette and asks:

"Do you want to see the cutest thing in the whole world?"

Of course!

I immediately went to the porch rail and looked over, thinking it was either baby skunks or neighbor cat related.

He said, "No, turn around."

And, on top of one of our plastic porch chairs (we're on the second floor) was the brightest green tiny little frog. It had to be only 3/4" long. This was the best pic we got with his iphone, it's very grainy.
It was sitting so calmly, seeming to stare at the outside walls, where all the bugs were. My bf tried to pick it up, but it just moved sideways. It was fearless. We picked bugs off the wall and put them very close to him. I missed the first chomp, but he took a little squiggly black bug we'd put in some water on the top of the chair. He slowly advanced about two steps, frozen in between, like a cat, then glomped his mouth right over it. We've been inviting him back, calling to him over the field next door, but nothing. He was seriously the tiniest cutest thing I've ever seen in New England. I'd never seen a bright green frog before.



Kind of crafty: Project Runway

I'm trying to catch up on Project Runway (US) without cable tv. I found tudou.com, a Japanese (?) website that has tons of tv shows on it. So far, it's lasted two seasons without being shut down.

Project Runway 5 正在播放-视频-在线观看-土豆网

As of episode two, I of course like the dowdy shy girl from a small town in Italy's fashions. Plus many others, like the retro gal with the hair pieces. I can't remember them all right now. I'm just about to start watching episode three.

Fabric dollhouse tutorial

UK lass in US: Fabric dollhouse tutorial
I've always wanted to make one of these. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston had a gift shop in the mall near my hometown. They sold these intricate gorgeous fabric creations similar to this dollhouse: a barn, a mother goose with the fabric stories in pockets in her wings, and more that I can't remember. That shop closed, and I haven't been to the one in Boston in a long long while. Even if I did, they were at least $50, I think even $85 for the Mother Goose, so I couldn't buy one to copy. I did buy one of each for two little girls in my family. I had a squirrel log home half fabric, half fake wood plastic, that was my most favorite toy as a child. My next project will be this beautiful dollhouse from uklassinus.


Saturday, August 16, 2008

Monday, August 4, 2008

frictionizes bittersweet

that was the subject of what I believe to be a website for viagra for women. spam.
I love needlefelting, can't really do it because of my rsi hands. If I could, I'd buy my supplies from this friendly woman's colorfully huge wool roving shop in Easthampton Mass:

New England Felting Supply
feltingsupply.com




Saturday, July 5, 2008

I've been linked to!

I use statcounter to see who comes to my blog. This nice blogger put my blog as one of her favorites!

Cupcake on a Wire

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Rescue Ink


I'm trying not to turn this blog into an animal blog. But, these guys and gals rule! They're bikers who respond to cases of animal abuse. They "educate" the abusers. Awesome.

* This blogger template is messing with my font sizes.



Rescue Ink

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

MSPCA needs crafters

I'm so excited to find this. I'm totally going to find out when they craft. And, maybe during dandie spare time, I'll make some stuff for the aminals.


MSPCA WNE Adoption Center Craft Volunteer


Do you want to use your artistic skills to help homeless animals? Join us
as a Craft Volunteer! We meet regularly to work on various projects
and/or you can work on projects at home.


Ongoing projects:



  • Scrapbooking letters and photos from adopters

  • Sewing fleece cat beds and catnip toys

  • Creating signs and posters for the Adoption center

  • Pom-pom cat toys

  • Bake cat or dog treats

  • Knit or crochet small cat blankets for adopted cats

  • Saleable catnip cat toys (sewn, knitted or crocheted)

http://www.mspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=acac_WNE_volunteer_acaccrafts


blue on fleece cat bedcharcoal and catnip toywne craft k and d


wne craft night aewne craft srwne craft es

We are always open to new ideas and projects! Please contact me if you would like to discuss an idea: Emily (413) 750-7674.


Craft Supply WishList



  • Yarn

  • Fleece fabric

  • Quilt batting

  • Thread

  • Knitting needles, crochet hooks

  • Stickers!

  • Catnip

  • Scrapbooking paper

  • Glue Sticks

  • Paint Pens

  • Paper embellishments

If you are only interested
in being a craft volunteer, please call Emily at (413) 750-7674 to be
added to our list. To fill out a volunteer application,
click here. Please be sure to fill out the application completely and include valid contact information.

Friday, April 11, 2008

MUJI

I've mentioned this store to folks before. I first went to one in London. It's just, overwhelming, if you like Japanese simple design. I still have a pack of q-tips from there, unused (mine had their logo on them).

Mini Travel Toothpaste - 3pk


mujionline.co.uk Ok, start with this site, you can order in the UK from here, and therefore you can see the awesomeness of the products.

muji.net/catalog pdfs of their catalogs, in japanese. omfg


USA muji.com Looks like they have a shop in Soho now. We'll just have to see how good that one is... Wait, and clothing? and Fabric?? OMG


Wednesday, April 2, 2008

japanese papercuttings

I tend to pick and choose ideas from articles, rather than read them thoroughly. Yesterday I think I read that the Japanese have never distinguished between their traditional crafts and art. I love that. I was researching shibori - dying fabrics. I subscribe to the blog for pingmag.jp, a Japanese design mag in english. They had one of the first haramaki (belly warmers) articles on the internet. I don't read every piece they have, probably because a lot of it is on design award shows or super modern video installation art (at least that's what I tell myself).

Oh right. Papercutting. I used to love doing this. How the hell does she get it so sketchy like?

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The cutest craftiest youngest blogger online

You have to meet Marian. She is having a bone marrow transplant soon, and is collecting money to buy crafts for other kids in the hospital. She is insanely talented. I'm going to order one of her project superstar! shirts, and I'm going to send her stuff in the mail. Oh, she is only six years old.

http://imacraftartist.blogspot.com/


Here is one of her posts:

Friday, February 22, 2008

The artwork of drawing!



We are at LuLu's Bakery. There's my art from school, and one person from my class artwork got here and my artwork got here. And it has other artwork from other schools. It's a picture of the inside of a house with no no people inside it. And it has furniture. I like furniture. My favorite furniture is TV and computer. And I like beds, too. Beds are super comfy.




Posted by mgg at 8:02 AM
Labels: drawing

http://imacraftartist.blogspot.com/2008/02/artwork-of-drawing.html