Make Me

Quickie Link

Go play with Art Pad.  Here's my painting

Your Hair is Neat!

So I played around with hair pins last December - even had a contest.  Made a few myself and really had some fun coming up with different things to add to the pins. 

I made a bunch of fabric covered buttons to attach and sold them at my craft fairs. They sold moderately well, but not all. So I have a bunch more left to sell.  I've put them up at my Etsy shop: hilari.etsy.com

Here's a sneak peak at my pins:

What Does Your Craft Room Look Like?

I'm always attracted to those self-contained craft supply desks you see at all the craft and quilt shows. They always make it look like keeping organized is just a matter of having the right system.

I came across The Original ScrapBox while I was popping around the internet because they are having a contest to win one of their storage desk systems. You can upload your photos or vote on submissions. The voyeur in me just likes to know that there are other messy, disorganized people out there.

In other news, I got my camera fixed this weekend. I dropped in December and nicked the battery door so it wouldn't stay shut without tape. I took it to one place and they were going to charge me $197 to replace the door. (Frankly I think they were just gonna take my money and buy me the same model camera on eBay and pocket the difference.)  It seemed stupid to fix it or to buy a new one, so I thought I would just have to live with tape.  I guess when the camera place realized I wasn't just going to plop down a wad of cash for a new camera, they gave me a card to Kurt's Camera which is just up the street from my house.  Two weeks and $28 bucks later, my camera is right n tight. Gotta love that!

Counting Down

There are 186 people ahead of me on the Ravelry bandwagon!  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I've been lazing around all day trying to get my electronics to cooperate with me.  Seems its that time again when all things plug-in-able start to give me trouble.  Couldn't get my monitor to receive a signal until I changed where it was plugged in, although it's been working fine until now.  Can't get my DVD player to play, but I can watch VHS movies....anyone for Aladdin?  And my garbage disposal, which is relatively new, has decided to be stubborn. Sigh.

It's frightfully hot out and I need to start prepping for tomorrow.  If you're in the soCal area and want to hang out at the beach, stop by the OB Pier for the Mezzadri Surf Contest.  I should be there by 9am although the contest starts at 7am.  If you're feeling generous and would like to make a donation, visit the donation web page.  And here's some information about spinal cord regeneration research.  Hope I see ya tomorrow!!!

Goodies! Goodies! Goodies!

Yay! I got my tote exchange in the mail on Friday!

The front and back are differing shades of fuchsia pink.  The bunny is super-cute and super-soft.  And I love, love they yarn.  I think the lav is going to be a ruffly pair of girly socks.  I'm not sure about the green - I want a pair of socks outta that too, but haven't found the pattern yet.  The candy is, well, uh - gone.  I love my bag!

Now I can show you the tote I made for my person.  Its from a sweater I bought at the thrift and felted.

The flowers are wool felt and stitched on. I slitted the back and stuffed with fiber fill and stitched closed.  The center is made from glass beads.

The lining isn't perfect, but I'm proud.  I like the contrast to the austerity of the outer.

Yesterday Priscilla and I went to the thrift store and I found 2 more sweaters.  We'll see if they work out as well as this one.

On another note, the Week of Eating Badly has officially been declared over.  Girl Scout cookies, ice cream, mint chocolate chip shakes, extra cheesy quesadillas, blue box mac & cheese and  Fanta strawberry soda does not a healthy diet make.  I'm now back in control.  Fruits and veggies.  Whole grain bread.  Water.  Low fat yogurt.  High fiber cereal.  That is my life now.

Luckily I got invited to a BBQ yesterday so I got a big blow out for the last day.  Fried catfish, shrimp, cheesy rice, peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.  And some sort of vodka watermelon concoction. All good.  There would have been photos, but you can't focus a camera AND stuff your face at the same time!

Aqua Woman

Went to the Birch Aquarium on Saturday night and took some photos.  They've been turning out better lately, but   mostly cuz I just keep changing settings and trying over and over again. 

This bit of blur was the octopus tank.  He's that darkly shadowed shape in the upper left corner. He was really active when I went it, but slunk off to the edge of the tank when the camera came out.

Here are some better photos

   
Jellyfish!  Love the jellyfish!  The left is the Black Jellyfish and the right are the Upside Down Jellyfish.
 

The floaty thing in the center is a seahorse.  This was the best photo I could nab.

 
Same tank, different lighting.  Baby sharks and shark,uh, sacks?

Here's something special (depending on your definition of "special") - my first video.  Gotta love those jellyfish!

It's Like Red, But Not Quite

Have been bargain hunting for a new digital camera lately and today noticed a common theme while clowning around on Amazon.  Can you guess what it is? (You can click on the individual things to find out what they are)

All you lady wannabees out there - check out those pumps! They go to size 16!

Update

Guess where I'm writing this from?  No, not the library.  No not a friends house.  No, not from my private jet (that was last week!)  But from my very own desk in my very own bedroom!  Yay!  The fourth call to Mumbai was the charm.  I placed the third call to today and talked to a very nice gentleman "Mark" who assured me that he knew "his stuff".  Ethernet cable he said.  Go to thine store of computer parts and get thee one.  Yessir!  Right away, sir!

Off to Fry's I went.  Boughteth thy ethernet cable.  And noticed Fry's now sells knitting mags. There were Knit N Style, Creative Knitting and IK Crochet.  Wondered if they would carry the new holiday knit mag that releases tomorrow.  Consider asking Fry-ite to go look through the stacks in the backroom.  Remember the mission and refocus.

Ethernet cable purchased and installed.  Bupkis.  Nada.  Zilch.  Whimper.  Go watch Heroes and Studio 60. 

Call friends in Mumbai again to see what's new.  Chick tells me to take out the ethernet card and install it in another slot. 

Post happily for the first time in 9 days.  Go to sleep dreaming of dancing ethernet cables and wondering how much it costs to send flowers to Mumbai.

On the Internets

I had some time to kill tonight so I put on my pith helmet and went exploring over blogs and dales and found some cool things to share.

A beautiful cable hobo bag from Delicious Stitches

Mandarin Design always has cool blog tips and tricks.

Just when you thought you'd seen every site there ever was, Ian's Shoelace Site comes along and proves you wrong.  Interested in the science of shoelaces?  This is the place to go. And if you end up spending half a day there, well, that will just be our little secret, won't it?

Want to be entertained?  Check out The Strangerhood - a movie/serial staring The Sims.  It's quite well done.

Studio Pashnada has some way cool stuff to look at to buy.  I love her jewelry!

Check out the hot patterns at Hot Patterns!  I really, really want to make the Bollywood Dress.  They used to have a pattern for a coat inspired by the little girl in the Lemony Snicket movie (Violet?) that I should have purchased because it doesn't seem to be anywhere on the site now.

art is everywhere is one of my favorite photoblogs. So is Chicago Uncommon.

Something for the fashionistas: Net-A-Porter and Twinkle (I can't wait until her book of knitting patterns comes out.  I think it's due in Fall.)

Divide by Zero has some way cool fonts AND a font making tutorial.  Check it out!

That's enough for now, isn't it?  And it saves me from actually having to write anything.  Whew!

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow

I'm an excited girl!  I just snagged the last spot in Annie Modesitt's class at Lori's in Alpine!  I can't wait!  Perhaps Annie will be my NBF.  And she'll teach me how to knit gorgeous sweaters and she'll say things like, "Hilari, I have way too much cashmere yarn - all the companies keep sending it to me. I can't make them stop!  Here - you have it.  No I insist.  Really.  Use it to practice your sock knitting."  Oh, it'll be so much fun!

I've never met Annie, but I've always imagined that she looked like Annie Potts. Or she's got curly red hair and hangs out with a bald dude.

In other news, I've been cleaning, clearing and getting rid of stuff around the house.  I've got a bunch of yarn I'm ready to let go of.  I'm trying to decide if I want to try and sell it on ebay or just give it away.  It's all acrylic stuff, so I don't think anyone I know will be really interested in it.  It's mostly stuff I got in big bags of yarn from the thrift.

I've also finally installed Photoshop and Illustrator on my computer.  Works fine and my Sims don't object a bit.   Speaking of my Sims, I found another funny behavior - it looks like dancing is a learned behavior.  The more they dance the better they get at it.  Well, one of my Sims had a party and one of the guests started dancing.  Looked like a combination of the chicken dance and that Steve Martin happy feet dance.  All the other Sims went into a corner and started laughing and whispering about the bad dancer.  Pretty funny.