Secret Santa Can Suck It

Once again, after a long freaking hiatus, I'm back. Once again, it won't be for long because I am lazy, busy, and forgetful.
In the meantime, we can have a nice new 'Secret Santa Can Suck It' post courtesy of Cobwebs, who has set all of this up.
For those of you new to this game, people sign up to Cobwebs' SSCSI game, and each is assigned another person. We then pick out what items we would buy for that person if we actually had money and shits to give.
This year I was assigned xJane from Mind on Fire, which is awesome because we share a love of spiders. This made the whole thing easier on one hand, since I knew of lots she would like - and harder on the other hand, since now I've found a heap of things I want to buy for myself.

All images link to the store they can be purchased from, or (in the event it wasn't purchasable) to the google search that I found them from.

To begin with, it's Christmas so she's going to want decorations for the tree. We'll ignore the fact that, as as Christmas-celebrating adult she more than likely already has tree decorations, and go with the 'more is more' argument. To that end we have this gorgeous little guy:

This stunning little thing with his own story included:

These cute little light-globe spiders:

And of course, she needs a stocking too. A nice, acid-green one to match the season:

That shop, by the way, has an amazing collection of punky Christmas stockings. I want so many of them.

Now, it being Winter in the US right now, she'll want some nice, comfy leggings to lounge around the house in, or to go underneath a dress (or shorts, in my case, since I am stuck in the Madonna years):

 

 Of course, once Winter is over, Spring arrives. If the US is anything like Australia, that means dresses and hats are in order for all the awesome parties that begin again. I'll organise for a couturier to work with xJane to make a dress she'll love. Maybe something like this:

 

And a fascinating fascinator to match:

Spring isn't always warm enough for just dresses and hats, though. She'll need a few scarves for layering:

And a shawl that's more woah than warm:

 

And finally, some accessories. How about a hair fork (this is one of those things I'm debating buying for myself):

And a necklace that, from memory, almost matches her tattoo perfectly:

And finally, since she picked out such stunning art for me, I'll need to find something equally beautiful for her. I particularly liked this painting (which is, by the way, VERY reasonably priced), and I think she will too:

And that's the end. Hopefully xJane will like all her presents this year. I had lots of fun finding them for her. My bank account, on the other hand, is less happy ;)

Well that was a long hiatus

And it's probably not going to improve much. I tend to be too busy to blog these days, which is a pity because I have actually been doing a fair bit of sewing since I left.
Uni has been keeping me VERY occupied, and we've been on a few holidays and had a lot of events lately, but in between it all, when I get a chance (and usually when I have an essay due) I take the time to do some sewing or crochet.

Today's post is going to be a VERY short one, with only two pics.
I did a t-shirt hack from WobiSobi (she has some amazing ideas that I can't wait to try out). It's supposed to be a no-sew one, but I didn't quite like the way it sat on my shoulders when I tied it (I was limited by the position of the picture on the front), so I sewed the shoulder seams instead.
As usual, I forgot to take 'before' photos, so you'll just have to take my word that my Dark Side of the -Mon shirt was gigantic. Like, massive. Teeturtle only ever seem to have every other size but mine in stock, so I bought a big one hoping I could hack it. It only took 6 months before I found a hack I liked enough to try.
Anyway, here it is:

And here is the back:

I LOVE that the top finally has a bit of shape to it. I've been feeling like a fat lump in the shirt ever since I bought it, but it's such an awesome picture I still wore it a lot. Also I don't often find tops that show off my tattoo without being too revealing, so I really like that feature. 

Also it's super comfortable, and would be really great for if you got pregnant, since the open back would allow it to expand with your tummy. 

I DON'T like how whenever I lean over to do something energetic (like dig, or wash the bath), it flaps open at the back like I'm topless with a bib. I'll just make sure that if I'm going to be doing something bendy I wear another singlet top underneath it. 

Also the image was too high on the t-shirt for me to make the neckline as low as I'd like, but you win some, you lose some.

All in all, it turned out pretty darn well. I'm happy anyway. 

Now lets see if I actually remember to post Supanova pictures once THAT outfit is complete. 

And since my ipad is being a butthole and won't let me make a word into a url, here's the link to the havk on WobiSobi: wobisobi.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/no-sew-crisscross-back-t-shirt-diy.html

Why won't the year just get GOING already?

It's been one of those Christmas/New Year periods that feel like they're taking forever to be over and done with. It's the second-last day in January and I still have nothing to show for the month because I'm stuck sitting around, waiting for everything to happen. We head out on a cruise for 10 days on Valentine's Day (coincidence, not planned - trust me, we're sharing a cabin with my brother and best friend, Valentine's Day will not be overly romantic). Once the cruise is done it's the Soundwave Music festival two days later. Then uni starts. Once uni starts I'll know when I'm free through the week and I can plan my horse riding classes and volunteer work, but until this damn cruise begins I'm stuck lying around the house watching old episodes of Doctor Who and reading the last few novels before textbooks take over my bedside floor again.

Anyway. In the meantime I've been making my Mum and Dad's costumes for my boyfriend's 21st party next week. I'll be posting photos of them tomorrow after I come back from Mum's place. Until then though, I'm going to spam any followers I may or may not have with answers to this post on The Art of Darkness. Basically Cobwebs has given 11 random facts about herself and I have to do the same. Then, I get 11 questions I have to answer. I then make up 11 questions of my own and tag 11 different people to respond with their own random facts and answer my (not Cobwebs') questions. Since I despise chain mail though, I promise I won't tag anyone else, just add my own questions if anyone wishes to join in. So here goes:

Random Facts About Me

1. My uncle is from Pennsylvania in the US. I was confused by the similarities between 'Pennsylvania' and 'Transylvania' and for a few years when I was little I thought my uncle was a vampire.
2. My Dad was a Catholic priest, who taught me some Latin. He also read me the classics of literature when I was little, including The Iliad, and the Odyssey from a book that had them in both English and Greek. These days, given time, I can translate a reasonable bit of Greek and Latin, and because they're parent languages that gave rise to many others, I can pick out many European languages, when written. Spoken is an entirely different matter.
3. When I'm around people with accents, I pick up on it and start talking like them. I really hope that they don't notice, and if they do that they don't think I'm teasing them. If I ever get a bad hit to the head, I just KNOW I'm going to wake up with Foreign Accent Syndrome.
4. I have done swordfighting. Not fencing, swordfighting, with broad swords and claymores. It's hard, but so awesome, and it means that if I ever get assaulted and there's a stick nearby, I'm fine. On the other hand, without a sword/stick I hit like a 4-year-old.
5. When I was little, my career goals were as follows: Catwoman, a vampire, an actress, a vet. In any order. I'd still kind of like to be any of them.
6. Wind makes me nervous. No idea why.
7. I once took so long to do the cross country run that I came third in the 11-year-girls. I was turning 10. Two other groups had passed me.
8. I was reading by the time I was three years old. I remember Mum being sick so I tried to help her sleep by reading 'Puppy on the Farm' to her. She assumed I had memorized it but when Mary came down a few days later and brought some new kids books for me, she asked me to read them out loud and I did. I've been crazy about reading ever since and most of my childhood photos are of me with a book in my hand (or standing and grinning like a dork under a tree).
9. I love cooking and I love experiementing with food, but I get the shits with cookery where people 'fuse' flavours that have no business being mixed together. No, I don't want your pretentious pear, bamboo, and onion chutney on thick-sliced organic, free-range yeasted, gluten-free, dairy-free, no-pet household, Italian-inspired ciabatta. You twat.
10. When we have the income we plan to buy a house with a decent amount of acreage surrounding it. I want goats. And chickens. And a few horses. He wants some pigs. It's going to be a lot of work, but I like that kind of work.
11. Speaking of work, I hate doing housework around other people. I probably come across as lazy to anyone unfamiliar with it, but I just can't bring myself to work when other people are lying around on the couch or something. When they go out though I get a lot done.

OK. question time:

1. What is your favorite candy?
   I love honeycomb. The lolly shop down the coast makes it beautifully, but the one slightly further on always seems to use too much bicarb and it comes out really crumbly and tasting like soap. My brother makes some really nice honeycomb too. And toffee.
   
2. What is your least favorite vegetable?
   Spinach. Ew.
   
3. Do you play a musical instrument?
   Yep. I play the piano. I was also taking violin lessons for a while, though I've probably forgotten almost all of it.
   
4. What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?
   For someone who gets hurt easily I don't get genuinely injured very easily. The worst injury I've ever had was probably from sliding across the deck of the Young Endeavour during a midnight tack. I hit the life reel and cut my foot open and it got infected a few days later. I had to have a pretty intense dose of antibiotics and I wasn't allowed to do anything energetic until it healed. I was so angry that I couldn't join in working with everyone, then I realised I had doctors orders to laze around on a multi-million dollar yacht for the next week.
   
5. What’s under your bed?
   Some foam gladiator beating sticks. Two wigs. A witches hat. A heap of books. A blanket.
   
6. If you could publish one book, what would it be about?
   I'd actually really love to write later on in life. I'm at university for now, studying archaeology, and I'd love to do what Bill Bryson does and write books about history and science for the general public.
   
7. Do you believe in ghosts?
   Yep. Though much like religion I don't have a rock-solid belief in what they are, just that they're there in some form or another.
   
8. What’s on your mouse pad?
   David Bowie :D
   
9. What are you currently reading?
   I read quite a few books at once because reading different kinds of books needs different conditions. I can't read novels when people are around, for instance. So right now I'm reading: The Biography of the Thames, by Peter Ackroyd; The Land of Painted Caves, by Jean M Auel; Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer; The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton.
   
10. If you could have any job you wanted, what would it be?
    Like I said before, I'd love to write science and history books for the general public. I'd also love to do recovery archaeology for development firms, though that would end up being tough on me because of the inevitability of  having to just bury it all again after the money's run out.
    
11. What’s your all-time favorite TV show?
    Though it was cancelled after only 12 episodes, I loved Miracles, with Skeet Ulrich and Angus MacFadyen.

Rightio. Now 11 questions for you:

1. What's the strangest/spookiest thing that has ever happened to you?
2. How many different jobs have you had?
3. Which movie character do you wish you could trade places with (either permanently, or for the length of the movie)?
4. What's your favourite dish?
5. If you could have another house anywhere in the world, where would you have that house?
6. What movie, book, or tv show do you think was a good idea, badly executed?
7. Who is your favourite historical person?
8. What is your favourite item of clothing and why?
9. Which superhero or villain would you team up with?
10. Which fairytale or kids book was your favourite when you were little?
11. If you could be skilled at any craft, what would it be?

OK. Go crazy. Or don't, since I'm sure I'm talking to myself.

Secret Santa Can Suck It

So I got a wicked cool series of Secret Santa Can Suck It presents from the wonderful xJane at Mind on Fire. I've already added a tonne of "must have" items to my 'to buy' list, since it was a little late for me to add them to my Christmas present ideas list on the fridge (what with Australia being about a million miles from everywhere, according to the post office).

Of course, getting Secret Santa presents from someone means I get to buy (or not, in this case) presents for someone else and this year I drew Pensive from Pensive Pumpkin out of the Santa hat.

A quick scan of her blog leads me to believe she may be Pagan. I'm not 100% on this, since I've beena  bit short on time lately and didn't get a chance to read very extensively. I hope I'm right though, because I based pretty much all her presents on this theme.

First of all we have this absolutely stunning circlet:

Every girl loves a nice piece of jewelry and this is nice and simple. It's silver plated, which means it should go nicely on any skin type and should be wearable by most people (though of course, I don't have a budget with this so if she needs platinum then hell, why not? Let's have one made).

And for Pensive to keep her spells written in (or her recipes, or her innermost thoughts and dreams, or her passwords), I chose this leatherbound, buckled, and strapped journal:

Because hell yes, that's why. I love leatherbound books, and I love journals. Who wouldn't? The symbol on the front is customisable. If given the chance I would ask what she would like on it but since this is meant to be a secret I can't, so I suggest having a pumpkin.

Most women love candles. Most people like having money around the house. These candles are meant to attract money, and even if they don't work I bet they smell absolutely heavenly:

They're rolled in myrrh, fools gold, cinnamon, clove, sandalwood, nutmeg and devil's claw, among others. I want some for myself. In fact, I've added them to that 'to buy' list.

Alongside candles, every woman seems to get bath oils and the like for Christmas and birthdays. Although the tradition can get a little tired, I do love good handmade cosmetics and bath accessories and I loved the sound of this bath oil:

The Midnight Gypsy Magick and Moonlight Bath Salts are made with frankincense, sandalwood, lime, jasmine, vanilla, lavender, almond extract, along with a heap of herbs and plant extracts. It looks gorgeous.

While Pensive is relaxing in the bath, she may like to enjoy a good book. Probably shouldn't take this one in the tub though. It's likely a little heavy:

This book was written by a fairly well-known occultist and spiritualist named L W De Laurence. He actually converted to Catholicism later in life but before that happened he managed to bang out a few great books like this one, printed in 1939. It's apparently in brilliant condition and if Pensive loves books as much as I do she'll go crazy for this one.

Pensive's Thirteenth Day of Creepmas blog post had an image of a dude in what I think is a Baphomet costume. Baphomet was/is awesome. He was the god/demon that the Knights Templar were accused of (and subsequently wiped for) worshipping. Because of the association with the Templars, Baphomet has become linked to the Freemasons and all that Pagan/Christian cult conspiracy stuff. Then Alistair Crowley got an arm in and changed his public image even more. Look, it's weird, but if you're into weirdness like I am you'll see why it's cool.
Anyway, I had a look around and found this cute little guy on Amazon:

Assuming he's real, Baphomet probably doesn't appreciate me calling him cute. Whoops.

And finally, as I began posting all of this I suddenly remembered my friend Jon and the bowls that he makes. I really think that this handcrafted pewter dancing hare bowl could be something Pensive would like:

So. How do you think I went?

Merry Christmas. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?

Right. So it's been a while. A LONG while. I've been rather slack this year haven't I?
Well I can't promise I'll be any better next year but I do have excuses!
I've moved in with my boyfriend and his family and although it's a big house, it's not mine, which means I've been sewing-machine-less for the last 6 months. It's driving me quite batty. His Mum keeps telling me I should bring my machine over, but if I do that I'll have to bring my sewing kit too, and then my fabric stash, and then my craft kits, and pretty soon her spare bedroom would be chock full of my stuff. So for now I'm holding back on the craft somewhat.

I will TRY to be more diligent in the new year. I do have a few things I plan to make and I'll try to blog about them, but being the start of a new year I'll have a whole heap of stuff to get ready and plan and start, so I won't have a whole lot of time to blog. Obviously I'll be starting uni again. I also have my boyfriend's 21st birthday party to organise and fancy dress costumes to make for us both AND my Mum. Then I also have the new horsemanship classes my best friend and I will be taking. And the cruise we're all going on in February. And an all-day concert that's also in February. And the BF and I will be down the coast for much of January too. So it's a packed start to the year.

For now though I have a little time on my hands so I thought I'd stop in and drop a line to my millions of adoring fans *cough, cough* and let everyone know I'm not dead yet. Just lazy.

Also there will be another post soon. I've gone and volunteered myself for the 'Secret Santa Can Suck It' game at Shadow Manor and will be putting up my own gift idea for my Secret Santa recipient by the 21st of December.

So anyway. Merry w00tmas.

The Return of the Return of That Craft Chick

OK so I may or may not have been a little... negligent about updating this blog. In my defense I started uni this year so I've been a bit swamped. It's the first time I've studied full-time since I finished high school almost 8 years ago, and it's been pretty intense. Alongside that, I've moved house (back to my Mum's place), broken up with my boyfriend AND started dating someone new (who is proving to be all I've ever dreamed of, thank you baby). I haven't had a lot of time to craft.

A few weeks back though, I began my mid-year holidays and after reading psychotically for the first few weeks (reading for pleasure in the middle of term makes me feel guilty because I know I should be studying) I started to feel a bit lost. I needed something to do with my hands. Now, I haven't been completely unhandy since the beginning of the year. I've been working on a hanging jewelery box in the garage for a few months now, but I need to get some glass before I can finish it, and glass is a little expensive for now, especially since I have nowhere to put the thing once it's finished anyway.

So the other day I grabbed some things for the seemingly bottomless 'To Be Fixed Bag' and did what useful stuff I could. By the time evening rocked around I was in a sewing mood and had nothing left to fix. I looked at my sewing machine and saw this:

White. Bland. Boring. Also torn:

I decided I needed to begin a campaign of beautifying. In the morning. At that moment I was too tired to think. Of course, by the time I got to bed I was back into planning mode and couldn't sleep because of all the ideas running through my brain.

In the morning I trawled by fabric box (a wicked old New Kids on the Block blanket box my cousin gave me when I was 10). I grabbed some fabric I'd picked up at Spotlight a few months earlier. It had been in the scraps and offcuts bin and I bought it for $3.75. I bought a half-metre of quilting cotton in a contrasting colour (I didn't need that much but half a metre is the smallest allowable cut), and a cotton cord and toggle and set to work. By the end of the day, this is what I had:

There's a gap at the back so I can get my fingers under the handle, a pocket in the front big enough to hold the instruction manual, power cords and foot pedal, and the bottom can be tightened so it doesn't flop around, unlike the old one.

All in all I'm pretty happy with my work. It's not much, but it's something, and it's kept me occupied for a few days. Now I just have to work on crossing off all the projects on my craft favourites list ;)

Stuff and Nonsense

So it will come as a surprise to not a single entity that I have done bugger-all of the Iron Craft Challenge I was so enthusiastic about in my last post.
I came in at the end of that week and just didn't have the time or energy to think of anything other than curtains, and when the next week rocked around and the theme was basically "ways to keep the house warm and muggy as shit" I gave up. It's far too hot here to have to think about ways to convert a theme of keeping the house warm to keeping it cool every single week, while sticking to a piss-tiny budget.

In other news, I managed to get into uni! Yay! I start on the 1st of March, which isn't far away at all, and I'll be moving to Sydney in a few months so that I don't have to commute. I'm an awful student, and even worse when I have to travel 2 hours to get to a one hour class. And travelling in Winter is unthinkably shit. Although it doesn't get all that cold (compared to other places anyway) it does get dark at like 5pm, and considering that that's when my classes end, I don't feel like lazing around Central Station until 6 just waiting for a train full of bogans when I could just zip on home to some hot soup in half an hour.

So for now I'm trying to flog all my old crap I don't need and make some money while I move back to Mum's place to save what I can for the move. Crafting and sewing has pretty much fallen by the wayside for the time being.

ALTHOUGH.
A friend of mine convinced me to sign up for marching in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. I've always wanted to go, and I figured why not make my first time going be my first time in it too? The theme of our float is 'Angels and Demons', with half of us dressed as angels and the other half as demons (obviously). My first instinct was to go for demon - I love red, I love the slutty style of the demon costumes lately, and I pretty much own all of the right things to make the costume. So I went with being an angel instead :D I wanted a challenge, and dressing as an angel when I hardly own anything white was pretty challenging.

I bought a silver sequinned lingerie-dress from Bras n Things for $8 (down from seventy!) and took the red straps off it. I bought some silver sequinned shoes ($10 from Tattoo) and hot-glued silver ribbons to the sides so I can tie them up my legs like ballet slippers. And I found my old white wings from years back and tried to add a bit of razzle-dazzle to them by gluing on some extra feather. Frankly the wings look a bit shitty, but they'll do.

I've worked out makeup (whiteface, with silver glitter Carnivale eyes, cheekbones and lipstick) and I'm going to bleach the shit out of my hair, but my main concern is the dress. It's just not Carnivale enough for Mardi Gras. It's been suggested that I add silver ball-tinsel to the dress but I don't know where, plus I still have to fix the straps after I took the old ones off. Mardi Gras draws ever closer and I'm going to look like a gimp.

Gimpy or Fabulous photos will ensue in a few weeks.