Etsy Love

It's fascinating what you can find on Etsy if you search for "bustle". Everything from historic steel boned bustles to the more Steampunky ones that are work outside your skirt. . . or they are your skirt! These caught my eye and I thought I'd share.

Featured Shops:
Boudoir Noir
Crescent Wench
Petey the Troll Apparel

Busy little bee. . .

"Olive's Afghan from Knitalong"

I don't remember when I began this project, but it was a while ago. Perhaps spring of '07? Something like that. An utterly darling and pretentious project for myself at the time because it was huge. It's an afghan. They are enormous and intimidating, only this was was clever. It's divided into easy-to-cart-about panels in two colours, and then stitched together to form a dazzling array of colourful chevrons, only updated from the mustard yellows and avocados of the 50's when chevron afghans were quite popular. It has been a journey of colour experimentation. This will reflect what colours I truly edge towards and really love. Purple, Green, and Grey first and foremost, followed by Blue, Yellow, and Orange. No red, no pink, no pastels, just rich saturate colour.

"Mostly Skully adapted from S&B handbook"

Um. Cookies!

Happy Father's Day

Keep it Simple. . .

Elizabeth Zimmerman used to sign most of her knitting newsletters with this sweet and oh-so-wise bit of advice: "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises." This wee phrase has stuck with me for a long time and it proves true time and time again. Like yesterday.

I find myself with such a huge amount of time on my hands I've forgotten how to use it all in an effective manner. I'm also looking for a new job, so that takes priority. I hope on the computer first thing, cup of coffee in hand, and troll the interwebs for employment to get me through to September when school starts and I have a work-study position. Once I've applied for at least one job a day, I am allowed to spend the rest of my time as I please. Yesterday was a disaster, to say the least. I was forcing myself to work on a project for which I had no gumption to do much more with. As an artist sometimes you have to force yourself to finish something, but this was supposed to be for the pure pleasure of crafting and there wasn't any joy in it. Wisely, I abandoned it before I got to sewing and frustrated, cleaned up the apartment a bit, sat down and knitted. I watched two movies while my fingers flew and the tension in my body eased. My knitting tension was just fine, in case you're wondering. ;)

The day ended well, with dinner of delicious grilled salmon and lots of snuggles from my honey. Today I begin with what I learned yesterday in mind, take it easy, keep things in perspective, and go for walks. Simple!

The Dreaded Doldrums. . .

Sometimes I get a crafting "blah". I believe this happens from having too many projects on the plate at any one time, and sometimes a full crafty plate in addition to a full emotional/every day plate. This is the reason for my blah at the moment. I have SO much in my little apartment, SO much in my head, and a lot on my heart it causes me to graze aimlessly from project to project and get frustrated at the minimal production I end up with. So I take a "brain-break" by going for a walk to the art store, the park, just around the block even to clear my head. Usually that does the trick and I can dive, refreshed, back into what I was doing. Right now I feel flat, like soda that has lost it's bubbles and is without that initial zing. I feel listless, like those stick summer nights before the cool breeze comes where all you can do is sit before the fan and moan softly to yourself. That's it! I'm in the mental doldrums. Oh dear.

Julia Cameron would have a solution to this problem. She's snarky like that, as well as being a sort of therapist for artists. (She wrote The Artist's Way, btw) She would probably tell me to go on an artist's date and stop dreading this last week with my job. That's the other thing that's getting to me. I have one more week left with my current job and nothing else has (YET!) fallen into place. Something will, because I'm looking, it's just the waiting until then that gets to a person. The nail biting and floor treading that occurs just before the utter relief of knowing you'll be okay for a while longer.

It's not as if I haven't anything else to go on. If I don't (and it's highly unlikely) get anything I can make things and sell them until school starts. This is the very bohemian answer to my current problem, it's not necessarily practical, but it's optimistic, and one way to beat doldrums is optimism! Or at least that's what I'm shooting for. So now it's off to a cup of tea, and something crafty to comfort me until I have to face my final work week.