Below are a few of the design reference photos I took at Westminster Abbey a few weeks ago:
























....And do I reeeaaallllly need to say "please don't use these without my permission," do I?

my computer died a few months ago and with all the work stuff I've been doing, I've been a little too preoccupied to REALLY look at a new system.

I went through a month of waffling between a desktop and a laptop. I finally realized after my last trip that I needed a computer that I could take with me to do personal stuff when not in the regional offices and that I could share with husband for his use during the day. (It killed both of us that he couldn't do anything web wise while I was at work.)

sooo here's the new system:



Insane, I know, but it's an active digitizer and touch screen which means I can draw and do web stuff ANYWHERE!!

I love it.

I got my invite to the spoonflower beta! I'm going to order a fat quarter (I think) to try it out. I'll give the fabric a thorough durability test when it arrives. (heat, washing, scrubbing, etc.)

Got some information from the spoonflower guys. Seems like they will be offering some additional pricing and that they are aware of the need to re-sell.

there are sooo many australian artists self producing their own fabric lines. I really want to know who is printing for them, and they are all such good designers!

Check out a few of them:

pippijoe
Aunty Cookie
Cheeky Beaks
hollabee
Kirin Notebook
of paper & thread

They really inspire me!

Spoonflower.com finally announced some pricing. Printing on Kona Cotton is 18 dollars a yard. makes me sad - it's only good for personal projects, not for resale printing.

still need to investigate more printers... sadness has now crept in.

I had so much hope for them!


well - I guess I should wait and see when/if I get added to the site beta. I can at least order a swatch.

:(

This is a great month for me because:

* my wedding anniversary was just a few weeks ago
* I got sent to London for work
* I will be going to tokyo for work
* my husband gets to go with me on both trips

Not alot of crafting, but I did get to crochet on the plane.

blossom creations

blossom creations had a contest awhile back to help give her some ideas for new colorways for one of the fabrics in their line.

I got a lovely package in the mail a month or so later - only two people submitted so we both got packages!

I had so much fun picking out the colors - I'm so envious that she has a line of fabrics....

This was a fun and quick little project that I did last week. I decorated some clothes pins to use as paper clips. The top one below is a finished one and the one below it is in progress.



First I took one side of the clothes pin off the spring catch. Then, I used a black sharpie to color the wood of the paper clip.



After coloring one side, I put it back onto the spring and removed the other side.



I then used some scrap book paper and my trusty paper cutter to add a pop of color to them. After the paper was cut, I used a tiny drop of white glue (just enough to cover the paper) to stick it to the clothes pin. I left a gap in the paper where the spring goes in case anything goes wonky, it can be replaced easily.



This is another shot of a completed clothes pin and another pink on in progress. The pink one ended up with black and white scrap book paper on the top. I experimented with sealing the paper with clear nail polish, but the color from the sharpie marker bled into the nail polish.

I did not understand diagramming at all until I started working on a crochet pattern to share. I wasn't counting as I was going, so I had to figure out a way to count the stitches without having to redo everything. and so a diagram was born - I totally get it now. I just have to decipher the symbols that are common.

Here's a shot of my sketch book to show what I did to count the stitches:



They look kind of like little people! this is the largest round of the pattern, you can see bits of the smaller rounds to the top left and right.

so when I went to Japan last year - one of the big things was carrying your own chopsticks so that you didn't have to use disposables at restaurants.

I purchased a few different holders while I was there. My favorite being the cherry blossom roll pictured below:




This one was packaged with a two pack of bottled green tea aimed at kids and came with it's own chopsticks:



too bad the chopsticks are too small for me to use, because they are sooo cute!

After much hmmm'ing and hawwwing, I decided to make my own for my next trip. I want to take the lovely set of chopsticks my husband gave me when we got married.

I used some more craftster.org swap goodies, the blue wooden bead and the fabric. The orange satin cord was gifted to me by a friend - she'd used it in her wedding and the remaining 200 yards, she couldn't think what to do with, but knew I would have some crafty ideas.



Can't decide if I want to make a tutorial for these or not, but I'm so proud of the stitching I did on this one.

Your iron is your friend - I couldn't have made everything so neat if I hadn't ironed the heck out of it at every step.