Sunday, November 30, 2008

Roller Derby Camp!

So after some initial hurdles with the whole roller derby thing (namely learning to skate) things are going really well, although T-Stops are still alluding me, curse them! I am feeling a LOT more confident about skating in general and it's been great getting to know so many awesome new people.

I am now especially excited as we have been told about a roller derby training camp, namely the Blood & Thunder Training Camp which is going to be held in New Plymouth in February of next year.

I'm really excited about going along as the training will be for "all levels" and it's going to be on my old home turf and it's going to be just awesome.

I was going to fill in the registration form - but thing is - it asks for a derby name which I am still lacking in. I have thought it should have something to do with craft or zombies or perhaps even craft and zombies? At this stage I'm open to ideas as I can't seem to think of anything witty or clever!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Presents from Melbourne

Recently Rich came back from visiting his Aunty in Melbourne, I asked him, if he could bring back from his trip some gifts from Dangerfield - which was my favourite store when I visited Alaina and Boggy in Melbourne last year.

I was very happy to recieve a deformed looking monkey (and I mean deformed in a good way, I love this little guy) and a pair of red swallow earrings with sparkly eyes.


Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Stuff on our fridge

At the moment I am working on a few craft projects that are relatively large scale, like the bows and Ange and Paul's wedding on December 6 and a few projects I can't share right now (namely Christmas presents and things for Jess' hen's night).

But here's a small scale project that I can share with you all - some magnets I recently made that are now on our fridge.

There's the big flower magnet which has a vintage image under the stone in the centre, the bottle cap magnets with a thin layer of clear liquid fimo on the top to protect the image and finally some super simple coin magnets made from some of the coins I had left over from my trip to Shanghai earlier this year.



Boys Can Craft too!

Recently, Rich "found" in our storage cupboard a big box of computer items he has been storing from year to year from flat to flat and he decided it was time to go through everything and see what he wanted and what he didn't.

Once he decided what he wanted to keep and what he didn't want to keep (which was subsequently listed on trade me) he was still left with a great big pile of unwanted CD's - you know the type - the ones that come free with magazines that you hold onto "just in case" and then you realise five years later you haven't even looked at them.

Anyways - being a craft geek also - Rich couldn't just throw away these CD's as they could be used for "something" the question was what?

After much consideration he came up with this rather cool CD "table cloth" which looks just great on our glass top table.




Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Sublime Stitching Zombies

Two of my most favourite things in the world are zombies and craft - so when my friend Grace told me about the new zombie and monster themed sublime stitching embroidery pattern I was very excited.

Look at how amazing the designs are - I think it's time to head to Glassons or Shanton to stock up on some cheap and choice singlet tops to embroider for the warmer months ahead.

I also like the vital organ design - it kind of could work in with the whole zombie theme - although there is something a bit creepy about the needles.
I also have always had a soft spot for Russian dolls - so I love this design as well. I think these lovely dolls would look adorable on a skirt.
Finally - how could I resist the sexy librarians - even if there are no boy librarians in the designs!

Where do rainbows come from?

Monday, November 24, 2008

Rain....

This is what I had to walk home in today - sometimes walking everywhere does not make me smile.

(Almost) Vegan Pizza

When it comes to pizza in our house - Rich is the pizza master. In fact - prior to this evening I cannot remember the last time I made pizza, perhaps it was in my flatting days or perhaps even earlier when I lived at home with my family and homemade pizza consisted of a can of spaghetti as a base.

Rich is away at the moment, so I thought, for once I would make a homemade Pizza - it's time for my pizza making skills to shine!

I found a vegan recipe for pizza on my new favourite blog friend or doe and got to work, unfortunately, I couldn't find any of the basil and garlic paste that was mentioned in the recipe so I decided to use pesto instead which is next closest thing - but it isn't vegan - what with the Parmesan and all.

Then, once I had ruined the whole vegan party with the pesto, I figured I may as well add some cheese on top. It's vegetarian cheese though in my defense!

So I ended up having vegetarian pizza instead of vegan - but it was truly delish pizza - maybe I'll make it for Rich when he gets home to prove my pizza making skills.


Jess' Birthday Stash

My friend Jess' birthday was a little while ago now, but today was the day a group of us went out to celebrate with lunch.

It was also time to hand over her long awaiting presents - two of Jess' greatest loves in life are the colour purple and earrings. Given my jewellery making ability I thought I would feed her obsession for both in her birthday present. Please forgive the blurry photo of the can looking earrings! They are a pair of Doctor Pepper earrings - sometimes my camera isn't so good at taking photos of small things.









I also made some rather cool boxes for Jess' birthday stash. I learnt how to make both types of boxes at the recent Craft 2.0 workshop I attended and all of the boxes are made from old record covers. Recycling is awesome!


Sunday, November 23, 2008

Legends never die...

Tonight I was just having a look around esty and I found some art work by Nik Scarlett -he has a series called "Dead Legends".

My favourite was the zombie Johnny Cash (or as Nik Scarlett calls him - Johnny Crashed).


The interweb is a dangerous place

So as many people know, I am a bit of a trade me addict, it all began with wanting to get rid of some of the excess "stuff" I had - the usual stuff - clothes and shoes I never wore, books I hadn't looked at in years, old jewellery (but the clear out never extended to my CD collection - they are my babies and we shall never part) this was all well and good until I began to use the search function of trade me and found delightful vintage dresses and craft supplies and skulls.

Well back to my current story -one of my youngest brothers has taken to collecting things from the year he was born, he is of a 1986 vintage.

My mum told me of his new hobby as clearly it gives us all something to buy him for Christmas, so with the younger brothers Christmas present in mind I searched trade me for things from the delightful year of 1986. I have come across two amazing 1986 presents - one I have already won - and one I am hoping I do win as he will love it as it reflects a shared childhood obessession.
But unfortunatly I can't share either of these wonderful 1986 themed gifts on here - because if little brother visits the blog then his Christmas surprise will be ruined.

But whist I was on trade me I did happen to search "skulls" a very bad and dangerous idea - especially when a pair of skully kitty sneakers pops up on the screen in size 9! So now I am the proud owner of a pair of super cute sneakers...at least they only cost $11.50 and they are good for walking right? I especially like the pointy toe!

Saturday Skating

Yesterday I used my brand new skates at the skating rink for the first time ever! I have to admit I was a bit anxious about using them, as I had been told they would be a lot faster than the stinky hire skates. But luckily, they are also a lot more stable and generally nicer to wear than the hire skates, so everything went well.

After skating practice, I stopped off briefly in Newtown as the Richter City Rollers were having a stall at a market out there and I was able to pick up a very cool tea towel in support of the league.

I also bought a pair of very cool earrings made from a pair of guitar picks shaped like Dracula!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

At moments like these...I wish I had gotten beyond the basics of knit and pearl..

I can readily admit - even though I am craft obessed I am a "bit of this, bit of that" crafter. Which basically means whilst I am willing to give anything a go, I've never really gotten fantastic at any one craft.

When I saw this particular project online I found myself wishing I had spent a bit more time practicing my knitting so that I could knit myself a pair of these super awesome "Las Calacas Danzantes" socks as the pattern is on the Anticraft website right this moment for my favourite price...free!


Craft 2.0 Workshop - Record Bag

Last weekend Grace, Nat and I headed out to the New Dowse Gallery in the Hutt for the first ever Craft 2.0 workshop which consisted of making of a record bag from old records and recycling record covers into gift boxes. Here's my record bag - one side of the record is an old Iron Maiden Album. I was kind of hoping to go for a whole bogan bag look but only one bogan record was on offer.

It was a really cool workshop and Sue from Craft 2.0, who was our crafty tutor for the day, told us there are more workshops to come (one every month Craft 2.0 isn't on) including a sock monkey making workshop and a felted bead necklace workshop.


Charmed I'm Sure!

For a while I've wanted to make charm bracelets and recently I seem to have acquired a huge number of charms so I thought that it was now the time to make a few charm bracelets and here they are.

None of them have a theme, they are pretty much completely random, except for the fact that two are made from silver charms (well silver look charms) and two are totally plastic fantastic!





Friday, November 21, 2008

Weta

Weta were one of my favourite bands back at university - I can't remeber them coming to Hamilton, maybe they did and I missed it? Or I was too poor to go?

Anyways Weta was a fantastic band and they did the great rock n roll thing of releasing one amazing album, then touring and then breaking up to never be seen again.

Until now that is - the band played at Southern Amp (which I wish I could have gone to **sigh**) and are now playing at San Francisco Bath House tonight and I have tickets in my wallet right now to go and see them! It's all very exciting!

They are here!! Finally!!

There was much excitement to be had when I came home from work yesterday, as I found on the doorstep a big package all the way from the USA containing my new derby skates with flames up the side!

They are very exciting - I wore them for the rest of the evening - despite our flat being almost entirely carpeted and tiny with no flat outdoor area. But it was still great just to wear them and get used to some "real" derby skates rather than the manky, been worn by about 2 million other people hire skates.

I can't wait to head out to the Upper Hutt skating rink tomorrow and try these babies out - I've been told they will be much much faster though so I will have to work on those "dodging small children who think they can skate but really can't skills".


Thursday, November 20, 2008

Insane Pendant Necklances

I recently bought a whole bunch of weird and crazy charms in a bulk lot and made a few weird and crazy pendants - some I'm loving - like the blue dinosaur!





Farewell Cardy, Hello Hat!

So over the past few months, my much loved green cardy with the pink skulls reached it's "expiry date" - it had become old, and kind of fluffy and not very nice to wear at all.

But I couldn't let it go, as it was one of my favourite cardy's ever! So I decided it was time to "upcycle" it instead.

I know that it's coming into summer and not winter but I'm always cold so I figured I could refashion it into a cute little hat like the one I made Grace for the last crafty foxes swap.




Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Election night Horror party - part 2!

So now everyone has admired the cemetary cake - it's time for the photo's of the actual party!