Just one monster

_{[animated... wait for it...]}

Finished my red monster... wired jaws and wired fingers make for happiness.

The dowels in his legs and the grippy mesh I sewed to the bottoms of his feets means he's very stable. Oddly hunched forward when he stands, but still stable. Arms are wired a bit. I almost didn't give him eyes, but he looked too unfinished without them. Also added a fuzzy tummy at the last minute to hide the oddly shaped body.

Don't have a lot to share. Some health issues reared up and ruined my week. Lame. At least I'm getting better. Yay for having health insurance!



Wish I had more to say. Better yet- more results to show what I've done... Tried to get scanner set up but it wasn't meant to be-- stupid thing is now headed towards the junk yard and I'm out a scanner. Not sure what I should do- I need a fladbed scanner if I do get one (none of those single page feeders) but I'm not sure I want to give up that much desk space. Does that just mean I'll never again scan a sketch? That feels... odd.

I guess the temporary solution is to start comp. sketching again. Which I have started! Got new craft room set up a bit- photos later.

In minor news, I saw my family in Wisconsin which was awesome. Visited my sister in Madison which turned out to be a far cooler city then expected. I LOVED THE ZOO!!! And it was free! Later, my mother and I had a bake-off and Adam told me he thought I won. Which was good to hear. (I think hers was better). In other baking news I have failed one too many times at making cookies from scratch I'm in a self-imposed exile back into recipe land. Sad. Following recipes isn't all bad, I guess- I did manage to produce some tasty Mango chocolate chip cookies which definitely satisfies my "must not be easily store bought" requirement of food. There's another cooking party coming up this weekend- am not sure what to make yet but my brain gears are definitely a-grinding...




So... yeah... nothing much here. Not reading anything good, not listening to anything good, not watching anything good these days. Recommendations welcome.



_{[animated... wait for it...]}

Micro projects & things

I'm terrible at finishing things. The bigger the task, the less likely it is to get done. So lets focus on some of the tiny things I've managed to do recently : Having purchased a sweet Paderno World Cuisine Stainless-Steel Egg Topper , I now have a small collection of very usable shells for my planter projects. Tried my hand at soldering again-- am way out of practice. Also, I apparently have forgotten what is and is-not solderable in my collection of junk. Wasted a lot of time with the wrong type of wire.

Sadly both of these are a pinch too large to sit on the actual window frame edge- which was the initial intention. They're on the hallway sill for now... the tan shell holds sprouted basil seedlings at this point, but the white one's mint hasn't shown sign of life yet... Neither egg is fixed to its frame... am going to make some needle-legged hanging ones next.

Speaking of which... I haven't killed the Easter one yet... though frequently it wilts due to lack of water. Am using my flavor injector to water them all. Surprisingly useful device, that syringe.

Baking has decreased due to increase in tasty resturant visits. I did however make something for the 4th. America Bread! Click image for details about bread.

Managed to make it to both Dr. Sketchy's this month here in SF. First time in a long time. Also managed to place in the contest both times this month- first for the pregnant lady session [Theme : Fertility Goddess], and second for the Roller Derby Girl session [Theme : True Blood vs The Walking Dead]. Not sure if that says more about me or those attending... but it makes me happy! I think about sketching a lot. A lot. But I sketch oh-so very little these days... aside from Sketchy's I've only doodled a picture or two relating to my new table-top character... Young Rebecca would be ashamed of me if she could see me now... Sorry for the terrible photos- I've still not yet set up the scanner situation...

Life goes on. I've been having extreme difficulty sleeping lately due to new upstairs neighbors. My usual 8-9 has been reduced to fitful 6-8 every night and I've not been able to sleep in on a weekend for a month. That, combined with some stressful stuff at work, has made my moods erratic and it definitely has affected my ability to craft/make stuff. The bedroom and craftroom are going to get switched in attempt to address the sleeping situation... hopefully it helps. (we're also looking for a new really awesome place... if you know of a top-floor, 2 bedroom, pets ok, parking included apartment in the Mission, let me know!) It also means I get to re-decorate a new craft-room... so more on that soon.

In closing, am working on a new random monster... it's restful to just put hook to yarn and be like "whatevs". No idea how I'll finish him, but I'll get there eventually.

End of Winter

A moment of silence, please. MidWinter, the tabletop game I've been playing since the end of October 2010, came to a close this last weekend. Good times, good times. Everything wrapped up neatly and my character became a princess, then lived unhappily ever after. Winning all around.

Fitting that we're heading into Spring now. Having a spot of sunshine here and there in the city now, but it's still a pinch too chilly for my taste. That just means its easier to hang around inside guilt free!



Tried my hand at cookies a bit ago... made mint monstrosities. I blame the mortar and pestal I picked up for no good reason and then felt inclined to abuse. I ground up some rosemary and then probably twice the number of mint leaves I needed. Hey, I'm learning...



While sitting around inside looking at the sunshine, but fearing the bite of cold the actual outdoors inflicts, I crocheted another monster. Came out way, way, way to similar to the previous guy I made, so I am sad about that. Again, fell back on old ways and he's 4 different shades of mossy-ness.

His only redeeming quality, other then the sweet Elvis curls, is the fact that he has quite a number of pennies in his guts. This means he is exceptionally pleasing to hold. Weight adds much to a monster, I feel. I also like the use of beads for "toes" and his eyes-- I have a bag of super cheap white plastic pearls, which I can now paint with nail polish for a great range of eyes. Always important!



Should be noted that the fantastic green yarn of his back was picked up in Paris. Hurray for travel yarns being put to use!

Final notes:

My sisters both randomly passed through town at the same time this last weekend. Very fun. Can't say we got along great growing up, but absence (and brief visits) make the heart grow fonder. They are also both growing up to be far more awesome then originally anticipated. The sorority girl is kicking butt on her path towards her biochem-ish PhD. The punk has mellowed and matured enough to get into med school. And here I thought they'd just major in English ;)

Made more bread.

• First set was sad. Finished off the second half of the squid ink packet. Stuff is crazy potent. Tried to make "blueberry" flavored bread. It didn't work/taste like anything. I read blog posts that warned me it would be so, but I had to try. The color wasn't even that striking... wound up tossing a lot of it.
  
  
• Next set was better. Didn't put the boiling water on the lower rack this time and the crust came out rather ugly like. Also, photography of this set was a total failure. It was however the tastiest bread so far. Beets again, with the other half being bananas and (WAY TOO MUCH) rosemary. All the bread reeked of rosemary, but the taste was not harmed. The bananas in the bread were not noticeable, but I put chunks of banana in both types and it tasted super yummy. New goal now is to A) make smaller batches of bread and B) get more interesting fruit in there somehow... am thinking mangos next.
  
  

What I think and what I get....

Adam is a film snob, who donates generously to some SF film society thing, who provides him-- and therefor me sometimes-- the opportunity to screen films in advance and/or with director and/or cast in attendance. I was therefor most fortunate to be able to hear Guillermo del Toro talk after seeing Pan's Labyrinth. This was years ago and I'm certain I blogged about it (dear Livejournal?) but cannot find the post-- nor a quote from him, which is why I bring it up. He said something that struck me deeply and I'm going to slaughter the quote so I ask your forgiveness in advance.

I have monsters in my heart the way some people say they have Jesus in their heart

As silly as it sounds, that quote affected me more strongly then any other quote I've heard in ages. It rang so true in my heart and yet I'd never thought to phrase it that way (the power of all good quotes, yes?). It's not like "woah, angst! ah!" monsters. It's just... a feeling. This is perhaps one of the several reasons I feel compelled to craft stupid shit all the time. I could be making useful things, like scarves or sweaters, but instead I spend time and money making little monsters because that's what I think about all the time. It's what and how I often feel things. Of course, my heart and mind are still miles away from what my fingers produce... let me share an example...

I've got some yarn and a hook and some time. Time to make a monster! Six limbed, lanky, looming perhaps. A maw. Small beady eyes. Bulbous limbs that are fuzzy and then tipped with... something.

This is what my brain is thinking:


And this is what I actually produce:


Well... hmmm... Could be worse I guess...

(Disclaimer : I sketched the image after I finished the monster... the "what am I making" idea shifts around as I go and I can never craft from my own sketches-- however occasionally I can work from others')

Anyway, yeah, so that's how I spent a lot of last weekend. The yarn I picked up from the ever-delightful Imagiknit. Had a good excuse to visit- brought with me a new co-worker from Colorado was in town on a business trip. I started the monster only 2 weeks ago, I believe, and finished 'em rapidly with the assistance of my newly acquired crafting accessorires : a CozE and all of House Season 7. I'm a crafting MACHINE when these ingredients are added!

A painless crafting process... Not sure how I feel about the results. I mean, it's "cute" and all but.... now what? I guess I'll list it on Etsy... "watermelon colored 6 armed monster" is a bit harder to sell then something that can be paired with the word "unicorn" it should be noted. Hmmmmm....

Anyway, random progress photos :


I can't really say much about the process that isn't covered in this post from my old blog : Crocheting Monsters : How to Part 1. (this is from 1/29/2010 and there still isn't a part 2 yet... )

Hopefully my rapid success with this project (and still more DVDs of House!) will keep the yarn ball rolling and I'll finish a couple other projects. I unearthed several projects this weekend while continuing my tragically slow cleaning efforts... They are all at various stages of not-done-ness but all (well most) still have glimmers of potential!



Maybe they'll even look like the monsters I dream them to be

It's a creature so cute, it shits marshmellows

One of the really awesome things about making crafts and not code is that I've got something real, something tangible to show for my efforts. The down side is that these little effort-proving results are, you know, real and take up more space then a pinch of area on some harddrive's surface. I've only been crafting a couple years and already my shelf is getting kinda' crowded with the results.

So, what to do? Well stopping isn't really an option... and as much as I think "golly wouldn't it be nice if I learned to cook" in order to transfer my creative efforts into a more ephemeral product, the idea just doesn't take. The solution that I've settled on is "get ride of them". Trashing them seems too wasteful... and there's only so many ugly monsters I can push off onto my friends.

Which leads me to my conclusion : selling them. It's a motivator to improve quality and it's perhaps a way to cover costs. I don't need the money, which means hopefully I can price them low enough to actually trick someone into buying them. This calls for an overall improvement in the quality of construction them I'm used to and probably an improvement in the quality of materials themselves-- no more rice or batteries to weigh down body parts...


Here is the first creature I made that I was mindful of the possibility of selling. Despite my best efforts finishing it proved to be too painful and so I rushed through the eyes and hair... but whatever. I don't care what anyone says- it's a fucking unicorn. Don't say a word about any of the miss-numbered components. I don't want to hear it. It's a unicorn.

I don't really remember when/where I got the obnoxious candy-colored yarn. Pinks and purples, how unlike me... but it was super soft! Put some lead weights in the hind legs to keep him level. Yes, definitely the male gender... He's about a hand an half in length. A little floppy around the neck, but able to stand upright.

Knowing I wanted to sell it meant I went for the most marketable thing I could think of- really fucking cute. So cute that it looks like it would shit marshmellows. May add more to it over time (more pink roving for the mane? fixing the GOD DAMN EYES?!?) but I got it to a point that I can actually call it done this weekend. Trying to figure out how much to price it for... am thinking somewhere between $20 and $30... not sure who would buy it though... but the world/Internet is full of crazy people...

Still have not figured out how to over-come the 'blob' like effect of crochetted monsters... tried size and color variation on this one and it still looks like a big pile of yarn- at least in the photos. I guess that's another thing the "Sell!" idea requires- improved photography skills. I think I'll have to pester Mel for help...