30 by 30

Recently, I embraced the idea of making a 30 by 30 list. The prospect of turning thirty has been freaking me out more than a little so I'm looking at this as way to make the approach to thirty something exciting instead of just something to cry over a pint of ice cream about. I just wanted to share the list and I'll get an update on here soon since I've actually managed to knock a couple of these off the list so far!

1. Lose 10 pounds
2. Set up an etsy shop and make at least one sale
3. Sew a skirt
4. Learn to better use my dslr camera and flash
5. Take more pictures
6. Get the inside and outside of the house to acceptable (doesn't have to be perfect but to where rooms look like rooms and all our crap is unpacked somewhere without looking like a tornado came through)
7. Plan and plant a garden
8. Have toys for sale in the consignment shop in town
9. Join the Transylvania Handcrafter's guild
10. Plan a trip to Europe (I'm thinking France or Germany)
11. Go to the roller derby
12. Run a 5k
13. Go on a road trip
14. Re-learn German
15. Learn how to cook a really good steak
16. Have the balls to get up and sing at karaoke
17. Watch a meteor shower
18. Learn to roller skate
19. Get dressed up and go out to a fancy dinner
20. Visit the Biltmore house
21. Start a journal and keep it up
22. Go to a stitch and bitch
23. Host a party at my house
24. Read A Dance With Dragons (Chris bought this for me for my last birthday but I decided to re-read the entire crazy long series again before picking it up so that I would be refreshed but it's taking me forever to get to it)
25. Paint the outside of the house
26. Get a haircut
27. Do 10 things from the amazing little book Random Acts of Kindness by Danny Wallace
28. Make a new friend in my new town
29. Cook one totally new recipe each month
30. Learn to lighten up

Not Quite Elvis

I've been wanting to practice sewing with my new machine so I decided to try and make some famous silhouettes.  I figured that this would give me some experience with very simple toy making while, hopefully, creating some cute little toys that I can give as gifts.  My first attempt was the king himself, Elvis Presley.  I looked around online for profile shots of him that really emphasized the pompadour.  I settled on this one:

I printed it, cut it out and played around with resizing on the copier until I had to a size that I thought was big enough.  It ended up covering two sheets of paper that I cut out and taped together.

Once I had the template done I pinned it to a square of good quality felt and cut around it.  Repeat.  Next I pinned the halves together and had a go around the edges with the sewing machine leaving a space for me to turn it right side out.

Unfortunately, the final result looks nothing like Elvis and had some sewing issues that I'm going to have to try and work out with practice.  The curve to the back of the head had a lot of puckering, the hand sewn bottom that I'd left open to turn was all kinds of wonky and the face was way too delicate to translate to the felt form.  The features just get lost and the pompadour just looks like a weird bulge.  But at least I've gotten some experience and gained a little knowledge.  I still like the idea of using silhouettes but I know that the next one is going to need to be much more exaggerated to get the point across.  I'm trying to decide between Lincoln, Hitchock and Sherlock Holmes.

Zombie Card

Chris drew this awesome card to send along with my tiny zombie to our friends. He's drawn these sort of cards for several other toys that I've made and I absolutely love his style.

Pie-eyed

A few weeks back I made the most delicious apple pie. I'm very new to pie making but I got some pie pans for Christmas and wanted to give them a try. The last apple pie I made was in a cheesecake pan to give you an idea of what I was working with. Just a note that while a cheesecake pan gives lots of room for a super deep dish apple pie don't expect to ever be able to get a slice out of the thing.


I made a simple butter crust, trying my best to keep everything involved as cold as possible. I used granny smith apples tossed in a quick sugar/flour/cinnamon mixture. I did some snowflake cutouts from the top crust and threw on a sanding of sugar to try and class it up a little. It's definitely my best looking pie to date and it was pretty damn tasty, too, if I do say so.

I made a pecan pie for Chris at the same time. Unfortunately, it was not a very photogenic pie so you'll just have to take my word that it existed. It made up for it's generally homeliness by tasting awesome. Everytime I make a pecan pie I'm shocked at the sheer simplicity of it. There's maybe five ingredients tossed in a mixer and sprinkled with crushed pecans (preferred in our household over whole pecans).

Pies may not be the quickest treat to whip up but I'm looking forward to making my next one.

Tiny Braaaainss!!

I'm no stranger to zombie making as you can see above. I made that guy in January of 2009 from the Corporate Zombie pattern in Creepy Cute Crochet. That was probably my favorite pattern that I've made so far from the book.

Well, two friends of mine recently moved all the way to San Francisco. These friends had really liked my original zombie and we had joked that I would teach them how to crochet so that they could make an army of zombies and leave them randomly around New York City to create a full on zombie invasion and maybe make someones day more interesting. So I never got a chance to teach either of them to crochet but I decided to make them a tiny zombie as a way to say that we missed them and maybe I'll send them a few more zombies throughout the year and they can start their zombie apocalypse on the West Coast.


I'm really happy with how the tiny zombie came out. The Oreo gives you a sense of scale. This was a very tiny zombie. I wasn't sure if the pattern would hold up this small but I was pleasantly surprised. I think that the details are still cute and aren't so small that they get lost. I think the next zombie's going to be a girl just to switch things up.