I live in an apartment with no outdoor space so it’s hard to grow my own vegetables. And, in fact, when I lived in an apartment that had outdoor space some unknown demon animal stole all the fruits of my gardening labor! Anyhoo, I thought I’d give regrowing veggies from scraps a go and started with green onions.

I put the whites of some chopped green onions (you can see where the original cut lines were) in a glass lined with paper towel and about a half inch of water. I stuck them in the window and change the water every couple days. They’ve grown about 8 inches in a week! I think I’ll plant them in a little potting soil now and see how they do!

In other news….life is cray cray right now!!!! And is likely to continue that way with lots of travel and life changes in the coming month. I’ll post when I can, but sadly June and July might be light on the posts. I apologize in advance!

A friend posted about artist Berndnaut Smilde and his indoor clouds on facebook (thanks Maxie!). I thought the images were so pretty I wanted to share a video here about how he makes them. Enjoy!

First off, apologies to anyone who has noticed that I haven’t posted in a couple weeks. I’ve been working on projects that are gifts (tutorials soon, I promise) and didn’t want to post them and spoil the surprise for the recipients! Also, my old laptop is in the process of dying a long, slow, painful death. After more than about 10 minutes awake the poor thing just seizes up on the desk in a fit of fearful dementia until I put it to sleep again, wondering if it will wake up next time….

……which is why it’s my old laptop and I now have a new laptop (Windows 8 is a trip, eh?).

Anyhoo, a couple weeks ago I was forced, practically against my will, to stop in to Britex to pick up some supplies for the aforementioned gifts, and Lord knows I can’t control myself in there! Somehow I always emerge back onto the street stunned, confused and blinking into the light after losing 3 hours of my life and a hefty chunk of my spending money.

But it makes me so happy!!! So who cares, right?!?!?!

I thought I’d share my purchases and what I’m thinking so far…..

1. Teal knit jersey – 3 yards.

I  bought this with a t-shirt dress in mind. It’s a little on the heavy side,  which was intentional since I didn’t want the dress to end up too clingy. I’ve been thinking that Vogue (easy) pattern V8685 might work nicely, adding a bit of tailoring detail to keep it from being too boring.

2. Brown, teal and orange polyester shiny and soft floral – 1.5 yards.

This fabric is the only fabric I actually intended to buy when I walked into the store (tee hee) and had an actual pattern in mind before purchasing the fabric as well. I think it will work really well for this simple Spring Blouse pattern from Craft Habit.

3. Super bright total impulse buy floral – 1.5 yards.

I bought this beautiful bright floral print fabric as a total impulse buy. One of the women who works at the store was cutting some for another customer and I simply had to have it! Originally I had been thinking about using it for a maxi skirt to wear with a white tank top, but once I unfurled it at home I realized it was probably a bit too busy for such a large garment. I’m still a little undecided on this one but I like the idea of a button-up blouse with nice feminine sleeves. I’ve been thinking that the Vogue pattern V1152 would shorten into a blouse nicely.

My mom sent me this link from Apartment Therapy featuring beautiful glass sculptures of infectious diseases by artist Luke Jerram. I think my favorites are the E. coli

and the T4 bacteriophage sculptures.

Though HIV is pretty cool too…

Read more about Jerram’s sculptures here.

Well kids, they can’t all be winners.

I pinned this pillow a couple weeks ago and thought it was so simple and so cute! “Pffft”, says I, “pfffft! I could make that!”. Famous last words.

I cut out 25 little felt birdies in all different colors, and embroidered the eyes and wings before sewing them to the pillow, which was probably way easier than embroidering them once they’re on there. Mistake #1, though, was making the birds too big and too spaced out on the pillow. My second mistake was using highly contrasting thread, like that used for the wings, to sew the birds to the pillow. Finally, I should have clustered the birds more tightly together in the center of the pillow and left some white space around them to make it look more graphic and modern. Meh. Live and learn, right? Trial and error, the pillar of all great invention….or some such nonsense.

Didn’t quite work, did it? Mine definitely looks more kindergarten than the original. It just lacks in sophistication. I often have a picture in my head and just can’t seem to quite achieve the aesthetic that I’m after.  The one thing I added to mine that I did like, was after I stitched the pillow together, I went around and top-sewed all the edges with my machine. I think it helped to give it a more finished look.

Oh well, at least the colors go well with my bedspread and it didn’t cost me a dime! (LOL! I even managed to take the picture with the pillow laying sideways. Hmmm….looks entirely possible that I may never be a stylist…..)

Get it? “Knit’s”. Instead of “It’s”. Oh ho ho! That clever pun is meant to inform you that this is a knitting post! Yay!

While trying to organize a December Crafternoon with my crafty friends, I started pondering what crafty Christmas things I could do and started thinking about ornaments.  My go-to site for inspiration is, of course, Ravelry, so I searched around to find some quick and easy knitted ornament patterns.

To save you from going to the same trouble, here is my Christmas ornament Ravelry roundup! (All the patterns shown below are FREE to members of Ravelry!)

Of course, if one is decorating a tree, the only place to begin is with the lights! And there’s some adorable ones, like these, that you could make yourself! Pfft. Buying lights is so two thousand and late.

I started by looking up some good ol’ fashioned Christmas balls. Because who doesn’t like balls?? I thought these ornaments looked cute (and this one too) and since no one is going to wear them it won’t matter if my yarn isn’t carried over properly behind the entarsia….unlike the hat I made my brother last year for Christmas….

I found tons of other cute knitted creatures that would make adorable ornaments too! Like these robins, acorns, and this reindeer (I assume his name is Rex because Rudolph is copywrited???).

But ended up in some sort of weird drooling cuteness coma when I came across this owl, and these sheep. Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Too adorbs.

If you want to expand your decorations beyond the tree and into the rest of the house, what about this dear deer head or this amazing knit nativity scene!

Now all that’s left is for me to actually get around to making one or two of these. If I ever do, I’ll be sure to post them!!!

A few years ago a lifelong dream of mine was fulfilled……I participated in a zombie walk!!! A very generous friend walked with me and we decided to be….wait for it…..zombie rights activists! Yeah, it was as great as you’re imagining. And to prove it, check out this picture.

My t-shirt said “Zombies just want hugs” and the other side of the sign read “Brains not bombs”.  CAUTION: If you have a sign that reads “Brains not bombs” REAL weird hippie “Food not bombs” activists might talk to you A LOT, mistaking your cleverness for shared interests. On a funny side note, a friend who didn’t participate but watched from across the street eavesdropped on an amusing conversation.

Passerby #1 (watching the zombies walk by): What’s going on?!?!
Passerby #2 (as I walk by): I dunno, protesting somethin’.

Anyway, I got TONS of compliments on my makeup that day from fellow zombie enthusiasts and also, to my shame/delight, scared the shit out of passers by and had numerous people stop to ask if I was ok. So, I thought I’d share my makeup tips. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the process so I’ll have to use my vivid prose to paint the picture for you.

1. The base coat. Many people buy the white make up from the drug store and smear it in a thick coat all over their face when trying to look like a zombie. This is their first mistake. It looks way too fake! I didn’t actually use any “costume” make up for my look, I just used what was already in my make up bag. For my base coat I used that green cover up that is meant to correct red spots, but I’m sure a really pale concealer would work just as well.

2. The dark circles.The second mistake people make is taking that same cheap costume make up kit, and smearing black in big circles around their eyes. I just took my black and brown eye shadow kits. I worked the colors into the inner corners of my eyes, extending onto the lids and below the eyes. A nice “rotting” touch is to add the same kind of make up below your nostrils, the outer corners of your eyes and to the corners of your mouth.

3. Looking gaunt. Next, you need to imagine everywhere your skin would stretch over your bones if you were a rotting corpse. Take the brown/black make up and use it to define your cheek bones, your neck, your temples and your collar bones. This pre-blood picture shows some of the areas that I worked on.

4. The little things. My friend had the fantastic idea to rim our eyes with red lip liner. I can’t stress how much difference this made to our overall look! I also used green eyeliner to draw some veins at my temples, though I think they’d worn off by the time this photo was taken.

5. The “bits”. Let’s face it. Zombies are gross. They walk around with food hanging out of their mouths (as you can see in the pic above) and bits of skin falling off their faces. This is the part of the make up that I got all the compliments on. My secret? I made my own gore instead of relying on the fake-looking store bought ones. I bought liquid latex from the local craft store then painted it, in very thin layers, onto waxed paper. I let each layer dry then added another, for a total of 3 or 4 layers. By keeping the latex thin, it is easier to blend into your skin when you’re trying to apply the wound. Then I carefully peeled the latex off the waxed paper and kinda just went with it. As it peels off the paper, the latex is really sticky and will stick to itself a bit and make some strange shapes. For instance, I ended up with this really cool piece that looked like a torn off earlobe.

I also wanted to try to make some gore that looked like my jugular had been exposed. I took a bit of tubing from the lab and inserted it into a piece of latex that I’d made. When each bit was to my liking, I painted it up with normal latex craft paints and left them to dry. I found it hard to cover the latex with make up and have it look convincingly like skin, so I painted to the edge of the latex. I attached them by applying a bit of the liquid latex to my skin and a bit to the gore. Here’s a good view of my neck gore.

6. The blood. And now, my friends, you’re ready for the blood. After reading much ridiculousness online about fake blood recipes containing ketchup or tomato sauce, I tested a bunch and settled on the oldie but goodie; corn starch and red food coloring. I don’t remember the exact ratio but just play with it until you get a consistency you like. Damn, that stuff is sticky though.

So that’s it. Go forth and eat brains!

My friend Sandy showed me this one a while back and I nearly peed laughing. It’s too good not to share!

Life’s been kinda hectic lately and haven’t had much time to craft or post! (You may have noticed the lack of a Pinterest Peeve of the Week last week). Anyhoo, I thought I’d take a moment to give you a sneak peak of what I’m working on and what’s coming up for blog posts and tutorials! It’s funny, I had no idea I had so many projects on the go until I started counting them up for this post. Guess I’d better get busy….

1. Pete’s Hoodie.
My boyfriend requested an upgrade to his favorite hoodie, so we’ve bought all the stuff and I’m supposed to be sewing a iphone pocket onto the sleeve. Er, almost done, baby!

2. Sweater for niece/nephew

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby….and I’m making it everything!!! Starting with this sweater (I swear, it will turn into a sweater in the end) out of yarn they bought me last year for Christmas. It’s gorgeous alpaca wool from the farm down the road from them and I can’t wait for them to see this!!

3. T-shirt quilt

I’ve been meaning to make a t-shirt quilt for the longest time and I finally got it started!!! I’m keeping it simple since it’s my first quilt and doing a patchwork pattern. I’ve got the front  all sewn together and bought the batting and backing last weekend. I’m still debating how I’ll quilt it but I’m leaning toward fighting my initial urge to bite off more than I can chew and  just doing ties.

4. Needle felting

Last Christmas I bought my sister-in-law this needle felting kit from Wool Buddy from the Bazaar Bizzare (or maybe it was the Renegade Craft Fair…). I was dying to try the needle felting myself so finally gave in and bought another kit for myself. Somehow though, I just haven’t gotten around to doing it yet!

5. Garbage area

I love my apartment, but I’ve hated the mess around the garbage area in our kitchen since I’ve moved in. Pete and I decided to finally do something about it one weekend. We’ve got the basic construction done and one of these days I’ll get around to sanding and painting it. I can’t say that we’re expert carpenters but we definitely made some cool finds that day, the coolest being our local re-build center that recycles old building materials. Way easier and cheaper than starting from scratch!

6. Fix market bag

I found this pattern for a market bag on Ravelry and it looked easy enough. Found some cute $2/skein bright green 100% cotton yarn at Michael’s and thought it would be perfect. All was going well until I decided it would be cute with a hot pink handle. Now it looks like something a 12 year old girl would own. So I’m going to take off the pink handle and re-finish it in all green. I’m still debating whether it might be cute if I lined it with some white or black fabric, but then it would lose its stretchiness…

7. Take in pants
A friend gave me this pair of jeans/jeggings and they’re super cute. Buuuuuut…..they don’t have any belt loops and are just a bit too big in the waist (I have basically no butt/hips what so ever). I’m planning on putting some darts on the top at the back to help hold them up. Shouldn’t be too difficult (famous last words!).

I’ve got a few projects lined up that I haven’t even started yet too! My boyfriend and I are planning on being Max and a Wild Thing for Halloween. We haven’t even started our costumes yet and we’re going to be away for half of October, yikes! At Thanksgiving my mom’s going to give me the yarn, etc to knit my niece/nephew a little hoodie and my brother has already requested some of my hand appliqued onesies (tutorial upcoming). Looks like I’ll be busy through the holidays!

See? I don’t just bitch about Pinterest, I make stuff too!