Merry Christmas!

   Hope the holidays are treating everyone kindly, I know I've been super busy!

Some how I managed to get some presents for most of the people on my small list (small amount of $$= small list!) So I'm all set to set back and enjoy the next two days. I just finished cooking all of the side dishes for tonight's Christmas Eve dinner, and I thought I would share some pictures and a recipe or two! Most are traditional for me, and the other but a few are new.

From left to right:Sweet Potato Casserole, Squash Casserole,  and Green bean casserole

This squash casserole is a family staple, my grandmother has been making it for 50 years,and I was taught how to make it when I was a little girl. Its pretty famous for being AWESOME amongst family and friends. 

Squash Casserole:

Ingredients

3lbs Squash (lightly skinned, boiled until soft,drained, and mashed)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 sweet onion

stick of butter

1 can sliced water chestnuts ( you find these in the Asian food section)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup dry crushed stuffing

   Finlay chop onion, and cook with 1/2 the butter in a small pan until transparent and soft. Mix all ingredients except stuffing & butter, pour into a casserole dish, and top with stuffing, sprinkle with left over butter. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. 

Four layer Strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting

This one is new to me, but it totally rocks! 

Ingredients

1 pakg white cake mix

3 tbs flour

4 eggs

1/2 cup veg. oil

3/4 cup water

1 3 oz. pkg  strawberry jello

1 pkg frozen strawberries (thawed)

1 cup powdered sugar ( or to taste)

1 stick softened butter

2 packs softened cream cheese

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 pkg fresh strawberries

Combine cake mix, flour, eggs, oil, water, jello, and 3/4 of thawed strawberries. Mix well. Pour into two oiled,  9 inch cake pans.  Bake about 30 mins at 350. When cooled, split into 4 layers total.

In mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and rest of thawed strawberries (slightly mashed). Add more lemon juice as necessary to thing frosting. Frost cake when cool adding sliced fresh strawberries to each layer. Decorate top with whole strawberries, and left over slices.

Make sure to refrigerate!

Wooooo Dental surgery!

So this morning , bright and early, I went in to get some work done in my mouth. Had my one and only wisdome tooth removed, AND and even less pleasent skin graft across 4 of my bottom teeth. Some how, I caused tramma to the gum a few years ago (not suprising, im prone to freak accedents) and it caused the gumm beneath two of my teeth to fall. 

Good news: I had two super skilled dentist preform the sergery

- I was knocked out for the whole thing

-I'm on LOTS of nice pain killers for the next week.

Bad news: - I look like a chipmonk 

-Im tottaly out of it! So im sorry if I make silly/ inapropreate replys on anyones blog!

<3

California here I come!

So this is the last place I've gotten around to posting this little tidbit...

I"m moving to California this January to start school at CalArts, studying costume design and construction!

(yay!)

I'm super excited, and a bit scared too! I've already found a place to live, a room in a condo within 5 minutes walking distance, for a super reasonable price. If my cat comes home ( my mom accedentily let her out thanksgiving day...shes been missing since =(  She will be coming with me, and if not...well I may be looking to adopt a new cat once I get there. Im going to be up in Cali by myself for at least a month, and Im going to miss Max terribly...Im realy trying my hardest not to think about that part! But he should be following me up soon, hopefully to work an internship, or a full time job as a story board artist!

Wish us both luck, were going to need it!

Knitting update

So I've got a few WIPs I'm working on right now, I'm hoping to finish at least one of them during my Thanksgiving trip to Atlanta. 

First off is this neat little pullover. I'm knitting it with recycled yarn I got from frogging a clearance sweater, from the maternity section at old navy. Surprisingly, they don't serge the seams of their sweaters!

Not the best picture I'll admit, but I will post a better one when its all blocked and finished.

Next up is a baby blanket! I've been going nuts over this pattern, and I finally have an excuse to knit it. Max's cousin Dee is expecting a little baby girl in March. I'm knitting this one with Vanna's Choice baby yarn. Its super soft, machine washable, and I love the colors her yarn comes in. 

The pattern for this one is simple and fun, although I did have a hell of a time figuring out how to use two circ's at once! Thank god for Ravelry, and this video.

knit on through crisis'

Just had to share it, Enjoy!

Sea mask

Quick post!

I made this mask for this months "Everyday Monster" challange!

Its compleatily hand made, I formed the mask with wonderflex, and painted and glittered her up! I love making mask, and it was a nice project to distract me from all of the stress in life right now!

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone got their costumes done in time, and has a safe and fun time tonight!
I got my costume done right in the nick of time for the party Max and I went to last weekend. Im super happy with it!

"Welcome to Floston Paradise Mr. Dallas! 

More photos to come soon! 

Memory wrap

This is a pretty special piece to me for a few reasons. First off, this is the first knitted project I started . Secondly, this was knitted , frogged, and re knitted several times during a pretty hard time in my life. I would work on the wrap as a stress reviler, or when I was particualry distraught. Because it has so many painful memories attached to it, it took me a long time to pick it up and finish it.  I finally did last summer, one of the best summers I’ve had, so I could have it as a reminder of my past, and because its super compfy!

Anyways, here are some photos =)

Me with the little dogs, Jodie and Missy. 

Me in 2005! Like I said, I started this a long time ago. Look at that baby face! 

New Knits!

I have been SO lazy about taking photos of this one, but here it finaly is!

Pattern: Central Part Hoodie

Author:Heather Lodinsky

This is my first full sweater , and I loved kitting it! The pattern was clear and easy to follow, and the cable patterns kept it from getting borring. I made one major mistake on this...I didnt do a swatch, and when I blocked it, it stretched out like crazy! Woops! It worked out in my favor though, beacuse now its the perfect weight for a nice Florida sweater, and its a little lose so its super compfy. I realy want to get some different buttons for it, but the pink ones will work for now!

Let me know what you think!

Garden time!

I love gardening, and I lucked out this summer because we live somwhere that I can have one! I do a mix of planting from seed, and buying my plants.  I've always found planting relaxing, and a general place of zen for me. Its been a wonderfull escape for me, because its been a pretty stressfull summer.

The main bench where most of my flowers sit. In the middle, I have a little herb box, with sweet basil, oregano, and some thyme.


Here is my last seed starter of the season, some Scarlet Sage! Hopefully it will have time to grow and strenghten up before the cool weather comes in =)

And last but not least, my compost bin! I've got a ton of happy worms living in it, and I use all of the great dirt they make to start seeds, and re pot my plants.

A pair of socks a month!

So I've set a new knitting goal for myself: I'm going to knit a pair of socks for myself each month! Why you ask? Beacus I'm obsessed with knitting, and I've fallen in love with socks! They are THE perfect knitting project. Small in size, nice pattern options, and they are fast to knit. 

Here is last months socks, knit from the pattern Monkey, by Cookie A You can find the pattern here :www.knitty.com

Progress shot:

        (Note the absolutily beautifull project holder Max got me for last Christmas <3)

And the finished results! 

This was a great pattern, and the finished socks are amazing! I knit them up in 

Pagewood Farm Denali Hand Dyed Sock Yarn, which I highly reccomend. It has very little spliting, and is super soft. AND its superwash wool!

Here is the start of my October socks. I'm using some yarn from my stash, more of the Pagewood Farm yarn. This time I'm making Pomatomus, by the same author as Monkey. 

Not crafty, but super important!

October 4th is the last day to register to vote for the 2008 presidental election! Register! Vote damnit! Its going to be super close. 

I'm voteing for Obama , because I care about my womanly rights darnit!

He's got a big cat face...

Heres a quick little project I threw together. This is my first applique test, I used felt for Catface, and hand embroidered all of his features. Then I sewed him onto the shirt, Bam! New shirt out of some old scraps. =) 

(guest staring Tumbs, Max's Mom's cat =) 

Vampire teeth!

So with Halloween right around the corner, I thought I would try my hand at making a pair of Vampire teeth. This is the seccond pair I have made, I crated some while in VCU's theatre program while in the crafts class. The differnce with this pair however, is that I had help from a dentist! Max's cousin has a dental office in town, and she helped me pick out better materials to make the teeth with, and gave me some great tips. Essetialy, these are snap on vaneers, so they are super strong, and match the wearers teeth color well. 

Anyway, on to the pictures!

These were super fun to make, and took about 3 hours in all to make.

Lack of posting...

I've been working on costumes and crafts non stop lately, and yet I havent had any time to post about them! So here is a break down of what I've been working on as of late.

-I had a photo shoot for my portfolio last weekend. I should have pictures from that to show some time next week.

- Worked on a costume for the shoot...that I may or not post. I dont know, Im just not super happy with how it turned out. 

-May still be making a wedding dress for my brothers bride, a Lydia from Beedle Juice dress!

-Working on an embroidery piece to submit to stitch spectacular , a juried embroidery show in Savanna ga. here is a preview of it, its about 75% done =)

Thats it for now! I'll update again as soon as my embroidery peice is done, and add in a new recipie I've found =)

Ike: the making- Part 1

This was one heck of a project! I made a costume based on Ike, from Fire Emblem for a good friend of mine. He has a part in a small indi movie, and needed to supply his own costume for it. The problem, was that I had about two weeks notice to start and finish it! I took on the challenge because I love the design, and I thought it would be a wonderful addition to my portfolio. Many hours, and a few sleepless nights latter I finished the costume right on time, and thanks to Max I have pictures to share my process with all of you.

Today I will start with the jacket.


My least favorite part of sewing, cutting out the patterns! I started with a commercial pattern, and then tweaked all of the cut out pieces on a dress form.

I finish all of my edges when I'm sewing, so here I am serging the edge of every pattern piece before I sew it together.
The shell of the jacket. I serged the lining in, since all of the edges are covered in binding. You can also see the collar I draped , and the beginning of the binding on it.

A messy shot at the half way point in the binding. All of the binding was hand sewn to the inside of the jacket.
Binding finished, and sleeves attached. The jacket is closed with a invisible zipper.

Thats it for the jacket! I forgot to snap a picture of it with the attached coat tails, but you will be able to see them in the final post when I put up the finished product =)
Next up is the cloak.

More sketches

Just a few quick sketches I did while on my break at work today. I'm focusing on keeping my drawings loose right now, and my figures in balance. It helps to live with an artist!
Speaking of, there is now a link to Max's (my wonderful boyfriend) blog on the right hand side of this page. Max also made the banner for this blog for me, If you look closely, you can see my name painted on the sewing machine . =)

Working on new skills

So this is totally a procrastination post- I had planed to make a post for the last costume I finished today. But because I'm a bit lazy, I'm going to make this post about two skills on working pretty hard on right now. Draping, and fashion sketching.

I've been an artist my whole life, in one form or another. Next to sewing, my next strength was drawing for a long time. Sadly, around Junior year of high school I started to let my drawing slip, and focused entirely on sewing and crafts. I'm starting to pick up the pencil again, because I've realized that to be the best costumer I can be, I need to be well rounded in my skills, and that includes being able to design.
So right now I'm working on a few designs for my portfolio, so that I can show that I am capable of creating a garment from start to finish.
This is the start of the first one. Its only the first sketch, but it captures the general idea of the dress. I'm still playing with the color, but I'm leaning towards shades of green, possibly an olive color. Think of this as a sampler piece, its going to show everything I have learned about draping so far.




And here, is my first drape! Its a basic bodice, and shortly after this picture was taken I draped a skirt for it, and put it together as a dress. Its a bit messy, but I am so pleased with it. I'm teaching myself from a book, so it is a bit slow going, but I'm already in love with the art.


Next time I post, It will be my Ike costume (unless I put it off again!)

Welcome to my blog

Hey everyone, and welcome to the new home of my craft blog!

This is a space for all of my craft work. Sewing, knitting, sketching and painting, home decor projects.. anything crafty! Sewing and crafting is a huge part of my life. Its how I express myself, and I love to share my passion with others. I plan on creating tutorials and craft along projects on this blog occasionally, so that I can experiment with my teaching skills.

I'm preparing to jump into the professional world soon , so your going to see a lot of activity while I'm gathering work for my portfolio. I hope you enjoy my work, and please feel free to ask any questions about it!