Geek Squad.

So it's summer and I only took one class, a once a week class. And my job is primarily early in the morning. Like 4 am in the morning. (Ugh) But this does lead to perks like working and still having my entire day to do what I want.

Since we've opened our Etsy shop and limited the number of bazaars we're doing this season I haven't had to be in "mass production" mode. So I've been able to play with different mediums and just have fun with crafting. 

Do you know what my favorite thing is above all else? What can make me happy any day of the week? Pokemon.

Oh my gosh it's Dratini!

My mom is getting back into clay work, so we went to Michaels and bought some crayola air clay and my sister, mom and I all sat around the table and played.

I've never worked with clay before. Maybe a couple times in middle school that were a major fail. But, I'm just saying, I've got an aptitude for this art stuff. Maybe I should do some more of it.

But believe you me, I'm gonna be making some more pokemon : D

Plarn

I have an interest in plarn.

You know you go to the grocery store and you get to the counter and ah! You forgot you reusable grocery bag and so they hand you a plastic one. (You should get paper because at least that's recyclable) And slowly those plastic grocery bags accumulate.

But! I had a great idea to make a handbag out of plarn. It's slowly in process, and if you haven't work in some good callus' on your fingers this stuff is like working with razor wire. In a good environmental loving way.

Here's a short photo tutorial about how to make plarn.

 Lay your bag out flat and cut off both ends and then into strips

 You will have circles so lay them over each other and pull one through the other

And then gently tighten! If your strip is too thin or if you pull too hard your plarn will snap : o

Oh yeah

You know what. Sometimes blogs get made. Sometimes they die. And sometimes they sporadically come back like zombies.

And it's summer time. And you know what? I love making stuff.

Wanna see what I made last Christmas!?

At first you'd say "That's just a stocking." But. But! This was my FIRST adventure with the sewing machine!

Mind you, I don't really like the beast. Kinda scares me and makes me think it wants to eat my hand.... But I've seen Dea sew enough at this point in time to think that I could do it. It's like in geometry class when you had to make a flat layout that would fold up into a 3 dimensional solid.

And it took me a good half hour to make the silly cuff! I crochet, they way you make it is the way you sew it on. But in actual sewing you have to start with it outside in and all kinds of shinanigans. But I didn't hit Betsy (The sewing machine) which I think was good anger control.

I made it for my boyfriend because his mom threw his out.

I'm the best girlfriend ever :D

The Tiny Chalkboard

So. I work at Michaels, right? And I pretty much love it, besides the fact that I have to do other things besides stock and organize yarn.

And I spend a lot of time there, recently. (I pour all my funds back into this store thanks to their sales) And I just spent about fifteen dollars on crap. Not really crap, I needed it. Kinda.

I bought this mini chalkboard awhile back thinking "Oh wow! This'll be so cool! I'll have a little chalkboard to write on and stick my sushi magnets on for our craft table."

Yeah, it's not magnetic.

And it really shouldn't bother me so bad but I was so disappointed that I had wasted 3 dollars on it (Thanks to the goodwill ;D )

One day I was stocking paint on the craft paint aisle and I noticed Martha Stewart had magnetic paint! Sweet goodness! This fixed everything! I'd read about spray on magnetic paint but read some reviews online that said nothing good about it. But Martha surely wouldn't screw me over like that damn kryon spray on crap.

You see, I trust Martha Stewart. God knows why, but I trusted her paint to save my dream of sushi magnets on my adorable mini chalkboard.

I got the little bugger for about four dollars thanks to a handy dandy coupon and my sister and I read the instructions and painted, waited, and painted some more.

Even though I probably wont ever buy it again it got the job done. Sort of. The jar said to put on 2-3 coats but we put on easily six coats for it to hold my little maki sushi. It's not as sure fire strong as I wanted but I was just too lazy to go get a piece of sheet metal cut.

But now I have a tiny chalkboard! :D

KayDea crafts

Ho hum.

So my sister made a blog for our business and she has designated me the manager of it which means I am suppose to do it. :/

It's basically the same this as this blog, following our crafting exploitations as KayDea crafts. I'm still going to keep this blog for when I do things outside of that. But no one reads this one so I suppose it doesn't really matter.

I'll post a link anyway!

http://kaydeacrafts.blogspot.com/

Blue whale pattern

I actually made a pattern :D It's just a little blue whale but he's only the beginning.

Body:

Rnd 1: 6 sc in magic circle (6)
Rnd 2: Inc in every st   (12)
Rnd 3: *sc 1, inc* around   (18)
Rnd 4: *sc 2, inc* around   (24)
Rnd 5: *sc 3, inc* around   (30)
Rnd 6: *sc 4, inc* around   (36)
Rnd 7: *sc 5, inc* around   (42)
Rnd 8: *sc 6, inc* around   (48)
Rnd 9: *sc 7, inc* around   (54)
Rnd 10-17 sc around for 8 rnds (54)
Rnd 18: *sc 7, dec* around   (48)
Rnd 19: *sc 6, dec* around   (42)
Rnd 20: *sc 5, dec* around   (36)
Rnd 21: *sc 4, dec* around   (30)
Rnd 22: In BL only *sc 3, dec* around   (24)
Rnd 23: *sc 2, dec* around   (18)
Rnd 24: *sc 1, dec* around   (12)
Rnd 25: Dec around   (6)

FO and sew in ends. I used safety eyes but you can felt or stitch

Fins (Make 2)

Rnd 1: 4 sc in magic ring (4)
Rnd 2:  sc around (4)
Rnd 3: Inc around (8)
Rnd 4-7: sc around for 4 rnds (8)
Rnd 8: Dec, sc in next 2 sc, dec, sl st.

FO, flatten and sew to sides of body.

Tail

(I used the foundation crochet but if you would like to chain and then crochet be my guest, just make sure you have 3 stitches.)
Rnd 1: foundation crochet 3 sc  (3)
Rnd 2: In FL only sc 3, you will now turn the work so that the BL are now the FL and your sc are at in the back of the work. Now sc 3.  (6)
Rnd 3-5: sc around for 3 rnds
Rnd 6: *sc 1, inc* around  (9)
Rnd 7-9: Sc around for 3 rounds (9)
Rnd 10: *Sc 1, inc* around, sc in last st  (13)
Rnd 11-12: Sc around for 2 rnds, hdc in last four stitches

FO, leave long tail for sewing

Tail "top"

At base of foundation crochet, the st farthest to the right, sl and ch 2

Row 1: Dc 8 into first tc
Row 2: Sl into center st
Row 3: Dc 9 into last st

FO, flatten and sew on tail.

I used 9mm safety eyes and embroidered on a smiley face.

I lay claim to the pattern (c) so please don't claim it as your own. Other than that have at it, make it, gift it sell it. Make him a horn and turn him into a narwhal! Oo, that's a good idea...

Happy stitching :D

Yarn score

I LOVE yarn. I'm not into the fancy yarn that's textured or made from Peruvian wool (Although I do love wool) I love being able to get yarn cheaply.

My sister and I make toys for bazaars and lets face it, poor people like us can't afford to be spending 4 bucks on one skein. That's why we go to goodwill.

Don't be quick to judge! Think about it, someone tries to pick up knitting and it doesn't work out, wheres the yarn go? Mrs.Crabb down the street passes away, where does all her yarn go? The goodwill.

Checkout our recent score:

My bads about the low quality photo, my cameras a-wall so I had to use the ipod.

FIFTEEN skeins, folks. Fifteen. And all for eight dollars. And if you kindly will look to the top of the photo you'll see the three balls of purple and the skein of orange, yeah, they're all wool. The purple happens to be home spun and the orange is an untouched skein of knitting nation by Red Heart yarn. You know, the ones with the pin up girls with knitting needles on the tag. I know you've looked at them.

True, if you have a big project and find a color you like there's no guarantee that you'll find the color there again and sometimes it smells like old people but there is literally bags FULL of brand new yarn.

So, yes. I do shop at goodwill. :)