Terrariums!

Terrariums! Aren't they fantastic? Little ecosystems that I never have to water! It's like the whole thing was invented so that I could not kill some plants for once.

Since I have an intense love for apothecary jars, I was really excited to have an excuse to finally get some. I always pine over them in home decorating sections, despite knowing that I am not the sort to fill them with fake lemons as part of my decor. Of course, the jars I got sat empty in my living room for a couple months before I got around to making my terrariums (don't judge me!).

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Photographing glass was more difficult than I anticipated.

I am especially fond of the little one with moss. Moss is probably one of my favorite plants—it's soft, comfy, and super easy to transplant. I found some more moss at my parents' house that looks like little trees, and once I find another container, I am going to make another terrarium with it. Since the moss one is my favorite, it got to have my super awesome holey rock that I found on a beach in Costa Rica.

It's like a little bed for my pet rock.

I am eventually going to take pictures of the other stuff I am working on, but it's been rainy and my camera sucks butt, so I haven't gotten around to it. But I will! Promise!

Oh man

I am so seriously bad about keeping up with this blog...

I haven't actually completed any projects lately (bad Megan!), but later I will take some pictures of WIPs and post them. :)

I am working on so many things! And I keep wanting to start MORE!

It doesn't help that my craft room is currently the Pit Of Chaos, Cardboard, And Also Polystyrene. My computer desk also got moved into there, as well, since I redecorated my bedroom. Hey! Does that count? Cause I finished that... Executive decision—yes, it counts, yes, I'm blogging about it. Later. >_>

Update! I am a flake and I forgot that I did actually make three terrariums that have been lounging in my living room, basking in attention and sunlight. I just forgot about them. I'll post about them later this week.

Sneak peek: Spring!

It's been pretty busy here, not really in a crafty sense, but in a "Holy cow I have so much to do in less than three hours!" sort of sense.

A couple months ago, I ordered a Tyler Wentworth and Jane doll because..... ??? I don't remember. I'm sure I had something awesome planned. But I thought of something better. Something cooler. Something that I have managed to remember.

The four seasons! Well, the four seasons, personified! With dolls! In pretty dresses! :D

I've already planned out how the outfits will look, start working on patterns, acquired two more dolls, you know. Important things. Things that keep me from blogging... >_>

Anyway, to make you feel better I've included a sneak peek at Spring, since her dress is approaching being finished. (It just needs some more embroidery and flowers!) Here is Winter modeling it, since I don't have Spring in my possession yet:


Also coming up: some more paintings, my first quilt, and perhaps OOAK Barbies as Jem and the Holograms.

Craft room!

Ok, I promised a look into my not-cool craft room, and you know I always deliver on my promises. Well, except for the promises I make about crafting. >_>

Here is my desk. If I were on Cribs, I would say "This is where the magic happens," mostly to confuse everyone because that's what people say about their bedrooms. Since I'm not cool, this will never happen, but it's a nice fantasy. Over on the right wall there is my collection of "Shakespeare in Penguins" doodles. I'm really quite fond of them.

Oh, does my curtian decoration look familiar? ;) It's pretty sweet having a balcony, even though I don't really use it. Unless it's warm and it rains. Then I bustle out there with my chair and a glass of wine. B)

Painting in progress and my fan for when I burn things in the kitchen. I don't have an easel. I mean, I do, I just have no idea where it is, which pretty much means I don't have one. A piece of cloth on the floor is sufficient, right?

This is where I was planning on putting a loom (the whole reason I got a 2br apartment!!) but I ended up not getting one. :( But I love lamp. And penguins. And Mermaid Lady.

Finished product from yesterday

So I embroidered this piece yesterday, and then had no idea what to do with it. I was thinking I might make a suncatcher or something, but the sober view of my stitching made me wince, so that's a no go. I consulted an internet forum that has nothing to do with crafting for their opinion, and decided that I would just frame it in an embroidery hoop with my new etsy cloth behind it. But I was also thinking about crazy quilts, from another not-on-topic post in the forum.


So it's not exactly crazy quilted, but it is a little silly. I couldn't help myself! I thought a little lace at the bottom to make it less empty... and then saw the ribbon... and there were all these beads that I spilled everywhere that I haven't cleaned up yet...

And then it was too late. For future reference, though, using a hot glue gun on LACE and SHEER FABRIC and then pressing it down with your finger: NOT A GOOD IDEA. I don't know whyyy I kept doing it.

Just a lil' tease.

I did some quick embroidery tonight. Since the cloth is translucent, I couldn't be lazy about about the stitches look from behind, like usual.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this piece yet. Probably I will sew it on to some of the fabric I just got from etsy and hang it on my wall.

I like how the piece dangling in front of the face is actually just dangling there.

What I've been up to: aka, picture-spamming my way to forgiveness.

Ok, I said I made lots of things, and I know you want pictures, so here we go! Things I have created recently include:

A knit bunny. Mostly a prototype, I'm planning on making a larger one later. Not sure how well it will work out, but it's a cute (and easy) pattern from my knitting calendar. I'm hoping it will look a little less like an evil white ant with ears next time.

And as usual, cupcakes for my coworkers!

These were for a meeting to go over editorial standards. I wanted to butter up the writers so they'd be nicer to me. ;) They were my tastiest yet; I had coworkers coming to my desk the next day to see if there were leftovers.

These were for a group outing. I had a lot of fun making the sugared raspberries. The left is gluten-free chocolate with vanilla icing, middle is coconut-lemon meringue with lemon-curd filling, right is vanilla filled with wild berry jam-filled and topped with vanilla icing and a vanilla-sugared raspberry. I picked the berries for the jam, too. :) The berries on the cupcakes are from the supermarket, though.

My Mom's birthday cake. I know, I am an awesome daughter. ;) I didn't have any more pastry bags, so I ended up using my cookie press to do the frosting decorations. It's not really even close to my best, but my mom was happy, and that's what counts. That bonsai tree in the back is also for my mom. You can't see it too well, so another pic.

Also for my mom's birthday. A lil' fishin' dude. A long time ago, my mother and I were looking at bonsai trees. She saw a lil' fishin' dude similar to the one here, and said, "Oh! How cute! I want one!" (or something close, it was over a decade ago, gimme a break!) I said, "I could make that." And I did. Then that lil' dude was broken, and so I made another. I think that story was too long.

I also made this totally sweet flatware organizer out of duct tape and cardboard. I couldn't find any that actually fit in any of the drawers in my new kitchen, and doggone it, I can't have my chopsticks touching my spoons! They'll just fight and make a mess! Especially the Nesquick Bunny spoon. That guy is fiesty.

Ok, does making a dandelion wreath count? My parents' dog really liked it! And by liked, I mean, liked to chew on it. (I also just really like this picture.)

I made... a ... fort? Does that count?? Ok, now I'm stretching. I think this is where I stop and admit that I didn't really make all that much stuff. :(

Anyway, plans for the future involve a lot of knitting, embroidery, painting barbies, and making doll clothes. :D

How embarassing...

So... it's been a while. How are you doing, blog? Feeling neglected and unloved!? How could you say that!? I know it's been a while, but you've been in my heart and guilt-laden thoughts! Every time I create something I think of you, and how I should be posting here, oh, and there's all that other stuff I need to post and that is gonna take an awful long time. And you know I just moved and it really does take me a month to unpack. Oh... it's been two, near three, months? Uh, you're right. Like always.

So let's get back together. We'll take it slow, k? I'll show you a few things I've done, then you can talk about your feelings some more.

First, and I think this is the most important... I have a craft room! It's not really organized yet, and frankly I doubt it will ever be as cutesy or clever as the craft rooms I see on the internets, but it speaks to me, and is my space. That's what counts. I will devote an entire entry to it later.

I also finally learned how to knit a hat. I'm actually really proud of myself, because I pretty much just taught myself and went from there. It was surprisingly easy! I also FINALLY finished knitting the red scarf I've been working for, oh... two years approximately. Here is a pic of me wearing both!

Yes, the wallpaper, I know.

Also, I'm taking the plunge again this year (because obviously I love to torture myself): I'm doing NaNoWriMo. Again. I just realized today that I had no plot, so I thought of one. It's about three sentences right now. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. OMG DED.

I have about 20 more things I have made that I need to post, but we'll take it slow. Now tell me again how much you missed me.

Hey mom!

Well, this weekend contained Maternal Figure Day. (My PC term, since not everyone has/likes their mother.) Since I am in the happy position of having a wonderful mother, I celebrated the day with her. And of course, since I’m me, I couldn’t just buy her some fancy-pants present; I had to make something. Well, more than one something.

First, I decided to remember how to do embroidery. Embroidery is actually something I really enjoy doing, it’s just so tedious that I tend to get lazy and not finish. Also, I really need to sketch out what I’m going to embroider in detail, and I’m always lazy and use a pen, and then the pen bleeds and it looks crappy. (And yes, I made that mistake this time, again… -sigh-)

I forgot to take work-in-progress pictures, which is too bad, since you would be able to see how I totally changed my mind while approaching the end of the piece and decided to fill in the branches with a poorly-done staggered satin stitch. (I know that’s not the proper name, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is!)

Anyway, here is the finished piece:
Probably the best part was filling in the bluebird with crayon. (Note to self: next time, do that before finishing all of the embroidery.)

My mom really loves it, and it’s already on display in the kitchen. I put black cloth on the back so that you can’t see my messy stitches in the back, and it makes the cloth look kind of dirty. And I keep looking at it and getting irritated, because I can see all of my mistakes and how easy it would have been to fix them. I was on a schedule, though, and I just barely finished it in time (1am, Friday night). Why did it need to be finished by Friday night, you ask? Oh, because I had to make these:
Mmmm. I used vanilla bean seeds for the first time in these cupcakes. My mom was really happy. I hope she doesn’t mind me posting a picture with her in it!

These tasted pretty good, but served as a life lesson: don’t try to bake or make meringue buttercream when it is REALLY FREAKING HUMID. Also, don’t forget to put in the last egg white when making said meringue buttercream… >_> In other news, Swiss buttercream was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be, and delicious to boot. I’m bringing in the leftover cuppies for a meeting tomorrow! :D

(And see that cupcake in the bottom-left corner? That's the one my brother ate. Because it had the most frosting. Of course!)

picture spam!

Happy Earth day!! I've made a couple things since my last post, and I've been too lazy to post... sorry. :( A lot is going on. And I have lots of writing that I should be doing... :(

Anywho, Heather came to visit and I made her a mini cake:

(Note to self: next time, DON'T forget the baking powder! hehe)

I also made trifle for my mom:


This is my parents' friend, attempting to ruin my trifle:


And a very scribbly self-portrait:

(At the bottom, it says "Self-portrait #18 million." Probably accurate.)