I don't think I post works in progress nearly enough. Here's one:

Monster Bag Stalks the Tasty Kitten

He'll be a messenger-type bag, and is finished with the exception of the strap. I'm missing a piece of hardware for said strap, however, so he's not so much in progress as in stasis.


OM NOM NOM!

The whole piece is out of my head; no patterns required. Technically he's years in the making; I cut out the bits just before going on a multi-year sewing hiatus, and they've been living in boxes getting shuffled from apartment to townhome to storage to house for a large chunk of my college career. Really, I went to work on the pieces a few weeks back, pulling it out whenever I could muster the will to manhandle long pile monster fur.

That's a hard will to muster. I must have inhaled, ingested, or otherwise absorbed whole boxes of green fuzz.


Mmm, Tasty Kitten.

The end results are so worth it, though.

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In other news, the Broken Camera = Free Shipping Sale continues, because camera is still dying and money is still tight. I have made progress, however -I'm maybe a third of the way there- and for that I thank my friends on the interwebs. Also continuing, the Pattern Giveaway With Multiple Difficult Caveats, which will likely continue until I can find someone who fulfills said caveats.

I caught a killer summer cold last week and I'm still recovering. It's turned me into a cold zombie. *hack* *cough* *moan* BRAAAAAAIIINS!

Y-Wing: Finished!

w00t!


Y-Wing Bead Detail

The delay came from my running out of the little silver star beads I used in the X-Wing Necklace. I dug through my bead stash for a while before stumbling on little orange seed beads which matched the orange trim on the Y-Wing. Otherwise, it's got the same asteroid-ish lava stone, hematite stars, and doubled chain as the X-Wing.

Now I need to take my drill to the Millenium Falcon, Star Destroyer, and TIE Advanced 1x! The TIE Fighter's solar wing array thingies were all warped, so I broke them off and am going to try to heat them up a bit and flatten them. Alas.

There is so much potential for nerdiness in toy jewelry. How about a Saturn V necklace, or Shuttle (the Moonraker shuttle makes me giggle)? A Zeppelin? I'm still holding out for an AT-AT.

Today, I made cookies. They are sugar cookies, but without the fuss of chilling and rolling and cutting and decorating. They are sugar cookies in bar form.

Nom!

And they are fantastic.

They're green because James insists that green tastes good. I don't know if he's got some kind of synaesthesia thing going on, but I roll with it. Green tastes good. Right. So now my cookies are green.


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You may have noticed the History Channel is putting on a show called Expedition Africa this summer. Long-time readers may have drawn a line between this expedition, which is retracting the route Henry Morton Stanley took to find Dr. Livingstone (apparantly), and the Stanley Livingstone Expedition 2008, of which I was a proud member. In fact, shortly after our team returned to Dar Es Saalam, the History Channel hired three members of our staff, team leader Jim Owens included. (I doubt said staff will make an appearance on the show, but they were there.)

The previews have already touched on pet peeves I didn't know I had. For example, the inability of western media to view Africa as anything but a barbaric and wild place with danger around every corner; to depict Africa as a world (and people) absolutely alien and apart, somehow, from the modern world. In reality, modern Africa is... MODERN Africa. Should they actually be following the correct route Stanley took, they would rarely be far from a road or even highway. I don't think it coincidence that the ONLY locals you see in the previews and commercials are the Maasai, in as traditional a dress as they could be bribed into; completely igoring the legions of Tanzanians in t-shirts and shorts and probably ignorning the cell phone in that Maasai man's back pocket. Who wants to see what Africa is really like when we could package it to conform to the Western World's assumptions of superiority? The savage depths and dark continent of lore is just that, lore, and I wish the media would treat us in the western world like adults, rather than fabricate fairy tales.

My other random pet peeve is one I catch myself at far too often, and is apparant in the title: Expedition Africa. Because they saw all of Africa, obviously, even though Stanley's route is entirely contained in modern Tanzania. Africa is a huge continent, with more diversity in its people genetically (and, I'd argue, culturally) than any other continent. This was not Expedition Africa. This was Expedition Small Part of Tanzania

It's like this: a while ago I had an appointment with a doctor, and my disease history (which got much more interesting during my time in Tanzania) came up, followed by discussion of my trip. At one point the Doctor, obviously stunned by how much Tanzania impressed me, replied to my hopes to return, "You know, bad things happen there." There, obviously meaning that big magical "Africa". That's like saying I shouldn't visit Vancouver because people are getting shot by drug cartels in Mexico. Africa is not a country. Africa is not homogenous. You cannot paint all of Africa with one brush.

Still, I'm excited to see the show I've been there, I've done that, and besides, just because the previews are sensationalistic doesn't mean the show lacks substance.



And all this rambling about pet peeves and TV is really to explain one other thing: long-term readers may have noticed I never finished my story about the Stanley Livingstone Expedition, and I wanted to explain why. First, I was just busy. Then Jafar (above), who I considered a great friend, grew ill with Tuberculosis. Then Jafar died, and I haven't known how to sit down and finish the story on a positive note since. Make no mistake, it's still a positive and great story... I just lack the words.

* * * *

I started on a positive note, so I should end it there too. You all should check out the Sew Mama Sew blog: it's May Giveaway time, and they've got lists of hundreds of blogs doing hundreds of crafty giveaways between now and... well, tomorrow. Punctual blogger, I am not. Anyway, it's a great way to find some new bloggish friends, and maybe win something while you're at it.

Sometimes the book bloggers I read will pair up, read the same book, and then interview each other about said book in place of writing a review. It's a format I've always liked (two opinions for the price of one, or something of that ilk) and one I'd like to try.

M5314

This is McCalls M5314, a sewing pattern for a lovely wrap dress with princess seaming, a sharp little collar, and a deep V neck. I happen to have two copies of said pattern, in size AA (6-8-10-12) (Further information about the final garment measurements of sizes 6-8-10-12 can be found on McCalls's pattern page.) How I got these two patterns is a rather unremarkable story which, like so many of my life's stories, hinges upon the fact that I have the memory of a goldfish on crack, and is unimportant to the scope of this post. The important thing is this: I'm going to give one of these patterns away. There are, however, MANY caveats:

1. You must live in the US or Canada, or be willing to cover shipping yourself.

2. You must be a craft or sewing blogger of some sort.

3. You must be willing to start this pattern within a week of receiving it. I'll start at the same time -a two-person sew-along. Should you or I have questions about the pattern as we go along, we'll then automatically have someone else to share our confusion, misery, or (hopefully, eventually) joy.

4. When we both have finished and are looking stunning in our new dresses, I'll interview you about the pattern and post your answers to my blog, with all expected linkage included (and vis versa).

Sound good? If so, leave a comment (feel free to comment anonymously if you're off platform and don't have open ID, but please leave a link to your blog!) with your e-mail. I'll pick a random winner next Thursday.

In my last post, I mentioned the Octopus Project: a personal challenge to craft an octopus (or similar cephalopod) in every craft technique and/or material I have or can learn. Thusfar I've already got polymer clay sculpted octopus, polymer clay caned squid, a knitted octopus, embroidery patterns for all sorts of cephalopods (and one in-progress embroidered cuttlefish shirt) and... I think that's it. Am I forgetting anything?

This post is all about the inspiration I can pull up from the internet. Octopus crafts ahoy!

This is beaded Blue Ringed Octopus skin (recently posted to the CRAFT blog), by Christy Puetz (who also has some great beaded octopus, as well as octopus skin).

Continuing in the theme of beading, there are tons of amazing lampwork octopus beads out there. Also, check out this craftster post with beaded octopus earrings by fishie.

Etsy is full of inspiration, including crochet pattern after crochet pattern that complement my knit octopus (or perhaps a crocheted cuttlefish). And don't even get me started about an octopus supplies search on Etsy.

I suspect my next project will be something sewn.



This hoodie was posted on Burdastyle by user inpeque, and I managed to find the fabric in an ebay search. Alas, with shipping and handling it's rather beyond my budget, but it's still lovely to stare at! Other cool octopus prints include:



This amazing duralee print, seen put to good use in this Designsponge post.



And this Heather Ross fabric.



There's a tutorial for the above squid pillow from the lovely Emily G, and I suspect it wouldn't be too difficult to make a giant octopus instead. I'd like to shape its head a bit like the head on my knit octopus, though, so that may take some skills slightly beyond my usual. All sorts of random darts should do it, right?

Other possible octopus arts include painting, stained glass, and mosaic (and again!). What else? Got any ideas?

Note to self: I have to do at least one Nautilus project.