Where does time go?

I always feel bad when I get distracted. But,to be perfectly honest, a lot has happened in the last 8 or so months. I’m still with my job, and its stopped kicking my butt as much. Its just.. I dunno. I lost a lot of the craft mojo. I don’t know why.

My friend said just now while I was looking for photos of things I’ve done and didn’t see much since January, “You haven’t really been enthused about it for a while.”

And… I dunno why that struck me.
But it did.

Granted, it’s been a busy year. XD I finished this little mousey dragon:

And the little square to represent grass..but it was smaller than him.

THEN..I have no idea what I did. Watch a lot of tv shows and movies and work and sleep and not do much else.

In April, lots of things happened at once. I was writing short stories for CampNano..I’ll post one, I promise. Just not this post. I actually found and started the house buying process. and I actually finished the house buying process for said house in June. However, I had planned a trip at the end of April before I bought the house and went to London. XD Saw Stonehenge and Windsor Castle and just spent a week hanging around touring.

I’m not gonna picture spam you guys with London, but I wanna show a couple of things.

That was the main gate into Windsor Castle. Omg, it was so pretty and so cool.
BUT THE BEST PART was that once I got through that gate, I saw this beauty:

bwhahahaa. DRAGONS! And there was a dragon statue in the city of London itself.So many hidden dragons around the city too. I had a blast.

In June, I hosted Guy, from Tumblr’s Die Redshirt, Die. I… got distracted and didn’t write up the picture story for it. I’ll do that after this. XD

In July, I started writing again, trying to do a full length novel.. I haven’t finished it. lol. One day maybe!

And then I made another dragon, this one I sent off to a friend.

Then, this past month, a hurricane hit. I… have minimal damage, some trees down, my house looks okay. So, it’s not terrible. But, I made a few things:
These little heating pads:

This little monster:

A tiny seal… that I dont seem to have picture of..hmm.

I also sewed this little bear:

And.. I’m working on crocheting again. Anyways, Guys.

I’m…I’m gonna be completely honest. I don’t know what it is, but it’s just been a really hard year for me. It might be the moving away from family and friends or everything being in boxes (and still in boxes). Whatever it is, I’ve been getting depressed. I’m okay, I’m functional throughout the day, but I really have been struggling this year a lot more and a lot harder with self-hate and depression. I.. I don’t feel good enough to be crocheting. I look at my work and groan. I’m doing the same thing with writing. And I can’t seem to pinpoint what it is that’s not right. I’ve dropped the ball on lots of things, things I’ve loved and were excited to do. And I don’t know why.

I’m trying to get back to where I was when I started this blog. Trying to remember the enthusiasm and how happy it was just to share cool things. Nice things. Things that make people smile. I’m trying to allow myself to be okay with myself. It’s hard some days, friends. But I am trying to get better. I am trying not to be hyper critical of myself. Anyways, I hope you are all doing well, and hope to see many awesome things from you in the future.

Another month. One day I’ll be better!

Man, I don’t know what it is that got into me. I’ve been struggling to finish projects, unless they REALLY tend to catch my attention. It’s more a focus issue, and I look at things half finished and get… meh about working on them.
HOWEVER, I have been working on somethings.

I made a little mouse, I don’t remember why. Lol. I also don’t remember if I showed it, but I don’t think I have.

Then, my cousin is pregnant and due in March, so I’ve been trying to make her some little things for the baby. She’s calling her daughter Lulu right now, and I’ve only made a couple of things:

I made her this little binky holder.
Because I like all sorts of crafts, I bought these canvas tote bags and decided to decorate one up for little Lulu.
Front:

Those little monsters/crown are appliques that I also bought and ironed on.. I don’t know how to embroider, yet, and I wanted something cute and silly on the front.
Back:

The quote reads “Beauty isn’t what you see on TV or in magazine ads or even necessarily in art galleries. It’s a lot deeper and a lot simpler than that. It’s realizing the goodness of things, it’s leaving the world a little better than it was before you got here.” The thing is, I ran out of room, but the quote goes on with one more line, “It’s appreciating the inspiration of the world around you and trying to inspire others.” Its from a Charles de Lint novel, and honestly, I just loved it to bits. Hopefully, this little girl will see it, be inspired, and want to make the world a better place. That’s all any of us can ask to do.

In that vein, a new friend and I were talking about art/craft things. He does these reaaaally cool things with making his own stencils and spray paint. I’m honestly super impressed with it. I would link it, but I’m not sure exactly where to link to be honest. Well, he found out I crochet. And he was interested so…. I offered to make him something. I always like making things for people waaaay better than making them for myself. I also want to make things for people who’ll appreciate them. It’s why sometimes when I’m working on a project for someone, I struggle with even wanting to start it or finish it or anything and other times, the project flies off my hooks. Anyway, I offered to make him something, anything. One reason was to give me inspiration and the other reason is that I honestly love making things. Also, struggling with not being able to finish a lot of projects recently left me in a funk and I wanted something to help me out of it. However, he kept saying he felt bad.

Needless to say, we finally reached a point where I was able to talk him into letting me make him a thing he’d been wanting…

I’m so happy with this project. I don’t make a lot of “hats” and I’ve never made a helmet before, and it was one of those that once I got it started (after two froggings and restarting) it just flew and I finished it within a day.

That’s the best picture of the colors of the helmet and here is another picture I took of the helmet:

But. Since I had to mail this off, and I had no way to pester him to try it on and off to check the size and everything…. I was super nervous about it. Again, I don’t make many hats.
Needless to say:

It fit “like a glove” he said. (I’m also totally using his photo, but I asked him and he did say I can show it off. Not sure if he realized this is what I meant… ho hum..)

I made the base of the helmet and the details on my own, just looking at the basic picture he sent, and some examples of what people have done online, because I like to do things like that. However, I did find a pattern for a helmet and used their pattern for the horns (which was someone else’s pattern that they improvised as well) and then I chained a loooong strip and wrapped it around the horns and sewed it on.
The pattern I found is here and it’s for the Skyrim Iron Helmet kinda like I made. Like I said though, there’s gonna be differences since I improvised the entire helmet beyond the horns. But still, I feel I should give credit where its due, since I definitely wrote… nothing… down on how I made it.

But still, I’m very happy with it, and while I keep looking at the pictures and thinking how I could make it better “next time,” I know that my friend loves it. Its things like that, the putting something out that makes someone smile into the world that I love about crafts and I need to get myself back to remembering when I make things. 😛

What about you all? I know I’ve been very MIA lately, and my goal is to get back to finishing projects at least every other week (if I can get in the habit of making more things!)

Galaxy

I really love my crafts.
Honestly, I do.
Though, it may take me forever to do something, I love messing with different projects and everything. Trying to figure out something new.

That being said, I’m still learning how to spin yarn.

So, I started with this fiber:

And I was using my drop spindle so you can see the in-progress picture here:

And the yarn when it was all finished, of course. I kept staring at it, because it just reminded me of a galaxy.

Anyway, since it wasn’t a whole lot.. and I had no other idea what to do with it.. I made this little dragon with it:

I named him Galaxy. I love the way the colors came out and I loooved the way the yarn came out. I didnt have all that much of it, unfortunately. Just enough to make Galaxy with only a little more, enough to make this little octopus.

I hope you all are doing well! I’ve been slightly under the weather, but the good news is that I’m slowly getting over it!

EEK! 1 Month. O.o

Sometimes in the river of life.. I find myself lost. I blink and suddenly a week or a month goes by. It goes by quietly, and all at once and then I’m sitting over here going “But.. how?I did things right? Did I?” and I look at my piles of half finished things, my house with all its boxes in it.. and I wonder what I was actually doing in that time frame.

I had plans to make a nice spoooky Halloween scene with all my little amis… That didn’t happen.
I had plans to make a go vote post with my little amis voting… That didn’t happen.

… And not because they couldn’t just because I got swept up in the small tides of life and totally forgot to stage and take pictures.

Anyways: I don’t think I shared this little guy.

His name is Vezoth and he’s made with my very first ever spun yarn. WEll, that and I took some stash black/greyish yarn for the wings.. But still!

Because of the way the yarn was made.. and it being my first.. It was super blobby at times and made parts of him a little uneven.

That doesn’t stop me from loving him any more or any less of course. XD Actually, I am very proud of my little dragon and I appreciate all his little flaws.

Anyway, I do have some other things completed. Hopefully I won’t be a complete loon and forget to show you soon! (There will be a second post for that yarn next to Vezoth by the by.. I promise!)

Feeling a little witchy…

Boil boil, toil and trouble.
HALLOWEEN IS FAST APPROACHING!

Right, that didn’t rhyme, but this little witch can barely keep her hair out of her face, let along make sure the spell rhymes.

AH HA! There she is:

So, I didn’t make a pattern. Oops. But I did make her poseable. Inside her little crocheted body, I followed some of the stop motion tutorials I had found on how to make a wire skeleton…with a lot of mistakes in the beginning of trying to make the wire frame.. Her hair is yarn that I pulled apart to the single ply and sewn on, but I didn’t brush them out. I was going to, but couldn’t find any of my combs. Truthfully though, I love how it came out without brushing it, so I’m glad that I didn’t!

Anyway, I hope you all are doing great and prepping for the spookiest time of the year!