angry octopus studios

in which i actually finish something

2010-03-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

Let it be known that I am a little bit of a hoarder. I keep things, for no reason. I don't generally keep garbage (and definitely not food-garbage - bleh) but I kept these boxes from Costco that contained some picture frames for our wedding gifts to our parents/grandparents.

A couple weeks ago I decided to see if I could cover one of them with fabric to make a wall hanging for my living room. It kind of worked, but I decided I would use the other two later to make a couple for my bedroom. My husband's been sick for the past week and a half with something nasty, and I finally came down with it this morning. (Other weird thing about me: I get crafty things done when I am too sick to do anything else. I've finished three quilts this way.) So, I started working on the next two.

This time I was slightly more careful with my cutting and things (no, really, you should have seen the first one - there was tons of extra fabric tucked into the back) and used regular office-type staples rather than packing tape. I figure this would hold up better than the tape, but would still let me take the fabric off and replace it in case I decided I wanted a change or to use the fabric pieces for another project later.

I don't know that I'm totally thrilled with the colors I used, but I wanted to get something finished and hung on the wall today, so I used what I had. I've kind of been wanting to add a little orange to our predominantly white, green, and black bedroom, but I don't think I like the extra colors that are in those particular prints. Right orange, wrong other colors. So, that is my project for the day. Now I need a nap.

trying something new

2010-03-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

You guys, I really suck at this. You will notice my last post was over a month ago. Which, actually, is pretty good for me! I've gone much, much longer between posts. Anyway, this time was a little different. I posted on a couple different blogs, one I have occasionally updated over the past two years, one I started to replace this blog and deserted.

In an effort to accomplish who knows what, I'm going to show you something. I've never been able to keep both blogs up at the same time, so in an attempt to unify and therefore simplify my blogging life, I'm letting you in on that particular secret. It's a pretty touchy part of my life, and my crafts and photography aren't, so I don't foresee a lot of adoption talk here, but, I'd like the ability to post something related to that blog here if I want to, without going through the internal turmoil that is basically me worrying that someone who doesn't know will wonder what I'm talking about and then cause all kinds of grief for me in some way I can't imagine they would, but anyway. (Hi! I like run-on sentences!)

So, anyway, that is my life, and this is my life. I have tried for a very long time to keep that part of my life in it's own little box, but that's not fair to me, and it's not fair to my little boy. I am not ashamed of him, and I can't be worried about what people will think to the point where I hide that part of my life from the people I come in contact with on an every day basis. The reason I am so open with him and his family is because I don't want him to ever have to be ashamed of that part of his life either, so it doesn't make sense to keep it my dark little secret anymore.

Next time I will try harder to keep it lighthearted and crafty, since I have plenty of that going on right now. I just need to finish quilting this quilt, which is a loooong process since I used two layers of batting and maneuvering it around in my tiny machine is a huge job. And kind of a workout, too, for that matter! I can't wait till it's done, since I made it out of my favorite fabrics ever (Neptune, from Tula Pink - who is a genius, anytime I see her fabrics in a store I spend way too much on them - plus a piece from Full Moon Forest on the back because I -gasp- didn't have enough pieces of Neptune!). It's a small quilt, but so nice and thick. I hate the thin-ness of just one layer of Soft'n'Natural, it's like wrapping up in two (granted, well-insulated) layers of fabric. Since my quilts are usually throw-sized, that's not what I want to be wrapping up in while I play my Wii. So, this one, which is a baby-sized quilt, was kind of a two-layer trial run. I think I will be thrilled with the results!

January 23, 2010

2010-01-23T17:15:00.005-08:00

The newest addition to our kitchen. The knobs that were purchased for it came with screws that were a little too short, so it's not fully functional yet - but close! At least it's finally in our house - it sat in my parents' garage for months!

January 22, 2010

2010-01-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

I got a second quilt completely finished! This one is me-sized, so I have been wrapped in it ever since it came out of the drier - thusly, I haven't taken a full shot of it yet.

January 21, 2010

2010-01-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

The church behind our house.

Look! I finished something!!

2010-01-20T22:50:00.000-08:00

Seriously, for me this is kind of big. I have quite a collection of half-finished quilts, embroideries, and other assorted abandoned craft endeavors. So:

Yes, it is just a baby-sized quilt, for some future baby. But, it didn't start that way! I set out to make a regular old lap throw, and had some extra squares of fabric leftover. I just added them onto the quilt, which made a long, skinny, weird quilt that wasn't good for a whole lot. Unfortunately, I figured this out after I had it quilted and was getting ready to bind it. I was pretty unmotivated about figuring out how to add more quilt to make it bigger, so I just cut the whole thing in half and made two baby-sized quilts - one of which I will keep, and one I'm planning to give to my best friend (in the future, also - she just got engaged this weekend! Yay Chantelle and Tyler!).

So, yeah, the other half of this quilt is sitting on my stack of unfinished projects, but I learned that this size quilt takes like no time at all to hand sew the binding on to, so I foresee myself finishing that one up in the near future too.

January 19, 2010

2010-01-19T18:41:00.004-08:00

My husband hates onions, and I am physically incapable of using less than three (small) onions in any given meal.

January 18, 2010

2010-01-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

Finally! A craft I can finish!

(And I did.)

January 17, 2010

2010-01-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

This was an accident. And, incidentally, the only picture I took that day. So.

January 16, 2010

2010-01-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

So, apparently, this has become a "photo every couple days when I feel like it." I'm not terribly thrilled about that, but Seattle just doesn't get prettier in the winter, like most places. It just gets wetter, and grayer.

P.S. - Note to self: ENOUGH WITH THE VIGNETTING.

January 13, 2010

2010-01-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Red Vines start to taste really gross after you eat four pounds of them.

January 11, 2010

2010-01-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why, but the fact that my tablet has a fabric tag impresses me to no end. Technology!

January 9, 2010

2010-01-09T18:25:00.000-08:00

January 8, 2010

2010-01-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

January 7, 2010

2010-01-07T23:02:00.000-08:00

Ham just loves it when I make him sit still for hours on end.

January 6, 2010

2010-01-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

Ham!

January 5, 2010

2010-01-05T18:41:00.000-08:00

Some left over bottles.

January 5, 2010

2010-01-05T12:17:00.000-08:00

January 3, 2010

2010-01-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

A drawer pull on our dresser.

Oops...

2010-01-01T16:21:00.001-08:00

Sooo...I inadvertently broke all the pictures I'd posted previously. We are in the process of fixing that right now. :)

January 1, 2010

2010-01-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

Utah

2010-01-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

Some of my favorites from our trip to Utah.

December 31, 2009

2009-12-31T12:33:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year.

December 30, 2009

2009-12-30T14:06:00.001-08:00

Some delicious artisan bread I made.

December 29, 2009

2009-12-29T14:05:00.000-08:00

A fabulous octopus necklace from Ham.

December 28, 2009

2009-12-28T14:05:00.000-08:00

My parents' new kitten, Pepper.

December 27, 2009

2009-12-27T14:04:00.000-08:00

A Quick Update

2009-12-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

December 25, 2009

2009-12-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

I woke up on Christmas morning to discover I had misplaced one of my contacts, and I am very, very blind without them. I didn't try very hard to take a neat picture. :(

December 23, 2009

2009-12-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

All Caught Up!

2009-12-21T22:04:00.000-08:00

This picture completely floored me. I don't have a macro lens, so it's usually pretty tough for me to do close-ups on anything, but these little ice crystals came out PERFECTLY.

I have a whole bunch of great pictures from today, but since I have to pick just one...

I'll probably post all my Utah pictures in a big lump once we get home, kind of a recap, if you will.

Birthday Cake

2009-12-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

I was still drained from the trip the day before, so I still wasn't trying very hard.

In case anyone was wondering, yes, this cake was divine.

16 Hours Of Driving Is My Excuse

2009-12-19T21:51:00.000-08:00

After spending all day in the car I wasn't feeling terribly inspired to clean this one up much, so...

December 18, 2009

2009-12-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Rather than actually get out and make time for shooting today (yay last minute Christmas shopping and packing!) I decided to, instead, teach myself a new post-processing technique. (It was cold outside, also.) I also learned that solar flare and shooting right into the sun don't play super nicely with HDR images. (As in it is way more noticeable now than it originally was.)

Posts will be sparse over the next few days (due to traveling and intermittent interwebz acess), but I will shoot a new picture everyday and then post several times in a row to catch up.

I was feeling uncreative today

2009-12-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

But all our Christmas shopping is finished! Well, almost - I'm going out tomorrow to get one last thing, and then we are headed to Salt Lake on Saturday. We can't wait!!!

Christmas Tree

2009-12-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

Gratuitous Christmas tree shot.

Ketchup & Napkins

2009-12-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

Ham and I went to Mikie's for dinner tonight.

A Fairly Boring Shot

2009-12-14T18:04:00.000-08:00

This is a poinsettia on my desk at work. One of the downsides of not leaving the house in the morning and not returning home from work until it's already dark is boring pictures.

December 13, 2009

2009-12-13T17:10:00.000-08:00

A stack of fabric I am (obviously) not doing anything crafty with.

Look! An update!

2009-12-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

So, I have decided to embark upon a new project: taking at least a photo (or two) a day for....as long as I can keep it up.

Here are the inaugural two photos I chose today:

So, not MUCH of an update, but an update nonetheless! Today we went over to my parents house to help out with holiday baking type stuff - delicious AND fun. Of course, I'm still covered in flour, but oh well. We made peanut brittle, caramels, cherry cordial cookies, Andes mint-type brownies, and raspberry pinwheels. Sugar cookies were attempted, but somehow botched. (Now that I think about it, I could have at LEAST eaten the dough. That would have been just as tasty as a finished sugar cookie...)

I suppose I could also mention that we are headed to Salt Lake for Christmas at the end of this week, which we are both pretty excited about!

Anyway, I will return tomorrow with another photo-a-day installment. (I'm very optimistic.)

A Cheesecake Experience

2009-09-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

I made a delicious cheesecake last night. I used this recipe from King Arthur Flour - with a few notable changes.

1. I used crushed Rice Chex with some added cinnamon for the crust, because I detest graham crackers, I won't buy them, and I avoid eating them. (Except with strawberry yogurt. Which is, coincidentally, the only way I will eat strawberry yogurt. Hmm.)

2. Because of the different crust consistency, I used a whole stick of melted butter in the crust.
In hindsight, this was probably unnecessary, but, BUTTER. I love butter!

3. I didn't have any cream cheese on hand, but I did have 16 oz of Neufchatel cheese! (Weird, right? Am I the only person ever who keeps Neufchatel on hand, rather than regular cream cheese??) I think it is what made mine a little bit fluffier (even after it fell) than the one in the recipe picture appears to be, maybe... Also, Superior Flavor. In my opinion.

Anyway, IT WAS GREAT. I was pleasantly surprised. (I grew up eating my dad's homemade cheesecake, which is divine.) It only took like 20 minutes to put together, plus about 40 to bake. Also, we didn't wait till it had cooled completely to eat it. Because we are dessert hogs. Of course, the day after, the Chex crust was very, very mildly stale-feeling, but it still made a great breakfast. And lunch. (See? Hogs!)

I have done nothing interesting lately.

2009-09-07T23:33:00.000-07:00

I really haven't, at all. I took this picture of my younger brother lately, though! I'm finally getting back around to taking pictures again, hopefully that will provide some kind of blog fodder. I pulled out an old cross stitch I've been working on for months and months, and now my sewing table is covered with a hundred skeins of embroidery floss I haven't gotten around to winding into floss-bobbins.

Of course, I have no pictures of the actual project, because I just don't think about things like that. I'll take some tomorrow, maybe. Although, knowing me, it will be another month before I post again. But I'll try! I promise.

Here they are!

2009-07-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

I finally found the pictures of the framed, finished dinosaur embroideries.

I apoogize for the terrible photos! My camera devoloped some kind of weird defect shortly after we bought it, and I never took it in to get it fixed. We're in the process of getting a better one, for which I am very excited. Especially since I'm heading back to school in the fall to get my AFA in Photography.

Also, Blogger's image sharing capabilities blow.

Anyway, not much else is exciting around here. Hamilton had never watched Burn Notice before, so we've spent the last few days watching the first and second seasons of that. Our lives are so exciting and fabulous!

Be sure and come back soon, when I detail what we ate for lunch and how many spiders I found living in my (dead) mum (plant, not parent)!

See what I mean?!

2009-07-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

I can't blog with any kind of regularity, EVER. This time, though, I blame getting married. I think that is an excellent excuse. Somewhere in the middle of all the planning and craziness I managed to get this little piece of embroidery done for a little boy I know:

Along with a matching stegosaurus for his little brother. Of course, I managed to lose the pictures I took of them when they were REALLY done, and framed and everything, because I am talented that way.

I also started a string quilt tonight (I got one whole block done before I decided to go play some Half Life 2), but my camera is at my parents' house still (we've been married for three and a half weeks and we are nowhere near completely moved in) and the camera on my phone....is marginal at best. So, you will just have to trust me.

It feels good to finally be able to sew again, though! It took me forever to get my sewing stuff over here, and then to find the free time to actually sew, so it's been a delight. I just need to convince Hamilton that fabric is more important than food or car insurance and then I will be all set.

In which I start a blog

2009-04-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

I'm really, really awful at keeping up with blogs once I start them. Its amazing to me how many abandoned blogs and things I have hanging around on the Internet. And, of course, I can never remember my password, so I can never delete them, and that's not really all that comforting. Anyway, I'm starting another one to chronicle my various crafty endeavors and hopefully it will motivate me to actually finish these things once in a while.

I don't really have much else to say, so I'll put a picture here.