Things I assume you know
Since I've been writing this blog for years, I've started to assume that you know some things about me that there is no way you could know unless you've been reading my blog for the whole time. So here's a little cheat sheet to get you up to speed.
- My name is Alice.
- I'm 36 years old.
- My husband's name is Andrew.
- I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- I lived in San Francisco for 9 years from 1992 to 2001.
- I grew up in the Midwest.
- I've been crafty my whole life.
- Currently I mainly crochet, handsew things out of felt, and embroider.
- I'm alergic to wool.
- I love Japanese craft books.
- I'm really into owls, peacocks, lions (especially on buildings), and octopuses.
- I also really like skulls, flames, and glitter.
- I don't knit. I only have so much time.
- I'm obsessed with being organized.
- I love lists, notebooks, and organizational systems.
- I work full-time outside of the house.
- I'm a web programmer.
- I wrote my blog application using ASP.NET (VB.NET) and SQL Server 2005.
- I try to visit the websites of everyone who comments.
- I try to respond to all my comments.
- Sometimes I don't have the time to visit or respond. I wish I did.
- Ravelry user: futuregirl
- Flickr:
futuregirl_dot_com
Crafty Accomplishments
7-2008 ... Writer of article
Crochet Philadelphia for the
Interweave Crochet
Summer 2008 Issue
7-2008 ... Contributor of
Peacock Paisley Intarsia Chart to
Picture Perfect Knits
4-2008 ... Created
Bacon Of Hate for
Anticraft Beltane 2008 issue "Unclean"
11-2007 ... Writer of
post about Public Crafting for
Whipup.net
11-2007 ... Contributor of three projects to the
Anticraft craft book
9-2007 ... Guest in CraftyPod podcast about
Crafty Overload
Designer Bio
(which I wrote for the AntiCraft book)
Growing up in the Midwest, I was inspired and encouraged by an industrious and creative family: painters, sewers, wood carvers, potters, knitters, singers, crocheters, and all-around crafters. I've always enjoyed the process of creating and the satisfaction of doing things myself. Now I live in Philadelphia with my husband, a talented photographer, musician, and writer.
Although I've tried just about everything, crochet is my mainstay. I love its rhythm and graceful monotony. The idea that one long string can turn into a handbag seems like magic. No matter how long I've been doing it, crochet always presents me with new challenges.
My newest favorite craft is hand sewing felt stuffies. I have a growing collection of quirky Japanese craft books full of patterns for super-cute animals. It's simple and inexpensive, but the results are completely adorable. It only takes a couple hours to hand sew a stuffie, so it's perfect for crafters like me who have limited time.
I owe my current enthusiasm for crafting to the web. I started my blog at futuregirl.com to connect with all the cool crafters I discovered online. I love having conspirators! There is no better place to find inspiration and share your projects. Thanks to the current popularity of crafting, the old world of staid, traditional craft books and magazines has evolved into a global, collaborative community bursting with inventive, edgy, and highly personal projects.
Futuregirl.com Photos
Although it was true in the beginning that many of the best photos were taken by my husband Andrew, I've been a good student over the years and learned some of his tricks. Even though I take most of the photos now, he is the only reason they are anywhere near good. He has a personal website featuring his photography at
Blue Panic. He doesn't have a blog, but he does have an
rss feed so you can find out when he posts new sets of photos.
Futuregirl.com Blog Platform and Design
I blog using a custom built blog application that I wrote myself. I started off using Blogger and became increasingly frustrated with the constant platform changes, service outages, and the lack of support for FTP users. Instead of picking one of the other blogging platforms I decided to go ahead and build exactly what I wanted. You know, because I could.
The layout is css-only, although I often use tables when I post tutorials. I created all the excellent curly bits using
Jason Gaylor's Worn Photoshop Brushes For High Resolution [Part III]. He has a lot of incredible brush sets available for free on his blog. They are super easy to install. My other favorite set is
Fresh Foliage Photoshop Brushes for High Resolution [Part I] which includes lots of bare-branch trees.
Why Futuregirl.com
Here is the post that explains
why I choose futuregirl.com as my domain.