Around the new year, I arrived at a theme for 2011:  No Excuses.

I'd been reading people's New Year's Resolution posts, and started to get really inspired to do some of the things I'd been putting off. [note: this post goes downhill from here ... ]

One of my favorite fabric stores in SF, Fabric Outlet is having a birthday sale.  40% off almost everything from March 12th through the 26th.

Athropologie's winter display is particularly awesome because it's full of yarn and crocheting and knitting!

This week I'm going to try to get caught up with my full to bursting inbox.  I thought about just not posting, but I settled instead on a week of eye candy ... with the comments turned off.  Enjoy!

This is a tiny garden of 85 cacti I recently transplanted.  We grew them from seeds.  Aren't they just adorable?!

One of the most popular things I've ever put up on my blog is the dishwasher dirty/clean indicator I made almost two years ago exactly.  People email me all the time asking me to make one for them.  Of course, since they take hours to make out of felt, I always decline.  There is no way to sew one that I could then sell for a reasonable price.

My first semester of college, I took a pottery class.  I loved it so much!  I gave away most of the stuff I made and I've lost or broken the rest.  The bowl above, named Fish Bowl, is in my father's possession.  He actually uses it!  I was having fun with slips and colors.  I liked trying to get a nice marbled look to the colored patterns.

I finally had a couple hours to play around with my flower loom!  These are my initial, mostly unsuccessful attempts.

The AntiCraft has an awesome contest:  submit your pattern for a Vlad the Impaler hat with earflaps and bobbles in knit or crochet before March 31st.  I'm so totally not going to have time to do this, but I wish I did!  If you're interested at all, please enter this contest. :)

I didn't actually plan on posting this on Valentine's Day ... and I almost waited because it seems a little saccharine to me ... but I don't want to put off saying "Thank you" to the people who have given me the "You Make My Day" award: Hilde, Inger, Emily, and Judy.  Every time I get the award it feels like a hot cup of cocoa or warm toes next to the fireplace or a really big hug.  I love all the positive energy I get from you guys!

I was one of the lucky ducks that snagged one of Cathy of California's Vintage Flower Loom Kits.  It arrived yesterday and I'm so happy!

I decided that 2008 will have no rules, no daily practice, no constraints.  I am not the master of my time, my non-crafty work is, so I'd just be setting myself up for a lot of frustration.  But, as I looked through the links on iHanna's blog, I was inspired to write a couple of mission statements.

Futuregirl Craft Blog Mission Statement
To empower and inspire others to create by providing tutorials, creating patterns, and sharing my personal creative vision.

Futuregirl Creative Manifesto
I will endeavor to create things that reflect my personal creative vision ... the kinds of things that would make me squeal with delight when I saw them for the first time ... and to make them using the highest level of craftsmanship I am able.

Originally, I started my craft blog with the intention of sharing the stuff I was making.  Then it became a way to connect with other people and to pressure myself into actually finishing stuff.  Slowly, over the last two years, my focus has shifted from being directed inwards to being directed outwards.

This last year, I've really enjoyed hearing from people who were happy to find my tutorials and free patterns.  It feels good to be helpful ... no, it feels *great!*  I've also been deeply touched by the people who've bought my patterns.  I wasn't sure anyone would actual *buy* them. So, to hear from excited customers and see their awesome creations has utterly exceeded my expectations.  All that warm-fuzziness is why my Craft Blog Mission Statement this year mentions tutorials and patterns.

The second half of my Craft Blog Mission Statement is tied to my Creative Manifesto.  I want to make sure that I'm spending my creative time making things that would blow me away.  Well, I'm sure I'll fail miserably sometimes, but I want to at least *try* to make stuff that would make me dance around like a fool.

Sometimes when I'm walking down the street, I'll see a new handbag style or a scarf or something, and I'll think, "I could make that."  But before I start a new project, I want to make sure that I don't just take the challenge into consideration. I want to have an emotional connection with the stuff I make, regardless if it's from a pattern or something original I'm creating.  That's why I added the "personal creative vision" part to both statements.

I'd like to start posting about things that inspire and excite me.  Not only to share them with you, but to help me keep in touch with my creative core.  It'll be great to look through those posts occasionally, especially when I'm feeling creatively bored or stuck.

So there you have it, Futuregirl Craft Blog 2008 = all the normal crafty goodness, plus more tutorials, more patterns, and documenting what inspires me.  Sounds awesome to me!

p.s. The title comes from a terribly translated Kung Fu movie I saw on late night TV about 10 years ago.  During a fight scene, a heavily armed man starts to charge his opponent and yells, "Here comes me!"  It still cracks me up!  If you hear it while you're in our apartment, it usually means you're about to get creamed.

I just listened to the wonderful CraftyPod podcast about Kirsty Hall's year of daily drawing, The Diary Project.  It's very inspiring to think about committing yourself to a year of daily creativity.

And, for me, to have a set of rules makes it even more appealing.  If only I were a film maker!  Then I wouldn't have to come up with my own rules.  I would love to make Dogme95 movies.  The best part would be to have the fancy certificate at the beginning of my film.

I've done something daily before.  I started a journal on our wedding day in October 2001 and wrote something every day until August 4, 2003.  I started out on paper, but a couple of months into it, Andrew built me a web application so I could add images to my entries.  Basically, he built me a blog before we realized what blogging was.  It's great to look through those entries and see us, the places we went, the things we did during our first couple years of marriage.

In 2001, Andrew wrote wrote a poem a day.  It's an impressive achievement and an impressive collection of writing.  The year was jam packed: we married, we moved from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, 9/11 happened.  Again, it's wonderful to have those poems as a record of 2001.  Often he incorporated what was going on in our life or the world:

February 11, 2001

So we sit by the snack counter
waiting for the movie to begin.
The people who pass by
can't help but look
and I wonder if it's
you crocheting an orange hat
or me writing in a notebook
that attracts their attention.
It's difficult writing
in a space like this.
"What would you call this," I ask,
"this place by the snack counter?"
Neither of us know.
"I just realized how weird we look," you say.
"We're just very efficient."
I'm only half kidding.
Why shouldn't we make a hat in the theater?
A poem doesn't always begin
gazing out a window
or embarking on some journey.
Sometimes it begins right here,
on a hard wooden bench,
a few dozen paces from the raisenettes.

© Andrew Merlino.  All rights reserved.

I always loved it when I made it into one of the poems.  The only rule he had is that he couldn't go back and edit them after the day had passed.  Certainly, the daily poems were a challenge, so much more difficult than writing in a journal every day.

Last night after seeing the podcast's theme,I got very excited about the idea. I've been trying to come up with some sort of constraints or daily practice for my craftiness.

But the more I think about it, the more I don't think I want to have a daily practice.  Most days I already do something creative. I'd hate to eat into that time.  Plus, the days I don't do something creative, it's because I'm busy working or just don't feel like it.  I don't want to force myself to create just for the sake of creating.

The one thing that I don't do as much as I'd like to, is share my creative process and my inspirations on my blog.  I usually wait until an item is completely finished before I share it.  Part of the reason is that sometimes it takes me months (or years!) to finish a project, and it would be difficult to carry a narrative thread through that kind of time frame.  Or maybe I'll never finish it at all, which is less than exciting.

I'd also like to share my ideas on my blog, but I think it may be a little naive to do so.  Couldn't people just rip them off and do them before I ever get a chance to?  Although nothing stops them from taking my ideas *after* I finish a project.  Maybe I'm a little too self-important or a little too paranoid.  What do you think?  How do you handle this on your blog?

I only have a couple of days to come up with something.  My first idea was to decorate a 3" x 5" card every day.  I think it's a great idea, but not for me.  At least not this year.  Maybe, if (when!) I become a full-time maker, I'll do that.

I'm leaning towards cracking open the blog a little more: carrying around my camera with me to take pictures of things that inspire me; writing more about my process of designing a stuffie or a crochet item as it evolves (as opposed to writing a tutorial about my process); and embracing the immediacy of a blog and not worrying so much about constructing a narrative around everything I post.  Certainly, it would take less time to write a post if I use the blog more as a series of snapshots of creativity and making rather than, or in addition to, using it as a showcase for finished pieces.

If this is the way I go, I'd like to come up with some rules, constraints, or obstructions of some sort.  If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. :)

Of course, I may not resolve to do anything at all.  I guess we'll all find out in a couple of days.

The last week has seen some making of the crocheting and sewing sort, but everything is in an unfinished, unsatisfying stage.  I'm also working on the FutureBlog, which is in the same ponderous state.  Everything just seems a little 'ugh' right now.  Frankly, I blame the short, short days.

Maybe it's the coming new year, but I'm getting very introspective.  I don't know what questions I'm pondering, but I feel answers looming just ahead.  I'm trying to be patient while I wait for them to show up.  I feel a combination of excitement and fear.

Yesterday I started a deep-cleaning of the apartment.  We've lived here almost three years, which is the longest we've lived in the same apartment since we met.  It's amazing how much dust can collect behind things in three years!  As I move through the apartment, I'm looking at everything with a critical eye, "Do we need this?  Do we use this?"  It feels good to get rid of all the stuff that has collected in the nooks an crannies.

I've been loving the mail box lately!  I'll just go left to right:

Mary emailed me with some crochet questions.  Little did I know that she is an author and I'd get an inscribed copy of her book We Are All Fine Here in return!  I devoured it in the three days after its arrival.  I don't read any chick lit, so I don't know if it's typical or not,  but judging by the f-bomb to non-f-bomb word ratio, and the fact that it deals with moral ambiguities in a not-tied-up-in-a-bow way, I'm guessing it's an edgy cousin of chick lit, if not its NSFW nemesis.  It's great!

Next is the kick ass Christmas Tree ornament and Squirrel Patch from the most excellent Crafty McGee.  Last year in a huge, group patch swap, I serendipitously ended up with her platypus patch.  This constitutes a collection now, right? :)

The adorable crochet sweater is from Marci Senders.  It even has a tiny little hanger!  Thanks for feeding my ornament appetite! :)

And last, but not least, is a sweet little holiday card from Frizz, glitter and all!

I'm wishing you all a wonderful holiday weekend!  Our plans include lots of board games, dominoes, UNO (of all things), hot cocoa (hot tea for him), snuggly movies on the couch, and, weather permitting, walks through the silent streets of Philadelphia.  For a city ranked as number 5 or 6 in population, Philadelphia is usually a ghost town.  It's eerie.

In our family, the meal planning falls to Andrew.  Even though he doesn't really like doing it, he has a great system of planning them out.  To lighten the burden a little, I decided to make a cute template for him:

First Column: Meal
You'll notice that there are no days of the week.  We plan our meals, but we like to spontaneously eat out a couple times a week.  Leaving off the week day names gives us that kind of flexibility.  Our eating out is also the reason there are only six meals on the sheet.  Well, that, and the fact that seven would be too squished.

Second Column: Need
Here we list the items we need to buy for that meal.  Usually it's fresh vegetables, but it can also be stuff that we've run out of.  Being able to see what we need for the next several meals helps us plan our shopping so we don't end up walking to the produce store every night right before dinner.

Third Column: Notes
The note might be about the meal we're making, such as, "remember the corn" (which I seem to forget to make on rice pilaf night) or the note might be a reminder to take the steak out of the freezer and defrost it for the next night's meal.

I had so much fun drawing all the ridiculous little illustrations.  If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be the top view of the TV dinner on the TV tray.  I can't remember the last time I ate one, but I always thought they were *so* awesome when I was growing up.  Holy smokes, I just realized I remember when they came with FOIL over the meal, not plastic.  I'm getting so old.

If you'd like to use it yourself, it's available on my free downloads page.

I got my invite to Ravelry today!  I've been holding my breath since I put myself on the waiting list.  I figured I waited too long to sign up and the user name "futuregirl" would be taken*.  Lucky me!!  It was still available!  I only had a second to look around, but it looks like a great site.

Yesterday I got this ornament from Jessica at Funky Finds.  How adorable is her little dog?!

I'm still moving forward with the idea of building my own blog application, which is a good sign since I've usually given up on the whole idea by this point.  Andrew and I have been discussing ways for me move foward with a completely different system while still having all the old pages (or at least *appear* to have all the old pages).  There are still some details to work out and concepts to be tested, but I think the whole thing might be a lot easier than I imagined.  Either that or I'm deluded.  Time will tell.

* on Flickr I use futuregirl_dot_com/futuregirldotcom ... because it wasn't taken. Wonder why? ;)

Good news first

Velorian received the mystery box and took some awesome pix of what I tucked inside.  Yay!

OK, now on with the bad ...

I'm not getting all my Blogger comment alert emails

I just found out that I haven't been getting about half of the comment alert emails from Blogger since the "Pet My Scarf" post.  That makes me feel sick.  First of all, a snarky comment about Lenore snuck past me and one of her Grandchildren saw it, which is horrible.  Actually, that's how I realized something was up, because she left a response for that troll.

Blogger only emailed me 26 of the 52 comments for Lenore's post!

I quickly checked the subsequent posts and realized it's been a problem for a while.  I feel *terrible* because some of you have said wonderful things that I would have responded to WAY before now, some of you asked questions that need to be answered, and who knows how many comments were left on random, old posts that I will never ever know about. :(

Anyone else having this problem with Blogger comment alert emails? I know it's not a problem with my actual email.  I'm getting all my paypal emails because I always double-check my paypal account when I get a pattern order.  **edit: I'm not the only one **

Blowing through my bandwidth

I *way* underestimated how much traffic Boing Boing was going to send my way.  They took my site visits from around 1,100 per day to 6,713 on the 5th.  Six times the traffic!  That was totally overwhelming.

I was COMPLETELY unprepared for what happened the next day:  Fark.com picked up the story about Lenore's ornaments (focusing on the octopus-ness, not the heart-warming-ness, sadly). They sent 21,446 visitors to my site.  Jaw dropping, isn't it?

I've now used 40% of my 80 Gig monthly bandwidth allotment.  Last month I almost went over, so I'm pretty sure this month I will, unless I move my site.  It's too bad, too, because I love my host.  But they charge $5 for 5 Gig increments if you go over and they don't offer a hosting plan with more than 80 Gigs of bandwidth (which I think is strange).

Bookmarking widget

This morning I added the Add This widget to all my posts.  If you click it, you are taken to a page where you can add the post to any one of the bazillion bookmark aggregate sites out there.  I've received a lot of traffic from people "stumbling" my site, so I thought I'd make it easier.

Add This was super simple to put into my Blogger template, so if you've been thinking of adding something like this to your blog, try them.  If you're using a new Blogger Template, they have a fancier button that expands a little panel where the user can select their bookmarking service without leaving your site.  It's not just for Blogger though - you can see it in action at the Village Voice website.

Here's the secret news mentioned in my last post:

My peacock paisley intarsia chart is going to be included in Picture Perfect Knits by Laura Birek, from Chronicle Books!  I love every single thing Chronicle Books puts out.  It's so exciting to know my design (and name!) is going to be in one of their books!  Yay!

Here's the announcement on their blog.  Here's the design:

To make the intarsia chart, I made a quick sketch in black marker, I placed the drawing under a sheet of Doane Paper, and then I started coloring in boxes.  Dramatic reenactment to the left. :)

Doane Paper is my newest-favorite office supply.  It's an awesome grid paper that's also lined.  I was hooked right after I printed my own sheet using his free sample pdf. It's perfect for lists, futuregirly graphs, intarsia charts, and project diagrams.  Plus, buying Doane Paper supports an indie creator. What's more awesome than that?

And since I've already filled today with a staggering amount of affection and happiness I thought it couldn't hurt to add a link to another blog post that moved me to tears this week: Diane of Crafty Pod's podcast about gingerbread houses.  In it, she and her Mom talk (and laugh) about their decades-long tradition of making a gingerbread house every year.  All her podcasts are wonderful, but this one is also magical.

Anyone who is intimidated by the whole "podcast" thing, don't be.  Just go to the page, click the play button, and you can listen to it.  You don't need to be a rocket scientist. You don't have to have an iPod.  It's super easy.

And super worth it.

** update: pattern available as free download **

Last January, I got the sweetest email from a woman named Lenore asking for the pattern for Octophrost.  She told me:

"Every year I make a Christmas ornament for my grand and great grand children.  I would love to make this little fellow.  For Christmas 2006 I made 90 ornaments.  Three more babies are expected that I know of so I may need to make near 100.  That means starting early."

The pattern was no where near ready.  I wanted to be a part of her Christmas plans, so I worked hard to get something together.  I sent her the pattern in mid-February, about 2 months before I posted it.

In that time, we corresponded a little and I learned a more about Lenore.  She's 73 (maybe 74 now).  She sent me a picture from a recent family reunion, and I cried when I opened it up and saw all those wonderful people.  In fact, it's making me cry right now just thinking about it.  It's overwhelming to think that, however tangentially, I'm a part of their heart-felt, hand made, family tradition.

I've also kept in touch with Lenore's daughter Lucy, of My Byrd House. She's given me updates over the last year, and it's been so fun to think about Lenore patiently (I imagine) and lovingly sewing 99 Octophrosts for her family.  She's posted lots of pictures on her blog.  The tree in the picture above has 99 Octophrosts on it!

I want Lenore to know how honored and thankful I am that she chose Octophrost for her ornament this year.  I also want her to know that she's a wonderful example to all of us of how to make the moments of our life personal and memorable.  This experience will always be a treasured memory for me.  I hope that in my own life, I'm able to spread such warmth and joy to the people around me.

Since I posted my Seamless Single Crochet Tutorial a year ago, I've had several people email with questions.  I tried my best to answer their questions in words, but sometimes only pictures will do.

Some of the tricky parts are "turn your item clockwise" and "put your hook in the space between the first and last stitch of the previous row."  I think my new images, with arrows and yarn stitch markers, are much clearer now.  And, as you probably saw, I've added a supplement to my Seamless Single Crochet Tutorial so you can see how to end/start a row from both the inside and outside of your item.  I thought it was too much to add the images to the existing tutorial.

I also added a bigger image of the completed non-seam with the deep single crochet stitches and the slip stitch/turning chains highlighted.  Which should help anyone check their sample.

As always, if you've used my tutorial and have any questions or comments, please let me know.  I love getting feedback.

I just got issue 05 of Craft Magazine (which is awesome) and there is a great "letter to the editor" which talks about crafty snob-ism.  Long story short, the woman writing the letter despised scrapbooking, then found herself making the equivalent of a digital scrapbook.  She realized that maybe she and the scrapbookers weren't all that different after all (except in matters of style and choice of media, perhaps).  Anyway, near the end of her letter, she says,

... it's impossible to be a crafter and be a self-righteous boob for too long.  One day you're making fun of tea cozies, and the next day you're getting all teary-eyed because your best friend crocheted you one ...

I'll be the first to raise my hand.  Oh, yes, I can be a self-righteous boob, but luckily I keep it to myself most of the time.  I've embarrassed myself enough to know that it's better to eat crow in the privacy of my craft room than on my blog.

Too often we seem to peel off into opposing cliques: the champions of natural fibers vs the thrifty users of acrylics, knitters vs crocheters, crafters vs artists, granny crafters vs craft punks ... it's so silly.  We should always acknowledge the value of making, no matter what people make or what they materials they are using, even if it's silently to ourselves.  

I'm not saying we should all be one big happy family, or that there isn't a difference between arts, crafts, or kinds of materials.  To each his own.  But everything has it's place and everything, and everyone, has their own strengths and weaknesses.  Who the heck are you to judge?

The next time you are itching to leave a snarky comment, give a backhanded compliment, or think you're Queen Sh*t of Poop Mountain, stop yourself and just click to the next blog ... you never know when someone else will do the same favor for you.

Aren't these the most awesome, gruesome beads ever?!  I think they are supposed to be fancy ... they are glass painted gold with a crackle off-white over it.  But the crackle effect coupled with the blackish bead-hole makes them look like monster eyes to me.

This is my craft table.  The thing on the left, under one of Andrew's old t-shirts, is my sewing machine.  On the right is a black desk organizer which houses my most used tools (scissors, stitch markers, pins, etc) as well as my floss drawers, a pen bucket, and some stackable shelves.

Since this is my only workspace, it's very important that I keep it cleaned off so I can use it.  I'm terrible about cleaning up in between projects. I just don't do it, so I've devised a work around.

This is a close up of the stackable shelves.  They are my secret weapon. The middle shelf (with the monkey) is a dumping ground for bits and pieces of completed projects that need to be put away.  When I come to my table and it's a mess,  I put everything away that has a place to go (like the scissors) and then the rest gets tucked into the middle shelf.  Mostly these odds and ends are large bits of felt and unused strands of floss.

The bottom shelf is where I keep my other secret weapons.  These two boxes hold my bits of felt and unused floss.  They are the most perfect containers from a terrible tasting Trader Joe's meal.  I mean, this meal made me sick to eat, but the containers were so awesome that I ate two of them ... and I would have eaten a truck-load more if Trader Joe's hadn't stopped making them.

Anyway, once a week or once a month or whenever, I'll take the wad of stuff out of the middle shelf and sort through it.  Here you can see the two containers on the left and my pile on the right.

I put the felt bits in the felt container.  They get used for stuffie eyes, test runs, and other things like that.

The floss bits get put into to the other container.  I take 3" x 5" cards, cut them into four strips (3" by 1.25").  I cut a slit in the side, wind up a floss strand, then cut another slit to hold the other end.  Above it, I write the color number.

"Full" on the first one refers to the fact that the floss bit is 26" long, which is the starting length of floss that I always use.  I don't measure them initially, it's just when you pull out a piece of floss from the skein that's "two pulls" long, it equals 26".

When I have leftover floss, I also toss the skein on the middle shelf, too, so I'll  know what number it is when I wind it up.  The fact that I have skeins of floss hidden away on the middle shelf is usually the reason I decide to clean it out.  Otherwise, I think I'd have an elephant sized wad of felt and floss squeezing us out of our apartment.

These are all of my little floss cards in the box.  I don't save really short bits.  Well, I used to, but I never used them for anything so I don't anymore.  You can see a loose piece of ecru on the right.  I use that color for labels a lot, so I don't bother winding it up.  I always know to check this box first for ecru.

If you have trouble keeping your workspace clean, a small box where you can dump the mess until you have the time (or inclination) to take care of it might be the solution for you, too.

Diane of Crafty Pod sent me a couple nail-less knitting spools (Thanks, Diane!!!).  And, only after a couple of beers, did I have the nerve to actually pound some nails into one of them.  Of course, I didn't notice the camera was on "extremely narrow depth of field" or whatever, so only one tiny bit of each photo is in focus ... which I'm gonna blame on the beer, too.

Since my Clover Wonder Knitter has a 3-prong head and a 4-prong head, I wanted to try putting in a ton of nails.

I made this little guide, and attached it with my fancy post-it trick because I couldn't figure out a way to tape the guide to the spool.  Basically, I tape two post-its together with the sort-of-sticky sides out, and then use that as a kind of double-sided tape.  It sticks well, but is still easy to reposition and remove, too.

I nailed in eight nails.  (No fingers were harmed in the making of this knitting spool.)  I used the only nails I had with heads.  The edges of the heads are a little rough and sharp, so I'm planning a trip to the hardware store to get nicer ones.

I was very impatient, so I bent a straight pin and used that as a hook to do some spool knitting.  I don't recommend this.  :)  There's something to be said about using "the right tool for the right job."

Now I know why the clover spool only has a 3-prong head and a 4-prong head ... because it's slow-going with a lot of nails, and using eight nails produces a perfectly knit tube that looks like a knit sweater for a caterpillar.  I guess could be good for something, but it wasn't what I was hoping for.

I've since made some modifications to this spool knitter, but I'll save that for another post. :)

( Synopsis for those who skim/skip picture-less posts: (1) Always start your website address with "http://" when you fill out forms. (2) You should totally consider having an email address where other crafters could contact you. )

This is a Public Service Announcement about filling in forms that ask for your website address (a.k.a. url).

Keep in mind, I only know this because I've made the same mistake, so I'm not trying to be a smarty-pants-know-it-all.

When a form asks for your url, especially when you are leaving a comment, be sure to start from the http://  For example, I enter http://www.futuregirl.com/craft_blog

I won't bore you with the details*, but if you just put "www.futuregirl.com" or "futuregirl.blogspot.com" or "futuregirl.typepad.com" the link to your website won't work when the comment is published.  There are some blog platforms that fix it for you, but most of them don't, so why chance it?

Well, while I'm at it, I might as well also suggest that you put an email address on your blog and in your profile (especially if you are on Blogger) so people can say "Hi!"  We're a friendly bunch, and I can't be the only one that gets disappointed when I get an awesome comment on my blog, and I have no way to write back.

I totally understand if you don't want to put your 'real' email address up, but why not sign up for a throw-away, free hotmail address or yahoo address that you use just for your blog?  That way, if your spam shoots through the roof, you can just shut that one down and start a new one.

You should do what you want to do (and what you feel comfortable doing), but I love saying "thanks" for comments, and it's sad when I just have to let them go.  I also sometimes would like to say something to another blogger that isn't something I want immortalized in their comments, so it's nice when they have an email address available.

I love it when you guys email me out of the blue. That's why I have my email address up.  Comments are great, but so are personal emails. :)

OK, you can go back to your regularly scheduled, beautifully be-pictured blog surfing now. :)

*Well, maybe I *will* bore you with the details of why the links don't work without the "http" ... if you really want to know.

The HTML tag used to make links is the anchor tag.  This is what it looks like:

<a href="http://www.futuregirl.com">futuregirl</a>

Which shows up like this in your browser --> futuregirl

The value of the href attribute tells your browser where to go when you click on the link.  My example above is an absolute url, because it starts from the "http."

If your browser doesn't see the "http" it assumes your link is a relative url, which means the browser decides where to go in relation to the page the browser is currently displaying.  For example, if you are at http://www.futuregirl.com/folder1/thispage.htm and you click on a link and the href is "anotherpage.htm"  then your browser will take you to http://www.futuregirl.com/folder1/anotherpage.htm.  Notice how you stayed in the folder named folder1?

So, when someone only types "www.futuregirl.com" in the url field of a comment form, the link that gets created for the comment has the href of "www.futuregirl.com"  When someone clicks that link, the browser keeps them right where they are and just adds that on the end  For example, if you are on Green Kitchen's blog on the page http://www.greenkitchen.com/blog/2007/09/detail.html and you click my comment's link (where I only put www.futuregirl.com) the browser will try to take you to http://www.greenkitchen.com/blog/2007/09/www.futuregirl.com.  See how it kept us in the same folders and just added my href on the end?

Make sense?  Hey, wake up! :)

Vivi asked me to donate an item for a charity she is interested in helping.  Vivi is one of the sweetest people I've never met, so I agreed.  Then I started reading about the charity.

It's a summer camp for ill children.  During camp they sleep under handmade quilts.  At the end of their stay they are each given a handmade teddy bear and a handmade afghan as a souvenir.  How incredibly sweet is that?!

Vivi has put together a website, Tricot Du Couer, to spread the word.  She's looking for people to sign up to knit or crochet a blanket for the charity.  There is plenty of time too ... the blankets need to be finished and mailed by March 30th.  After that date, she will have a drawing for the fabulous donated prizes - everyone who makes a blanket (or donates money, for the non-crafty) has a chance to win*.

For my part, I've donated a wristlet and an octopus stuffie for the drawing, and I'm definitely going to make at least one blanket.  I'm pretty excited about getting back to afghan making ... it's been so long.

If you are interested in donating a prize for the drawing or making a blanket, check out Tricot Du Couer and sign up!

* EDIT:  Not everyone will win a prize, but everyone will be in the drawing for the prizes.

Diane at CraftyPod just posted a podcast about crafty overload.  I was one of many crafters interview for the podcast.  If you've never listened to her podcasts, click on over and get listening.  She has over two years of podcasts waiting for you. :)

I was SO nervous about the whole thing.  After we talked on the phone, I felt like I totally speed-stammered my way through it.  But, I'm happy to report that I actually sound pretty good. :)  I think it's the magic of Diane.  If you read her Ten Things she likes about herself, you'll see "listening" as one of them.  She *is* a great listener!

Despite my nervousness, I'm so happy that she included me in this podcast.  I had a great time talking about this subject, and it's got me thinking about some other stuff that I'm not quite ready to post about ... thoughts on organization and my craft direction.  Thanks, Diane, for giving me this opportunity to contribute my two cents.

* The subject is a quote from me in the podcast.  I'm such a ham. :)

Since I like it when people show their creative process, I thought other people might, too.  So, here's a mini-tour of my current project.

Elizabeth, of Crafts of Destiny fame, commissioned handbag for a woman who travels a lot. I thought it would be cool to put travel stickers (made with felt and embroidery) on the handbag, as if it were a steamer trunk.

Step 1   Elizabeth gave me a list of places she likes to visit, which got me sketching.

Step 2   Then I made the patterns in Illustrator.  Sometimes I scan in the sketch and 'trace' it on the computer, although I didn't do it with this project.  I kept the shapes and fonts simple so I could easily cut them out of felt or trace them with embroidery.

Step 3   Once I picked the colors of felt and floss, I assembled everything into the finished 'stickers.'

I'm not a holiday person ... but if I was, I'd be into Halloween.  I love all the creepy, Gothic, Victorian accoutrements: spiders, skulls, ghosts, eyeballs, vampires, devils, the moon, fangs, claws, graveyards, candles ... you get the picture.  Plus, Halloween is the last hurray of Fall, my favorite time of year.

So, when sweet Agnes sent over the press release about Martha's Halloween/Harvest line of craft stuff, ending the email with the sentence, "Let  me know if you have any questions or need any samples."  I was compelled (compelled, I tell you!) to ask for a couple fabulous things.

First, I totally needed to see the Mad Scientist Invitation kit.  They reminded me of my anthropological Rock Boxes.  These invitations are the coolest things ever (even the outer packaging made me squeal!).  I thought they'd be business card size, but they are post card size.  Huge.  I'd prefer a squishier, grosser looking bug sample ... but I guess you could always print up your own gruesome little stickers.

Second, I NEEDED some of these wine bottle labels.  I'm always joking with Andrew that I'm poisoning him.  Whenever he says he isn't feeling well, I say, "The poison must finally be working."  Now I can act out my Black Widow fantasy with *props*.  They probably look better if you take the original wine label off first ... but I'm not patient enough to wait.

When I asked for these things, I never thought I'd get the whole package (I was expecting one invitation and a couple of labels).  So, I've decided to spread the ghoulish love around:

Leave a comment by 11:59 pm on Monday to be put in a drawing for an invitation to my poisoning and one large wine bottle label. I will pick five lucky victims winners on Tuesday.

The Experiment
How does the acrylic felt I use stand up to washing in the washing machine?

What I knew
The cotton yarn I use comes through the washer great. I've washed my handbag lots and it comes out looking better every time.  I dry it about half-dry in the dryer on low and then air dry it the rest of the way.  But my handbag is all yarn.

I've seen two of my handbags with felt embellishments months after giving them away.  On both, the felt looked a little 'brushed,' but otherwise the felt and embroidery seemed to hold up well.  One had been washed in the washer and one hadn't.

The Test-ee
I sewed on several felt pieces, did a little embroidery (including French knots), and attached one seed bead. I made sure to use pieces of felt with sharp points on them.

The Test
Washed in the washing machine on normal in cold with Cheer Free detergent.

The Results
I couldn't tell the difference once it dried.  The sharp points of the felt were intact and, as you can see, everything looks exactly the same.  It seems to me, the 'brushed' effect felt gets is from daily use, not washing.  And, that is easily remedied by carefully trimming away the wispy bits if/when they appear.

Conclusion
I would feel foolhardy recommending that you toss one of my birdcage handbags into the washer without putting it in a lingerie bag and/or using the gentle cycle, but, I'm proud to say, it could probably handle the washer all on it's own.

I'm kind of freaking out about HOW EXCITED I am that I just subscribed to Craft: magazine.  I try very very hard to not just accumulate stuff for the sake of accumulation.  I give myself a couple things to collect (felt, floss, buttons, Japanese craft books) and I try to stick with it.

Magazines are the last thing I would have thought I'd get excited about.  But when the last issue of Craft came out, I must have talked a whole lot about it, because one day, Andrew surprised me with it (you can see it tucked in the middle of my craft books up there).  I never-in-a-million-years would have spent $15 on a magazine.  I mean, that's a whole Japanese craft book!

But once I had it in my hands and I read it, I was hooked.  I wanted to post about it, but I never got the chance.  It was a joy to read and there are at least three projects I want to make from that issue.

So, when I read on the Craft Blog that issue 04 is coming out, my heart started racing ... I must have it ... but I didn't want to spend another $15 ... so I subscribed!

Did you know you get the online version for FREE when you subscribe?  Me either!  I confess, I went and peeked at the first 5 pages (didn't read any of it), but I quickly closed my browser because I want to wait for my issue to arrive.

And, being the miser I am, I'm shocked, *shocked!*, that I'm seriously considering buying the two back issues I missed  AND I'm super tempted to order Make (the box set is making me drool).

What in the world is happening to me?  I suspect that it has something to do with O'Reilly, their publisher.  Some of our favorite programming books come from O'Reilly.

Maybe their paper is made of crack.

What household doesn't need a cock stapler?  Ours.  Why?  Because we already have one.

I dare you to go to this website (or flash site) and not click on every single page.

Oh, and I need this to match my summer bag.

I found these earrings at Goodwill the other day.  As soon as I swap out the ear hooks, I'm wearing these babies every day.  I only included this photo because I didn't want to post photo-less.

This post is for laptitemarion2000.  She asked for craft store recommendations for when she is in New York & Washington DC on vacation.  I took so long to write my response that I thought I'd post instead of bury it in the comments.  I can't help you with Washington DC, but I can give you some New York pointers.

My very favorite stores in New York are:

Kinokuniya (a Japanese bookstore) at 10 West 49th (between 5th and 6th).  They have a GREAT selection of Japanese craft books.

Daytona Braids & Trimmings at 251 West 39th Street.  They have every kind of trim, ribbon, feathers, boas, buttons ... ANYTHING ... that you could ever dream of.

Another place to find out about New York crafty spots is AmberCake.  Here are links to some of her informative posts:

Map of New York City Yarn Stores

Yarn Crawlin'

Yarn Crawling: The Ladies Who Lunch Tour

Yarn Crawling: The Village People

Yarn Crawling: Guest Tour!

Yarn Crawlin' - Down and Dirty in the Garment District

I'm making some changes around here.  It's nothing too earth-shattering (you can see the test run on my blog blog), but things might look wanky as I slog through everything I want to get done.

I'll also be adding some labels to my posts, so they may spring up in your feed reader as new.  If you don't want a million-and-one of my old posts clogging your reader, you can set it to ignore updated posts instead of displaying them as new ... I know for sure that you can do this in Bloglines.

Just wanted to warn you. :)

When we were back in San Francisco recently, I picked up a bunch of cute and crafty stuff.  
My favorite favorite favorite is the Hey Thanks! card-making kit.  I know it says it's for kids, but what kid would want to put stickers all over brightly colored cards to give to their loved ones?  Exactly!  This is clearly for adults. ;)  There are hundreds of awesome and weird stickers.  My first card (for Father's Day) was a big hit.

Chronicle Books, who distributes this kit, publishes the coolest stuff.  It's no surprise they are based in SF.  Seriously, I want to buy everything they put out.



I bought this cell phone charm in Japantown.  I've been wanting to get one forever, and I LOVE these little owls.  Who would have guessed that my cell phone has no place to attach it?  Not me.  My two year contract is coming up soon, so I will be sure to trade up for a cell-phone-charm enabled model.  I included the packaging because I wondered if anyone could tell me what the Japanese says next to the owls.  I'm so curious.

I also found some lucky star strips in Japantown.  They are super skinny and great bright colors.  I've filled up my bird-shaped votive holder with them.  The bird is my friend, and he sits on the dining room table next to my place mat. Sometimes I pick him up and pet him after I eat.  I actually stole the lucky star strips.  I walked right out of the store with them in my hand and was half way out of the mall before I noticed.  I felt like such a dork going back and paying for them.

Oh!  I lied when I said the card kit was my favorite souvenir, because this shirt is my favorite.  I know everyone says they are getting sick of birds (although if everyone really was, they'd disappear).  Me, I still LOVE birds, so when I saw this shirt I grabbed it.  Then I noticed the death-laser-beams coming out of their eyes.  EVIL BIRDS.  Oh! It's heaven.

Here are some buttons from Doe which is a cool little store on Lower Haight, some plastic do-dads from somewhere on Upper Haight, and a sticker and button from Super 7 which was a super fun store across the street from our hotel.

For those of you that are slightly sinister, you can now to pre-order your very own Anticraft Craft Book.  

How in the world am I going to wait until November to show you guys my projects?!  This is killing me.  I'm dying to see the photos they took of my stuff.  It's going to be so amazing to open up a book and see things I made ... in print.  Print!  This really is one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me.

To have designed projects for a craft book is really and truly a dream come true.  In the mid 90's I subscribed to every crochet magazine there was.  Every month I would read the designer profiles, and I was SO jealous.  I'm sure every one of those women would have been shocked that a kooky 20-something girl living in San Francisco would covet their celebrity, but I did.

I'm working on three projects right now.  Each one has me very excited, but they are taking a lot of time to finish. One is being assembled in the craft room.  One is being created on the couch while I watch TV. One has me going to every thrift store in the area searching. If only I could stay in one place long enough to finish a project. WIP Friday is the perfect excuse to tease you with my three almost-ready-but-not-quite projects.


This tiny ear is part of my next stuffie.


Purple + Lime Green = Summer Sweater.  It's the first piece of clothing I've crocheted.


This project is almost complete. Embroidering on crochet is very easy and looks great.  I can't believe I'd never done it before.

Here are some goodies I picked up a week and a half ago. Why has it taken so long to post, you ask? Because the Philadelphia Film Festival started on Friday.  It took every spare second to get my tutorial posted on Monday.

I picked up the yarn for a Film Festival project I'm working on. The floss is to match with felt I have stashed away. The Hello Kitty notepad has origami instructions on the back so you can make the neat little box (in the picture, too) if you just don't have anything to write about. How could I resist?! The little box is now on my desk full of lucky stars.

The yarn is TLC Amore. It's a super soft terry-like yarn. Ack - I just realized I bought two more skiens - but they are Red Heart Plush. (time lag) I just scrutinized them side by side and they look exactly the same. (another time lag) I just checked Coats & Clark's site and they manufacture both of them, so I guess I'm not crazy. They really are EXACTLY alike. Weird.

Last night we figured out that we have seen movies in film festivals every year we've been together. One San Francisco Film Festival, two Sundance Film Festivals, and this is our third Philadelphia Film Festival. This year we are seeing 10 movies! I came up with a simple crochet project to fill in the time while we stand in line and sit in the theater waiting for the movie to start. I need to get cracking, though, because we've already seen 6 of the 10 movies and I'm not even half-way done.

Philadelphia Film Festival Rundown

Just in case anyone in crafty-land is into independent or foriegn films, here's what we've seen so far:

1. Lucky Number Slevin (USA) - Lots of Hollywood actors (Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Josh Hartnett, and a ton more), which normally would make me suspicious of it's independent-ness. No need to worry, though; this revenge-ganster-mystery-lovestory is very good and very fun.

2. Hell (L'Enfer) (France) - This is the second in a trilogy written by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Each will be directed by someone different. This was very well done. I could actually imagine that Kieslowski directed this himself. Wonderful and heartwrenchingly human.

3. A Bittersweet Life (South Korea) - There are great fight scenes in this movie, but they are not the point. This is an incredble and subtle movie that transcends the ganster genre's thrill-a-minute and cheap-jokes limits.

4. The Descent (UK) - Scared the bejesus (that word is acutally in the dictionary?!) out of me and I loved every screaming second of it. Adventure seeking women embark on a spelunking adventure that goes horribly horribly wrong.  I think this one will get a wide-release.

5. Reincarnation (Japan) - By the director who did Ju-on (remade as the Grudge in the US) and Marebito. This movie is much more linear than either of those, but no less wierd and disorienting. Very good, very scary.

6. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (South Korea) - EXCELLENT. I knew this would be good and was totally looking forward to seeing this movie. Chan-wook Park is an incredible director. Andrew and I suspect that he is explicitly referencing Krzysztof Kieslowski's White throughout this movie. The humor is blackest-night black, the story is intricate and engaging, the themes are deep and thoughtful, and there is sex and violence galore. Everything a gal wants in a movie!

I'll tell you all about the last 4 movies after the festival when I unveil my waiting-for-the-movie-to-start project.

I love this insane fabric. With just a little dye and ingenuity, simple cotton fabric was turned into a freaky carnival of girl-dom. Does the photo look blurry? It isn't. It's the wonderful bleedy quality of the dye. It's particularly nice around the mouths. It's like they have Baby Jane lipstick on. The red is very fluorescent, too. Did you notice the skateboarder that is also playing soccer? Wow, she rocks! There are too many cool things to say about this fabric ...

I'm not the only one who fell in love with this fabric at first sight. When I was getting my 2 yards cut (total cost, $6), the little 8-year-old in line behind me saw my fabric then up looked up at her mom and said, "Hey, that's cool." Right on, little sister!

I went to Jomar for the first time this morning. It's a warehouse overstock kind of place that sells clothes, shoes, housewares, AND fabric. It's not clean or organized and it smells funny inside, but there is a *ton* of fabric in there and it's cheap. I fell in love with the two prints above. They were about 2.5 yards each and I got the whole lot for $4! There were a lot of great upholstery fabrics, some great Asian prints, and this hilarious cotton print covered with badly drawn girls doing things like rollerblading, holding baseball bats, and playing cowgirl. The girl fabric was super creepy and I will definitely be buying some of that next time I go!

During our first four years together, Andrew and I would collect a rock or shell (or something like that) from each of our trips. After the first 3 or 4, I started creating what became known as the Rock Box for each of them.

The idea was each box would be a scientific display of a sample - as if we'd embarked on expeditions. On the left was the number of the rock, where it was collected, and on what date. On the right was a short narrative (usually a little goofy) about the trip or the place where we collected the rock.

I used acrylic box frames so I could construct an inset display area for the specimen. It was a craft project, science project, and architectural project all rolled into one. I had so much fun building these. I think I got up to #19 before we had our last big move.

It wasn't their first move, but it was their fatal move. UPS must be awfully hard on boxes, because every single one of the rock boxes were scratched from rubbing against each other. They were so scratched up that you couldn't see through the acrylic anymore. I saved all the paper inserts, so if I ever wanted to, I could re-construct them.

The other cool project I did with acrylic box frames involved origami paper and fortunes from fortune cookies. Sorry for the terrible scan, this project was pre-digital camera. I tucked a square of paper into a frame and layered a fortune over it. Super simple. I picked good fortunes, of course, and hung these brightly colored inspirations in my bathroom. Japanese paper and Chinese fortunes aren't necessarily congruous, but hey, they looked nice together.

I've been working on some original felt stuffies. One is an octopus, and my husband suggested using sequins for the suckers. How brilliant is that? Not having any sequins, this week it was priority #1 (right after working and all the other stuff that has to get done). As you can see, I found plenty of sequins, thanks to a trip to Walmart and Pearl.

Not only do I have a variety of tiny multicolored sequins to try out as octopus suckers, but I found some wonderful gold and silver starbursts and white iridescence flowers that I want to use as owl eyes. The medium and small black sequins might be my solution for stuffie eyes. (See the monkey stuffie entry for my unsatisfying experiment with google-eyes.) I have no immediate plans for the fall colored flowers or the uber tiny stars, but they were so sparkly and cute that I couldn't pass them up.