the little one crafts

what a WICKED good time!

I was at Ink About It last week for three classes taught by the fabulous Linda Carnell and Julie Ebersole. Linda is the owner of my favorite stamp company, A Muse Artstamps. Julie is the Creative Teams Director. I had such a wicked good time. The dynamic duo had tons of great tips. Plus I got to play all day with stamps from my favorite company. That's Julie in the pic teaching us about the cards for the afternoon class.

I can't wait to visit the new A Muse store next year in Seattle. I went this past August and was in heaven.

Oh...speaking of my favorite stamp company. Liz, one of my good crafty friends, has become a certified A Muse instructor. I'm so happy for her. We both love this company and we're very good at enabling each other. She's lined up some classes here in Massachusetts. Check out her blog, Crafty Lizzie, for great ideas and a list of classes. If you know of a LSS in the Massachusetts area who would NEEDS a certified A Muse instructor, then drop her a line. She's a fabulous teacher.

If you're in the Cambridge area on Saturdays, then stop by the Design Hive. It's an indie designers market held every Saturday at the Maria Baldwin School in Cambridge. My friend, Candice, will be there selling her fabulous handmade cards. Check out her blog, Shortcake Scraps, for news on her crafty adventures.

I didn't end up going to Rhinebeck this year. I can't justify spending more money on yarn when I have plenty that I haven't used yet. I think I'd rather put the money towards a spinning and weaving lesson. I have a bunch of roving that's just sitting around waiting to be turned into yarn. Sweetgeorgia opened up a studio space for her dyeing and spinning. I'm so jealous. I so wish I had a creative space.

Anyway...must head to bed. I worked all night and have to get up in a few hours in order to once again have some craft time at Ink About It tonight with Jenn Shurkus. Can't wait!

i tried...

Has it really been three months since I posted? I have no excuse. Just plain laziness.

A Muse Artstamps had a call for retail instructors recently. I decided to throw my hat in even though I knew that I'd probably not get the position. My work schedule is flexible enough to accomidate a fun job like this one, but I was pretty sure that my skills aren't quite up to par. The A Muse ladies are quite a creative bunch. I love their products and would have been honored to promote them. I tell everyone remotely interested in rubber stamping that they should really check out this company. The quality is second to none and the images are so cute.

The assignment was to create at least four cards and two non-card paper crafting projects in the A Muse style using their products. Here are the cards that I submitted. All images are by A Muse Artstamps. All card bases, ribbon and layers are also are from A Muse Artstamps except the blue layer used on the reindeer and love cards. Inks used for stamping are Tsukineko Memento, Stewart Superior Palette or Tsukineko Brilliance. Copic markers and Spica glitter pens used for coloring images.

The cutie in the last card is my niece a month after she was born. Isn't she adorable? She's now four years old and still as cute as a button. I wish I lived closer to her because being an auntie is the best. Spoil them rotten when they're around you and then send them back to the parents when they get cranky.

I'm not happy with my non-card paper crafting projects.I'm not going to even bother sharing them with you because they are totally embarrasing. I'm not good at altering items or coming up with non-card ideas.

There was one thing that I did submit that I totally love. I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time. They're onesies stamped with A Muse images. I have a few friends having babies soon and I thought these would make a cute present. Please excuse all the wrinkles. I didn't have the energy to steam them after I finished them at 3 AM. I told you I was a procrastinator. All images on the onesies are from A Muse Artstamps. Palette inks used to stamp images. I hope that they don't fade too badly after washing. They're supposedly work on fabrics after heat setting. I have to admit that I didn't heat set them. Again...I didn't have the energy after finishing them at 3 AM. I did steam them the next day and so far so good. I'll have to ask my friend to keep me posted after she washes them.

What else has been going on? Not much. Just working. I haven't gone on any really exciting vacations this summer. I did go for a long weekend to visit my dad's side of the family in Seattle and Vancouver. It was great to hang out with the cousins and their kids. The kids grow up so fast. I so wish I lived closer to them. No...I'm not having mommy cravings. I'm getting old, but I don't need more responsibilities in my life. I can barely keep track of myself at times. How would I care for someone who needs total care?

When I was in Seattle I went to Mecca...the A Muse store. It was a dream. All the A Muse products that you could ever want. I have a lot of their stamps and a fair number of their card bases. I did quite a bit of damage even though I already have quite a collection. Unfortunately, I didn't have a functioning camera at the time so there are no pictures of my visit. The store just recently moved and I can't wait to visit next year.

Anyway...I should get some sleep since I have to work again tonight. Plus it's off to the dentist. Hopefully I'll post again soon. I'm hoping to head out to Rhinebeck, NY this weekend to go to the NYS Sheep & Wool Festival. Anyone going too? I'm probably going to be driving out there with a friend so that we can come and go as we please. Plus stop anywhere along the way. Any suggestions on places to visit along I-90 or Duchess county in NY would be appreciated. Crafty places and good eats are at the top of the list.

my two seconds of fame...

I've been doing a lot of stamping in the past few days. This week happens to be A-Muse-A-Palooza, a celebration of A Muse Artstamps' anniversary. I joined other A Muse fans at Ink About Itin Westford for a couple of classes taught by the fabulous Jenn Shurkus, the one and only East Coast certified A Muse instructor. I had so much fun at her classes and also participating online in the contests.

So my claim to fame today is that I'm pictured in the A Muse weekly newsletter. Horrible picture! I have a strange grin on my face. I think I was high on the fumes from all the fun everyone was having at the class.

If you'd like to see the pic, you're going to have to sign up for the newsletter. I won't post it since the picture isn't mine. To sign up for the newsletter, click here. It's free and so inspiring every week.

Sorry for the pic free post, but I'm a little tired after working a full day today and travel to Houston earlier this week. Maybe some pics tomorrow if I get my act together.

I also went dropped by my friend, Liz's inaugural Stampin' Up party tonight. She's recently become an independent demonstrator. She's absolutely awesome! If you're in the Boston area, you should definitely contact her if you are in need of SU! products. She's in love with stamping and card making. Plus she loves to teach. It's always a no pressure to buy environment, but I always manage to stretch the budget anyways. Here's a link to her SU! page. It just so happens that she's also in the A Muse newsletter pic with me. We're two peas in a pod when it comes to stamping that feed off each other's addiction. It's totally bad.

i didn't buy any yarn...

...but I did buy a bunch of roving at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival last month. It was the first festival that I've ever attended. There was SO MUCH beautiful stuff to see. I wanted to buy it all. I really didn't need to increase my yarn stash, so I increased my roving inventory instead. Want to see what I bought?

I purchased some lovely merino roving in my favorite colors from The Fiber Studio, The colors are called Horizon and Lavender. There are a total of 4 ounces each.

My next purchase was 4 ounces of Bombyx silk top from The Spinning Studio in Bradford, VT.

I also purchased some unknown wool blue roving from Ward Brook Farms in Candia, NH.

My final purchase was buttery soft handpainted 50/50 cashmere/silk top from Foxfire Fiber & Designs at Springdelle Farm. The colorway is Lilac.

Not a bad haul, right? I did a little damage to the budget, but it was my first fiber festival and I resisted buying any of the fabulous yarns for purchase. Do you notice a trend in the colors that I picked? My favorite colors.

Plucky Goodness

I'm a lucky girl. I'm one of the very few that was able to snag a spot in the Plucky Classics yarn club. The Plucky Classics club bases color choices on classic movies, books or authors in three month periods. The first three months is based on Jane Austen. When I read about this on Plucky's blog, Here's the first offering from the Plucky Classics yarn club. It's based on a character from Persuasion, Captain Wenthworth. Isn't it lovely? It arrived today. I have to admit that I cheated and looked at all the spoilers that other club members posted on Ravelry.It's a deep blue colorway and the base yarn is scrumptious. It's a sport-weight 80/10/10 superwash merino/cashmere/nylon blend. It's so soft that I want to pet it all day and night. I heard that Plucky is coming out with a cowl pattern that she's going to share with us. This might have to be that cowl. Can you imagine snuggling up to this Plucky goodness?

I immediately wanted to sign up for the club. Not only are Plucky's yarns beautiful colorways and bases, but I also love the Regency period in England. I've visited Jane Austen's home in Bath and watch as many period movies as I can. This summer I hope to read a few of Miss Austen's books. Maybe Persuasion will have to be the first read?

Trouble!

I recently went to my first Stampin' Up! party hosted by my friend, the lovely Liz. She's always such a wonderful hostess. I love going to her parties. Amy Corr was the demonstrator and she was great at handling about the twenty or so crafters. Not everyone attending makes cards, but she was patient and enthusiastic. She also didn't push anyone to buy products. The thing is....I did! This discovery could be trouble! I've seen SU! products on various blogs, but never played with any in person. Here's my haul.

My new SU! collection includes:

• A Little Birdie Told Me Stamp Set
• Little Flowers Stamp Set
• Short & Sweet Stamp Set
• Simply Said Stamp Set
• Sprinkles Stamp Set
• All in a Row Stamp Set
• Card stock in Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue and Bordering Blue

Trouble! I was trying to restrain myself, but I've heard that SU! retires sets often to keep things fresh. I didn't want to miss out on any of these. Now I just have to figure out how to mount these stamps so that I can play with them. Any suggestions? I've read the booklet that was included with my order, but I'm sure that there are some stampers out there that have some great tips. Share please!

Lucky Day!

Look what I got in the mail today! It's my prize for randomly winning one of the challenges during the second Virtual Meeting of the A Muse Addicts (VMMA). Want to see?

Included in my prize are the newly released 4-bar Chiffon Purple solid notecards, a couple of new clear frame sets and a bunch of Passion Purple sheer ribbon from A Muse Artstamps. Click on the links to purchase these products directly from the A Muse blog. Their customer service is great and shipping is really fast. I usually receive my shipments from Seattle to Boston in 3-4 days using the USPS. These notecards are hands down my favorite color so far from A Muse. The other things were on my wish list for my next crafting splurge. Thank you Linda and the AMAZING A Muse gang for your generosity! A big thank you also goes out to the Fab 4 (Geeta, Michelle, Rhonda and Jennie) for hosting another fun VMMA! If you'd like to get involved with the A Muse Addicts, then click here and join now! It's free and totally fun!

Here's one of my recent creations for the A Muse Addicts April Swap and Bumper card. The swap theme was to tell something about yourself. I don't have any stamps related to food, my profession or knitting. My remedy that soon. So I used my favorite color combination. This card was another take on a card that I made for the VMMA.

Stamps: Daydreamer (Elzybells D0074) and Thinking of You hand (A Muse Artstamps 9-8246B)

Paper: A Muse Artstamps Cottage Blue Argyle Notecard (N702-AG) and Bazzill Basics Jacaranda cardstock

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black and Copic markers in Mauve Shadow (BV00), Canary Yellow (Y02) and Pink (RV11)

Accessories: May Arts white ric rac ribbon colored with my Mauve Shadow Copic marker, A Muse Artstamps Creative Candy Micro Dot Twinkle Stickers (TW101), Scotch Mounting Tape, Kokuyo Permanent Dot 'n Roller Adhesive

Tools: Marvy Uchida Jumbo Scalloped Circle & Mega Circle craft punches, Making Memories Paper Piercer Deluxe

I hope your day is filled with a great surprise too!

Interweave Knits Summer 2008 Preview

The Interweave Knits Summer preview is up! Here's the link. Which ones are your favorites?

I think I spy a blogger as one of the models. Am I right? Is it Parikha from {sixoneseven}? I think it is, but I'm not 100% sure.

VMAA 2: Saturday Night Fever!!

The final challenge is brought to us by Jennie Moczan. The task was to use only black and white. Yikes! I'm not happy with this card. Wanted to add some white ribbon, but I didn't have anything but ric rac. That wouldn't have looked right.

Here's my attempt.

Images: Bride & Groom (A Muse 2-1035D) and Truly Madly Deeply (A Muse 3-8187B)

Paper: Bazzill cardstock in Raven

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories: A Muse Creative Candy (TW105) and Martha Stewart Crystal Fine glitter

VMAA 2: Do the Hustle...

The third challenge is a sketch hosted by Rhonda Maynard. Here's the sketch:

Here's my entry:

Images: Birds (A Muse 2-4042E) and Little Something (A Muse 9-8159B)

Paper: A Muse Artstamps Cottage Blue Argyle (N702) and Bazzill cardstock in Jacaranda

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black and Copic markers in Mauve Shadow (BV00) and Pale Blue (B32)

Accessories: May Arts white ric rac ribbon

VMAA 2: Disco Ball

The second challenge is from Geeta Suggs. The task was to use old school, messy glitter. Here's my entry.

Images: Heart Ball (A Muse 2-1077C) and Love Blooms (A Muse 8-8470B)

Paper: A Muse Artstamps Popsicle Pink notecard (NS203) and Bazzill cardstock in Petalsoft

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black and Copic Markers in Celadon Green (YG25) and Olive (G99)

Accessories: Art Glitter in Taffeta (187), Pink Smoothie (268) and True Red (1)

VMAA 2: Let It Be!

Tonight's first challenge is courtesy of Michelle Clark. The challenge was to use no embellishments and focus on the images themselves. Here's my entry. Sorry for the blurry pictures. No natural light to be found at this time of night.

Stamps: Daydreamer (Elzybells D0074) and Thinking of You hand (A Muse Artstamps 9-8246B)

Paper: A Muse Artstamps Lilac Notecard (NS301) and Bazzill Jacaranda carstock

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black and Copic markers in Mauve Shadow (BV00), Canary Yellow (Y02) and Pink (RV11)

VMAA #2 on Saturday

Did you know that the Virtual Meeting of A Muse Addicts will be happening on Saturday night starting at 9 PM ET? Check it out here! It's free to join and so much fun.

Hope to "see" you there!

dyeing fun!

I took a hand-dyeing workshop last month at Mind's Eye Yarns in Cambridge. I've always been curious about the process of acid dyeing yarns and rovings. Lucy, the owner, was very helpful and knowledgable. Here are a couple of skeins that I dyed that day. They're a washable merino/tencel blend sock yarn. I can't wait to see how they knit up. Socks they will be. Now to pick a pattern. Which one? I'm very curious to see how the blue and white skein knits up. I don't think it'll be stripy, but I hope it's not going to pool badly.

Here are the mini skeins of fiber that Lucy provided for us to practice with during the workshop. I think these are (left to right) merino/alpaca blend, mohair boucle, merino and the mohair bouche again. Don't quote me on that. I'm not a huge fan of the mohair to knit with, but the texture of it is interesting. I find that it doesn't take a lot of dye to paint mohair. I know that there was one skein that I had to rescue from a dripping puddle of dye before I wrapped it up to heat set.

I dyed some tussah silk roving from Artfibers in San Francisco with orchid acid dye, a vibrant pink color. I used the immersion method since there was 8 oz of it. It was getting a little unruly to try to hand-paint it. I think I like the effect. The other is a hand-painted cashmere/merino roving that I purchased during my travels.

I guess the next step would be to figure out how to spin this roving. I'm headed to the Gore Place in Waltham this weekend to attend their 21st Annual Sheepshearing Festival. I heard that there will be some demonstrations happening. Maybe I can pick up some tips on spinning.

"normal life"

It's been years since I had a 9 to 5 job. Last Friday I got to experience how the other half lives by going to work at 9 AM. I didn't have to work on the unit since I had a meeting to go to instead. I woke up at 7 AM which is not normal because I'm usually at work by that time. I rode public transporation to work. Usually I can't take public transportation because I have to get to work so early. Then I was home during daylight hours. AND I've been outside in daylight before work and afterwards too. This experience is really rare for me. So not only did I have all these novel things happen yesterday, but I bump into a college friend who I've been playing phone tag with the past few weeks and Candice. She was on her way to work and I was just arriving at my meeting. I was just reading her blog a few days ago and I bumped into her last Friday. Funny, huh?

Anyway...Candice did tag me for this meme a few days ago.

Twelve Movies (not in any order)

1. Love Actually
2. Emma
3. Sense & Sensibility
4. Pride & Prejudice
5. Sabrina (the Audrey Hepburn/Humphrey Bogart version)
6. Sliding Doors
7. The Holiday
8. Shakespeare in Love
9. Memoirs of a Geisha
10. Notting Hill
11. The Princess Bride
12. When Harry Met Sally

Eleven Good Bands/Artist (not in any order)

1. Tracy Chapman
2. Sting
3. Indigo Girls
4. Norah Jones
5. Annie Lennox
6. Ebba Forsberg
7. Corinne Bailey Rae
8. Yo-Yo Ma
9. Jonathan (one of my best friends)
10. Miles Davis
11. James Taylor

Ten Things About You (delete after the ... part and fill in with your answer)

1. I'm ... always freezing. My hands and feet are almost always icicles.
2. My favorite color ... lavender.
3. When I was little I wanted to be ... independent. Maybe that's why I've not moved back to Chicago.
4. I miss ... spending time with friends and family on weekends. I've been working a lot of weekends lately.
5. I am a ... nurse. Love my job!
6. I'm definitely ... in need of more hours in the day and a housekeeper.
7. I like to ... hoard yarn and card making supplies. No peeking at my stash!
8. I'm ... not a morning person. If I could get up at noon each day that would be wonderful!
9. I eat ... more than you think for a person of my size. I blame it on my Chinese genes.
10. I love ... living without roommates. Peace and quiet!

Nine Good Friends (not in any order)

1. John
2. Amy P.
3. Kathy
4. Jonathan
5. Dawn
6. Angie
7. Maria
8. Candice
9. Liz

Eight Favorite Foods/Drinks

1. Mom's ham fried rice
2. Pan-fried noodles with beef and Chinese broccoli
3. Chocolate crema from Rialto in Cambridge, MA. It's so delicious that I'm drooling right now.
4. Caramel rice pudding with graham cracker topping from Rice to Riches in NYC
5. Mushroom risotto
6. Korean BBQ
7. Deep-dish spinach & mushroom pizza done properly. I am from Chicago, so no imitations allowed!
8. Chicken katsu

Seven Things You Wear Daily

1. underwear
2. scrubs when I'm working
3. jeans when I'm not
4. tank tops - because I hate bras
5. a fleece in cold weather. I'm always freezing!
6. flip flops in warm weather
7. my house slippers

Six Things You Hate

1. getting up in the morning for work. I'm a night person.
2. cleaning!
3. hot, humid weather. It drains all my energy.
4. the fact that Boston is such an expensive city to live in.
5. being late. I almost always just make it in time.
6. ignorant people

Five Things You Do Daily

1. think about what I need to do each day and then scratch everything non-critical off the list.
2. check email
3. read blogs
4. watch TV
5. surf Ravelry and A Muse Addicts

Four Shows You Watch

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. CSI
3. Law & Order
4. Everyday Italian

Three Places You've Lived Before

1. South Holland, Illinois
2. Cambridge, MA
3. Somerville, MA

Two Things You Want

1. An end to cancer. I'd be out of a job, but it would be worth the sacrifice.
2. More time with friends and family. Life is too short and precious.

One Person You Want To See Right Now

1. My late grandmother. She was always such a comfort even though I didn't always understand her.

I guess I'm supposed to tag three people, but none of my friends that Candice didn't already tag have blogs. Oh well.

Shouldn't leave a post pictureless. So here are some of my recent aquisitions. Stash enhancements...

Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock in Grumperina, Louet MerLin Sport Weight in Pewter, J. Knits Lace-A-Licious in New Jersey