Archive for category The Creative

Date: July 27th, 2009
Cate: The Creative, The Fluff
2 msgs

Internet Timewaster #1073

I am so digging this site I found the other day. Basically, it is a site where you can play high tech paper dolls. You can choose between different models, backgrounds and a zillion clothing items that you could conceiveably buy, if you are rich. It’s called Looklet and if you click on the link, you’ll go to my page, where you can see more pictures like these two:

casual

princess

Guess which one Sage did?

Guess how Greg reacted when he saw how Sage was wasting time on the Internet? Actually, he didn’t say a word. He was speechless, I believe.

I especially love how you can see different views.

view 2

You can also browse other looks by other people and heart them if you like them. One of my looks got four hearts and I was just thrilled. This is how I have been coping with insomnia.

This post sounds like a paid post or something, but it’s not. I just really love it.

Date: June 23rd, 2009
Cate: The Creative
4 msgs

Creativity Plus Bravery Equals a Mystery

ado-badge1

I saw this ADO (Art Dolls Only) challenge when I went to one of my favorite blogs and saw it mentioned. Now, the blogger who had it up is a total expert at this sort of thing, while I am, well, pretty much piddling around, trying to learn.

But, sometimes I need the pressure of a deadline to really get going, and I like the “prompt”, which is to create a doll using one or more of the four elements as inspiration. I can totally groove to that.

So…I have until July 17th to make something that is hopefully wonderful, and also hopefully not embarrassing…

Date: June 18th, 2009
Cate: The Creative
3 msgs

New Dolls and Old Chaos

Wile E. and I spent a while back in the studio porch, very comfortable in one another’s presence. Soon, Varmint the cat joined us, and they were both lying at my feet. Wile E. is still a bit trepedatious, but not so much that he had a problem stealing a bag of potato chips from the pantry and depositing them in his lair for later.

I finished these today, and started on seven more. It’s become a bit of an obsession. Besides learning not to cook them too long, I’ve also learned that I need to make friends with some sandpaper, and get some finer brushes–I’ve ordered a set of manicure brushes that are used to paint little flowers on toenails and so on. Hopefully, those’ll do the trick.

Here’s whatshername, a dancer. She has the dark brown eyes I wish I had.

dancer-girl

This one I call “Aztec Thug.” Greg says he looks like Willie Nelson?

aztec-thug-doll

I also tried making a head today. It’ll be, um, interesting to see how it turns out after I paint it.

head

Look how lost the organizer drawers look in my work space. Greg and his brother designed a shelf that they are going to make for me at the metal shop. :-) There are two tables that go on in this manner for a total of twelve feet. If I was making one item, such as the cats, it would be really awful. As it is, though, I like how items that don’t usually “go with” one another make friends and give me new ideas. Still, ideas or not, it is getting put up and organized.

chaos

So it looks as though I’ll be teaching ESL on a volunteer basis once a week, starting this fall. I may get trained as a trainer, as well. I think it will be really refreshing after a day of teaching reluctant learners to teach adults who want to learn. And that is all. Besides continuing to take Sage to piano and Boy Scout stuff (which Greg mainly does anyway), I am not committing myself to another thing. I hate the “busyness” that seems like the thing to do to raise social status in our culture.

But I love sitting and making a huge mess. :-)

Date: June 14th, 2009
Cate: The Creative, The Fluff
6 msgs

The Joint is Jumpin

The weekend has gotten off to a great start. It started for us on Friday, when we went to Sage’s Boy Scout Camp award ceremony and got to hear our local representative, Wayne Christian, speak. He said that the difference between liberals and conservatives is that “liberals like to spend all of your money and make more laws, and conservatives like to keep that money in your mommy and daddy’s pocketbook.” Um hum. Yeah. It was all I could do to keep from standing up and screaming something about Bush and bailouts and war and so on but it wasn’t an appropriate time. I’ll probably have to go to the doctor and get stitches in my tongue, though.

Sage did great at camp. He got 42 shots out of 50 with the BB gun, and made three bullseyes in archery. They also made some horses. Here he is with his.

sage-horse

Then we ran by and ate cake for a friend’s birthday and came on home and had dinner with some friends we don’t get to see nearly enough of. We were all gabbing, and before I knew it, it was 11:30 and Sage was still up playing the Wii. He was haaaappy! I made the cake again, and Greg had a sad look on his face when I sent it home with our friends! We kept some, but I can’t keep it in the house because just looking at it makes me gain weight!

This morning, we went to our local Blueberry Festival, and I bought twenty pounds of blueberries! :-) I love to cook with them, so they’ll definitely be getting put to good use. More importantly, they had the local animal shelter out there, and we found a dog that we just love! He looks like a coyote (heeler/shepard mix) and I’ll post tons of pics once I’m able to pick him up on Monday.

We’ve been talking about getting another dog for a while (unfortunately prompted by people continuing to case the house…) and this was very serendipitous, as we were able to take Salsa over to the park where the animal shelter set-up was (across from our house) and make sure that everything was groovy. The dogs got along great, although Salsa sulked some when we got home.

I’ve still been on a creative roll, starting with this Tyvek purse I threw together Thursday night, sorta as a joke. It’s lined with part of an old red sheet.

tyvek-purse

I also made Sage some pajama pants (my first piece of clothing from a pattern–ever!) from some material that he picked out. The cuffs are from that same sheet. I have to wonder with Chinese characters printed on fabric…how do I know what they say? I don’t. It could be something awful, lol.

sage-pants

Today, I really went crazy and decided to try sculpting faces, another first. I bought some Sculptey Studio, and went to town. Here’s what I ended up with:

faces1

Obviously, I need a lot of practice, but this was really fun, as in, I could sit there and do it all day long. The smudgy look is from India Ink and alcohol–the India ink was on the brush I dipped in the alcohol to smooth out the clay, and I liked the effect. I’m going to “fire” them and maybe paint them later. We have some metallic powders that Sage insisted on buying, so I may put some of those on them. Sage made a couple of really cool ones as well, but the picture didn’t turn out. Later.

Sometime in between making the faces, I covered some cans with paper. Big whoop, but I think they’re cute. Greg came in there, and thinking I was working with clay, said, “You’re so bipolar!” I think he meant ADHD…something like that…

paper-cans

I REALLY need to clean that window.

Sage spent a long time today teaching himself how to draw manga out of a book we bought. It’s cool that he’s picking up on the whole creative vibe around here. I wish I had a scanner!

Varmint’s all chilled out. I have a feeling that will change when our new friend Wile E hits the scene this Monday…

varmint

Date: June 10th, 2009
Cate: The Creative
2 msgs

Love These…

And check out this sculpture by Adam Reeder of Pan listening to an iPod…

pan-ipod

Ordered some great Noro yarn from Wooly Ewe, which is having a terrific yarn sale. This silk yarn is one of the things I got. I also scored some cashmere!

I’m making pretty things…

Date: June 8th, 2009
Cate: The Creative
5 msgs

Thread Unleashed

I’ve never been all that into watching YouTube videos, but I’ve seen the light. I LOVE how you can type in the name of a stitch that you need to learn (today it’s a ladder stitch) and a nifty demonstration comes right up. Bless these people for doing this!

I’ve made another cat. Once again, it made my family laugh. That is my criteria to judge whether it is a good cat or not. I intend to be a cat lady of sorts, it seems. I’ll post a photo of that one once it has clothes. Right now, we are in cat body assembly line mode. Sage gets paid $2 to turn and stuff the arms and legs. Nothing like having a bit of child labor at your disposal…

I’ve also made a couple of other things. Another bag…

new-purse1

It is made out of some 60′s vintage fabric that I purchased on eBay a few years ago, some fabric I bought in Mexico ten years ago and yet more fabric that I scored at an Austin thrift store. It’s about time I started using some of my stash!

I also bought some more Amy Butler fat quarters and made this little crochet hook organizer. I can never keep track of my hooks, in part because I keep giving them away to people I have taught to crochet. (Hurricane refugees, students.) Now I can tell if I’m missing one in a particular size. By the way, does anyone else think that this fabric looks like the Internet?

crochet-holder

crochet-holder2

I found something pretty amazing in American Craft magazine. One of those things that I absolutely wish I had thought up myself, because it’s totally up my alley. I found a link to it–just click on the photo to read about it. Unfortunately, the photo is too small to do the work justice. The entire background of this work is made of tiny baby dolls. Seeing this just hit me in the gut…

no-war-plastic-babies1

The artist is Gyongy Laky.

On another note, we watched Inside Man last night. We’re still catching up on movies we haven’t seen… What a cast. What creativity. What cool film noir tweaks. I absolutely loved this song, also used in the Bollywood movie Dil Se. (Here’s another reason I’m loving YouTube…)

I am just now realizing that quite a bit of Indian music has that Eastern sound that I had thought was only associated with the Middle East specifically. What a pleasant surprise!

Date: June 4th, 2009
Cate: The Creative
4 msgs

You Name the Kitty…

I dunno. Alarmed kitty? Melancholy kitty? Prozac kitty? Her look seems to change depending on what she is wearing and the situation in which she finds herself.

Here she is, just born. Sage stuffed the legs.

cat1

Here she is with her new dress.

cat2

She looks a bit alarmed, and there is a reason for that. In our house resides a kitty purchased by my mother specifically to be chewed on by the dog! As a result, he has become quite the bully. (Photo setup by Sage.)

cat5

cat6

Fortunately, she also has some peaceful times in the garden, although I’m not so sure she likes being up that high…

cat4

Update: I got carried away and decided to make her a tote bag to carry as well. The inside fabric matches the dress, and the outside has one of my crocheted flowers with a bead in the middle.

cat7