Week-In-Pictures: January 19- 25

I was finally ready to get back in the swing of things this week, so I did a lot of sewing.  You'll probably see a few of these pictures in their larger forms in blog posts later in the week.

1. "Karate Belt Color" Ninja Nubbin set I listed in my Etsy shop
2. Black & White Ninja Nubbin Battle!
3. "Princess Girl" Ninja Nubbin set I listed in my Etsy shop (yes, I know boys can like pink and purple too, but the truth is that the majority of kids that like pink & purple are girls)
4. "Ethiopia" Nubbins I made at the request of a friend.  She and her husband adopted twin boys from Ethiopia a few years ago (I want to say 3 years ago).  The end of this month is the anniversary of bringing them home, so she wanted to give hem a special present.
5. Figuring out the design on the "Ethiopia" Nubbins.  Cutting out a tiny Africa and even tinier heart was a challenge!
6.  Every time someone finds out that I made "Where The Wild Things Are" inspired Nubbins and requests me to make a set, I have to figure out how to make the monster one all over again!  These Nubbins were something I only planned on making once for my own artistic satisfaction.  I never intended to recreate them, but people keep requesting them and I have a hard time saying no!
7.  Red and Pink "Eye Love You!" One-Eyed Nubbins that I am planning on putting into my Etsy shop soon for Valentine's Day.
8.  I had to order more black safety eyes from Dan's Crafts & Things.  I usually prefer to go buy the eyes in person at the store in Webster, NY instead of ordering online, but I needed to get more eyes before I was going to go into Rochester next, so I ordered online.  I love these guys!  The manager and a couple of the employees know who I am (they have their own, honorary Nubbin mascot I gave to them).  It made me smile when I saw this little drawing that was on my package that came in the mail.  You gotta love small business!
9. I learned how to crochet a "Granny Triangle"!

Etsy Favorite Friday: Pinterest Rabbithole Finds

Here's a few of my new Etsy Favorites from this week!

• Spool Necklace No. 3 by ShopHollyDolly ($22)
  I feel a little bad when I see something in an Etsy shop and think "I could make that for myself!" instead of wanting to buy the item...but with all my vintage wooden spools, I totally could make one of these for myself.  An example of my "ICanMakeThat-itis".  Of course hers, with the gold chain and beads, is more elegant that what I'd probably make for myself.  I'd probably just slap a necklace chain on an artfully wound spool.  
• Coffee Create Sleep Repeat Poster by paperchat ($40)
  There was a time when this poster would not have appealed to me because I didn't like coffee.  But now, it's perfect.
• DIY Cross Stitch Pendant by RedGateStitchery ($10)
  I'm not into cross-stitch, but I like the look of a simple cross-stitch heart. 

The first two items are the result of what I call a "Pinterest Rabbithole".  While browsing the DIY/Craft section of Pinterest, I saw a pin of a hoodie that had toggles to make it look like a "military/marching band" style jacket:

  

The description said it was a DIY, so I clicked through to check out the process.  Well, whoever originally pinned it didn't pin it RIGHT (yes there is a RIGHT and a WRONG way to pin, people!)  Maybe it's because it was pinned from a Tumblr.  I so don't get Tumblr.  My niece tried to convince me that it's really cool and the best thing ever and that I should make one, but I just find Tumblr annoying and disjointed.  It seems like it's sort of like Pinterest, in that people just reblog stuff they like, but it's much less organized and harder to track down where things originated and people often aren't credited for their original work.  I know some people do use it as a blog, but I just think of it as a horrible mishmash of a terribly disorganized Pinterest board and a blog. (although I think Tumblr was around before Pinterest).  Sorry...Tumblr rant over. 

Anyway...when I clicked through the hoodie pin, it just took me to the blog and not the blog post...

• Example: Let's say you saw my Ninja Nubbin blog post and wanted to pin it.  You should click the actual blog post and THEN pin it from there so that the pin takes you directly to the post (http://kirascraftylife.blogspot.com/2014/01/ninja-nubbin-sets-listed-in-shop.html) instead of just to my main blog (http://kirascraftylife.blogspot.com).  If you pin from the main blog, if someone comes across your pin later on Pinterest, but I've done more blog posts since then, when they click your Pin, they'll have to go searching through my past blog posts to find the one you pictured in your Pin.  Make sense?  Maybe I'll do a blog post sometime with photos on "How to Pin Correctly".  Of course, I'm sure someone out there has already done it.  I can;t be the only one who is driven nuts by it.

I still haven't found the original post of the hoodie, but browsing back through the old entries of the blog is how I found the first two items for this week's Etsy Favorite Friday... so it's sort of a happy accident. (although I do go through Pinterest Rabbitholes when things are pinned correctly too...where a blog post makes me want to check out the rest of the blog and past posts.).  The Spool Necklace is from the blogger's shop, and the poster was in one of her posts that is similar to my own where she showcases a few of her favorite items.

Ninja Nubbin Sets Listed In The Shop!

I just listed 2 sets of Ninja Nubbins in my Etsy shop!

Karate Belt Color Ninja Nubbin Set

I've listed this set before, and decided to bring it back after receiving 2 requests this month on Etsy for a set of Ninja Nubbins as party favors for Ninja-themed birthday parties!

Princess Girl Colors Ninja Nubbin Set

I've listed the Karate Belt Color set before, but I decided I needed to list a "girly" color set with pinks and purples. (who said ninjas were just for boys?)

While photographing today, the Black and White Ninja Nubbins decided to do battle! (don't worry, there were no major injuries!)

Make-It-Monday: Pom-Pom Mice

I've always had a thing for mice.  When I was a little girl, I drew little pictures of them in the margins of my school papers (with frowny faces on the ones on the math papers!).  I think my childhood love of mice was influenced by "An American Tail", which came out in 1986, when I was 4 years old.  I liked "The Secret Of Nimh" too, but "An American Tail" was my favorite.  (I had a pet mouse for a short time that I named "Fivel")  When I was older (around 9 or 10), I read books like the Redwall series, and about Reepicheep in "The Chronicles of Narnia".   What is it about mice that is so enchanting? (In fantasy movies/books at least.  In reality, when one gets into my house, I am kind of glad my cat is there to catch it!  But if I can, I try to get it away from her unharmed and put it outside).  

Anyway, my craft show friend Amy of Sweet Pea Felts makes adorable little needle-felted mouse soft sculptures (you can see photos on her blog or on her Facebook page.  Recently, she made pom-pom mice with her daughter, and then decided to post a tutorial on her blog.  As soon as I saw it, I HAD to make one!

This mouse has unleashed my inner little girl.  I just want to play with it and pose it, and take pictures of it all day!

I haven't decided on a name, but I imagine him as a brave little scamp!

"Touche', Pussycat!"

I made him some armor from bottlecaps and gave him a T-pin as a sword. My friends on Facebook said "It's Reepicheep!"...convenient, since the bottlecap has an "R".  I'm also reminded of books like "The Mouse And The Motorcycle" and "Ralph S Mouse" by Beverly Cleary, as well as "The Tale of Despereaux" (I've never read the book, but I saw the movie)

My poor animals endured my attempts to take some staged pictures...

This shot of Luna sniffing (and consequently knocking over) my mouse makes it look like an action photo of the mouse doing battle!

"Really, Mommy?  What is up with the mouse?  I just want to nap."

I've since made 2 more mice (and have been suppressing the urge to make more!).  I made one brown mouse to experiment with using a different textured yarn, and another white mouse to give as a belated birthday gift to my friend's daughter Lydia, who just turned 10 last week.

(The Sweet Pea Felts tutorial is for personal use only, so I will not be making any of these to sell.  If you'd like one, you can make one yourself!  The materials are inexpensive (I had everything already on-hand in my craft supply stash) and the tutorial is super-easy!  Or you can contact Sweet Pea Felts.)

Week In Review: January 12-18

1. An awesome Chameleon Sculpture one of my art class kids made and gave to me at church on Sunday.
2. Terra and Luna "not really" snuggling.
3. Trying to reorganize my recycled clothing fabric stash.
4. What day is it?  Hump Daaaayyyy! (I don't care if you hate the Geico commercial...it makes me giggle!)
5. The shelf A shelf in my craft room where I display work that makes me smile from some of my fellow artists (most of whom are Rochester/Western NY locals). PeachesProducts (Fox, Owl, & Octopus), Erin Makes Stuff (Knitted monster head), EcoLeftz (One-Eyed Blue Monster), Wonderful Whittlin' (Twig Gnome), Sweet Whimsy Designs (Minion Peg Doll)... and of course, up and coming 10 year old artist, Lydia (Chameleon sculpture). 
6.  "Half Face" portrait project for the 3nd-5th grade homeschool art class.
7. My Etsy order from Frostbeard came this week! These are soy wax candle tarts. My favorite scent is a toss-up between "Dumbledore's Office" and "Butterbeer". (The other two scents are "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey" and "The Shire", which both smell lovely as well!)
8. Making mice after midnight.  I'll post a blog with more about that for "Make-It-Monday".
9. "Touche`, Pussycat!"  Made my little mouse some armor and a sword using bottlecaps and a T-pin and couldn't resist taking a picture of him "battling" with Terra!

Week In Review: January 5th - 11th

1. 1. A squirrel drawing I was given by an 11 year old girl at church.   She is quite the artist! (and she isn't even in my art class!)
2.  Pretty yarn swirl
3. My haul of new-to-me Homespun yarn that I got at a craft supply swap that was hosted by one of my craft show friends Monday night.  The weather was awful (extremely cold and extremely windy), and most of the people who were invited didn't show up because of the weather.  But the 4-5 of us that were crazy enough to venture out for the sake of craft supplies and crafty-gal socialization had a lot of fun!
4. Deceptively sunny day on Tuesday.  It was COLD and WINDY on Tuesday.  I refused to venture out of the house.  Letting Luna out to go to the bathroom was the closest I got to being outside.  I took this picture out my back door.  You'd never guess by looking at it just how cold it was.  I heard that, with wind chill, it was -25.  Good thing Luna had the good sense to do her business and come right back, instead of sniffing around and dilly-dallying like she normally does!  It was too cold for that sort of nonsense!
5. Yes... my Christmas tree is still up.  I decorated it really late in the season, so I decided to keep it up and enjoy it all of January.  I love the placement of this simple clear glass ornament...so that the light behind it looks like the flame of the candle.
6. Frost on my kitchen window from the frigid day on Tuesday.
7. My 12 pack of special edition blue Ball mason jars that my mom got me for Christmas.  I feel silly that this is my favorite Christmas gift from this year (next to the necklace CJ got for me).
8. I utilized some YouTube videos for Homeschool Art Class on Thursday.  The kids absolutely loved it!  I used videos from a YouTube channel called Art For Kids.  One of my favorite things about this guy's videos is that his kids draw along with him... so it goes at a pace that the kids watching the video can draw along with too.  Plus the kids can see other kids drawing, and not get frustrated that their drawing isn't just like the instructors.  I have one kid in particular in the class that is a perfectionist and gets easily frustrated when his work doesn't turn out "perfect".
9. A "Throwback Thursday" picture of some of my vintage wooden thread spools.

Etsy Favorite Friday: Pup Purse, Jesus & Coffee Print, & Geeky Candles

It's been awhile since I've done an "Etsy Favorite Friday".  Here's a few of my recent favorites...

• Teriyaki the Dachshund Dog Cute Vintage Inspired Brown Vinyl Coin Zipper Purse by Cuore ($28)
  I love this little purse simply because it looks like my Luna.  Someday, when I want to splurge on something for myself, I'm going to buy it.  It just makes me smile!
• Jesus & Coffee Print by Evannicoledesigns ($15)
  I love this sentiment.  I want this print in my kitchen... just as a daily reminder that I need "a whole lot of Jesus" in addition to my morning coffee!
• Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey -- Scented Soy Candle -- Doctor Who -- 8oz jar by Frostbeard ($15)
  The delightfully geeky names these people give their candle scents make me smile!  I actually just bought the Book Lovers' Scented Soy Tarts Wax Melts Four Pack, so I can smell the scents before I commit to getting a candle.   I wish there was a way you could smell things through the internet!  The four scents I ordered are "Butterbeer" ("butterscotch overtones with hints of crème brûlée and butter rum"), "Dumbledore's Office" ("cedarwood vanilla, fireplace and lemon"), "The Shire" ("Oakmoss, clover, aloe, with a hint of sweet cherry pipe tobacco"), and "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey" ("Driftwood, Black Currant Tea, and hint of Juniper")

Blogging Resolution?

I know I've been a pretty bad blogger lately. Craft show season in November and December gets super busy and blogging falls through the cracks when I'm having to sew more to keep my inventory up.  Plus, I blame Instagram and Facebook...since I post most of my pictures there and it seems redundant to blog them, but I know not everyone uses Facebook or Instagram.  So my goal for myself is to at least post a "week-in-review" recap each week.  I'll try to add some captions for the pictures, but some times you just might get the pictures.

1. Luna getting used to the chair replacing the couch in her "looking trough the front window" spot after I rearranged the living room this week.
2. Luna relaxing on the couch before I rearranged
3. Luna at my in-laws' house in Cleveland, napping on my crochet blanket I'm working on.
4. Terra snuggled in my nest of colorful, thrifted "granny blankets"
5. A vintage Polaroid camera I got for 75 cents at the thrift store.  I don't have any film for it...I just got it because it looks cool.  It's just an objet d'art on my bookshelf.  Later my mom told me that if I wanted one, she has one just like it in her spare bedroom that she would have given me.  But the fact is that thrifter in me simply couldn't pass up the 75 cent deal.
6. A "selfie" I took after a shower to document how my hair curls naturally when it gets wet.  One of the few pictures I've posted of myself without any makeup on.   I have either finally grown out of having acne-prone skin, or it's my all-natural facial cleansing regimen.  I may do a blog post on that another time.
7. A picture of one side of the living room after I rearranged it.
8. My Minion peg doll from Sweet Whimsy Designs trying to blend in with the Nubbins.
9. Terra on the couch, getting used to the new living room furniture arrangement.