scrumptious crafting

this is me...


and this is my room... (excuse the mess - i'm too young and busy to clean! :))




and these are the valentines i made for friends. tiny little pocket-size notebooks. and below it are the latest books made. this time using raffia as binding. such a simple thing to make and yet so pretty. paper from papersource.



and these are my latest sewn goods with my newest fabric purchase. one's a wallet, the other's a messenger type tote bag. teal fabric from urban outfitters curtain. printed fabric from auntycookie and cheekybeaks.




including a notebook with cheekybeak fabric!



and what have I been up to this past week? making beautiful vintage-y, victorian-y boxes of course! inspiration from martha stewart living magazine, feb 2008 issue. can find the article on her website. the materials used: lovely quotes from martha's templates printed on thrifted paper, repurposed wedding invitation cards from papersource (the berkeley store has a box full of free printed samples, from which i help myself), papyrus cards and envelopes (who says i need to use it for letterwriting?), cheapo and reused ribbons. the velvet ribbon monogram can be achieved using velvet scraps (preferably on some thickness), rubber stamps and an iron without steam.





and i know we all love to journal so i thought i'd show snapshots of my latest one. i've been using my lovely journal from paperiarre as a visual diary for inspirational purposes. taking scraps of fabrics i've purchased, business cards, pieces of stationery, mailing labels, etc. anything that's visually inspiring is glued into this journal! :)





and finally... i've decided on this particular sketch for possible stationery or cards or whatever. not sure yet. and i kind of like the squared graph paper in the background. what do you think? what uses could i have with this design?


happy sunday!

new photos later today!

a much needed update. it's getting a bit drab in here. will update with some photos later today. just have to get around to taking pictures of my latest crafting habit. (it's becoming an addiction)

happy belated valentine's day

i hope you all had a great valentine's day. i'm not much of a mushy person and am no good at public displays of affection. i can only do it secretly through notes and emails and making things. expression is expression, right?

i for one had a lovely belated valentine's day. neither i nor my friend were available on v-day, so we celebrated it late instead. by far one of the most romantic nights of my life. candles. wine (hansen's soda for me since i detest the taste of wine). sushi and beef teriyaki (yum - i just love plain white rice). strawberries (how typical!). alicia keys in the background. dancing.

there's no better way to spend v-day than with my best friend, W.

hope you all have a great weekend. it's really sunny out today and i'm heading home for a family lunar new year celebration/reunion. i'm down to 100 smackeroos so i'm glad to refill my pockets with much-needed moolah! :)

toodles!

Still here, alive and well

I have not abandoned you my dear readers. Alas, my university life has taken over me.

I did not seriously think taking 18 units (5 more than my usual comfortable 13) would be such a strain on my schedule. But add that with 5 hours of workshift (chores, essentially) at the cooperative house I live in AND the few hours I put in babysitting and helping out a man with a disability is well, a bit over the edge. I have problems with time-management as it is. But who knew I'd be away from the comforts of my room so often?

I am really accustomed to a shorter class schedule that allows me many leisure hours to nap and watch tv and eat and just squander aimlessly. Today is a typical day for me now. Up at 8-ish, get dressed, do the dishes, get to class, quick lunch if there's time, work after, do dishes again (dinner dishes are the worst - house of 40 women, who like to cook!), too tired to do the reading necessary to keep up with the lectures and/or any homework assignments.

This week I have the pleasure of composing THREE papers. I have never had three papers due at once. Granted, they are of varying lengths from really short to somewhat long. So it's not like I have three term papers due. Haha. And this week I am helping out a mother whom I babysat for last semester. She just had a new baby and he is about 3 weeks old. Now I get to say the youngest child I've helped with was 3 weeks old. Though my previous record of 4 months was still not bad. Parents seem to trust their children in your care a lot more if you can say you've spent a substantial amount of time with a really small child. For some folks, 2 years is still quite small. Well, now, I think 3 weeks is even smaller! (er.. younger).

But I digress.

President's Day is coming up. No classes on Monday. And one professor unofficially (hush-hush) canceled our Friday lecture. So, I ought to have some time to do a proper crafty update. And maybe get around to opening shop. Very little to add though. Must find time to produce! craft! make!

:)

Have a happy week! And here's to an early Valentine's day. Not a believer myself but I do enjoy a day dedicated to love, not Hallmark.

to tide you over...

here is a glimpse of my WIP (work in progress)...


notebooks made with a type of japanese-inspired binding. been experimenting with softcover notebooks that contain fewer than normal page numbers and bind with silk ribbons. right now it's still in the "looks-like-a-kid-made-it" phase. until i perfect my technique, you won't be seeing these bad boys on sale... hee hee.

meanwhile, i am working on getting my shop started. so stay tuned for that. hopefully it'll be up later today. i've had a long day and am too darn tired to upload all those photos for each and every listing. haha.

visuals for the visually minded folks

Pictures! Just a few snapshots! Not of my room yet though. That'll have to be for another time. :)


notebooks made using repurposed tea boxes (a gift to the house from a previous resident who lives in london) and repurposed brown kraft packaging paper


pretty notebooks made with pretty papers
both kinds of notebooks will hopefully be in my shop (whenever I get around to creating it)


a silk flower brooch i just made today. used silk scraps mom got from the sewing factory. had a friend help me singe the ends (i hate fire). and added a few beads. might whip up a few to add to shop (again, once i get around to creating one - haha)


pouch: jo-ann's fabric and disney twill tape


my favorite julia rothman mug from urban outfitters. lovely house drawings.


a sketch enclosed in a valentine's card i wrote for a friend

progress

still in re-decorating mode, mainly my "office" space, which is basically my writing desk. every other part of my room is pretty much redecorated. now, on to tackling the mess i've left behind, for the reason that i have no storage space. just lots of empty floor space. i guess you could call my room my storage area. haha. one big box, right?

i think, to work around the fact that i've used copyrighted images, i'm going to just make the pictures really small or else blur it out a bit. so no one will recognize the images but you can see how i've decorated my room. (i promise, once i have a real job, i'll make it up to the folks by buying their work -- scout's honor).

meanwhile, i've moved on to a different book binding - the japanese style. i don't know what it's called because, typical me, i don't research anything and i never try too hard to learn anything the proper way because i'd much rather do it my way. *takes a breath* that was a long sentence.

once i clean up a bit i'll take pictures of my latest projects and of my room too and post it up. hopefully that'll be soon. like, this week. in fact, i'd prefer in the next couple of days.

i don't know about you but i can't work in a cluttered room. i need my own space. in fact, i had to rearrange my furniture for better fengshui, chi, aura, what have you because i work on my bed a lot and it was getting closed in in the previous arrangement.

anywho, i have a 9am class tomorrow and since i can't seem to get there on time, i'm going to try and sleep on time tonight.

toodles!

ps. msk - thanks. i know i have another 10 years to go. your own life story keeps me going.