chimesblog

… or else I waste a LOT of time.

I recently joined Pinterest, a website that allows you to curate and catalog different interests online. I’ve mainly been using it to bookmark great design for inspiration, DIY and craft tutorials and some ideas for my sketchbook.

Well, apparently people like what I’m posting because this week I’m in the top overall most “prolific” pinners.  I’m also one of the top 5 pinners for design+packaging.

Seriously, apparently I need to get a life. But, I’ve collected a lot of fabulous finds from around the interwebs and I’ve got my own lil station for inspiration rather than pulling out a book I’ve seen a million times.

Here’s where I depart from the cutsie and sweet and give you a taste of some of the good stuff.

Frankenstein. Drag. Queens. FDQ.

A little-known band that sparked the creation of The Murderdolls (who, BTW is coming out with a new album next month). Horror punk. All good clean fun — lyrics are ridiculous — songs like “Dawn of the Dead”, “Kill Miss America” and my favorite … “RAMBO.”

Wednesday 13 was the frontman of this band and I saw him live 5 years ago or so at a little bar in Cedar Falls. There were about 15 people there so it was a pretty intimate show. He shot me with his big fake plastic gun during “Slit my Wrist”.

Wow this all sounds pretty morbid, but I promise you, if you like punk and/or campy horror flicks, these guys are for you.

Anywho — here are some live gems. Not good quality, but I present to you some of my favorite songs.

Also, for those of you playing the home game — please note … these are pretty explicit. Also, they’re in drag (in case you didn’t catch that in the band name).

This week’s Blog Love goes to my friend Steph for her blog 33% Disaster.

Steph is a web designer at a local company and does a lot of photography on the side. She’s also getting married to a wonderful guy next May and I’m going to be a bridesmaid in her wedding (all after she got the schpeel about me not wanting to be anybody’s bridesmaid).

Steph writes about lots of things going on in her life and mind. Recently she’s done a lot of book reviews and movie reviews.

She’s also keeping a tumblr blog for her wedding inspiration.  Go over and check her out … and leave some love!

Well this is lame.

I’ve done giveaways before and people have gone nuts, but this is kind of lame. One comment.

Sooo the winner of the camera case by default is … ADRIA!

And since she was my one and only comment, I’m going to allow her to choose which camera case she wants.

Don’t worry. If you missed it, I’ll be doing another giveaway soon.

I’m going to do a Market Day recap … but I scheduled this post earlier to show you what I’ve got that’s new this month. I have quite a few things!

New ceramics (posted a while back) and these guys:

Wish me luck! I’m sure it will be fun.

This past weekend I realized I have an awful lot of projects that are WIP, unfinished or just plain sitting around — UFOs (unfinished objects).

So, in effort to finally finish up some of these, I present to you in no particular order (and when I started the project):

My Embarrassingly Long List of UFOs

1. Mug for a friend’s birthday present (2 weeks ago)
2. Tattoo Dish Set (July 2009)
3. mom’s pleather jacket restyle (September 2009)
4. quilt for my mom (March 2009) — in my defense, I just haven’t had the extra $75 around to get it professionally quilted.
5. coin stack quilt (March 2009)
6. Thea’s Puzzle Quilt (April 2010)
7. Roseanne Afghan (November 2007) — this project is to work on when I don’t have any other projects to work on
8. fabric scrap greeting cards (May 2010) — I have 45 blank cards left to create
9. camera cases (July 2010) —  I have 10 cases left to sew — just need to buy buttons and elastic to get them done
10. fabric scrap flowers (July 2010)
11. jeans into summer pants/shorts (July 2010)
12. Map of the states quilt (April 2010)
13. Yellow fake-esta ware dishes (July 2010)
14. Nerdy cross stitch (April 2010)
15. cookbook (December 2009)
16. Portfolio/website/resume revamp (May 2010) — don’t worry — just time for a refresh.
17. Wonky Log Cabin Quilt #1 (February 2010)
18. Wonky Log Cabin Quilt #2 (February 2010)
19. Workout/Recipe/Craft project binders (February 2010)
20. Family recipe book (January 2008)
21. ironic greeting cards (May 2009)
22. T-shirt quilt for my cousin (August 2009)
23. Fabric Frame (June 2010)
24. touch up painting my kitchen (May 2010)
25. recycled t-shirt rug (September 2009)
26. Black and white quilt (March 2009)

I’m sure there’s way more UFOs than what’s on this list,  but this is what I’ve got so far. Problem is, I don’t have deadlines for any of these, except maybe the stuff I make for Market Day, but those are rolling deadlines at best.  Gifts always have deadlines, so there’s 3 on here I know I can mark off for sure.  Mom’s quilt is getting done next month so I can have it ready by September.  The birthday mug is going to get done this week.  And there’s one more on here that’s going to be a wedding gift for a friend.

Anyway, in an effort to demolish this list, I’m going to present one finished project (or at least progress on something) each week.  Obviously, the granny square afghan and other projects (like quilts) take a little time, and some take some funds I don’t have.  But I promise (girl scout’s honor) to work on this list as best I can before starting any new projects.

check it out … my cute onsies were blogged about today. I feel famous!

I’ve decided to make bags. Not just any bags, but super easy peasy awesomely fast bags. I won’t have them in time for this month’s Market Day, but I will have them for next month’s (assuming July doesn’t just breeze past me and slap me in the ass on the way out like June did).  The idea is to have a super cheap but adorable bag available for customers so they can have somewhere to store their goods (whether they be from me or from another vendor).  I’ve heard a lot of complaints about not having bags, but the advertisements do say to bring bags. So … yeah.

Anyway, I adapted Purl Bee’s 20-Minute Tote by making my own handles and ignoring the weight of the fabric as a factor. I’m just using whatever I’ve got. This one is a prototype — I’ll probably be using super ugly fabric for the rest of them to keep the cost down (I don’t want to use my pretty fabric on low-end jobs!).  I gave this one away with the baby shower gifts that I made last weekend.  Also, it does just take 20 minutes. Maybe less. I guess I’m kind of speedy, but whatever. I read somebody complaining about how it doesn’t take 20 minutes somewhere on their blog, but I’d like to state that it totally does. So there. Or something.

Ta da! It’s made from the gobs and gobs of Michael Miller Lava Flowers fabric I have leftover from last year’s binge.  I’m soooo sick of this print! It made an adorable bag though.

A fellow craftster just blogged about my gorgeous yellow water pitcher and some of my other ceramics in the craftster.org blog.  I’m really flattered. You should check it out!

It’s not often that I get press, so I’m pretty excited about this.

I’m getting around to hanging stuff up in my apartment, and I’ve made a rule. The things I’m not sure of where to put, I’m going to hang on existing nails. That way, I’m not putting any more holes in the wall, and it makes decorating a bit more fun.  If I find the perfect place for something later, I’ll move it, but for now, everything’s been going on existing nails.

I love how the hallway turned out. I had to cheat and add one or two nails because there wasn’t enough for all my mirrors and shelves (the big mirror at the end of the hallway was there, thank you very much, Adria, who I know is commenting on how many mirrors are in my apartment). There’s a lovely piece of art by my friend, Kim, on my shelf as well. It’s what I used to create the layout for The Half Hearts first album, After the Flood.

I made a couple more frames with fabric in them.  I chose some vintage scraps that Adria had given me a while back after she cut enough squares for her vintage mini postage stamp quilt. I’d been stashing a larger piece of this because I loved the colors. Turns out, it matches my kitchen perfectly.  I painted the frames one shade darker than the walls using a Martha Stewart paint sample I bought from Home Depot.  For now, they’re hanging on existing nails.