chimesblog

Hey all!

I’m going to be moving soon, and would like to move my inventory from my todiyfor etsy store. SO, I’ve decided to have a crazy sale!  If you mention this blog post or my tweet in a convo, I’ll even give you free shipping.

Here’s all the items I have on sale …

Off the Shoulder Korn Shirt — $10

Murderdolls Tiered Ruffle Skirt — $10

Music As a Weapon Off Shoulder Shirt — $10

Slipknot Iowa Zippered Lace Shirt — $25

Michael Jackson Beat It Necklace — $10

Deconstructed Heavy Metal Punk Quilt — $40

I’m pretty excited about this sale!

Are you ready for this awesomeness?

Every year Ames has a throwback prom to raise money for American Cancer Society and this year’s theme was Night of the Living Prom. Zombies. Prom. Zombies. Prom. Prombies?

Of course, I had to cram myself into this awesome black dress I bought for last year’s prom that isn’t made to actually fit a human being. It’s a size … ?? I don’t know. 28 inch waist with 24 inches for a chest? Hmm.. yeah. I turned the back into the corset and laced it up to fit me. Frankensteined a dress for zombie prom.

Mark and I decided to do 80s glam punk — Billy Idol style. I made Mark a shirt out of a PBR t-shirt and some fabric scraps. And of course, I made us a corsage and a boutonniere.

It was a good mix of zombies and prom goers. We had a fabulous time. The band showed up in Ghostbusters costumes (complete with proton packs) and played the ghostbusters song! Thriller was played halfway through the night and a group of us danced to it. I didn’t learn it, but I jumped in and improved anyway.

That’s about it. Free beer and punch. Lots of dancing. Lots of fun times. Undead. And alive.

Here are some pix!

So in honor of my favorite celeb, this year’s prom theme is Night of the Living Prom. Well, not sure if it’s in honor of him, but either way, we’re learning the Thriller dance so most people can do it and it will be awesome.

In case you forgot, Prom is a charity event in Ames that is held every year.  It’s a throwback prom with a cool theme. Last year’s was Revenge of the Prom.

Anyway, last weekend they held a group practice to learn the dance, but I went home for the weekend to introduce Mark to my family (which went really well, BTW).  So, needless to say, this uncoordinated chica must learn this thing on her own.

So, I began.

And, I’m going to be videoing my progress and blogging about it that way I actually get this thing learned so I don’t look like a tool and so I can pay homage to the King like I always wanted to. Plus, life isn’t complete until you know how to dance like a zombie.

Yes. I am SO blogging about this. I’m trying to hold onto it as if it actually happened and wasn’t part of my random sick and twisted dream world.

I met MJ.  Yes. MJ. In my dreams (of course. the man IS dead according to popular belief).

I was at one of his rehearsals for This is It and he went backstage. He had shorter hair like he had during HIStory (when I REALLY fell in love with him and when he became a HUGE part of my life).  We danced together and he said he liked my moves.  Yes. He liked my moves.  For those of you who’ve seen me dance, you know this is when I realized this HAD to be a dream.

So we sang “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” together and danced.  It was amazing.  That man was a genius.  His music, talent and heart will live forever.

I’m just glad I could resurrect him in my dreams.

So if you didn’t get that … it’s the guitar line from Beat It.  (duh)

Anywho, I’m participating in craftster.org’s Michael Jackson “We Love the Gloved One” swap. Yes.  Go ahead. Groan.

*insert groans here*

Good. Now that you’ve got that out of your system, prepare to be put in a State of Shock (yes, I am going to heavily sprinkle this post with song titles, now shush).

Okay, quickie info on this swap: it’s 5 points (I’m not going to explain points, but it’s basically 1 small item=1 point, medium=2, large=3, etc).  You have to craft enough stuff to add up to 5 points.  Also, I’m paired with a cool girl from Australia.  Great. Except I’m poor, so that limits what I can send because shipping is hella expensive.

Enter: crafts I would never dream of doing in a million years.  But they’re my For All Time favorites (okay, that was a stretch).

Note: none of these are actually FOR the swap. These are simply testing the medium to see what I can do.

MJ in the infamous Beat It jacket. Silhouette on shrink plastic made into a pendant for a necklace. Chain is vintage.

Okay. I admit. I actually saw the next thing on craftastrophe.net and HAD to make it myself. I thought to myself, man, what a great idea!  And yes. Craftastrophe.net is a blog about exactly what it sounds like it would be about. Crafty catastrophes — ie BAD crafts.  However, somebody on etsy sells these for $40 a pop! Crazy. I’ll make my own, thanks. The fabric for this costs about $3 a yard.  Cut, pin, stitch, stuff. Nothing Dangerous about it.  Done in 30 minutes. (next time I’ll measure a bit better though and possibly use a light interfacing to make the stitching better)

ET … moonwalk … home? Yeah. I’m going to revisit this pattern to make it less alien-like and more human (nature). It’s a 1.5 x 1 foot stuffie of — you guessed it (I hope anyway) — the one and only sequined glove.  I have no clue what I’m going to do with this thing, except for right now I’m gonna Keep it In the Closet.

… and of course, his favorite gesture.

That’s all for now. YES.  There will be more.  MUCH more.  I purchased a Thriller music box movement for the craft swap and realized I wouldn’t be able to send something big enough to hold it, so I’m going to be making my OWN shrine box (only not really a shrine, more or less a pretty music box) complete with a fimo MJ that will be mounted on one of those twirly ballerina things. Now I just gotta figure out how to get the twirly ballerina thing to do a triple twist and land on its toes …

I was a bit excited about going to the post office earlier…

And rightly so!

I opened my package and …

One of these things is not like the other... (understatement of the year)

heeeeeee! I have to measure him now for my MJ craft swap so my partner knows what size to make his clothes.

I’ve got a TON of stuff I have to do this weekend! It’s crazy, but I’m staying in and getting it done!

1. I’ve got a couple of paying freelance projects so I’m going to blow their minds and try to get a chunk of work done on them this weekend (one of them that’s not due until Sept. I’m pretty sure I can actually finish today).Kim’s friend, Lisa Inman, and I are working together to update her website. She likes her current one, but she doesn’t like that she can’t do the updates (or atleast that’s what I’ve gotten from her so far).  She’s supposed to send me the original artwork today so I can work from those files since she likes the current design of her site.

   I’ve got an order for some customized wedding rehearsal dinner invites based on the sunflower invites I listed the other day.  It’s going to be a whole package: invites, envelopes, mailing labels, table place cards and tags for favors. I’ve got the invites and labels done. I need to pick an envelope and order it. I am designing the place cards and tags today.

2. I’ve got an awesome album cover project I’ve been working on since February that I need to throw together a press kit before the end of the weekend.  I’ve been working with The Half Hearts — who will actually be coming to Des Moines on August 19 if anybody’s interested — on their album art for their very first album.  My friend Kim did the painting that’s the basis of the album cover.  The album’s finished mastering and they’re planning to send a press kit August 1, so I’ve got to get a few things together for them to print.  That’s the first thing I’m doing when I’m done blogging here (important things first, right? hehe).
3. I’ve got an order for 2 custom tattoo mugs for my co-worker, Tory.  She’s the one I did the cute sunflower wedding shower invites for the other day. I don’t think she needs them right away, but I told her I’d do them this weekend, so I best stick to that.
4. I’ve got some dishes I started working on last weekend that I need to finish and bake. It’s a set of 8 — 4 bowls and 4 plates. I’d like to get that done today. I only have 2 more bowls left to paint, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
5. I need to paint a set of 16 dishes before Market Day next weekend.  I’m doing an entire set with the tattoo theme. I haven’t completely decided what’s going where…but I’m thinking mainly swallows and flowers on these dishes.  I might pick up a few more colors of paint before I get started on these.  It’s kind of a time-consuming project though, so I might not try to push it for before Market Day.
6. Speaking of Market Day … I need to blog about my deals that I’ll be doing — including a special deal if you advertise or blog about me somewhere.  Details to come!
7. I’m doing a Michael Jackson Craft Swap. Yes. For real. Go ahead and groan.  Unfortunately, I got paired with somebody in Australia, so that limits what I can make because of the price of shipping. I had some really cool things planned before we got partners, but I can’t afford to ship there and I’d rather spend money on the things to swap than on shipping.  I’m completely lost for ideas, which is not good.  I was originally going to make a 16-piece dinner set with silhouettes, but, not shipping that to Aussie for price and fear it will break.  Anyway, I’ll be brainstorming this weekend and purchasing supplies. I have until 8 PM to figure it out since Hobby Lobby closes at 8 and isn’t open tomorrow. I guess I can go to Michael’s but I like Hobby Lobby.
8. And … I have a few backburner projects that if I have time I’ll get done this weekend.  I was hoping to make a bunch of fast t-shirt bags to sell for $1-$2 at Market Day since it’s a BYOB sort of deal. A few people were upset last time that I didn’t have bags, but it’s like Farmer’s Market…bring your own bag.

I’ll probably put my string quilt away. I’m getting sick of looking at it and I know I’ll just end up working on that instead of these projects that need to get done.

Anyway, wish me luck.  I also need to run sometime today, so hopefully the weather cooperates. I had a bad week for working out and I ate terribly the last 2 weeks…so I’m definitely feeling like BLAH right now.

AND … I’m off!

I had sent in an entry for the Diary 2010 Project a while back and I got an e-mail a few days ago from the organizer asking if anybody would like to do a 2nd page.

So, in the spirit of recent events and my latest re-surfaced obsession, I snagged June 25th (I really wanted August 29, but that was taken).  I decided to make a memorial-type page. Something subtle. Typography only.

If you remember, the diary is in 3 languages… English, French and Spanish. Also in black only.

Here’s what I came up with in 15 mins over lunch today.

hmmm on second thought, I should resize “forever” so the “f” is on the page more. Also, the size of the bullet on the bottom between my websites kind of bothers me. Too big!

Anyway, I like it. I like my original entry better, but I’m glad I got another date that meant something to me.

I recently participated in a heavy metal swap on craftster.org. This was the first organized craft swap I’ve done through the site, and I think it turned out pretty well.

For those of you who don’t know, basically in a craft swap you decide that you’re going to make a certain number of items and find out a lot of stuff about what your partner likes. Craftster does a lot of themed swaps like the metal swap (next up, MJ swap).

My partner was really into a lot of the same kind of stuff that I was into…Children of Bodom, In Flames, Pantera…etc.  But she was a HUGE Maiden fan. I took this as an opportunity to get to listen to some Maiden since I never really gave them a chance.  I got really excited about crafting some Maiden stuff since I got kind of into the cheesiness of the music. I decided that I’d only make her maiden stuff so she wouldn’t outgrow it later (like she might have with some of the newer bands).

We decided that it would be fun to make some über-girlie items with a metal theme. She seemed pretty interested in kitchen items, so that’s what I made.

Potholder set (with Eddie and Aces High lyrics on the back)

Grocery Tote Bag

Grocery Bag Dispenser

I tried to make it cute... but it didn't quite work. The inside is a pink floral (the top too) and I quilted the outside with silver...but Eddie's just so fugly.

and…. Breakfast with Lemmy — the one non-maiden item. Mötorhead. Ace of Spades. (what’s with the aces theme??)

I was the first one to send, and my partner was the first one to post her stuff… apparently I rocked the eff out of this craft swap.  :) So hopefully I get a rockin’ package in return (actually my partner is sending late b/c she wants to thoroughly rock the eff out of MY package too).

Sooo I’m switching gears and crafting for my all-time favorite musician… Michael Jackson.  (okay, here’s where I almost went on a “to those of you who are now riding the MJJ train… seriously get off it” rant…but I restrained myself)  You guys all know how I feel about him (or at least you know now…most of you knew before), so yeah, I’m a little bit upset about the whole deal but on the bright side, I’m getting to experience him all over again and am discovering things I never knew existed.

I realized that the official Michael Jackson site is now a memorial wall. Here’s what I wrote:

Michael, you’ve touched so many people’s lives in your short stay on this earth. You had so many gifts to share with the world. I’m glad you were able to give all you had to give even though the world never seemed to give back. I hope you’ll be able to find the peace in death that you were searching for your whole life. Your talent and music will live on forever as will your caring heart and soul.

Deepest condolences to your family, especially for your children. May they grow up in a world filled with things you could only have dreamt about and may they always remember how much you loved and cared for them.

——–

I really can’t say much more other than I still can’t believe I’ve been this affected by the death of a celebrity. Michael seems like so much more than a celebrity though. In a weird way I feel like I knew him at one point, but I guess that’s what happens when you’ve had a camera and media in your face since the age of 6.

All in all, I’m most upset about the way the media is handling this. TMZ and other crap-tabloids are exploiting the story of course. I haven’t watched anything on TV about it since CNN when the news broke and the morning after. That’s when all the crazies started coming out. With Michael, you have to ignore the crazies.  I’m waiting to hear when the funeral is and I’ll watch that if it’s televised.  I want to remember him in MY way, which is hopefully the way he’d want to be remembered, not the way the media wants to make him out to be : a child-molesting prescription-drug-abusing plastic-surgery-addicted freak. I’m sorry — he may have been some  (or all) of those things, but that’s not what he should be remembered for. Elvis Presley was also a prescription-drug addicted (overweight) freak, but what’s he remembered for? His talent.

With that in mind, I leave you with this video and a message that will always ring true in my heart when it comes to MJJ. Just leave the poor guy alone. He’s dead. Isn’t that enough?