SUCCEED Blog: A collection of the world's most epic, awesome, mind blowing Succeeds.

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Trick or Treating last night was damp yet fun. Arwen scored much candy. Then we went to a Halloween party at Sarra and Duncan's.

Much fun was had...and I'm glad we had an extra hour to sleep!

So what can you end up making with shrinky dinks?

Why this:



This was my first successful shrinky dink project. :)

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon just playing and testing. Seeing what the SD material would and wouldn't do before I actually attempted to spend much time on an actual piece.

I love the pendant..but I'm trying to decide if it's done or if I want to tweet it a bit.

Their were casualties:



Those were a couple charms that were starting to come out pretty cool....before they got over cooked.
I had even more tragic trial and error failures...but I forgot to take pictures.

Frank though...he came out pretty cool. :) For you crafty types: The pendant is two pieces fused after shrinking. The image isn't a stamp, nor did I print it out btw. I traced a picture of boris karloff and then tweeked the coloring and shading. So I made the image on one...and shrunk an equal sized piece that had nothing on it. After they shrunk and cooled down I painted green glitter paint on the rough side of both pieces. Letting that dry for a bit I then placed them glitter side together and fused the pieces.

The fusing is the tricky part since they can go from "almost there" to "ACK! THEY ARE RUINED!" in a second.
I kept a sharp eye out and turned down the heat just a bit.

Oh and here is an action shot so you can get a sense of proportion:



I can see much more shrinky dinking in my future. :)

I am now in the possession of actual shrinky dink brand shrinky dinks. :)

As well as an ink pad that will actually work on them...yay!

Though I did forget to get a black sharpie marker....booo. It's all good. I have some other markers that may work plus it's the kind that's rough on one side so I can use my colored pencils at the very least.

I think I'm going to spend the afternoon playing with these. :)


I also picked up some black and orange paint (for future halloween crafting), a few sponge paint brushed (so Arwen can help without me risking some of my better brushes), black enamel paint (for a craft project that Arwen and I are going to work on later)....and the best thing ever...

Twinkles Glitter Paint!!!!

Oh yes...it's one step beyond glitter glue (which I have a bit of an obsession with). Now I have four different glitter paints. This makes me so happy...and well...I probably can't be trusted with these but I don't care.



I still need to make a trip to JoAnnes for a couple other craft supplies (some jewelry findings, jump rings and such) but it can wait till later this week. In the meantime I have a bunch of new stuff to finally play with. :)

Yesterday Arwen got a package in the mail from her Memere (my Mom). Inside were some Fancy Nancy first reader books, a DVD of Beatrix Potter stories done in ballet (actually from her Grand-Memere) and then this:



( What is this? Why click here to see... )

I just found out about something called Wist recently. You go to their website and join up and it loads this thing to your toolbar. One link that says "My Wists" that links to your Wist list and one link that says "Add to Wists".

Basically it's a way to create a wishlist in one spot from anything you may find on the internet. You can create tags (for easy finding later) and has a place to write a comment (You can mention why you would like it or what you wisted the item for...ect.)

Very, very handy. I like it for two things: One for the random "I would like to buy you one day" wish listing. The other thing is the "Hey that's cool...and I bet I could make it myself" ideas.


In case you want to see....here is my Wist list: http://www.wists.com/spookygrrrly

I've been doing some more research into vintage american Halloween decorating, party ideas and the like.

I came across a really awesome website Vintage Halloween Ideas which specializes in Halloween ideas, history and information from the 1890's - 1960's.

Now I did know that at the turn of the century through the 1940's fortune telling of some sort was a big party of Halloween parties. Never really taken seriously it was a fun and games sort of thing usually involved around match making or ways to forsee your future spouse.

Though I found this tidbit of info enlightening (taken from a 1940's party idea guide):

The best for mystic rites is the barn; second best is an attic full of shadows; third best is a cellar into which guests descend immediately after removing wraps; fourth best is large hall;

lastly the kitchen.

If affair is held in barn, build a large bonfire in front for use of guests for after-supper sports. The place where the mysteries are performed should be decorated with gruesome things — jack-o'-lanterns, skulls and cross-bones, black draperies, witches made out of cardboard and suspended from the walls, cats, bats, owls, etc. The shades and spirits should flit about.

The kitchen? I get the barn, I get the attic, I agree the cellar would make a nice creepy place, a large hall...sure why not. The kitchen is next? Well I guess everything seems to gravitate thier anyways...might as well be where the spirits eventually end up too.

I finished another one of the embroidery blocks for my Alice quilt last night:



This one really didn't take that long...but I had put it down for a while and just picked it back up a couple days ago. I got most of the work done in two days. Though it took a little longer to stitch this than the Alice block because their were lots and lots of little pieces to work on. So I felt like I was constantly doing color changes.

It was fun though and I learned a couple new stitches: couching and interlaced running stitch.

Here are a couple detail shots of the decorative stitches:

So I finished my first bit of embroidery ever:




I'm pretty happy with it. My stitches definatly got better as the block went on both in tension and being even. I will say that the satin stitch parts are pretty darn tricky...but I think they are a worth it for the contrast and effect. I just can't see using it on a large scale...that would drive me nuts!


So one down....a whole bunch to go....

I'm trying my hand at embroidery (again). Last summer I had transfered a few designs onto muslin with the idea that they would eventually become quilt squares. Somewhere along the line they got packed up and forgotten about. Well I rediscovered them and figured that this would be a good summer project...and hey...I already have all the supplies!

It's a nice break from the knitting...I just can't stay motivated to knit while it's hot. So far my first block is coming along nicely:



I made a couple mistakes but I don't think they would be noticed by anyone but me...so I'm not pointing them out. Since this is the first embroidery project I've ever done I'm not too worried about them though.

We shall see how this turns out. Unlike knitting it's a lot harder to take out your mistakes! Also it can be tricky sometimes to figure out which color you are supposed to be working in or how much detail you can get in a small space. Doing her eye was way tricky...but I think it came out ok. Though it goes much quicker than knitting which is also a bonus.

When you are in a line that says "8 items or less" that refers to 8 individual items not 8 types of items. So 8 cans of cat food + 7 other things actually = 15 items.

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." - Alas, a blog

Arwen and I had a very nice Easter today.

When we woke up Arwen found out the easter bunny had left her a very nice basket. Then we got all dressed up for church and headed out. Granted we were rained on the whole way there and back...but it's Seattle...whatcha gonna do?

After church they were holding an easter egg hunt so Arwen and I headed out and did that. It was Arwen's first egg hunt and she had a great time. Also thier was an Easter bunny handing out candy who gave Arwen a big hug.

We came home and Rob came over for a bit. Then Arwen napped while I got dinner ready. I made a spiced apple stuffed pork tenderloin rubbed with garlic, olive oil, rosemary , salt and ground pepper with mashed potatoes and cheese broccoli on the side. It was delicious.

After dinner Arwen and I dyed a dozen eggs. It was her first time doing that too and she was incharge of checking how done the color was and deciding when they came out of the dye. She had a lot of fun coloring all the eggs.

It's been a nice day of fun and relaxing...just how a holiday should be. :)

I'm not sure if 2009 is the "Year of Knitting/Crocheting for Me" or the "Year of Knitting/Crocheting Up All My Stash"....but so far I haven't had to buy any yarn for projects. Hey works for me.

I've been needing a small rug for my kitchen and decided that I'll just whip one up myself:



And the detail shot:



Project Details:

Pattern:Check Pattern in Easy Rugs to Crochet by Leisure Arts
Yarn:Random red and white/ecru acrylics from my stash
Hook:P
Notes:I only did two repeats of rows 4-9 and rows 10-13 instead of three so that the squares would be more square. Cut fringe down to two inches and didn't add the extra fringe.

I love the way this came out. It was a super quick project that I did lazily in four days. My kitchen is red and white 50's themed so this rug fits in perfectly.

Just finished watching The Dark Knight.

Fuck Slumdog Millionare

The Dark Knight should have been best picture.

So you remember me talking about the saga of the ripple afghan?

Well here is a picture of the old afghan o'doom:



For a better comparison on how freaking-rediculously-way-too-big it was here it is draped over my queen size bed:



You see on the lower right hand side how far it hangs over the edge? Yeah it was doing the same thing on the other side of the bed. I'm pretty sure it would have fit a california king if I had kept going. I remeasured it...it was 95" across. I have no idea what happened.

Now here is the progress on my afghan at a much more reasonable width:



I am now two stripes past where I was on the original afghan...and did that in four days of work. Where the old one had taken me a month of work.

Here is a close up and a better shot of the colors:

So we are having a contest at work this month. Whomever has the highest PPC (piece per client) this month gets a $100 gift card to anywhere they want. Which means if I win I could totally (and finally) get my nintendo DS!

So I've been selling my little butt off at work....but....


If you are running low on product and thinking of buying something new.

Or if you already use Bumble and Bumble and need to restock.

Orrr...if you would like to try out the totally new, totally awesome Rudy's product line that we just launched.


Please, please, please come buy some product from me this month!!

You don't have to come in when I'm working but if I'm not there then make sure to tell the counter person that I recommended it to you before they ring it up so I get credit. If you need a recommendation I'll be more than happy to steer you to the product you need.

Also if you are someone that I can get a hold of easily I have no problem buying the product for you and delivering it to your home. :)

Oh and you should totally check out the new Rudy's shampoo, conditioner, bodywash and shave cream. I've been using them all this last week and they are pretty darn awesome (and trust me if I thought they sucked I'd in no way recommend them). And just so you know this isn't some product we bought made and slapped our name on. The owners were very hands on in creating a whole new product that they felt proud to sell and was a quality high end product at a cheaper price because thier is no middle man.

Come in! Buy Product!

You know your going to need it...

Well all the blocking got finished drying just in time!

I know I said I wasn't going to do anymore gift knitting. So this year I only did one project (Hey I'm getting better) and made Jeff a hat and scarf set.

For the scarf I wanted something challenging enough to keep me interested in the project and yet not too fussy of a design. I picked the Triumph scarf because I love to cable and thought it was both intricate and sophisticated looking. Also he rides a triumph bonneville so he'll appreciate the reference.


Here is the scarf:


And a detail shot:



Pattern: Triumph Scarf by Smariek Knits
Yarn: Cascade 220, just over 2 skeins
Needles: Denise needles size 7
Pattern Notes: I made 23 repeats of the pattern and then did 8 more rows of the pattern so the design would look the same at both ends. Finished scarf after blocking aprox 76" long.

As for the hat I decided to go with a basic Seaman's Cap. It's a good all purpose cap and he's a sailor so it's fitting. He also likes to snowboard and this should keep him plenty warm!


Strait on:


Side view:


Pattern: Seaman's Cap by Needle Beetle
Yarn: Cascade 220, 1 skein
Needles: Denise Needles size 6 and 7, Clover Bamboo DPNs size 7
Pattern Notes: I made the hat exactly to pattern in the Large size. It fits just a bit loose on me so it should be perfect for him.

Now I may just go off and make myself that hat too....it is super warm and snuggly. I just hope he likes them. I'm apprehensive about making gifts for people because not everyone is appriciative of the actual work involved and it's just "oh...wow...a scarf". He's an artist though too so I'm taking a chance that he'll appreciate them.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Hope everyone else got thier holiday knitting/crafting done on time too.

What song remindes you of me?

Leave me the name of the song and artist in the comments that makes you think of me when you here it.

Buried @ PhotoCasket

Thanks to our troops who have helped preserve the right for me to be the freak that I am.

Also mad props to anyone who can get up that early in the morning and actually be productive and/or possibly shot at. I know I couldn't do it.