Posts and Seeds

Or lack thereof. I have been sick for a few months, no, a few years, but it got worse a few months ago. I am having surgery next friday that I have to pay for myself because I do not have insurance. Right now I am happy to know that I will be better soon. I will have to do this surgery every few years, but that is okay. Things could be worse. I lost a lot of weight and due to this disease I have put some back on. I hope that this surgery is the answer and I can get back to normal and eat well and exercise regularly. At least the surgery will take away the pain I am in.

I have done some crafts, but not too many. I have only started a necklace and not finished it. I did make some earrings. I have painted two small pictures and started two large paintings -one has three canvases.

I also started gardening again in spite of the pain. I love gardening. It is very meditative for me. I feel at peace when I am gardening or working in the yard or with dirt. I finally realized why some houseplants have not made it. I am not filling the pots with enough dirt. The plants aren't getting enough air to the main stem and they are dying. This is the reason of my post today. How to work with potted plants and grow from seeds.

I have a compost bin in my backyard and I flipped things around the other day and took some of the dirt to the garden I started in the front yard. The area I have plants in doesn't get watered regularly. Rain doesn't make it to this spot unless it is blowing from the west or south. So that dirt did have grass thanks to the seeds I planted earlier in the year, but when I dug the grass up and moved it to other locations in the yard, what was underneath was nutrient-less rock-solid dirt.

While I was getting dirt from the bin to the front yard, I made the decision that the the stuff that comes from my compost bin will not go inside. There was an ant farm in there, there are hundreds of rolly pollies, there are some bugs that look like flatter and narrower rolly pollies with a pointy tail, there were termites and maggots... That stuff is fine for outside and will be beneficial for the ground that gets nothing, but it will not go in my house.

So I had to buy some potting soil. I hate to spend money on dirt that is readily available, but for my love of gardening, I will have to.

I also bought a seed starting tray. I am going to try my best to grow plants from seed so next year I can have a beautiful garden that was super cheap. I planted a lot of things in the tray and the hollyhocks shot up, while the other seeds are barely sprouting or not sprouting at all. I knew when I was planting the seeds that I should have read their respective germinating times, but I didn't. Now I have to check it daily to make sure there is plenty of water because I have the plastic lid over half of the tray to help with moisture, but it isn't nearly as good as having the lid on the whole tray. As soon as the hollyhocks have some true leaves, I think the packet said four true leaves and not just two like most other plants, I will move them into larger pots so the other cells can continue with the dome lid on top of the tray.

I have tried many times to grow basil in my house and I never can. They make it a few weeks and die where the stem meets the dirt. I think this is because I am not putting enough dirt in the pot and air isn't getting to the stem. I have a lot of pots with plants that can apparently take a little of this type of abuse, but I will fix it today. One of the plants is not looking happy so my goal is to make him stand upright and get him some nutrients. He probably needs to be re-potted anyway.

Can I upload pictures after I have posted? I'm sure I can... I will show you what I mean about not filling a pot with enough dirt later today.

I am in pain, but knowing there is repair around the corner makes it easier to deal with. I am going to go get my day started and get this gardening underway! Happy Thursday!

Clay Heart Plate for Valentine's Day

A few tips before we begin: Fimo clay can stain so don't wear clothes you care about. You can either use gloves to keep from staining your finger nails or you can paint your nails before you get started (and let the polish dry first) so that when you take the polish off, the clay coloring will come off with it. It doesn't seem to stain skin, I wore gloves so I didn't leave my finger prints in the piece, but I didn't wear them the whole time. This can be done with any air dry or oven bake clay and if you have a kiln you can use kiln baking clay. Since I haven't used a kiln since high school and I don't know other clay-like materials well (ie model magic), I will be talking about fimo clay. Well, I used Sculpey which is one of fimo's clays and the other one is Premo. I have all three, but I liked the colors Sculpey came in best for this project. I recommend you use some wax paper to work with the clay since it will stain the surface you are working on. Lastly, you will want to wash your hands after working with each color (in the beginning) so you don't create the ribbon effect, unless you want it. It is a beautiful look, but I didn't want it in this piece.

To begin, slice off some clay. In the end I used half of each color. Whatever you take out can be put back in as long as you don't let the colors rest next to each other. There is no waste with this clay! (unless it falls on the floor or a kitten comes wandering in to see what's going on and walks across some of the clay, that stuff may need to be thrown out.) After you have the clay set out, work each color so it is malleable and then slice into small pieces and make them different sizes. Roll the slices into a ball and move on to the next color after washing your hands.


In the second picture I have a few balls of color together because I am starting with those. I like it to be random, but if you want to work in rows you most certainly can. So, put some colors together and start pressing until you have the shape you want or something big enough to work with as in my case.


Next, you can see that I have something close to a heart and each piece of clay looks like a pebble. In the picture after it, you see a small rolling pin with wax paper around it so I don't damage the wood of the rolling pin or the piece. I use the rolling pin to spread and smooth the entire piece and then we go to the next step.


I have a mix of heart shaped cookie cutters and I used the largest to form my heart with edges...

After I mold the clay around the shape I need to remove the cookie cutter and smooth out the edges inside. You can use water to help the clay form a smooth surface. The wooden tool is perfect for smoothing clay in tight spaces. Set your oven to the right temperature and bake for as long as it needs to. I baked mine for 20 minutes at 275 F. After it is out of the oven and it is cool you can glaze it. I use Sculpey glaze you can get at any craft store. I don't glaze the bottom and I put a lot of glaze inside so it can fill in anything that isn't touching. It's kind of hard to find a spot that isn't smushed together, but apparently they are there. The instructions for baking are on the package. Not all colors bake at the same temps so either bake 5 minutes longer or stay with the same temperature requirements. The colors I used required 15 minutes per quarter inch at 275 degrees fahrenheit.

Here is the finished piece. I show the finished piece with my keys so you can see it's size.


Don't want to make this, but you still want it? It's for sale in my Etsy shop! http://emilybellamy.etsy.com

Next: I will be working with my nephews to make valentine's cards for mom and Grandma. (and anyone else they want to make a card for) I hope I can get them all engaged in it, but one or two will do. :)

Today it's my birthday! ♫na nana naNana♪

We are having people over tonight and I do not feel like cleaning. Now I have to get dressed and get supplies. We should have a lot of fun tonight! I may not post anything tomorrow, but by early into next week I will have some fun stuff posted.

So little time!

I'm sorry I have been so quiet. It is hard to craft when I have no money. I just made something fun and decorative to put a potted plant in and if it works out I will make another and post it.

For now, my birthday is Saturday so this week I have been cleaning and crocheting. Cleaning in preparation for my party Saturday and crocheting for Jeremy's sister's baby. I am making a hat that should look like a bunny with ears and a face and it is my own creation. I want to have it ready in a month for her baby shower and I know I have plenty of time, but I am critical of my work and it has to be perfect.

Time to put a glaze on my water plate.

Fun Christmas Gifts

We aren't really doing gifts for Christmas this year, but I love to give gifts so I kept it really cheap and made a few things. Most of my money went on pictures and paper.

I took the origami box I made from the instructions here and modified it to have a few less folds. It is also bigger, about 4 inches tall. Here is a website with a list of many different origami boxes, baskets and containers. The box could be done with children so if you run a daycare or need an activity to do with your kids you could do this with them. You might want to use regular Elmer's glue because the glue I used dries quickly and there is little time for repositioning, not that you need to reposition anything.

For friends and family I made an origami box with a cat shaped origami bookmark and a photo I took with an adhesive magnet on the back to make it a refrigerator magnet. I was also able to slide a wallet size picture inside a small magnet made for holding a picture, but since I only had four of the magnets I had to get cheaper and buy flat magnets with adhesive backing. Here are some pictures of the box I made. I used scrapbooking paper that was thick so the boxes could hold up to a little handling and so they would look nice. First, you fold a square piece of paper in three like a business letter
Unfold it and do it again on the opposite side so you have 9 squares.


Then fold the four corners to the edges of the closest creases. I like to keep the corners a little further back from the creases so when the box is assembled the edges look better.


Then you want to fold the corners in like this


When you have all the corners folded in like the second picture you need to glue them down. Here is a picture of the glue I used (in case you're visual)

Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive - I love this stuff because it doesn't string and as it says in the name, it dries quickly so I can work faster.

I glue two sides of a corner so the outside of the box will look like a box when I'm done and I did the inside like a pinwheel, but I could have glued two corners on one side. It all depends on the look you want.


As I glue each corner down I use a tooth pick to get the stuff that comes out and I reuse it on the next corner.

Here is the box:

I don't have a paper slicer yet, but if you do you could cut off a couple millimeters on all four sides so you can have a top and bottom.

And here are a couple things I did for my friends that I put in the boxes (and these are the two boxes I constructed today for my fiance's parents)

I bought next year's calendar (Ocean themed) and scanned the days and the mini pictures that are the same size as each day's box. I went to google and searched "this day in history" and found some websites that have the birthday of famous people so I was able to type a different person that each of my friends share a birthday with. I inserted the picture that corresponds with the month and inserted each day, resized them so they would be small, but not too small to read the text, set my printer to print well for the pictures, printed them on card stock, and cut them out. The cutting would have been easier if I had a paper slicer, but I don't.

Then I copied/scanned a card that was mailed to me as a post card, cropped it, and glued it to the calendar date and image as seen at the bottom in the next picture. I also placed adhesive magnets on back at the top and bottom.

You can also see the two origami cat bookmarks. I bought a cool multicolored string (DMC) to use as the tail. I punched holes and set eyelets so the string wouldn't break the bookmark. I also glued down all of the folds so the bookmark wouldn't come apart. Here is a link to the origami cat bookmark. It's in spanish and since I don't know spanish I followed the pictures and it worked for me.

The next picture shows the gist of everything I did for my friends. I bought scrapbook refill pages, decorated one side with pictures of pets each person owns (and scrapbooking paper, brads, stickers, stamps, and anything else I felt like decorating with) slid the whole thing back into the plastic sheath, and I put colored book rings through the holes and a piece of cardboard that came with the refill pack and voila. The picture in the bottom left corner is a picture of my oldest cat enjoying the sun coming through one of our windows. The picture right above it is of the shadows of my fiance and myself at Laumier Sculpture Park. I don't have extremely wide hips, I just have a couple of bags with me. :) The scrapbook picture above that are pictures of my fiance's mom's cat. In her box I used a gold embossing stamp color and placed four gold paw prints on the bottom. Between the boxes is a picture of her cat slid into one of those photo magnets...


I didn't make anything christmasy so that they can be used all year 'round. Obviously these gifts could be made for any occasion and the possibilities are endless. Have fun!

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!

Bags

I got a sewing machine for Christmas last year and couldn't use it for months because of our kitten. He is really interested in what we are interested in or what we will be interested in. When we walk through the house he tries to predict which room we will go into. He loves people! Well, he's scared of them when they first come over, but he warms up quickly and gets into anything they bring over.

Onto the project at hand. I have used the machine a few times. I made quite a few reusable coffee filters out of unbleached organic muslin and they work perfectly! An employee at a local fabric store treated me like I am stupid when I asked if they had fabric I could use. "Why not just buy the paper ones at the store?" "So I can reuse them and not waste." "I don't think you're going to get good results. What about those gold screen filters?" "I have one and it lets too much through." "We don't have what you're looking for, sorry. Try those screen ones again." Yeah, won't be going back to that store. I should, just so I can show him the filters and tell him how perfectly they work, but I don't care to see them. They didn't even act like they wanted to help me. I am about to go on a long rant so I digress. I will just say that they need customer service training.

I also sewed some napkins, but I made them before a friend fixed the bobbin case and they look terrible. The stitches look like knotted loops. I knew I could sew better than that so I am glad she set the machine straight.

The bag I sewed today took me many hours. I'm sure it will get easier and the amount of time working on a project will go down. I only have one spot of messy stitching, that knotted loop look, and I'm not sure why it happened. I got better and better at keeping my lines straight throughout the project.

I used fabric from the dreaded and horrible WalMart. (They are the closest store with fabric, the next closest store is the store mentioned above whom I refuse to go back to.) They didn't have a lot of zippers to choose from. I could either have small or large of the color I wanted so I went with light blue being the next best color for the bag and the size I wanted. I have one pocket on the inside made with soft fabric with frogs on it. I made a flap instead of using a button, zipper, velcro, or any other way to close a pocket. While making this bag I realized I don't like working with purse lining fabric. I'm glad I didn't get too much of it. I never want to sew with that stuff again! It was really hard to deal with and luckily no one will see that it isn't sewed straight. There are pleats here and there.

I don't know if other people use Heat 'n Bond for purses and bags, but it is what I used. It says not to wash/dry in heat and not to dry clean. I can handle that. The bag is smaller than I wanted because for some reason I thought I was done measuring when I made some pencil marks for certain lengths and cut the fabric. I'm going to make a bigger bag like I originally planned to and have a small version and a large version. Our "kitten" Debo is the inspiration for me to sew zippered bags. He really wants the yarn I am working with right now!

I also couldn't find a pattern I wanted. I did this completely on my own.

Here are some pictures of the bag




And here is Debo checking out what I am doing

I did it! I made the hat and it fits and it looks great! Now I have two hats I can wear, though I will probably wear this one the most since I can wash it. I don't know anything about the other crochet or knit hat I bought. I know it leaves a pattern on my forehead and I don't appreciate that. Here's to being self sufficient!