See You in the Funny Papers!

Actually, you can see me in them. Sort of. Our beloved LOTRO kin leader Daggerborn/Kildano is an artist and he created a comic strip about our kin, Children of Iluvatar (Vilya). Some of them are kind of inside jokes but most of them should be understandable even if you don't know us. And even if you don't get the jokes, they're worth looking at just to check out Dag's artistic abilities!


CoI FTW 1 by *Kashtrodamus on deviantART
And if you're curious, Doldin the dwarf is my husband. So that makes our baby a Dwelf.

Honey Do (Buy Me This!)

I just discovered the most amazing jewelry designer. I was first drawn to his "hand cuff" bracelet but soon discovered one that was perfect for me, seeing as how I have been wanting to keep bees ever since I was a kid. I wish so much that I could post the picture here but it doesn't look like that will be possible. So you'll just have to click on the link to see how unbelievably awesome it is! It's the second bracelet down.

Honeybee Bracelet

There are a matching ring, brooch, and earrings on the site too.

For some reason I can just see wearing this bracelet with a red plaid kilt and lace-up black t-shirt. What would you wear it with?

Why Storks?

Did you ever wonder why the classic embroidery scissor shape is that of a stork? I did. It never occurred to me to look it up until I stumbled across the answer today. It is so interesting that I decided I should share it.

Fiskars Stork Embroidery Scissors


To learn their history click here!
Virtual Scissor Museum--Stork Scissors

Isn't that cool?

This Is Not a Porn Site!

I just found out that apparently a lot of my views are coming from people who have somehow found me via a porn site. I don't know how this is possible. NO PORN HERE, FOLKS! I neither make porn nor sell it nor advertise it. I have no affiliation with it in any way. What on Arda is going on here?

What's Wrong with this Picture?

I was going through my old magazines the other day when I noticed this ad on the back of one. It immediately struck me that something was very odd.

The first thing I noticed is that the man is videotaping a closeup view of the woman's neck. Then I saw the position of the cigarette. Yep, she is holding her cigarette on top of the dude's head, so ash and sparks are going to be dropping all down his back. That looks safe. Our friend James was the first to point out that this woman is, for reasons unknown to us, wearing boxer shorts with ducks all over them over what seems to be thermal underwear. Weird enough yet? But wait, there's more! Why on earth does the cinematographer guy have a BOXING GLOVE thrown over his shoulder? Apparently this is the sort of bizarre lifestyle we will get if we smoke Virginia Slims! All I can ask is, what was the creator of this ad smoking?

Why I Want to work for Doctor Who

They stay up late and make silly videos...you can tell they just have so much fun on this set. So listen up, BBC! I want to write for Doctor Who and/or act in it. I am versatile. I could play anything. I could write something really creepy. I can even sing and dance. Um...I could help with costume alterations! Sweep the floor? Anything! PLEASE HIRE ME!

My Current Addictions

I become addicted to things easily, be it tv shows, food, books, whatever. Here are my most recent ones.

1. Stauffers animal crackers.

2. Tonic water--I could drink a bottle a day easily.

3. D. Gray Man on Netflix...I keep hoping I will understand it if I keep watching.

4. Honey butter chicken biscuits from Whattaburger

5. Crocheting!

A Rockin' Treasury

I am addicted to making treasuries on etsy. There is something about picking out my favorite items and arranging them nicely that is just fun.
This one is full of things I would love to own that are rock-and-roll related.

Cheers!

Bounding Bunnies, Batman!

Remember the vintage bunny fabric that I said was full of possibilities? Well, here is the possibility I chose: I made the fabric into piles of bunny appliques. It has been years and years since I used iron-on adhesive so it was a learning experience as well as a lot of fun.

I chose Thermoweb HeatnBond Ultrahold as my adhesive and I have to say I am very impressed with how well it works and how easy it is to use. It is SO much better than the fusible web we had when I was a kid!

The bunny fabric was in pieces that were odd shapes, so I had to cut it to make fitting it to the adhesive sheet easier. My first piece turned out really well.

The smaller pieces show better how cute these appliques are going to be!

There was, however, a major problem with this fabric. It is knit, which is great because it should not ravel, but...we have rollage, Jerry! Rollage!

That's right, knit fabric likes to roll at the edges, and nothing I could do would fix that. The best method I found was pressing at one end and then stopping and unrolling the edges as well as I could, and then continuing to press like this, in small increments. The results were not what I had hoped, but could have been worse, I guess.

I wanted to test out my work, so I trimmed around a bunny who was missing a piece of ear and looked for something to stick it to. Lo and behold, I was wearing an old shirt of my husband's that has an irremovable stain so that he can't wear it to work. It is now my sleep shirt. Anyway, it was the perfect canvas for a rabbit applique. I decided the sad bunny should be peeking out of my pocket. I have to say, I like the results!

Yes, the bunny is sad, but can you blame her? She is missing part of her ear and she's just had a heavy, hot iron pressing her down over and over! You wouldn't look happy either.
I'm thinking, by the way, of adding a red ribbon bow to her ear to cover up the fact that it's not quite all there.

Things I learned while doing this project

Cover your ironing board with something, an old sheet or maybe wax paper, before you use HeatnBond. I didn't and now my ironing board has big sticky patches all over it. I may have to get a new ironing board cover! Or make one...hmmmm

HeatnBond gets very hot when you iron it. I guess that makes sense. So if you get any of it on your finger, it will hurt.

Knit fabric is a PAIN to add adhesive to. I never was able to solve the rollage problem completely on the larger sections of fabric.

When ironing the applique to the garment, use a pressing cloth (a pillowcase is great) to prevent the applique from just sticking to the iron.


PS. I found my HeatnBond at Wal Mart. It is sold by the yard and is on bolts like fabric. It is also available at craft stores and online.

Bunny appliques are no longer available in my etsy shop, but there will be cute upcycled baby clothes featuring these bunnies coming soon!