| December 2005 | ||||||
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| Becka's Library Shelf |
| Becka's Games Shelf |
this is one of my favorite new things - a gift from my sister for christmas. a french press travel mug!
filled with Tea Source Apricot loose tea... "A lovely Ceylon whole leaf black tea is delicately blended with natural flavors, pieces of passionfruit, and sunflower blossoms to evoke the taste of ripe fresh peaches." Yummy!
becka on 12.31.05 @ 01:49 PM CST [link]
my sisters and i made a gingerbread circus train for christmas....
we decided to do a train rather than a house because it was just more fun. recipes for royal icing and gingerbread from the good old "joy of cooking", which is just where you find all of those sorts of things.
becka on 12.29.05 @ 09:56 PM CST [link]
tie-dye onesies for my new nephew, Thomas and chinese-themed zipper bags for my niece, Tae.
becka on 12.28.05 @ 05:32 PM CST [link]
thank you to my friend danielle for bringing this to my attention.
i love my print gocco. it is a little silk screen machine that lets you make silk screens from line drawings and light sensitive screens in a few easy steps. it is one of my very favorite gadgets - possibly number 2 to my sewing machine. it is perfect for cards and tshirts. i have used it for many projects:
the trouble is that the japanese company that makes these little machines has decided to stop making them. arrrrrgh. they promise to still make supplies for them for the next 3 years, but i am seriously considering starting a stockpile. so there's a site and a campaign to see if an american company will pick it up. keeping my fingers crossed!
becka on 12.20.05 @ 06:54 PM CST [link]
one holiday show down and one to go. the show in luck, wi was fun as always. spent part of the afternoon in my annual chat with all of the the artists as we packed up all of our stuff. came back with several empty boxes, which is always a good sign.
this weekend was packed with all kinds of craftiness, but i can't talk about any of it until after christmas! i can say i did a lot of sewing, a little dyeing, some work with stickers, something involving the paper cutter, and several trips to several places to gather supplies. by the way, everyone that i am giving anything to for christmas is getting it late this year. i decided not to stress out about that. andy's been working until about midnight every night for he last two weeks and i have so many projects at work that i can't see straight. but we got the christmas tree up this weekend at last, i got a start on the christmas cards and we have most of the presents in progress if not quite finished yet.
on a totally different note, andy is at this moment playing the star wars theme on the penny whistle while chasing and completely torturing the dog. sigh.
becka on 12.18.05 @ 11:20 PM CST [link]
not only have i been busy but andy has been working every night this week, so the computer has been occupied. sigh. what is it with everything always happening all at once?
i am 99% sure that my nephews don't read this, but just in case...
IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY NEPHEWS WITH A NAME STARTING WITH M OR K, STOP READING NOW OR I WILL SICK UNCLE ANDY ON YOU.
my happy christmas shopping story:
i went shopping for my nephews christmas presents at a local games store called the source. they carry all kinds of board games, dungeons & dragons, comics and all kinds of other geeky gaming stuff. i love it there, mostly. my friend danielle and i got hit on once while shopping, but that is another story. anyhow, i went looking for this fun (addictive) game called pirates of the spanish main. it's one where you buy way too many cards that turn into little model pirate ships and then you can have high seas battles. i am a junky for games with really cool pieces and this one has those in spades. anyhow, the salesmen were chatty and fun and noticed that i had a double fist full of these card packs. one guy disappears and comes back with a holiday Pirates of the North Pole promo pack of "Captain Whitebeard" and his "Sleigh", a 4 masted ship decorated with christmas lights. the ship has all kinds of goofy holiday themed rules to go along with it. the guy explained to me that it was a ultra special promo deal and they were the only store in the area that had them and they just had the one left. when i said that i was getting the other ships as a christmas present for my nephews, one of the other sales guys heard, rummaged around behind the desk and came up with 2 more (from an ultra secret stash). happy me. now i need to talk some friends into playing with me so i can say "HO HO HO" and make all of their pirates fall asleep.
becka on 12.13.05 @ 05:58 PM CST [link]
just a quick calculation while i am quick eating my lunch and before i have to run to work...
217 puppets (various sizes): tiger, dog, horse, unicorn, penguin, dinosaur, elephant, bird, santa, wizard, pig, bear, duck, cow, lion, bunny, walrus, old mcdonald, things that go bump in the night, arctic animals, northwoods animals, cinderella, goldilocks and the 3 bears, fairy tale magic, 3 billy goats gruff, little red riding hood, garden fairies, cats & dogs, 3 little pigs
45 notecards
9 totebags
10 robot magnets
15 christmas ornaments
2 small art quilts
1 larger baby quilt
4 coasters
all since the beginning of november.
becka on 12.09.05 @ 12:01 PM CST [link]
robot magnets, series two. today i felt like playing with clay. i have been working afternoons this week so i have had my mornings free for other things. andy and i did a set of robot magnets a while back and i decided that it was time for more. i wanted originally to play with textures in polymer clay. i watched an artist once working with polymer clay and rubber stamps. it was interesting the different things she could do with it. so andy got out his toolbox of electronic bits and pieces and we started smushing clay on to circuit boards, plugs, gears and bits. from there we started making robots. you can see bigger pictures over at the etsy shop because they are all up for sale. 
becka on 12.06.05 @ 11:51 PM CST [link]
these are new in my etsy shop! inspired by the sewing machine show-and-tell, i made some little christmas ornaments with new and vintage sewing machines. they are foundation pieced and about 1 1/2" square. yes, that is tiny! also new robot magnets coming soon to the shop. they are sculpted but not baked yet.
becka on 12.06.05 @ 11:31 AM CST [link]
on friday night, andy and i had a most unique date. we went to a vintage sewing machine lecture. a vintage sewing machine enthusiast (and friend of mine) brought 31 of his machines and did a show-and-tell of machines from 1851 to 1960 - what makes them unique, why you would want one, things to look for when you choose a machine or find one at goodwill. the best part was getting to test drive them all after he was done talking. i discovered that i love old straight stitch machines! they are so quiet and precise. it was great fun! the best part was that i have two old singer machines here that were given to me when a costume shop was cleaned out at the highschool i worked at. i hadn't done much more than peek in their cases and then i stashed them in my basement. we got home from the lecture, where i learned all kinds of reasons that my fancy-dancy new machine gives me fits sometimes, and we hauled the beasts up from the basement. i have a 1951 and a 1968 in lovely condition. andy is majorly intrigued with the older one. we figured out how to thread it, cleaned it up a little and he is inspired. we bought flannel and a pattern and he is going to make me some pajamas. (i am easier to fit than he is, so i get a present in return for coaching).
becka on 12.04.05 @ 06:18 PM CST [link]
this is the baby quilt that we made for a friend at work. i finished it up last night just in time because we are pretty sure that baby arrived today. we are hoping to have happy voice mail when we get in tomorrow. and while i was stitching away last night, my bro-in-law called to say that my new baby nephew had arrived yesterday. 
becka on 12.01.05 @ 10:29 PM CST [link]
