Free travel advice and pretty downloads
I'm making an attempt to blog again and it's not always easy. It's funny. I suck at posting on this blog, yet I'm managing daily posts over at my other one. Probably helps that I have a partner in crime over at Fashionable People.
I recently travelled to Palm Springs for my yearly dose of sunshine and as always, I struggled to figure out what crafty items are allowed on the plane. It really isn't clear and seems to change with each airport. And when you try to search for tips/tricks on travel & crafts, you get more info and advice than you know what to do with. Which is why I was happy to find Craftzine's advice/interpretation of TSA regulations for crafters. Although, keep in mind that the TSA regulations aren't universal (here is a list by CATSA for when you're travelling in Canadian airports. Knitting needles fall under "Penetrating Objects" and are allowed.). Last year, scissors I was allowed to bring on the plane at LAX were confiscated by YYZ (Toronto) security. This year I didn't have problems, but I also didn't attempt to bring scissors on the plane. I pre-cut embroidery floss to save myself the headache. Although I did get some security hangups from my pencil case. For some reason it showed up as suspicious on their Xray machines. Once they took it out and dug through it, they determined there was nothing of interest (unless of course you are interested in my Stabilo markers and other pens). I packed the pencil case in my checked bags on the way home.
Moving along...I recently found a site that offers links to free downloads of pretty labels and fonts:
The site is iDIY and is all about DIY weddings. While I'm not planning any weddings (I'm about to hit the five year anniversary mark!), I'm still a sucker for pretty labels and fonts. I think the labels are the part of me that wants to organize things. I don't always succeed in organizing my space, particularly my disasterous office/craft room, but a girl can dream. I rarely do anything with the labels I download, but part of that comes from having a B&W laser that doesn't do the label designs justice (but is awesome for printing out reams of essays and academic journal articles).
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, June 07, 2009 1 comments
filed under: crafting while traveling, free downloads
i heart pineapples
As you might be able to guess from the name of the blog/my sock monkey business, most pineappley things make me happy. Some awesome pineappley things I have found online:
as always, natalie dee:
nataliedee.com
good afternoon pineapples (a most excellent advertisement):
more natalie dee!
nataliedee.com
that's it for today. Nothing particularly crafty, I know, but I've been meaning to share this. Also, I haven't been particularly crafty lately. But I'm sure that will soon change.
(If you're getting this in a reader, I'm sorry if it was posted a zillion times over. Blogger is being dumb.)
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, June 01, 2009 0 comments
filed under: not a craft, pineapples
To Boldly Go Where No Monkey Has Gone Before...
While visiting Palm Springs recently, my mom & I went to see Star Trek. Which was awesome! For both the classic Star Trek fan (mom) & non-fan (me - I havent' seen a full episode of any generation of Star Trek). I mention going to see the movie because of this guy:
The Spock Monkey (not Zach Quinto) is currently on Etsy and his creator has a couple of other comic/action hero geektastic monkeys available in her store The Sock Drawer. But you may want to hurry over...she doesn't have that many Spock Monkeys in stock. I like that she has kits available with instructions, patterns, and materials. Nice idea. I may have to try my hand at making one of these for my mom, seeing as she is a fan.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 0 comments
filed under: craft in film, etsy, found crafts, sock monkeys
What I did on my spring vacation
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was set up at the Halifax Crafters sale. It went fairly well - not as well as the Christmas sale, but that is to be expected. I really love being at the Crafters sales as I find all the other artists/artisans to be so inspiring. I need to come up with a better display for the September sale. Not exactly sure what I'll do, but I'll come up with something.
My favourite guy at the sale (and sadly, I only had my camera phone with me) was this dude:
His name is Reginald and he wore a tutu. I really need to get better at taking pics of my work. But the tutu was an afterthought, so I didn't think to actually get a photo because I was focused on the sale itself. Anyway, Reginald was the first pair I attempted to sew on my machine. I screwed that up in so many ways, I just couldn't manage to make a monkey out of him. But I still had this body and other appendiges that were so goofy, I couldn't just abandon him. So I played around one day and came up with Reginald. I'm going to keep messing around with other sock/plush creatures and monkey accessories (like tutus). Need to keep things fresh.
Something new I'm trying is embroidering eyes on the monkey and then sewing the buttons on top of that. My reason for doing this is that I prefer monkeys with button eyes, but customers with wee ones like embroidered eyes (for the safety of their own little monkies). So this is what I've come up with:
Right after the fair, I headed off to the Palm Springs area to visit with my parents. My mom and I spent some time working on monkeys. My mom is my source for awesome socks. Check out the collection she has for me:
Those are just some of the 75+ pairs of socks. Her cat Deano was a fan of our craft time:
I succumed to a nasty flu on my return, but now that I'm getting better, I'm getting back to thinking about crafts and monkeys. Right now I'm working on one of the red monkeys that the cat is sleeping on. A baby shower is coming up. The red & black monkeys, believe it or not, are a hit with babies. Most people like to buy the more pastel-ish monkies for babies, but the wee ones love the bright contrasting colours. A friend's kid would just stare at hers for ages. And at two months old, that was as much of a sign that she liked the monkey as you could ask for.
Some of the leftover monkeys joined their friends at Love, Me Boutique on Saturday. I still have a few hanging around the house and may look into putting them on etsy in the near future.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 0 comments
filed under: cats, crafting while traveling, sock creatures, sock monkeys
Halifax Crafters Spring Sale
oof. I've been Worst Blogger Ever. well, Worst Craft Blogger. I've been working on fashion blog with a friend for the past month. It's super fun, but no excuse for ignoring this blog.
This weekend is the Halifax Crafters Spring Sale. Love these sales. So much creativity and awesomeness under one roof. The North Street Church is bursting at the seams with handmade goodness. Lots of people were out yesterday, despite the crappy weather. I'm hoping for another good day today. Although I'm trying to think of a different display for today. I wasn't feeling yesterday's display.
Speaking of today's sale, I should go get ready and get out the door.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, May 03, 2009 2 comments
filed under: craft fair, sock monkeys
teeniest sweaters in the world
I have yet to see the movie Coraline. My friends tell me it's good, but I'm not a huge fan of animated movies, so I'm hesitant to go see them. I usually just wait until they are on video and friends own a copy. Not really the best way to approach such things and my friends who like animation tsk-tsk me when I say that I don't. However, I am somewhat intrigued by the crafty element of Coraline. I'm even more intrigued now that I've seen this:
Holy Cow! That's some tiny knitting with even tinier details in the knitting. It blows my mind that Althea Crome has the patience to knit on such a scale. Damn straight I'm "fascinated" by how she knits on such small needles! I know how frustrated I get when I knit socks on 2.75mm needles and she's working on 1mm or less! I think it is less fascinated and more dumbfounded. I can't even begin to conceptualize what it would be like to knit tiny gloves on .0001" needle made out of wire.
Having said all this, her work is pretty darn amazing. Such detail! And on such a small scale! It is making me overuse exclamation marks!
(found these links via the blog popped up on the grid, that I found via my friend Ally's twitter - oh the layers of the internets and that web 2.0 stuff).
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, March 08, 2009 0 comments
filed under: arts and crafts, craft in film, knit
Craftiness in Music
I really enjoy these bird illustrations by Kate Wilson. They're adorable with amusing little descriptions (and available in her etsy shop).
My enjoyment of her work coincided with my discovery of a video for Lenka's song The Show. The bird in this version of her video reminded me a bit of Wilson's birds:
that particular video (according to lenka's youtube page) was directed by James Gulliver Hancock and Lenka. I've never gotten into paper crafts, but they usually impress me. I also love the fonts (i am self-taught font geek) and the embroidery (or what looks like embroidery) in the video.
Lenka's adorableness seems to know no bounds. Check out the official video for The Show (the song itself is adorable) and watch for the plush awesomeness:
Plush birds and tomatoes! How fantastic is that?
Oh, but the awesome doesn't stop there! Here's a stop motion video of embroidery by Lenka:
My lukewarm fandom based on the song The Show has officially turned into full on crafty geek fandom. I believe it is time to get myself a copy of her album.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, March 01, 2009 0 comments
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