hello pineapples

Handmade Nation

Um, how excited am I about this screening at AFF:



That's right. Handmade Nation at Park Lane on Sept. 24. I am so there. With crafts in hand. Maybe even my Sublime Stitching Handmade Nation pattern. Love, Me has plans to make it extra DIY special.

And speaking of craftiness and DIY: deadline for applications to the Crafters' December market are due on Friday. Email halifaxcrafters @ gmail.com with 'application request' in the Subject to get an application. It's December 5 & 6 at the Olympic Community Centre, which I predict will not only be huge, but awesome.

Now, I need to get to bed. It's late and I've got The Other Blog to attend to first thing in the a.m. and a boring book to finish before it becomes overdue at the library.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, craft fair, craft in film

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

Free Pattern Friday (Finally!): Dover Samplers

I have a bad habit of signing up for mailing lists online and I end up with all sorts of junk mail that I totally asked for. I get notices about shops I can't afford (like a local fancy-pants department store or net-a-porter), about ebay searches and academic conferences. Sometimes it's a bit much. But the one thing I've signed up for and actually really like getting is the Dover Free Sampler.

Dover is a publishing company that you might know for their odd assortment of paper doll books (like fashions of the 70s, famous child stars or the Queen Mother), colouring books, little books of stickers and "tattoos", and "stained glass" colouring books. Some of my favourites from their collection are the political paper dolls. You can get both Bush presidents, the Clintons and now McCain and Obama. You can totally re-write the American political landscape with your own set of dolls (actually, you could re-write American history with a collection of paper dolls from Dover).

They also do CD-ROMs of clip art and fonts. Some of the clip art collections are a bit lame in my book, but there are others that I totally dig. It's all royalty free fun for "professionals and hobbyists alike" (their words, not mine).

So where does the free pattern come in? Well, some of the free clip art that comes in the Friday sampler are things that I want to use as embroidery patterns. Check out some of my favourites:

US States colouring book:


Early American Design motifs:



Both of these were found in the sampler. And best part? You get the full size image, so you can play around with the size.

And then there is the clip art for which I no use right now, but I like them and file them away under the category of "inspiration" for future projects:




You also get e-mails about sales or deals, but so far, my budget doesn't allow buying anything like that - especially when I can get some of it for free. It's worth signing up for and even if embroidery isn't your thing, you're probably crafty enough to find some use for them.

Happy crafting and I'll be back soon-ish with more finds. And with some projects that I've been working on lately (I've got a couple of embroidery projects happening that I'm a little bit in love with).

xoxo.
pineapples.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Friday, September 12, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, free pattern friday, good ideas

Retail Therapy: Pineapples at Love, Me

I've been hanging out at Love, Me Boutique lately, picking up some working hours here and there. I really love the store. It's the sort of place where I'd work for free if I won the lottery. My last bunch of monkeys sold out (hooray!) and I've been trying to keep on top of the monkey supply and demand chain.

About two weeks ago, I was excited to see that some had sold, but then realized that sadly I forgot to take a picture. It was made out of some fantastic bright coloured socks (pinks and oranges) that I really loved. I am horrible at taking pictures of my work. I finish something, declare it done and walk away.

The same thing almost happened for a few other monkeys that are/were available, but I've been snapping pics as I shut down the store (hooray for camera phone):





I fell in love with the socks that made the monkey on the left. I found them while visiting my parents and knew that those socks would make a pretty spiffy monkey. The monkey on the right is made of what I like to call "pre-loved socks". That means I (or someone I know) used to wear the socks and they've been washed within an inch of their life (and any holes are conveniently covered).

Anyway, here are some other shots (apologies for any poor quality photos - low light + camera phone = kind of crappy photo):



Along with the two monkeys is Clem, the Sock Experiment. He's been "adopted" and is off to make new friends in his new home. Also in this photo: fable quilt (hanging up), dujoo onesies, uptown tub soap, cabin and cub wooden kids' bank, bobs and lolo DVD.

Here's a monkey I had a lot of fun making:



He is embellished with some fun times bedazzling studs. He also has pearly button eyes. I feel this gives him a bit of White Stripes-ishness. I think his studded cuffs and earring make him a bit of a bad-ass.



And finally, a pink monkey that was a pain in the ass to make. It's the sock that I melted:



The monkey did recover from the melted legs, but the result was substantially shorter legs than planned. But then, I like to think that their imperfections is what gives them character.

So that's it for now. If you're in Halifax, be sure to stop by the store. It really is lovely and full of awesome things that are all handmade by awesome artists and artisans.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Thursday, July 24, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, love me, loveme, plush, sock monkeys

Free Pattern search: Hooray for Canada Day!

Actually, as much as I dig my country, I'm not a huge fan of Canada Day. That sounds worse than it should. As Sloan sings in Coax Me, "it's not the band I hate, it's their fans" (a quote that the mister and I often apply to just about every imaginable situation). Canada Day would be much better if it involved less face painting, bad t-shirts, and novelty hats. Out for ice cream with J.Lau and Mr. Pineapples today, we saw an entire family dressed in red and white, complete with face paint; a couple wearing matching Canada t-shirts: hers in white, his in red; a mom and her son in Canada day t-shirts that were recently sold at the grocery store. I'm all for loving one's country, but I wish it was possible to do it with a wee bit more style.

Having said this, I thought I would attempt to celebrate the day with a free pattern (seeing as I missed the most recent Free Pattern Friday due to a new job, sale at Mexx, a board meeting, and playing Wii with J.Lau). The plan was to offer up a pattern that was something Canadian. This vague plan was easier said than done. A google search for "Canada Day crafts" or "Canada crafts" led me to crafts for children that involved items such as poster paint, streamers, and paper plates. Not that there isn't a place for such a craft, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.



Truth be told, I really didn't know what I was looking for. So I tried looking for patterns/crafts by Canadian crafty types. This led me to crafts for kids by Arounna of Bookhou. I liked these because while they really are meant to be kid friendly, they're things I want to try doing and they are way more interesting than painting a paper plate. It also led me to the website of one of Canada's favourite knitters, the Yarn Harlot, which does have some free knitting patterns. But still...not quite what I wanted.

I then tried looking for something that involved one thing that embodies Canada for me: the CBC. Despite some of it's flaws (usually on the TV side or involving Jian Ghomeshi), I adore the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Every radio in my apartment is tuned to the CBC. Since there is a Ravelry group for CBC fans, I figured I might find some CBC themed patterns. Alas! This too proves to be easier said than done (If you can prove me wrong and are aware of CBC craft patterns, please let me know). So I'm going to improvise:

From those dark days of the CBC lockout comes a pattern that was knit into headbands:




I think that could easily altered in order to have a CBC logo embroidered/knitted into your project: just take off the part that makes it look like a lock and you're good to go.

Or, you could get really fancy and check out knitPro from microRevolt. All you need to do is upload a picture like this awesome retro CBC logo:



and knitPro will spit out a PDF pattern for your embroidery or knitting. Très awesome, non?

And finally, I'll finish this post off by sharing a link to the CBC's web archive on "Handmade in Canada: the Art of Craft," which features 13 television pieces on craft in Canada. I link to this because it is how I found a radio interview by Peter Gzowski from 1983, where he learns to knit over the radio (he's in Toronto, she's in Halifax!). While he doesn't actually learn to knit, it's well worth the listen.

Well, now it's July 2 and no longer Canada Day, but I do hope you were able to enjoy the holiday (if you're Canadian, otherwise I guess it was just another Tuesday for you). I know I did - it was sunny and hot and we spent the afternoon with ice cream on the waterfront, sangria and wine on a patio on Argyle Street and fireworks on Citadel Hill (sort of. there were buildings between us and the fireworks) - and that's why I'm posting now rather than yesterday.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, embroidery, free pattern friday, knit, patterns

Embroidered Graffiti

Here's an odd thing to admit: I have a soft spot for graffiti.



Don't get me wrong, I know why graffiti can be awful, particularly if it's your building that has the graffiti on it. And lately, I've seen some rather tasteless graffiti on a nearby church (I have no time for that sort of vandalism). But there is an art to graffiti and I can appreciate that. So when I found a challenge on Feeling Stitchy to make embroidery out of graffiti, I was pretty excited. The challenge also suggests turning embroidery into graffiti, but I haven't yet thought of how/if I'll do that. I really don't see me stitching onto a bus seat. But am totally up for turning some graffiti into embroidery. I'll have to go through my photos I've taken of interesting graffiti or take a walk around town in search of something I like. I think this will be a fun challenge.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, embroidery

My crafty friends are awesome

One last post before I head to bed.

I always knew my friend Sara/Grammardog was one heck of a crafty bitch, but now the crafty whole world knows it! This crafty lady created an impressive looking headboard and posted a how-to on craftster. It was so awesome that Craftzine blog posted about it earlier this week (I'm behind on reading my blogs).



Isn't she awesome?

And if you think that's pretty good, then you should see what she can do with a sewing machine - I love her quilts. They are fantastic.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, June 09, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, crafty friends, good ideas, show and tell

Wednesday's Website: How About Orange (and then some)

As I was trying to decide on a website to write about today, an odd-ish thing happened: I noticed that two of these sites appeared on the top 50 blogger powered blogs and appeared very close to one another. Along with them was a blog that I had recently come across and enjoyed. A sort of interesting coincidence, n'est pas? I think I'll take that as a sign to write about all three.

#44 is PoppyTalk, which is described as "A Canadian design blog collecting inspiration and promoting emerging design talent." It's a roundup of design, craft, DIY, and just plain pretty. It's also a great resource for those who are into design: PoppyTalk provides a ton of links to take you all over the arts and crafty internets. I also like that it's Canadian. My complaints about the site: it's a little bit too busy and the links to different sections of the site open up a new window/tab. I appreciate sites that link to a new window when I'm headed to a new site, but it's excessive when I'm exploring the same site. Regardless, I like PoppyTalk and I like how it is separated into sections such as 'affordable art' (my kind of art!), 'the decayed' (aka. vintage), and 'collecting' (a look at the collections of design folks).

#43 is Bitch, PhD., which is "A feminist, leftist and personal blog." Not exactly crafty in nature, but I appreciate it because I am attempting to finish my MA in Women's Studies and I'm a member of the Women's Centre Board of Directors at my school. These things mean that school, feminism, and sometimes just feeling like a bitch are all on my mind. But to make a link between feminism, a PhD and craft, I'm going to link to the work of "maximalist artist" Allyson Mitchell. My favourite is her Granny Square Wreck Room. I had a chance to help her out with her Finger of Craft exhibit at the Khyber in the fall. It was pretty awesome.

#42 is of no interest to me. I'm sure it's a very good blog, but as I haven't visited it yet, and it does not indicate that it has anything to do with crafts of any kind, I'm not going to bother to visit or write about it right now.

#41 is my choice of the day: How About Orange.



Described as "Visual treats and hands-on projects dreamed up in an orange office", the blog of graphic designer Jessica Jones is one of my favourite reads in Google Reader. She posts on an almost daily basis (which is an awesome feat in itself) about design and crafts and other pretty things. She also provides tutorials for many of her crafts. I'm a huge fan of her desktop designs and the desktops she shares with readers. I'm also in love with the fabric that she has recently designed and is for sale (online) at j. caroline creative.

So, if there is some reason why you are not part of the reason that How About Orange is in the top 50 blogger powered blogs, you really should go check it out.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, blogs, wednesday's website

Wednesday's Website of the Week

New "feature" for the blog! The Wednesday Website of the Week! I give myself themes in order to make it easier to remember that I'm supposed to be posting (because otherwise, a blog with no entries would be a very dull blog). I also try to use alliteration whenever possible. I think alliteration is my all time favourite literary device.

My plan is to pick a site that I enjoy, that is not a blog (although, there may be exceptions to this rule), and share it with you, the darling blog reader. So without further ado, here is this week's website:

Martha Stewart's Craft of the Day

Yes, I know. Martha Stewart. She's not always popular among the crafty set, but I like her. She may seem a little too perfect, her recipes and crafts a little too complicated, but she has some really great ideas. This is probably because she has a gigantic staff that are on the lookout for awesome things. Or should I say, "good things".

I like the craft of the day because it really is something new everyday. I don't always like the choice of craft, but with a different craft each day, I'm bound to like something. Sometimes the craft is super easy, other times it's a bit out my league. But truthfully, most of them are quite do-able. I really like yesterday's craft, which was a fabric silhouette using the super pretty fabric designed by Anna Maria Horner.



pretty, non?

I've made 'Craft of the Day' one of my regular bookmarks. I check it in the morning, along with e-mail, facebook, and Natalie Dee. I don't know how many of the crafts I'll actually make, but I think it'll be good for some crafty inspiration.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, wednesday's website

In Stitches...again...

My thesis has me a wee bit stressed this week, and by wee bit, I mean that I'm really freaking out totally stressed. Getting me through it has been embroidery and m&m's. Although, I think I need to add some kind of exercise to the mix - or else those m&m's are going to add up.

Anyway, my thought to write a post about embroidery was totally in sync with most of the blogs I was reading/stumbling across this week. So much fun embroidery stuff out there!!

First things first, my project:



each of the squares were signed by guests at a baby shower. Instead of a guest book, I'm embroidering the names onto the squares and it's being made into a quilt. It makes it a permanent, useable guestbook and a nice reminder of their friends and family here on the east coast, seeing as they are moving later this month. It was totally a Martha Stewart idea (I'm a Martha Stewart junkie) and it's starting to look awesome.



My mom and I sewed together the top while I was visiting (okay, my mom sewed it together - I'm still sewing machine challenged). A few squares had to be traced over - the names came a little close to the edge and would have been lost when sewing the squares together. I'm trying to keep things looking as close to the original signatures as possible.

Now, since my mind has been split between Veronica Mars' negotiation of identity and embroidery, I'm going to share with you some of the coolest embroidery stuff I've found online this week:

Average Jane Crafter points out an interview with Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching on Craft Sanity AND there is a free sublime stitching template available. Sweet! (the template isn't exactly my style and I already have the mod templates, but free is free).

Speaking of the awesome Jenny Hart, I came across her blog Embroidery as Art via Feeling Stitchy. Both blogs are worth reading and were both added to my Google Reader this week. Jenny Hart's blog led me to some of the most outstanding embroidery I've seen in ages by Takashi Iwasaki. Seriously, check it out:



I was completely blown away/inspired by his work.

I've got more, but I think I'll save those for later...I'm going to attempt a post dedicated to embroidery as art.

Totally off topic: Sock Wars III starts tomorrow!! I'm a bit nervous to tell the truth. I'll have to go pick up some yarn tomorrow morning, before I get my assignment.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Thursday, May 08, 2008 3 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, embroidery, quilt

Found Crafts: The Gingerbread House

The Yarn Cart has inspired me to post about crafts that I find out and about. I love finding random things on the street, even more so when it's something crafty. Although, some things cause me to wonder why someone would abandon them (if they were indeed abandoned). So, from my Christmas vacation, a gingerbread house:





I can't decide if it was abandoned or if someone wanted to share the joy of gingerbread houses. Either way, I was happy to find it that day.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, May 03, 2008 2 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, found crafts

Found Crafts: The Yarn Cart

As we were about to leave the grocery store yesterday, I looked up and saw this on the other side of the window:



A grocery cart covered in yarn! So of course, I quickly went outside to get more photos:



and a close up, so the work that went into it can be admired:



I don't know who did it or why they did it, but I love that they did do it. The time and work involved in such a project is almost mind boggling. Renegade Crafter, I salute you!

Finds like this make me really happy that camera phones exist. I have a pretty decent kodak digital camera, but it's a bit too bulky to carry around in my purse. So despite the lower megapixel count (this one weighs in at 2 megapixels - almost as much as my first digital camera!) and picture quality, I'm happy that I always have a little camera with me.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, May 03, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, found crafts, renegade crafts, yarn

Why I suck at blogging

I am, unfortunately, an excellent example of one of my mom's sayings: "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Oh sure, I take pictures and think of things to write about, but it all sits on my hard drive. One of these days, I'll actually figure out a way to balance my life and everything will be zen and I will get stuff done.

Until then, I attempt to blog sporadically. My reason for not blogging all that much?



my thesis. That sucker takes up a lot of my time/space/energy. I'm finally on track to getting it finished, but it has been a long slow process. I seriously cannot wait to have the final draft all bound up as a lovely hardcover thesis. Until that time, I keep trying to work on it and make time for everything else.

Having said this, I have been busy with my crafting. For example, a sock experiment:



The little guy made out of socks is Clem. The large, skinny orange cat is Alistair, who decided to check out my little photo shoot. The background is part of my attempt to be able to take better etsy photos. Fortunately, the cat is not in all the pics. The background was a another of my recent projects. I'm pretty happy with it, although I've yet to find a permanent home for it.

Anyway, 'tis late and I should be hitting the hay. Hopefully there will be more posts showing up here. I'm hoping to do some crafting while visiting California and getting pics,etc... posted online.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, March 31, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, etsy

Happy Crafty New Year

It appears that I am not very good at this blogging business, although I do have some reasonable excuses. Early in December I came down with the Worst Flu Ever, which included a nasty bout of strep throat. Good times. I was down for at least a week and when I finally started to feel better, I had to catch up on work (both the thesis and the stuff that pays). Any remaining time was devoted to the holidays: cleaning the house and decorating around mid-month and then some serious baking/crafting closer to Christmas.

It's been a bit of lean fall semester for us, seeing as we're both students and there hasn't been a student loan. We managed Christmas by selling books (almost $300 on books we didn't want or didn't need. Not to mention the extra shelf space that created). We ended up buying books for each other for Christmas (we are hopeless). For friends and family, gifts have all been homemade. So while it's been a busy season, it's been a very Crafty Christmas.

I went on a crazy baking spree, baking sugar, shortbread, and gingerbread cookies, rainbow slices (a freezer cookie that we had every Christmas while I was growing up), and five star squares (a delicious and ridiculously easy concoction of graham cracker crumbs, coconut, butter, condensed milk and aero bars. Other than taste, nothing redeeming about them). All of these cookies made for tasty presents. To make the presents extra special for friends, I made some ornaments:



The idea for that little guy came from one of my favourite craft books, Plush-o-Rama. They're meant to be made in felt, and frankly, felt would have been much better than flannelette. The fabric is the perfect colour, but a real bitch to work with in such detail and at that size. Alas, I couldn't actually find felt in a gingerbread-esque colour. I did make a "christmas pickle" ornament with felt and that turned out fantastic (I'll post a picture later - my camera is in Ontario right now). I need to investigate where I can buy felt in more colours and in larger quantities.

Anyway, I have made a crafty New Year's resolution: I'm going to learn to sew. This may sound odd on a craft blog, but I can't use a sewing machine. I particularly cannot use my own sewing machine. And I am determined to learn this year. So far, my downstairs neighbour has been helping me out by doing some machine sewing for me, but I really need to do it myself. It really speeds up the monkey making process. In November, I set up the craft desk and last week I tidied it up and found an extension cord for the sewing machine. All I have to do now is figure out how it works or buy a new machine. As you can see, the sewing machine is featured prominently on the desk. I am determined to figure it out.



And as pseudo-resolutions, I hope I'll get better at this blogging thing and manage to find more time in my days for crafting.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, fabric, ornaments

Luck Cat

The inspiration:


I'm reluctant to use the word collection, for fear that it will one day lead to more luck cats than I know what to do with, including a giant gold one...and that's not really a road I want to go down.

The idea:




The final product:



I'm pretty happy with it. This one is my "protocol" luck cat. I'm hoping to make a few more for etsy. The ear turned out a little funny, since that was where I left a hole to turn it right side out. Next time, I'll make the ear look nicer.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 2 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, etsy

So Cute, it's Sick

Here's a preview of a project I'm working on:


If you think that's cute, wait until you see the finished project. Believe it or not, it gets cuter.

I know this is not very modest of me, but I find myself giggling at it's cuteness from time to time. Even if no one else likes it, I'll still love it.

Since it's working out fairly well, I will start knitting to make some better felt (this "prototype" is made from sheets of cheap craft felt). I'm not really looking forward to knitting up large pieces of fabric, but it should make the final project look much nicer. Besides, I'm not even sure I know where to buy good felt. Or if I can afford to buy good felt. May as well dig into my yarn stash and make my own.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, work in progress

Etsy and me

Well, I've finally managed to take some pictures and post items on my etsy shop. It remains to be seen if people will buy anything, but my fingers are crossed. I've had a few sales to friends and co-workers recently, which is awesome and will make Christmas a little better. There really isn't much money in this poor student gig.

Speaking of Etsy, as I was browsing about this evening (instead of sleeping, which I should be doing), I found the shop of the girl who was next to me at the FemFest craft fair at the Khyber. I had meant to take one of her cards and put a link here, but forgot and had no idea where to look for her shop.

In case you're wondering what the heck Etsy is, well, it's like a big online craft fair. If it's handmade, then it's probably on Etsy. Columnist Karen Von Hahn of the Globe and Mail recently did an article on Etsy and how she did her Christmas shopping there. Unfortunately, you can't read the article online. It was in last weekend's G&M Lifestyle section, in case you haven't recycled your newspapers yet. It wasn't an awesome column, but pretty cool that Etsy got the mention in a national paper. The more people checking Etsy out, the more chances that one of them will stumble onto me.

And it really is all about stumbling on Etsy. There's just so much that even a search barely narrows things down for you. Type "sock monkey" and you get 64 pages of sock monkeys and sock monkey related items. The odds that you're the one sock monkey maker that jumps off the page do not seem all that great. Of course, this is no reason not to try to sell stuff there. Who knows, it might pay off. As it is, some monkey money from the Khyber sale bought me a new dress at Winner's and a Lindt chocolate advent calendar (so much tastier than the cheap waxy chocolates you find in most advent calendars).

Anyway, bedtime and cat feeding time. This entry really doesn't have any need for pictures, but I do have to share my latest creation: monkey sized toque and scarf that I knit up on Friday at my Stitch n' Bitch (not much of a bitch, as I was the only one there - must advertise better next semester).



As well, the Gerkins (not their real name) arrived home from their trek about South America and I was finally able to give Mr.G his Octopus (a free pattern from knit.1 blog - except I screwed up a step. And then added legs and a set of bagpipes):



heh. the silly thing kills me everytime. If you're wondering why the octopus is playing the bagpipes, well, that's a story for another day.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, December 03, 2007 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, crochet, etsy, khyber, knit, patterns

Monkeys on Monday

Just finished up the second of two custom sock monkeys. This little guy is made out of camoflauge socks and has the name "Lukey" embroidered on the bum. The other one has the name "Lily" on the bum. They also have embroidered eyes instead of buttons, because little monkeys have a tendency to put things in their mouth and buttons are a bit of a no-no. I'm pretty happy with them, particularly on my embroidery on the name 'Lily'. Check it out:



and the "Lukey" embroidery (which I'm not as happy with because of my colour choices):



Regardless, they are overall cute monkeys:





Tomorrow, when I'm not finishing the final details on my proposal, I hope to get some decent photos of my other monkeys to post on etsy.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 1 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, mondays, monkeys, sock monkeys

FemFest and Beasties

I didn't make it out to see most of the FemFest events this past weekend, but I did get to the opening of Finger of Craft by Allyson Mitchell and the Beasties exhibit. Finger of Craft was amazing! Shag carpeting in purple and red up the walls and crocheted pillows all over the place. I got to help Allyson out with some sewing last week, which was awesome.



The Beastie exhibit was also really great and is going to be at the Khyber until Dec. 15. For me, the best part of Beasties was Blythe Church's "Monster's in the Closet". It was terrific. I thought it was an open coat closet and then hello! A monster peeking out! And then another from a coat pocket! She does awesome things with felt, but for me, the monsters take the cake. They are the kind of awesome that I wish my monkeys could be.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, November 26, 2007 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, khyber

Monkeys at the Khyber

Craft Fair at the Khyber today. It wasn't the big Christmas craft fair, but a part of FemFest. Business was slow and my sales were all friends. ah well. A sale is a sale. There was some other awesome stuff there and I wish I had pictures and links for them, but I sort of sucked at that. I think I was too cold to think of it. No idea what was up, but the bar area of the Khyber was frakking cold! We were all in there with coats and hats on.

But the Monkeys had a good time.



There is supposed to be another craft fair at the Khyber in two weeks or something. I'm not sure how to get involved with it. It's the same weekend as the birthday party for le husband, so the timing may not work out anyway. Regardless, I'm going to get my Etsy account back up and put the monkeys for sale online.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, November 25, 2007 0 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, craft fair, khyber, monkeys