365 Project - Week Nineteen

Well, this was not the best picture week.  It rained a lot this week and I hurt my back again so I just didn't have the energy to find great pictures.  Most of my pictures were within a couple of blocks of my house (very convenient).  I did try to get a little creative and try out different pictures of the rain.  They weren't totally successful but it's still fun to try and challenge myself.  :-)

And now...

Week nineteen!!!

Day 127

This is outside one of the antique stores in Buda.  I didn't have any ideas for my picture on Saturday so I just got in my car and started driving.  I only got a couple of blocks when I found this!  It's kind of cute!  :-)

Day 128

I left my house prepared to drive around until I found something to take a picture of on Sunday.  I got to the stop sign at the end of my street and saw the little birds snacking.  The man that lives at the end of the street throws bird seed out on the ground in his yard so there are almost always birds there.  I'm never sneaky enough to get a picture but I thought it was worth a try.  I got barely close enough to get a picture and they all scattered!  Luckily this huge bird was flying around above me so I ended up with a really cool bird picture after all.  :-)  I'm going to try to get the little birds again another day.  I need to practice my ninja skills a little bit more first.  ;-)

Day 129

I saw this bench another day when I was taking a picture of something else and decided I would have to go back and take a picture of it.  I want a bench like that!

Day 130

I tried to get some rain pictures since it rained so much this week but by the time I was able to actually take pictures the rain was gone.  URGH!!!  I tried to get some puddle ripples for the second time.  I think these came out a little better...not great, but better.  We just don't get good enough puddles where I live!  I'll keep trying.  :-)

Day 131

I have been wanting to find a big puddle to photograph since the rain started. On Wednesday I remembered the little bridge I photographed on day 27 so I drove down the road behind the church again and found this lovely "puddle".   Okay, it's more like a stream than a puddle but I'm counting it!  I stood on the bridge and took this picture.

Day 132

This picture didn't turn out nearly as good as I hoped it would.  When I drove up to take the picture this cutie was further down the fence line so I had plenty of space to aim the camera and get a good view of the surroundings.  As soon as I got out of the car he came running up to me and making all kinds of noise.  I couldn't tell if he was really happy to see me or really annoyed that I was bothering him.  Either way, I'm glad I got to take a couple of pictures.  :-)

Day 133

I actually wanted to take a picture of these lovelies and their other friends when they were all huddled under a tree earlier today.  One of them was actually standing on the trunk of the tree all sideways.  It was hilarious (to me)!  :-)  I couldn't take a picture then so I went back a little later and these two took pity on my and posed for a picture!  They did a great job!

Coffee Break - Knitta, Please

Okay, do you have your coffee ready?  It's time for another It's Always Something Coffee Break!  Today I'm going to share with you some of the amazing knit art of Magda Sayeg.  Magda is the founder of the group Knitta, Please.  I am such a fan of her work.  I just love how she can take the most mundane thing and turn it into a work of art...and in crafty way, too!!!

I have had the privilege of seeing some of her art in person here in Austin.  It's so cool that she lives here!  I was able to photograph a couple of them.

This is at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar.

This is the sign at Jo's Coffee

This is my latest picture.  This is at Domy Books.

These are pictures of some of her other pieces that I love.  It was so hard to narrow it down to just a few!

That's a smart car!

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These were in Austin!  I wish I could have gotten a picture of my own while they were still up, but I never made it.  This picture is pretty great and I wouldn't have been able to take such a good one so I'll just admire this one.  :-)

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This is just beautiful!!!

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I'm not sure why, but this is one of my favorites!

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That's all for now.  Magda has so many amazing pieces from all over the world.  I highly recommend you visit her website when you have a little time to spare.  I guarantee you will be amazed!  :-)

Okay, coffee break's over.  Back to work!

Have a lovely day!  :-)

A Few of My Favorite Things

I've been trying to come up with some fun new crafts to try because I feel like I've been doing a lot of the same things.  I've been working a lot on embroidery, plushies and felt art cards recently.  Of course, I will continue to make them (because they're my favorite!!) but I wanted to try to include something new into my collection of crafty things.  I still wanted to do something that I love...so, what would be better than combining my favorite crafts into one awesomely fun craft experiment??

I have seen people make cute pictures with fabric and embroidery hoops so I wanted to try it out myself.  I was very inspired by my turtle pictures so I thought I would try out my little experiment by making a turtle (I'm going to make a turtle plushie at some point, too.  Won't that be cute??).  

I drew a simple turtle and cut the pieces out of felt.  I used a basic backstitch to stitch the pattern onto the shell.  Then I used my favorite blanket stitch to sew the pieces to the fabric.  I used french knots for the eyes.  I stuffed the turtle shell so it would be puffy like a plushie!  I love it!! 

It really was a pretty simple project, but it was very time consuming!  It was a little awkward to sew.  It might have taken a little less time if I didn't stab myself with my needle so much, too.  I kept having to stop every time I poked myself!  OUCH!!!!  Oh well.  It was worth it!  :-)

Here's the finished product! 

See??  It's puffy!!

I have this picture hanging in my hallway.  Now I have to figure out what to make next to add to my collection.  :-)

Softies

As most of you probably already know, my new favorite thing to make is plushies!  It's so fun to come up with an idea in my head and create a little character all by myself.  At this point my skills are very limited.  I have a lot to learn.  So, I was searching on the internet for some fun patterns to follow to learn some new sewing techniques for my plushie designs.  That's when I came across this book.

Palm-Size Softies

I am so excited to start working on projects from this book.  It has so many different styles of plushies!  Specifically it has the blanket stitch pattern that I have been trying to figure out for the past week.  YAY!!!  I'll be working on these projects between my personal projects and trying to incorporate my new skills into my own designs.  I'm sure I will learn a lot from this book.  I have a couple of personal projects that I'm working on for my long holiday weekend but I might have to at least start working on one of these little cuties.  I can't wait!!!

Do you have any special plans for the long weekend?

365 Project - Week Eighteen

Happy Friday!!!  It's week eighteen of my 365 project and I think I had a pretty good week again!  I decided I wasn't going to stress over my pictures too much and just see what I could find.  I got pretty lucky.  I was spending so much time trying to find something cool and creative every single day and it was getting stressful.  So, this week I tried to  just find things I liked around me and take pictures.  I planned a couple of the pictures ahead of time but for most of them I just happened to see something and decided to take a picture.  Hopefully I'll be that lucky next week.  :-)

Here's week eighteen!!

Day 120

My mom and I were driving home from buying supplies for a sewing project and saw this on the side of the road!  It was so perfect for my picture!  This work is by an artist named Doug Moreland and it sits outside of the Cattleacs Chainsaw Art Gallery.  It's chainsaw art!!!  How awesome is that???  The artist was actually outside working on something when I was there.  I felt a little weird asking to take a picture but I needed a picture so I went for it.  :-)  I think I'm going to have to go back some time and see the rest of his work.  There was so much cool stuff there!  I wonder what this guy's name is.  Something french, I'm sure.  ;-)

Day 121

I stopped at Saxon Pub on my way home from church to get a picture of the giant suit of armor guy!  I wish there wasn't a car in the background but it'll do.  I'll go back another day to take a picture of it when the parking lot is empty.  I just really wanted a picture of it and I didn't have any ideas for today so I went for it.  :-)

Day 122

I wasn't sure what I wanted to take a picture of on Monday and after a long day at work I just looked for the first pretty thing I could find.  This will work.  :-)

Day 123

The clouds looked so pretty on Tuesday.  The sun was directly above them so they were glowing bright white.  I tried to take some other pictures of the sun's rays showing through the clouds but they didn't show.  This is the best picture I got.  It's so peaceful to look at!  :-)

 Day 124

I took this picture outside of an apartment complex in South Austin on Wednesday.  It's in one of my favorite neighborhoods!  Only in Austin would you find something like this!  :-)

 Day 125

I stopped and took this picture down the street from my house on Thursday.  Aren't they so cute??  They were all eating until I walked up to the fence and the darker one couldn't stop watching me.  :-)

Day 126

This is the fence on the side of a house in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood in Austin.  Isn't it cool???  I want a fence like that at my house!

I Heart Stop Motion - Combo

Hi everybody!  I have another wonderful stop motion to share with you.  This one is a collaboration between two artists, Blu and David Ellis.  It is so amazing!  I can't even imagine how much time and effort goes into these videos.  You have probably seen some of these floating around the internet.  I decided to share this particular video for a couple of reasons.  I love that it is a collaborative project between two artists.  It's so fun to see what creative minds can do when put together.  I also decided to share this video because it happened to be the first in the series of Blu videos I ever saw.  This is not the latest.  I think the latest is actually Big Bang, Big Boom.  That video is crazy!!!  It combines so many different things to move the story through the landscape.  How do they do that???  So, what I'm trying to say is, go to the Blu's vimeo page and watch the rest. 

But first, please enjoy this wonderful piece of art.  :-)

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Combo - A Collaborative Animation by Blu & David Ellis

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

Turtle Power...With a Little Help From Their Friends

A couple of weeks ago I had a babysitting job in San Marcos.  I decided to stop at the theater building at Southwest Texas State to take some pictures of the turtles.  Okay, it's actually called Texas State University now, but I refuse to accept that!! 

Okay, I'm over it.  Moving on...  :-)

So, I went to take pictures of the turtles.  At first I only saw a couple in the water but they dove down so I couldn't see them when I got close enough for a picture.  I ended up walking all the way through the little park and at the other end I found some cute little ducks to take pictures of.

Aren't they cute??

I guess they thought it was really hot, too!

Close ups!

I took a lot of duck pictures but decided that since I was running out of time before I had to go babysit I better give the turtles one more shot.  I'm so glad I did.  I hit the jackpot!!!  There were at least 20 (probably way more) turtles in the water on the other side of the building!  The pictures aren't the best because they were in the water, but I couldn't stop taking pictures!  It was so hard to choose which ones to post!  :-)

This is just the few that I could fit in my camera range from the bridge.  There were so many turtles!!

This is one of my favorites!

I changed my mind.  This is my favorite!!!

There were a few different types of turtles out there.  I wonder what they are called.

That's all for now.  I have so many wonderful pictures of the ducks and turtles.  I could go on and on for hours! 

I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!  :-)