Flibbertygibbet

The art of no craft

How do I have as many hours in a given day as anyone else and not feel productive?  I'm hoping to change that.

Last weekend my too-small-to-be-of-much-use table looked like this:

Another episode of all the gear no idea, this is me crafting such fripperies such as feathery bits for my little hat and a watch-parts pendant for White Mischief. The remainder of the feathers may end up on the wall at some point.

It strikes me that being able to solder (accurately; and at home rather than in workshop or at a course) would be very beneficial but I cannot take on any more hobbies at the moment. Or buy anything else that could be classified as 'equipment'. So superglue it is for now. There was probably as much enjoyment gleaned from taking the old watches* apart as reconstructing them.  Though I would say I'm all about whether something works, as opposed to why it works. That may explain my challenges with knitting patterns.

This weekend the table looks like this:

Proof-reading so that I can earn some cash for a mooted diving trip; but also firstly for San Francisco.  I am trying to simplify a little and I think there's a declutter coming.  For a while I've been trying to avoid acquiring 'stuff' but I'm not sure it's working so well.  Well, there's stuff ie those delectable Dan Hillier prints
(will put the photos in the last post to show off their gorgeousness) which is good for my soul - and then there's bucketloads of crap.  Magazines whose subscriptions I can't figure out how to cancel; spare bedding with nowhere to store it; and 'stuff' that doesn't have a home here yet.  I tried to make it to a yarn swap/sale last week but TFL foiled me and the bag of yarn for sale is still in the hallway.

So while these tools of the trade have occupied me most of the weekend

I've also cast on with some of the precious Debbie Bliss silk from the stash.  I really did try to do the bolero from the Pure Silk book but seriously (in pursuit of sanity) short of paying someone to write me a line by line pattern, and despite assistance from helpful Ravelry people, I have decided to try the plain shrug. I have made it to the second section (where it asks you to cast on another 38 stitches mid row - still working on that).  But the colour and the drape will be fabulous so it's worth persevering.

There's lots at my day job to keep me busy too.  My uncle is visiting the next two weekends. I am terribly behind on my laundry (putting it away - my bedroom looks like Benetton with lots of folded clothes everywhere) Need to get going on making a few extra hours in each day. I have some ideas... deleting the newly-found Stumble Upon may be the best one... (Penni, that's all your fault!)

* though of course now I am utterly suspicious of all those pre-White Mischief transactions as one of them may have been the cause of the paypal nightmare.  Latest update is that the money that was claimed from my paypal account, though not from my bank account because I'd alerted the bank about it, has now been credited back to my account.  Hence more calls to paypal to explain that now there's money in my account that isn't mine.  That really is ironic. 

As Alannis would say...

...isn't it ironic.  After saying how much I was drawing from the internet, I had a nasty experience with someone drawing quite a lot of money fraudulently from my bank account.  My paypal account got hacked.  It's been a nightmare. The bank, Paypal and the police all going around in ever decreasing circles with nobody being definitive (though the bank was great eventually)  A friend used to work at Paypal and has been able to help somewhat but I can't see me using it ever again in the future.  The suspicion is that it's something to do with some of the many small purchases I made from Ebay in the run up to White Mischief. It was almost £500 ($1000) in total over three fake transactions.  One was withdrawn almost immediately after I raised them all with Paypal.  One is still being contested and what really freaked me out was that the bastard sent me a piece of paper by UPS  on Monday morning with something rather sinister written on it - so that presumably he could 'prove' that he 'sold' me something.  It was so upsetting:  the intrusion and the deceit as much as the annoyance and the worry.

The latest development is that the third transaction has been reversed to my account; but as I shouldn't ever have had any money leave my account, it's a bit confusing.  I think that the guy who tried to take my money has now had the same amount debited from his account which gives me a credit balance. My colleagues all told me to transfer the cash to my current account - hey, it's not like I couldn't do with it but that would be very bad karma and I just want it all over.  I will not use either service again which is pissing me off because of various things I wanted to buy for friends on Etsy and other places.

The good thing is that I have a reason to be saving my pennies - and that is a work trip to San Francisco!  My boss agreed that I can go for the weekend of Renegade Craft so it's a free trip essentially (and my summer holiday though Ting and I were talking about diving in the autumn...).  Can't decide whether to work before or afterwards - I guess if it's the end of my trip that might work better for me.  So I have some questions for any of you folks that know SF:

Where to say?  It will probably be at one of these hotels and I have the option to stay in the city and take the shuttle to work, or stay in the valley and move back to the city for the weekend.  Or commute from the city all week, it's about an hour each way which I'm ok with as I won't hire a car; just have to work out what time it leaves in the evenings to return to the city.

What to do?  Apart form Renegade Craft.  I know there's more than a weekend's worth of stuff but let's not worry about that right now.

What are the 'can't miss' places or hang-outs?  Who knows the city and has recommendations?  Fabric shops, trimmings, LYSs, foodie spots, Japanese craft stores or bookshops?

Tell me all!

No pics as camera is dead - may revisit soon x

Weekending

White Mischief was great fun, which started off with a trip to the Telectroscope which I loved.  For some reason the mythology that's been created around it really appealed to me and I found myself completely absorbed by it.  Plus it was nice to be jumped to the front of the queue so that we could wave at the steampunks in New York.

Someone asked about what I was going to wear: it was something along these lines:

Except that the feathers were on the daft little hat.  Which wasn't on my shoulders.  I wore a slightly different wrap.  I have to say it probably looks better on Dolly and rather than a waistband, I used bias binding to lessen the bulk.  But the cheap polyester which was exactly the look I wanted was a bitch to fray, frankly, and it hasn't stood up very well so I won't be able to wear it again.  But I think that's not a problem as I won't need to wear it again.

This afternoon we went to the Art Car Boot Fair in Brick Lane.  I didn't see anything that I couldn't live without - or more to the point, anything I could live with.  Then in the Up Market I found two fantastic prints from the very lovely Dan Hillier - two of his 'Ladies' will soon be gracing the bedroom walls. There was some amazing stuff on offer - mostly jewellery and fab art softies from Bobby Dazzler.  I've been thinking a lot recently about how creative blogs and snooping on crafty types via Flickr has really opened my eyes and how it's inspiring me to invest in the nest.  Any suggestions for more wonderful artists - going with the 'buy handmade' pledge?

New places to play

I'm off to a yarn swap soon... but have found some lovely new and new-to-me blogs recently.  Some are IRL friends, and some are new cyber discoveries.  Have a look:

Nancy Campbell - amazing letterpress art.  I'm getting some letterpress supplies from her soon - v excited.

Claire Payne - ubercute felt creations

And Ruth's book has its own blog too!

Keeping this short as Typepad is still being r e a l l y slow....

Bag lady

I've always loved purses, ever since I was a little kid.  By 'purses' I mean snap-frames rather than handbags.  Cath Kidston used to carry rather adorable oilcloth ones but I can't find them now. 

I used Lisa U-handbag's tutorial and she makes it pretty simple.  I was using a bright silver frame that came from Klein's, which I mucked up the first time, using inferior glue. So I popped in there one lunchtime and the staff were really helpful (and I got the 'good stuff' - hellishly tough Gutermann fabric glue).  Her tutorial shows you how to make a pattern for any frame, I just didn't take into account the fact that this particular frame doesn't have channels (into which you glue the body of the bag) all the way down to the hinges.  My bad.  But I still like it.  I will definitely be making more of these.  It might have been better to have taken a photo of it before I took it to a wedding - I think that's a little red wine stain there!