What's new pussycat?

So things have been crazy, and updates are coming soon. Since my old computer has pooped out on me, I decided to make the journey to Best Buy and invest in a new one! I decided to stray away from Dell, and try my luck on a Toshiba. So far, I really like it in every way except the speakers a very quiet. I guess I'll have to make room on my desk! Who would ever thing to put a computer there!!!!!

Anyway, once I get Dreamweaver and Photoshop installed, I'm going to take on a new project- revamping my website! I've spent a few months working on the website for work, and I've had a blast doing it! I've learned a lot, and I must say, I think it looks pretty snazzy. One of the things I might do is try to switch over from Lunar Pages to GoDaddy, which will then lead to great turnover. I will switch my blog form Google's hosted blogger.com to Wordpress's hostedblog that will live on my URL. This will hopefully give me more hits and in turn, more business!

I'm still continuing to sell flasks- in fact I had someone order one just yesterday!

I also came across an old Singer Featherweight sewing machine which belonged to my grandmother. It's pretty fun, and it's the first sewing machine that I've ever been able to use without totally messing things up. I started by making a pillow, then moved to leather. I've been using a lighter weight leather- chrome tan- that was imprinted for upholstery use. I've made a bunch of really fun luggage tags, and I would like to make more by May 2- my first craft show of the season!

I've been curious to try my hand at wood turning, focusing on pens turned on a mini lathe. I think I'm going to focus on getting the supplies for it little by little so I don't make myself too broke on supplies. I think I could really have a lot of fun with it, and I have an idea to combine the wood and acrylic blanks to make some really fun and unique pens! If only I could win the lottery..... :)

More pictures to come (hopefully) but until then..... :)

Hops Money Clip Creation/ How to transfer image onto leather

So I had a recent request to do a really fun project. I never really thought it would turn out, but I got lucky! I was asked to do a money clip with a hops cone on the front.
Now for anyone like me, I knew hops was a brewing ingredient, but I didn't know much else.

This is what wikipedia told me: "Hops are the female flower clusters (commonly called cones or strobiles)... They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer." I should have known this, being in one of the main brewery towns for Budweiser...

So first I needed a design. I was told by my local beer expert (also known as boyfriend) that the leaves were particularly beautiful too. So after some research, I found my cone image (and borrowed some pictures of the leaves from other sites...

I bought a leather craft kit from Tandy Leather Factory, mainly because I'm too lazy to cut the leather myself into perfect shape. (those hole punchers make little hands quite sore!)

I traced the hops cone and leaves using tracing paper, and transferred it to the leather. For anyone not familiar, it's pretty easy: lightly wet your leather, place tracing paper LEAD SIDE UP on your leather, and trace! I use a mechanical pencil with no lead sticking out. The proper tool is a stylus.
I then used a swivel knife to cut around each line- including the veins of the leaves. For the primary and most bold of the veins, I cut fairly deep. The rest simply branch off of that.
As far as tooling goes, all I did was use an angled beveler around each layer of the hop cone and then under the smooth part of the leaves.

Next came the painting, staining, and assembly. Voila! Maybe next project I'll focus on painting and staining.

Any requests? :)

Drop Down Menus in Dreamweaver

So I've been working on the website for work, and Dreamweaver CS4 is kicking my butt... Most of the tutorials I've found so far have been for people who have no idea how to play with settings. My advice to them: have no fear- there is always Edit:Undo.

:) I need to remember this guy's tutorials!

Open Mic Night

I took this picture of a good friend of mine playing at a local pub. I couldn't resist but to draw the image in charcoal.

Halloween ideas

With Halloween upon us, I've been trying to think of some fantastic last minute ideas for a costume. I'm willing to put some time into it, and I've scrounged up a few really awesome tutorials.

So this guy's series of tutorials is pretty amazing. He did everything from the 7 deadly sins, to a broken doll, to Heatherette 24-hour party people, to the unzipped look! I wish this would look as sweet on me, but I have a feeling the glasses will take away from the look.... :D

Then I found this video with the full costume tutorial from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. As always, the Mad Hatter is a favorite character of mine, but all of the store bought hats always looked so cheesy... This video was so inspiring for something that looks a little more authentic. One just has to excuse the creator's terrible acting skills... And maybe take a make up lesson from the guy above. But the costume is AMAZING!!!! :D

So part of me wants to go the more beautiful and delicate route. I found this mermaid makeup tutorial (this is the 4th part, but I thought it would be best to see how she did the scales.. So cool!

Photography and jumbled thoughts

This town is sucking me in. I love it. I haven't been able to sit down and do as much art as I want, but I've been thinking about setting up my easel in my room to paint. It's a medium I've never been great at, and I could use the challenge.

I'm still inspired, everything around me warms that need for beauty in life. I still wish my life were a musical, but that's such a silly desire. So instead, I sit and listen to Moby's "Alone." Something about the ambient melody repeating for 10 minutes, with no words, is soothing to my jumbled brain. Maybe it's a serenity I can pretend to have...

The best music to me is what my friends play. I have a few friends who are local musicians, and a few more that are still budding. This night, a close friend tried his hand on stage, and rocked it. It was more about overcoming his nervous ways, and knowing that his love for the music was way more important than what everyone else thought. I was irritated a bit though, because this friend looked looked to another companion of ours for inspiration, guidance, and courage. All said companion had to comment about this show was "nice guitar." Only because it was his.

Actions speak louder than words, but words echo

I wonder if I wrote a book, would anyone ever read it? I think it would be a book about love. But in my case, it would be a tragic comedy. I guess more of a comedy. Maybe I would call it "Confessions of a Heartbreaker." I think so much of it would have to come from real life, I would never be able to reveal those who would star in it. Mostly because most of them have no idea how I really feel about their impressions left on me.