BBBB - Bags, Beads, Boxes, Birds

I had to take a little break from crocheting the bags because I pretty much cut the crap out of my index finger on my left hand from the plastic rubbing against it.  I've decided that wrapping the finger w/tape before I start crocheting is a good and fine thing, dutifully protecting that poor finger from any additional damage.

The latest bag is striped - very cool, although working hdc the entire bag gets very tiresome. I did, however, enjoy the change up in colour and I think it's probably my best bag yet.

The one really cool thing about using a beige or brown bag, especially one w/coloured letters, is that it looks exactly like rattan from a distance - I usually crochet whilst watching my girls' softball game, and I have people walking up to me all the time who just can't believe their eyes that they are looking at plastic grocery bags .

I have really dipped a deep dip in the foray of paper beads as well.  I started off using the leftover magazine bits from the boxes and making beads from long skinny triangles wrapped tightly around a toothpick.  Sounds gross, doesn't it?  But seriously, it is so kewl, I really liked them and proceeded to make dozens.. forgetting, as I did w/the magazine beads, that I wasn't done after creation - those little buggers each needed some individual attention from me in the way of lacquer, happy happy joy joy.  Blech.  

Then I discovered the real joy of the fake modge podge I mistakenly bought for my boxes - If I used that stuff to stick the layers together instead of glue, I got glued auto-lacquered beads, all in one step, woo hoo!  Ok, it's an addition, I admit it - I first knew I had a problem when I was standing around my kitchen during a GS meeting last friday and could not allow any of the leftover construction paper to get thrown out - wouldn't you know it, I made beads out of that, dang, and they are really cool!

Yes indeed - a use for all those bits and pieces of construction paper you find lying around after some kid has blasted through your kitchen in the name of "mom i have this project for english class" - it's almost as good as having a dog lick up the crumbs off your floor.

Oh - I must mention; I did not give in to the calling of my addition alone - no, I dragged in any nearby adult that happen to be hanging at my meeting and got them engaged in the process of construction paper bit reuse.  At least I wasn't the only one still peeling the lacquer off my fingers at 10:30pm later that night...

There's also the boxes projects - I am getting pretty good at the square-edged boxes, but I want MORE!  I want to make round boxes, heart-shaped boxes, oval boxes... but I can't find a thing on the internet to help .  Woof. 

At any rate, I tried my hand today at another round basket - little more success w/this one.  It was a lot easier to weave than the original newspaper version, probably because I used less paper .  I used the continuous weave pattern, which worked pretty well, although I am not sure I like the base, so I will be experimenting w/that a bit more.

In process.  Easily finished w/in a few hours, however  







Here's the two baskets I made from the delia catalog sans lacquer - the delia catalog has the cutest stuff in their catalog, so probably a good thing I chopped it up instead of shopping :) 

The one of the left is the finished continuous weave basked; the one of the right was an experiment to see if I could make a round basket, swedish-style w/the basket weave pattern.  I think it came out nice, although there is plenty of

One last thing - I love origami.  Saw that someone was making earrings out of the peace bird, so of course I had to do something w/the little bits of leftover magazine crap that has since cluttered every spare inch of my kitchen island - hence, birds.  These guys are small, I really should have been wearing my husband's magnifying lens glasses , but I just did them adhoc.  The magazine I did them out of was pretty thick .  I think they are cool, but they still need lacquer and earring thingies.  Still - at $10 each, I could make these babies til the sun comes in whilst watching Dancing With the Stars... too bad that show is almost over or I'd be a millionaire!

Assembly line

So seems I have a goal - a friend's son's theatre group is doing a fundraiser where people create 'boutiques' of homemade/craft items to sell.  One half of the profit goes back to the theatre group, but there's no table charge.. at any rate I have been bamboozled into having a table there , so I have been madly crocheting and boxing as though the stuff was the hottest item to hit hollywood since Miley Sirus.

My fingers are sore - a suggestion:  if you are going to crochet the plastic bags, use a finger condom or something to protect that index finger holding the plarn.  My index finger has been chopped up into little pieces like raw hamburger and I've had to take a little break from crocheting - which is ok, since I have to make the plarn from the treasure trove of bags I snagged from Ralph's Market the other day.

On other fronts, I've finished 3 more boxes - Victoria's Secret, Target Toys and Musician's Friend.

here's a closeup of the decoupage'd drum kit I put inside the Musician's Friend box - I also put a guitar, keyboard and kettle drum on the outside, just for some fun. .

I know the decoupage is a little hard to see in the picture, but it's at the center top of the picture.  Looks better in person, especially since I went to some care to do a nice job cutting out the drum kit.









I've also been trying to get some of my newspaper beads painted - I tried tempura paints, but didn't like the results much, so I recently bought an acrylic paint set as an experiment.  The acrylics seem to work better than the tempura paints, but I guess I'll know the final word after I varnish them.  Here's what they looked like as of today:

Gosh - terrible picture; they are much better in person - if you look into the cup, however, you can see the other paper beads I'm working on which are rolled triangles, then varnished.  They will be much more interesting after I string them.

My goal for the newspaper beads is to make them look like 'stones', so I've been mixing colours together - sort of works, but I think I will have to show them to someone not as critical, LOL.

Next:  I am almost done with a bag that I crocheted stripes in to - best one yet, should be done by end of day .  Pictures next time...

Finally.. a use for all those pretty full-colour catalogs...

I always know it's holiday time when I start getting massive amounts of those pretty full colour catalogs in the mail.  Sure - I receive my fair share of Victoria's Secret and Pottery Barn all the time, but now I'm getting The Paragon, Keepsake Quilting, LLBean, Land's End... you name it, I get it.

Between being annoyed at the kid for looking at the Teen Pottery Barn catalog when she's supposed to be doing her homework and being appalled at the total waste of time, $$$ and resources of sending out these lovely catalogs that end up in the round file at the end of the week, I decided I needed to find a good use for them.

Behold - Pottery Barn, Teen style:

I basically followed the same style as the newspaper one, except I folded the pages a little differently.  Instead of fold in half, then fold in half <2 more times til right size>, I made a fold mark down the middle.  I then folded the edges to the centers until I had the correct size - why?  This way I end up w/only one 'loose' part that I may need to add some glue to later on, instead of a 'fan' of loose folds .

Of course the Pottery Barn catalog isn't that wide, so I did have to glue the strips together to make a bigger box - I think this one is about 7" x 5" or so and note that it is only about 3" tall.  Instead of using a matte finish, like I did w/the newspaper, I used a shiny lacquer - good choice, it's really cool and really made the different colours in the catalog pop.

I also think that using Modge Podge may be a better choice than just glue + lacquer,  so a trip back to Michael's w/my newly minted coupons is in order for tomorrow am.  Modge Podge is usually used for decoupage, but I think a layer of Modge Podge before the lacquer will fix some of my glue issues.

Next?  Victoria's Secret.  I expect that box will be very popular ;)

Another kind of 'recycling'...

Last weekend we adopted two dogs from the border collie rescue orgs out in Phelan.

Gwyn:

She's a border collie mix, about one year old.  Gwyn was rescued by Border Collies in Need from a kill shelter in Kern County - now she lives the life of leisure at our house.  I can't believe anyone would willingly give up this dog; she is just about the most friendly, sweetest and well behaved dog I've ever seen.  Certainly she's not gonna be much of a watchdog, unless you count licking intruders to death...

Most of the time, Gwyn likes to keep herself busy chasing her new puppy buddy, Milly:

Milly is a rambunctious 12 week old girl.  She was the only female in a litter of 8 border collies - 7 brothers, so she's the bride, Milly <7 brides for 7 brothers...?   we didn't pick the name, just relating how she got it :)>.  Anyways, she was in a house w/6 adult dogs and the animal protection people were called in.  The owners had to give up all the puppies and 2 adults, which is where Border Collie Rescue of California came in.

We were really lucky; the day we went out to view Gwyn, both rescue organizations were there, so we got one dog from each one.  Unfortunately, it looks like one of them had a fire yesterday :  http://www.highdesert.com/news/animals-15300-vvdailypress-blaze-phelan.html  - Not 100% sure, but the pic sure looks like :(

So... what do my new puppies have to do w/NotYetTrash?  Well, it just seemed like only a bit of stretch to consider rescuing a puppy from "the trash", aka the shelter, and giving it a new home, as fitting my topic here.

Admittedly the little cute monsters have put my projects on the back burner a bit, although I have managed to get some of my beads done - here they are before painting.

I think they look a bit like turds here, but the girls thought they were cool.
Btw, done is relative, I have a few painted and I'm experimenting w/different things.


I also varnished the box and one of the weaved projects - very cool and thanks to my good friend Suzanne for suggesting a matte finish - it's great!  I can't wait to make another one; I have a few ideas on how to make it easier to weave next time.