Rambling On…

Hi everyone.  Ryl here. As Nicky mentioned in her last post, I just recently got back from Alabama.  It’s amazing how much your kid cousins can grow up in eight years.  Apparently one of my teenage cousins is an aspiring Tony Stark.  I am entirely too amused.  So, yes, two weeks of reconnecting with family and enjoying some awesome ethnic cooking.

And crocheting.  It seemed fitting, given all the Middle Eastern food I ate down there, to try out making crocheted pita bread sandwiches.  Hopefully soon I’ll have pictures of them.  I had to make sure I had something for each of my two oldest cousins’ kids.  The oldest just turned four and I hadn’t met any of them yet.  So two fluffy wonton stuffies and two minicle monsters it was.  I’m not who liked them more, the kids or their parents.

But now I’m home with an Amerikitty who likes pouncing on me and playing with the cord for the light so that it blinks.  And some really inexpensive crochet thread from Art of Recycle, a crochet hook, a Monster High doll, and an Ever After High doll.  Perfect for some cute experimenting.

Heat bad, brains melted…. AKA we’re back in action!

Whoah sorry about disappearing again! The roomie moved in and we ended up getting lost in a crafting storm of awesome and cute. Seriously thought we might have to pull out the nail-bats there for a bit to keep from dying of overload… or would that have been the sprinklers to help with heat stroke? Either way there would have been something either violent or wet going on.

Then again it may have been the overload of cute because of the kitten.

Stevie, Captain Amerikitteh (We got him on July 4th and the name started as a joke because he was a tiny little guy… It’s since stuck)

ANYWAY! That’s enough of me rambling about the fun stuff right? Zibbet’s getting items in everyday, some of our older items are going up at reduced prices just so we can make room for new stock. Some of that being a few of the new toys that have taken over the labs here at nIIz Designs. They’ll be getting awesome write ups here in the next few weeks, while we settle into our new routines for the fall and winter.

Ryl will also be posting in the next few days, she has some stories to tell about her recent trip to the South and I’m hoping she’ll remember to add some of the recipes in with them because OMG the cookies we’ve been snacking on have been awesome, and I really want to try them out here.

We will also have new PATTERNS! Yes I know everyone is waiting for those! I might revamp my coffee sleeves but for now there will be some basic loomed patterns (since I love my knitting looms right now) and I have some write ups for other stuffies I’ve done that I want to post just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

And I think I mentioned the recipes. If not the amazing ones from Ryl’s family trip there will be our attempts to make yummy Japanese treats (Look out for our first attempt on Mochi).

Sorry about the last post’s formatting. I was in a rush and yeah, should have done that better. Forgive me!

Hugs to all

Nicky

So HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER PEOPLE!

Holy… It’s HOT!  I mean really really hot!

So it’s really not that hot, but it’s a little muggy out, though there is progress being made with things!  And I think I almost tackled the foothills of acrylic and the mountain of cotton!  I actually have a bed again!  At least for a little while it’ll be torn apart tomorrow so I can move it across the room.  But for now I’m sorting through everything in here trying to get my stuff situated and put away for a little bit.

Next week though you will see snapshots of all of us working (sh don’t tell Liz!  She doesn’t like pictures taken of herself!).  And I might have the basic design of the card holders we might be using done (not the new cards yet though)  I’m hoping that they’ll be really cute!

And I’m going to have to make more blonks, someone in our group is scrambling to make little summer sets for them to play with and well I only have about ten of the size she’s making them done!  But we’re already planning to work on those, some bags and other stuff for the flea market.  Soooo the nice clean neat work room that I’m doing…. will have the lab exploding in it in like four minutes.  Oh well it’s expected really.  But will be nice to get to work on those again.

 

Here’s a question for you while I’m here.  What summery treats do you like to beat the heat?

On top of mount yarn….

And I think that’s all your getting of that silly!

Though currently I’m surrounded by yarn trying to re organize it so I can put most of it away because our new business partner will be moving in with us.

On one hand yay!  Means I don’t have to get up at 3 am when we go do the flea market sales.  Other hand… GAH What am I supposed to do with all my art supplies!  Yep this is Nicky scrambling to clean that up so that she can find all her looms, all her crochet hooks, and well all the other little odds and ends she has lying around.  Also looking at my unfinished projects which I wanted to get done this week.  Oh well they’ll have to just wait a little bit longer.  My poor yarn winder though I think it wants to have a heart attack since I’m working at making the drawers for the mountain of yarn all nice and pretty (Hey it’ll stay that way at least two weeks!

Then next project is to work on getting items up in the shop, and if I can work on some cute card holders for our new business cards (Well when we order new ones.  I want to check local places first see if I can get some done the way I want so we can just jot the price of the items for the flea markets and craft fairs on the card then slip them onto the product.  And if we get them how I’m hoping they’ll look, we’ll have adorable card holders that fit each of our personalities too (Mine will so be a lounging blonk!)

Let’s see other stuff… Because this post seems too short to me, or maybe it’s the fact my head’s still ringing from the AWESOME concert I went to last night at Reverb.  On the outside, it kinda looks sketchy, like that dive bar you kind of want to go to, but are afraid to go alone?  The inside though, it’s clear it’s a music club inside two stages, and then you have the back patio where we were with a small stage.  The bartenders were fun and security was there keeping things safe.  To tell the truth I felt safer there than I do over at the mall in broad daylight, and yeah this is a bar, so that was a little surprising (Yes it was my first time there and the experience was excellent so yeah, I’ll be going again whenever I can.  It’s not a huge venue, just a cozy little place that despite looking a tad sketchy looking on the outside.)  We were a little worried that the show would be cramped actually before we left, only because the whole day raining.  Around five it stopped, the bands had already done sound checks inside and were ready to start there when it broke. Though when the rain broke the crew got to work, finishing up the last little details to the patio that they couldn’t get during the week of semi rainy weather.  It was supposed to start at 6, ended up closer to 8, but really was worth the wait!

Watching Savannah Burn were good, pity they had to stop because the bassist’s strings broke, I’m glad they took it in good stride, I’ll have to keep an eye out for the next time they’re in town I can handle seeing them again.  A lot of the set they did play were older southern rock songs which I loved because it was a good way to start off the evening, something a little lighter and work into the harder stuff.

A New Day Dawn rocked! They were really sweet too, the story she told about one of the songs actually caused me to tear up a little and the song was great!    We also had a laugh when she dedicated a song to lovers, and her husband didn’t raise his hand for a moment when she asked for hands… Though to be honest he was messing with the drum kit so I think he’d get a pass right?

After that was Whiskey Demon who I thought were quite entertaining as well. The covers they did were great and the original material was really good, might be another band I’ll have to see again when they’re down at the Reverb.  

 Main reason I went though was Smile Empty Soul, and they played all the songs I love by them.  Which is why my throat’s raw because you know you have to sing along when it’s a song you like! Phil Lipscomb did a great job filling in.  Though not surprised, I like Taproot too.  So the rest of you seeing Smile Empty Soul’s tour this summer, you won’t be disappointed!

 

And okay now this post is long enough.  I have to get back to organizing my craft stuff, and back to cleaning up things so that we can mess it all up in like a week doing a mad scramble to get things ready for the flea market.  We have displays to make still!  I should have done it earlier this week, but scrambling to finish other work needed.  

 

Needing a small break…

So I’m sitting here in the workroom sipping mango green tea (YUM!) and listening to Welcome to Nightvale, surrounded by YARN!

Wait that’s not that different from most days… Anyway a small update, since I ended up not working on any during the week last week. I will get the swing of this!

Anyway, Sunday our new partner and I ended up going to explore the flea market we’ll be selling stuff at. I’m thinking we can actually wait a little for the business cards (I have older ones that I can still use up after all). It’ll be a good place to play around with the layout for the stall for craft fair stuff too. Which is kind of why I have been quiet. I have our jewelry display to put together still… I’m really digging the idea that Liz had for it, one side being a crochet mesh the other with the wood dowels that I bought so we can use the display for earrings, bracelets and necklaces.

If it goes well for the first week I’ll try to figure out a display to match it for our scarves and handbags. We have a 4 door car, so I’m trying to make our display stuff so that it will fit nicely into the trunk. We have one table so far (Figured if we needed another we’ll get it later, and I want to get an easel to prop the display for our bags and scarves on.

Next time I’m there I’ll have to get a picture at Art of Recycle, where most of the stuff for our displays will probably come from because not only is it an awesome art shop, it’s volenteer run, and the staff is really friendly. If I lived closer (it’s a 45 minute drive) I’d be there all the time, but wouldn’t get any work done!

Now I should get going, I have about 20 more loomed bags to finish with this one style then I’ll work on another style for the flea market. I should glaze and finish some more necklaces and charms maybe make some more because I don’t know how many we’ll sell and I would like to be able to have items on display the whole time we’re there.

Liz’ll have her blankets and some other crochet items. She’s been on a kick for baby items lately and they’re so cute!

Our new partner in… well not crime? Unless you count creating art a crime…. She’s bringing painted tiles, some of them are fandom themed (I’m so buying a Bucky and Steve tile from her because really they’re awesome), and some other paintings.

She’s going to be sitting with me the first weekend if the weather’s good, we’ll be chatting it up with people and getting a feel for it. None of us have done markets or craft fairs before so this will be good practice for us to see what works and what doesn’t.

If you guys are in the Shillington area of Pennsylvania come by first weekend in July! We’d love to meet you! I’ll give the local when it’s a little closer to the date.

YIPES!

Okay so, the housemate and I have to bump up our time schedule for selling things (Though this is a good thing).  We’ll be trying our first flea market in two weeks, so the next two weeks I’m going to be scrambling to make bears and bags.  I have a few blue ones started that I need to finish too.  I’ll be taking yarn and stuffing with me when we go so if it gets slow I can work on making some more things to add to the table but I’m hoping that we’ll have enough for the day.  Pretty sure the bears will be a hit though.  My nephew and nieces still love the ones they got at Thanksgiving!  

On a happier note, we may be gaining another partner as well, a friend of mine in the area is also an artist and she needs an outlet to sell her stuff so we’re going to help her out.  Look here for updates on that!  

Also realized… OMG a post two days in a row! I must be in one of my moods!

Now back to my mad scramble. I’m running out of zombie flicks to watch while doing these things! I’m thinking I’ll finish watching Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan then find some mecha anime to watch. Maybe Outlaw Star, been a while since I mainlined that one.

whoah been a while

I’m so sorry about that too, life got in the way for a while there (Okay more like my laptop has been being a pain so I’ve been crafting).  We have stuff!  Lots of Stuff!  That I’m still taking pictures of and editing, you’ll also notice that I removed the Etsy link on the side bar.  For some reason it never worked right (Coding error we’re going to blame that on me even though I swear I checked it a few times before letting it go live!), so I removed it.  

You’ll also see more of me here!  I’m making simple but cute clay stuffs so I figured I’ll show them off here and of course in the shop!  And you will be seeing more posts.  I am going to be forcing myself to post at least three times a week now. It’ll get me back in the habit at least.  

So hang on to your hats, this is going to be a bumpy reboot here!  Though I assure you it will so be worth it!

Now if you don’t mind I need to go grab the sledgehammer… my image editing program needs to be reminded why it shouldn’t crash while I’m saving a photo.  

Happy New Year!

I’ve meant to get this post up earlier.  Like before Christmas but was asked to do a few orders around the start of the new year that are kind of time consuming.  Not that I’m complaining about that because really these two orders are fun to do.

So, on New Years eve, I’m currently watching paranormal shows while working on the first order, since that one I know exactly what the client wants.  I’m about three feet into an 18 foot long Doctor Who scarf on my Boye Flat Knitting loom (Green size second to smallest).  And really, this is the third one I’ve made on the loom and I think I like using the loom I’m using for it.  Might also be because I’m working with doubling the yarn, makes it thicker and just more squishy than the first two scarves I did which were on round looms.

The other order I’m going to start on as soon as this scarf’s done, since I’ll be working on more stuffed toys anyway.

And I’m going to have to play with the one present from Dad that’s arrived soon.  I have a light tent that I’m hoping I can get used to using, we’ll see.

And while I’m rambling here; remember the teddy bears I made for my Nieces and Nephew?  Well looks like there may be a waiting list on those.  Right now I have 2 more to work on for a friend (So her nephew and husband stop stealing the one she got as a gift) and well I’m getting the feeling from friends on-line that I may have problems keeping them in the shop.  at least four others want one made for them.  Don’t worry I’ll post them up here when I get one up for sale.  I’ve learned that my nephew has yet to tear his apart and he flings it around, so pretty sure they’re tough enough to handle normal children’s play.

And now it’s time to go get started on cooking dinner.  Since it’s the housemate and I, we’re doing one of my favorite dishes tonight.  Nachos, heavily topped with just about everything!

Oh wow…

Jennifer, Hodge and Podge (From Squirrel Picnic) just made my day!  It’s all rainy so I can’t get great shots of some key chains I’m working on.

I’m the winner of the Great cookie give-away.  What a great start to a so far blah afternoon.  Means I’ll have to get a small tree, because the one we have here at nIIz Designs, never really looks full when I put it up.  I swear the artificial one is trying to do me in.

And thank you Becky (http://thecerealbaker.blogspot.com) for the other half of the prize.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spending the holiday with family and really meant to get this out last night, but well ended up having a later night.

The pattern that I’ve been working on was a hit with the kids though.  My niece and nephew on my stepmom’s side named theirs Sophia and Koo-Koo, so far (Got here on Tuesday) the toys have been with the pair almost everywhere they go.