Fruit roll up

Dear Shayne,

As I have mentioned in previous years, I love to wear my skates to work on Halloween (or, this year, the day before).

It started one year when I dressed up as Wayne Gretzky and was so fun that I had to do it again (and again!) It has since evolved into my Mini Cooper ( <-- pre-blog link to Craftster), Hell on Wheels (no photos?!), a holy roller, the Rolling Stones, a rolling pin, and this year: a fruit roll up. Heh.


I made this apron and wore it over a long black dress -- my requirement for most Halloween costumes is that they are basically a variation on my standard "uniform" (long dress or skirt, long sleeved shirt) + skates.

I could not find a "fruity" fabric that I liked, so I made a patchwork of all different kinds of fruit fabrics. I think I'm going to make it into a little kitty quilt now -- I didn't finish the fabric edges or line it, so it's not a practical apron.

I especially love the fruit necklace:

(Fake fruit from the craft store -- I used an awl to poke through each piece, then threaded a cord through them.)

I don't know why I love a visual pun so much, but I cannot resist it. I also love skating at work -- I can get everywhere so much faster! Meanwhile, it's quite a workout to skate around all day for 10 hours. I slept for 12 hours straight last night. Wow.

love,
kelly

Chandelier Shades

Dear Kelly,

I actually finished a home decorating project! Well, Jenny did most of it, but I helped. I've had a very plain Ikea chandelier hanging in my dining room:


We took five of these:


And covered them with black and white gingham and then trimmed them with black rick-rack:



I am SO happy with them. Maybe this will motivate me to do some more decorating.

Love,
Shayne

Freezer Paper Stencils

Dear Kelly,

I've always been intrigued by freezer paper stencils, but never tried it because I'm not so good with the X-acto knife. And really, I'm lazy and didn't want to spend so much time cutting out a design that I could only use once. Then I realized I could cut designs with my beloved Cricut. I found a pack of 8 1/2" x 11" freezer paper (yes, I'm also too lazy to cut down my own pieces from a roll) and bought some t-shirts and fabric paint. Jenny came over tonight and we gave it a try to make some shirts for Sam and they came out amazingly well. Sam chose the following images from the Indie Art cartridge:

A bomb:


a guitar:


and a band-aid:


I have no idea why a band-aid is considered Indie or why Sam thought it would make a good shirt, but there it is.

Anyway, the process was really easy:

1. Cut design out of freezer paper with Cricut
2. Iron freezer paper on t-shirt
3. Paint t-shirt
4. Peel off freezer paper
   

The paint didn't bleed at all and the freezer paper came right off the shirt. Now I want many, many more t-shirts to stencil. And maybe a few tote bags.

Love,
Shayne

Mitts for Kate

Dear Shayne,

I made these fingerless mitts for my cousin-in-law, Kate. (Is that such a thing? She's my cousin's wife, so... cousin-in-law, right? Whatever.) I really love this yarn and it made a very cozy pair of mitts, so I hope she can get some use out of them.


I got this pattern via Ravelry -- you can also find it here on the blog Belatedly tangled. It's got a cute cable going down the backs:

(Sheesh. I need to get a hand model/mannequin -- too tough taking photos of my own darned hands.)

I used this gorgeous yarn that I bought at Stitches West last year -- I looove using yarn from my stash!

love,
kelly