Posts Tagged ‘tools’

Where have YOU been?

Holy guacamole, what a summer! You are right to demand to know where I’ve been.

Since the last episode of fantasticmio.com my laptop broke; it still works, it just doesn’t stay open! Just check out that hinge:
broken laptop hinge

It was decided that I needed a new computer. Not wanting to bother with Windows Vista, and not willing to muddle through with the broken laptop, I got a netbook that runs XP.
Acer Aspire One netbook
We named it “Sprinkles”.

But that’s not why I haven’t blogged.

I turned 32 a few weeks ago. It was awesome.
mio turns 32

That cake was decorated by my 8-year-old neice (she’s the one in yellow. You may remember her from the Breast Cancer walk post.) She’s been taking the Wilton cake decorating classes at Michaels. It was her idea. The lower age limit for the classes is 10, but they agreed to let her take the classes if an adult took it with her, so my Dad is also taking the classes. Word is that the only thing she’s having trouble with is making flowers with the Royal icing. Not because making flowers is difficult, but because the icing is so stiff that she can’t pipe it out of the bag properly. I hear her buttercream roses are beautiful, though!

Yes, that IS the basketweave technique.

For my birthday I received all sorts of wonderful things. A Cricut personal cutting machine, as well as a bunch of accessories for it; an iron which I intend to use for all manner of crafty purposes, including using in conjunction with the Cricut machine and some freezer paper to make amusing t-shirts; some clothes; tickets to see Riverdance (always a good show!); a really neat Halloween cross stitch my Mom made; and, of course, YARN!

More on the gifts in another post!

My birthday isn’t what held up the blog either.

What held up the blog is our fantastic news: we’re moving! Moving day is Sept 1, but we had to get the current place ready to show to potential renters, and what a job it was!

We packed up some clutter, threw a lot of stuff out (including the entire contents of the fridge when it died suddenly), and most traumatic: packed up the yarn! *sob* Most of my stash, which turns out to be at least twice as big as I thought it was, is now living at my parents’ house.

Evidence of our efforts:
clean kitchen

Cleaning for the move made me late in sending out my packages in the two swaps I’m in, but they’re all out now, and half of my partners have received.

Whew!

I’m hoping to spend the next little while catching you up on the crafty things I’ve been doing and if I time it right, I can show you the motifs I made very soon! Here is one of my favourites I sent out:

broomstick lace in the round crochet motif

Stay tuned until next time, same fantastic time, same fantastic channel! ^_-

Green Eyed Monster

So, I was at the first Toronto Craftster meet-up a couple of weeks ago, and I got a message on Facebook from my brother (you may remember him as the one with all that flexible tubing in his basement) asking if I knew anything about the Cricut machine.

It turns out that his wife was thinking of getting one. I’ve thought about it, but I don’t do enough scrapbooking to warrant the financial outlay. When I mentioned that to my brother he said that he was more worried about the cost of the room he had to build for it.

craft room to be

It doesn’t look like much now, but that’s going to be a really sweet craft room!

I’m so jealous! (Well, I do have green eyes…)

It’s been a while…

People say I’ve been a bit distracted lately. I don’t know what they’re talking about.

*cough*addict*cough*

Crochet Tutorial – Getting Started!

I’ve started working on a project that I’ve had in mind for a while now: creating thorough tutorials on every aspect of crocheting. My hope is that someone will find this useful, and that people will feel free to ask any question, no matter how silly, because in answering these questions we end up with a more exact tutorial. And that’s a good thing!

Today I’m going to cover picking yarn and a matching hook, how to make a slip knot, and how to hold the yarn while crocheting. If you already know these things, take a look at the pretty slippers I made myself for work:
blue striped crochet slippers

Everyone else, please join me under the cut:
(more…)

subtle shift

I’m a somewhat predictable person. Almost to the point of boring. I like to eat the same (or similar) thing, at the same time every day. I have cereal for breakfast, preferably something with “Frosted” in the name. I eat lunch at 11:30am. I get the same thing every time I go to a restaurant. (Anyone familiar with Big Bang Theory is picturing Dr. Sheldon Cooper right now. I like to think I have better social skills than him. I’ll let you decide that, though!)

I always get to bed at a decent hour. Always. I need 8 hours of sleep in order to function at peak efficiency. Even on the weekends, I don’t like getting too far out of my sleep routine for fear of not being fully awake on Monday morning.

So, I think you’ll join me in finding it extremely weird that for the last week or so I’ve been going to bed late.

What’s been keeping me up?

This:
lollipop blanket, halfway done

And this:
No Blue baby blanket - half done

And this:
Rainbow - half done

I didn’t think anything would be more important to me than the proper amount of sleep, but there it is. Crochet as moved up to the top of my priority list. It seems like a natural progression, but it also seems a bit weird. If that makes any sense.

This week won’t be any better, since I just acquired the following:
two double-ended circular crochet hooks

I’ll post a picture tomorrow of what I’m working on with those. ^_^

“Pen Mightier Than Sword” – Airport Security

I spent most of the day Thursday worrying about airport security. I’d read the CATSA website several times, knowing the whole time that all it would take was one security guard who was having a bad day to ruin my flight. It says that crochet hooks are allowed in your carry-on bag (under “Penetrating Objects” *snicker*) and scissors are ok as long as they aren’t pointy. I felt confident that I could get my tools on board if everything went to plan. I also remembered that in all of the flights I had taken, I’d been pulled aside for further searching on about half of them. I wasn’t pulled aside on the trip to Montreal a few years ago, so I was due. If a guard says you can’t take something, your options are pretty much argue with him or go on your trip. What a stupid system! (I was totally ranting about this for days before the trip).

We awoke ridiculously bright and early Friday morning and headed out for the airport.

There weren’t many people at Pearson at that time of day, so the line at security was non-existent. The carry-on bags go on the counter. Then our coats. Charles‘ shoes. The laptops (each in a separate tray). My knee brace (and its annoying, yet effective, metal boning).

I warned one of the guards that I had scissors in my bag, and after the brief look of panic on her face, I amended that statement to say that they were rounded scissors for kids. No problem.

I walked through the metal detector and all was fine, so I headed to the end of the counter to get our things. Charles was behind me (his shoes take a while to take off). Everything seemed fine, so I started getting our things together.

Oh, wait. Something is holding us up! Oh no! They’re not going to let my crochet hook through! I knew I should have told them it was in there! I just panicked! I’d forgotten to bring a book! Eeek!

They were searching through Charles’ coat. Wait a minute, that doesn’t make any sense…

Crochet Hook on a Plane

My stuff was fine. They didn’t like the pen Charles had in his coat pocket. Oy!

One down…

Here’s my update on the minty toothpaste baby blanket:

baby blanket
Almost finished! It just needs a few more rounds for the border.

I really wish I could get an accurate picture of the colour on this blanket. It’s something to see! I’ll try to take the finished picture outside and see if that helps.

I stopped at the store on the way home from work today and picked up some scissors that are not only awesomeness defined, but I think they’ll allow them on the plane in my carry-on, too.

flower safety scissors
“The children are right to laugh, these couldn’t cut butter.”

And the big news:

I finished something last night! I am now the proud owner of a double-thick short scarf. When I got home from work today I thought to myself, “What would be the best background for a totally black scarf picture? If only there was an abundance of whiteness that also represents the function of the item…” Stupid snow.

black scarf

One finished project down, a few hundred left to go…