Making Time

orangeface

Originally uploaded by keri.

i am sending someone something with a face on it. i can’t show a pic, or say to whom, or what it is, but in my note i remarked that i was finally getting used to seeing faces on pretty much everything in japan.

But i have to say this is a lovely series of pics of faces created by placing black and white stickers on different objects. Keri Smith’s list of 100 things to do (inc 95 things so far!) is so cool. I’d like to see her book too.

I love the simplicity of the stickers in funny places. See Keri’s Fun with Stickers. Isn’t this such a shy little doorknob now? It’s amazing what two eys can do.

Decole would be proud.

Need more faces in odd places?

See the FLickr Decole group
Some more smiley faces at Wee Wonderfuls.
And My Paper Crane makes everything you could ever want with a face on it.

well, actually alot of faux bois here in japan. the cement bollards and railings are cast to look like wood. but this is just one of the many ways that the surroundings are beautified in little details. and beauty means irregularity and natural forms. even the plastic in your bento box to separate items looks like leaves.

anywho, i saw this staircase (up to the Oita Art Museum) and thought of It’s (K)not Wood, the design blog I linked to the other day. and he linked to me, so that is very nice

This is a cool thing! Every thursday Kathreen (red currant) who created Whip Up! will present a crafting challenge to be completed over the weekend.
The entries must be posted on the website links section (you need to join whip up and login) and then they will be judged, and the winning entries get some great prizes, books and kits.

This thursday marks the first Whiplash~! Everyday Creativity

I’ve been writing at Whipup, and I’ve enjoyed it very much. I was so so surprised when Kathreen asked me, as I felt I was not a ‘professional’, nor had I been craft-blogging for very long. It made me a bit nervous to write my own first post. I hestitated a bit! I’m glad she chose to have a newbie (like me) too.
Here, I try and write about my own work/thoughts, but on Whip Up, I write about things that would be more generally interesting. It’s amazing what response people give over on Whip Up. It’s a great community and resource, it’s wonderful to watch as it grows. Especially because post after post, it’s guaranteed high quality. And high volume. There’s so many authors now. I check it daily.

I wonder sometimes if we’ll just run out of things to write about, but I keep on finding new and more amazing things to share, and seeing more interesting things come out of the site.

This competition will be very cool to watch too! Yay Whiplash!

after moving in with my boyfriend, i began changing ‘his’ apartment into ‘our’ apartment. negotiating space (like finding a better pocket-dumping space) and moving things around and reorganizing shelves and drawers. i panic whenever i lose something… or actually i panic when it is not exactly where i thought it should be. so to manage this, i need to know where to put things so i can find them again. i’m not great at it, but i try.

slowly, i’ve been changing how the place looks. more things are purchased, curtains made, pictures hung… he speculated whether i going to cover it with knicknacks. i said ‘no’ but… um… secretly i would love to live in a place that had a wall like this:

i wish i could live a muji existence of plain linen, sober black, grey, white and cream… but it’s not for me. there is an ideal place between stark blandness, and colorful cluttery confusion. just trying to figure out where that is.

photos above from petits appartements à Paris by Jeu de Paume 

these are three blogs that i highly highly enjoy.

design*sponge

It’s (K)not Wood dedicated to all things faux bois (fake wood)

Apartment Therapy

i love these posts from green bean baby about her mother’s house, chock full of fun collections. i wanted to join in the fun.

my mother is an antique dealer. she has been for as long as i’ve known her. there was a constant flow of objects in and out of the house. i always wondered whose things they were. in our house, we had late 19th century photos of people… and visitors would ask “oh who’s that?” as if it was a relative! i was surprised when i realized that no one else hung pretty pictures of strangers up.

i also grew up being used to furniture appearing and disappearing. i was especially sad one day when an “ice cream parlor set” of a round table and wire chairs had vanished from the kitchen. apparently someone had come to view something else at the house, and decided they would buy that too.

let me point out, she makes very little money from the antiques. it just all goes back into ‘inventory’. she swears she clothed us on her earnings, but i know how much she makes. i try to get her to admit it’s “a hobby” but she refuses. while she could make more money making lattes, she enjoys it very much. it’s a labour of love.

she’s retired now, but before- she worked full time as a nurse, and then she soaked, ironed and mended loads of linens everynight. i was used to seeing her busy all the time. she an i both know we’re alot alike.

these photos are some i took of one of her booths (in memory lane antiques).

she literally said: you can pick anything you want! and i didn’t take anything! i wish i got one of these red and white checked table cloths… but at the time i had just sold or donated many of my worldly possessions and collections, i could not bear to take one more thing.

this is thought to be the oldest existing ragdoll in north america: Bangwell Putt, great name!

Clarissa Field of Northfield, Massachusetts, was born blind in 1765. This doll was made for her and she fancifully named it Bangwell Putt. Bangwell lacks facial features but her ten carefully constructed fingers suggest the importance of touch in Clarissa’s world. Bangwell has a homespun body and is dressed in 18th century fashion, including corset. Clarissa kept Bangwell until she died in her eighties. Bangwell Putt is thought to be the oldest surviving rag doll in North America.

i love this website, and how you can zoom in!

i just got a package of crewel wool from whizzme. it was a swap for some fabric.
i feel like it’s so precious, i want to be very careful before deciding what to do, and how to use it! pretty colors…
thank you, samantha!

no pics…

i started a job last week (teaching 1-15 yr olds english!)… big learning curve for me. and so i have felt a bit wiped out for making anything. oh and teaching is so ‘creative’ (read: i have to make so many props and revamp a four year old tattered classroom so that students will actually like it and i can meet my ‘quota’ for getting in new students)… so i think it’s sapping my creative energy. even my boyfriend asked me why i wasn’t making anything tonight.

however, i managed to send out my first ever fabric swaps this week, and eagerly await their arrival. (i’m wondering if i did it right?) and i 95% completed a bag.. but i can’t top stitch it because the sewing machine has decided to break the thread and foul the bobbin.. oh… about *every* 5 inches. (what do you expect for a machine of 3000 円 - about 30 USD)… and i’ve promised to make 9 more of them.

plus, i wrote a post for whip-up this weekend… and i flipping clicked ‘publish’ when i meant to click ‘draft’… honestly! so it was not well-edited or considered. i had meant to let it simmer for a little while. and i regret that it was not rigorous enough, and considered enough… and the dialogue that came from it is good, but i feel like i said some stupid things. well, i did.

so feeling a little out-of-sorts.

and needlebook, who writes one of my most-often-visited blogs (meet her doll hatty) asked me to do a swap with her, and i was very pleased. … and she asked me what i wanted on my needlebook. at first i didn’t know what… but then i thought… a house. i want a house. and i suddenly realized how very homesick i am! and i don’t even know where home is anymore. can i go home now please? is this home? it doesn’t feel like it, and i don’t know if i’d even recognize it if i was there.

so i just wanted to link to this bit of craft comic relief.
you knit what? (found from a link via crafty minx).

…because i feel all kinds of awful lately.

i saw a quilt exhibition in oita (大分）recently. the designs were mainly pretty traditional western styles. i don’t know much about quilting at all, and i had never seen fine hand quilting up close. but it was beautiful. i noticed they left the pencil drawings on the quilts.

do they always leave the drawing on the quilts?

one white quilt had loads and loads of pencil sketching all over it- and some lines which were not sewn… it was a great combination of a sketching with pencil and needle. i had a tough time getting good pics!

These are pictures from the nina chan book. Isbn4072498866

She seems obviously inspired by Madeleine. Here she is at a metro station!

The clothes are sweet. And some are quite Japanese. Of course Nina needs slippers!
You can see I’ve started scribbling into the book! Terrible, I am! I will be making notes over in my japanese notebook, since it seems more appropriate. I’ll be learning Japanese as I make her.