So I've gotten myself a new camera! I've been playing with it a lot and it is much better quality than my previous camera. The shutter response time is really quick and some of the pictures I've take are lovely. The camera is a Ricoh Caplio GX100. Its small, light weight and incredibly powerful. Also has a wide-angle lense, which no other compact digi cam offers. Anyway, enough tooting the camera's horn, here are some photos!

This is a macro of Asuka's face! The detail is great and the color is really perfect.
Here is a black & white photo of our dining room. It was taken at a higher ISO so its a little grainy. I think it adds something to it.


Also I went and took photos of all my recent projects and uploaded them all onto ravelry. Some of them aren't the best photos I've ever composed so I'll probably redo a few. Yesterday was really really dark and cloudy all day, not the best photography day.

Having been busy!

So I just bought two foam wig heads off of ebay to create, display and photograph the hats I've been making recently. I think they are some of the best things I've ever made. Some times when I make things I get outside of myself and what I'm doing and when I finally finish I can't believe I've made it. I stare at the object and think over and over "I made this?" "I MADE this?" " I made this!" I am most definitely strange.

Here are some photos of Castle Rock State Park from when we went there a few weeks ago.
It was lovely and this post needs photos.

So we moved

So we finally moved out of the duplex half we were renting from Eli's parents who lived next door. It was getting too stressful for everyone. It has taken up way more time and money than I could have imagined and I feel like I've lost my balance, my equilibrium. The old hopeless feelings are creeping up on me and the sinus infection I've been battling is just making it that much worse. There are just too many things that need to be done, and not enough time. I'm going to be a vendor at YarnCon on Oct 4th. I have to have product ready to sell and I am just not getting enough done, I want to cry when I think about it!

I probably shouldn't have moved right when starting a new job. It really feels so destabilizing. I liked doing my work for myself and not having anyone to be answerable too. It helped me control my anxiety. Now I have a good job, working for and with really nice people but the act of having to be responsible and not forget things and get myself in order feels really really hard.
I hope I feel a little better once this sinus shit clears up, I think it will help.

Crowing

Ooook so I was a big braggy yesterday wasn't I? Something I should mention is that I didn't actually make any sales from this front page listing. My prices were too high I think. So I lowered everything a dollar or so and bam, I've sold 3 items today. Its good to know where the limits are though, I know I couldn't actually be selling things for more make me feel like I'm not ripping myself off. I don't want to do that, I'm trying to make a living.

On the accounting side of things I downloaded a really great spreadsheet from Its Your Money, a blog I randomly found a link to. I'd been looking for something along these lines for a while and I'm overall pretty happy with it, though it is basic, it helps me keep track. It has a catalog section where you keep your inventory and a way to keep month by month sales records that also calculates your gross profit. It also will keep track of any sales tax you've collected, though you have to manually imput most info, its a good way to keep track if you don't have a huge volume of sales. I'll keep looking for some free software for accounting that works on a mac, but I haven't had any success so far. All the good free ones are for windows only. SUCK!

Front Page!!!

I was in a front page treasury at Etsy today! I didn't actually get to see it but I know it was because one of my items got almost 200 hits and I have 20 new hearts and holy crap. I'm pleased as punch. I knew those pretty photos would get me noticed!
Yay!

Vintage Beauties

So I've been looking for some vintage 1950s cotton shirtwaist or sun dresses. I like the style and it fits my curvy body better than a lot of things made today which are make for women who look like adolescent men. I have boobs, hips and butt. I have a smallish waist. Voila, 50s. I was looking on etsy but the sellers mainly had things that wouldn't fit me (TINY waists) that were too expensive so I headed over to ebay. Which had a lot more things that were too small and expensive, but also several things which were not. I bought 2 dresses

This one is my size and will look much better on me than on this too small mannequin. I'm rather excited about this one, it has so many cute details. I was the only bidder bc I think the pictures were bad, but I trust my judgment. I am reasonably certain it looks off because the mannequin is much too small. If I'm totally wrong than y'all can laugh at me.


This one is a little more demure but it also quite nice. I like the muted color palette of the stripes. It also has darts in the front to give the fitted appearance I prefer

Some day I hope to get good enough at sewing to make my own dresses like these. For now I'll buy used vintage though. They are very nice.

Navajo Plying

Today I taught myself how to Navajo ply using the joyofhandspinning.com's video tutorial. Its easier than I thought, and fun. I was very excited yesterday when I unraveled a sweater that was a silk, nylon, and angora blend and it was a lace weight single. I almost never get singles. This presented some possibilities. To the left is a photo of the unplyed yarn on my huge bobbinsand on the right is a a good view of the single before plying.

I decided to give it a bit more spin as it was a little fragile and to make a tighter ply. So I ran the whole bobbin through the machine last night and gave it a bit more twist. Today I plied it and it came out great. I love only having one bobbin to deal with and the balanced nature of the 3ply yarn that results. So here's the skein of the yarn I've made. Its so purdy. The yarn is a really soft and nicely drapey fingering weight now and can actually be used. I think I'm going to do this with the rest of the sweater too. Yay, I love unraveling singles.

Good ways to enjoy fresh black raspberries

Black raspberries grow really well here and they are really in season right now. A friend of mine invited me over to pick some a while ago and I also have bought some from the farmer's market. They are so ripe and fresh that cooking them seems to be a shame so I have a few ways I like to use them (other than stuffing my face) that let their ripe freshness shine.
I made a tart from a recipe on Epicurious.com the Raspberry Sour Cream Tart.
I made it just as written (with a few flubs on the crust, but all was well in the end) and it was extremely delicious. The lemon juice in the cream cheese and sour cream filling gives it a lovely tartness that goes well with the berries. Its also very easy and delicious to make your own graham cracker crust. I didn't have a food processor like in the recipe, so I just put the crackers in a plastic bag and crushed them with a rolling pin. YUM.

The other think I've been doing with the berries is concocting drinks that involve berries.

Here is my fresh black raspberry cocktail.

4 cans ginger ale or a bottle of your favorite dry white wine
24 or so berries

Wash and place berries in a small bowl or plate. Smash them with a fork until they resemble jam. Pour 4 wine glasses with your ginger ale or white wine. Pour an equal amount smashed berries into each glass and serve. If you really hate seeds you can strain the smashed berry to get rid of them, though it looks prettier with the whole bits of berry swirling around the glass.
Serves four

I'm actually drinking one right now. Its delicious!