It’s swappin’ time, and there’s nothing like leaving it to the  last minute, eh?  You may recall me mentioning the Sweet & Sinister Swap?  Well, the box is due to be mailed tomorrow.  Want to see what I’m putting in the box to my partner, Ginny?

• I’ve had the BOO! banner for some time now - bought it from Nikki of WhiMSyLove, who custom-made it for me.
• The pumpkins I bought at the farmers’ market one recent Thursday, and I painted the stems with black nail polish to make them look a bit creepier.
• The licorice I’ve had in mind since the beginning (it’s considered “sinister” because there are 13 pieces - yeah, I know it’s a stretch).
• I made a pin from polymer clay - three white pumpkins with black stems, and each pumpkin has a “patch” from the Grayscale color scheme.  I then antiqued, sanded & buffed it.  It really didn’t come out like I envisioned, but it’s still ok.
• The card and tags I made in Paint Shop Pro, fiddling around with patterns, textures, fonts & effects. That’s always fun.

Now all that remains is to box it all up and put it in the mail.  I hope my partner likes it.  I’ve never done a swap like this, and frankly the more things I see in the flickr group, the more it drives home the point that my crafting style is very different than many of the people in this swap.

Lacking an appropriate segue, I’m going to just jump into showing you my husband’s pants.  This are very soft, very nicely-worn-in Wranglers that just happen to have a gaping hole in the knee.  Or, at least, they were.  This morning, after mulling over Eren’s skirt at This Vintage Chica, I took a seam ripper and a pair of scissors to Neil’s pants and repurposed them into this:

Because everybody knows I need another homemade skirt. It looks crooked, but that’s just the way I am standing.  This is quite possibly the softest skirt I have ever worn.  Neil broke it in for me over several years, and I think tonight after he dozes off, I may sneak into his closet and look for more pants I can steal recycle.  Heh.

You may also have noticed that I got sucked in by the new Old Navy sweater commercial.  Two nights ago, I was sitting on the couch with Neil watching TV and saying, “I like that sweater with the big pom-poms on it.”  One evening later, I’m out renting The Ant Bully for Movie Night, and somehow I end up trying on sweaters and buying my first ever cup of $3.75 coffee (Oh, Decaf Tall Pumpkin Spice Latte. I think I love you.  Call me.)  The newly-crisp Fall air does something weird to me, but in a good, happy kind of way

I’m going to be so busy this week, it isn’t even funny.  A little bird has told me that the long-awaited Millefiori Story is going to be in my hot little hands very very soon.  And that means I am going to be very very busy packing up those suckers and sending them on their way to eager clayheads everywhere.

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It seems that my favorite time of year has arrived. The house is filled with the quintessential smell of fall - fresh-baked pumpkin bread. If your house doesn’t smell like this today, why don’t you take my recipe and see if you can rectify that, hm?

I welcomed autumn this morning with the very first hot apple cider of the season, and I nursed that mug all afternoon, refilling and re-heating as necessary.

The cornerstone of the First Day of Fall Ritual is, of course, the baking of the pumpkin bread. I was hoping to have some little helpers, but they preferred to watch a Netflix movie. That’s ok. I cranked up the music and enjoyed myself anyway.

Much to Neil’s chagrin, the other very important aspect of the First Day of Fall Ritual is the giving away of the baked bread. Lest you think I am heartless, I’m letting him keep the muffins The four little loaves, however, are destined for gift-giving. I have been doing this every year for at least twelve years, and ever since the kids have been school-age, the recipients have been teachers. I have to admit that I often drop the ball on end-of-year teacher gifts and some of the other more traditional holidays, but I always have a First Day of Fall loaf of bread to give, and maybe that makes up for it somehow.

This year’s loaves are going to three teachers and a bus driver. The teachers are also getting polymer clay pens and the bus driver is getting a polymer clay leaf pin - all in the Autumn color scheme, of course I made little gift cards from orange computer paper, and a computer sticker. I used some pigment inks to add a little interest, and then doodled on them a little bit with an ultra fine point sharpie. Then I tied everything together with a length of twine.

Before we know it, there will be crunching leaves underfoot, knitted sweaters, cozy blankets on our laps, brilliant foliage, and that crisp smell in the air that only fall can bring. I look forward to drinking in all of those wonderful autumn treats and savoring them as long as I possibly can, until winter arrives.

Happy Fall, my friends!

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Well, would you look at that?  It’s Friday already!   I’m not sure how that happened, but it did, and as a result, I have traded in my trusty spot on the family room couch for a soft, fluffy bed in the Hampton Inn.  We drove south tonight, my family and I, so that tomorrow I may broaden my artistic horizons in a Donna Kato workshop, while the children learn all about the hotel-provided Cartoon Network, and the husband takes advantage of the complementary Internet access.  I don’t usually have an entourage when I take a class, but I hemmed and hawed about coming here in the first place - I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend Saturday alone in a hotel room, but I also wasn’t sure I would be up for the 2 hour trip home tomorrow night only to come right back to Philadelphia Sunday morning.  And so, Neil, who is either incredibly sweet or incredibly crazy said “we’ll come with you, hang out in the hotel all day, and keep you company when you’re not in class.”  Awwww.

Now, I’ve said it before, the boys’ idea of a good vacation is getting to sit in a hotel room watching cable tv (which we don’t subscribe to at home).  So, presuming they don’t get a burst of monkey energy at any time during the day, this is going to be pure heaven for them.  And if they do get the urge to climb the walls?  Well, let’s just say I’ll come back Saturday night to one very frazzled husband who I will owe big time.  I may have to break down and actually give him that backrub he’s always asking for

So, as I sit in this dark room, Neil to my left with his fingers clicking away on his own keyboard, the boys in their bed to my right, snoring quietly, I am thinking about my flickr favorites for the week.  And I am also thinking that I should have stopped dipping into the goldfish once my 7UP was gone because now I am really thirsty.  Perhaps I’ll seek out the hotel soda machine shortly, but for now, I must tell you that I need a pair of those polka dot shoes (second image in the mosaic).  They are so much like the pair of shoes that started it all.  Before blogging, I hadn’t thought about those old shoes in ages, but now I’m thinking I either need to find a pair somewhere, or make myself another pair…  Ooh!  Ohh!  I’m getting ideas now… instead of fabric markers (which, let’s face it, look like you just colored your own shoes) I can apply fabric dots somehow - that would be neat-looking!  I could cut out dots from several coordinating fabrics.  The Freshcut shoes!  Or the Lotus shoes!  Or the Aviary shoes!  Now I’m inspired.  I just have to figure out the best way to apply the dots… food for thought.

I probably won’t be around here tomorrow or Sunday.  Tomorrow night I might like to actually spend some time with the people who dragged themselves down here to be with me, and Sunday night I may just want to flop down somewhere and be entertained by Farscape and Stargate:SG1 reruns before dragging myself to bed.  Have a great weekend!

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57 degrees. That’s what the little weather icon in my system tray says right now. That’s what it said most of yesterday, too, for that matter. I’m not sure about the previous day, but it was not warm then, either. Is this really August? I’m this close to baking up some pumpkin bread and putting on a sweater.

Truth be told, I’ve already caved and put on the sweater. I’m trying not to go overboard and turn on the heat, but after three days of this the house is feeling the chill, and so are my toes. Perhaps a pair of socks is in order. It uses a lot less energy than flipping on the heat.

As I drink a cup of Lady Gray tea, Aidan, who is son #1, and who I have decided to stop referring to as son #1 since, really, if anybody wanted to find out his name it wouldn’t be too hard, so why bother trying to protect his identity here? Anyway, Aidan is sitting on the floor with a notepad and pencil writing down the first five letters of the Phoenician, Cyrillic, Greek, Roman and Hebrew alphabets as seen in one of his books. He taught me something interesting. Did you know that Greeks read in a zig-zag fashion? One line is left-to-right and the next line is right-to-left. At least, that’s what Aidan says the book says.

I’ve been listening to some podcasts lately that I think might interest some of you. You don’t need an iPod to listen to a podcast. They are really just large mp3 files. I like to play them when I am working on tasks that bore me (washing dishes, packing orders, making supper…). It’s a great way to get a creativity fix when you can’t actually be doing something creative. I enjoy hearing the voices and stories of people I may have only read about before. So here are the ones that I have found interesting in a crafty way:

• Craftcast with Alison Lee: This is a really classy, well-made podcast. Alison has interviewed some big names in the polymer clay community, including Elise Winters, Sherri Haab, Gwen Gibson, Donna Kato, and more. Episodes are generally 30 minutes. (episode list)
• Craftypod: Sister Diane or the Church of Craft interviews mostly people involved in the indie craft movement, primarily sewing- or knitting-related, but not entirely. This week I listened to her chat with Sarajane Helm, and yesterday I heard her discuss some recipes for making your own clays and the pros and cons of the different types. (episode list)
• CraftSanity: I like this one, but it’s not for people with only a minute to spare here and there. You need about an hour - sometimes more - to hear an entire conversation. Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood has not, to my knowledge, chatted with anybody in the polymer clay community, (the podcast is very needlecraft-centric) but she has had (long) conversations with some of the popular crafty bloggers that I’ve come to enjoy (like Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy and Amy Karol of Angry Chicken). She has also recently interviewed Carol Duvall, and recorded the crafty panel discussion at the BlogHer convention in Chicago this summer. (episode list)
• Polymer Clay Productions Podcasts: I have to admit, I’ve only listened to the first two of these so far. The first one was just too basic for me, although “basic” was probably exactly what they were going for. If you’re new to clay, you might want to check it out. The second one, I listened to last night. It centered on stamping in clay, which is not really one of my interests. I do plan to listen to all of the episodes at some point - I’m particularly looking forward to hearing the artist interviews they did at CHA. (episode list)

If you know of any other good ones to add to this list, leave me a comment!

I think somebody is having a laugh at me this summer. Every time I plan to pack up a big batch of orders, I am struck with an ailment. First it was a cold, then it was a pulled somethingorother in my back, and now it’s a very sore shoulder. Eamonn (aka son #2) needed company last night after a bad dream, and something about the way I slept with him has made me very sore today. I can barely lift my tea cup. It’s crazy. I can’t afford to lay around and baby my shoulder today, so I’m going to soldier on. There is food shopping to be done and a shipment to prepare. I sound so brave, don’t I? Don’t be fooled. Oh, I’ll do the food shopping alright - a girl’s gotta eat - but don’t be surprised to find me wimping out for the rest of the day after that, whining about how much I have to do, but not actually doing any of it…

Oh, and that picture at the top of this post? It’s my second quilt top. This one’s for Eamonn, and I like the colors much better.

Lisa

[Edited to add: Looks like food shopping is out of the question.  I can’t drive!  My shoulder is so sore, I could barely get dressed.  36 years old and already I’m falling apart…]

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In the Encyclopedia of Me, I is for Impulsive. Impulse buys, impulsive crafting sessions, impulsive hours of getting sucked into reading blogs instead of cleaning the house as I’d originally planned… you get the picture. I’m way more impulsive than I am disciplined. And I’m now going to impulsively switch to a new topic rather than go on about that

I’m happy to report that I’ve started the Polka Dot Creations Color Challenge and already there has been much enthusiasm! As of this writing, there are 44 members in the group and 40 photos in the pool. That’s a lot of aqua. Oh, yes, this month the color of choice is aqua, and you have until the end of the month (give or take a few days) to create and share an aqua masterpiece with us. The vast majority of entries so far are of the polymer clay variety. I, of course, love to see that, but I am hoping to see some other media represented, too. All of you scrapbookers, cardmakers, and those handy with a sewing machine, let’s see what you’ve got!

I finally finished my anklet. Block party press made me these beautiful beads, and I’ve had them for several days. I’ve known what I wanted to do with them, but lacked the materials. When I finally bought the hemp, I discovered I had forgotten how to go about knotting it. Even after consulting the book I’ve used in the past, I still had four botched attempts before I gave up and just braided the darn thing! Anyway, I am very happy with it, and I plan to wear it for the rest of the summer (and beyond, until it becomes difficult to pair with socks). We lost our baby 5 months ago, and while I no longer think about it every day, it has been entering my mind a bit more as we get into what would have been the home stretch of my pregnancy. Lilies have been abundant and symbolic over the last several months, so I like that I can wear this anklet with it’s lily-like beads. It’s certainly no replacement for a squirmy pink bundle of nibble-worthy toes and peachy-breathed goodness, but I think it can be a comfort just the same. I appreciate block party press making me these perfect beads when I was stuck on trying to come up with something myself!

And now for this week’s flickr favorites…

Birds, nature, and maryjanes seemed to dominate my likes this week. As much as I don’t want to rush the Summer of the Skirt, I am looking forward to what I predict will be the Autumn of the MaryJane

I may not be around much today - I have it in my head that I will spend the day taking care of some cleaning goals, making those claythings I wanted to make to go with my bird skirt, sewing another shirt, and having some Family Game Time. That doesn’t leave much extra blogging time. But then, as we have learned today, I is for Impulsive, and you may see me here after all!

Happy Weekend!

Lisa

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Raise your hand if you were thinking yesterday that I was completely out of control.

Oh, wow, look at the bevy of wildly waving arms out there. That must be the 86 people who call me a Flickr contact… I was an uploading machine yesterday! I am pretty sure I heard a collective moan each time I sent up a new set of photos: “Oh, not polkadotcreations again! What is it this time? Pictures from her high school graduation? Images of her household clutter? More shots of her feet??” No, no, that’s not what I was uploading! Well, ok, there was a picture of my feet in there, but the rest of it was wrong No, I was uploading things like my polymer clay cane color schemes, some various around-the-house and family shots from this weekend, and some digital scrapbooking I did a while back.

[Here is the spot where the blogging pauses and I read Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat to Thing Two. And now blogging may resume…]

Where was I? Oh, yes. Digital Scrapbooking. I’m not a scrapbooker for a few reasons:

1. I could never be so disciplined as to make a layout for all of the pictures I take, and I am just compulsive enough to know that if I can’t scrap ‘em all, I don’t want to scrap any of ‘em.
2. If I tried to find time for scrapbooking, I’d have to ditch something else, and really, I’m running out of people in my family to ignore.
3. I have no room for supplies. And trust me, I’d have to have a *lot* of the supplies, and papers (especially papers).
4. I’d make a mess all over my studio -er, dining room, every time I made a new layout, and cleaning up a crafty mess is such a bummer.

So when I discovered that there are at least two sites that offer free digital scrapbooking kits,

[Here is the spot where the blogging pauses and I play a guessing game with Thing One (which I sucked at, btw). And now blogging may resume…]

[Here I get up off my butt to see what “present” Thing Two has given me. (It was a black checker, btw). And now blogging may resume…]

[Oh, good grief, Thing One has another guessing game for me. (I sucked at this one, too, btw). And now blogging may resume. right? whew.]

As I was saying, I had a specific project in mind that I thought the freebie digital kits would be perfect for. I made a 2007 calendar, using images from the previous year. It was a perfect way for someone like me to get into scrapping. By making it a finite project, I eliminated objection #1 and #2. By making it digital, I eliminated objection #3 and #4. Perfect! I plan to make a 2008 calendar the same way.

I’ve also recently discovered that Shabby Princess has a free downloadable desktop wallpaper every month. The layout is already done, all you need to do is stick a few of your own pictures in it. I’ve been using them since May when I first found out about it. I really like that the left sides of the wallpapers are very simple - it lets me see my icons better.

[Now blogging pauses again and I play level three of Thing One’s guessing game. (Yep, sucked again). And now blogging may resume…]

Are you getting the idea that there are a lot of interruptions around here today? As I type, Thing One is wandering around here yapping about how yellow his pee will be when he gets in the bathroom (boys!) and I am trying not to pay attention. Seems to me once the kids are out of diapers, the color of their pee is no longer my concern. Unless it’s call-the-doctor-orange.

It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon, with thunder and all of the trimmings, and we’ve all pretty much entertained ourselves today. I spent some time claying, but I’m unhappy with the results. I want to do something different than my usual - something special that I can wear all of the time. I’ve been a bit emotionally fragile this weekend, thinking about things that happened earlier this year, and I thought it would nice if I made a small remembrance in the form of jewelry. I want the sybolism to be subtle - enough for me to know what it’s about but not advertise it to everyone else who may look at it. And I need the colors to be neutral enough not to clash with my clothes, and attractive enough that I will want to keep it on. I’ve tried to do this before - I made a pendant - but I just didn’t like it enough to wear more than once. I guess I need to mull it over a bit more before jumping in.

[Guessing game level four. I did better this time - he made it multiple choice.]

I think I’m going to make a decent dinner tonight, so I will sign off now. Hope you have had a nice weekend and that I didn’t drive you too mad with the Flickr invasion

[Guessing game level five, while I inserted all of the links into the post - just two more levels to go! And where is Thing Two? He’s much too quiet…]

Lisa

[edited to add: I forgot to mention Songbird Avenue. Every month they sell a digital scrapbooking kit with 100% off the proceeds going to a different charity. I bought their first one, but I can’t seem to find it on my hard drive at the moment ]

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I have been forgetting for the last few weeks to show you this! It’s apparently been making the rounds on the blog circuit, so you may already have seen it, and if you have, you have my permission to skip ahead to the next paragraph Neil took this picture at Readercon, of his colleague Mary’s computer. I wish I had seen it in person. She used stickers to create the look of a vintage typewriter. I love it! Now I’m looking at my own vanilla Dell Inspiron 600m and wondering what I can do to jazz it up. It never occurred to me to do anything to it before, but shouldn’t artsy people have artsy machines? It makes perfect sense to me… See Mary’s blog for more details on how this was accomplished.

Speaking of computers… I did a little geeking out in the last few days and made some enhancements to Polka Dot Creations. First up, a routine that will allow you to see what un-shipped orders you still have on file. It is available from the home page, or you can go directly to it here.

Secondly, I separated the book store into a system of “book shelves.” You can continue to shop the way you always have, or you can shop by shelf. For instance, if you interest today is in jump-starting your creativity, you might not want to wade through all of the polymer clay books to find something useful. Go directly to the Creativity shelf. I haven’t gotten too nuts with this - every book/video/etc. sits on only one shelf, which I choose based on the primary focus of the item. You can see a list of shelves here. My main reason for doing this is to allow me to stock things from time to time that don’t really have their basis in polymer clay. If I want to feature the occasional cookbook, I want to do it without getting in the way of the people who only use their ovens for curing their clay projects I found a way to order some of those books I was referring to recently, but I am hesitating. I don’t want to dilute the polymer clay focus of Polka Dot Creations. I think the changes I made today will be helpful towards that goal.

Oh, I was just about to sign off, but I’ve suddenly remembered the project I was working on last night! (That’s one chesty angle I managed to photograph myself at . Geez.) I wanted to make myself a tank top, but everything I’ve heard about commercial patterns is that you need to make modifications to them if you’re more than a B-cup. I don’t think I have enough expertise to attempt to modify a pattern I barely understand anyway, but I do think I’m just enough mathematically-inclined that I could build something from scratch that would accomodate my, uh, larger-than-B-cups. So, I did. And generally-speaking, I am pleased. I won’t be wearing it out in public for a few reasons, but for a first try, I’m really surprised at how well it turned out. So, what’s wrong with it?

For one thing, the pleats I put in the bust area are in a bad place. I need to move them more towards the sides. Also, the neckline and sleeve holes are not right. They look and feel odd. I need to copy the neckline of something I like. Additionally, I’d like the length to have another 2 inches or so. And lastly, I had intended for this to be all one fabric, but I didn’t have enough of anything. So, I used two coordinating patterns, and added a stripe in the front to help tie them together. I’m going to attempt this again, after I go fabric shopping, and I’m going to try to address all of these problems. Wish me luck!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! What’s on your personal to-do list for this week? Mine includes lighting a fire under my butt to actually get some real housework done. And I’d kind of like a hair cut, too

Lisa

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I can’t believe I’m actually thinking of making myself an apron, or buying one from some talented Etsyan. Suddenly I’m feeling all 50’s housewifeish (without the clean house and dinner on the table, that is).

It started around a month ago when I first moved my clay-related rss feeds into the new-to-me Google reader. Since I wanted enough reading material to last me at least until my morning tea was consumed, I went a little crazy searching for feeds. In the process I found a plethora of blogs that had nothing to do with polymer clay, but were inspiring to me nonetheless. In the last few weeks, I have collected more inspiration than I know what to do with. I have learned about the alternative craft/DIY movement, lost countless hours exploring the handcrafted wonders available on Etsy, found myself subscribing to two newish crafty magazines (CRAFT: and Adorn) , and bought a couple of alternative craft books. Nevermind that most of these projects involve knitting, crocheting or sewing - all things that I can’t do! I’ve got an art-to-wear affliction that I can’t seem to shake. I read Sarajane Helm’s blog the other day and promptly went to Dharma Trading Company where I blew $100 on clothing blanks and dye kits. This morning in the shower I came up with some project ideas involving image transfers of the great booklet Son #1 made me for Mother’s Day. I still haven’t touched my clay since the Jana Roberts Benzon workshop a month ago, which means I haven’t tried the paisley cane idea I have, nor have I gotten started on the travel checker board idea I had (and bought all of the supplies for). I feel like my brain is on inspiration overload - so many ideas and so little opportunity to give them a try! I can’t remember the last time I was bored…

So here are a handful of the non-clay-related blogs that I am enjoying lately - I am drawn to their style and sometimes I think of ways that I can incorporate their “look” in my clay pieces, and sometimes I just sigh and wish I could sew

How About Orange
This is me & me WhiMSy love…
Trail Mix Designs (I bought some of her nifty notecards on etsy for Mother’s Day gifts and for myself)
Tie One One
Posie Gets Cosy
Nest Decorating & Designs by Tamar

There are more, but clarkesworld just walked in the door, and everybody’s hungry. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you moms out there. And if anybody knows what I can do with this overflow of inspiration, please tell me - it’s getting to the point where if I don’t MAKE something soon, I will implode! (Ok, I guess I just answered my own question - I should go MAKE something, LOL!)

Lisa

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Painted shoes were mentioned on Polymer Clay Daily today, and it reminded me… have I ever shown you my funky sneakers? I made them last fall, when it was getting too cold to wear my fuzzy flip-flops, but I was still in the mood to have some fun on my feet.

I used fabric paint on a pair of cheap canvas Walmart sneakers to make the sneakers brown with a handful of blue and green polka dots. I made “laces” by finger-knitting some fuzzy yarn. There are three polymer clay tiles that I made and threaded onto the laces as I put the laces on the shoes.

I felt weird wearing them at first, but now they’re a favorite of mine, and they made it through the winter surprisingly well. I like them best with cropped pants.

Lisa

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Oh , I have been *such* a geek this week. When not thinking Thanksgiving-y thoughts, I was whipping up websites, digital scrapbooking, and designing t-shirt graphics. Want to see what I’ve done? Ok, twist my arm.

Check out the brand new Polka Dot Radio website, and the updated “Information Desk” at The Polka Dot Cottage.

Here’s one of my digital scrapbook pages. It will be the month of July in a 2007 calendar I am putting together as Christmas gifts (I’d never done this kind of thing before this week, but it’s fun!):

I created graphics and made new Cafe Press stores for all of the elements of my little Polka Dot Empire (LOL!):
Polka Dot Creations (I had a PDC store before, but I just deleted all of the old images and started over)
The Polka Dot Cottage
Polka Dot Radio

And now I seriously have to turn “tinker mode” off and get to my email… I’ve got a pile of new orders to process, not to mention the ones that I’ve already processed and are waiting to ship. I had mentioned on my website that I wouldn’t really be around this week to process/ship orders, but I really ought to get at least *one* batch out!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
Lisa

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