Three essential substances

Chocolate, tea and coffee. The things I'm going to show you all revolve around these three. It's a present I made for a friend from book forums, who studies chemistry. It was for her birthday in December, but we couldn't meet, so I added some other things to the bag.
First is a calendar.. and I so love how it turned. On every page it has a tea bag with a different kind of tea, according to the zodiac sign (the bag opens from the bottom and so the tea can be used wthout unglueing the zodiac picture), a one month callendar pad and a tag saying "Janyary books", "February books" and so on. On the back of every pade there are few memo sheets with bunnies, that are supposed to serve as a mini book diary - just to mark the titles and eventually the dates. The calendar turned a little bulky at the one side, but after all the tea is drank, it will be just right. All the pages are tied with a ribbon, that can be adjusted.
The idea of tea & book callendar sparkled thanks to the Tea and Books challenge at The book garden
First I thought of making it just with different kinds of tea but the fact I saw this astral tea at the shop moved everything to a whole new level :) I really love how it turned, even of not all the tags correspond as well to the pages as I would want it.

Шоколад, кафе и чай. Предметите, които ще ви покажа в този пост се въртят все около тези три вещества, без които не можем. СТава дума за подарък за книжна съфорумка, която учи химия. Трябваше да и го дам на рождение и ден през декември, но не можахме да си видим, и аз продължих да добавям разни неща.
Най-напред книжно чаеният календар. Идеята за такова нещо се породи в мен от предизвикателството Чай и книги на The book garden и фактът, че в магазина случайно попаднах на този зодиакален чай определено помогна идеята да се дооформи. На всяка страничка има календарче за месеца, пакетче чай с различен вкус, съответстващ на зодията (пакетчетата се отварят отдолу, така че чаят може да се извади без картинката да се отлепя. Може да се остане като украса дори и след като чаят си е отдавна изпит) и малко тагче, на което пише "Януарски книги", "Мартенски.." и т.н. . А на гърба на страничката има няколко листчета , които да служат като мини читателско дневниче - само да си отбелязваш заглавието, автора и датата. Въпреки че не всички тагчета се връзват идеално със страниците, много ми хареса как се получи календара. Малко е бухнал от едната страна, където е струпан всичкия чай, но след като се махнат пакетчетата, ще слегне и ще стане тъкмо. Страниците са вързани с панделка, така че ще може да се регулира при нужда.

Done with the tea, now for the chocolate and the coffee :)

След чая, шоколад и кафе :)
And just for dessert... the Doctor, as seen in Dork Stitch, of course!

И за десерт... Доктор Кой, естествено :)

This is for today! Oh, and thank you everyone, who wished me happy birthday on facebook, I'm not much of a facebook girl, so I thank you here, you were all so kind :) And to all the followers, I just kept forgetting to say hello to the new ones :) And if I don't follow you back, please leave a comment, I would love to!

Това бяха снимчиците за днес. :) Преди официално да дойде краят на поста, благодаря на всички, които ми пожелаха честит рожден ден, много сте мили ^__^ А на всички читател, все забравям да кажа - първо, добре дошли :) И второ, ако не следвам блога ви, моля ви, пуснете ми едно коментарче, и ще доприпкам :) Много ще се радвам и аз да ви следвам и да попълня пропуска.

Killing dust bunnies and trying various stuff

Those dust bunnies have gone to a better place, I'm sure of it.
As a result, now my room is cleaner that it has been for the whole last semester. *here I wrote a whole paragraph listing what I've trown away and various exam complaints, be happy I deleted it XP *
As I was tidying I tried some fast stuff:
First was a little try in decoupage. I was storing some folders and had the sudden urge to glue something on one

I used the cover of an old notebook. I loved the covers of these notebooks so didn't throw them away (kept the covers only) although I had absolutely no idea if I can use them for something. I have this problem, sometimes keeping things that >might< be of use. Anyway it seemed like a good idea and I had decoupage lacquer and glue. I peeled the upper layer with the picture from the thick cardboard and covered the whole thing generously with the lacquer.
Second is Rub-ons After getting the pretty jar with the butterfly rub ons from Cat, I thought it looks awesome. And then I got two sheets of rub-ons as a present. So I have them, and I had my previous TUSAL jar, and decided to try. It was...
Exhausting! >.<""""
My, it's so hard to transfer them on the glass, especially compared to the paper! I was able to rub only two before giving up >.>

I may add more on the other sides of the jar if I decide that my strength has recovered.

Also, I've been trying to put some order in my folders with pattern I have on the computer. It's a total, absolute mess. I have no idea where I've saved the half of it, and whenever I want to find something, I'm absolutely lost. How do you store the patterns you have? I'm not sure how to classify them. First I tried to classify them by designer/site they come from. With folders like "Dork Stitch", or "Dawn", or "Brabara Ana" I pretty much know what I'll find in there. But - there were too many sites and designers with very various works so I couldn't associate certain name with the content, and too many lonesome patterns were going to the folder "Others". Result - can't find what I search for! Then I tried separating the themes, but this too was quite hard to do, as one pattern can fit several categories - it can feature bunnies, and babies, and hearts - which theme should I chose as a main one? Often the result was a big folder named "Personage human/animal" with everything in it >.>>>
I've been thinking how to put some order, and I've been thinking of using a tagging program. Like this, one pattern can fit several criteria. I've checked some such programs, but the one thing I didn't like about them, is that they were location based. Like this if move the files, I will lose the tags, and I was hoping to be able to freely move, and copy the files to another computer, without losing such data. Like the music tags in Winamp - they're in the file, and the program can read them doesn't matter on which computer they have been created, or where on the disk are they now...
I'm still wondering what to do, so if you share any ideas, I'll be very grateful!

Quick and clumsy project

I bet everybody sometimes decides to execute an idea on a total whim! Well today I finally finished writing my biology themes. 65 of them, phew, now I have to go revising again and again and again...
Anyway after proudly putting the last words of them on the blcank sheet, I had the very sudden desire to execute this idea . I've found many interesting ideas on this russian blog; and I always loved how people turn old items into pin cushions - especially old tea cups. The most lovely pin cushion ever! But I saw this post some time ago, and I don't know how it came to me, lol!
Well my interpretation is not that good at all, but I'm glad since I tried some new things. I did it in a very short time, about half an hour or so. I used very old ribbon, god knows where it came from; and a very old too, ash tray in the form of duck made of lead, that I got from my father. I used it as a pin box, but it got crooked and couldn't close well.

Btw I never knew which way the legs should go
Grr, blurry photo
Again, it's more for the idea and the try. I always wanted to try making flowers with ribbons. Now I got how it's done :D But I have no comment for those.. leaves.. grrr terrible...

This was very fun project for me ^^ Btw now the fabrics help the upper part of the duck to stay on place - this minimizes the chance to lose it!
After finishing it, I tried my luck with a grammar and litterature test. 3 mistakes of 40... There's still chance for me, right? :/ The bac is on Friday, the day of the New Moon btw, so I'll post TUSAl if I come back alive and in my mind.
Now after I showed you the transformation of my lead duck ash tray, I think I'll go and watch Bertie Wooster's adventure with the silver cow creamer. I just love Jeeves and Wooster!

Oh wait!
I started my last bday card project. Tatty bear. The backstitching will be nightmare.

Unbirthday (image heavy post because I like what I see)

Second post today, but oh well. I just could not wait anymore to show the *unbirthday* presents I've been working on lately, even though I haven't sent them yet. But the person they are for doesn't visit the blog (at least I think so) so it's safe I hope! Anyway I can't wait, nyah!

Why unbirthday? Because if you're sending a present through the post services, there's very high chance for the present not to arrive in time. (With me it's 100% sure, since I lost all day making this card - which is weird, I know, or as sis says "Wicked!" - but I like it anyway. mmm, so I couldn't get to the post in time, and tomorrow and Friday are national holidays - Day of the army - so I won't be able to send it. Damn.... >.<) And Very Merry Unbirthday definitely sounds better than Happy Belated Birthday wishes or whatever. The unbirthday theme just goes along with Alice, there's no questioning that. I personally don't like the Disney movie. The book is better, and I have a great deal of quotes I love from there, but still is seriously creeping me out. One thing I like from the movie (apart from the Cheshire cat) is the Very Merry Unbirthday song. so you have this scene from the movie alond with various items form the scrapbooking kits I spoke about earlier. Btw these are 3 papers I arranged like this not one sheet, so you can blame me for the colour combo. Those kits were definitely meant more for digital srapbooking, and I can assure it was a pain cutting the letters. In the inside is the following little poem : Birthdays come but once a year (and some say that's enough)
because you're one year older and not as up to snuff.
But this is an unbirthday card for all the days in store
without adding a single year you get 364


Finally to show my beloves boxes! I'm still stuck with the pink, as you can see. First to say that the pink and white box didn't make it, because in the end there was no place in the box for it. maybe it's better like this, because even though the paper is from the same kit, the other two just feat one another and this stands out. I put the bracelets that were inside in the baggy.

It's stil deserves your attention :P I decided to keep in the paper stars I made (or rather the patethic attempts). I used the Disgaea star paper from Missy Tannenbaum that made the work much more enjoyable! Still making the stars in way harder that the origami boxes! The paper for the boxes I found on Ilovehandmade.ru

The other two. The bigger one has some chocos in
The smaller one - beads/charms

Btw as you see, those three boxes have different patterns (the pattern of the big one can't be seen right, damn, but it's a "wheel") the lighter pink is a "lightning" and the thirs is a "bow", but they're all made form the same units, connected in different ways. I can't wait to try the next serie of units to see what patterns will come out!
No high lighting the cube, you've already seen it. I wanted to send anime stickers, but couldn't find good ones - so let it be 2D bunnies. The thread is not DMC, but Ariadna. It's less common or so it seems, but I like it. And I thought it would be more interesting to send it than DMC or Anchor.


This little purse took me some time to make. Most of it I was wondering "I can do it... no i can't... it won't look good this way..." and so on. The actual work was 2 x Bleach + Disney Robin Hood + Kronk's New Groove. again, I'm happy with result, especially the seams. about two rows above the T is the "invisible seam" and I think I did it right! The little plushie Taurus was love from first sight, I bought it along with even cuter Cancer although I don't know any cancers. And I found just the perfect cross stitch pattern mathing the Taurus with the exact same coulurs , but really didn't have the time for it (or else it would be just in time for the next year birthday!). well maybe I'll really make it for next year!
The whole thing is a total colour way - killer regarding my pink & black theme btw.

And in the inside there is:
You've seen those already, except for the keychain. Yup, it's pink & black, and it's a flying pig. We all know pigs are meant to fly so we should get over it. Again this pig should have had a blue friend, because the original bracelet pattern had them both. Blame the lack of time
The paper clip is here to save the day (the colour way)! and having Mentos as a hair pin is just cool.

P.S. Thanks for the nice comments regarding the end of high school! I can't fully realize it yet, lol... I'll miss many things, that's for sure, but right now it's good to have a little more time to concentrate on the university exam studying. And it would be good if I actually use this time for that purpose >.<""""

Cross Stitch?

I said I'm going to make this and so I made this. Ok, maybe I changed the pattern 3 times because it was too big and I wouldn't be able to finish it in time, but anyway - I made a cross stitch Christmas card for my cross-stich-obsessed granma. And I think it looks judt fine



I wanted to be red but as the paper was bought in the last moment, there was no red left. So sis bought light green. Ok not that bad.

Craft links

BRACELETS
Heather's blog
Heather's forum - new url
Scoubidou
Naramky
One useful knot
German(Ithink) bracelet site

KNITTING
Kimberly Chapman;s website - this one can fit in any of my craft categories but I love it especially because of the knitting patterns
Sheep pattern!
Daily Knitter toy patterns
Knitted Toy Box!!!
Yarn Art - the sunny is cute
Mochimochiland - hah a mushi pattern
Joyful toys
Pucca and Garu hat
Knitting Pattern Central list of toys
Knitty - currently at penguin
Eggs and Bacon bag
Crafster and Harry Potter
Nessie
Shadow knitting]

KnitPro - Pattern maker
KnittingHelp

SEWING
(I can't but anyway)
Burda Style
Handbag Patterns
Nuno Dolls - AWESOME DOLLS!!!!
What The Craft!

Er...Embrodiery?
Needlecrafter
Anime Cross Stiching
Goblenite.com

PAPERART
Pepakura
Paper Inside
Disney Paper Models
Haunted dimensions - haunted mansions models
PaperKraft

OTHERS
Manga tutorials - how to draw manga

New Keychain! ^^

It was a pain to draw this! I use picture from Gimp and then a needle to put the paint because the line s were too thin to use brush. I think it turned nice. At least nicer than poor Sasuke's ;(

Uchiha keychain

This photo sucks. The keychain looks better, honest! And I took the photo after the first layer of paint. Nya, I like it. I made it for Sasuke, but he'll be able to take it not earlier than 15th. I had to redo it 3 times, because I couldn't sew it right. But in the end I somehow did it.
Yes! I sew it! Could it be a beginning of something bigger? Yeah sure, you wish.

New knitted and something else

8) Getting better, ne?


The patterns for those 2 are from the Knitted Toy Box