nubby eared hat

I knitted this hat for a girl who requested "shorter nubbier ears". Looks more cute and teddy-bear-like than the original Floppy Eared Hat w/ Elegant Long Ears... but I approve of it, I accept the cuteness in my life.. yes yes, teddybears and all sorts, bring it on, I don't flinch in the sight of teddies.. I love the new nubby eared version of my old classic floppy eared hat.

handmade pixie paper

I made paper! I have given most away, and used the rest for drawing on. I hadn't expected to enjoy drawing on it as much as I did, the texture and colour of the handmade paper really adds to the drawing.

I used shredded up paper, paint, ink, yarn, patchouli oil to make it smell faintly of hippieness, little bits of pot pourri, yarn and fibre, golden stars and a TON of glitter. You can't really tell how glittery the paper is, but it's very, very glittery. I bet you've never seen Dagens Næringsliv* like this:






Making paper is easy but messy, and it also takes a lot more time than I expected. Maybe it would have taken less time if I didn't make such an effort to get them all flat. I always feel the need to make things perfect, which is ironic, as I love how imperfections adds character, soul and a sense of authenticity that mass produced stuff lacks. I need to remember that the reason why I hand make things is NOT to have the result looking like it came out of a factory..

A little paper-making instruction I found, just to give you an idea of how it's done:
* Dagens Næringsliv is a Norwegian paper that mainly focuses on economy and business.. I thought it was very fitting for it to be re-born all glittery and smelling of patchouli.

furry voodoo monster skull puppet object thingy..

Such a good object. Why isn't more objects like this?


PinkertonFX on Deviantart

badass knitting tattoo

glittery objects are better than non-glittery objects

I bought myself a glittery crochet hook, it's very pretty in the sunlight. I had to start crocheting to justify the purchase, and so I'm in the process of making a rag rug. I wish more mundane objects could be as pretty(and glittery(or furry)), as it would make everything more fun to do. Maybe they should start sending out glittery bills, or have glittery dentists.


Lillepus approves of the rug, even though it isn't finished yet. She prefers to be on top of things that are in use, as it makes her the center of attention:

A video still from something I watched while crocheting:
Ah yes, thanks for the warning.

Beyond Reason Etsy shop

I have opened my Etsy shop again! You can see the link to my shop in the sidebar of this blog. I've been making beaded jewellery for a while, and so that is what my shop is full of at the moment. I am planning on using my illustrations to make cards and other paper things that I can offer in my shop as well.

These are the things I've put up in my shop so far:





My grandmother and my boyfriend have both told me that this necklace shouldn't have seen the light of day due to the colour combination.. but I think it's cool:



THIS IS A BIG BRACELET:

I made something in pastel colours! It's not very typical for being me, it was inspired by my friend Kat, who says turquoise and pink is the best colour combination ever:

A lot of my jewellery end up looking a bit like they come from a toy shop, so this was an attempt at making something that was a little bit more grown up looking:



I have made lots more stuff, and will put them up in my shop little by little.

The Black Kat Designs

Kat is very lovely and cool, and she also makes the most interesting and beautiful beaded jewellery. It's inspiring to have friends who makes awesome stuff!


She makes a lot of her own beads using polymer clay, they're very swirly and psychedelic with special effects like glitter and glow in the dark bits.


She uses a lot of reclaimed beads from old jewellery in her work. I think it's a super idea for finding unique beads, and I'm totally going to do the same if I can find some old jewellery that deserves being taken apart. Taking things apart is nearly as good as making things.





Kat sells her stuff through a little shop in Afflecks Palace in Manchester. She has also sold her jewellery from stalls, and have recently opened up an Etsy shop as well, so her beaded jewellery can travel the world. I made sure some travelled to Norway.

Check out my super cool and strange bracelet from The Black Kat Designs!
I've worn it all the time since I got it, and the more I look at it, the more I love it. The green beads are handmade and have both glitter and glow in the dark bits. - Kat and I both agree that more is more!

You can follow Kat's crafty adventures in her blog, where she documents her experiences with making beaded jewellery and selling online and at stalls: http://theblackkatdesigns.blogspot.com/

And most importantly, you can buy her jewellery in her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Theblackkatdesigns

my craft achievements

I made these leg warmers as a Christmas present for a friend of mine, I consider them one of the bestest things I've knitted so far. I made her a matching bracelet for her birthday. Not many people have sets of matching leg warmers and bracelets.



I've been making lots of stuff lately, even though I haven't posted much of the things I've done in this blog. I've also been painting. People tell me I need to craft less and paint more, and they're probably right.

polymer clay beads

It's very therapeutic to look at all the colour variations that comes up while mixing clay together.

I've been making fibre bangles

They have a rubber core, so they are soft and comfy to wear. I think they look great stacked, so I'll probably make more. They're just wrapped with yarn, so I think they should be very fast to make, but apparently thinking about making something is a lot faster than actually doing it..



I've decided I need to start photographing my crafts on more busy, colourful backgrounds. I'm not a tidy, minimalistic person, and my wardrobe (and bedroom!) is black.. so I don't see why I photographed my crafts on white backgrounds. I probably thought tidy white backgrounds was the ideal, like my crafts was made by someone else who was more professional than myself, and got featured in boring blogs written by people I have nothing in common with. But who am I kidding, it's just not my style, and I don't find it interesting.
I'm glad to have that out of the system, I'm sure I'll make much better stuff now, and have a more interesting shop once it opens again.
Isn't it weird that it's so hard to know if one is being true to oneself?

the world's ugliest yarn

I only bought this yarn to remember how ugly it is.

yarn never looked this cool

This yarn advertisement is so funky and psychedelic!


Using the female body to market products isn't exactly a new idea. In fact, I'm getting tired of how used up that 'idea' is. I'm also annoyed at the fact that I can't fully enjoy amazing illustrations like this yarn advertisement because it uses the female body to sell yarn. The female body is used to sell just about anything. I post a lot of pictures of scantily dressed women on my blog; it's not that I like women more than men, it's just that of all the pictures of scantily dressed people I find, most of them are women. And that is what I have a problem with. I shouldn't get annoyed. Seriously; negativity never achieves anything. My next post shall have scantily dressed men in it. It will be my little personal gift to cyberspace and humanity.

it would be awesome to have a baby..

.. so I could knit it great costumes. Like this:





Or this:


I would obviously knit my baby much better costumes as well. If I had a baby, my baby would be dressed up as a little gnome. Every Single Day. And on the days that it wasn't dressed up as a gnome, it would be dressed up as something more outlandish and weird. It would only wear colours like green, yellow and black so as to not look like(and be treated by others like) a girl or a boy and would be called a name that wasn't gender specific.

If I had a baby, I would train the baby to do house chores, like cleaning, doing dishes etc so I wouldn't have to do it myself. But most importantly; it would wear costumes.

Don't worry,
I don't want a baby. I can always get a dog and dress it up in weird costumes. But if I did want a baby, it would have been a great - and fashionable - baby!

the prettiest usb lead in the universe

I'm proud to be the owner of the prettiest usb lead in the universe, and I've decorated it aaaall by myself. I used lots of funky novelty yarn and wool and some acrylic paint for the computery parts that I couldn't cover with yarn.

The picture quality is rubbish as my camera is broken, so I had to use my camera phone.

My 10 year old laptop has been born again as a new shiny purple thing! I used normal acrylic paint and water based glossy varnish. Probably not the thing for a brand new expensive computer, but mine was old and worn out and f***** ugly so *anything* I could have done to it would have been an improvement. And so far the paint job looks fine:

I want to decorate the top of it more, but I still haven't worked out what I want on it. In a perfect world where computers didn't switch off from overheating, I would have covered the lid with some matching purple long haired faux fur.

I had to have a go at decorating the usb for my mouse too..

The leads reminds me of of hand spun art yarn. I've seen people making diy drop spindles on the internet to spin yarn, and I'm thinking of trying it out.