Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I've got a great and beautiful excuse. Knitting progress is really boring to blog about when it's lace and all jumbled up. I'm doing my best to finish the Rona Shawl from http://www.knitpicks.com/ before the Olympics are finished. Here are some in progress pictures. Julia is coming along as well - I'll get back to that sweater after August 24th. Neither of the pictures really do the color justice. It might be closer to the pic on the right (definitely not as pink as the picture on the left indicates). Oh, and I joined the Mystery Stole 4 KAL last week! That will start on Sept. 4th! Are you in?!?

DH and I are celebrating 8 great years of marriage today. Here is a card I made for him using my Cricut and the software.

I've been knitting, knitting, knitting. I'm working on the second sleeve to Julia. Not many interesting pictures there, but I will share some from pictures from the exhibit called Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting. I was able to see the travelling exhibit at the Indiana State Museum.
Crocheted blanket with a skull motif


Knitwear made entirely of newspaper

Sorry it's sideways... Size 8 floor length dress knit out of over 800 $1 bills.


"Lace" cut with a laser into metal parts

Okay, so I'm sort of addicted to the candy boxes. I wasn't happy with the originals. I thought the ends were a bit too short. I made a bad assumption in making them, but JenC. came to the rescue as always! Thanks, Jen! So there are my other attempts (the one from yesterday is the one on the top right). The others continually get smaller. J made the comment that he really didn't like the smaller ones because they wouldn't hold much candy - LOL. Kids say the darndest things. The other picture is of a bunch of parts to a title for a 12 month swap. If you couldn't guess, my theme is birthday.

Jen C. at the Cricut MB posted a SUPER cool candy box last night on the DS forum. I just had to try it! Check out this picture of the actual box from a candy company http://tinyurl.com/6ys9gu.

This picture is of the two boxes I made last night. Yes, I know the colors are hideous, but I was just trying it out and didn't want to waste my fave colors.



This a picture of the end of the box - it closes tight!


The box stores flat :o) I'm planning on making these cuties for J's treat to take into school on his birthday.

Something fun! Here is my photo mosaic. The idea is from Jenny at The Carr Lot. See below to see what each pic means. Check the comments for the flickr photo credits.

Here are the instructions:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Use only the first page of results, and pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

Onto the questions and my answers:
1. What is your first name? Stacie - love the dueling cameras.

2. What is your favorite food? Pizza!

3. What high school did you go to? Hamilton Southeastern High School....home of the Royals. I can't swim, but I did time for the swim team when I was a freshman.

4. What is your favorite color? Purple, well, today, it's purple, and I'd love to have some purple streaks once I donate my ponytail.

5. Who is your celebrity crush? This one was tough, but I came up with Milo from Heros.

6. What is your favorite drink? Coca-Cola all the way!

7. What is your dream vacation? French Riviera. DH and I went there when we lived in Paris, but it was cold and rainy the whole time. I'd love to go again when the weather is back to it normal self.

8. What is your favorite dessert? Ice Cream!

9. What did you want to be when you grow up? Orthodontist. I love straight, clean teeth.

10. What do you love most in life? DH - Although this is a beach in China, don't all beaches look the same? Anywho, we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon.

11. What is one word that describes you? Crafty.

12. What is your nick name? Babycakes

The first is just fun. This is fun and crafty. Here's a bit of spinning from today. Meredith at http://knaughtyknitter.typepad.com hand dyed this roving. It's it beautiful!

Click the pic to make it larger. It's a mesh of all things school. It's for when I scrapbook the first day of Kindy pics. I used the Cricut Design Software, Zooballoo, Doodletype and Doodlecharms. It measures about 3.5x11 inches.

A bit behind, I know, what a surprise. J's first day of Kindy is today, so it's taking a bit to find our groove. Still crafting, but the progress is slow. I'll post my projects soon.

Don't think I'll have time for a new "thing" today, as we are off to go see The Wiggles! However, I stumbled across this blog earlier and it made me laugh until I cried. Enjoy!

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com

Be sure to find the moving to China Fireman cake. It's a doozy!

I love cards with an element of surprise. Of course, this was cut on the Cricut. Picture 1 shows the card closed. Pics 2 and 3 show the slider opened. Pull the tag and then a "secret" window opens for a special message.

This is the Julie Cuff (found here http://www.limenviolet.com/blog/?p=3798). Surprise, suprise I didn't get gauge, so I had to add A LOT to each side to get it to fit around my wrist. It doesn't help that I didn't use the correct crochet thread either. Anywho, it's super cute. I just need to add buttons, and it'll be ready to wear!

I'm SO excited about this project. I saw this in the Uppercase Living catalog, but didn't really want to pay $45 for it. I mean how hard could making paper airplanes be?!? Well, it was challenging, but I am so pleased with the outcome. The first picture is a screen shot of what the file looks like in Cricut Design Studio. I used a lot of trianges and some rectangles to make each airplane. The dotted lines behind the planes are plain old rectangles. The second picture is a close up of one of the planes. The third pic is of all of the airplanes in the toy room. The boys LOVE it. J had a great time telling me what each plane's path should look like. D loved using the leftover cut outs of vinyl as a moustache. The vinyl used is called Wall Pops and is at Lowes.

Not too much paper crafting going on, but lots of knitting! Finally, huh?!? The first picture is the beginning of an embossed leaves sock from Interweave Knits. Yes, the very meager beginning. I don't like knitting on my bamboo dpns, so this might get scrapped soon. The yarn is Panda Silk. It has this wonderful sheen and is much more golden than the picture would suggest.

This is the completed back of my Julia sweater from RYC Classic Summer. One sleeve and the front to go!

Here is a criss-cross card from okieladybugsscrapnmore.blogspot.com. If you enlarge the first picture, I hope you can see that it is embossed with the word birthday.

This is a card I made from a tutorial available at www.dawnsstampingthoughts.typepad.com. It is a great resource for ideas and tips and tricks.

I made a quick card for a RAK (random act of kindness) today.

Owl Miss You

Here's a card I made today for a friend who is about to move. I used the Cricut, a 3D sticker from Michael's and some skittles (the small greenish-yellow dots next to the owl).

I used 2 strands of DMC embroidery floss and a size 12 crochet hook to make these, smaller, squares. I think I'm going to make enough so I can make a bracelet out of them. They are pictured with the smaller of the squares from yesterday.

This was my first attempt at Granny Squares. There are patterns everywhere, but I used one from the Martha Stewart website - annoyingly found in the knitting section... Sure she's a craft goddess, but she can't tell the difference between knitting and crocheting?!? These were made just to say I made them, but I'm working on small, colorful bracelet. We'll see, as the emphasis is on SMALL! The paper clip is in the pic to show the scale of the squares. They were crocheted using a size 2 hook and size 20 crochet cotton (might be size 10, but I lost the label).

Here are some cards that will go with yesterday's entry. A lot of the things posted are photographed and quickly sent/mailed to someone else. This will be for me. I'm always wishing that I had a card for a particular situation, and rather than buying them, I'm making them with the supplies I've got on hand.

It doesn't look like much now. Stay tuned!