Overwhelmed

Hi all, just a quick post tonight, more later this week.  I'm still gathering my thoughts and working on my projects from CREATE this past weekend.  I had an absolute blast in Michelle's workshops, but I still can't begin to put it all into words, and I need to take better pictures and get them onto my computer, so I don't have much to post yet.  I'm also gearing up for a new job, so I'm swamped at work with tying up loose ends and transferring projects and stuff.  But I did want to put up a quick post acknowledging that Diana Taylor at Velvet Moth Studios has kindly nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award!  Thank you Diana!  I didn't even know what it was, but here it is:

Now there are rules, it's kind of like one of those things on Facebook where someone says "post one word about how we met and then repost this on your wall" except that this time I'm actually going to play along.  But I'm bending the rules.  Here they are:

1. Thank the person who nominated me and leave a link to their blog. {check!}

2. Include the award image in this post. {check!}

3. Give 7 random facts about myself. {oh boy...}

4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award and leave a link to their site. {I don't even keep up with 15 bloggers regularly - link list notwithstanding}

5. Let the other bloggers know they've been nominated. {okay!}

So here goes... seven facts about the Carrie...

1. I hate spiders.  They are terrifying and evil and scary and I hate them.  99% of nightmares I have involve spiders.  And they keep insisting on taking over my herb pots. 

2. I've lately discovered a fondness for tending plants.  I won't go overboard and say "gardening" because I don't have a garden, I have a few pots.  But I like taking care of them.

3. Speaking of plants, I love lavender.

4. I also love tea.

5. Yes, I associate lavender with tea.  Also with other edible things, like scones and ice cream (I swear I'm making lavender ice cream before the summer is out.)

6. Speaking of tea, I can't drink coffee. 

7. I struggle with depression and anxiety, both of which come and go and neither of which are pleasant but generally I get through.  Art helps.  So does dancing.  And to be honest, so does a daily dose of SAM-e. 

Moving on to the blogs that most inspire and impress me, in alphabetical order so as not to imply any particular rank:

Michelle Ward:  http://michelleward.typepad.com/michelleward/ (my hero ;))

Nathalie Kalbach:  http://nathaliesstudio.com/ (just met her this weekend, and already I love her blog!)

RunningWave:  http://runningwave.blogspot.com/ (a good friend of mine from work, and a very cool collage artist)

Soul Aperture:  http://soulaperture.blogspot.com/ (found through Crescendoh - I just love her photos, they're so calming and beautiful.)

Velvet Moth Studio:   http://velvetmothstudio.blogspot.com/ (is it cheating to nominate the person who nominated me? I don't care, I love her soft and elegant pieces, and her eye for color)

Zingala's Workshop:  http://zingalasworkshop.blogspot.com/ (my mom! she's the source of my crazy creative gene, and my art ADD, and she's currently making fantastic jewelry)

If I nominated you, don't feel pressured to play along.  Just know that I check in on your blog every day and think you're pretty freakin' cool!

Stolen Moments

It's crunch time. I have one term paper and two final exams left. I have three presents to make, and a bazillion Christmas cards to send out. But I've been stealing moments here and there. Yesterday morning before I sat down to finish my first term paper I got inspired and sat down to make a tag.


Distress Inks, stamps, and Tim Holtz Ideaology gears on paper and "vellum"

It's something my manuscripts professor used to say. Can you read my handwriting? "Tempus fugit et non comebackibus." So true right now. Where is all my time going? I was ahead of schedule and now I'm definitely behind.

BUT there is EXCITEMENT to be had! My mom, yes MY mom, a luddite if ever there was one, now has her very own blog. I helped. Go, go, visit Zingala's Workshop. Comment. She'd love to hear from you :)

And, my Pocketeers, if you're not following Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas, you should be. There's all kinds of pretty going on over there. What do you think got me to do a tag?

Glub Glub

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I'm just drowning in life a bit. Having lots of trouble keeping up with homework, which means that craftiness of course suffers even more. But there may be crafts to post this week, I have had a little time to play with yarn, so there might be a little bit of Valentiney blog fodder. In the meantime, check out what I found: www.geekcrafts.com I'm totally hooked.

Obsession Confession

Alright, alright! I'll talk!

Ever since she was kind enough to comment on my post, I've been reading Michelle Ward's blog. I've always admired her work in Somerset Studio. Little did I know that we seem to have a lot of the same tastes. I mean come on; gothic style fan, HIM fan, uses a lot of architecture and gothic elements in her design work... To those of you who know me in real life, does that not sound like ALL of my favorite things?

Anyway, she's got a street team. And the Crusades for this street team are really more like creative challenges. The most recent of which is to share something (or things) that you have a "crush" on. Person, place, or thing. Anybody that knows me knows that I have kind of an obsessive personality, and so I fixate on something for a while, only to move on to the next shiny object later. Because of this, I had a hard time thinking of anything I could post as a single, sustained "crush." Well, on the very last possible day to join in, I finally have a post.

I, Carrie, have a crush on crosses.

Being Catholic (or Catholic-ish), I do place a personal and spiritual value on them. But I also find them aesthetically pleasing, thrilling even. I know, it's probably a little weird. But I just love crosses. Latin, Greek, Maltese (my favorite), Jerusalem (my other favorite), embellished, plain, crucifix, stone, wood, metal, painted, I just love them. You might say I'm a connoiseur of crosses.

Michelle Ward's "Graven" set of unmounted rubber stamps caught my fancy as soon as I saw them. They are the most beautiful collection of crosses and related motifs. I had to have them. Well, they arrived today, and I have just been in such a good mood. Not only that, but I also decided that hmm, I DO have a crush to post!

I gathered some of my things with crosses for a photoshoot. I'm sure I have other stuff scattered about the house, but this is the stuff I could lay my hands on (and remembered where it all was!) and that I knew is my favorite stuff.




True to form, it's a sorta crappy photograph. Sorry. I really need to work on my photography skills. At any rate, ignoring the poor quality of the picture, the items featured are as follows, from left to right:
1. the shirt I bought at my first Billy Idol concert in 2003. Incidentally, Billy Idol is also fond of crosses. (And no, the autograph on the shirt is not real, it's printed. The real one is on my concert pants!)
2. (on top of the shirt) a cross that I bought to wear with my SCA garb.
3. the Graven sheet
4. (on top of the rubber) the necklace I wear almost every day. (closeup to follow)
5. two of my favorite belts. The one on top is identical to the one I spotted on my best friend not long after we met, and I'd been looking for one like it. Found it at PacSun. The one below that, with the huge buckle, is from New York and Company.

The necklace I wear most days has two very meaningful pendants. One is a Jerusalem cross that I bought to wear in my friend's show Last Rights. The other is a medal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that I bought on my high school senior retreat.



So there you have it. I've come clean. I love crosses, and I'm not ashamed!

A New Tradition?

Dunno how many people will start this, but I'm gonna try and start something. A little something I'm gonna call "Handspun Monday." Dunno about y'all but I feel like Mondays need a little spice. Friday's got its yarn pr0n, Wednesday now has its WiPs, so I feel that Monday needs a little something. Handspun sounds good with Monday, so there ya go. The inaugural pics...

Remember this?


It's now this:




It's not balanced, sadly, because I ply worse than I take pictures. (BTW, is there anybody that might be able to help me with that?) But it's definitely at least close to what I wanted it to be. Somewhere around sockish weight.




So, join me in my quest! Post your handspun on Mondays! Make the lamest day of the week less lame!

P.S. In other news, I saw Jesus Christ Superstar this weekend with some friends. It's my favorite show. The one I saw this weekend is now my new favorite production of my favorite show (not counting the one that I was in, that would be a conflict of interest ;) ). Til now, the movie has been my favorite. Well, this one had the Jesus from the movie (Ted Neeley, eeeeeeee!!!), plus Corey Glover from Living Colour as Judas, and oh My GOD. The set was pretty minimal, the costumes were interesting. I liked the costumes, my friend did not. They were layered and kinda modern middle-Eastern looking, all in a very warm palette. The staging in general was excellent. One element I really enjoyed was that Jesus had little conversations with God throughout the show; you'd see him look up and out, and reach up or make gestures. And "Gethsemane" just about killed me. It was perfect. If there's a Platonic ideal of "Gethsemane" then that was it. Or as close to it as earthly possible. But really, I'm starting to think that God created Ted Neeley specifically to play that role. It made me inordinately happy. I can't stop raving about it.

Also, the end of The Sopranos? Wow. I never followed the series, cos we didn't have HBO at home until I was at college, and at college I didn't have HBO on campus, but my parents are fans, so I've been watching the last six episodes. For the last five minutes, I was in a constant state of panic. Every detail they zoomed in on made me jump. Wow. And Mom thinks I'm nuts but I really hope the actor that played A.J. has a good career after this because he's adorable. When he's not being, ya know, A.J. Bye-bye, Sopranos.

Bit of a Note

So I've been stumbling around the blogosphere after my foray into podcasts, and I'm finding some fun people to read. I'm a little self-conscious about commenting on their posts and asking if I can link to them from my humble little blog, but maybe the more people I read and comment on, the more comfortable I'll be and more integrated I'll become. Or somethin'. I dunno. I'm new to this craft-blog thing. Any advice for a noob? Anybody?

Moving on, I've got a new project. It's been driving me nuts that I can't find or figure out a pattern for a spring scarf that I want. I need to do this though because at Cloverhill I got some glorious wool and sari silk blended yarn that really needs to be a frothy, semi-froufrou spring scarf. I've decided to screw the idea of patterns and just start crocheting freeform and see where it goes. I have a general idea of what I want, and beyond that... I'm just gonna scrumble my way through. So there. I've gotta do it while I have the desire, because I'm wildly and ADD-ishly eclectic right now.

Seems to me I promised pictures. So here we go, the yarn I spun for Mom even though I'd bought the roving for myself ;P







"Lavender Fields" by C*eye*ber Fibers. Navajo plied to keep the colors distinct. I'm tempted to keep it for myself anyway :P What do you all think? I crave feedback!

Well I'm off to start my scarf. Or maybe spin a while. I've started the "Ocean Mist" and it's a dream. So many projects, so little time!