L's ripple throw

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

 


For a while there, I was crocheting a ripple throw every year! When my mental health fell apart in 2016 (and continued to deteriorate till late 2019), it was one of the many, many activities that fell by the wayside for me. But I picked it back up during the pandemic and now I'm in the midst of another one.

I finished this ripple throw for my bestie L back in... April? But I procrastinated shipping it for 6+ months because I had no idea how much it'd cost and I kinda dreaded going to the UPS store with a big ol' blanket rolled up under my arm. But I finally got it shipped off to her! And before I sent it off, I took a few pics of it for posterity.

The color palette is this:

This matches a few colors L has in a rug in her living room, to my understanding! The rust color always turns out super red-looking in pictures, but it's brown-ish IRL.

I don't have any progress pics, per se, but I do have a few from when my cat saw me laying it out (to see its size/if I needed to make it longer) and he, of course, thought it was for him and took himself a little seat.

The satisfied look on his face kills me.

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baby's first craft fair

Monday, December 5, 2022

 


This weekend, I tabled for the first time at a little craft fair.

I've mentioned this in a couple of blog posts in the past, but my mom's church has an annual holiday marketplace -- it's a craft fair and a rummage sale and there's a little restaurant aspect, too, where food and desserts are sold from the church's kitchen.

My mom's excessively crafty on top of being a fine artist. My youngest sister's also an artist. They table every year at this craft fair, and between the two of them, they always have a lot of wares. I often also send along a few things for them to sell: felt ornaments, crochet stuff.

This year I asked if I could just have my own table.

Kiiiind of a big deal for me, because this sort of scenario (a crowded room, social interaction, answering questions, dealing with transactions) is full of anxiety pitfalls. I ended up sharing a table with my little sister, and she handled the money aspect, and that worked great.


But I had a lot of crochet rainbow pillows left over from last year, and this year I got really into beading rings as a hobby and I had like, a couple hundred on hand that I wasn't doing anything with. I decided it'd be great to just sell them for a dollar. I thought kids might like them, if any kids wandered through the fair. I thought the price would be kid-friendly too.

In addition to the pillows and rings, I had some felt and crochet ornaments and made some bear ear barettes -- also an item I've blogged about! I made a few sets for me, my sisters, and a couple of friends ~ten years ago. But I still had/have a bunch of fleece and fur fabric on hand, so I cranked out some more pairs at the last minute.

I'm glad I decided to make some, because although I got some looks and comments from well-meaning but bemused people, a couple of young moms bought a pair instantly for their daughters. That made me happy. And selfishly, I enjoyed packaging up the ears and lettering little labels for the packages.


I did sell a few ornaments and pillows, but mostly sold a heck of a lot of rings! About 40, I think. My favorite customers were a couple of young girls (I'd guess they were about 17 or 18), who stopped and pored for several minutes over the rings, picking out ones for themselves and their entire friend group, and also their moms! I was happy I had a ton of rings to choose from so they could pick out colors they thought their friends would like. They were both super sweet and seemed legitimately thrilled. Honestly I will remember these two girls for a long time!

Tabling was a demanding and kind of surreal experience for me overall. Also educational. I don't mean this in a cruel or judgy way, but people are so weird!! Some, anyway. At least if I do this again next year, I'll know in advance to expect the occasional odd comments and stares. And as great as it was to share a table with my little sister, I think we both needed more room to spread our things out.

One of the most fun aspects of it to me was that I got to hear people ooh and ahh over my little sister's art and hand-painted ornaments. She's so talented!!

Today I have a total craft fair hangover, but lots of ideas for wares and presentation! I currently suspect I'll do it again next year.

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miniature books

Saturday, October 8, 2022

https://i.imgur.com/AnjunPE.jpg

A random project I have been working on lately is making some more miniature books to plop into my dolls' Huset bookshelf. These two album-sized books are ones I particularly like!

I'm sure there are several ways to go about a DIY like this. Different ways to do the pages, or ways to make the books look super realistic. But I'm just kinda doing my own thing using leftover scrapbooking card stock and notebook papers of various types. Oh, and also washi tape!

https://i.imgur.com/svRXGMT.jpg

I have a lot of paper pads and so many of them come with these ugly sheets with "live, laugh, love" types of things written on them. I have no use for them. I also have a lot of small scraps of card stock from other projects. They've been perfect to use for tiny book covers!

https://i.imgur.com/dcEwSRN.jpg

Also useful: binder clips, these ancient stickers that go on the edges of corners (they might be for scrapbooking? Embellishing the edges of pages or pictures? Not sure), and this tray to keep it all together while I assemble things. The miniature notebook dedicated some of its pages.

https://i.imgur.com/OOjz7Ya.jpg

I have also collected some mini books from Michael's. These have a sort of farmhouse/cottagecore theme, which is perfect. Petaline and Plummery will love them, and they'll help fill out my bookshelf.

I've been very interested in acquiring more miniatures!

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acnh drip part two

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

I feel like posting anything about Animal Crossing is pretty boring, haha. It's not quite peak zeitgeist anymore. It's trending passé​​. But I frankly don't care! I post about stuff I enjoy! And I really enjoy doing these ACNH lookbooks. For me it's quite fun to look back on all these outfits.

As with my last ACNH outfit post, I named each fit.





I found that dirty green tank in the recycling bin and it said self-detonation to me. It's giving "mission accomplished," it's giving "omae o korosu." Are there black spandex shorts in the game...?

I have a couple more Animal Crossing posts up my sleeve, but I'll space 'em out.

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mushroom bag!

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Just thought I'd post about this mushroom bag I got from Maobabie! (Direct listing here!)

I saw prototypes for this bag a long time ago on Twitter and waited ages for them to drop! When they did, I became paralyzed with indecision about what color to get. So paralyzed that I never pulled the trigger on getting one. I don't usually spend much on purses. Buuut I finally ended up getting one when they went on sale months later. As you can see, I got the yellow one!

It's not the roomiest bag ever, not gonna lie! I can fit my Switch Lite and phone in it, but not much room remains.


If I have the time to Tetris things out, I can fit all this in it, but I don't really want to have to Tetris on the fly. Especially not in front of people! A woman at the grocery store stared at me as I went through self-check out and was fitting my wallet back into the bag. She said, derisively, "I don't know how you can fit anything in that bag. It's cute, though."

"It's not very practical, is it," said my dad, another time.

I have gotten compliments on it too, though! From a random dude who works at the pharmacy, even. "Is your bag..."

"A mushroom!" I said.

"A mushroom! That's so cute."

So true, bestie, and thank you for refilling my Prozac on this day.

I've been carrying it for a couple of months now and I think it's more of a "going out and socializing, accessorizing a cute dress" purse than a "running daily errands" purse, if that makes sense. A conversation piece, for sure.

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karma (my new old guitar)

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Okay, so. On Cure Touch I post about things that make me happy, and this... this. Takes the cake.

I need to give a little backstory so I can properly explain the nuclear levels of joy this guitar has brought me. Long post ahead, y'all.

I learned to play the guitar in 2011 during a period of out-of-control anxiety. I actually wrote about it in 2012 in this post, on my one-year "guitariversary." (Wow, that post was made ten years ago, huh? Let me just crumble into dust and blow away on the wind...)

Even now, after eleven years of playing, I suck at the guitar. I am not feigning modesty. For whatever reason, I am objectively not good at it. And I've been playing fairly steadily all these years. It's actually kind of incredible a person can plateau so hard.

But I just love playing. I admit I wish I didn't suck at it. But sucking doesn't stop me. Playing helps me with my mental health more than almost anything else in my life. Wellbutrin's great, and yay therapy, but I feel noticeably better directly after I play the guitar. The neurochemical reward is that fast-acting. I love to sing (also not great at that!!) so I really enjoy sitting by myself and singing while strumming my guitar. I like to provide accompaniment when my family has sing-alongs. As long as I can back my family, I don't need to shred.

Here's where this specific guitar comes in: my dad plays. His was the guitar I learned on when I first picked up the hobby. He's been in several bands during my life. I grew up hearing him play.

During the pandemic, the guitar became a major outlet for him. He actually started a business buying, selling, and trading guitars in 2020, and it's what he does day in and day out now that he's retired.

He asked me to take pics of some guitars for him to post and to send to buyers, and kept asking me, so during 2020-2021, I took hundreds of pictures of guitars.

Like. Hundreds and hundreds.

(This isn't remotely all the guitars I photographed. Just smashed this together in Photoshop real quick. He also buys/sells pedals and amps, so I've photographed many of those too.)

I'm relating this and showing this collage because I want to stress that over the past two years, I have interacted with more electric guitars than I can remember. Expensive. Cheap. Every color of the rainbow. Huge ones. Tiny ones. Brand new ones without a single scratch, barely touched. Ancient, well-worn ones only given up because the owner could no longer physically play. Many beautiful ones. Many ugly ones. I have seen them all, and played many of them.

And only once, prior to this guitar, did I feel any kind of interest in one. I don't remember the make anymore, but it was yellow, and one of the first ten or so my dad acquired. I was like, "Oh, I like this one!" and kind of wished he would keep it.

But in all, I've just seen so many guitars at this point. Whenever my dad shows me what he's just acquired, I'm rarely excited by it. I say, "That's gorgeous," or "Sounds good!" and notice if it seems particularly nice. But it doesn't pique my interest like it does his. Guitars are his hyperfixation, not mine. Plus, our guitar tastes are very different. He likes black and red ones. I tend to like ones that are white, or at least a unique color like yellow or purple or copper. I myself predominantly play an acoustic guitar, whereas he prefers electric guitars.

I did buy myself an electric guitar a few years into my guitar journey. (Also posted about it, here.) I played this one a lot less than my acoustic, just because I never felt like plugging it into my amp. I did now and then, but not super often. I liked it and had fun with it, but it wasn't my preferred instrument.

But oh. This guitar.

One of many my dad picked up in a haul. I laid eyes on it and immediately said, "That's my kind of guitar." It's off-white, and like I said, I like white guitars. It wasn't even the only white guitar he'd acquired in that specific haul, though! I picked it up and played it a bit. I enjoyed it. I often do! And then I went about my business again.

Buuuut. I found myself picking it up again the next time I saw it. I played it for about twenty minutes that time, and was like, "I really like this guitar."

I proceeded, then, to pick it up every single dang time I saw it. I'd be on my way to do something else, spot it, and go to play it. My dad walked in on me playing it repeatedly.

(basically me)

For whatever reason, this guitar feels very comfortable for me. I don't know why. It's a nice guitar, and all -- nicer than my mint green Affinity -- but mind you, I've played thousand-dollar guitars with mother-of-pearl inlays and celebrity names stamped on them. I've played guitars that sound nicer than this one. But somehow I just found myself in love with this guitar. It feels like an extension of me when I play it. It's the most comfortable guitar I've ever felt. I feel relaxed and at-home with it.

I suspected it might be pricey, but I decided to ask my dad about his selling price.

"How much for other people? Or for you?" he asked.

"Haha, both," I said. (Family discount? Yes, please.)

"It's probably a $500 guitar," he told me.

Oof, was my thought. But I thought I'd see if he would take my mint green Affinity as a trade and let me make up the remainder of the amount.

Before I could make this offer, he said, "If you want it, it's yours."

I... I almost have to lie down, thinking of that moment. I haven't been that happy since I got Aury, my first Blythe doll. The sheer gut-punch of euphoria! The feeling like I'm flying, and life has just changed for the better for me. The sensation of the sun coming out. My dad just... gave me this guitar. I was in shock and in a way I still am.

He liked it as well and I think he liked the idea of it staying in the family, so I think that's partially why he gave it to me. I also like to think it's karma for the sheer amount of hours I've sunk into doing guitar photography and all its associated emotional labor for him for the last couple of years. I mostly did this work for free.

My dad had put the guitar up for sale already and was astonished it hadn't sold yet. People really like this specific guitar, so he expected to it to sell quickly. I said, "It was meant to be with me. I really feel like this guitar was destined for me."

I have been playing it every day, sometimes three or four times a day, since I got it in late April. I love it so much. Every time I play it, I love it more.

My dad doesn't know much about its history. Often he can tell you about the prior owner and where they got it and how long they had it and why they parted with it. But he got it in a larger haul rather than picking it up individually, so its former life is a mystery. But it's a Fernandes RST-50, made in Japan, and I think it is maybe from the 80s. Looks like the pickups have been switched out. There are nicks and chips and oddities about it that don't really show up in pictures. It's "antique white" but to me it looks kind of like a lemon creme color.

I hope this post doesn't come across as braggy or something. (To whomppsssttt would I even be bragging? I think about three people max read this blog.) I've just historically posted about my guitars here and wanted to do the same for this one. And I wanted to record how I feel about it. Record how I got it and how happy it made me. I want to always remember my dad gifting me this guitar, and how much joy it's brought me. This is the definition of Cure Touch.

You'd be forgiven for assuming the guitar is a major thing my dad and I have in common. From the outside, it looks that way. But between our diverging tastes in aesthetics and music, and his high skill level versus my shockingly low one, it's not. We don't play the guitar together. We don't have a super close relationship. Him just up and giving me this relatively expensive guitar was not a foregone conclusion on my part. Not remotely. And thus it shocked me, and it is incredibly meaningful and special to me that he would do something like that. Like, I was prepared to buy it, haggle with him for it, trade for it.

I love this guitar so much.

I want to take super good care of it, so last week I took it to a local guitar place to have the floating bridge tightened down. Hopefully in the next month or two I'll have them do a full set-up on it. I want this guitar to be with me for years to come.

Off to cry now!

P.S. Is it not WILD how much it looks like the guitar in Wayne's World? I did not realize this until making this post.

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re-opening my Etsy shop

Monday, July 11, 2022

 

For the past couple of months I have been working doggedly towards re-opening my Etsy shop.

It's been slow-going, and I'm nowhere near done taking photos for all the things I want to sell (socks, tights, and crocheted stuff). But I'm pretty happy because I did finally get a few listings up yesterday! I thought it'd be cute to make some sock packs: five various pairs for $13. I just have fun organizing and visualizing things in terms of colors, so I thought I'd group the colors thematically for the packs.


Thus far I've made listings for five color packs and have some more ideas: an autumn pack, a dark academia pack, a 70s-inspired pack! I've had so much fun coming up with them and deciding how to package them. (Indeed, packaging and shipping supplies are things I have been working on collecting the past two months.)

I do intend to list single pairs of socks too. Taking and processing product photos has been very time-consuming, with sixteen different colors of socks to photograph, and three different lengths of each color. I also still need to take earband photos.

It has been my goal to re-open this month (July) so I've accomplished that, and now I've made a further goal of finishing up more photography before the end of the month. I also just want to take cute Blythe outfit pics...

By the way, Cure Touch has a new layout. I'm still getting used to it and tweaking stuff, but it's kind of invigorating!

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sewing Blythe tights

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Having mastered the sock creation process, I set out next to make Blythe tights.

O, hubris.

I bought this pattern, but since I am a sewing ignoramus, I was halted in my tracks here. I think this particular pattern is for people with more sewing experience (or general spatial skills) than I have. Ones who can just see pattern pieces and know how they go together, either because they've done a lot of sewing or they can bend things in their mind in a way I can't. If there are written instructions for actually sewing the pieces together somewhere in the pattern pdf, I missed them. But truthfully I have a hard time understanding written instructions anyway. Recipes, maps, directions, rights versus lefts, cardinal directions... all bewilder me. So I don't really know that even a very detailed pattern could have helped me.

I sat for several hours trying to figure these out on my own. I thought surely I could... I had made socks, hadn't I?? I tried to hold the fabric pieces to each other in different configurations. I just really couldn't see how to pin the pieces so they'd become tights.

Finally I went to YouTube and found this tutorial, which was instrumental in guiding me through the process, and... victory!!!

Uhh... I mean, they're a little too long.

But listen! I have many pairs of Blythe tights that don't fit perfectly! I have an ancient sheer green pair acquired secondhand I quite like that are very ill-fitting -- way, way too long. So I was only stoked. For a first attempt, these look pretty good. If you don't lift up Fidelia's skirt, you'd never know. (These particular pics are phone pics taken in my always-dark bedroom, so the colors are a little off. They're actually rusty orangey-brown, as pictured in the other pics in this post.)

It took making a few not-so-great pairs for me to actually figure out how to get the tights to really fit, both length-wise and waistband-wise. To acquire the right dolly-sized elastic and discover the best practices for ease and efficiency in sewing them up.

Construction-wise, I looked closely at Simply Bubble Boom's pink stock tights to see if I could do anything differently. In my opinion, aside from being made by machine and some aesthetic differences in the waistband (the manufacturers for the official stock used even smaller elastic and let it be totally visible on the inside of the waistband, whereas I hide the elastic within the waistband), they look pretty identical.

I'm not good enough with a machine to be using it to make these. So all the tights and socks I've made are hand-sewn, and thus don't have robotically even stitches, and such. But I'm proud this is something I have managed to tackle.

Thank goodness for YouTube and for people who work to make tutorials of all types that others can access for free. I never would have figured out how to put these together on my own.

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sewing Blythe socks, part two

Monday, May 30, 2022

My number one jam this month has been making little Blythe socks. I have made... so many, it's sickening. I want to estimate I've made about 75 pairs in many varying lengths and colors.

One reason I made so many is that I've wanted to re-enforce my hand-sewing skills and just practice a lot, with the aim to increase my comfort level with sewing in general. Another reason is that I want to send a bunch of them to my bestie L, who also collects Blythes. Her doll family and mine are comparable in number, so I want to send lots of colors and various lengths to beef up her sock supply. So many tiny plastic feet to cover...

The power I feel is unholy. Immeasurable. When I think about how I can just make socks to match any outfit if I want to, I turn into a demon and begin howling at the moon.

My girls' sock collection is motley, you know? Many of the pairs I have are a decade old, at least, and naturally my aesthetic tastes have meandered a bit over the years. It's really nice to have this infusion of new options.

I've also been working on tights, which is a step up in terms of difficulty and time. I'll post about that soon!

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acnh drip

Thursday, May 12, 2022

I had a nice, chill birthday! I bought that rotary cutter set I linked in my last post and it's a game-changer for me. Sewing clips have saved me already.

I'm still hyperfixated on sewing (😅) but I wanted to divert course momentarily to post a compendium of some of my favorite outfits I've worn in Animal Crossing New Horizons.

Which I'm still playing! Not with 100% regularity, but in months-long bursts with breaks in between. I'm actually a year behind in the game, so it's August 2021 on my island. I don't know about y'all, but the way so many people had virtually complete islands decorated to the max with all the hard-to-attain items just two weeks after the game was released actually killed my own motivation and desire to play. So I didn't for months at a time, between smaller periods of energy/inspiration. Thus I got quite behind. But I got back into it again during the fall/winter, and I got very into adding to my Amiibo card collection, and got into screenshotting my dressups every day.

So: some ACNH drip! I named each fit.










This dressup screenshotting tendency of mine is likely brought to you by how much I still, to this day, miss Poupeegirl. (Of course there's Bentewee and also there was the Dolly Collection app. I did both for a few months, but it's not the same experience as Poupeegirl, imo.) I think Poupeegirl heavily influenced the way I dress my Blythes. I even mentioned it as an influence here several years back.

Must say my favorite dressup items in ACNH include the berry beret, the mustard pleather ankle booties, the lavender glasses (both round and hexagon frames), the ballet shoes (any color), and the basket purse. My island rep's almost always in double braids.

All right, I'm off to do more sewing.

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Taurus szn

Thursday, May 5, 2022

My birthday's this coming Saturday. Good golly, I'm getting long in the tooth. I think you would not guess my age if you looked at me (although you might clock the ever-present dark circles under my eyes and wonder if I had recently taken a 2x4 to the face -- no, that's just how I look, permanently: severely malnourished, and/or haunted).

Anyway, it's been some years since I posted a wish list here. I thought I'd do so, since it seemed fun and I'm feeling post-y.


( iron | mini ironing board | lavender rotary cutter set | pastel highlighters | cloud-shaped mini cutter | grid print memo pads | lavender pen/pencil case | BL Metamorphosis vol. 2 | Fender guitar pick set | shell pink Fender x Kyser capo )


One gander at this image and you can tell what my fixations are: sewing, stationery (for journaling purposes mainly), and playing the guitar. I think you can also tell I like lavender/lilac right now. In that way it's kind of like a map of my brain!

I didn't actually ask for all of these things from those who always treat me. I've already bought the pink capo for myself, and will probably scoop the lavender rotary cutting set with the gift card my grandma always gives for birthdays. I asked for my dad to re-string my acoustic guitar as my gift and am stoked about that.

I've been a little too spendy this past month, between buying fabric and stationery supplies, so mostly I'm hoping to have a frugal May!

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sewing Blythe socks

Friday, April 29, 2022

Hey, y'all. I'm still in a sew-y mood. And a post-y mood.

I saw this ribbed knit fabric at the craft store and instantly thought I'd like to make Blythe socks out of it. I've always liked the ribbed socks I have. So I got a small bit of these two colors -- kind of a rust and a dusty blush-pink -- and bought this sock pattern off Etsy.

Here they are on Wisp and Klara. I've actually made six pairs now (three of each color), improving a little with each pair, seeing which side looks best as the outside...

I love them! I want to get some other colors of this same ribbed knit and do a whole collection. Socks!!! I'd also like to finagle some tights.

I'm glad for anything I can sew by hand. I've done a lot of applique and embroidery so I don't really mind the process. And lord, can I blanket stitch. (I made this bottlecap pincushion, too.) So I'm happy to just have little socks that I can hand-stitch as a small step to other doll clothes. I hope!


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springy skirt on

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Another post?? Yes!

Ah, sewing. I'm not good at it! I desperately wish I could be. I do not have the kind of brain that understands construction and how things go together. It also does not understand sizing things or conceptualizing things in steps. We all have our strong suits and understanding how things work is not mine!

But I've been dinking around with hand-sewing tiny doll clothes this past week because I want to make that cosplay for Lamb, as I mentioned. So the other day I made this floaty circle skirt. Klara is kindly wearing it with an old butterscotch-y MINIJIJO petticoat, on top of an ancient pale green Sugar Mag shirt that has a peplum bit the skirt entirely covers. (And a green deer-eared headband felted by me!!)

I did not use any kind of pattern whatsoever making this, which I think might be somewhat obvious. I just cut out a circle and nipped a bit out of it for the waist, and made a waistband for that bit, and hemmed it clumsily. It's even got a snap on the back. Since I don't know what I'm doing, the slight gather at the waist doesn't help the skirt sit prettily. No freakin' clue how to make it look better. Also think I want the skirt to have either more fabric to it, be really ridiculous, or less fabric to it.

I think I could really like sewing if I could acquire the skills necessary. Admittedly I'm very scared of using a sewing machine, so that's a massive hurdle in trying to tackle the whole concept. I looked up local sewing classes just now and got so petrified at the idea of trying to interact with a sewing machine.

But it's a thought. Maybe I'll feel brave and/or reckless enough to sign up for a class.

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