Coraline Mystery Box Swap :: Sent Box #16

I forgot to finish the story of the Coraline Mystery Box Swap I participated in. Here is a crappy picture of the box I sent:

My partner took a much better picture when she received it, which you can view here. What went in to this box? Well, I made a black kitty from the free pattern at Wee Wonderfuls, a dragon fly, button eyes on a mini pin cushion, a key necklace and a seeing stone. The seeing stone is actually a rock I found on Shi Shi Beach a few years ago. I collected several rocks with little holes in them there, they were everywhere. They turned out to be a perfect thing to have on hand for this swap. The box is just a box I bought from Michaels...but I talked David into staining it when he was staining the windowsills for our new windows and then I lined it with red crushed velvet. As I alluded to in my first post, I also typed up a few things too, since the originals contained typed letters:

The letter wording is inspired by the original letters in the boxes, but I customized it to fit this swap. I am a horrible typist, by the way, and way worse when I cannot delete as freely as you can on a computer. Glad I don't have to type anything for real on a typewriter these days. This swap was such fun and I am so glad my little mochi came up with this idea, I needed the creative kick in the pants.

Coraline Mystery Box Swap :: Received

I have to say, you really can't beat exciting mail....check out this amazing Coraline mystery box I received late last week:

It arrived all the way from Belgium! I love love love it! Thanks so much Sandrine! My favorite thing is the dragonfly brooch, but it also contains a lovely little pouch for collecting relics, some button eyes and a key!

This was such a fun swap to give and receive. It was hosted by my little mochi and was inspired by the 50 boxes sent out by the Coraline movie crew to 50 bloggers they follow...seriously, take a minute to check out the originals here on the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive website. The originals were so amazing and full of handmade goodness --very inspiring! The my little mochi version stayed true to the spirit of the originals; they had to contain at least 2 handmade items, buttons for your new eyes and the boxes were to be lined with red velvet. Check out some of the other swappers boxes posted in the Coraline Mystery Box flickr group.

I'll post pictures of the box I am sending out soon, but I want to wait until my partner receives it. I did lots of planning for this swap. Coraline has long been one of my favorite books and so I reread the book before starting anything. I've also been loving the Coraline movie website...you can do lots of fun things...even upload a picture and give yourself button eyes (I'll warn you, it's freaky) or download a mini-knitting pattern by miniature knitter Althea Crome. The movie, unfortunately was a slight disappointment, not nearly as good as the book, but the effects and all the little handmade details in the movie made it worth the watch and I did like the 3-D and wearing the funky glasses.

As a mini-preview of the box I made, I'll end this post by telling you I used a typewriter to finish it up...that's right a real, live typewriter! Amazingly, we still have two at my library branch and so I sat down and used a typewriter for the first time since I was in high school!

Hey Cupcakes!

Finally, I am done with my swap projects...with many apologies to my poor partners. If you are reading this, I can assure you they are very fantastic! I will be sad to part with these lovelies...but I am packing them up today. I finished these Sat morning before work and came home on my lunch break just to get a proper photo of them. Today, with wet ground and rain outside, I think it is the perfect day to hide indoors and perhaps make MORE cup cake pincushions and needlebooks...I think they would make great gifts for sewing friends! Want to make some too? Snag yourself a copy of Betz White's Warm Fuzzies from the library (that's what I did!), but that said it is worth buying. Lots of cuties to make in this book. My copy is overdue actually...

Things do not always go as planned...

I come to you tonight fully rested. I had big plans this weekend, but I ended up doing a lot of sleeping instead. I suppose it is the California time change catching up with me, but still...I fell asleep at 6pm last night! And I slept til 7:15 this morning. I suppose I shouldn't feel too bad about myself though. I did manage to clean and do our taxes! And I finished up my mobile finally. Here it is:

It's a clothes line! I love seeing clothes on the line and I hope to someday have a backyard I actually can hang clothes out to dry in. I had big plans originally to make more 3D clothing, but then reality and deadlines kicked in and I simply embroidered it. Most of the clothing is made out of craft felt. I did make most clothing two sided and used thermoweb to fuse them together. That stuff rocks! Perfect if you are trying to create speedily like I was! All of the other mobiles in the flickr pool are so gorgeous, I hope this one measures up!

Mobiles

I signed up for this mobile swap on the elsie marley blog. I have always loved mobiles and, in general, things hanging from the ceiling. What a wonderful inspiration/reason to make one! I have many ideas and am thinking about working on card stock, maybe busting out that gocco I got for Christmas...but we'll see (OK I'm nervous about using it, I'm trying to get over this). Some ideas don't always pan out like I hope and for that reason I won't post any details just yet, but trust me, you'll be seeing them!

Thanks for the feedback about my new banner!

A Book Bug

What has 6 legs, is made out of corduroy, cotton and felt, is super soft and loves to read? Why it's a Book Bug of course! Check her out devouring these books just minutes after being stuffed:

This project is 100% the crafty librarian in me! I was thinking at work one day how at my branch, there are 2 things the kids could really use more of... soft things to hold and someone to listen to them practice reading. And somehow this project sprung from that thought. See, a Book Bug isn't just any old softie. They need to be read to in order to survive (oh yes, I've thought of a whole Book Bug story to go along with this creation --perhaps I'll share in another post). I made it soft for snuggling, squarish like a book and since she is a bug, I gave her 6 legs. The other thing is, all Book Bugs have a nifty pocket in the back for storing bedtime stories and other reading material:

This is completely from my own imagination and turned out very close to how I pictured it in my head, but I'll be making more to perfect it further. I am thinking of making these for nieces and nephews this year for Christmas! This one however is most likely swap bound. She will be hard to let go...

It's Yard Sale Time

David and I are getting ready for the Victorian Village Yard Sale. This is perhaps one of my favorite yard sales in Columbus. About every other year my friend Kelli and I have enough stuff to sell and we take a truck load of our castaways over to my mom and dad's and set up shop. We always seem to sell our old clothes like crazy. But then, we have had a pretty serious case of clothes-buying addiction for at least the last twelve years...Here are this years goods:


Not the most appealing picture, but since I don't have any "works in progress" to show...Also, this year, I'll be selling my lip balm and scrubs too! So if you are in Columbus this weekend....

Once I clear myself a spot, (since the yard sale goods are packed tightly around my crafting table) I hope to finish up my first felted project, which is extremely late for my swap partner. This is my first time being late for a swap-bot swap and I am feeling extremely guilty....but I guess I'll make up for it by putting a little extra heart and soul into this project. I did finally find a great burnt orange sweater to felt at the vintage shop. When I was procrastinating I didn't count on how hard it would be to find a wool sweater in late May! And sadly I didn't even have an old wool sweater in my own closet! But I can finally get started.

Another thing I am realizing, once again (because I know this --I just always seem to forget), I am only as busy as I think I am. In reality, all of the "stuff" on my to-do list is quite doable! Yes my schedule is tight, but really, it is almost all stuff I like to do...so with that, I'll get back to drinking my AM coffee! I do still run on lots of caffeine to get all this stuff done!!!!

Goodies

Yesterday I made goodie bars! These were one of my grandma's special recipes. They're basically just rice krispie treats with peanut butter and chocolate but man, they are good :) The night of my grandma's funeral last February my cousins and I were sitting around talking and then we just scoured the kitchen and made goodie bars. It is a memory I really cherish. A bright spot in an otherwise difficult day. I thought I'd try my hand at sharing a yummy recipe. Here are the ingredients (minus the salt and pepper in the background):

1 cup sugar
1 cup karo
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups of rice krispies
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

First you pour together karo and sugar into a pot. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add peanut butter:

Pour over rice krispies and mix together. Scoop mixture into a 9 x 13 rectangular cake pan. Use Wax paper to press flat if you like. Set aside

Melt chocolate chips and and butterscotch chips on very low heat or double broiler if you have one. When completely melted pour over pan of krispies.

Cool in fridge for at least 2 hours - overnight. Cut into bars and chow down!

I love these! I think I'll go eat one now actually :) It is about time for dessert...But before I do I also want to share my first swap received. Technically this was my second swap, however, My first one was quite a bummer, I never got anything and I had two partners! I was so happy to receive this today from Marylyn:

My faith in swaps is restored. I especially love the little knit and embelished needle case. I will make sure to take extra special care of it!!! Thanks so much Marylyn! Can't wait to knit up my new project!

Finished

I've been slaving away on the "Story of My Life" CD. It's finally burned and ready to mail! This took over my life in numerous ways...first, David has, I dunno, 1,000 CDs (seriously) and trying to narrow my song choices to 20-some songs was, to say the least, difficult! Also, I am HORRIBLE with band and song names. I know what I like when I hear it, but finding it when you don't know those two important pieces of information, well, it takes a while. Another thing I was trying to do was make sure the sound of the song matched both the flow of the CD and the topic it was for. In some cases the lyrics don't quite match up with the time in my life they are supposed to be for, but the sound matched, so I used it. Other times the lyrics matched, but the sound was a little off. Overall, I think I've crafted a good mix. At the same time (and I may be taking this task a tad too seriously) is it worthy of my background music? For my life? Does it define all of the BIG moments of my life? And will I agree with this assessment in 5 years? Tomorrow? And then it is completely personal...I like all of the songs, but someone else, namely the people who will get it in the mail...that will be another story...hopefully they don't hate it. I can't wait to see what CDs I get. This was truly an enlightening task for me. So fun!

And I'm totally addicted to swap-bot now...I also signed up for a Winter Knit Kit Swap. I'll be mailing someone a hot beverage mix, mug, yarn, needles and a scarf pattern. How exciting! This one will be super-fun to receive too!

Swapping

So I signed up for my first swap tonight on swap-bot. I always love seeing all of the swapped goodies on the blogs I read, but I am not emersed enough in the blog world to actually know anyone to swap with so swap-bot will have to do for me. I'll be swapping a Story of My Life Mix CD. It will be interesting to try and write my autobiography in songs. And do I pick songs I actually liked during certain periods of my life...or songs which describe who I was at the time, but didn't know of or like then? Or a mix of both of those? I want the CD to be palitable so I think it would be impossible to do strictly songs I liked at the time...there are certain songs and phases which I have no desire to relive! I like the idea of Mix CDs with themes. A few years ag I made my friend a "New Place Mix" which I ended up burning for myself too. I'll have to post my track listing once I'm finished!