crochet amanitas!

With fall in full swing and winter around the corner (ack!) I've caught a wicked crochet bug and even though I am attempting to prep up for my next craft show (eep! less than 3 weeks away!), I really want to get my hook out and make up some cute things - like these (link):

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Oh man - add a little wide eyed smile on these and I'm sold.  Maybe I will get ahead on my crafty prep and me able to whip up some happy little amigurimi pals to sell at my booth too! What a thought! Have you ever knit/crochet for profit? Is it ever actually worth it (other than fun of course)?

squid on squid tree bombing

I'm not entirely sure what started my current obsession with squid (or pretty much any tentacled beasty) - but they're just so cool.  Add that to my love of crafty goodness and behold! One amazing yarn bomb:

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Why yes that is a big plushy knit squid hanging out on a squid-like yarn bombed tree! I think I will need to get my crochet hook out pretty darn soon to make my own little squid pal (even though these are knit) and see what I can come up with. In the mean time this will have to do. What is your favourite tentacled being?

Book Review: Fairy Gardening and Fairy Gardening 101

I'm not one to ever pass up a good book review opportunity- so for today, let me present two wonderfully whimsical books I got the pleasure of checking out for Skyhorse Publishing on the subject of fairy gardening:

 Ok, so that first statement I made isn't entirely true.  I get lots of emails from publishers asking me if I am interested in reviewing their books and I only actually agree when they are on subjects I'm interested in - and since I enjoy gardening (even if I'm not so great at it) and cute mythical little creatures (such as fairies) I figured these books were right up my alley. 

The first book we will be looking at is "Fairy Gardening: Creating Your Own Magical Miniature Garden" by Julie Bawdin-Davis and Beverly Turner.  As the cover hints, this book is full of inspiring creative little magical gardens with loads of pictures and ideas for making your own.

Julie and Beverly outline the seven simple steps to make your own miniature garden and give loads of tips and tricks for creating focus, movement, and interest in your creation.  I really like how they give you the basis of what to look for when getting supplies but still leaves plenty of space to personalize your garden and tailor it to your taste.  I also really enjoyed all of the big bright pictures in the book that really let you focus on the details and whimsy of each idea. Just look how cute this little guy is with a puppy:    

Beyond the magical creative parts of this type of gardening, it also gives you some solid gardening tips perfect for miniature gardening including how to proliferate tiny succulents:

and a full detailed list of what types of plants work well in miniature form:

I found the plants list particularly helpful since I often try to plant things in pots that really shouldn't be grown in pots which leads to their eventual death... It also left me aching to grow my own dwarf bonsai tree! 

Once you add all of the elements up you can end up with your own mini garden perfect for some charming inhabitants like this Alice In Wonderland themed pot (my personal favourite):

Next up for review is "Fairy Gardening 101: How to Design, Plant, Grow, and Create over 25 Miniature Gardens" by Fiona McDonald.  Once again the purple glittery lettering drew me in and the images on this book really demonstrate the step by step process of making these gardens. 

This publication was excellent at outlining which types of containers and plants work best for miniature gardening and shows the steps to create many different types of gardens.  I like how this book gives you specific sample gardens to make and really spells out the process.  Of course you can always add in your own creative touches, but it is a great starting point for a novice gardener. 

I also really enjoyed the variety of fairy eden's you could make including this standard fairy garden,:

this lovely mexican themed cacti pot,:

and (my personal gardening weakness) a terrarium!:

Fiona also shows you how to create both indoor and outdoor gardens that totally appealed to my inner child (and I imagine my fairy-loving niece would be all over)! This book also had instructions to make your own fairies and fairy accessories.  After searching for my own ceramic magical friends to put in my own miniature gardens I realized that they really aren't the easiest things to find - so making your own is an awesome option.  

In comparison - both books did a marvellous job of opening me up to the world of fairy gardening and each had their own way to helping you create your masterpiece.  The first book offered loads of inspiring images and information even an experienced gardener could put to use while the second showed very clear step-by-step instructions (with pictures) on making specific types of gardens.  I personally feel that Fairy Gardening 101 would be the best choice if you were planning on making a garden with a young child (or perhaps someone who needs a little more direction with their creativity), while the first Fairy Gardening book lets you take it a step beyond and allows you to focus in on the elements to make one heck of a lovely piece!  As always, this is just my opinion - so your best bet is to buy the books and decide for yourself!

So what was my take home message after reading these books? I clearly need loads of creatures in my plant pots at home!  With market season in full swing I haven't found time to make up lots of fairy items (which I'm thinking would be awesome to make our of polymer clay), but I did land this darling little brass deer who seems right at home with some of my succulents:

Ok. I've got a ways to go before I've mastered this art - but as soon as I find some extra time I will be sure to update you on my miniature magical gardens!

So how about you? Did you always try to make little fairy havens when you were a kid like I did? If so - it's probably time to revisit that magic and get crafting! Happy gardening everyone! 

BFFs

I usually have quite a few product ideas floating around my head, and for years I've been thinking of making a whole bunch of best friend button sets. Well I took the plunge and after a few weeks of concentrated effort (yes - it is quite the long process) they are here! Check out these perfect pairings:

Hooray! I'm super excited for how they turned out and even made some slightly mathematical card packaging for them! As with most of the projects I went a smidge overboard once I got started and ended up with 16 different sets! Ok...if you look closely two of those sets are remarkably similar but once I made bacon and eggs I felt a bacon and bacon set was in order because what goes better with bacon then more bacon? Apparently food items are my favourite pairs making up 56% of the sets, followed by some semi scientific sets like the pollination pals, symbiotic anemone and clown fish, and (my faves) the base pairs! Here are everyones favourite DNA building blocks in their fully packaged glory:

And hey - if you're like Mindy Kaling and "best friend" is more of a tier than a person you can get both base pair sets and share them with three of your geeky pals! Yay!

All of these darling new sets are already up for sale in my etsy shop (link) and just begging to be bought and loved! What are your thoughts? Which set suits your and your BFF the best? Any favourites? 

Stepping up my painting game!

I've always been very particular about colours - I like certain shades, am extra fond of muted jewel tones, and like combinations that pop. With this in mind, I rarely ever find paint colours I can use straight from the tube and end up mixing my own instead.  This process is enjoyable but can be quite tedious when my perfectly mixed paint dries and I want to continue working on the same project the next day.  The solution? Making my very own custom coloured paint pots! Aha! Why in the world did this take me so long to figure out? So I took a nice little trip over to the Dollarama, picked up some sweet stackable small containers, and got to mixin'! Here is what I ended up with:

Yay! I promise you they are even more stunning in person and make my crafting/painting life so much easier.  Now I am free to paint for as long as I'd like and still be able to come back and continue without more mixing! Oh the world is a wonderful place! Sure I'm missing out on the fun of mixing up the colours but if I want a new tone I can just start a new pot! Plus they lock together for easy storage:

Ooo those mid-centurty modern colour palettes are dreamy. I am now substantially more efficient when it comes to acrylics and used these lovely custom colours to make 26 different necklaces last week. Apparently I went a smidge overboard with the painted beads and pendants but who wouldn't go nuts over perfect colour tones? I'll be sharing my creations over the next while and you'll be able to see these colours in action! What about you? Are you also the colour police? 

Hell of a Caturday

When I came across this image I just had to share it! Behold the ultimate in cute geekiness:

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If you weren't already aware, my husband Fraser is a big geek.  I thought it was a pretty standard assumption but when I had my friend Maureen over a few weeks back I was showing her Fraser's studio (where is nerd-dom flourishes) as part of the condo tour.  She saw all of his war hammer and war machine little painted dudes all over and reacted with, "I didn't know Fraser was THAT much of a geek!"  Yep. He sure is. It's wonderful. That being said - Hellboy was one of his favourite comic characters when I met him many moons ago and since kitties are my favourite animal this picture is a lovely fusion of our likes! Yay! I mean look at those little faces and paws!! Adorable! Happy Caturday everyone! What geek level are you at? 

quite the culture

Looks like my goal of blogging more hasn't been the most successful but sometimes life just gets in the way it seems. I've been having one heck of an unproductive time since moving back to Kamloops as our home renovations are still in progress (but ALMOST done), we haven't actually finished unpacking (eep), and my chronic illness has progressed to the point where I can't work and trying to rest and feel better has completely taken over my life. Oh dear! 

On the bright side of things - I have had lots of time to read loads of scientific studies and novels on dealing with chronic illness (seriously - it's great. I love research) and I got the opportunity to make a whole whack load of little pseudomonas microbe plushies to send to some lovely ladies (and their lab cohorts) for xmas! My pinched nerve pain has left my left arm/side very limited so these cuties took quite a bit longer than my usual pace but I did it! And boy am I ever happy with how they turned out:

I hope these darlings are enjoying their new homes in the warm hands of those San Francisco pseudomonas lab geeks! I even made a nice little stop motion video showing these little opportunistic pathogens reproducing! Check it out!

Quite the pseudomonas culture growth on my couch today. Now to ship these babies off to their new home in California!

A video posted by Kate McCurrach (@scientific_culture) on Nov 11, 2014 at 11:46am PST

Hehe! We can send our thanks to Fraser for that one since it was his idea to do the video in the first place. Thanks hubs!

That little spout of creative progress left me hankering for more so I've been working on crafting up all sorts of lovely creations for xmas presents this year. Not working has tightened by budget quite a bit so I decided I may as well use some of the craft supplies I have on hand and make things! Unfortunately that also means I can't share my creations with you until after santa arrives - but I can tell you I've really been stretching the old creativity muscles and making all sorts of different and unique things. Oh and not to worry - I am still rolling along my slow road to recovery and hopefully be all healed up sooner rather than later! Hooray!

knit specimen

If you're a regular reader here on the blog you may have noticed I have a quirky sense of decorating style. I love texture, I love homemade stuff, and I love this knit brain in a jar:

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Isn't it spectacular? Who doesn't need one of these? I think it would look just charming on a shelf in my new craft/sun room and think I need to find this perfect shade of brain tissue pink yarn so I can make my own version! I'm thinking I can just make a big long spool knit string and sew it into something brain shaped - what do you think? Can I rack your brain? 

Donut Mitosis

Sometimes I see amazing things on the internet and get jealous that I didn't think of them first! Mind you - I'd sub the donuts for cookies I think in this demonstration, but it is wonderful nonetheless. Check out some donut cell duplication:

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Oh I love all the detail and geekiness with these sweets! I mean look at those little alleles and spindle fibres! How perfect! Now I'm not sure if I want to go to the bakery or the lab...

True Companions

Apparently I'm all about the geekery this week since my geeky beau Fraser is coming for a nice long visit (starting today)! We have loads of amazingly fun things planned - like cleaning, organizing, and picking out supplies to fix up our new place! What a pair we are! And since we're on the topic of great companions....check these two out:

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Hahahaha! What a wonderful image! It actually really makes me want some skim milk (out of a red solo cup) and chocolate chip cookie...while watching Star Wars...but maybe that's just me. I mean who really needs an excuse to eat more chocolate cookies? Happy weekend! What are your geeky plans? 

If only

I can honestly say I can not imagine a better sight to come across when opening the freezer door:

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I think I now need to:

1) become more creative
2) increase my sneakiness
3) start putting any and all toys/action figures/models/random anthropomorphized objects in interesting (and witty) places
and
4) master this so when I have children I can claim the title of "coolest and geekiest mom ever!!!"

Yup. That's my plan. What do you think?  

Cuteness in the Grim Dark Future of the 41st Millennium...

Hi Everyone! Kate has a been a bit too busy wrapping presents for all sorts of important people (possibly me...), so I will be filling in for Kate today. 

I don't think that Kate has ever mentioned that I am ridiculously addicted to tabletop wargaming. I love playing the games, painting the miniatures, and making miniature terrain. However, sometimes the hobby can get a little serious. Which is why I'm super happy to share this image with you: 

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Apparently, a long time ago, some guy got tired of people being super serious and uptight about little toy soldiers and decided to take a Hello Kitty themed army to the National Warhammer 40k tournament in Las Vegas. He ended up winning the tournament, and the company that makes Warhammer 40k was unable to publish pictures of the winner because of the possibility of copyright issues. So, whenever I feel like this hobby is getting to be a little too serious I just type "Hello Kitty Space Marines" into the search engine and I after looking at the images I remember that hobbies are all about having fun and there's no need to get too worked up about little plastic models of futuristic warriors. 

Have a great Monday!

Fraser

A scientific culture-y october!

Happy October! Looks like we're in for another month of crafty fun here on the blog - as well as another free printable calendar (link)! This month my glassware decided to be extra festive and dressed up in spooky costumes for you:

you can download me here!

Hooray! So it's really more cute than spooky...but that sort of suits my style so I rolled with it. I am really loving how this month's calendar turned out and I am really getting a hang of all the awesome features in the My Memories digital scrapbook software! Hopefully you enjoy this month's freebie as much as I do and print out your own version and make a little stand for it (using this tutorial I made here!)! Yay! 

As for goings on around here - it is going to be the start of two lonely months while Fraser is off in Kamloops doing his practicum (boo) but I am hoping it will give me extra time for crafty productivity! I'm also starting taking rheumatoid health classes on Wednesdays down at the Arthritis Centre and I can't wait! Heck, maybe I'll even get a haircut for the first time in 11 months! Oh what excitement! What are your plans for October? 

Friday Find: Aorta

Today's find is right up my alley - quirky, one of a kind, and including very wide set eyes. Take a peek:

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A little confused on what it is? Why one of the fabulous upcycled appliqued squid ties from Etsy's Aorta (link)! Check them out:

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Ahahaha! I love them! The mix of texture and pattern is just perfect and although I am far from a tie wearer, I can think of one person who might be talked into wearing a squid themed one for special occasions....yay! What do you think? Should I whip out the sewing machine and make my own Kate version?

Crafty Outbreak

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been crafting up a storm over here preparing for my first craft show this Sunday! One of the items on my "to craft" list was restocking some of my booth basics I was running low on, so it was time to whip out the sewing machine, fleece, and stuffing and make some massive cultures of Pseudomonas and Chlamydia:

Ahha! These little dudes always make me feel so awesome (unlike their pathogenic counterparts) and all those little smiles are just asking for new homes right?

 

Aww! It feels great to have these guys back in stock and here's to hoping they're a hit this weekend!

Although (as usual these days) my lack of awesome light source doesn't do wonders for their cuteness, I assure you they are lovely muted tones of minty green (for Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and teal (for Chlamydia trachomatis)! Now to print out some extra fact cards and add them to the crafty totes for the sale! Yay!

I don't get out much these days...

I don't seem to do a single embroidery project without forgetting my long time pals the love robots. Looks like Clamps, Al, and Wheelie are back to spread the binary and bitmaps all over the place:

I really enjoyed doing this group on a slightly darker background for a change and think the coral-red fabric really lets their little hearts pop!

Aww. So Al's over-enthused hands sort of look like he's trying to cop a feel (oh dear, did I just type that?), but I still love them! They're such a rad little trio of geekiness and I love seeing how they transform each time I make them. Clamps seems to be defying the laws of physics a bit with those spindly little legs, but boy are they ever darling:

Yaaaayyy! (Kermit style) Robot love for all!!!

yeti loves tea!

Being sick on the couch all weekend means two things, 1) I didn't schedule any blog posts like I normally do and 2) In my zombie ill brainlessness I whipped up some cute embroidery hoops! I mean look how enthusiastic yeti is about that cup of tea:

Maybe it is actually a cup of chicken noodle soup (which Fraser has been nice enough to keep me in supply of) and he had a cozy weekend just like me! Yay! I'm hoping one more day of rest is all I need to heal up then I'll be back at it tomorrow! In the meantime - I hope you like yeti. I wanted to set a few of these up for my craft booth - any suggestions for pricing on my hours and hours of handmade goodness?

Hanging Mushrooms

With spring in the air and greenery popping up all over the place, I've had mushrooms on the brain! I painted up some little wooden ones a few weeks ago (link) and just couldn't get enough of them so I made some more! I had a few wooden split balls and candle cups left over so figured what the heck! Time for more! Check them out:

Yay! Painted mushroom pendants! Yup, I took Lisa and Kelly's suggestion and thought it would be fun to make them into necklaces. It was particularly simple since I had all the supplies on hand and am even mastering the sliding knot closure:

 

 Yipee! I really love how the hang and think the red, teal, and golden yellow look pretty snazzy:

Now it's just a matter of figuring out pricing and deciding if it's worth while to list them on etsy (they're wider than 2cm in thickness so shipping would be quite costly). What are your thoughts? Would you wear a spotty mushroom around your neck?

A new root vegetable art form?

Happy Sunday everyone! While you are hopefully spending your day doing a whole handful of wonderful weekend-y things, I am recovering from too much fun at the Highland Games yesterday (and another mysterious rash). I am also dreaming about endless (illness free) spare time to explore all sorts of crafts and hobbies - like Darth Vader root vegetable carving! How many people can add that to their resume? Well...Oki from My Sushi World can...
 

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Okay, so it sort of takes on a whole new level of geekiness, but Oki even has instructions on his blog so you can make your own! Got three carrots, a steady hand, and loads of time? Perfect! You're set! I think I'm going to stick with enjoying the Millenium Falcon ice cubes from the tray Fraser bought me and stick to making crafts for the market! What are you up to today?

Corduroy Ewoks

One unfortunate side effect of going on vacation is all the fun blog posts I miss out on! Sure it is great to unplug and get away for a while, but when I get back home there are so many unread posts in my bloglovin' account that I inevitably skim and hit the "mark all as read" (a.k.a. kate's sanity) button! Shucks! Luckily I did manage to read a few posts that happened during the first week of May and this tutorial from Molly at Wild Olive was one of them! Who could pass up DIY corduroy ewok plushies! Take a peek!

 

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Ack! So much nerdy cuteness! I totally need to get a hold of some fabric scraps for and make a pile of these babies to hide out in my planters on the patio! Wouldn't they be just perfect? Okay...so once I water them and it rains they might be a little on the moldy side...but minor details. Cute Star Wars crafts totally make a little microbe growth worth it right? I thought so. What do you think?