Long time! I'm still here!

    I have not blogged my last handful of crafting accomplishments, gosh! So slow! Most have been knitting and there's a couple of things I'm not ready to share yet (as they are gifts), but here's two items I am so happy about and proud of!

   I posted these photos to Flickr as well, if you want to follow me there. :P

   The first project, my knit bandana cowl, I started on the 17th and finished a couple days later, but that's just for this attempt. I attempted this same cowl three times until I realized I was reading the instructions wrong and that's why it kept coming out absolutely humongous.

   I am so in love with this cowl and wear it almost every time I go out! It doesn't help that I really don't have a collection of neck warming accessories, but I still just adore it. The pattern is Purl Bee's Bandana Cowl and the yarn is just some cheapo Simply Soft that I picked up at Walmart to use as props for my Christmas kitty portraits.

  

    Since I began knitting and crocheting, I have not been showing enough love to my first crafting obsession, sewing. But a couple days ago I started (and finished) a new pair of blue jeans. And I am so, so please! Not only are they the best I've made yet, but they were the fastest to work up as well!

    I think the reason these turned out so pleasant to make and lovely to wear is that these are the first pair of jeans I made a muslin for. All the rest I got the size closest to what I wanted from the pattern and worked them down to the size I wanted all on the finished piece. This time I found out exactly the size I wanted to be working with first before I even touched my denim fabric and I am so glad I did!

    This is still Butterick's B5682 pattern in boot cut, which is the only cut and only jean patterns I have tried so far, but I have plans to try out the skinny jeans cut from the same pattern soon. Maybe I'll work on the muslin today. ;)

    There's been a lot of improvement in my homemade jeans since my first pair, but still a few things I could improve. The only things I really messed up on this pair was the butt pockets not being spaced evenly apart and my waistband not being cut long enough, which resulted in some bunching when I sewed it on. I have some a problem with pants not properly holding in my butt-crack and underwear though (TMI? Sorry. :P) so it being a bit tight around the waist is not entirely a bad thing.

   Tomorrow or today I will be shipping out a couple of handmade items I made to participate in a Secret Valentine exchange, so once my recipient receives those you can expect a new blog post!

   Outside of crafting (but still inside my artsier endeavors) I have started taking self portraits again. In November I made it a goal to take one every day of the month. I didn't finish that goal because I ended up feeling very burned out, and it took two months to set up the tripod and load up EOS Utility again, but last week I took my first new one in a while.

   Then a couple days ago I took the ones shared above to show off my creations. Does it say something bad that the only thing I really take photos of anymore is myself? (Well, my cats too, but I don't really put a lot of thought into those shots.) I always veered more towards portraiture but I have been feeling pretty disconnected from people for a while now and that doesn't really fuel the spark I previously had for photographing others, and photography in general actually. I don't really consider any of it a bad thing, I'm pretty introverted and don't have that much of a social drive but it has made my photography a bit more boring. Anyways, that's all I have to share for now!

   I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year!

Self Portraits Part 3~

Hope no one is getting bored of these! Here are the latest of my self portrait project. I have been feeling sick lately, can you tell? :(

Self Portraits, Part 2

   Last time I blogged, I shared my project of the month with you. To take a self portrait every day for November! I'm almost halfway through the project now and really enjoying it. It has made me need to get a little creative at times (not at all a bad thing) and definitely has helped me learn a bit about photography, my own makeup and poses, lighting, and of course self portraits.

   I just finished editing the photos for today while watching Repo! (still watching, hehe). So here is the photos I've taken and chosen for portrait of the day since the last blog post.

   All the photos link to the same photo on my flickr, btw. :)

   So what do you think? Any favourites? ;P

My -BIG- Project of the Month and Other Recent Happenings

   At the start of every month, I write out a little list of small to medium sized goals to complete within the month. Sometimes I don't make all of them, but having that sort of reminder of what I want/need to do and the time in which I need to get it done has helped me a lot of with my depression and lack of motivation, both of which are not constant problems anymore. More of fleeting moments, but I'm not ready to retire my monthly goals list.

   This month, one of them was to take a self portrait every single day of November. Photography has been a fairly large part of my life for a while now, but my passion for it dwindled for a bit there. Self portraits were always what I was the worst at as far as photography goes, and it would be nice to improve to have nice photos of myself as well as building the skill to take good self portraits for this blog and it's posts.

   So, so far I'm on day six and have taken seven photo-of-the-day-s, haha. Here they are:

November 1st, 2013

November 3rd, 2013

November 3rd, 2013

November 4th, 2013

November 5th, 2013

November 6th, 2013

   And here's the photo from Day 2, which wasn't included above because it contains artistic nudity. So instead of making it automatically visible, I thought I'd give ya'll the choice to view it if you want to.

   I'm really happy with how my self portrait project is turning out so far, and may just post the results on a weekly basis, if anyone is interested. But for now, my set for my self portrait project is here, and this is my whole photostream. :) BTW, little mini blogs are posted in the caption of each self portrait of my project and the other self portraits that I didn't choose as 'photo of the day'.

   Besides taking probably too many photos of myself, I've been crocheting a slouchy colour block beanie, which is my third crochet project (and third hat, since all my crochet projects have been hats :D). I plan on making a matching scarf and mittens for this, wish me luck as I haven't even tried to make either yet!

   I've also been practicing my banjo every day. I got a banjo for my 22nd birthday in September, and I haven't really started practicing it until recently. I am a complete, complete beginner! After sharing the photo I took today of me and my banjo, someone shared with me that my finger picks were on backwards, so when I say complete beginner, I mean it! I've wanted to learn to play one for a long time though and I'm so happy to have one to try and learn on.

   And speaking of banjo, today on Spoonflower I made my first sell on a pattern I designed! It was My First Banjo! Woo hoo! The order was for a fat quarter of the fabric and I made almost two bucks on it. ;P I'm really excited to have sold some fabric though and it will be nice to use that towards buying myself some more fabric of my own!

   Well, I guess that's all I have to say before I go back to crocheting. I hadn't blogged in a week or so, so I wanted to share what I had been up to. Have a wonderful, crafty day!