Owlishly

How to make color images black & white in Flickr

An excellent post from Flor on her Things I've Made blog on how to make a color image (an embroidery transfer) black & white.

I've often wondered how to do that and I've wanted to ask, but it seems that some things are close guarded secrets only for people in the know :) Thanks to Flor, now I'm one of them!

Busy, busy day and still no pictures. Bah. My husband had started a masters program in public administration this fall, and his classes are Monday & Tuesday nights so we cram a bunch of stuff into Sundays we're finding out.

I've also decided, I am going to run another pattern deal in my etsy shop, it'll be the best one that I run all year, and it may become an anniversary sale that I run every year.  More on that when I have these dang pictures uploaded and I can create a listing!

Amazing.

Really, I know a gazillion people have already linked to Kathleen Dougherty's awesome fantastic Grosgrain blog where she sews fantastic children's clothes and then GIVES them away, but her latest is too amazing not to post about.

By doing so, I'm entering her contest to win this fabulous Marie-Thérèse gown.  Seriously, if you don't read her blog, you need to get over there and take a look, and probably stay for a while.  Through serendipitous clicking I found her blog and subscribed immediately.  I think it helps that my daughter is on the smaller size of the dresses/clothes that she's usually giving away.  I've never entered one of her contests before, though I've been seriously tempted, but this one blows everything out of the water. Really.  Even if you don't have little girls, her clothes are so sweet to look at, so please do just that. 

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In the bat boy news, I've got him all finished up except his wings, oh, and his second ear, and part of his tail.  But other than that, he is finished.  I'm seriously always behind on holidays, but I can only keep hoping that one day I'll be ahead of the curve.  Hopefully I have some sympathizers.

I do know how I want to do the wings, I've planned the pattern in my head when I'm supposed to be sleeping, so I haven't gotten up and actually tried it, but I'm pretty sure it's going to work.  Lately, I've found that planning patterns while I'm going to sleep is actually becoming an effective way for me to fall asleep; except it's sometimes not the best plan for remembering my actual plans :)

Thank you

 

To all the visitors from the Craftzine blog :) I hope you like my little pattern!

It's always one of my favorites to read, and was quite a surprise to see my little Sleepy Sarah in my reader yesterday. I'm hoping this post will work- I've been reading on everyone's blogs how typepad is acting up for them and hadn't experienced it until yesterday. 

I'm working on a little lion, and used a new 8 GB compact flash card and am having some issues getting the images to open on my computer.  Good times.  Hopefully I can get it all worked out tomorrow but we'll see, I have a little sickie who is extra clingy so I'm expecting to spend lots more time just holding her tomorrow.

Hope you and yours are doing a lot better than us!

fun projects to remember, and a bit of regular life

That google reader is both a blessing and a curse! I guess subscribing to a gazillion blogs doesn't help either, but my crafting has gone by the wayside of late.  I don't think it's completely the fault of my blog reading obsession, but maybe also because we're trying to all get on board with a new sleeping schedule since my little boy started preschool this week. 

PRESCHOOL!  Not a big deal for some, but HUGE for me.  Since he was born, I've gone back and forth on the merits of homeschooling, public school and private school and as the impending date of his school age came closer I'd just been driving myself crazy over it.  We've decided at this time, what's best for him is what we're doing, and he LOVES it so far.  And when next fall rolls around, there's an elementary school nearby that we'll probably be enrolling him in.  He's so into everything science and animals that we think the program will be a good fit for him- it's an Environmental Science magnate school. Some friends of ours had their kids at that school and they really loved it, and from everything they've said about it, it's really sounding like a good fit for our little guy, so as long as we're still living where we do now, that's the plan. 

Now, onto the part about what I want to remember- fun crafty stuff.

I'd seen this idea over at Craftzine's blog about making butterfly shaped crayons using a cookie cutter that they got from Daily Danny.  Then from someone else (sorry, I don't remember!) I found this idea at Let's Explore of making a crayon alphabet- neat huh!  The molds they used are by Sillycone and can be purchased in their store, or pre-ordered at amazon. On the Sillycone website they also have a list of retail and online stores where you can purchase the molds, and what's neat is that they're going to be offering a symbol mold soon too!

I'm always wanting to attemp the freezer paper stenciling and never feel quite comfortable enough. This may change with PanjoKids tutorial, for some reason, I totally understand this one!  Then she suggested going over to Sycamore Stirrings to see potholders made from her kids artwork which I did and love! geez, more blogs to subscribe to.

And for fun, a free Molly Monkey pattern from mmmcrafts.  Cute.

Okay, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom is just about over now, so back to being mama.

PS My little guy thinks that Marlin Perkins was just the greatest guy ever, and wants to be him when he grows up!

Issues

- I think I may have too many sometimes.

When people are demanding I don't ever really feel like complying. I would feel abashed asking someone for something in the way some people tell me that I need to tell them how to make something. The thing is, I'm generally a ridiculously helpful person IRL, especially with strangers, it's like I can't help myself. I don't know if it has to do with my old job as a reference librarian, or if I chose that occupation because that's the way I am. Either way, both online and in real life, when people demand help from me or tell me what I need to do in order to give them the information they would like I tend to get bucky and make it harder for them than it needs to be. I'm aware that this particular trait of mine isn't something that would endear me to others, but really, how hard is it to ask nicely?

I think especially online it's hard to get your tone across, and I realize some people are just abrupt and don't mean anything by it, but then don't you think they should work harder at trying to make others understand that they aren't being rude? Or am I being irrationally sensitive? I've been getting lots of requests for a amigurumi hair tutorial, and I was planning on getting one done once I uploaded all my photos onto flickr, I mean, I even took photographs every step of the hair way as I made my little guy's doll with a tutorial in mind. I still plan on doing it, but really, if you want something, and are asking to be given it free, don't demand it. How hard is it to be polite?

What's even funnier is that the latest demand came from a grandma! I expect polite behavior from everyone, but I have higher standards for older folks, and it's not that politeness shouldn't be required of everyone, but generally it seems like with older generations it's more of a given. I just don't get that people act like it's their right to whatever you have to offer, I don't know, is it just a me thing?

Anyway, I still plan on doing a tutorial, hopefully soon, but I just wanted to get that off my back since I'm not going to be confrontational on the craft forum that I was on, since that would be rude and embarrassing to the other person.

I feel so horrible, I’ve not posted anything of merit for weeks!

When I got sick, it really knocked the socks off of me, and not in a good way.  I've been working on a little guy for the past week-ish, but never am able to stay up past the kidlets to get any online time to get things done, even now I'm having to go because my dear sweet husband who bathes our kids every night is ready to pass the torch and hand the little girl over for dressing and getting to sleep.

I think I'll be able to get up tonight, so I'll try to get some progress pictures up, but we know how great I am about getting that done *eye roll*, I'll try though!

A bit of magazine annoyance

Okay, so I'm not even close to the coolest person ever, but really, Crochet! magazine sort of embarrasses me as a crocheter. I stewed for a couple of days wondering if I should or shouldn't write about it, but last night I was rearranging and reorganizing the area in the dining room where all my craft supplies are and had to put magazines away. Anyway, I'm not a fan of ruffling feathers, but the designs in that magazine are just silly, I keep reading the letters to the editor and everyone writes how modern and fabulous the designs are, but I'd be embarrassed to wear anything from that magazine, let alone make anything for anyone else. Their tag-line is "defining crochet", but seriously, no wonder the image of crochet amongst other crafters is as undesirable as it is. I joined the CGOA (Crochet Guild of America) last year, since I am very much into supporting organizations that raise awareness and promote crafts/interests that I participate in. Since joining and receiving their official publication, I've complained to high heaven to mr.Owly about the lack of good patterns in the magazine. The thing is, I think that designing is a difficult and worthy endeavor, and I hold designers in high regard, I just am disappointed that the designs in that publication are so dated in their actual uses/fashion sense and the colors used to show the designs.

Especially when I started crocheting again, I had just had my daughter and was so impressed and inspired by all the knitting for babies that I would see in magazines and books, so I couldn't wait to find similar items that were crocheted, but sadly there just isn't anywhere close to as many crochet patterns that are modern and designed with wearable color palettes. I also know that in the latest magazine there was actually a call for submissions, but I hesitate about submitting anything because with my opinion of the magazine being what it is, I'm not really interested in being associated with it. Anyway, I've got to get going, my little girl is due to wake from her nap any minute, but I just wanted to remind everyone who is reading and taking offense, I'm not trying to upset you, this is just my opinion. Also, I really did think for a while about posting this because I dislike not lending my support to a craft that has underdog aspects, but it's something that truly bothers me, and this magazine seems to be one of the reasons that the negative perceptions that surround crochet still flourish.

Go Crochet Today and Interweave Crochet!