Crafty and not sewing stuff

You may have heard about rock painting. You paint a rock, label it on the bottom, and "hide" it in your town or somewhere else. When someone finds it, they post on the Facebook page (in this case Williamsburg VA Rocks!) that it was found. If you find one, you can keep it or rehide it. It's just a fun hide-and-seek thing to do. This is my first one. It's going out into the world today. 

I've been working on this whacky peg rack and this is how it started - painted black and then stripes taped and painted white. 

I'm almost done with it. I got the pegs themselves painted and the oogly eyes started around the edges. I have one side edge to finish placing the eyes, and this, too, will be sent out into the world for sale on Etsy.

Lastly, I've seen doll part drying racks online for anywhere from $9 to $25. I showed one to my husband and he got to work. A few pencils and a chopstick, a cast off piece of lumber, and a drill bit, and I have my own doll part drying rack. Now I have somewhere to place doll arms and legs when I paint them! It's like another set of hands.

That's it from the wacky world of crafting. I'm never sure what I'm going to do next. Peter Max tote bags one day and rock painting the next. Semi-retirement is suiting me very nicely. 

You can never have enough!

Tote bags, that is.

I got to sewing again this morning and listed these two bags on Etsy. Do I rule or what?

This one, I made a while ago. It has a yellow lining and pocket. It's bigger than most that I make, measuring 17W x 14H. Not sure why I made it that big!

This is the one I made today. It's more like it - 15W x 14H. I had to piece the back, but I like the way the designs lined up! 

I used a swirly blue for the lining on this one and a Peter Max remnant to make the pocket.

For a day that started out with no electricity, RIP squirrel that landed on the transformer, it is turning out to be a pretty good one!

Something different - Peg racks anyone? Creepy stuff!

Over the years, I've collected a lot of stuff to make other stuff. I do have some stuff! One of the projects I've been mulling and collecting for is peg racks. The idea is to use doll parts creatively and see what happens! I'll put them up for sale on Etsy if they work out. Here are the two I'm working on now:

I didn't get a picture of this one from the front, but you get the idea. A $2.25 peg rack featuring a teddy bear head. But oh no, that's now how it will end up.

First step is to take the ears off and pull the pegs out. I won't be using them. Two more pegs to pull out and a little sanding, and I'm ready to turn this teddy bear into something creepy and functional.

This little shelf with 2 pegs started out as finished wood with a heart painted on it. I had another idea. I sanded and then painted the whole thing black , then tried to figure out how to do white strips on the flat piece on the back. After consulting a couple of art type people, I went with taping the whole thing off and spray painting the white stripes. Individual striping wasn't working like I wanted.

I really like the way the stripes came out. They're rough around the edges and remind me of BeetleJuice.

I don't want to give away what comes next, but it will tie the whole thing together. I painted the pegs black and will re-insert them when I'm done.

I have 100 ideas for my altered dolls and peg racks. I had the unfortunate luck to lose half of my work, so I have more time than ever to work on the crafty goodies. I'll definitely post more pictures of my creepy crafts along with my sewing.

Don't worry, I have 20 sewing projects to do too! I was able to rescue the fabric that I had used for the Williamsburg Players production of Dandelion Wine. I now have some black and some Halloween polka dot fabric to play with! I opened a new Etsy shop (link is on the side menu) and need to make some stuff to fill it up. I feel a set of placemats coming on!

Keep sewing. It's getting cold out there and more time to tend to our arts is the indoor gift that keeps on giving.

A peek into the sewing room

It's been a while since we recarpeted, repainted, and organized the sewing room. I'm so glad to have taken the time to do this. My bins all match, I have a bookcase that doesn't show in the picture, and the desk is a great place to work on the laptop when I don't have it on my lap. The view is glorious. As I mentioned to someone today, my sanity is in that sewing room. The last thing to do is to change the light fixture; we'll get there!

Where the magic happens.