Porpoise Hork!

I think I may have found the world's best collection of cross stitch pieces. Check it out.


I totally read both of these in Mom's voice. I never thought that her...colorful exclamations could transfer well into this medium, but they fit perfectly. Plus porpoise hork is probably the funniest combination of words. Ever.


Aww, Valentine's Day alert!


And some Arrested Development, for good measure. I especially like the heart frame for the "banger in the mouth" one.

There are other great pieces on the flickr photo stream, so be sure to check them out!

No, it's YOUR turn to empty the dark matter box.

Haven't you always wanted your own special little pet to curl up on your lap on cold winter nights? Haven't you ever wondered why your stupid cat can't finish the large dripping ham you gave them? Do you have a problem with large moose in your yard? Well don't worry any more! Check this baby out:



As an added bonus, he ever poops spaceship fuel! (Warning--said poop fuel may be extremely heavy and devastatingly smelly).

But wait! Act now and he's yours for free! You just need to be a member of Ravelry to be able to pick this little guy up and have him guard/eat your valuables and loved ones for years to come. Stay tuned for more great stuff coming up next!

More Christmas stuff

Alright everyone, another post about Christmas crafts and the like. Here's another present I got from my sister:
So cute! The inside is made with recycled bags from target, and it is seriously really big inside. You can fit a ton of groceries in there. Here's a shot of the back:
Ha ha, cute!

And here's a present we made for my boyfriend's mom:
I know, I know, you probably can't tell who it is, but he's supposed to be Bon Jovi. See? He has a loaded six string.
Yeah, it's a revolved on the back of the guitar. I know, it's really weird and nerdy, but apparently she loved it and my boyfriend thought it was hilarious so there you go.

Anyway, that's it for Christmas presents! Have a safe New Year's everyone!

The shirt off my back--redux

Hey guys! Remember this post, where I posted some of my favorite shirts? Well we finally got around to actually making some of them. We used the freezer paper technique (found here, if anyone is interested) and it was super easy and everything actually came together pretty fast.

If you guys are interested in making your own shirts, you can follow the above tutorial and use these stencils, which have all of the bridges and everything already cut out--all you have to do is print and cut out the black parts. Click here for the Blue Sun stencil, and click here for the Planet Express stencil.

Now, if anyone out there is looking for some free EPS vector versions, check it out! Click here for the Blue Sun vector art, click here for the Planet Express logo vector, or click here for the Hylian crest vector art. My boyfriend assure me these are very cool, so I hope you guys like them.

And moving right ahead! Here are the finished products:

Alright, first off, here's the Blue Sun shirt. I wanted it to look all splotchy and weathered (although it's not really as noticeable as in this pic, for some reason the light made it look kind of funny here).

And the Planet Express logo! This one was a little more difficult, because of all the letters, but I liked the way it turned out. We were split on whether or not to make the stencil in different colors, but we ended up just doing one (in blue, my favorite color, of course) and I like the way it turned out. The paint also has a little sparkle in it too, which is awesome. We also left the stencil lines in the letters to give it a more hand-printed stencily look. That's right--stencily.

And finally, the Zelda shirt. My boyfriend made this one for himself, and he made it all stony looking and old. Here's a (slightly) better pic:

He used a couple of different colors all mixed together to give it a stony effect, and it turned out looking really neat. This one's a little sparkly too, but not too noticeable.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share with you guys, and encourage everyone else to try it too. They were so easy and fun to make! And you can do almost any picture you want--I'm thinking of a couple more, maybe a Portal shirt (one of these icons probably) or an Arrested Development shirt--either a Family Band Solution shirt, a Gobias Indsutries shirt (as in "go buy us" a cup of coffee) or a Motherboy shirt. I wouldn't use these exact images, but they are all really cute ideas.

Let me know what you guys think, and spread the geek love through fabulous clothing (while still wearing jeans and a tshirt!) Stay tuned everyone!

Spice Weasel Pattern!

Alright, my latest invention: spice weasel lip balm cozy! That's right. Now, while I don't necessarily see the use of a lip balm cozy, who can object to a spice weasel lip balm cozy? It gives you an excuse to shout "BAM" really loudly, in any case. Here's the pattern.


Materials:
Spice Weasel colored yarn
A scrap of white/beige yarn
Size 10 pink crochet thread
One keyring
Googly eyes

TAIL:
With white/beige yarn
ch 2
Row 1: 3 sc in 2 ch from hook
Row 2-3: even sc
change to spice weasel color
Row 4-6: even sc

BACK LEGS: Make two
With spice weasel color
ch 2
Row 1: 6 sc in 2 ch from hook
Row 2: (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) twice, 2 sc
Row 3-5: even sc
BO, leave a long tail to secure to body

FRONT LEGS: Make two
With spice weasel color
ch 2
Row 1: 4 sc in 2 ch from hook
Row 2: (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st), 2 sc
Row 3-6: even sc
BO, leave a long tail to secure to body

MAIN BODY:
With spice weasel color
ch 2
Row 1: (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) until you have about 17 sts (or as large as it needs to be to fit your chapstick--I used Burt's Bee's as a measurement)

Around Row 4, sew in the tail, it will be easier to sew in now than when the body is complete. Make sure you secure the tail very tightly, because this is where the keyring will go.

Crochet even rows until the body is about 2-2 1/2 inches. BO. Sew in the two back legs and the two front legs.

HEAD:
With the pink crochet thread
ch 2
Row 1: 6 sc in 2 ch from hook
Row 2: (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) three times
change to spice weasel color
Row 3: even
Row 4: increase until you have the same amount of stitches as the body--in this case, it was 17 sts.

Continue with even rows until the head is about 1-1 1/2 inches long. Attach the head to the body.
I attached it at the top of the head, so that his neck opens to reveal the chapstick. I just whip stitched the two pieces together, spanning an area of about 10 sts on the top of the head.

Now it's time to attach the eyes--this is how I did it.
I cut out two very small pieces of black felt, which I stitched to the head using invisible thread. I then used Gorilla Glue to glue the eyes onto the pieces of felt. You can just use black felt if you want, or you can try and glue googly eyes directly on the yarn, although I'm not sure what the effect would be.

Details:
Cut three small pieces of yarn to use for his little tufts of hair. I poked these through the neck; they just have a knot on one side.

Use a tiny piece of black thread to make the nostrils, secure with a knot inside the head.

Attach the keyring to the tail.

You should be done! I'm sorry if this is kind of confusing, I was trying to be as detailed as possible, but with so many small pieces I know it can get a little messy. If anyone makes one, I hope you post pics!

Futurama!

And now, a grotesque stinking lobster!
I think he's very cute. When I saw this color yarn in the yarn store (Woolie Ewe! It's awesome) I knew I had to make Zoidberg. You can't really see in this picture, but he has little claws instead of normal hands. They were pretty hard to make, but I think it turned out alright.

I like his head mirror too, I think it's really cute. It can come off though, so he doesn't always look so professional (yeah right).
He got in the garbage again! Eating fish bones. Tsk tsk.

And here's the other Futurama character I made:

Everyone said his head needed to be taller, but I think he's cute like this. I like his little ears. I don't know why the color is so washed out here, but his uniform is a maroonish color.

I think this might be all of the Futurama characters I make--the rest don't turn out so well, so I think I'll just stick to these aliens. I'm working on the Firefly cast right now, and another stand-alone character from some movie (I'm not telling what movie). I'll do a teaser of him later--you'll never guess who it is this time!