So Much To Say...

   
      Well my midterms are over for the time being. In case you are interested out the the four I got A's on two and the other two I don't know the outcome yet.  But the good news is they are OVER. Now I can get back to what I like to do, blogging, crafting, and not doing homework.  But another reason I have not written is that I just haven't felt inspired to create much this past couple weeks.  Crafting just for the sake of crafting isn't really doing it for me anymore.  So in order to remedy this I have decided to focus my blog a little bit.  

     Since my aspiration within the realm of creativity is to build a successful line of accessories and maybe clothes in the future, I think gearing my entries towards fashion will unleash my creativity more.  Not that I am a fashion expert, by any means, but I will be sharing my thoughts on how we can all be a little more fashionable, without heading to the nearest deparment store or empty our wallets.  Part of what makes fashion so amazing, is that everyone can express themselves differently and still look great.  I think that when we customize the plain stuff from a store, or make something from scratch ourselves, it is much more a pure expression of our own style.  In this vein I will be adding a post called "...and Thursday" This post will be in addition to my Fashion Forward Wednesday post.  I will now be featuring two patterns or projects, per week that I think will make a stylish addition to any wardrobe.  In an aim to please every kind of crafter/DIYer I will try to feature a mix of projects for sewers, knitters, and beginners. 

      I will also be adding a post in conjunction with a very style minded friend, called "How do I style it?"  Here I will ask a close friend who works in the fashion industry to help me style an item of clothing each week.  My plan is to post the clothing in question a few days ahead and then have her write how she would style it, giving some helpful links to the clothes to pair with the item being styled. The post will end with me, or who ever is asking how the item will  be styled, pictured rocking the new style. And yes, if you have a styling question I encourage you to send me an e-mail with a picture of the piece you need help with. I would really love to have some readers be featured in these posts.

     Since I am a poor college student, I am always interested is saving money, and doing crafts on the cheap. I will be spending time on fashion and home dec crafts.  I will be moving in May and again hopefully in July, so look forward to some decorating tips and projects for those on a shoe string budget.  Other projects might include designer inspired jewelry and clothing tutorials, like the ones I feature on Wednesdays, but my own.

   

      Finally I am participating in the Dollar Store Challenge over at Dollar Store Crafts. This week the theme is place mats.  I am currently working on my project and will have it posted with a tutorial before the deadline of March 30th.  I think the challenges are going to be ongoing, one every two weeks, so I will keep going with the challenges for a while.

Oh... just a last thought, I am going to continue with The Sunday Five.  I just love it so much, remember to add your five every Sunday too!

 Lots to look forward to here, so please stop by as the future unfolds!
Hope you enjoy my new look/layout! 

The Sunday Five

Hey!! This week I have a lot to give thanks for and be happy about, but I am in a terrible mood! While I am visiting Seattle for my spring break I have no car. Usually I can borrow my Mom's car, but she had to take it since my Dad took his car golfing this morning. So I am stuck in the house with NOTHING to do. I really really really dislike being bored. But I am trying to get over it. I will stop the complaining rant and get onto what is making my happy this Sunday. Remember to hit the comment section after this and add your own Sunday Five, its all about spreading the love people!

1. Being in Seattle- I love being home even if I can't do anything or get talked into doing yard work...
2. The song Cut by Plumb. Everyone should listen to this song, totally amazing!!
3. Coming home to my back issues of Shape magazine that I somehow get for free! Pretty sweet!
4. Being totally inspired by Alice in Wonderland- saw it last night, loved it, already want to see it again. The colors and the clothes- everything very inspiring to an artistic type like myself.
5. That my parents still have jobs. My parents are self employed and have been looking a little guilty lately. My dad builds custom homes and remodels on a very small scale. This economy downturn has hit my family fairly hard, and while my parents have savings they feel bad that they aren't giving me some extravagent graduation present. It doesn't bother me at all and I am glad that business seems to be picking up.

Well that's it for the Sunday five! Since I am going stir crazy I might delve into a crafty project later today, so there could be an update later today. Maybe- no promises here- plus the Oscar's are on tonight, and that will keep me busy later.

Happy Sunday!!

The Mobile- All Grown Up

I love mobiles! When I was in The Land Of Nod a month ago all the mobiles in the mock up kids rooms just make me melt. They are a fun and a simple way to add to a kid's room. But what am I supposed to do as a grown up who wants one for herself?

Here is what I came up with...

Want to know how I made this? Well your in luck!

Supplies (for one tissue paper ball)

• About 2 sheets tissue paper, I used solid pink and three colors of green on the other
• 3 inch Styrofoam ball
• Craft glue
• Ribbon and 5 straight pins - to connect them into a mobile

First cut you tissue paper into squares. They don't have to be perfect mine were around 3X3. Try and keep them about the same size. I cut my tissue into strips and then cut the squares all at once to keep them uniform.

Take the square and fold it in half diagonally.
Now take the two outer corners and create a cone, around your finger, by bringing them up and to the opposite sides.

Now cover the end with your craft glue. Take your finger and press the cone to the Styrofoam ball. Press the glue on then kind of bend the cone up with your finger so it sticks up straight. If you press real hard and kind of squish the ball down the paper stick even better. Continue going around the ball until its all covered and you cannot see any white. This is what they look like when they are done!

To create the mobile take some ribbon and put a straight pin through it. Dip the pin in your craft glue and stick it in the ball. Now take the other end of the ribbon and put a pin through it and dip it in the glue and stick it into the other ball. Take another piece of ribbon and double it to make a loop. Stick another straight pin in the ribbon, dip it in glue and stick it in the opposite end of the ball you want at the top. Let the glue dry for a few hours first so the weight doesn't pull the pins out. Find a sunny spot and hang you new spring mobile.

As you can see I also added my sequin St. Patrick's Day ball to the very end, to add some holiday flair to our dorm room. To see how I made that click here.

I also think these would be pretty against an empty wall. To get them to stick out from the wall far enough you would probably have to hang them from the ceiling. I would use fishing line instead of ribbon in that case.

Dear Readers

My Dearest Readers,

I am lame. I have not posted anything in quite a while. Please be patient with me. My roommate is sick, I have midterms this week, and I am busy making new accessories for the Etsy shop. But I have so much to show you in the near near near future. Like tomorrow, and Friday, and this weekend. I will post Food Friday for the first time, well...this Friday. I hope that you all check back soon, and don't hold a grudge against me for not posting any fun craft projects.

See you'll soon!

Put A Pin On It

Want to make this pretty flower? It can be a pin of even go in your hair on a pin or ponytail holder.

Here we go.

1. Gather your supplies

• Felt- you can use whatever colors you have around
• A needle and thread- you can see I used a contrasting thread for the edges
• A pearl or button- you can use anything here for the center of the flower
• hot glue- for putting on the center, you could also sew on the middle if its a button or something else with a hole.

2. Cut two circles out of the felt, one slightly larger than the other. The smaller one is the center of your flower
3.

Don't be afraid to add a lot of stitches here. This is the center of your flower and the stitches won't show. Get it to look good.

I trimmed the white circle so it was kind of wavy. Here you do the same thing as above. Pinch the white and sew through the folds to get the look you want.

Next thread up your needle with a contrasting thread and do a whip stitch around the edges of the outer flower. There is lots of variations you could do here. Add another layer of felt, do different colors, do two layers of the same colors, or do the contrasting stitch on the center layer or both layers. The possibilities are as endless as your craft supply stash!

Finally pick out your center and hot glue it in. I added a safety pin to the back and wore it around on my shirt all day
I am going to make one so I don't get pinched on St. Patrick's day. I will post it soon!

What I would love

Since I am graduating this May I have been thinking a lot about what I am going to do, what I really want to do and what jobs will make me happy. One thing I know, is that I need to keep crafting and creativity in my life. However I would like it to be more than just a hobby. As all you readers know I have Wax Eloquent now, with my glowing candle holders and earrings, but I know that it cannot support me once I get out of school. I mean I hope it will but realistically I am just hoping for a few sales between now and then so I can afford to go see a movie that's not a matinee.

As I have been contemplating what would be ideal, I thought wouldn't it be awesome if people who pay me to knit stuff for them? Knitting is something that I really enjoy and happen to be good at, and knitting for a living would be awesome. But I would probably get fat. I would sit and knit and watch movies and TV ALL DAY! But I would love it. However, even this wouldn't totally satisfy me and my need to be around people often.

Then on the opposite end from crafty business is working within my major. Finance major econ minor, there is a lot I can do with that as well. I think running my own craft business is actually a good blend. If I were to become a full time entrepreneur I would use everything I learned from business school, while still having a creative outlet. As of right now I don't think I can support myself in this way. So just like every other college senior I will be applying for jobs for the next couple months and keeping my fingers crossed that Wax Eloquent becomes a huge success!

But in my interpersonal relations class today we have to write our own personal mission statement. So, whatever I decide to do, I want it to fit in with my person mission statement. Here is what I have so far...

To always be thoughtful in thoughts and action, to treat my friends as family and my family as friends. To keep happiness and fun as constant companions and finally to be generous with my gifts and share creativity with the world around me.

Inspiration!

So lately I have been grooving with a new source of inspiration. Nature! I know your thinking, Heather that's what some many artists, photographers and other crafty people say. I know, your right, but for me this is new.

I was working on some new glowing candle holders, I had 2 matching square ones that I just started covering with a dark blue. And then SUDDENLY inspiration struck. On my way back from class, around five the other night, I looked up and saw the moon. I love seeing the moon during the day! The white against the lighter blue it is just so so so pretty. How pretty?

Anyways so I thought, I should put the moon on my dark blue candle holder. Oh OH Oh and I can make them a set and put a star on the other. So I DID!!! Once I saw my finished set, I fell in love! I know, so humble right? But once I started with the moon and the stars the ideas just started to flow. So I really want to try and make a sky blue set with a sun and a cloud or a rain drop. I think that the nature ideas work well in pairs. Then since I liked the yellow on the dark blue, I thought LIGHTNING BOLT!! I don't know what to put with that one, maybe it won't be a set.

Then since I have been so obsessed with the sunsets lately, I was like, I should make some sunset colored pieces. San Diego is just so picturesque it's almost hard not to be inspired. I guess, when I am in an anti-california mood, I can talk on and on about the beauty of Seattle, and Mountains, and Snow and clouds and rain...and on and on. But that anti-californianess is not allowed to permeate me anymore so I am seeing more and more of the beauty of my sometimes home.

Want to see the set that I fell in love with? Here are some pictures! Look for them on Etsy later tonight, after it gets dark so I can take a few pictures of them with candles! Get ready for a lot of pictures since these guys are my favorite things I have made, EVER!!

See they even have little rhinestones on them like little twinkling stars in the night sky!

Hey! You!!! Leave a comment,
I love reading what my readers have to say!

Who Loves Sparkles???

A while ago I showed you all a couple of pictures from my etsy shop! And today I am excited to announce a new line, so to speak, of pieces I am proud to offer. Earrings!

Like my candle holders and vases, these earrings will have that little sparkle and pizazz, that embody my sense of style and personality. So far I have just listed one pair but expect more to come! They are made of 3 sequins. A large pink and purple and a small translucent pink. They are on a fish hook style earring and made with quality jewelry making supplies. From the base of the hook part itself the earrings are about 4cm or 1.5 in in length.

Here are some pictures!

In other store news, today is Friday which means, I will be shopping around for new glass pieces to work on this week. Since I only have 2 classes in the mornings on Fridays this will hopefully become my routine. Shop on Fridays and work on pieces throughout the week. This means more items into the shop on a semi regular basis. If you know someone who would like what I make please send them my to my store.

Happy Friday!!!

Back To School

Monday begins the final countdown until I can rock out to "Schools Out For Summer" for the final time in my life, fingers crossed!! In case you are wondering exactly 4 months from today, May 23rd, I graduate with my degree in finance and minor in economics!!

Tomorrow I will head to the airport and jet back to San Diego. So until I get settled and back to craftin I will not have much to say. Unless you all want to hear about my classes. But I can already tell you they will be boring and I would probably fall asleep at my keyboard typing up the 'lowlights'. But the good thing is I will be back at it right away. I am finishing the flap hat, some glittens and my cousin just asked me to make him a crazy hat as well. So I will have some knitting projects and patterns to share soon. Also before I head out tomorrow I will be lining the knitted hat I told you all about so the pictures should be up for that tutorial soon too!

Sadly I did not have enough time to finish my football themed box, so it will have to wait until I am back in Seattle, spring break probably, since the box is too big to travel with. Sports fans don't fret, I promise some sports projects in the interim. Speaking of sports I am so bummed, tomorrow my flight is at 3PM, so I will be at the airport and in the air during the NFL playoffs. I am hoping the Vikings lose and the Colts win!

Well wish me luck, my last semester of college!! I hope its easy, interesting, and goes by quickly. Can anyone say senioritis ?

Cheers!

Business Sense

As some of you may know I am trying to start up my own business. Over the past couple weeks I have been making pieces for sale, working on my own website, and starting this blog. Needless to say this has been keeping me quite busy. I have always wanted to have my own business and while it is hard work so far, just to get everything set up, it is a labor of love!

I bought this book at Barnes and Noble from the Missing Manual series, called Creating a Website. It's a lot more complicated than I thought. Luckily I am working with a 60 day free trial of the Microsoft web page editor. This makes designing a website more like creating a Word document or PowerPoint presentation, but still not something I can churn out in a weekend. Once I get that up and running it will link to this blog, my future Etsy store and some other exciting features to be revealed. I already bought my domain name www.waxeloquentbyheather.com so look for an announcement coming soon when the page is up and running. Very Exciting!

In other news, I should have five pieces on Etsy.com this weekend and I have three in the wings that should be up soonish as well.

The task really getting me down? Of all this tasks upon me right now while starting my handmade business, what am I avoiding the most? Maybe the thing I am trained to do? Well if you guessed Accounting, GOLD star for you!!! Yep the finance major, who has worked in accounting for three years is completely dreading working out the books for her business. I need to enter all my receipts and figure out the cost for me to produce each piece. But have I opened an spreadsheet yet? Nope. I do have a pile of receipts by my feet a good start I say. Tomorrow is a new day and I promise I will at least open a spreadsheet. I guess I have to anyway if I am going to list anything on Etsy. Have to figure out the price, right?

So tomorrow after I have taken pictures of my new pieces, input all my receipts, and listed five items on Etsy I hope to have a fun Mod Podge tutorial for you all. The theme? Oh, just one of my favorite things, football!! I figure lots of craft people make lovely gifts for the females in their lives, why leave out the boys. So stay tuned for a fun football theme project for all the little boys in your life!