Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Recycling Clothes

A few weeks ago, I had a craft day. It consisted of three sewing machines, four girls, an insane amount of unwanted clothing thrown all over the place, random music, ornery scissors, and pasta salad. Needless to say, we trashed my entire dining room/computer room and had a BLAST doing it. Two things you must have if you wish to throw a "Clothing Recycle Day": plentiful amounts of energy replenishment (coffee, chocolate, FOOD) and good background music.

I was so busy slicing up t-shirts and penciling lines on fabric that I didn't pay much attention to the camera...so I've only got a few decent pictures to show you:

Maurissa, my friend on the left, made the light blue shrug from a t-shirt. She cut down the front in a straight line, folded it over and sewed a seam (so that there was a "pocket" for the string to fit into). For the string she used the bottom hem of a gray t-shirt. I'm almost positive that that's all she did to create these awesome-sauce threads:)

I'm the one on the right with the dorky owl hat. I'm in love with all the animal hats/mittens floating around right now, so I decided to make my own version. It didn't turn out exactly how I planned, but it's all good.

The owl is cute. My head...not so much.

To make the hat, I cut off the hood of one of my too-small, Aeropostale hoodies and folded the cut hood into a flat, normal hood shape. Then I sewed it off into a hat shape, created the owl's face with random pieces of fabric laying down, and machine sewed it together. (Note: the small pieces I hand-sewed together with brown embroidery floss for a decorative touch.) The "ears" were little pockets of fabric created from the hood itself; I could have cut them off and sewed them in, but I wanted ears :P

I know I didn't explain things very well but I didn't take any before/during pictures to show you. Next project, I'll be sure to document the process well so I can explain.

My next post will be on collages. See? Once I have a focus for my blog, I make plans! This is so good, for organization's sake, if nothing else.




Post Script ~ I wrote about dreadlocks awhile back...I'm still thinking about them...and I created a "baby" one as a test, hidden in the midst of my other hair. Shhh.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

New Focus

My blog is now going to have a real focus (in hopes of keeping me on track and attracting more followers). This new focus is "Threads": anything and everything artsy, from writing short stories, coming up with new music, or recycling things into, well, new things.

I'll be posting pics of some things I made (and also how I made them) during a Craft Day I had a few weeks ago.

Anyway, feel free to email me any craft ideas you have and I'd be willing to try them out and blog about them:) [elizabeth.marie.inked@gmail.com] Nothing too extravagant, though; I'm not made of money. I'm particularly interested in ideas for using random things like bottle caps, old cds, scrap paper, etc.

Thanks for being a part of my blog and I hope to be sharing ideas back and forth with you soon!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Connection

CONNECTION - an excerpt

Clouds veil the sky. Wind blows at the lonely cornstalks on the hilltop and rushing down through the valley, chilling the air with its frosty breath.

Winter was on its way.

Hair twisted into an intricate braid, a girl climbs the hill, her hands balled into fists. An expression of distaste coating her otherwise pretty features.

When she crested the hill, she paused and took in the view. With a twist, the world shifted and she was falling - falling through miles of empty space, the ground below her spinning uncontrollably and getting closer every second, the cliff above her falling away just as quickly. Her scream rent the air.

And then she was standing again, the wind brushing her hair off her face, the hill as sturdy and ordinary as ever.

A tear trickled down her cheek. Would it ever stop? This second life tugged at her soul, and she could not escape. Help would never come; who could she turn to? If anyone knew...she shuddered. The thought of being forever an outcast, insane and alone, hurt worse than the suicidal visions that were so clear she seemed to leave the real world entirely.

They were hard to predict, these shifts in her reality. Sometimes they came in the form of dreams, waking her from her sleep. Other times, like today, they just happened, shocking her system uncontrollably. Every time they occurred, they left a blank spot in her memory, as if she'd skipped minutes of her life in real life.

A sheet of rain, carried on the wind, rushed from the east. She didn't try to run. As it hit her, she let the tears roll faster, mixing with the cold raindrops on her skin.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Her dress caught on a patch of briars. Angrily, she tore it free. She was angry a lot lately. Perhaps it was a safe emotion - everyone left her alone then. Something brushed her hair, and she reached back to untangle it.

But her hand brushed something else.

"Oh!" she gasped and spun around.

A man stood there. His eyes were an unusual shade of gray, his dark hair tousled by the wind. He was tall and almost intimidating, but she was not afraid; his face was open but so completely focused. His hand was still frozen in the air from when he'd touched her hair. Nervously, she took a step back. Her hands clutched the basket tighter than before.

They didn't say anything for a while. It was as if they both just needed to look.

"Who are you?" she whispered.

A hint of a smile crept over his lips. "No one."

She shook her head, afraid to return the smile. "This place isn't large enough to hide nobodies. You must be a relative of someone in town."

"You've stayed hidden this long."

She shuddered, as if something had crawled into her mind and seen things she didn't want them to see. What did he mean by that? Everyone in town knew her; she wasn't hidden at all.

"I'm not hiding from anyone." She pushed her chin in the air and turned to walk home.

He matched her strides with his own. "I'm Bryan."

"Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Marie."

She stopped, trying to hide the shock. "How do you know my name?"

He didn't answer. he only kept walking, the leaves crunching beneath his leather boots. She caught up to him, breathless. "My name. How do you know my name? Have we met before?"

"No." He smiled at her, a crooked, knowing smile. "But I have seen you many times before."

Her heart pounded strangely. He was lying. He had to be. If he didn't live here, than there was no chance he could have seen her before. She'd never left this valley.

And now she was alone with this liar in the woods and darkness was approaching.

This is an extremely random story I just spouted out of nowhere. It might turn into something, but it also might not. I hope you enjoyed it:)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Stop and Go

I just realized something.

I don't want to spend the rest of life sitting in a day care center, teaching children about shapes, colors, and words. I don't want to wipe runny noses, chase after little boys, catch spiders in jars because "we don't kill bugs in front of children" (um, yes, I do -_-)...Yeah, being a teacher, maybe. But sitting in a room full of kids 5 to 6 days a week, day after day...I don't know why this excited me at first :P

What I do want to do is WRITE. I want to experiment with different art mediums. I want to travel.

Teaching just doesn't fit that.

So...this quarter is half a waste of my time. I know, it's sad. But there is room for change. For new decisions. The little planner-, wait-on-God-, procrastinator-me is freaking out inside.

I'm reading a book called Just Do Something. Appropriately enough, it's a super small book. It's pointing out to me the fact that "discovering God's will" isn't a treasure hunt that I'm on. I have to step out in faith and make decisions. I have to act on what I believe. There isn't time for me to float in limbo, waiting for God. While I wait to see His plan, I have to be doing.

Um, so this is pretty much Caitlin-ramblings ;) I wouldn't post it, except that I already wrote it and I haven't posted anything in so very long.

Ta ta for now!