i love care packages
i love sending them
and i love receiving them.

the picture above is a care package i sent my friend anh.


inside, will and i included magazines, candy, pretty colored paper, lip gloss and a handmade accordion book i had made a long time ago and was never able to give to her in person.




the book was a mini scrapbook of pictures of us throughout high school.

ingredients of a good care package:
something handmade is always appreciated. today i received a tiny box - inside were clay creatures and twine on which to string them. my boyfriend is pretty sweet. I sent my friend chandler a care package over the summer and included a handsewn pencil case. she told me recently that she still uses it!

food. this is always appreciated, especially if the recipient is in college where every foodstuff is overpriced. think about their favorite candy or snack and stick some in. if someone were to send me a package, theoretically of course, i would greatly appreciate watermelon sour jacks. just saying.

novelties. junk is always more appealing if it has been sent across the state. in chandler's care package, i included a tamogatchi. anh's had a headband. little things are sweet reminders of friends. it need not be just junk either, send pencils, pens, notecards, stationery; think useful.

a thoughtful gift. if you know a book someone would love to read, send it to them. my mother sent me a necklace she knew i'd love. it doesn't have to be too expensive - but if you find something and say "______ would love this" (this happens to me daily), send it to them! why not?

a note. a handwritten note is a sweet touch and reminds the recipient how much thought you put into her gift.

with that said, i would like to stress that if receiving a care package seems really fun, you should give to receive. create good care-package-karma.

i am sorry i have neglected this blog. school has been stressful, but that is no excuse!

you cant get sandwiches like this in the dining halls here.

i have moved in to school. my room is bigger than i imagined and there's lots of storage space. i even have an extra closet in the suite common room because there are three of us in a smaller room. i sleep on a top bunk. it is alright but hard to get up and down easily.


the "ladder" is just the support beams of the bed.


but my bedding is cute! it's hard to take pictures of something so high up.

if the seemingly great idea occurs to you to jump from a bunk bed this high onto the hard linoleum floor, ignore it.

secretly i want to come home. i dont think i should admit that though...

a list of things i want



wall hanging by salvor fauna. 275$
i have a pillow by this brand and i love it. this wall hanging is pretty expensive but worth it for such a beautiful piece of original art. the coolest thing about it is that it's printed on little balsa rectangles that are attached to a flexible backing. it's beautiful.


salvor fauna also makes bags. i love them. i want one - ergo it makes the list.


i love the area big bedding. it's beautiful. i sorta wish i'd have bought this for my dorm room. but i think this is good first house bedding. so will better love it if we ever move in together. he will. how could you not?


a chris king 1 1/8" no threadset in silver. they're beautiful and awesome. they're also 135$. which i cant bring myself to spend. maybe because im broke.


uncle eddie's chocolate chip cookies are the best cookies ever. but they dont sell them on the east coast.


bag from giant robot. i love this penguin tiger bag. my purses are usually all totes. and i need a new one because my discovery center for cell bio tote has chocolate on the bottom.


i love this tee shirt with art by souther salazar from giant robot. it's reallyy cute. women's large please!

i sorta neglected the blog for a bit and im going to try to make up for it. lately ive been sort of prepping for moving out so i guess i havent had as much time to craft. im worried that my dorm room wont be big enough to suit all my crafting needs. i have so much to think about. should i bring my gocco? how and i going to cut straight edges without my mother's nice paper cutter? will i have room for all my paper, markers, pens, x-acto knives, rub on transfers, stickers, glues, glitter, etc? im worried but excited! i also want to decorate my wall, if i have space. there are three of us living in a small room and so hopefully ill have some wall space to make my own.


ive been watching futurama a lot lately. it's very funny. in fact, will and i had to make a mad dash to barnes and noble before it closed. we made it about 2 minutes before closing and picked up season three. so bender, the robot on the show, deserved to be immortalized as a pseudo stuffed animal. he was originally a zippered pouch but the lining bothered me because zipper kept eating it up, so i cut it up and made this.


ive also been into accordion books. they're really easy and i love to cover the squares with martha stewart paper. she has so many awesome color combos.
i bought a bunch of stuff to make a scrapbook, but ive decided that ill probably never get to it. so i cut up all the photos and supplies for accordion book use. theres no use hoarding this stuff. after all, shutterfly's not going anywhere.

i've missed this blog!

today i cannot get motivated. i need to get a chest xray. but id rather stay home and make accordion books. does anyone else feel that way?

right now i am waiting for will to come over and poke me until im ready to don the lead apron and get the stupid xrays done.


he is good motivation.

Will and I made smores cupcakes and they were delicious. I got the recipe from Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman. This is the only recipe i've tried from this book but it was super delicious.



graham cracker cupcakes
.5 cup all-purpose flour
1.5 cups finely crushed graham crackers
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
.75 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
.75 cup milk
1 cup milk chocolate chips

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. mix flour, crushed graham crackers, baking powder, and salt together and set aside
3. cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. add vanilla and then alternate the flour mix with the milk. beat until smooth and then fold in the chocolate chips.
4. spoon the batter into cupcak liners and fill them about 3/4 full*
5. bake for 20-25 minutes. remove from oven and cool

marshmallow icing
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
.25 cup sugar
.75 cup corn syrup
marshmallows, crumbled graham crackers, and milk chocolate for decoration

1. beat egg whites with salt until soft peaks form. the egg whites get a lot bigger than you'd expect.
2. add sugar slowly while beating
3. gradually add corn syrup
4. beat until soft peaks form
5. drizzle the frosting onto the cupcakes
6. decorate

makes about 15 cupcakes, but i recommend doubling it. you cant have too many of these.


i decorated my cupcakes by microwaving marshmallows for about 15 seconds, placing a hot m-mallow on each cupcake, and piercing it with a graham piece. then i grated chocolate over the sticky topping.


will used crumbled graham crackers and chocolate chips and sprinkled them on his cupcakes.

we gave them out at fort reno. i think people liked them.

made this for gideon for his birthday. he liked it. i was satisfied. i didnt think c3po looked c3po enough, but yeah.






here is a rhino embroidered pencil bag that will be for my etsy shop once i set it up. until then, im selling it for 23$ if anyone is interested. it's hand embroidered and hand-sewn. the embroidery is from an original drawing by yours truly.





this is another embroidered bag with another originial drawing - dead batteries - from a series called 10 things that are annoying. this one is smaller and is 20$. if you're interested let me know!

i know i havent posted in so long, but i have kept crafting. will and i will be going to california on thursday for 10 days. we are going to another diy craft fair in la called felt club and we're excited. it should be bigger than pile of craft.


i picked up this book, the guerilla art kit by one of my favorite bloggers, kerri smith. i made these king tomato stickers using a recipe she had for lick and stick stickers. the picture on the left is the drawing process. the stickers are all cut up now complete withthe mixture on the back of them. you need to get this book and try it out, so much fun.

hope everyone had a great 4th! i have more to post but ill try to break it up.

im addicted to making these lined zippered bags that i found on this thread on craftster. i made them with all the scrap material in our house. zippers are really cheap and easy to "ninja," so they're virtually cost-free. also it's a great way to get used to zippers and the zipper foot. they're so easy!

also, i bought some great fabric from purlsoho. it was expensive but worth it.

i havent been doing too much sewing lately but yesterday i did hem a shirt-dress i got at good will. i also tacked the sleeves. it's a lot cuter now.

magnolia bakery cupcakes.



Will and i made cupcakes from the magnolia bakery recipe. they turned out delicious. they're pretty buttery and dense, but still taste light. it's hard to explain. i guess you'll have to make them to see.

i got the recipe from the 52 cupcakes blog

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Line 2 muffin pans of 12 muffin spots each with cupcake liners. whatever they're called. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. In a small bowl combine both flours.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter using an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
4. Add the sugar gradually and beat for 3 minutes or until fluffy. (will did this because he's really good at mixing. he has good arms because his car has manual steering)
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla.
7. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overmix.
8. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling about 3/4 full.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
10. Cool the cupcakes in the tin for 15 minutes.
11. Remove cakes from the tins and cool on a wire rack before icing.

for the icing,

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
6-8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add in 4 cups sugar, then the milk and vanilla. On
medium speed of an electric mixer, beat about 3-5 minutes or until smooth and creamy.
2. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well (about 2 minutes) after each
addition, until the icing is thick enough for good spreading consistency (you may not need all
of the sugar. we used about 6.5 cups total).

we frosted ours pink and blue and just spread on. you could pipe the frosting from a pasty bag for the swirly look.

There are all presents i've given my boyfriend:

I. I went through a softie phase and here is what came of it:

a.
this is an ankylosaurus stuffed animal i made in about an hour and a half without a pattern. it is very crude but cute in its crudeness.

b.
this is an elephant i made with a supremellllly complicated pattern. im not the greatest sewer so he didnt turn out perfectly, but he's cute nonetheless. he's bigger than i thought he'd be. he took about 5 hours total and i worked on him on and off.

c.
here is ankylosaurus #2. he was made by embroidering an image and then sewing pillow-style. i wish i had used a thicker thread, but i do like how he came out. the sewing was a breeze but i rushed it. the embroidery took long but was worth it. id say it took about 4 hours on and off.

II. He loves Haruki Murakami, a Japanese author (Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle) so i made a triple layer stencil. i really like how it turned out.


ive been addicted to embroidery. it's so relaxing and rewarding. i love how things come out when they're done with thread. im thinking about doing one and then framing it for my dad for father's day. i think ill do one of a california craft bungalow because he loves architecture and that's one of his favorite types of houses. he also likes chairs, oddly enough. and jay-z. i have a weird dad.

sorry for the long wait! i dont know if i have any readers but i do know that i should post in this more frequently.

it's been so long! i havent been crafting as much as i should but ive done a few things.

but this update is about other crafty people in my life.

firstly, my new (and fucking awesome) boyfriend will made 2 adorable easter eggs.


this is a squirrel easter egg (it's my favorite animal)

this is an audi egg he made for my mother.

he also drew me a squirrelysaurus, a hybrid ankylosaurus-squirrel:

it reminds me of the art in the royal tenenbaums. i love art like that. with a handwritten pencil title complete with a period at the end.

and for those of you who wonder where my crafty impulses come from, meet my mother, the crafting queen. she used to be really into making things for my class when i was little, but when she went back to work she had less and less time. lately she's been sewing again. she sews me a new lunch bag every monday, wednesday, and friday. i kid you not.

a pile of some of them

a few of my favorites.

my computer is fixed! yay!

so lately my crafting has been limited, but here's what i have.


i worked on a scrapbook for a friend, and i really liked this page so i thought i'd share. it's just a sorta messy page with artifacts from our relationship - a ticket stub, a sticker, pieces of letters, etc. lately ive been liking this exercise - mapped out compilations of things - or junk to some people - with hand-written explanations.

ive also been working on an "art journal." it is essentially a written and visual medium to journal or list, and it's fun to write whatever is on my mind or give myself an activity. here is a picture of a page, i tried to make it blurry but if you work really hard you can read what it says.



tons of buttons! im thinking of putting them in sets of three and selling them. anyone interested?


and finally, the screened shirt (please excuse my polka dotted bra):

would people be interested in purchasing one? id probably sell them for 15$. but i dont know. i might need to retire the screen. let me know please!

i think im going to get some stickers screened to promote this site.

my computer broke. well, i broke it. i dont want to get into the details, ill feel stupid again. but because of this it's hard to upload photos. i need to get a usb flash drive to do this, and i will soon, but i predict posting will be slow. ive been making a ton of new button batches, embroidering some more (monagrams and hopefully a new photobanner for the site), and i gocco-screening some shirts. Im thinking about selling them, im really digging them. ill post up pictures soon. it has the name MILKFISH printed on it, because that's my new design alias.

you should probably buy a shirt because i need the $$, and you'll just love to wear it.

so take care loyal blog readers, if youre out there.

my camera got lost in the woods and miz found it and i had to walk down the steep hill and i wasnt about to walk back up it in my condition soooo

there can be no picture posts at the present time.

embroideryyy

lately ive been really into embroidery. i had a hard time at first because i had no idea what i was doing but i bought a book with instructions and it really helped. im trying to do an embroidered portrait of steve nash (my favorite basketball player), and im learning as i go so it's not that impressive but it's fun!'


this is what i have so far.


i also did a little ghost. i dont know what to do with him, but i kinda want to put one on everything now. he's so cute but sad.


mmm new threaddddd

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

i like rubber stamps. a lot.

ive been wanting some good alphabet rubber stamps but i couldnt find any in a suitable font. so i decided to make my own. i took out my linoleum and my carving tool and, after tracing Bill Hicks font onto tracing paper, i transferred the image to pieces of linoleum block. many rubbery strips on the floor later, i finished. it gets easier the more you do it, so z is a bit better than a, but whatever.

gocco a gogo.

last night my print gocco came from japan! it's a beautiful pg5 kit for fabric and paper. for those who are unfamiliar with gocco - it's a screenprinting machine from japanese brand riso. you draw an original with a carbon pen or pencil, then slide in a master screen and expose the screen with camera bulbs. you use the screen as a stencil to push ink through the mesh.

it's just like silk screening but it's less messy and much easier. i was so excited when it came i quickly drew up a messy squirrel to test it out. it might have been a waste of screen but i got some good cards out of it.

and i made a chromosome card. oh how i love science.