I finally made a scarf-less TARDIS hat!

Bean!

I finally got this OySpaceMan (just) Hat done since a customer requested one. To make it more lightweight and breathable for summer, i did the windows in organic cotton. It's whiter than the beige acrylic in the hat + scarf + pocket combo. This makes it either recycled (blue) or organic (white). What do you think? Is it ecogeek or what?

Check it out here!

Get your favorite here!

Look What I Made: Photo collages at Photovisi

Bean!
My Handmade Forest's Web page at the Nature Conservancy allows me to add photo albums, so I have one full of the customer purchases that donated trees. Today I discovered that the album limit is 10 photos and needed a workaround. After a quick Web search I learned that none of my applications have an easy collage tool, so I followed a link to Photovisi.com.

An easy web tool for collages
Wow, what a great tool! The site first leads you to gallery of pre-made layouts, few of which were appealing to me. But, when you choose one, you can change a ton of stuff. Background, number of photos, layering order, size, rotation, cropping, add text, cool fonts, and more. You can download your collage or save it in an account. The final image has a small watermark in the bottom right corner, which you can use to spread the good news, or easily crop out later by leaving enough white space around your collage. I went into Powerpoint and added my banner, which I could have done on Photovisi, but I needed to play with it more. Here's my final product.

Customer appreciation photos on Etsy
I added it as the customer appreciation photo you can add to your feedback on Etsy. Hopefully this will encourage them to to visit the forest's page and sign the guest book. Also, I want to let them know how much I want to make this forest happen!

Look what I made!: Bella's Mittens

Bean!:
This ain't half bad for my first completed knitting project, eh?

Bella's mittens on Ravelry with Caron Simply Soft Eco yarn

Keyboard Cat!

Thanks to Andrea of Paper Sparrow, I spent my day making a Keyboard Cat papercraft instead of doing something less productive (i.e. anything else). He was not as difficult as I feared despite having practically no instructions. Last year I made the Ceiling Cat and put him on mother's bedroom ceiling when she wasn't around. It scared the poop out of her! I kind of want to fill the whole apartment with papercraft cat goodness. Look at him go:

Keyboard Cat Papercraft from Jill Watt on Vimeo.

Finally Finished!

 

I started this fox last summer, but he was left headless until last night because I didn't have any eyes for him. I think he turned out looking more like a giraffe than a fox. I think he needs an embroidered nose. Patterns from xmoonbloom. 

Cookies!

 

Let's just say I made the mistake of eating 2.

Look What I Made: Trial Run With the Gouache Paints

I did a quick sketch of this so I would be able to see if I could actually paint. What do you think? I think it works! I did another and colored it with pastels. I put the pika on the stone wall reaching up for some branches in that one. The sketch itself was better, but the coloring just looks like crayon to me. I like the combo of Sharpie and paint here. I'll have to buy some ultra fine tip sharpies.

Look what I made: Knitting needles

What you need to make knitting needles for about a quarter each!

Bean!
I whipped up some home-made knitting needles today for 35 cents each. You know they tend to cost $5-15, so this is a big deal! I saw a video with the idea, and we had all the supplies on our MakeScene so it took me 5 minutes! I got two needles out of one dowel. I had 1/4" dowels for size 10-10.5 needles. Now I'm off to buy dowels in other sizes!

Look what I made: Onion confit

Bean! 

Meijer clearanced a rack of onions so I bought 10 lb. for confit. $2.00! Aren't you sorry you left?

Look what I made: Snow Angels. a.k. Winter's Over?

The snow had nearly all melted by yesterday morning. By 8 PM there was another 6 inches! We swept off the car and shoveled the driveway. Then I dared Lorna to make a snow angel. I made one too!