Rockabilly Love!

My mind has lately exploded with ideas from my surroundings, looking at anything from video game geekery to my love of music subculture. Things are written down, memories and multiple pictures were recovered. The idea process for me can be absolutely bloody carnage: 5 pages later of sketching and about 75 pictures later, I end up with a new favorite trend. This time I am leaning towards rockabilly style.

Yes it is almost the same as the 1950's pinup girls thing I was on last time, but its more modern than that. To put it simply, here is the urban dictionary's multiple definitions.

Rockabilly To the Urban Dictionary

I don't go to urban dictionary often, but it helps when you want the basic gist of something like defining a subculture. Surprisingly enough, this is one of the few definitions where I have not seen an overly nasty troll definition. To the point, the fashion aspect is 1950's hoodlum and greaser styles, and the girls are usually some punked out version of a pinup girl.

My reaction? "punk? pinup? Two things I really love!"

This is a fun fashion for me, because it gives me the freedom to be feminine and girly with cute tops and skirts and pants without feeling absolutely girly. I can be cute and adult too!

So now I am getting to work on a new piece as a basic "Intro to pinup/rockabilly" project. It won't take long and might actually be up tomorrow.

As an indulgence, here is a couple of links for pinup and rockabilly styles.

Delicious Patriotic Pinup Apron
This is something my boyfriend is Vying for to get me <3 I think it'd make a nice photo prop for a picture before he ships out dont you think?

Shirred Rockabilly Top
This is a pretty rad tutorial, once I start getting used to my sewing machine I will be able to make this top!

Con Fun!

So I in my fabulous alter ego "Chouko Keeki" went to Anime Overload last week! It was too fun!

Mainly the maid part, here was the main dance and song I did!

Hotch Potchi~ Konnichiwan Kara One Two Three

It looks pretty easy, but I break out in a major sweat everytime!

And even if I didn't make much in sales (I made about 50 bucks) the rest of it went into trades with some interesting people. My best investment? Handmade rainbow Kitty Ears <3 I love them! I spent a lot of con promoting and trading business cards!

This one is short: but I'll be on vacation for about a week so I wont be as talkative ^^

Shops I absolutely love!

I have been a part of the etsy community for exactly a month now as a seller! 4 sales total this month, Woohoo! lets keep the sales coming!

Because I save the shop names on my circles, its not often I have a few shops I put on my favorites. A lot of my favorite shops say: "If I had all the money in the world I'd buy EVERYTHING here!" They are crazy cutesy, with beautiful designs but out of the broke college kid's budget. I'll give about five shops to date I love.

Dots Diner

When I think of the 1950's pinup style apron's I'd love to wear around the house her pieces are exactly what I want. There are many styles from cutesty and bright and pink to bold red and checkered black and white and I want all of them! To make things better, her work has an amazing professional finish and breathtakingly detailed designs aside from the elaborate fabric. I remember showing these to my significant other asking which ones he like and he said all of them! So hopefully if we both have money there will be a sale in the future!

And she has more than just aprons, lately there have been a few scrap-happy potholders appearing and they're just as lovely as the other products! So if you can't get the aprons or just don't wanna show as-open cuteness, the potholders are just as wonderful!

Twinkie Chan!

Come on, who DOESN'T love Twinkie Chan? One of my first favorites here, her work still remains as my all time favorite. Lately I have been eyeing her Tissue Box Cozies, which she has added a tasty key lime pie and berry pie to the set! The loop stitch is one of those stitches I dont use often, so I admire people who do it well! I'm excited to she what she comes up with next, and I hope I have the cash to jump on it!

Athinalabella!

I couldn't get the crown like I had hoped, but her stuff remains on my "top stuff I absolutely need" list. Like the other two, she has a bright flair and an eye for detail in all that she does. Resin Jewelry to reflect candy and lollipops; everything from the resin crown to the large charms necklaces pops out and shows the world how awesome candy can be. My favorite is the Candy Heart Necklace that reflects beautiful blues and pinks with a large peppermint in the middle!

boygirlparty

This is a much softer set of items, but with my journal and notepad obsession there is nothing I love more than self illustrated handmade journals. The two items that stand out for me here are the 192 page self illustrated journal and the to do lists (which is two things I know I desperately need!) Even if I don't always feel I need it, the recipe cards are lovely editions to my collection!

Decadent Delusion

What ended up attracting me to her stuff was the handspun yarn! Beautiful and (dare I say?) Decadent, these are elegantly colored yarns I wouldn't mind wrapping myself in. <3 on top of that, the lacy earrings are just gorgeous!

Take a look at these and hopefully shop! You'll see EXACTLY what I mean

Pin Up Girl

Lately in my venture for weird crocheted projects I have grown an interest in pin up girl style! There was going to be pictures today, but my hair was in such a deep condiditoning I was afraid it would all fall out!

But if there is any kind of bad habit I have, its turning my attempts at crafting into a HUGE history lesson. I won't ramble, instead I will share some links and videos \



For starters, I wanted a simple Pinup style, something I could go out and wear and it wouldn't take me that long. in all of my herpderp glory I marveled as she stuck a bunch of pins in her hair and I realized one reason why it was called "pinup" girl.



This is another one I considered for party styles and going out! I love the flower embelishment and I might be using this for Craft show ideas.



This girl is my all time favorite, she's adorable and gives very thought out explanations of each thing. She also vary much looks the part for it as well! I might be following more of her videos for other tips. This would make a very good casual daytime updo, since I can't always garauntee I'll be doing something user friendly (such as dance practice)

Looking for these things has also make me accept I won't really do all aspects of the pinup girl style. Im not a big fan of makeup, and I can't always garauntee a specific style will look good on me, so I'll do makeup as well, but not as much!

Tonight I will connect to my roots and also look up black pinup girls as well!

Craft Store Round up!

I found these 5 shops my all time favorites this week.

http://www.etsy.com/people/ArtsDelight?ref=ls_profile
Beautiful paper crafts!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BearStitches
Has such nifty bags! I like the tiny clutches.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/poppydreamz
Delicious designs, I love it!

http://www.etsy.com/people/suami?ref=ls_profile
Tiny crocheted animals! Makes me so happy!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/bethycraft
Some more lovely earthy designs.

Come visit these shops today! and send your happy customer pics!

Visit my Etsy!

Sorry I hadn't blogged like I should, but this is too good to pass up!

http://www.etsy.com/people/BTBInc?ref=si_pr

After hours of sizzling in the pan the bacon has been majorly brought! Come visit my etsy and buy!

Also! enter colorfrenzy and recieve free shipping with the purchase of two things of like yarn colors.

In light of some recent events, I am also developing a new product! For a friends birthday I used his love of meats as an inspiration and came up with a bacon wallet. Needless to say to me it was a bit depressing, just a crocheted peice of cotton folded in half and shoddily stitched together to make a pouch (because men don't have coinpurses he says :p)

Seeing as I can be such a stickler, I am making a new one I am much more comfortable with! This one is going to be much more dimensional and elaborate with a lot of necessary stuff that I think a wallet needs. I will still add the bacon element to it ^^ Pics will be up when it is done.

With this bacon kick there will also be many more surprises! Check back soon!

McCallum Capstone! Benefit Concert

Calling all fellow Austinites!

A big part of the McCallum Fine Arts Academy is the final Capstone Project to show all you have learned. My friend Kathy is having one!

http://www.facebook.com/update_security_info.php?wizard=1#!/event.php?eid=131728520238211

Come see me and handpicked individuals sing at the Benefit Concert. It is free to attend and we are accepting donations. All donations go to the Japan Relief effort so come to us with love and music in your hearts! This is a great group, and working with her has made me realize my passion for music. Come see dreams come to life and make someones dreams come to life as well!

Japan Relief Benefit Concert
Directed by: Kathy McConnell
Sung by: Me and people from the McCallum High School First Edition Choir
Date: Friday May 27th, 7:00-7:30 pm
Place: Our Lady's Maronite Catholic Parish
1320 East 51st Street 78723
Admission: free! but donations will be accepted! A little goes a long way.
Hope to see you there!

In Memorandum: Miss Mac

I'm one of those kids who has a bad habit of not being friends with people my own age. My boyfriend is 4 years older, my ex-roommate in college was the same way. But I love people that are much older. One of my closest friends was Miss Mac, who passed on tonight. My mom and I cried together and we helped notify people who knew her.

To really open up, Imagine that crazy lady your mother or grandmother is friends with. That one woman who was obviously a product of the sixties and the New York fast life. Wild hair, colorful home, and eyes that are young and lively. This was that woman for me. This was one of my mother's friends I went out of my way to see. I wrote to her in college, and even took the time to email her with whatever was on my mind. We were planning to go to New York together and she was going to "really" show me the essence of it, not just the tourist traps.

This wasn't just some blip in the system though, everyone knew who she was. I could mention any friend of mine and she knew their parents; I mentioned a place and she could tell me everything. She knew how long it was there, who worked there. I loved her because she really made Austin a special place not just for her but for everyone else.

I had to deal with a lot of people passing, but tonight was the first time I truly cried over someone. There is a silver lining though, she isn't in pain anymore, and she gets to party with the crooners and all of her old commune buddies.

I projected these feelings into a crochet project, which is currently in sketch mode until I get more poly-fill. It is a good scraps project for me, but it is still in a test mode for me. Pics will be up tomorrow.

Love you all

Birthday Love!

This is one of my favorite pictures of me and my boyfriend at the Gardens! There was an awesome sculpture of a butterfly and right away mom said "picture! Picture!"



My big dork! I love him so much <3

My birthday will be in a couple of weeks, and since my sister's birthday I declared this the year of the princess. She had a full handmade parade and this cute little plastic light up tiara! I decided that I was going to step up my game and I was going to have a tiara for my birthday too, but I would continue my handmade kick and get a longer lasting "grown up" tiara! Skimming etsy I found Athinalabella, who makes the CUTEST candy jewelry I have ever seen!



The second I saw it, I called my boyfriend and said "If you get me this it'll cover all birthdays EVER!" :D I was excited, and now that he has agreed to get me one as a present Im ready to celebrate 19 in style! Obsession with hairpeices will be satisfied soon! My cupcake hair peice plus the tiara= best. summer. EVER!

Renegade Austin Fun!

This weekend I decided to take a chance and go to the Renegade Fair in Austin! It was free to attend, and I didn't know what kind of chance I'd get to do this again. So I went for it. ^^ Unfortunately I went at it alone, but it was a well worth it trip!

My original goal was to get one of Twinkie Chan's awesome cake hair clips! Since I could not find them in her shop I knew this was the ideal opprotunity to get one. I can say I was pleasantly surprised after lingering her booth to get this!



There was 2 Red Velvet Cake clips, one with rainbow pom-poms and one with the regular red. ^^ I ended up choosing the red one. I took a picture or two of me to send to my boyfriend, and just could not get that exceptional pic where I got the cake on my head. I ended up running into the ladies room and had 3 seconds to snap a picture in the mirror before people looked at me funny. XD It was interesting to see from some other booths that they recognized it as one of Twinkie Chan's creations on sight! I kept it on until I made it to my grandmas house. :) The second my sister saw it she wanted one for herself! I have the means to do make her one, since I have Twinkie's "Sugar on Top" book to work off from, but if there is one reason I bought it, it's that I can't do the dollop correctly! >.< I tried it a bajillion times from the pattern, but to no real avail.

I also went in to the Craft Fair looking for new things and new people. I have a bad habit of compensating being by myself by talking to people, and I have to overcome a bit of shyness when I do (these were, in a way, my crafting superiors! Alot of the crocheters I play with their patterns all the time!) My crafting adventure, to my surprise, did not begin by going to get my hair clip. The first place that stood out to me was small pastel booth nearby the door with the cutest images! I decided I'd look there first.



That's right! my first stop ended up being none other than Sublime Stitching! I saw the banner and was instantly drawn to it! I walked around and eyed the bags, dishtowels with nifty things on them, and skimmed through the designs wishing I knew how to embroider. I ended up socializing with the booth's owner as I began to search. Man was I in luck! I got Sublime Stitching's Ultimate Embroidery Kit to get me started and 3 transfer packs (I figured since I didn't get my boyfriend the comic book sketchbook I was oohing at a robot embroidered hankie would do one better! :P)I have been embroidering a little everyday now and learning new things :D This is what im working on as my first. It might just be a practice towel since Im still learning.



2 straight hours of socializing and laughing later my phone was down to its last bar! oops >< This time I really had to crack down on my picture taking and gather a bit of courage to talk to people slightly business'y. First I took a picture with Courtney (who I had talked to and didn't ask a name until the end XD)



Picture perfect pair! And she was so much fun to talk to! If I hadn't broken my budget I would've gotten the glow in the dark thread and more tea towels :) but I will save that for a later date! I also took a picture with Twinkie Chan!



She's so cute! And way for me to look big >.
That was 10/10 fun! I look forward to next year!

Aloha!

So for the past couple of weeks I participated in a Crafters Swap (my first EVER!) with a woman in Hawaii. 5 days later, her gifts to me finally arrived!


Handmade bag and a lei! I am in love with the fabric (last time I checked is called "Kawaii" Fabric) and might actually ask her to just ship me more of it! The lei is now on the neck of one of my teddy bears!


More of the handmades! A bottle cap necklace with my pearl obsession : D and my headpeice obsession, 3 hello kitty bows! The cupcake was the cutest touch!


School supplies! Notebook, pens and pencils, an eraser, some envelopes and stickers! Im 14 again! : D


and the coup de gras, CANDY!

All and all I wrote her a good review! I just hope mine will be worthy of one too! Im definitely going to do more of these swaps in the future.

Yesterday I went to Joann where my roomie works and found a book called "Cowl Girls." I am obsessed with cowls lately, and even though it was a knitting book, I found a lot of inspiration for some crochet stuff. I could do one straight cowl with different colors, I could make it twice as long then fold it in half for a pocket, make a large chain, or even put an ipod case on it! In the end I didnt get the book, but it is no doubt on my birthday list with "big girl knits"

So this led me to do my next WIP, an autumn cowl! I'll use the yarn for my pizza scarf and got some earthy green to make a flower pin and some leaves to tack onto it! The colors blend enough that it would definitely be no problem to work on it!

All and all this has been a wonderful beginning to my spring break and I definitely cannot wait to work on everything!

Love and kisses!

There are a lot of

Gearing Up for the Big Night!

Friday my mom sent me a care package

Isnt it so sweet of her?

It took me a couple of weeks, but now I finally have the yarn to finish my Pizza scarf! Also in it is a small notebook/journal very fancily handcrafted, some rhinestone studded pencils (from micheals!) a vintage notepad and pen set, and some more hair barrettes. She also sent a note about how much she misses having a daughter she can but artsy stuff with. <3 I miss her up here.

I am also beginning my venture into a dress design based on the Retro Nautical Dress on cut out and keep by Hana!
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/retro-nautical-dress

Its a pretty looking dress, and I figured for my boyfriend's next visit it would be fairly appropriate :) I was going to sketch it out after housework tonight then begin planning it out, Hopefully if I dedicate myself it will be made by the time he gets here.

Sitting through the last 40 minutes of the "Good Burger" Movie (absolutely LOVE that movie! Watch it everytime it comes on) I developed a special coffee/tea cozy for a swap I am doing! take a look see!

All the bubbles!

I used one of the stitches in my book for the top. It supposed to roughly look like a cup of coffee with foam covering the top. If not a very textured cake. :) I am taking an extreme liking to adapting multiple textures to a peice, this is a good small scale start.

Tomorrow night is the Oscars! Big night for a lot of us :) we were planning on having a party but depending on my schedule I might be bellydancing that night. If not, this would be a definite evening of crafting fun!

So tell me, is anyone else crafting during the oscars? What are you doing?

Fresh Start

I started this last year, a month before I graduated I think. I wrote maaybe a couple of things, and my blog seemed a bit dark and pretty broody.



This is a year of fresh starts for me. New boyfriend, new friends and a new outlook on life.



Plus to make things better, I began the year strong with an absolute crochet EXPLOSION that has resulted in about a corner of workspace and more : D



I did this all in the past couple of months and I still haave a couple of crafting things to go. My WIP currently consist of:



1. My white Day present for my lover: A teal Fedora, There is a chance if it works i am making a purple one for my roommate

2. A week ago I bought a PDF "Sugar on Top" by TwinkieChan, and I tried my hand at each of the techniques. Ideas from this are making a whipped cream dollop hair pin and a rainbow swirl barette

3. Twinkie Chan Pepperoni Pizza Scarf- This was unfinished because I didnt get all of the necessary materials. When it comes to legnth, I am very specific, and it is hard when the book doesnt give you much of a yardage estimate. So this project had to be postponed for a LONG while. The rest of the yarn didn't come in until today. :)

4. Dr Who scarf: My only knitting project for quite a while, this I feel like is one of the ultimate rights of passage in the Convention costuming world :) Im following a pattern that is twelve feet long and 14 inches+ wide and I have about a foot of it finished. Because of my crochet explosion it has been on the backburner for a long while and might have to inch its way along ^^; I still love it, and I have more ideas for it, but it is not my biggest concern.



Right now costuming and eccentric girly design is my thing, along with a couple of themed things specifically for my boyfriend :) I like anthropomorphic food so he gets a lot of plushies.



I also have a thing for international design, specifically for japanese. For Valentines Day and White Day I am getting a Deco-Den Set and a japanese sewing book *insert nerdy squeal* My boyfriend feeds my craft addictions. God I love him <3

So yeah, new day and new start. Tomorrow is going to bring us so much more fun :3

Love you all!

Anya n