# 342 Earring Board

My earring were all jumbled up and it was a pain in the ass in the morning to get into my jewelry and pick anything out. And it is not that I have an extensive collection...far from it. I have seen lots of earring boards and other jewelry on the wall solutions but I didn't want anything fooffy or two busy... I was looking for a really functional minimalist (as minimalist as earring displays can be) solution.

So what I made was a pretty earring board.

Materials and tools:

Old thin profile canvas (I hated the painting on it)
Muslin (enough to cover the front and wrap around to the back with 4 inches to spare all the way around)
Polyfil batting (enough to evenly cover the surface of the canvas)
Spray glue
Pretty fabric (I used a scrap of dupioni silk, same dimensions as the muslin)
Thin copper wire
a big eyed needle
Nails or heavy staples
A hammer of stapler

Step 1

Spray a portion of the canvas with the glue and spread the polyfill evenly over the glued area. Repeat until the canvas is evenly covered.

Step 2
layout the muslin and place the canvas in the center, fluffy side down. Starting at one end tack down the muslin to the frame. To to the opposite side from when you started and to the same, pulling the muslin smooth as you go. You don't have to pull super tight just smooth. Add any polyfill to the sides you need to in order to fill gaps as you go.

Step 3
Repeat step 3 with the outer fabric, making sure things are smooth and tight.

Step 4
On the back of the frame, measure about .5 inches down and place two nails on each side of the frame, leaving just a bit of the nail head out to wrap wire around. Repeat down the frame about every 2 to 2.5 inches as pleases you. Next clip off a piece of wire that will span across your frame with a generous bit extra and thread the needle with it.

Step 5
Wrap the end of your copper wire around one nail head and sew spans across your fabric ... keep in mind that the spans will be weighted down by the earrings so don't make them too long. Tip: Use a ruler to measure across and keep your copper stitchwork even... marking the places you will sew though with a pin through the canvas.

And this is what you should end up with:

#343 Blog to help with my little OCD problem

Now I don't really have OCD. At least I don't think I do. ;)

But I do have a love of lists and databases. And I had a problem (detailed here) and this was the solution.

I repurposed a wordpress theme to be my personal database of patterns, fabric, notions and art supplies. I am still tweaking it but I am pretty happy. The designer of the Arras theme did a great job. And I felt a little weird counting it as a "creation" until I realized "Hey, I made this data, I repurposed it to my will... and I will be tweaking the CSS to my sensibilities." They did a great job the functionality is fantastic and it is the most beautiful substrate for my content... which is what I am actually the sole creator of — so there.

There Must Be Order

But I swear I have no control issues. Really.

Anyhow I have started to have a respectable pattern stash going. I have commercial patterns (McCalls, Simplicity, Vouge) and specialty commercial patterns (Truly Victorian, Past Patterns) as well as patterns that I have drafted myself. So of course nothing is in a uniform size or shape. Some went back in their envelopes... others maybe not.

Issue #1
When shopping for patterns especially during big sales, how will I be able to tell if I already have a similar pattern already, and in what size? It sucks to find out you have double purchased or what is happening is that I have the same top pattern basically... from 10 different manufacturers.

Issue #2
How can I easily browse my stash so I can do a project... And not just plain loose track of what I got.

Issue #4
How can I access my list of goodies when I am not right in front of the box.

Of course the solution is database. But this magic database has to images... cause I choose things visually. A pattern database without pictures is useless to me.

So I am gonna try to find an on-line tool for this. I wish blogger had widgets for this. That would be sweet!

Here is to the dream. And when I find a good solution I will shout it far and wide, believe you me.

Crafty things that led me astray today

Thread stuff: http://www.kreinik.com/articles/news.php?newsid=101


Cause they make stuff like this:

#344 Corset Mock up

This number is part of a duck tape dress being constructed for a good friend of mine. Wheeeeee. This was for the corset part only. We are working on the skirt bit as duck tape is not so good for the draping. The next step is to get some conductive thread and start working with the lights and possible power sources.

Oh, and source the roller skates.

poor baby take on tom ka gai

This a poor quick version of Tom Ka Gai. It has lots of room for variation (aka the addition of leftovers)

• Chicken Broth (decent quality)
• Garlic, fresh diced
• Ginger, fresh diced
• Chili garlic sauce (the ordinary chines kind - Can be replaced by some diced thai chili's if you got em)
• 2 cups seafood (prefer prawns diced or scallops)
• Coconut milk
• lime
• green onion (chop the whites and then rough dice the greens, keeping them separate)
• Red Curry Paste
• Good oil
• Fish sauce
• Mushrooms, quartered
• Cilantro rough diced

NOTE: It is best if you prep all your stuff before you start cooking... otherwise it won't go up nicely or things will end up burnt or over cooked.

First onion whites to the pan with a bit of oil, saute until soft on med. Add garlic and ginger and stir fry until just brown on the edges. Add chili sauce stir just a tad, add curry paste, give it a toss and then cover with a bit of the chicken broth... just enough that you can break up the curry paste in... once it is broken up cover with the rest of the broth and bring to a hard boil.
Add mushrooms, bring back up to a decent boil, add fish sauce and a drop of sesame oil.
Add fish, stir, add coconut milk and bring back up to moving, bring back up to hot. Turn off add cilantro and green onion tops. Keep checking for spiciness and salt and add bits of chili or fish sauce in small amounts until you are happy.

Let sit for two min. then serve with a squirt of lime juice on top the bowl. Yum.

So I didn't put this one in as one of the project a day projects cause it is so straight forward. It would be like saying spagetti was a creation of merit.

Good things to add:
Leftover pork chop sliced thin
Leftover chicken shredded
The rind of the lime or kefir leaves
left over veggies from the night before
rice noodles (cooked)
tofu

#345 UC page for Mine Now

Mine now is a new label that is still in the chrysalis stages first conceived by my friend Ben Shaddis. I am partnering with Ben to bring Mine Now to life and of course a web presence is a must. Below is the first page developed and speaks to the look and feel we are going toward for the web page (Click on the image to see a better view). Oh, and credit for the awesoem logo goes to Ben as well. I think it is outstanding.

#346 This Here Wordpress Page-Order Tutorial

This is a simple visual tutorial to help new user's control the order in which pages display on their Wordpress sites. The example Wordpress site I am using here is jellyfishgallery.com. An awesome space run by great folks.

Let's take a look at where we are vs where we want to go. Notice in the image below the order in which the pages are listing. The one on the left is where we are and the one on the right is what we want. (Something you should note for this tutorial... it the images are too small click on it to see a larger view)

#347 Custom Wordpress Theme for a Naughty Private Party

Below is another custom wordpress theme. I am enjoying creating these ditty's as they stretch my technical and design skills while putting the power of editing and content management in the hands of the site owners - where it belongs.

#348 Jellyfish Gallery Custom Wordpress Theme

Hello there,

So I created a custom wordpress theme using a watercolor and jellyfish illustration I did for a couple friends of mine who have this amazing space in SOMA. The first image links to the site.