Happy Little Monsters

It seems that my illness has abated somewhat after a couple days rest. Despite my lingering illness, last night Andrew took me to see The Nutcracker at the New York State Theater. He knows how much I love dance and my slight obsession with ballet, so he bought us tickets for my birthday back in October. It was so much fun and beautiful and amazing! I recommend everyone try to see it at least once.

And to continue with the Christmas theme, the next installment of past Christmas presents. Christmas Present #2 given to my niece Abigail and my nephew Josef: Happy Little Monsters



These guys are made from thrift fabric, felt, foam and poly-fill. The are really simple to make and the kids seem to enjoy their tossability. They are pretty much just sewn cubes filled with a big foam piece and filled in with polly-fill. The number of faces you could use are infinite. I chose to just cut out felt and glue AND sew them on for extra reinforcement, which is a good idea if you are making them for kids that are prone to pulling things off and eating them.



Fondly,
Crystal

Sick and Tired

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We went back to Ohio and since we've been back in Brooklyn, I've been feeling seriously under the weather. I've been trying to push myself to post about something, anything! But it seems my mind just can't focus on anything at the moment. There's nothing that can kill productivity like a headache and sick-taste in the mouth. Gross.

Another thing that kills my blogging motivation is a slow internet connection, which is exactly what has been happening in the office. Our company is in the midst of switching providers which means slow internet for, possibly, the rest of 2007. Yeah, yeah, I should be working instead of blogging but I'm here practically ALL the time and sometimes I would rather just stay at the office for a few extra minutes than go home and have to sit in front of the computer again.

Enough with the excuses. Since I'm here I guess I should post about something. Christmastime is coming and I had mentioned before that a couple years ago I made presents for family and friends. So as not to overload you with everything all at once, I'll do it in parts.

Today is Christmas Present #1 given to my dear friend Angela: Apple Crisp Basket!



Angela and I both love Apple Crisp and we have this romantic notion that it must be made every year on the first snowfall. If you're looking for a really simple, but very personal gift you should think about giving someone a shared experience or memory. This can usually be created through a combination of simple elements that are special to the both of you. For the Apple Crisp basket all you need are: apples, jars, and ingredients to make the crisp part.





And! Don't forget your very own special Apple Crisp recipe! Enjoy!

Fondly,
Crystal

This Is For That

If anyone is looking for Christmas presents in the form of beautiful, affordable art you should check out This Is For That over at etsy. A good friend of mine runs this shop and hand cuts all the decorative initials herself. It's truly beautiful and a great personalized gift. I've been fortunate enough to see some of the stuff she plans on making and it's super cool, so you should keep track of this lady!

Fondly,
Crystal

Photographs

My sister, Maria, used to own a tailoring shop located in the Goodyear headquarters in Akron, Ohio. It was this amazing little storefront and it was stocked with all these vintage sewing notions. Some of the thread was so old, it wasn't even usable anymore. One of the tailors that worked there was this 80 year old man who would sew on an antique Singer sewing machine and put his sewing needles in the side of his chair! I thought it had a lot of charm and was inspired to take some photos. Recently, I had 8" X 10" prints made and was really happy with how they turned out. So now, you can purchase copies of your own from our etsy store.

Fondly,
Crystal

One more for now

Since I didn't get to doing a full post on Christmas presents like I had planned, I figure I'd at least show you a couple photos to get you in the spirit. A couple years ago, I got really into these colored ribbons. Half the photos I took were just of the wrapping, I was so smitten. So here are the wrappings, you'll have to check back later to see the innards. A little Christmas anticipation already!

Fondly,
Crystal

Fuko Ueda

Okay, I know I said I was going to post about other things, but I was just browsing the internet here at the office and I came upon this amazing artist/illustrator that I felt compelled to share. Fuki Ueda is a Japanese artist who paints very surreal, dream-like images, mostly of young girls and nature with a sinister twist. Check out more of her work here. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!

Fondly,
Crystal

List Post

I was planning on posting all day, but I got wrapped up in this: crystalmadrilejos.com which I'd been trying to get together FOREVER. This is my website for my design work if I ever want to try to get a new job, it'll make things infinitely easier. There is still a crap load of stuff that I need to compile and photograph. It's still in the works and many things are not as they should be, but hopefully I've gotten the ball rolling enough that I won't be too overwhelmed.
So, what I had plans on posting about today were:

1. Christmas presents. I am going to make a concerted effort to make all my presents this year. It's only been a few years that I've actually been able to afford to buy presents, but it seems to get more and more difficult to think of new things to buy for my friends and loved ones. I've made some gifts in the past that I was going to post about, which hopefully I'll get to tomorrow.

2. Apartment photos. I've been meaning to do this one forever. The evolution of our apartment has been something that I take much pride in. One of these days… As for now, I'm totally beat and heading off to bed.

Fondly,
Crystal

oh! and P.S. The Golden Compass!! Love it! Everyone should go to the movie site and find out what their dæmon is too!

New on Etsy

We put a few new things up on Etsy. They are things that we've been holding onto for awhile, but I'm not sure why. A few small felt pouches (I have one of my own that I use for my Metrocard), a duffle that Andrew made awhile back, and a set of vintage salt and pepper shakers. Random, I know. But you should check them all out! We're working on more duffles, some new dolls, and possibly some photography prints in the near future.

I visited a friend of mine today that I haven't seen in a really long time. She has two amazing kids that were born a couple years ago. Last time I saw her, she was pregnant with them! I made a doll for each of them along the same lines as the bear from the Japanese craft book (see a couple posts down) but with more dog heads than bear. I am really happy with how they turned out, but unfortunately I forgot to take photos of them!

Fondly,
Crystal

Crochet

My Auntie Vita taught me how to crochet a few years ago, and I am eternally grateful. She has been crocheting since she was in grade school and she is now 70+ years old which has resulted in the most beautiful and even stitches I've ever seen! It is truly amazing and I aspire to be that good someday.

Recently, I started a new project which is the first I've crocheted in a really really long time. Pictured above is my progress, but man, has it been frustrating. I seem to have briefly forgotten how to end rows which resulted in crazy uneven edges. Luckily, the project i'm working will require that the ends be folded over and sewn. I even undid the stitching more than once to attempt to fix my errors. It got to the point where every time Andrew would see me undoing all my work, he would have to look away because it frustrated him. Finally, I think I'm on the right track. I just don't have it in me to start over again, but i think it will still turn out ok. If anyone was wondering, the yarn I'm using is Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Naturals.

Elephant Shoe

The past couple months I've been working in collaboration with Major Matt Mason and Dave End over at Olive Juice Music to put together a zine. I find it hard to believe that I hadn't mentioned it up until this point, mainly because it was such a fun experience! To be honest, I've never actually made a zine but luckily I didn't have to come up with the content. A bunch of artists and musicians centered around the OJ community contributed all the content and I was the one fortunate enough to put it all together. Andrew even proofread it! That might be against some sort of zine rule, but who cares? I design magazines for a living, and it was such a breath of fresh air to be able to work on something closer to my heart, but it's still hard for me to put out something if it has spelling errors!

All the artists and writers who contributed are amazing, and I'm crossing my fingers that next time around even more people will want to grace it's pages. As far as I know, the zines have only been circulated by hand at this point. But, I think, eventually the intention is to have them up for grabs through Olive Juice Music. But you should check out their site to be sure. Here are some more photos of the zine.

Fondly,
Crystal

And we're rolling…

The yes, have some. presents Toby Goodshank line of goods if finally up for sale on our etsy shop. We put things up first thing this morning and we've already got a couple takers. Thank you to everyone who checked out the stuff. It's been a long time coming and we couldn't be happier.

Tonight I'm putting together little mailing kits that will go out with each purchase. We have been wanting to do this for awhile, but lack of time had been holding us back. Now we have yes, have some. postcards and stickers. I'd like to eventually have them printed up nicely on a nice printer, or even get them done somewhere if funds permit. But for the time being we're settling on printing things from our inkjet, which seems to work pretty well. It would be nice if we could silkscreen them, but screenprinting in our apartment has become somewhat contentious. The frustrations seem to run too high whenever we try to screenprint these days and it doesn't seem worth the bad vibes. Hopefully, we'll be able to get back to it…someday.

I have to get to cutting stickers, but tomorrow I plan on posting about a zine that I had been working on for the past couple months. I realized the other day that I had never even mentioned it, and I have no idea why!! It put out by Olive Juice Music and I'm very happy with how it turned out. So tomorrow!

Fondly,
Crystal

Labels

Things are finally slowing down at work which means more time devoted to other non-work related things. Today I added labels to most of the previous posts so now you can view them by category. If you check out the sidebar, there should be list of categories to choose from. If people are just hearing about the Toby Goodshank line, they can just click on the category for "YHS presents: Toby Goodshank" and get the full process from start to finish.

Also, I added more links to our "Friends" section, which is now called "Friends, Websites, and Blogs We Love". There are so many sites that I visit everyday that are very inspiring, so I figured I should share them so they can continue to inspire other people as well.

Have I ever mentioned that Andrew is a whiz in the kitchen? I've been trying to get him to post about all the wonderful things he makes, but for some reason he has yet to venture forth. I've been itching to make a cookbook for him with all his recipes! Here is a photo of him making strawberry jam, that makes me extremely happy.

Hope you are well!
Fondly,
Crystal

Happy Day-After-Halloween!

I hope everyone had a swell Halloween. We had a great time at the Dream Bitches CD release party. Our costumes went over great and it was all around fun for everyone.

The official date of the release of the yes, have some - Toby Goodshank line of goods has been set. We will be selling the things starting November 5th through our etsy shop which you can go to through either the link in the sidebar to the right, or directly through yeshavesome.etsy.com here is the announcement if anyone wants to post it anywhere, feel free. We are so excited about this project and looking forward to doing many more collaborations in the future. Enjoy!



Fondly,
Crystal