`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.' - Lewis Carroll

I have been inspired by a five-year-old's birthday party.

I came across this the other day:http://www.jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?postID=134

That is the cutest thing I have ever seen! It makes me want to kidnap a small child and throw her a birthday party. But I won't, I promise.

Unfortunately, I don't have a child and all the little ones in my life are of the male persuasion. But I can always combine an "Alice In Wonderland"-esque element with my home made wedding. Why not, I have some Harry Potter elements in there too.

I don't want to go too overboard, though. It can't be too girly because it is Jess's wedding too. I still want to stick with the purple and green theme (or rather lavender and sage), but maybe add a tea party in there with some finger sandwiches and other treats. Jess likes tea. Maybe some cookies that say, "Eat Me."

Hmmm... That sounds bad.

Okay then, the beverages will say "Drink Me." That's better, right?

I've been on the lookout for different shaped tea pots (hopefully in my color scheme) and cheap bone china-looking tea cups online and at thrift stores. As long as I can get a few teacups for decoration, I'll be happy. It would be nice to have a lot of tea cups for an actual tea party but, call me crazy, I have a feeling that most people would rather drink alcohol than tea.

If only I could have a petting zoo! Awwww! That would be awesome to have little rabbits, pigs, and sheep running around. Damn. Maybe for my birthday ;)

In the process of trying to get ideas, I've been reading up on the "Alice" books and also the author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson a.k.a. Lewis Carroll. It's pretty interesting stuff if you've got some time to kill: http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/.

Contrary to popular belief, Lewis Carroll was not on drugs when he wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," he just had an overactive imagination. And I was interested to find out that "Alice" is based off of one of Charles Dodgson's favorite "child friend" as he was fond of calling them. He made up the story as a way to entertain Alice and her sisters.

Anyway, I'm starting to get more and more busy at work. Not as much time to do wedding planning. The receptionist has left and I have taken over for her. There is so much that she should have shown me. It's kind of scary. And she's not very good at explaining things.

I was having a lot of trouble trying to figure out the pattern for the "I Do" shrug and might try this instead:

From the book:

Lace Style
by Pam Allen and Ann Budd

http://www.amazon.com/Lace-Style-Traditional-Innovative-Inspired/dp/1596680288/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221588413&sr=8-1

I probably won't need long sleeves in June anyway. This is so much easier to knit. And I'm using bamboo yarn which I've never used before. It's so soft! Yay!

I bought some Alice in Wonderland playing cards that have the original illustrations by John Tenniel and some quotes from the book. I'll have to figure out some way to incorporate them in the decorations.

I have made an inspiration board. Some of it are things that I have already done and some things are just what I would like to incorporate. It's an easy way to kind of give people and idea of what you were thinking for your wedding theme. It's pretty random, I know, but I like it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26415444@N07/2889780133/

I might go to a yarn store in Arvada on Saturday. There is going to be a crochet designer there named Robyn Chachula who will be teaching a class. I am excited to meet her because she's designed some pretty cool things, like my favorite shrug:

Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution

by Kim Werker

http://www.amazon.com/Crochet-Me-Designs-Fuel-Revolution/dp/159668044X

I have almost finished a pair of leg warmers, so I'll have to take a picture of them when I am finished. I also want to start on a crocheted skirt.

So much I want to do and not enough time to do it. I should just quit my job and become a full time designer. That would be freaking awesome. Too bad it could never work out. Oh well. Back to knitting and crocheting on my lunch hour and after work.

Tonight I think I'll paint me some tea pots. And take pictures, because I really need to get my save the dates (std - hee hee) done.

You've got red on you

The summer has it in for me.

I've never liked summer except when I was in school (summer break! Woo Hoo!) but I usually hid in my air conditioned abode, working on one craft or another and watching movies and MTV, you know, when they actually played videos. Wow, imagine that.

I can't stand the heat, so I got out of the kitchen.

I don't know how anyone can enjoy 90 - 100 degree weather, unless the heat has made them so delirious that they think they are standing in a vat filled with vanilla pudding.

But that's just me. In 90 degree weather, I (used to) get hives from sunburns, excruciating headaches, have an enormous lack of energy, and am just plain sweaty. But now summer has decided to add another component to the equation: now the heat is dehydrating me to the point where I am getting bladder infections from it. What The Hell? That's just not fair! I recently acquired a bladder infection and when I went to the doctor, she informed me that it was a year, almost to the day, since I had my last bladder infection. Strange.

She concluded that since it happens in the summer and since I admitted that I haven't really been drinking as much water as I should, I am probably dehydrated and that has caused my infection. Well, crap. Now I hate summer even more. Especially since I don't get summer vacations anymore.

Needless to say, I haven't really been getting much crafting done. I was hoping to work on a bunch of flowers on Tuesday because I took the day off of work but ended up just sleeping the whole time. How dare my body catch up on sleep! I guess I needed it since I was up all night being uncomfortable.

I've been drinking gallons of water and I have to pee every 10 minutes. Now my pills are making me nauseous. Great.

Oh well, what can I do?

Make pygmy puffs, that's what!!

I ordered some more eyes for my pygmy puffs and decided to get some noses too. That way they will look even more adorable. I ordered them from this fine lady:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6661

She also has another shop:

http://www.suncatchereyes.net/

I know, I know. I get way too excited over little things. But I don't care, they're adorable.

This is a pattern you can buy off of her website:

I also decided to go with this instead of the flower shawl thingy:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/PATTido.html

Purty. Now if only I could figure out the damn pattern.

And now for something completely different...

Here's a video for your enjoyment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEUwYtabecQ

I love this movie. I wonder if I could make a "Shaun of the Dead" doll. Hmm...

Mmm...braaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiins...I mean...scarves!

I've been living in a daze for a couple of months now. I feel like a zombie. It's partly due to lack of sleep. My kitties enjoy wrestling with each other when Jess and I are trying to sleep at night.
I think another reason is stress. I have less than a year to prepare for this wedding and I have so much still to do. I have decided to stuff the flowers with fiberfill to give them more of a shape and it is taking awhile to get it down the stems evenly. That's going to make the flower-making process take even longer. But I did this to myself so I can't complain.
I would really like to start on my Etsy shop if I had the time. I have a couple of scarves made already but probably need to make a few more things before I can start selling.
This is a scarf that I designed myself:

And here's the garden scarf I made from Debbie Stoller's "Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker" book (http://www.amazon.com/Stitch-Bitch-Crochet-Happy-Hooker/dp/0761139850) :
Now I just need to design a banner for my store and get matching business and thank you cards made.
I found the best website EVER: www.ravelry.com. It is perfect for people like me who crochet and/or knit. I even met a woman from Arvada and she invited me to one of their knitting circle groups. They meet at a yarn shop in Arvada that for some reason I never knew existed.
Ravelry has all sorts of groups that you can join; everything from Harry Potter fan club to a horror group to a Tom Waits fan club to a crafty brewer club. Very fun.
I must say, my work days this week have just flown by because I spend most of my time browsing these groups. Um...I mean working. Yeah. I'm not goofing off at work, never!
Anyway, nothing else exciting going on right now. Except that I keep finding really cool patterns on ravelry that I want to make (and some spiffy Christmas/Birthday presents) but I can't justify working on anything else until I can get a large number of flowers, pygmy puffs, and creepy cute crochet creatures done. And then there's that shawl thingy I want to make.
Sorry this is a bit boring. Maybe when I'm more awake, I can come up with something a little more clever to say.
Until then, I'm going to be a flower making machine.
Goodnight