Day Thirty Eight

I decided I want to make myself a bag like the ones I did at Christmas out of the plastic bags. So for today I just have the very beginnings of the project, which will take awhile. I have to create all the "fabric" first before I can sew anything.

I want my bag to be all black and white, mostly so it can be pretty versatile with outfits.

After coloring the design with Sharpie (or a similar product) you turn it inside out so the ink doesn't get messed up and ruin your iron, and then you layer more plastic behind it so that it ends up as decently strong material.

Day Thirty Seven

I finished the second pair of jeans today! Hooray!

I like how the first pair turned out better, but I I think they fit me better in the first place, so there's not much I can do about that. I think I'll dye that pair dark blue and this pair purple!  Or maybe white with cool designs in black. I can't decide.

This is not my favorite photo of me (or at least my legs) for several reasons, but whatever. I'm not a model, I just alter jeans, and that's what I'm showing you, not my fab bod!

Day Thirty Six

After a for-the-most-part great day, I hadn't made or worked on anything artsy... funny (not really) how feeling good makes me not get any art done because I'm actually being productive and social, and feeling bad makes me not create anything because I have zero motivation and I tend to wallow and/or become apathetic. Great.

So after my good day I just had some nice alone time listening to a podcast I'm addicted to called Snap Judgement and coloring. Whoo! Gotta love it.

Hopefully I'll start being original soon. I really need to start doing some more research on artists/art I love. Since I got a job instead of going to school this semester I sort of promised myself that I'd continue educating myself by doing research on my own, but look how that's gone so far... yeah, it hasn't. Come on Jessica.

Day Thirty Five

I started sewing my second pair of jeans today. It seemed like I spent ages on them but I got barely anything done, which is always so frustrating. The first pair went way faster than these ones, which seems odd to me.

I wanted to do the inner seam right (I didn't on the first pair- I did it the easy way and now it looks a bit weird, I'll post pics eventually) so I found this tutorial on how to do it... but I didn't realize until I had already started sewing it that you have to be able to open it otherwise you'll just sew the seam to the other side of your pant leg. If that makes sense. Since I had sewn the other side first, I can't make the inside seam the right way, and I had to rip out the stitches I did before realizing.

Point is, it was frustrating and took a long time and I didn't even really accomplish much. Grr. And for that reason I do not have a photo today.

I hate how half of the sentences I write start with I. It's true that this is basically a me centered blog, but it still really annoys me. Hopefully as I keep writing I will improve and get better at avoiding that.

Day Thirty Four

I had a pretty mellow day, doing a lot of reading, and went to a Superbowl thing to socialize a bit. I just did some more coloring... what can I say, the kid in me loves it. Colored pencils are just fun! I've always loved layering them to create shading and new colors, especially when drawing plants for some reason.

I switched coloring pages and I'm liking this one a lot better, I think because I love the green living look of it... I can't wait for spring! Winter is not my cup of tea.

The art I'm coloring is from D. Palmer and can be found at the link on day 31 & 32's post.

Day Thirty Three

I started the first stages of altering my second pair of flare jeans today.

I put them on inside out and pinned them close to my legs, as skinny jeans would fit, then used a pink hi-liter to draw along the pins. Then I took the pins out, took them off, and used a ruler to mark cleaner lines with a black sharpie (this may bleed through so if you do this be smarter than me and avoid the sharpie. If you have it, use sewing chalk or something removable). This time around I remembered not to cut away the excess yet (to give you mess up room while sewing).

Day Thirty One and Thirty Two

I missed posting for a couple days there... and I feel like this post, an effort to catch up on those days, is only barely legitimate. I only got enough done on those days to be able to tell myself that I did do something and I didn't fail. But it wasn't enough for me to feel like it was post worthy, hence it not having been posted until now when I need to post something else but have to post this first. If you followed that train of thought I congratulate you. Anyway, the reasons for this almost failure:

I got a job! I haven't started yet, but I've been having to do paperwork and a drug test and had to fill out stuff for a background check and sign lots of stuff. I'm pretty excited to start, but I have to wait another week or two before starting, and in the meantime I just feel useless and blaaaaaaahhh. Depression kills any motivation to create that I might otherwise have. We've also been spending time with Mitch's best friend and his wife before they head back to Texas.

All THAT is why I have been utterly lame at working on anything and posting it. I apologize to anyone out there who actually cares.

So the sad excuse for non-failure I have for January 31st and February 1st is this:

I just started coloring, because that's somewhat therapeutic, and I wanted something to erase all the stress from tax forms etc, etc, relating to this new job.  But because of all that other stuff I barely got anything done on it. By the way, it's really hard to see what I'm coloring in because I printed it very lightly so that the lines aren't visible when (if) I'm finished. The blue things look kind of like finger nails at this point, but they're meant to be gem stones- sapphires I suppose?

I found this site with lots and lots of free downloadable and printable coloring pages. Most of the coloring pages on the site are for kids and would be great in a classroom, but some are good for adults (my favorite artist they have on the site is D. Palmer).