Happy Holidays! and oh shit... Branding.....

Happy Holidays everyone!

As I get a few days of respite I work I have taken some of this time to work on myself and my own personal ventures. I have very little work to do when everyone else is on vacation for the holidays so I might as well make the most of the time.

I am in no way, shape, or form a graphic designer but I dabble a little bit for my own sake. I know I need business cards and I need to get a branding strategy together for my wee little yarn store in the works. I didn't want to deal with bubbly or fancy lettering. I've always been a fan of a straightforward easy to read font with a little class and vintage feel. My go to font is a Courier or Typewriter style.
Since I didn't want to use the font as cute or catchy thing in my store name I decided I wanted to do a fancy ampersand. I LOVE the ampersand.

Today I broke out the good ol scrap papers with some heavy 7.0 mm roller ball pens and graphite pencils to get my rough sketches down as I work on this whole branding thang. Branding is very important to a business and I am not trying to down play it at all. It just isn't my specialty nor do I feel that I have the skill set to make it as good as it could be. But these are the breaks when you have very little, to no money allocated in the business for this kind of thing. My main focus is having the funds for stock in the store and rent for at least 5-6 months squirreled away for any emergencies.

I have taken inspiration from the Georgia BOLD style ampersand into these two iterations. I knew I wanted to use the knitting needle in some way and of course the yarn. The difficult thing is thinking how literal I wanted it to look like am ampersand. I wanted it to still have a little mystery and quirk. One of those things that you might assume and not get right away but the closer you look you can get a little chuckle from the nuance of this logo.

I think I much prefer the ball of yarn version even though it isn't as clear. It is just for branding and its like that game where you can put the letters to a simple word out there in the wrong order but the brain still knows what word was intended.

I've also started to hunker down and look at my vendor applications for whole sale ordering and realizing I need to get this business cap on and get active with the business account, email, and get card made. 

There is a lead on a possible location! but that's all I'll say. I'm not going to stress out until May about having a location but of course the sooner the better.

Cheers! and have a wonderful holiday with your family, loved ones and furbabies if you have them!

 

NYC Craft Swag

Finally after a bit a time and many meetings I've had the time for myself to work on this post about my crafty purchases in New York City from the beginning of this month.

These were my luscious purchases from Purl Soho. My hubby actually bought me my two half yard pieces of Liberty of London.

I got a good collection of crewel wool to add to my supplies and I was good enough to only buy myself two skeins of yarn both by Madelinetosh .

I went for Florals in Liberty because this is what they are known for. Amazing robust patterns with an array of colors, never looking tacky but so much details into every square inch. I also got this cute Japanese polka dot bias tape which I hope to use on a blouse I have plans to make.

I stayed mostly in blues and greens in my selection since I am still planning to work on bruises for my embroidery but I added in a few choice colors just for me to play with.

Here is a close up for the gorgeous yarns I got in Tomato and Robin's Egg blue. One day when I have my own yarn store I am going to make sure I carry this yarn company. It is just so beautiful and artful.

For yet another hobby that I love which is beading and making jewelry I got myself a new little tool that I thought I would try out and some copper Swarovski encrusted beads for a bracelet.

Of course I had to get some Crafty books while I was at Kino Kuniya and I picked up a Stumpwork embroidery book and fingerless glove book. Also the most recent Gap Press Haute Couture magazine. I've giving up mostly on getting all the pret-a-porter versions of this magazine because they never wow me as much as the Haute Couture does.

Through our many subway rides I came upon this quirky little women's room turned convenience store. I just had to take a picture and share. The men's side was not in good shape and seemed to be turned into a subway maintenance closet.

I love that we have started to finish each trip to NYC with Dim Sum in the City at the huge banquet hall Jing Fong. Got to spend time with one of my favorite people Juyon and see my friend Julie who I don't think I've seen since we were at Yonsei together in 1999 (yes I am old if you didn't know that already). With Hubby in tow of course.

Now the problem lies with what will I do with my fantastic little Liberty of London Fabrics and what to knit with my new yarns?!
Any and all suggestions are welcome!

My Version of Heaven

Is pretty much Purl Soho. What a fantastic store! How in the world I came out of there spending less then $100 is a miracle all on it's own. Part of it was due to me being there just as they were celebrating their 10 year anniversary so the entire store was 20% off. I was too lucky. It isn't a huge store but it is well organized and every single nook and crannie is filled with beautiful fibers. It reminded of the concept that Anthropologie stores go for, where you really need to look under each table and drawer to see what new things are hidden.

As soon as you walk in you are greeted by a wall of Liberty of London fabrics hooped into embroidery hoops decorating a wall. Then your eyes follow the rainbow cascade of yarns and fibers all long the left side.

The Right side of the store is full of notions, embroidery threads, buttons, bias binding tape just oodles of things once again color coded like a rainbow to make your mind blow.

 They had a humungous collection of wool felts that I could of easily spent my paycheck on but I persevered and only bought what I came there to do, Crewel Wool.

 It was very hard with all this charming yarn and my new rule in set that I must use two two skeins before I can buy a new once was very hard but I was good.

It gave me many great ideas of what to do with all the little waste yarn hearts and flowers I've been making. I think I will have to join up with a spinner to make some unique yarns of our own. I wish I had bought this yarn just as inspiration but alas the photo will have to do.

Seeing all the things from the Purlbee in person was nice to get a sense of how the photography can play tricks to make things look much better. Not that things were not still wonderful but it's good to see them in person, makes it realistic and more attainable. I call it the pinterest effect, where you see something think it's neat and store it away never to actually do it. This shattered that effect for me on a few projects.

As soon as the first person asked me if I needed I told immediately that I had come for one thing only and that was Appleton Crewel Wool. The brought out the swatch card from some secret compartment and I went to work making my list and checking against the crewel wool colors that had come in the week before to make sure I had no duplicates. It was a long process but well worth it. I can barely even begin to voice my excitement of trying out this new fiber into my art.

There were about 6 drawers such as this filled with crewel wool colors.

 Then there was the Liberty of London Wall. So much soft and pretty fabrics costing quite a pretty penny. A yard is about $25.00 or more. I've never been able to shut my eyes and throw down for some of this fabric. It is just too hard to decide what to make out of it. It's too pretty and expensive to just use it for a coin purse yet so expensive I shudder at the thought of trying to buy yardage for a skirt or dress. I know I have worked in other more expensive fabrics but for some reason Liberty of London just puts the fear in me.

On the way out I just had to do my classic "I'm an Asian Tourist" self portrait in front of the hoop wall. It was one of the last things we did in the city before we went to our airport for what would end up being a LONG and terrible trip with a bit of Silver lining. I'll discuss that another post when the idea of flying doesn't infuriate me.

Cheers!

Tilt - Feeling Good

This week I am feeling very inspired and very productive. I got some DIY accomplished over the weekend. Started a few other person projects and worked on getting some of my fine art fine tuned for display.  These are some things that have helped me along in little ways to keep the cheer levels up!

1. Gel manicure- I am a huge fan! It's been over a week and no chips, no muss.  I'm going to become an addict. Totally worth the money for the safety of my fine tips.

2. Smashbox BB Cream- I was a skeptic and now I'm an addict. This stuff has completely wiped out the use of all other tinted moisturizers for me. It does what it says it will for my face and I love that it works as a primer as well. This has reduced my make up bag requirements by quite a bit.

3. Studio Ghibli plushes - no mater my mood I just need to look down at their cute faces and it can usually perk me up.

 

4. Clover circular knitting needles in size 2 - I have long been and still am a fan of Clover craft/art supplies and tools. I was ecstatic when I found that they brought back their short circular knitting needles and in new tiny sizes. It makes the new socks I am working on such a breeze.

5. Avengers Movie Marathon- I went I saw and conquered. There is no better way for me to take some serious me relax time then a movie marathon with loads of eye candy and nerdiness. I saved this for last because I could eye candy for days on the cast of this movie.

Starting in the order of my Favorites!

 Thor - Chris Hemsworth

 Iron Man - Robert Downey Jr.

 Captain America - Chris Evans

Hawkeye - Jeremy Renner

The Hulk - Mark Ruffalo (I like that they had him wear a purple shirt to keep some essence of the original hulk in there for character continuity).

Black Widow - Scarlett Johanson

I actually like her Character a lot but the boys are more fun to look at for me.

I found this random image while surfing google and it was too good not to share.

I wish Thor would be this casual in Asgard. That would make for a hilarious scene. Of course the Shawarma at the end of the Avengers is pretty classic too.

Cheers!

Weekend Crafting

Over the Weekend I was a big slug.  I ate too much, played video games and crafted much.  I started off going to Sew to Speak on Saturday with my friend Claire.  What started off as innocently taking her to the fabulous fabric store for the first time ended up in me spending $35 I didn't need to on fabric to make an Amy Butler Gumdrop Ottoman. It was a quick and easy project took me just a few hours on Saturday night and about 8 bags of fiber fil stuffing.

It turned out much bigger then I anticipated (I hate to do the dimensions on pillows before I start them).  You can see it is about half the size of our new couches.  Granted the couches we got are smaller then conventional couches but still it is unwieldy.  It is working out better as a spare chair and cat throne.

 In other Craft news I continued to work on a second Sock to this one I had finished before Christmas and simply lost my interest in.  Since my scaled crochet project is finished I felt the need to pick up and finish the sock.  Wisely I am using the already complete sock as my yarn guard/holder whilst I make it's mate.

I also got into my Japanese Tatting books!  Very excited for this because their charts are so easy to read and I completed several small flowers and a lace heart for valentine Cards. I'll post pictures tomorrow and perhaps a book review.
 

To end my wonderful weekend of relax and craft I started another Entrelac cowl out of this luscious silk/wool/cotton/nylon blend of Noro in sweet pastel colors.  The colors just make my heart flutter and the silk makes my fingers sing in the softness being worked in my hands.

Amazing what amount of things I get into when I'm not stressed out with a grad school application.

TiLT

Superstitions - Most people would think they are bad or waste of time.  I think they are necessary.  They make us wonder and remember to be cautious for those things unseen.  A little bit of paranoia never hurt anybody.  It also shows a cultural awareness and nod to traditions.  I picked up this evil eye from Karavan on High Street this past weekend at Gallery hop.  I'm hoping it will help to alleviate some of the stress in my work life and it's just nice to look up from my bland cubicle to see something so artful.

American Horror Story - This is my current favorite show on TV right now.  I'm a sucker for anything horror, gore and suspense.  It's only about 4 episodes into the series but it's got a great feeling, just the right amount of story with reality, paranoia, scandals and of course ghosts both friendly and violent.  I really enjoy the way each episode is also laid out.  It starts with a former murder in that same house and then slowly through the episode it unfolds with how a member of the family finds out about the heinous past.  It's a very mixed bag of emotions with a sullen teenager, Psychiatrist dad who had an affair, and a Distressed Mother with a painful stillbirth (who also plays a mean melancholy cello).

 

Image from Flickr DesaBoneka

Double Dates - I've had two this week with my Husband and different couples.  It's always fun to see how another couple interacts and to talk about couple things together.  I think being a double date with another couple is much more intimate then just hanging with friends who happen to be dating.  There is a lot of consideration on both parts to make it a nice evening all around.  You can also feel free to be happy and not worry about that single friend of yours or if it's a blind date because the other couple is already established.  It's good to share conversations of the same intimacy levels because they also understand how you feel being in a solid relationship as well.

Sunbeams - Just the simple things like lying in a little sunlight to take a nap.  They are small fleeting and warm.  They also gather cats to them like moths to a flame.  I love how no matter how small they might be my chubby little Sophie tried to relish in their warmth.

New Projects - It always feel great to start something new.  I spent yesterday finishing up some old projects and little things that needed to be done to clear off my pattern table.  Now I can get a fresh start on some new projects such as that Coat for my friend Nicki.  Above is the socks I just started to knit for myself for winter.  Nothing special just a pretty self striping yarn to pop a little color outside of my new grey booties.

TiLT

Happy Thursday!  This has been a week of little annoyances mostly due to this never ending cough.  The cold is gone but the cough persists and it is hot here in Columbus.  Sadly it seems like we missed another spring entirely and were dropped off right into summer.  Aside from the cough and the headaches it is giving me life is pretty good.  We are hitting the wedding things full steam once again and I am seriously working on my wedding dress after the hiatus.  My classes for Draping & Pattern Drafting started again this week at CCAD for the summer so that will keep me busy two nights of my week until August.

 

1. Winged Sandals. I saw these sandals for sale in Chicago at Belmont Army Surplus and now I am obsessed.  Unfortunately they will never come in my size (5) and they are sold out everywhere online.  They are from Irregular Choice and I think they are actual sandals from last summer.  Still super cute and I hope someone out there see's this and remakes these beauties

 2. Swatch.  I am a big fan of Swatch watches.  I try to get a new one every year.  They are relatively cheap, classic analog style watches with fun and sometimes funky designs.  This new one I picked up is a baby blue with extra long watch band that wraps around the wrist. They come in an assortment of other candy colors!

3. Delicate Knitted Sculptures.  This knitted bridge is amazing!  I have been holding onto the images waiting for the right time to post them.  I can get so much inspiration from just this one piece.  I love how tiny it is yet the shadow it casts with the lighting is so much larger and it still holds all the details of each strand of yarn.  It reminds me a lot of my friend Alissa Sorenson's work.

4. Needle felted Creatures.  I love how there is a influx of needle felted creatures that are not necessarily cute but they are fun to look at.  I can't figure if the person intended the one above to look like a hopeful sperm in a tube or just a specimen.  The attack of the lambs on the wolf below is one of my favorites.

5. Artistic Homages to Animations.  This is a ceramic Raku fired Howl's Moving Castle. Howl's Moving Castle is one of my favorite all time Anime movies.  The detail in this piece is amazing and you can see her whole progress right here.