Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Knitted Homes of Crime

A very interesting little exhibition... go HERE to see the whole thing... these knit houses were created by Jean Arkell and are made to look like the places where these female killers went mad.

It's gruesome... yes, but I'm very attracted to the combination of medium and concept here... especially considering the time period when knitting and such was still practiced for purpose rather than just pleasure.

Here's a little sample:

Christiana - 20 hours
16 Gloucester Place , Brighton, East Sussex - 1871
Mrs. Beard - 21 1/2 hours
64 Grand Parade, Brighton, East Sussex - 1871

Christiana Edmunds was a 43 year old spinster who lived with her widowed mother. She had become infatuated with a married man, Dr. Beard. In September 1870 she brought a box of chocolates to the Beard's house and insisted that Mrs. Beard eat some over a pot of tea. Christiana had filled these chocolate creams with strychnine. Immediately after eating one Mrs. Beard became severely ill. As a result Dr. Beard accused her of trying to poison his wife. Christiana denied the charge and set about trying to prove that there was a poisoner at large in Brighton. She would pay children to buy chocolate creams from the same sweet shop that she purchased the box of chocolates for Mrs. Beard from. She would inject these with strychnine, then re-wrap them and pay another child to return them. The innocent shop-keeper sold on these poisoned sweets. On 12 June 1871 this activity resulted in the death of 4-year-old Sidney Barker. Christiana even sent poisoned cakes and fruit through the mail, addressing some to herself, to try to emphasise her innocence. She was eventually caught and sentenced to death but when it transpired that she was mentally ill her sentence was commuted and she was sent to Broadmoor. She died there in 1907 aged 79. It later transpired that no less than four members of her immediate family had died as a result of mental illness

Friday, August 27, 2010

New Halloween Header

If you look at the top of my blog, you'll see my new Halloween header XD I illustrated the bear head myself :) (all that swirly junk behind it are free vectors from online, same with the skulls)... but the bear is all me... woo hoo!

Sorry if it's scarier than you're used to seeing on my blog... but... it's Halloween!!!!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Two Dumb Cats...

Yes, yes, it's that time again, time for little furry faces to make an appearance. What can I say, they were ready for their closeup.

William the Bloody has always been a fan of running water. He hops in the bathtub and sticks his head under the faucet... he watches the toilet flush, he has his own personal kitty drinking fountain for a water bowl... but his latest joy... what thrills him to his little kitty bones... is sitting in the sink and waiting for me to turn it on. Then he watches as he get soaked... then he gets out and plays in the water some more. It's all fine and dandy, until you're stumbling out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and try to brush your teeth... and find this:

The Salacious Crumb has finally decided my boyfriend is ok, and that snuggling with me (even if he's around) can resume. This leads to Crumb getting *very* comfy and then laying in that place for hours on end... and when he does this... well... he's just so cute that people tend to oblige and not move. This ends in a lot of sleeping limbs and muscle cramps for the humans... but somehow, I just don't think he cares.

Monday, August 23, 2010

2nd Star to the Right

Sorry for my lateness... faeries are pesky things and I'm quite sure one gave me the flu this weekend on purpose! (Or at least spoilt my milk)

It was a fantastic week for a trip to Faerie though... there were shimmering stars:

And walls built from twining vines and bulging pumpkins:


There were delicious Moon Cakes to be eaten under the milky glow of a full moon:


And one disgruntled Faerie Queen, who was not keen on visitors at all...

As we were about to leave though, one mysterious little faerie, veiled in shadows, gave us a token to show how much they loved having us. (Of course we didn't take it... we know better than to receive gifts from Faeries)


Friday, August 20, 2010

Featured in an Etsy Treasury!

This is actually a pretty cute treasury! Click on the picture to go to it!


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Paper Cut Mermaids

I have designed a paper silhouette mermaid... a little bear is soon to follow... she's not perfect yet, this is just a rough... her arm moves too... so far I really like her :)


Monday, August 16, 2010

EGADS NOOOOO!!!

Zombies... Zombies NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Goodies!

Well, yesterday I went out in search of something I didn't find... instead... I found all of this!

One of my favorite magazines, ImagineFX has a 4 part special that they're releasing over the next few months, and part 2 is now out!... It's filled with so many helpful photoshop tips that it's very worth the high price... plus it comes with a disk with lessons and free stuff on it!

I also bought the "Where Women Create" magazine, which is full of amazing stuff... just not pictured because someone was looking through it when I snapped the shot XD

Then I found a bunch of sparkly stuff on clearance at Michaels.... and how could I pass that up?!
Random Martha Stewart glitter colors were on clearance... along with floral embellishments that I intend on adding to bears... it was a good day for the glitter obsessed... and not only that, but it was so cheaply clearanced out that it didn't even come close to breaking the bank!

... although now I want more glitter. Dammit.

More bears are in the works... and will be pictured in the next week. :)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Another zombie bear and better pictures!

Well... it seems the zombies are coming! Here is my latest little zombie... I'm still debating on whether to give him a lolling tongue or not.His fabric has holes in it... so it looks like he's rotting away! I've needlefelted the stuffing into those holes, so he won't *really* ooze bear guts, but I think it's pretty amusing anyways. :)

And here are some better pictures of the brown bear... who got shorted when I had to use my phone to take pics of him. Poor little guy!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Another Bear...

Here's another wee fellow with a needle felted muzzle. His nose turned out larger than I'd like... alas... he is still cute... just not as cute as he could be. I really like his colors though... very cute stuff :) Although I think I only have enough fabric to make one more similar to him... on the table now? Another zombie bear :)


Friday, August 6, 2010

Things I have to share...

So, I am a notorious Etsy surfer... and yesterday I stumbled across this (click the pic to be taken to the etsy shop):
It's only $15!!!! AND SO CUTE!!! I bought one... they're currently out of them in the shop, but I looked through the sales history and the seller has sold several of them, so I'm sure more could be made if any other bear lovers want one!

I just had to share. It was too cute.

Also... giveaway time!
Click the pics to go to the pages to join in!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Zombie Bear!!!

Here is another of my Needle felted army... there will be one other zombie bear as well... I've had fun with these guys! (there are a lot more normal needle felted bears like the grey one I showed a few posts ago... but with Halloween closing in... I just couldn't resist!!) Oh, and yes, he stands on one foot on his own, lol... he's quite the happy zombie!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Back from New York City!

I'm back, battered and bruised from being a die-hard tourist... but I'm back XD Here are some of the things I saw while I was there!

Grand Central Station! They were filming something there when we were going through... and some guy kept yelling at everyone to be quiet, and then a bunch of people started walking around really fast... it was pretty comical.

This is the Wish Tree by Yoko Ohno at MoMA (I tied my wish to the tree :) )... the day we went to MoMA they were doing some sort of performance piece where they set up a microphone and encouraged you to come scream into it... when we first heard this, we were in the middle of the Matisse exhibit and wondered if someone was being killed. It was a *REALLY* ANNOYING exhibit (the screaming one, not the Matisse)


Times Square... as busy as you'd expect.

This was at The Metropolitan Museum of Art... it's a Tiffany's Glass window... I could have stood there staring at these all day. Heck, I could have spent several days in the Met alone. It was amazing. If you ever go to NYC, GO TO THE MET!

The Subway! Huzzah! Not bad, as far as public transit goes, the waiting for the train part was the worst, it was ungodly hot in the subway tunnels, but the trains themselves were air conditioned well. Unfortunately we had to wait in the tunnels a lot because they kept having track malfunctions. More so than was usual.

The Subways were also filled with a bunch of wonderful artwork, this is a mosaic found under the Museum of Natural History, in the subway.

The Statue of Liberty!! Last time I went to NYC, I was thwarted seeing her by Ricky Martin, of all people... but this time I did it! I took the Staten Island Ferry and cruised right by... we took it in the evening and it was absolutely beautiful.

Random, awesome plate at the Met, I'm just sorry I was in such a rush that I didn't write down the name of who made it or when it was from... or anything.

Watch out for the naughty bits! You'd think you would cover those when slaying a Gorgon! This is a statue of Perseus with Medusa's head.

Muuuuummy at the Met. Their Egypt wing was AMAZING.Narnia? Mysterious Tunnel in Central Park...

That led to this adorable pond with little boys driving around little remote controlled sailboats! SO CUTE!
More Central Park...

Is this a picture of the almost unseeable Apple Store... or is it a picture showcasing the fact that 4 out of 5 vehicles in NYC are cabs? XD

Close up of the Apple Store, no idea who this guy is, but he did get yelled at by the Apple employees for wandering around too close to the glass.

That's it for this blog... although if you'd like to see a little more of NYC, and of what I ate while I was there, you can head over to Dot's blog @:

http://adventuresofdotdotdot.blogspot.com/