Knit vrs. Crochet

So when I first started with fiber arts I picked up knitting because my mom only knew how to knit and she taught me what she knew.  I took those skills, hit Youtube and learned more.  But it took so long to knit something that I only would knit small things like doll clothing.  In watching crochet videos I felt crochet would go come together faster.  So I wanted to learn crochet and finally self taught myself how to do it.  I’m still working out some kinks, but I grew to love crochet.  I wanted to learn how to do it to create amigurumi.  Which so far I am doing pretty well.  I want to make some patterns to sell soon, and felt I would put knitting on the back burner because I hadn’t seen many nice looking knit amigurumi so I would put off knitting for a while and focus on crochet.  Then I found some cute knit patterns and saw some amigurumi patterns were nicer looking in knit than crochet and then decided I wanted to do both knit and crochet patterns for amigurumi.  But this still left me not using the full potential of knitting and crochet.

So after reading some awesome blogs were people knit nice looking things for themselves that didn’t look like big sacks on them, I decided to relook at knitting and crocheting for myself and one of the patterns that came across my way was the Bernat Wrap-ghan.  It’s a free pattern on the website that you can download.  It’s just basically a knit or crochet Snuggie.  Now, with crochet I imagine that it would come together pretty fast, while with knit it would take longer.  But knit looks better than crochet in my book.  Take a look below.  The blue one is knit and red one is crochet.

It just looks nicer to me in knit.  But the crochet has a nice quilted look.  So I was trying to think which one would I do if I chose to do one?  I have a Snuggie that I got for free by playing games on Bing.  I LOVE my Snuggie.  I was thinking maybe I should make one of each and call it a day.  I would like to try them both to see how fast each one comes together and see how strong they are structurally.  It is interesting to see how different the two look from each other.  Which do you like better?  Knit or crochet?  I’m still on the fence.  But I am having awesome visions of lush yarns being made into a warm and snuggly Snuggie.    Can’t wait to do some yarn shopping for that.    A girl can dream. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Steampunk done the right way.

So I’ve been meaning to post about this for a couple of days now and kept forgetting.  A friend of mine showed me this link and I had to share it with you all here since I know some of you like steampunk and some of your like furniture and décor, and some of you like all the above. 

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So, what is this a picture of?  If I am guessing right, it’s a steampunk USB Flash Drive.  Now what would it go to?  Well their steampunk computer of course.  Check out the awesomeness here.  I’ll talk to you all later.  Must go do my 10 miles before the day is out.  Take care and be good until next we meet.    Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

One Man Disney Movie

Ok, one last one for tonight.  I was watching Jackson Pearce’s live show tonight and she mentioned the One Man Disney Movie and someone put a link in the chat and I went to go watch it.  Awesome, awesome, awesomeeeeee.  If you like Disney movies or just great singing from a very entertaining guy then this is a must see!  Enjoy!

Ok, now seriously, I’m off to watch that movie.  Night. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Rest In Peace Dame Elizabeth Taylor

So if you haven’t heard already, famed actress Elizabeth Taylor died today at 79 years of age from congestive heart failure.  She was surrounded by her kids when she passed away, which I imagine would have been the way she wanted to go.  I was shocked to hear of her passing.  Ever since I was a kid I’d always hear about Elizabeth Taylor in one way or another.  Either a movie my mom saw that she’d think I like, or in her White Diamonds commercials, or that she was a good friend of Michael Jackson.  She kind of one of those icons you think will never die.  But in the end, I guess we are all human and we all face the same sad end. 

I feel sad that I didn’t look more into Elizabeth’s career when she was alive.  Now seeing the news talk about her past movies, it makes me want to watch them.  Of course I watched Cleopatra, but other movies I haven’t, but I plan to watch them.  I’m hoping Netfilx has some of them to watch.

In high school I had a teacher who loved her.  He’d told his wife if Elizabeth Taylor came to the door and asked him to leave his wife for her, he would.  I was thinking this morning if Mr. Bryant is still alive I wonder how he is handling the news of her passing.  I say if he is still alive because he was about Elizabeth Taylor’s age at the time I was in school, he was a very large man, and well yeah.  So I just wonder what he is thinking today.

Ok, this post is getting super sad.  I guess I just wanted to post to say I was sad to hear of her passing.  There really are no more iconic people any more besides Betty White left to be amazed by.  And I guess it just shows that I’m getting older because so many people I remember from my youth are slowly passing away, and well yeah.   There is just no avoiding the unavoidable and we all need to live life to it’s fullest.  Whatever the fullest is to you live your life to achieve that so you can look back as you lay on your deathbed and say you have no regrets because you accomplished a lot, you lived happily, and you leave this world a better place because you were here.  I think Elizabeth did that, and I hope one day I will too.    Talk to you guys later.  Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Matting my matte spray.

So I think I may have found a solution to my matte spray glossiness.  Still in the middle of my face-up, but once I am done I will see how my idea works and if it does work I’ll let you in on my secret.  It would be nice if I did solve this issue.  Fingers crossed tight.    Talk to you all later today and I hope to have pictures for you. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Happy Spring!!!

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Nope, not a fan of Spring, but it’s here for the next three months so let’s make the most of it.    Here’s hoping your first day of Spring was awesome. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Matte spray is not created equal.

So I am working on a face-up of a doll started back in during Dizzy’s Place days.  It’s a My Scene Chelsea and well, it’s going ok-ish except for one problem, the matte spray I am using is more satin than matte.    If you are going to sell a matte spray then make sure it’s matte.

The spray I am using is the Krylon Matte Finish spray.  It dries quickly, outside you don’t smell the odor when you spray, and it has it’s own built in way of keeping the nozzle clean.  You can start working on it again after about 10 minutes of drying and depending on if you followed the directions there is minimal to zero tackiness.  It’s awesome except for the fact that it makes it look like the doll is sweating like crazy.    I am hoping that maybe it just needs to dry fully over night, but something tells me that isn’t the case.  I settled on that one because everything else was glossy at the store I was buying it from.  I might have to try Hobby Lobby for another spray.  I was looking for the ones suggested in the Monster High tutorial I showed you guys a few posts back.  I didn’t want to get MSC since I’d have to wait on shipping and I wanted to try some stuff now.    Oh well, I will see how it looks in the morning and decide what to do then.  The layers are helping with the face up, but she looks like summer is here and thriving and I don’t like that.  I’ll update you on her look tomorrow.

Also I am working on rerooting a Liv doll wig.  I cut out the hair, which had to be the easiest hair to remove.  Since it’s done with the loop rooting method, all you have to do is loosen up and pull out a root or two from the part or thatch and then cut the hair short as possible the you can pull out each row easily from the inside of the wig to remove the little bits.  I flipped the cap inside out and just scratched the little hairs off with my nail.  Was done in no time.  So now I have a cap ready to go.  I also decided to prep my hair by cutting it into the length I wanted.  I’ve had this pink Volks hair I won off of Ebay for years now and decided it was time to use it.  It was so hard to make that first cut but once I did the rest went smoothly and now I have 4 bunches of hair ready to be rooted.  Can’t wait to get started on that tomorrow too.  It feels nice to be crafting with dolls again.  I missed it.  I’ll have pictures tomorrow for you to see of my current status.  Until then be good.   Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Complete and utter disarray!

That's what I want to scream when I look at things in my life. I don't remember where I heard that saying, but I seem to remember it being said by an older white female who had a southern accent and was just appalled by the situation. I picture myself being her...frilly little dress with petticoat included, fanning myself as I look at the state of my craft supplies, my room, my email, my links, heck even my hair could use a little tlc instead of just being pulled back into a bun every day. Ugh!

I think I have become overwhelmed over all the things I need to do and I honestly don't know where to start to clear things up. That's why I don't move forward with things like my Etsy shop because I honestly don't know where a lot of my stuff is or I know where it is but it's underneath a stack of something I have no idea where to move. So this week I plan to get some array to my life and get things back on track. *triumphant nod*

Now, first thing's first...I'm gonna need a list. Ok, who's as excited as I am now? Anybody? What? I love to do lists. They just seem to help me so much and when I am done with the activity I love marking it off the list. There is just something about a list with slashes through most of the items on it that make me giddy. :-) So, my list shall go as follows.

Monday -
Clear up and out all email accounts. (Now I know this may seem like an hour or so job, but for those of you who don't check email or hoard emails for later, you'll know what I mean.)

Exercise. (At least 10 miles on the exercise bike. Trying to lose weight. A lot of weight. I have a goal in mind of 40 pounds in 3 months. I started on April 13th and so far...not so good. Ugh!)

Read. (I need to do more of this.)

Write/Revise story. (I need to do more of this.)

Work on stack of magazines, and try to finish the pile. (I have this stack of magazines that I have had for years. Mostly it's "Fitness" magazine. I love that magazine, but I believe around the time my dad got sick with cancer I stopped reading them but still bought them. Finally I just stopped buying them because I wasn't reading them, but I still wanted to read them to see if there is any interesting info in there. Well of course there is, so I am going through them to just skim them and while the pile is down significantly, there is still a good pile left to go. I want to have it done by Thursday night so it can be out for recycling on Friday morning.)

Tuesday-
Work on bookmarks. (I have tons, literally tons, of bookmarks. The internet is just so full of amazing websites and how-tos and blogs and etc. I know logically I can't read or look at them all so I need to cut back to center more around my hobbies and even then only the sites I really like. That's going to be hard but I must cut back if I ever plan on becoming more involved in communities online. So yes, this will be a full day thing I know for sure.)

Exercise. (At least 10 miles.)

Read. (I need to do more of this.)

Write/Revise story. (I need to do more of this.)

Work on magazines. (I can at least fit in one to two magazines today.)

Wednesday-
Reformat old computer. (I have been meaning to do this for several reasons. First, the casing of my laptop broke a while back and though it still works, the darned thing is being held together with Express Mail tape...I got it for free years ago and never used it. The second reason is that I messed up Windows and it won't log in, so I need to get my files off the computer through another operating system and then put that operating system on my computer for now to see how I like it. I also need to get a new plug for my laptop since mine has a broken wire inside it somewhere.)

Exercise. (At least 10 miles.)

Read. (I need to do more of this.)

Write/Revise story. (I need to do more of this.)

Work on magazines. (If there are any left to look through.)

Thursday-
Work on website and blogs. (I want to get them layout a certain way so I will take today to do that.)

Exercise. (At least 10 miles.)

Read. (I need to do more of this.)

Write/Revise story. (I need to do more of this.)

Work on magazines. (If there are any left to look through.)

Friday-
Work on spare room. (This room I have dreaded for about a month now since we took down the table in there. So now I need to hit it so I can start crafting again.)

Put my magazines out for pick-up. (May they be turned into paper or a recycled some or another and live to tell another tale.)

Exercise. (At least 10 miles.)

Read. (I need to do more of this.)

Write/Revise story. (I need to do more of this.)

Saturday-
Create! Create! Create! (It's time to get my creativeness on!!! Finally I will be able to start working on things I have been thinking and dreaming about creating. Woo hoo!!!)

Exercise. (At least 10 miles.)

Read. (I need to do more of this.)

Write/Revise story. (I need to do more of this.)

Sunday-
Rest. (Everyone has got to have a day to putter around and do nothing. This day is mine.) :-D

Read. (I need to do more of this.)

Write/Revise story. (I need to do more of this.)

Exercise. (At least 10 miles.)

So this is my to-do list. Let's see how many slashes I end up with by Sunday. I hope all of them will be slashed out. Here's to hoping. :-D

Loves ya,
Mouse

Welcome to The Mouse Pad!

Hey all, my name is Michelle but I also go by Chelle or Mouse; take your pick. :-) I decided to start The Mouse Pad to kind of separate some of the things I do in my life. The Mouse Pad will be centered more on my life, my crafts, and my eventual craft business that I have been trying to open and set up for a long time now. I have the accounts set up but now I need to make stuff and start selling things. I just can't get motivated to do so, but I am determined and I won't give up on that dream along with a few other ones.

I hope that this blog will be a closer look into my life and the things in it. Things here will be slow going, but if you'd like to read other stuff I've blogged about feel free to read my doll blog and my writing blog. Those two I update often. Do check back soon as I plan to update this placed with projects, tutorials, and more. Thanks for stopping by and I 'll talk to you all soon.

Loves ya,
Mouse