Retouching photos is difficult!

So I am having photography woes.

I just cannot seem to get my lighting right. Or maybe it's my exposure. In any case, I do not know enough about photography to get things done the way I need to get them done.

You know when you stare at something so long that it starts to look normal? Like having a vase on your mantle that you see every day and you don't notice how much dust is gathering on it until a clump of dust slides down the side of it.

I stared at this photo for so long...



... and tinkered with it for so long on picnik.com...


... and ended up with what I THOUGHT was a great-looking re-touched photo....
NOW it just looks like this cloud is floating in a world of airbrushing. It's a lifeless being without a shadow... just searching for a slightly-yellow tinted nothingness in which to suck the life out of you with.

Or maybe he's a sad cloud because he empathises with my plight. The neverending ache of what it is to take delightful, slightly blue-ish natural sunlight-ish, but not too contrasty or washed out, somewhat enhanced color saturation, with depth and appeal and lets not forget to use the MACRO!!!! OMG!

I just want to sew and create!

Can't these photos take themselves? Gah.

Tutorial: Organize your Trim with free, recycled materials into a cool hangable chandalier type-thing!

Organize your Trim, Bias Tape, Lace or Ribbon!

So I bought this really cool little tool a while ago…
…It’s designed to make ½” bias tape. How cool! I love it! Now, I have a quick and easy way to outfit all my recycled creations with bias trim that’s also recycled! Yes!!!

But I had an issue. A big one. Once I made all this awesome cool bias trim, I had no place to put it.

I reckoned that folding it around flat pieces of cardboard would cause some of it to crease and wrinkle where I didn’t want it to. I decided that wrapping it around something round would be the best. But what?

My mind instantly thought of empty toilet paper rolls. Now, there are lots and lots of great uses for empty toilet paper rolls! And this is another one! I began wrapping all my trim I’d made around these old rolls. I tape the beginning of the trim to the roll with regular scotch tape, and when I get to the end, I just use a pin to secure the end so it won't come unraveled. When I ran out of rolls, I began making more rolls from longer tubes that wrapping paper used to be on. Sweet!

But the rolls were cumbersome. They rolled out of my craft trays. They rolled off my lap. They rolled off shelves. They fell on the floor constantly.

So, then I designed this great way to hang up all these rolls.

All you need besides the rolls is some yarn. I used this really cool thick vintage yarn intended for macrame... but if all you have is thin yarn, you can just braid it... or even use some rope or make some t-shirt yarn out of an old t-shirt.

Cut a length about 12" of yarn and thread it through your roll. Tie the ends together.

What you have now is a trim dispenser! Now just look at all my trim!

But wait! You need to get all these dispensers together!

Cut a longer piece of the yarn... around 22". On one end make a big, fat knot. On the other end, make a loop that doesn't tighten. Don't ask me how I made this loop and this knot... I'm no sailor but I just tried out a few loop-dy-loops until it got the look I wanted. Make sure your big, fat knot will fit inside the loop!

Now string your trim dispensers along this new piece of yarn...

And there you have it! Your trim dispenser.

NOW... you may be wanting to say to me... "BUT BROOKE... do you mean to tell me I have to take all my trim dispensers off this loop just so I can use one?"

NOPE.

When you're ready to use one of the trims, just take the whole chandellier with you. Set it in your lap or hang it from a back corner of your chair, or hang it from the side of your sewing table. Unpin the trim you want to use.... and use it. Since it's on a roll it will just... well... dispense.

You made the big, fat knot and the loop just so that you can add more trim dispensers on. But you will never have to take them off the loop once they are on.

A Winner has been announced!

The SweetGreens blog was hosting an Earth Friendly Etsy Giveaway last week with one of my items... and a winner has been announced! Thank you so much to everyone who participated!

Believe it or not, the winner lives less than a 30 minute drive from me! Imagine that!

Everyone please check out Sweet Greens often for more giveaways! Entry is really simple and easy!

http://sweetgreens.blogspot.com

Please vote for my dress!

So, I desperately left a comment on an article about this voter thing over a week ago (thinking nothing would come of it, really) for them to "please include one of my tube dresses" in the running for the Spring Equinox thing. Basically, the top voted items make it into Gift Guides and other things on Etsy that will get me lots of great exposure.

So... I would really appreaciate it if you'd vote for my Garden Party Tube Dress!

http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=35

And here's a screen shot of it!

Well, Brooke what did you do today? - Well, I made a pair of SHOES! (and I blogged about it)

Today I woke up relatively unmotivated. But, somehow... this one little spark of motivation came through while doing my dialy surf of the net of all things crafty and awesome... LET'S MAKE A PAIR OF SHOES, BROOKE!

Don't ask me where the decision to make a pair of shoes came from. God knows, I have dozens of perfectly good shoes just gathering dust in the closet. Probably part "Let's see if we're capable of this." and probably part "If you're really good at it, perhaps you can do it for money." Who knows. Whatever was driving me... drove me all the way.

BEHOLD!



















Now obviously I'm not ready to become a cobbler or anything. But, given that I've never made a pair of shoes before... and my very limited tools, I'd say I did alright... a very shoddy version of a pair of Toms if I ever saw one.



















Basically, I drew up a pattern with construction paper (yes), pinned it together and tried it on my foot. When I was satisfied with my paper pattern I made one prototype, and then changed anything to the pattern if I saw something with the prototype needed to be changed.

I made the uppers and inner sole and lining out of green canvas material. The inner sole (interior padding inside) is actually a cut up foam hand that was given as a souvenir at a friend's wedding (you know, the kind that look like they're pointing and saying Number One!)

Then, I cut up a pair of gross looking Teva-look-alike Old Navy sandals that I bought last year cuz they were $3 and I needed river shoes. Now, this left little holes in the soles where the sandal straps used to be, but that's ok... these aren't profesh, ok? I just won't wear them on rainy days.

I used Gorilla super glue to glue the soles to the uppers... and then I was done!





A few things I'll change for next time...

I'm going to look for something better than old flip-flop stuff for the soles. I'm thinking rubber tile, it's thinner and easier to cut.

I made these shoes to fit me, but they ended up very snug... like comfortable snug... but a little snug. I'm going to enlarge the patter for next time.