Wily Wednesdays - Edibles

This week is a little different -- less crafty and more planty. Since Kai and I have been working so hard on our garden for the past few months, I thought I'd share the fruits (and vegetables) of our labors. We started growing a lot of our seedlings back in March while we were still at the apartment, and in the meantime we slowly prepped Randy's yard every weekend and brought over the starts as they became ready. Right now we have a few ripe blueberries and strawberries, and we've been making good use of our mixed greens and pansies. This is the first time I've had a productive garden in my own yard, so I'm pretty proud.


In the beginning . . .







And then we brought life . . .





Now it looks like this:









Dinner

Wily Wednesdays - Fuzzy Hat and Shawl Set

Made this back in 2009. This hat and shawl set is crocheted with Yarn Bee's soft and fuzzy Italia yarn. Their Venetian blend is a mix of blue, yellow, pink, and purple. Very fun to work with. Also, the model is just perfect for this project.

This one's a sale item, so if you're interested in owning it, the dimension of the shawl is about 63" long, and the hat is a stretchy one size fits all.

Wily Wednesdays - FSM Evolution

As most of you know, I've been spending most of my time lately working on atheist-related things: organizing Seattle Atheists' booth, getting our giant FSM float ready for two parades, assembling literature and merchandise, starting up a new nonprofit summer camp for freethinking kids, preparing for Greta Christina in August, etc.

Since I'm a shameless Pastafarian (Kyle nicely captures some of our previous work), this week I'm sharing the latest in our evolution of mini FSM critters. As always, we've got classic flour and whole wheat pasta, and now he comes in Autumn, two varieties of Spinach, Angel Hair, Rainbow, and my new favorite, Bubblegum.









If you can't resist owning one of these little dudes, let us know! Or stop by our table at Pride this Sunday. Collect them all!

Wily Wednesdays - Old Sketch of Myself

I don't remember being such a punk in college, but my self-portraits tell a different story. I guess it's all the angst over my major...

Wily Wednesdays - College Caricature

It's self-portrait time! I made this in a college drawing class, and it actually gave me grief the whole way through. Sadly, abstraction is not my forte, but in the end, I'm at least amused by the results...

The End Is Nigh...But Probably Not

Okay, by now you've probably heard about Family Radio's Harold Camping preaching that the End Times are upon us (while sinking a disgusting amount of advertising money into it). According to this particular sect of Christianity, Judgment Day is tomorrow, May 21, which will be followed by five months of terrifying Armageddon for those left behind, and on October 21, the world will cease to exist.

Seattle Atheists, however, isn't going to just stand by while this happens. We've decided that, if the Rapture were indeed to happen, it's pretty much guaranteed that we'll be left behind, so we better be prepared to do something about all that pain and suffering. Thus, we're raising money for our Rapture Relief campaign, in which we'll do our level best to provide relief to a world ravaged by earthquakes, asteroids, volcanic eruptions, plagues, and all manner of suffering.

Um, seriously?

All kidding aside, in the more likely event that the world continues as normal on May 22, we do have an honest plan in the works. Camp Quest is a summer camp devoted to teaching children about science and critical thinking, and we want to throw in our support. In fact, the closest camp is in California, and it's time to work on opening a local chapter in Washington, which is exactly where our donations and efforts are going.


I'm excited to be working on a fundraiser for a good cause. I've heard nothing but praise for the camp from parents who've sent their children there, so I'm proud to be supporting it. The truth is, beliefs have consequences, and they can sometimes have disastrous results. Let's make sure future generations don't get sucked into any and every ridiculous idea that gets thrown at them.

If you'd like to help out, you can chip in here:

Wily Wednesdays - Birthday Crochet

Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I do love giving handmade gifts to friends for their birthdays, and crochet is always a favorite medium of mine. Except for the viking hat, most of these were based on existing patterns.

Wily Wednesdays - Metal Nostalgia

(Okay, my original post for Wednesday was deleted in the recent Blogger snafu, so here goes a second time...)

As always, May and June prove to be the busiest months of the year, and 2011 is no different, except that it's notably busier than usual. So this week is another blast from the past, metal style. Boy this makes me miss the days when I was still in school and had resources like kilns and propane torches and metal-working supplies all at my disposal. Here are a few highlights from previous classes. Apologies for the sub-par photos -- I'm not a good jewelry photographer, and I no longer have the first two original pieces with me.


Enamel Dragon Head

This was my first real attempt at cloisonné. Fun project, even if it was a little ambitious for a beginner. You can see from the rough draft that I had some big ideas for how detailed to make it, and that was scaling it down (and here are the rough drafts of other designs I was contemplating). I made this in a college jewelry and metal-working class. Of course I complicated things by choosing a concave circular brass piece for the base instead of a flat one, which made cutting, shaping, and adhering the little metal strips of the outline a special kind of torture. Still, I was quite proud of the result (and haven't forgiven myself for leaving it behind in Ohio).

Brass Design

A design and soldering project in the same college course. I guess this would've been the first time I used solder for something other than a circuit board. :P

Pewter Keychain

This is from a high school class. I made a design, etched it in plaster, and poured pewter into the mold.