Vyvyan & Cthulhu

My brother's been asking for a Vyvyan denim vest forever. This year I decided to give it a whirl. I found the vest on ebay, got the studs from StudsandSpikes.com, powered through all my DVDs for screen shots, and made this:


That's my long-suffering husband modeling for me. Thanks, honey! My brother is bigger than my husband is, so it's a wee bit baggy. I hope it fits my brother. I know he received it, but he hasn't yet dispatched a missive from the bunker Re: Gift Satisfaction.

And if you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, watch this:


Genius. I could watch that all day.

And the holiday season wouldn't be complete without an Elder God. Here was the scene before:


And when he stopped dreaming and decided to go for a walk:


I do believe that's the last of the Xmas gifts. And now it's 2012 and I still don't have my flying car or robot servant. What a load of crap.

How About Another Hobby?

At Dragon*Con this past year I attended a beading workshop just out of curiosity, and was given the chance to make my very own ugly dangle earring. Luckily the earring wasn't the point; the technique was what I was after, because apparently I was in the market for YET ANOTHER HOBBY. I'm trying to remember what the hell happened next. I think I stumbled upon this beading loom on Amazon and ordered it, hoping to get it in time for the next craft group meeting. Which I didn't. But when I did finally get it, along with some terrible seed beads, I quickly began the stumbling, fumbling learning process. Which usually goes something like this:

1. decide potential new hobby looks totally awesome
2. dive in with cheap shitty tools because "these'll work"
3. output terrible shitty product and foist it on friends, hopefully in time for Xmas
4. also adopt Organizational System One for new hobby
5. splurge on more expensive quality tools and quickly realize why no one uses the cheap stuff
5a. also realize just how shitty original output was; feel shame
6. throw out cheap stuff, replace with new quality stuff
7. throw out Organizational System One and replace with Organizational System Two
8. see fulfillment of husband's motto: "It's not a hobby until you spend $200;" feel more shame
9. produce better quality product and give to friends as Xmas Gift Redo; apologize profusely
10. espy new exciting hobby possibility; return to Step One.

Just to clarify, I'm not hating on that loom. It's rad. I'm mostly hating on the really awful beads that I bought to go with it. I won't mention any names. (If they even had one.) But when I finally upgraded to the Toho Treasure Beads, I never went back.

So here's some stuff I made, just in time for Xmas:


The bracelet on the left is on the cover of the book "The Big Book of Beading Patterns: For Peyote Stitch, Square Stitch, Brick Stitch, and Loomwork Designs". I loved that bracelet and wore it everywhere until it disappeared somewhere in my house. (I also made the second from right with the star pattern but did not take a photo. Surprise.) The second bracelet in the photo is of course N.U.T.S.A.C. (awarded to Gaby for "Outstanding Achievement in Assclownery"), the third you might recognize as Domo, and the last one is also a pattern out of the book. That one and the N.U.T.S.A.C. bracelet were done on the loom, the other two were peyote stitch that I learned from the same book.

This was also done on the loom, from a border pattern I swiped off the ludicrously huge beaded lamp (!) project in the back of the same book:


Also done on the loom, this pattern is from the book but I changed it a bit to give the UFO more personality:


It's viewed like a filmstrip: starting at the bottom you see the house, then a UFO comes into frame, zaps the house, and leaves a smoking crater as it flies away. Here's a close up of it zapping the house:


So that's the new hobby. I also discovered that cross stitch patterns translate very well to the bead loom, so I'm working up some ideas from "Makato's Cross Stitch Super Collection!!" and I'm hoping for good things. Perhaps a Killamari.