2013 Garden

 Last year we were shocked when spring ran into summer and our front yard exploded with 13 different colored rose bushes. It was the kind of surprise that new homeowners fantasize about...and it was awesome!

The area to the left of our driveway is a well established garden. Roses, filler flowers beneath them, and hopefully they are idiot proof (I have no clue where to get started with roses). Last year, my coworker came and spent HOURS cleaning up the roses for me.  And it showed, they were beautiful. It was awesome.

The rest of the yard? Not so much. It is this horrible silty - sandy poo.  It wouldn't grow zucchini. Seriously, Zucchini died here.  Last year I killed peas, zucchini, tomatos, berry plants, a new rose bush (or honestly 2), pansies, strawberries and a whole host of other assorted veggies I attempted to grow. It failed. 

 Now, its coming up on garden season again so we are trying again. I may be a demented optimist, but we will see. We are going to try doing small raised beds up front to see what we can do.  We are going to plant thorny berry bushes underneath the daughters bedroom, and hope they stick it out and grow into terrible beasty bushes :) Protection when she is a teenager.

We are also going to do several topsy turvey's - they did well here last year, and the house has a TON of the hooks for them along the back yard.  We are also doing all of this in a drought, with watering restrictions....

So..yeah - Nuts :)

I has the dumb

I just finished some 6 hours of armor work and tooling.  My hands and back and legs ache.  Pictures will come soon.

Along with an english language real update. For now... I has the dumb :)

High Gear

So, I am finally kicking it into High Gear. Mostly because my beloved husband wants me to start his armor, so I must finish my brothers.  Tonight I did all the interior articulation for the chest, did the front strapping and buckles and the side strap.  Sadly, I bought 1 inch buckles, and I need 2 inch ones for the size strapping.  That means back to Tandy's Leather I go. 

Hopefully tomorrow night I will get the side buckles on, the will do the pauldron articulation and figure out the axe-cover attachment method. 

So, In addition to everything else, my dear brother refuses to make a decision about color. I may leave it plain, or it may become black.  I am also thinking about tooling either a Tree of Life or a simple celtic knot onto the breast plate. What do you think? Leave it tan, or make it black with a green design?

Making Progress

Another photo-less post, but hopefully you will all cheer with me when I tell you I got him pinned (or duct taped) into it!!! YAY!

I was able to pin down my brother for his armor sizing and mark all the right sizes. Now its time for hole punches, and buckles and straps, and articulation, and then figuring out bracers and greaves and the darn war-skirt/tasset.  No matter that he still hasn't decided if he wants tooling, or color, or details.  Nor that I am not sure if I have enough leather left. (Please ignore the eye twitch, I swear it's normal).

And then, after all the sizing, marking, and hole starting...I left it all in Palmer Lake.  Sigh.  I should get it all on Thursday and then can try to hard-craft it through the weekend and have something substantial to show him when I see him again. My worst case scenario I will see him in two weeks. Imagine how cool it would be to have it all ready by then.  So...please, plague me, harass me, and ask me how it is coming! Your help would be greatly appreciated!

What do you do?

What do you do when your main project requires the model to come visit you for dinner and you can't get your brother to come down cause he really doesn't love  you? :)

In my case, I have cut out the armor for my brother. Breast plate, kidney articulation, Pauldrons are all done. I still need to create the tassets and decide on how much of a skirt they will have, then I need to make the greaves and bracers.  So maybe I only have the top half cut out.  It's close right?

I  sadly really need to have him here for a two to three hour bender so I can measure, shape, cut, and start molding all the pieces to him before I can put all these pretty leather pieces together.  Which is seriously a bummer. I hate waiting.

Thankfully, the leather cutting is done for now, as my hands hate me.  On the other hand, since I got my craft room cleaned and organized I can find everything I want for any project and may just haul through the triangle quiver and get it up and for sale soon.  We'll see.

The paper version of the armor used to determine the pattern.

Any votes for a project you would like to see me do? 

New Year New Entry?

Happy New  Year friends and loved ones! This year there will be a weekly post to update you on the projects that are happening and on how the shop and commissions are going.  And....I will be posting on the blog once a month a give away at the end of the month for people who comment on posts.  My goal is to get some interaction so I can find out what you lovelies want to hear more of! :)

So, comment here with any goals you are making for the new year, or any leather projects you are dying for and you may win the first prize ;)

Full Armor Set

So, I have been commissioned to make a full armor set for my older brother. This is exciting, but scary, and I keep putting it off.  I am going to get to work soon! I promise! 

Right now I am working instead on a de-cluttering project. I need to be able to find all my craft supplies and be able to use them, so that's the current project and when October ends I will get started on the Armor. 

I already have the armor style I am aiming for, and my brother's measurements. What I need to get started is to create a paper version of the armor to use as trace pieces on the leather.  My goal will be to get the paper armor done and tested by November 15th, and see where we can go from there.

Wish me luck?