Warmth!

I just finished this scarf that I've been working on FOREVER!!!It is made from a discontinued 80% acrylic/20% wool blend yarn that I got at the thrift store.
The scarf pattern is my own, and I hope to eventually make a matching hat pattern.
I am finally starting to feel ready for the next semester. I think it will go a lot smoother than last semester because I won't have to deal with the 'what the hell am I doing' crisis- hahah! Anyone who is an artist will know exactly what I mean by that.
I am also starting to get excited for my classes to start. I'm taking an Eco Art class that should be really interesting, six credits of painting, 20th century Art History, and an Art Pedagogy class. I took a break from painting over winter break to help regain some momentum. I am really looking forward to getting back to painting. I got a set of casein paints and some water soluble oil paints for Christmas, so I'm excited to try those out and see what they can do for my art.
Nate's parents are coming up this weekend for a playoff watching/Nate's birthday extravaganza. I am going to *attempt* to make fried cheese wontons to celebrate the occasion.
Go Packers!

Dye-A-Thon

I am embracing what little is left of my all-too-short winter break with some intense crafting sessions! Last weekend I took full advantage of the fact that I had the house to myself all Saturday while Nate was at work, and I dyed about 2.5 lbs of merino and about 1 lb of bulky recycled wool/angora blend yarn.
This is the merino roving, I dyed 11 different sections, each about 3-4 oz each. This is the recycled yarn that I dyed. It is about 600 yards of bulky weight yarn, and I'm hoping to use it for a sweater. It is 70% Merino/20% Angora/10% Nylon. Right now I'm in the pattern hunting phase :)
So after about 4 hours of dyeing, I was in dire need for some liquid refreshment. Nate got home, and we decided to crack out the ol' drink mixing book. A few minutes later we were enjoying some wonderful chocolate coffee martinis!Note the expression of pure joy on his face. Priceless!
For all of you who would like to make these for yourselves, here you go:

Cassie's "I'm not ready to start the semester yet" Martini's
Ingredients:
-1/2 shot Coffee Liqueur
-1/2 shot Creme de Cacao
-1 shot Vodka (Svedka)
-1/8 cup Milk
-Whipped Cream

Instructions:
Pour the Coffee Liqueur, Creme de Cacao, Vodka, Milk, and a small bit of whipped cream into a martini shaker with some ice. Shake, Shake, Shake!! Pour contents into martini glass (or a wine glass if you are to poor to buy martini glasses) and top with a tiny bit more whipped cream. Sprinkle top with hot cocoa mix, and you are done!

I Survived the Holidays!

We did quite a bit of traveling this holiday season, between Illinois, Milwaukee, our hometown, and Galena. With all that holiday busyness, I still managed to get in some quality knitting time. These are some armwarmers I'm working on a pattern for. They are really easy to make and take advantage of both knitting and crochet. They look super cute over a pair of gloves too. :)
Christmas itself was fairly stress-free this year, save the terrible weather and road conditions we had for every leg of our travels. We went to a total of six Christmas celebrations, and this was the best weather we had:
Car rides that normally took about two hours ended up taking four. We had our kitties with us as well, thankfully they were well behaved and we had no car troubles. On one highway we took, they actually closed down the highway right after we got off of it.
I also got to do some quality yarn shopping . I got these two beauties at La Bella Vita in Mineral Point WI:This one is from Farmhouse Yarns it is their 'Lumpy Bumpy' yarn in Cranberry. It is going to be an earflap hat for my sister.
This one is Malabrigo Aquarella colorway Tranqueras. I'm making it into a beanie for myself. La Bella Vita is a great little shop! They organized their yarns by color, and specialize in unique and beautifully colored yarns. This is my second trip there, and the staff has always been great. I just got done with the earflap hat that I made with yarn I bought the last time I was there. It is the same as the first yarn in the colorway Mardi Gras. It is very soft and very warm. Lastly, this is another earflap hat that I made out of my handspun yarn. It was a little bit too short, so I decided to crochet a trim around it. Now it fits perfectly!

Homemade Business Cards

Hot off the presses! I just finished whipping these up to send out with orders from my Etsy site, and I wanted to show them off!I did the design in Photoshop, and then cut the cards apart with my handy cutter. I printed them on a nice off-white textured paper, and I really love the way they look.I'm also trying to get together some of my older craft tutorials that I've posted on craftster posted here as well, so watch out for those. :)

Old Projects

I've been burning through some stash yarn lately for Christmas gifts, and I've found some projects that I had let go to the wayside. So between gift-knitting, I've been working on finishing some old knitting projects.
First up is my Brea Bag. I'm almost done with this one. I'm crocheting the gusset, and I'm trying to decide on what color to line it with...Secondly, there is the squirrel hat. This is my own lovely design, and I'm contemplating adding earflaps... I'm also considering writing a pattern up for this one. :)This is going to be a half-knit, half-sewn project. The knitting part is done(besides the weaving in of the ends) and I still need to sew the body on to the top. I've also finished a scarf that has been in progress for about a year now, and I want to take pictures that do it justice. Lastly, I'm still chugging along on Emerald, hopefully it will get done over the holidays! :)
Thanks for stopping by!

New Projects

I started knitting again! Well, actually I have been knitting all along, but it has been for other people and I always forget to take pictures before I send the item away... This is the beginning of Emerald, a free pattern from Knitty. I'm using Lion Brand's Cotton Ease. I love wool, but I cannot stand it against my skin. Even merino makes me red and itchy. Therefore, I'm knitting it in Cotton Ease, which I really love so far!
I've also been having some fun with shrinky dinks. I'm hoping to sell some of these on Etsy, and I'm working out ways that I can string them, if you have any ideas, feel free to shoot them my way! One thing I was thinking of was using some 'suede feel' yarn. I think it would work well because these pendants are so lightweight. I was also thinking of mounting some of them onto painted wood discs to make them heavier and give them a little more dimension. I'll keep playing around though until I find something that works well.

It is snowing like mad outside right now. Earlier this week we had an ice storm, and I went out around where we live and shot some pictures at sunset, this is one of my favorites:

So, I'm a REAL Artist Now!

I just finished slapping together my new website for just my art. Don't worry I'll still be posting it here as well :) I just wanted to share it with all of you who have been so kind to me!

www.cassiechristenson.com

Also, it is still in it's baby stage, so be forgiving!
I'm off to scrounge up some dinner.

I Might Be the Lovechild of MacGyver and Martha Stewart

So today I went to the craft store to get a lightbox, and walked right back out because of the $40 price tag. Yikes...
I decided to take measures into my own hands. So, after quick trip to the store, a mere $3, and about 5 minutes of work.....DIY Lightbox! It works really well too:
It is probably one of the easiest projects ever. All you have to do is cut a hole in a frosted plastic bin, put a set of mini Christmas lights inside, string the plug through the hole, put the lid on, and flip it over. Done!
Also, make sure you wash your hands after handling the lights because they have lead, we don't want anyone keeling over now do we?
That's it for now :)

Done!!!!!! (Mostly)

Wow, long time no blogging.....
The good news is that my semester is now over and done with (except for few last little things). I've really put a lot into this semester, so other parts of my life have been put on the back burner- for example: crafting, seeing friends, and generally anything outside of the sphere of my home and school- hah....
Also, our kitties are getting bigger and bigger, and with that they are also 'pushing the limits a little bit more. Yesterday when I came home from work, this is what I saw in my kitchen:Do you see the little bugger! He thought he was just on top of the world. He's usually the "good" one too! I promptly removed our wine bottles from the other side of the cabinets for fear of red wine being spilled over everything. Don't you just love how he is unaffected by my beckoning him to come down:It is such a relief to be done with the semester, I was getting a little frazzled towards the end... Also, Nate is applying for school for next semester as well! I'm really hoping he gets in, and I think he's got a really good chance.
I've got a few more paintings done as well, I'll post some more later this week too as I finish editing them. Thanks to all of those who commented on my last post as well, it really brightens my day!
Watercolor 9"x11"
Watercolor 13"x9"This last one is on watercolor paper that I gessoed. It is about 5"x7", and was a pretty successful experiment I think. I'm going to try using the same paper to try out my new casein paints. I hope you all are having a good holiday season so far!

New Paintings

What is a better way to spend your Saturday than studying for a test? I'd say almost any other way, so that is why I am taking a nice little break to share some of the paintings I've finished lately.
They are all about the same size, around the 15" x 12" range and done in watercolor.

Good Student=Terrible Blogger

So yes, I know I've been a little absent, but school has taken over my life (help!). I've been spending a lot of my time painting, working, reading art history, writing papers, etc... so I thought I would share a picture of my studio with you. It is fairly empty because I don't really trust leaving a lot of finished work there, but here it is in all of it's glory.

I have still been able to do some little craft projects here and there, and I've been cooking a lot lately as well. Nate has also been cooking a bit, and he made me this wonderful birthday dinner:


And look, I'm knitting!! This is a custom order from a friend of mine for a hat and mitten set. The hat is almost done, and I'm considering writing a pattern for it to sell in my etsy shop...And last but not least, some yarn for all of the fiber junkies. It is about 200yds of heavy worsted weight merino yarn. I think this one is going to make a really nice neckwarmer- it is so soft and warm!I've also got some finished paintings, but I was too lazy to edit them right now, maybe tomorrow?

Is the Weekend Here Yet?

I've been having a pretty hectic week so far, and I'll be glad for this weekend to arrive. Nate and I are going to see Verona Grove tomorrow night, they have been friends of ours for a while now, and they are moving up in the world, and will hopefully be on MTV one of these days. Also, Johnny and Tabitha are coming up for a visit on Saturday, which we are excited about. Lastly, on Sunday the Packers play the Bears, which should be fun because all of the neighbors in our apartment are Bears fans, and we may have some of them over to watch the game in all of it's big screen HD glory.
Crafting is going pretty slowly this week, but I do have a skein of yarn to show you. This is some of my newly dyed merino yarn , and I've got two skeins of it. I think I will be keeping this one for myself seeing as it is so soft and squishy. I've also been starting a new(ish) series of paintings of the interiors of empty houses. I think I may transfer this series to oils though in effort to get more done. This is the first of the series, but it is only halfway done. I think this will be a good series for oils, I'm looking forward to working in the studio this weekend, hopefully I'll have some more finished paintings to show you soon.