Mushrooms and Magpies

These mushrooms are poisonous but oh so pretty. The picture with 2 in them, Mike said the tops looked like a very fancy dessert, so now I'm planning a custard dessert that will look sort of like that.
I love magpies so much. We get lots in our neighborhood, but usually they fly off before I can get a good picture. I need a better camera. But this one almost looked like it was posing for me.
Click on the images to see larger versions, the larger versions aren't huge so they will be quick to load.

Cupcake box

I finally made a box template that will fit a standard size cupcake. Figuring out how to get a cupcake in it without getting icing on your fingers is your challenge. I realized a bit too late that I really should have used tongs or something to get it in the box and you can see stray bits of icing on the box.
This will take 3 sheets of card stock to print.I'm sorry for that, it can't be helped. A standard size cupcake needs a 3 inch box at least, and the insert wouldn't fit with the box parts. I did put two inserts on on page though so if you print 2 piece ones, 2 piece 2, and 1 insert, you've got enough for 2 boxes.
What you'll do is print, score, cut as usual, piece 2 has the bottom square, and piece 1 has the top square. Glue the tab on the edge of piece 1 to piece 2 so the bottom square goes the opposite direction of the top square,then complete the box by gluing the side tab of piece 2 to the edge on piece one. Tuck the bottom flaps and the bottom square in, glue it if you want a little more security. Score and cut the insert, then poke a hole in the middle with your scissors and cut out that inner circle. That's where the cupcake will rest. Put the insert in the box, and then the cupcake. Close box.
Design with the help of my daughter who loves polka dots and pinstripes and anything rainbow colored.
As usual, click on the images for the full sized version. I hope you like it.
Cupcakes in image are store bought. I still can't figure out where my cupcake tins are.

The zoo, mushrooms, gravity, and nunchaku

Today we went to the zoo since I was finally feeling well enough after a week of rotten weather that left me cranky hurty and overly emotional.
At the zoo, he was laughing at me, because I was taking pictures of mushrooms. I tried to explain it to him, but finally just settled for him pointing out those very pretty and poisonous mushrooms that are sort of orange and red so I could get pictures of them. Because mushrooms are cute. I did not take pictures of naked alpacas but I did tell them they were naked for a good cause.
I also got some good pictures of magpies, and we saw a blue jay teasing the snow leopards. See, the snow leopard enclosure is completely fenced in, and it kept bouncing on the top of the fence just over the leopards head, the leopard would get right under it, and the jay would scold and sound like it was laughing.
It was funny. We spent a good 10 minutes laughing at that jay's antics. Caw caw!
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Recently Nova played the episode about black holes at the center of the galaxy, and the wonderment of scientists finding proof that there was evidence of black holes at the center of most galaxies. I was really exhausted with hurting that night so I went to bed in the middle of it rambling as Mike tucked me in about the silliness of the scientists being so surprised. I said "It makes sense, because of the orbits and stuff that the universe operates on gravity which isn't very well understood. It's the power of suck."
He kissed my forehead and said "Go to sleep Shala."
So I asked William. "William, why does the moon orbit earth?"
"Gravity."
"Why does the earth orbit the sun?"
"Gravity." (at this point he's giving that "Mom, you're crazy, but I'll humor you." look)
"Okay, galaxies rotate, the sun and other stars rotate, what's in the middle of the galaxy?"
"Probably a black hole."
See??? He's not a scientist! But given the givens, he thought it made sense that a black hole was in the middle of it all. And I was right. It's the power of suck. Or gravity.
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I'm crocheting nunchaku. Which led to a very silly conversation. I mentioned that I was sizing them for myself. I looked up the standard dimensions for traditional nunchaku. The cord should cross the palm with just enough for the sticks to hang over the sides, and the stick parts should be long enough when held to protect the forearms. Mike said "They are crocheted, they will not protect your forearm." and I said "Yes, but I have to size them to someone and my hands and arms are the smallest, and I want them to be as accurate as possible."
"They are soft plushie nunchaku, not weapons."
"But they COULD be. I could fill them with steel shot."
"And practice the subtle art of chet (pronounced shay, like the end of crochet)"
"Mike, you're being silly."
"Oh, I'm SO sorry."

Working on- crocheted nunchaku (pattern will be available when I finish them)
Cupcake box sized for a standard cupcake (will be posted soon)
Tutorial for reading a peyote bead graph

On deck- Article on shaping peyote around objects with gorgeous examples by Miss Teri, and some sort of ogala butterfly project.

Everyone who won the drawing, postcards will be mailed tomorrow. Sorry about the lateness. Last week was really really hard for me physically.

Circle Skirt Waist template

Anyway.. you know how to make circle skirts right? There are a ton of tutorials on the web.
One of my favorites for bellydance skirts and my all time favorite way to make circle skirts is out of tablecloths, no hemming that very long diameter! You can find Wipster's great tutorial here.
I'm not reinventing the wheel. Or any other form of circle. I made myself a template to make the circles for the waistband with though, like any other sewing, it's a guideline, and you will probably want to modify it some for your perfect fit, and it's at 2 inch increments, just remember if you're making a skirt with a zipper/finished waist band instead of an elastic waistband, take off more in *tiny* amounts. It doesn't take much to completely ruin it. A .25 inch increase in diameter can make a HUGE difference in the final waist band. Like if you use the 36 inch waistband and decide when you're fitting it's a bit snug, trimming off a 1/4 inch around the circle makes it a little over 37 inches. Do account for seam allowances, but by extending the edges, not by making a bigger circle.
Also, these are not exact. I rounded up, but not so high up I went up an inch in size, there is between a .4 and .6 inch difference between the stated sizes and what they actually are when you cut them, that's +.4 or +.6, not minus.
It's a quarter circle template, so you'll want to either place it on a fold, or use the template to make a newspaper pattern that's a whole or half circle.
If you are making one with an elastic waist, measure at the hips and cut that circle.
Earlier this summer, a craft mag had this brilliant idea of using round table cloths. I love the idea so much, because they are already hemmed. Of course,this only works if you want a length that can be accommodated by one of the standard sizes for round table cloths.
To figure length, it's the radius of the total circle- radius of the waist. Here's a quick run down of the radii that I used in inches. D for diameter, R for radius.
50- 16 D- 8 R
48- 15.5 D - 7.75 R
46- 14.8 D- 7.4 R
44- 14.2 D- 7.1 R
42 - 13.5 D- 6.75 R
40- 12.9 D- 6.45 R
38- 12.20 D- 6.1 R
36- 11.6 D- 5.8 R
34- 11 D- 5.5 R
So, a 70 inch diameter round table cloth would make a skirt 35 inches - R of waistband, which on me would be a nice longer skirt.
Okay.. :) Enough with that. It's in PDF format, set up for American paper sizes. I have it for A4 paper too, but it seems kind of silly to post that since I did all my figuring in inches and the places that use A4 paper are too sensible to use inches.
The template.