The New Year has come....

2014 was rung in by me in tears at the realization things would not be working out how I had hoped they would.  It was a year of much reflection and change after Baker-gate. The first six months of last year was spent in anger and resentment but the second half of the year brought much happiness and joy which I hope will continue well into 2015. 

Some highlights to 2014 were participating in my first cosplay, enjoying a stay-cation, and even attended my first Pagan Fest where I met quite a lot of wonderful people as a result. I even have plans to attend this coming year's fest. 

I have made some wonderful friends and have creating many warm memories and look forward to 2015 with joy and happiness. 

The teen also celebrated a milestone birthday. 

Sensational Sixteen !!!!

I am not much of a baker so store bought cupcakes had to do. He didn't seem to notice as he devoured them. I can't believe he will be considered an adult in only 2 short years. I still remember holding him for the first time in my arms, like it was yesterday. My how quickly they grow. 

Another big highlight of 2014 in the Madhouse is that I met someone. Yes, you read that correctly and I couldn't be happier. 

In the first half of 2014 I didn't think I would ever trust another male with my heart. Was so tired of the games and the headaches that came with guys that couldn't make up their minds what they wanted or who they wanted. I took a step back and really thought about what I wanted and what it was about my past relationships that I liked and didn't like. 

I knew I needed to be more vocal about what I wanted and not just sit back and try and become what I thought the guy I was interested in wanted. This was a huge thing for me after being a people pleaser most of my life. I asked a guy out that I had been interested in for a while and was secretly hoping would ask me out. I got tired of waiting so I asked and he said No. He wasn't interested in dating anyone at this point in his life. The old me would have been devastated and crawled back to my bedroom and cried for weeks. However this time I chose to accept his no gracefully and didn't let it get me down. 

I have read so many articles on what you should say and shouldn't say. If you should ask or shouldn't ask a guy first and so on. Bother that, I was tired of waiting for the guys to get up the courage to ask me out. If a guy can't handle a girl that is confident enough to see what she wants and go for it then they aren't really someone I want to be with. I was tired of only seeming to attract the guys that wanted hook ups instead of relationships. I was in charge of how I felt and I wasn't going to accept that is all I was good for. 

I did meet my guy (let's call him Sweetie, since I do), on a dating site. I have friends that have had success with this and decided to give it one last chance and I am glad I did. I had some terrible experiences with dating sites in the past which made me want to pull out my hair. Dating sites can be like clam digging, you have to dig through the wet sand to get that precious clam, which may hold a pearl within it's shell. Persistence and patience pays off.  

Sweetie is a Doctor Who fan (among other awesome shows) as well, which is just brilliant. I made him a Fourth Doctor scarf for Christmas which he loved. Since both of us are goofballs we had to take a picture with the ridiculously long scarf. I am seriously thinking of knitting myself one as well since it is a very warm scarf, until then I have no problem snuggling up to Sweetie when he is wearing his. *grin*

Comfy, cozy, cuddly, soft 

2014 may have started off badly but it sure ended well. I am grateful for all the experiences I had, good or bad. So far 2015 has started with much joy and happiness and I look forward to all the marvelous adventures to be had this coming year. 

What better way to ring in the New Year
then wearing my Doctor Who Clock shirt :)

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and may your cups overflow with prosperity, love and cheer. Blessed be. 

Hugs and Smoochies

<3 Arawynn <3 

Repurposed Tin into a TARDIS

Oh yes another TARDIS. What can I say, I am TARDIS obsessed lately. I have been seeing them everywhere. 

This time I took a cookie tin from finger cookies and painted it all up to look like the TARDIS. In my haste to start painting, I forgot to snap a before picture. Silly me. 

I loved how it turned out and I am currently trying to decide if I want to keep it for myself as an awesome, geeky storage box or give it away to someone. I can always make another. 

I love letting my creative juices flow, even if they seem focused on the TARDIS. 

Currently trying to find the perfect item to use as the light on the top. I am sure I have something in my craft stash. 

I would love to see your versions if you choose to make one of your very own. 

Hugs and Smoochies from the Madhouse

<3 Arawynn <3

Geeky Gifts and The New Year....

I hope everyone had an amazing start to the new year. This year has started off with some challenges for the Madhouse, nothing that I can't handle, however, so fear not. It is one of the reasons this post is so late in coming. I was once told I am a Warrior Woman and I have a lot of strength to get me through anything and I am keeping that in my mind to get me through the coming weeks. 

I decided this year not to do resolutions. I never seem to stick with them for very long and I just end up disappointed with myself for not keeping them up, so instead I am going to say F**k It and just do what comes naturally. Stressing myself out trying to keep up with something and having life get in the way seems counter productive.  I want to just enjoy life and go with the flow. It's a work in progress. 

Back before Christmas I got the crafting bug and started making gifts. Baker had been talking about buying himself some Doctor Who Ornaments for his Christmas tree. I thought I would surprise him with a set. One night I whipped up these little beauties while watching Christmas movies, and sent them out his way.  I was so excited to see what he would think. 

Baker loved the ornaments. He asked me where I bought them and was shocked to hear I had made them myself. I was so glad he liked them. The Teen wants me to make a set for our own tree. Will have to get that done for next year. Added to the list of things to do. 

I also made a 52 Reasons Book out of playing cards for Baker as well. I decorated it all up. Should have taken more pics of it though. Here is the Tardis I drew for one of it's many decorations.  It was a lot of work but it was so worth it. I roughed up the cards a bit, to give it a used, vintage feel. Along with the 52 reasons I put in quotes and whatnot from Doctor Who and other odds and ends. I was very happy with how it turned out. Baker also seemed to like it. 

I also personalized a journal for The Teen. He is a Minecraft fan and he has been wanting a journal for a while. I found a green journal when out and about Christmas shopping so I decided to Geek it up for him. 

The face is made using black fun foam and glued in place with Tacky Glue. It is so simple to personalize  your notebooks into something more Geek inclined. The teen liked the book, although he did declare he had been wanting a pocket size journal instead. *eyeroll*

I am currently working on making a set of River Song Diaries. I am liking how they are coming along. Hope to have that up soon. 

I will be sharing more of my craft items as I finish them. I find it relaxing to be making something and have been making an effort to work on something each day. My mind is always looking for new ways to revive something or make it unique and special. I also love to be frugal. Will be sharing some of my finds in coming blog posts. 

For now I will bid you farewell, until next time. 

Hugs and Smoochies, 

<3 Arawynn <3 

Obsessed With Making Hats.

Recently I have gotten the urge to knit. Possibly due to the cooler weather. *lol* 

I recently started talking to a guy whom I found out likes both Firefly and Doctor Who. I did a little squee dance with this info and decided I was going to knit him a Jayne Hat. Those of you that love Firefly will immediately know what I am referring to, those of you who don't know can find out Here. 

So all excited I went on a search of the interwebs to track down a pattern to use. Needless to say I was dizzy with the results found and ended up basically having to create one using trial and error. I had a basic hat pattern but not the size of yarn or needle size required to make said hat, so I proceeded to alter the pattern using maths. Long story short I ended up with a hat that was more sized for a small child than an adult male. What to do? Well send it to a friend for her son for Halloween, of course. 

This little beauty will hopefully make a very adorable little boy, very happy, as well as his geek girl mama. 

Sent that hat off and realized I had to start another one so back to the drawing board I went. Managed to actually make the proper size around and went on my merry way. I got to the yellow part and realized that I didn't have enough of it to finish off the hat *FUDGE* so off to the store I went a couple of days later looking for something similar. Figuring it being fall there would be lots of yellows to choose from. Not so. Everything was either too dark or too bright and pastel. Which would not work with the hat. I did manage to find something very similar to the colour I had and bought it. I had been to several stores already at this point to find something. Thankfully there isn't that much of the hat that needed to be done in the other colour. 

So this is the beauty I ended up with. Not bad, seeing as it is the second hat that I have knit that wasn't infant sized. 

For the next hat I make I am going to make the flaps a tad smaller. Still very happy with how it turned out. Hope my friend likes it. 

And of course I couldn't stop there. I have been bitten by the knitting bug and wanted to knit some more. I was surprised once I had the proper size figured out, how easy and quickly I could knit up a hat. I went into my yarn stash and looked for inspiration. Imagine my glee when I discovered blue yarn, very similar in colour to the TARDIS from Doctor Who. Well that got the juices flowing and I decided to knit up a Doctor Who hat. So I ended up with this little beauty. 

It isn't exactly the way I had envisioned it. Think I might embroider some window bars on it. Or possibly knit another hat so I can have the Police Box embroidered on it. A girl can never have enough hats, can she? 

The teen has put in a request for a hat. He doesn't want to have a Jayne hat or a TARDIS hat, though. Thinking on finding some green yarn and making him a creeper hat. :) 

I wear a hat now...Hats are cool!

Hugs and Smoochies from the Madhouse

<3 Arawynn <3

Doctor Who Hair Sticks...

I have been bitten by the crafting bug lately and most of my ideas seem to be revolving around Doctor Who. I love Doctor Who. I remember being spooked by the Classic Doctor Who music when I was really young. I did watch the 8th Doctor in reruns when I was pregnant for my son and home alone all day. 

I really got into the series with it's reboot ( I know, I know there are many that don't view it as a reboot but as a continuation) and I have seen every episode several times since. I loved 10 and Rose and then Rory and Amy and The Doctor and River Song. I am so looking forward to the 50th Anniversary episode and seeing both Matt Smith and David Tennant  together in one episode. It should be epic. 

To get in the spirit and show my Whovian Pride. I decided to make something that I can wear. Nothing to drastic since I don't want to scare my co-workers more than I already have with my decorations. I decided to make some hair sticks to stick in my hair, when I am wearing it up. Best part is they can double as weapons if someone attacks. I am all for multi-purposed items. ^.~ 

I have already posted a somewhat how-to over on Cut Out & Keep. Feel free to head over and check it out, Here

Action Shot

View from the front

Up close and personal

Bow ties and Fezes are cool :) 

I am pretty proud of them. I hand painted both while I watched a Harry Potter marathon with "the teen" a couple of weekends ago. I am bad at actually getting things up and posted in a quick time frame. Usually because something in the madhouse distracts me. Like the sudden urge to paint chopsticks up so I can wear them in my hair :P  

My next plan is to make TARDIS curtains for "the teen's" room. They replaced our windows so I had to take down his old curtains and decided they needed to be updated. 

Other Doctor Who projects I have made are "the teen's" birthday cake last year. As shown here. Not my finest work, but still pretty cool. 

There will be more geekery crafts to come. Please check back often :) 

For now I must go do domestic things. Still wishing for my fairy godmother to come and take care of all the chores so I can go to the fancy dress ball. Someday....until then...

Hugs and Smoochies 

<3 Arawynn <3

A Stencilling We Will Go....

"The Teen" is really into gaming and geekery and being on a pretty tight budget this past Christmas I was trying to come up with some cool gift ideas for him. I have seen all these wonderful licensed tees for things he is interested in but the price tag for said tees are way out of my price range so I turned to the net and found some different sites on making your own t-shirts. Didn't look too hard to do and I am a fairly crafty person. I needed to buy some supplies but I was able to make three t-shirts and a hoodie for the price of 1-2 of the licensed tees in the stores. 

I made stencils by printing some pics off the internet and tracing them on plastic sheets I had floating around the house. Using a craft knife I cut out all the pieces that I wanted to have paint on the tees and after cramping my hand, more than a few times while cutting them all out, I started to paint. 

I went the fabric medium for acrylic paint route then purchasing straight fabric paint. More variety that way. Fabric paint doesn't seem to have much selection compared to acrylic paint. I made use of coupons when buying craft supplies with helped out greatly with the cost. 

It took me about 2 days total to complete all 4 items. I had to wash all the items prior to stencilling, then stencilling time, drying time and rewashing, so definitely consider this if making more than one at a time. I made them while watching Christmas movies so the time went pretty quickly. I had a blast once I got into it. I had to send "the teen" off to his Dad's to make sure I wouldn't be interrupted while I was making them. Nothing worse than trying to make something for someone and them walking in on you when you have everything out. 

This is what I ended up with: 

Creeper from Minecraft

Assassin's Creed shirt. I made two stencils for this, this one is my fave one.

Doctor Who Logo

The teen giving his best Ezio impression while wearing his Assassin's Creed Hoodie

I am pretty proud of the results. "The teen" was pretty impressed with all of them. Heard a lot of "Sweet" and "Cool" when he was opening them. Best part is they are made with love which you just don't get from shirts bought in a store. 

Downside to this is that now I want to stencil everything I own. This could be trouble *lol* 

Happy stencilling and of course Hugs and Smoochies.

<3 Arawynn <3

How Fast Time Flies....

.....when you are having fun?

I know, I haven't been keeping up with the posts recently. Life has gotten in the way, like it tends to do. Some things that have happened in and around the Madhouse as of late include a wedding, a relationship and a birthday and well just random craziness.

My brother was married to a wonderful, sweet lady. I was the photographer for their wedding and I have been doing my best to get the editing done. I want them to have the best photos to remember their day. I am so happy for the two of them. They make me believe it is possible to find love and be happy, but I digress. The wedding was beautiful and simple. It suited them and they were both so relaxed. It was nice to photograph a wedding again, well the couple only parts. There is nothing worse then family that think they know better and get in the way of you trying to get "the shot". I know I am family but I was there to capture their day and I was having a difficult time doing so. I was their photographer so I am the one they should be concentrating on. At one point I had to get the family shooed away because I wanted to be able to work without my head spinning in irritation. I can get a little testy when I am working. I admit it.

Once the family were shooed away and I had breathing space I was able to capture some amazing shots and I had "the teen" as an assistant which helped dramatically. He even snapped tonnes of his own photos. He has much to learn but I think I have a budding photographer on my hands. Momma is proud.

Here is one of the pics I snapped of the happy couple.

"The Teen" also had a birthday recently in the Madhouse. I was actually pretty excited about it and made plans to make a cake and be all domestic like normal moms for birthdays. But like everything in the Madhouse plans fell apart. I bought materials to make a cake for him but of course the night I went to make the cake I realize I had no vegetable oil and it was too late to go get any. I ended up having to run after work to track down a cake I could use that would fit the cake topper I made.

I had a brilliant moment of craftocity and came up with an idea for a birthday cake for "the teen" I combined two of his favourite things My Little Ponies and Doctor Who. The Doctor Who thing I can totally get, who doesn't love Doctor Who? The My Little Pony thing is not so making of the sense to me. Seems there is a thing known as Bronies and my son and his friends consider themselves Bronies. "The Teen" resisted for the longest while, making fun of his friends for liking My Little Ponies but they eventually wore him down and assimilated him into their fold. So I pondered and came up with this...

The TARDIS is made out of a wooden box purchased at a local dollar store. It is covered in felt and is actually useable. I glued the felt on in such a way as there is a flap over the latch so it just needs to be lifted up and he can put stuff inside, if he so chooses. This is the first time I have attempted something like this and have to say I am very proud of my finished product. The ponies are not authentic My Little Ponies, as my son was quick to point out but I wasn't going to spend $10 plus on real versions to stick in icing. So dollar store ponies it was :)

If you are a Doctor Who fan you should know the quote. When "the teen" saw the cake his comment was "well done mom, very clever". He loved it. The burned fingers and many stabbings of my fingers as I made the TARDIS was well worth it. It is now on display in our entertainment unit. The TARDIS, not the cake *lol*

Lastly before I depart tonight is to comment on the relationship I mentioned above. I did meet a wonderful man in September, on the bus of all places. He commented on my foam board (long story) and it lead to him asking me out. He gave me his number so I could contact him. I took a few days to think about it and did eventually contact him. We met for coffee and had a pretty good chat. We have a lot in common and we did start dating. Unfortunately I had to end things because I don't think I am really ready to get into another long term relationship and I felt it was unfair to him to remain. It makes me sad because he is such a warm, fun, supportive person but I live in the Madhouse and I honestly don't think he is prepared for the madness that is me. I often say I am like Tinkerbell on crack. I am up and down and sideways on a daily basis and I have never really been alone before. I really want to enjoy the single life for a bit longer before I surrender myself to coupledom again.

Who knows maybe we will find each other again if it is meant to be. They do have that saying after all. "What is meant to be will find a way" or something to that effect. For now though I need to get myself straightened out before I can even think about being in a relationship. I think that is the smartest thing to do for the moment. Of course tomorrow is another day. We never know what will happen. Ah the joys of life. The madness of it all.

That is it for now, thanks for reading and sharing in the madness.

Hugs and Smoochies

Arawynn <3