Box Bag Bonanza!

Remember when cute little box bags were all the rage on the crafting blogs a few years ago? Well, I never forgot and I have spent the past month or so making some. Shows you where I am on my crafting to-do list!

Anyway, these are fun and quick little projects that make nice gifts (unless, of course, all of my friends with Spring birthdays are lying to me to spare my feelings). I used this tutorial as a starting point for mine, and adjusted the dimensions as necessary. Also, I zigzagged the edges between steps 6 and 7 so the edges wouldn't fray inside and get all over your stuff.

The first one I made was for my good friend, crafty partner in crime, and birthday buddy Tiffany. She is a voracious knitter so this one was made with a 12" zipper and 16" of length to make it a good size to hold all of her sock projects.

She's set a goal to knit a pair of socks a month in 2011. Holeee crap. You can see her first three pairs here.



Open it up and it's always spring inside!

The next one is for my friend Jenn, who dosen't knit, but loves pedicures and is an amazing photographer. I made hers a bit smaller - a 9" zipper and 13" in length. A good size for nail polish, make up, or any other odd and ends you might want to keep together.

I added some complementary bias tape to the handle this time. I love bias tape.

The lining of this one is the same fabric, just with a pink background.

Finally, I had to make one for myself. It didn't quite turn out as planned. I kept running into issues with tread tension or interfacing (the extra thick kind did NOT want to play nice) so I had to keep cutting it down. I don't know what the dimensions are at this point, just that it's to small to be a knitting project bag but too big to something else.

Then, in my frustration and my craze to just. get. it. done. I forgot to add the handle. Blargh. Is anyone else cursed this way, or am I the only one that can't seem to make anything nice for myself?

On a positive note, I am completely over my fear of making things with zippers now!

St. Nick at SXSW

ST. NICK trailer from ST NICK on Vimeo.

*The adventures of a borther and sister, trying to survive, all on their own, out on the plains of Texas*

One of my talented and awesome movie making friends, David Lowery, had his film accepted into South by Southwest! St. Nick is his first feature length film, so the acceptance is doubly impressive. I haven't seen anything but the trailer, but I'm sure it holds true to his other work. Thoughtful, original, and a little dark. Good stuff. I wish I could make it to the screening - if you are going, make sure you put St. Nick on your list.

Mnolo - Collagist

Back in the day, the KTSW days to be exact, I worked with this guy named Manny in the production department. He always made really creative, technically and sonically awesome station promos/sound beds/PSAs...everything he worked on sounded professional.

These days, he owns an independent record label and multimedia production studio and is an electronic music producer.

He just released a new album called Collagist and it's available for free on his website. He collaborated with a ton of talented musicians; each track seamlessly combines his talent with theirs. A range of influences are woven through his music - Latin American beats, hip-hop and experimental electronica are the first that come to mind. One of my favorites songs, "Muse", is Portishead-esque.

It's an excellent album. I've never been hugely into electronica but Collagist is really accessible. The sound is not rave-tastic, it's not bizzare static and it's not redundant sampling. And, if you can't commit to a full download, you can preview a few songs here.