ikyoto-chan

Plum Tart

2009-09-13T21:24:20Z

Plum Tart
Originally uploaded by ikyotochan

I'm really excited about making tarts right now. It was something that always seemed harder to me than it turned out to be. I'm not sure what kind to make next. Maybe some kind of chocolate or pear.

Captured by Banyan

2009-09-07T21:35:25Z

Captured by Banyan
Originally uploaded by ikyotochan

I finally posted a bunch of photos to Flickr from the summer. You can find my 30th Birthday, jlh's birthday pies, family reunion, two from malora_ann's wedding, Ringling Circus Museum and work photos from Disney On Ice.

Addiction? Wired For Sound Underpants

2009-07-08T03:29:29Z

Wired For Sound Underpants
Originally uploaded by ikyotochan

I made another pair today. This t-shirt was purchased in the little boys section at J.C. Penny's, and I wore it until it got some holes. With strategic cutting, it found a new life.

In other news, got a new project at work today. I'll be making Woody for Disney On Ice. Very tight parameters, but it will be nice to be busier.

Recycled T-shirt Underpants

2009-07-07T02:34:52Z

Gamelab: Destroy All Developers Underpants
Originally uploaded by ikyotochan

I finally got around to one of my long intended projects. I turned funny t-shirts that I didn't wear into silly underwear. This Gamelab freebie was my first pair. I followed up quickly followed by a Supergirl flocked pair from a way too small t-shirt picked up from a clothing swap. Since it was too narrow to convert into covering my hips, I added white and red panels from other t-shirts in the discard pile.

The awesome rick-rack elastic was from Daytona Trims. This project was so easy and useful, I'm looking for more t-shirts to convert.

Italy Trip Documentation Is Up

2009-05-20T18:58:31Z

Venice: Rialto Bridge
Originally uploaded by ikyotochan

I'm back from Italy and since my hip is all tired out from the many miles put behind us while strolling the sights, I thought I would take my first day back to sit all day. It was helpful in encouraging me not procrastinating in sharing photos and putting in descriptions while things are still fresh. I also updated my google map from preparing the trip to a map with the addition of things we hadn't planned and reviews/thoughts of places we went.

You can see the full Italy Trip Set, though I don't take a lot of photos so it is only 75 or so.

Here is the Google Map of the trip. I wanted to associate the two, but found out that Flickr and Google Maps don't like to tangle.

Twitter-like accounts of the trip:
Our hotel walls were so thin that P. wanted to pull a "Kool-Aid Man."
Frutti di Bosco!
I took a crap in a palace!
I only remember I should take pictures of the food after I already ate it.
It's like they replaced Vanna White with Pamela Anderson!
Why is a midget introducing a dog for Guiness World Records?
N. doesn't need an archeology book, he just needs the right google search terms.
Note to self: try Messicani pollo and consorzio del carciofo violetta.
Underwater crypt with goldfish!
I'm only here for the REALLY old stuff.
Monk flavored jam?
Neptune might have stood in the cold water too long...and why are those ladies shooting water out of their nipples?
Stalingrad street...this is the red city!
You have more change in Euros in your pocket? I'm going to have to revoke your fist bump.

War production worker at the Vilter [Manufacturing] Company making M5 and M7 guns for the U.S. Army,

2009-05-01T23:19:10Z

War production worker at the Vilter [Manufacturing] Company making M5 and M7 guns for the U.S. Army, Milwaukee, Wis. Ex-housewife, age 49, now doing bench work on small gun parts. Son [is] Second L[ieutenan]t, Son-in-law, Capt[ain] in Army (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

I just wanted to share this really cool Flickr set from the Library of Congress. Kodachrome color photography from the 1930's and 40's so vivid it looks like it could have been taken yesterday. Bonus that it is all copyright free, so perfect for research or other projects!

Going to Italy

2009-04-28T15:49:42Z

It turns out that I totally failed to mention to most people that thatphilguy and I are going to Italy next month. We're leaving for a week on May 11th and will be visiting Venice, Ravenna and Bologna. It's both of our first trip ever to Europe. Any advice would be welcome from people who have been to that region of Italy or general comments to enlighten or amuse.

So far eating, thrift store shopping, Byzantine art, lace making island and gourmet grocery shopping are on the agenda.

Space Cupcakes & Many Other Photos Up on Flickr

2009-04-22T22:01:04Z

Space Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by ikyotochan

This is the silver award winning cupcakes on the theme of space, so I wanted to post it for everyone's enjoyment. I am totally over the idea of eating more cupcakes, but thatphilguy totally had 2 for breakfast and is planning on making another batch this weekend! This particular cupcake was orange chocolate chip, with chocolate ganache icing, and a white chocolate space shuttle.

I took this opportunity to post many more photos on Flickr from the past couple years, so scroll past the many Hawaii photos for things like the Un-Superbowl Party, and a particular Valentine/Birthday Bash.

Thing A Day #28: Kitchen Lab Coat & Final Day Thanks

2009-03-01T05:41:20Z

Here is something I'd been planning a while for my etsy shop, but hadn't gotten around to before today. I put it up for sale as soon as I finished! I love lab coats as aprons with their full coverage, and food science is the most delicious science of all. So I hand embroidered my personal kitchen logo, "Cooking Is Chemistry." I'm trying to decide about fonts or additional graphics (flask? molecule diagram?) for future versions. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

I've had an amazing time with Thing-A-Day this year, although I did have a few neurotic moments around 11:30pm. A major part of it being so worthwhile was the great TAD community and all of your kind comments. Thank you, and I look forward to doing this again next year.

Thing-A-Day #27: Bizarre Fabric Design

2009-02-28T03:38:32Z

So today I decided to take another crack at making a repeating pattern using Photoshop. I used their tool for this purpose that can be found under Filter->Other->Offset. I'm no expert, but as far as I can tell it only seems to work properly on images that are already flattened. The images I used are hand-carved stamps that I had made long ago. The dinosaur was just carved directly out of an eraser stamped with that picture, but the other two are original. These digital images were hanging out on my computer and vaguely looked the same style. That was probably all they had in common, but if you can come up with some story that links dinosaurs, bell jar traps and superstar people, I want to hear it!

One more day!

Thing A Day #26: Paperwork, planning and such

2009-02-27T13:46:35Z

Today was not very photogenic for my Thing-A-Day. I worked a lot on event planning for the NewNew's Spring Handmade Cavalcade, sent in my info to start doing Wardrobe Refashion Challenge starting March 1st, worked on plans for a group photo shoot (that is what the doodle is about), and started a journal for an exchange on Swap-bot. So lots of scribbles on paper and email were my things, and I think they will all be much more interesting in a month or two given time to grow.

Thing-A-Day #25: Thing for calloocallay

2009-02-26T03:07:40Z

So again today's thing was for the Craft Offer Meme that was on my journal a while back. So if you are calloocallay
don't look unless you like to spoil surprises.

A quilted pot holder! My technique needs further refining, since I'm trying to figure out how to stitch the binding in just one step, and still have it turn out neatly. However, the hanging loop is improved over yesterday's attempt. This one will also be going to a friend for a livejournal meme challenge. I prefer to make people useful objects a majority of the time since every time I use a handmade object in my daily life I tend to remember where it came from.
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In other news, someone blogged about my etsy.com shop today. I feel internet famous!

Thing-A-Day #24: Thing for Vermillion Sun

2009-02-25T05:11:46Z

So today's thing was for the Craft Offer Meme that was on my journal a while back. So if you are vermillionsun
don't look unless you like to spoil surprises.

Today my friend lookcloselypress lured me over to work on Thing-A-Day together, eat free food, and get cotton batting instead of going to the quilting store. I wanted to make two different things with the cotton batting, pot holders and reusable menstrual pads. Here is my first ever pot holder. I think it will look good with the color scheme of her kitchen things.

Thing-A-Day #23: Sequin Purse Panel

2009-02-24T05:14:37Z

I had this leftover fabric from when I made myself a fancy dress, and so I thought that I would start to make a matching purse. I love sequins on fabric that is the same tone, and for this combination that the shine of the silk satin combined with the sparkle of sequin makes both copper elements seem metallic. Here's a picture of the dress that this project will match:

Thing-A-Day #22: Photo Albums

2009-02-23T05:13:56Z

Today I filled three photo albums. One for college days, one for travel to Korea and Thailand, and the third which is only partially done of the time I lived in Japan. It looks like I may have to get another one to put family photos, and my high school photos might fit in one of the smaller albums that are free after the shuffling. This certainly reminds me that I should be taking more photos of family and friends since there are large gaps in time that I wish I had better documented.

Thing-A-Day #21: More Surrealist Games

2009-02-22T05:53:17Z

So this morning thatphilguy bought a pork shoulder, so it went from zero to big dinner party in no time flat. In exchange for feeding them, I made some friends help me with Thing-A-Day. We played a game sometimes dubbed "Pictionary Telephone," where you alternate writing a sentence and illustrating the text covering up the previous interpretations. These are two of my favorites which I affectionately call, "The Starfish Weeps" and "He had always found literature to be a burden."

Thing-A-Day #20: Refurbished Chair

2009-02-21T05:29:59Z

The inspiration for this project came from deafdog's reupholstered chair, from earlier in Thing-A-Day 2009. I should have taken a before photo to truly show off the transformation, since it used to have a cracked vinyl cover. I used some fabric that I bought from a fun discount fabric warehouse in Hilo, Hawaii a little over a year ago. The chair was found on the street in NYC, and I've been meaning to give it a face lift for a while. Eventually I may strip off the paint to expose the really high quality wood underneath.

Thing-A-Day #19: Moth Wallet Accessory

2009-02-20T03:15:02Z

Whenever I open my wallet to no money, even as an adult, I still think of how in old cartoons a moth would flutter out. I thought it would be a fun little wallet accessory to have one attached to the inside with a little length of ribbon. I put this one up for sale in my etsy.com shop, but will probably make a few more versions before I settle on one to sell at events. I love when I finally getting around to executing an idea that has been in my mind for a long time!

Thing-A-Day #18: Sweet Potato & Peanut Soup

2009-02-19T03:45:07Z

Today seems like a good day to acknowledge

thatphilguy , without his generous contribution of making dinner most weeknights I would not have nearly as much time to make non-cooking things. Tonight however, he had to work late, so I tried a new recipe for dinner. Behold the Sweet Potato & Peanut Soup. Usually it is supposed to be pureed, but I love rustic chunky soups (and saving a step and eating sooner!).

Thing-A-Day #17: Thing for BlueMilker

2009-02-18T01:50:10Z

So today's thing was for the Craft Offer Meme that was on my journal a while back. So if you are bluemilker don't look unless you like to spoil surprises.

Some inexplicable voice in the back of my head kept telling me to make him bulletin boards. I hope it was right and he needed some. I also have never been to his apartment, so I have no idea if this color scheme will work. I thought these fabrics were pretty while being a bit more masculine than a bunch of the floral prints in my collection. I've been interested in making bulletin boards from cork ever since I had a bunch leftover from my shoe-making class. Today's ones are made from the 3-pack of round trivets from IKEA (they also come in rectangles). I'll probably be doing a tutorial about it at the NewNew blog soon. Now you can see them in action:

Thing-A-Day #16: Corn Muffins and the Lone Pumpkin Muffin

2009-02-17T04:14:55Z

We wanted to celebrate Presidents' Day by having brunch, but decided to stay at home rather than go to a restaurant. I made two kinds of muffins, pumpkin and corn. Since I forgot to take photos until after we ate, you can probably guess which ones were more popular. Strangely enough the pumpkin ones were also more healthy...go figure.

Thing-A-Day #15: Phrenology Hand-Carved Stamp

2009-02-16T04:51:50Z

This one was right down to the wire! I hadn't started anything by 11:30pm, but didn't want to miss a day. So I whipped up a hand-carved stamp inspired by some conversations I'd had earlier this week about pseudo-sciences, cryptozoology and phrenology.

Thing-A-Day #14: Devil Nut Fabric Design

2009-02-15T00:49:23Z

I've been meaning for a while to combine the tutorial on making repeating patterns on DesignSponge, with the fabric printing of Spoonflower. I got a fire lit under me when my friend of lookcloselypress, and I had a discussion about it last Sunday. She's been going crazy with it ever since here on her Thing-A-Day page, and she had me promise to also to make an attempt. Here is my first ever practice pattern. I think I'll clean it up a bit in the future before considering it usable. Here it is repeating:

Thing-A-Day #13: French Fabric Lunch Bag

2009-02-15T00:32:58Z

Necessity is the mother of thing-a-day... I really needed a lunch bag/box that would hold the Gladware plastic containers that I frequently toss my lunch into to carry to work. I like a little fabric between my lunch and the rest of the stuff in my shoulder bag and had this weird off-cut from work that is 18" by forever of a lovely French upholstery material. Yes, it is too pretty to absorb my grubby spills, but there are worst fates of excess fabric in the world. I'm obsessive sometimes...so might be able to see how the flowers match above and below the zipper.

Thing-A-Day #12: Valentine Lolita Bonnet

2009-02-13T05:32:05Z

So today was

ali_wildgoose 's birthday, and she hosted a party at which each guest was invited to make her a Valentine as a gift. I was feeling rather uninspired at the beginning, but once I was in the throws of creating, I realized that my Valentine-in-progress looked more like a bonnet than a card. In this picture it is being shown off by thatphilguy . In the end I made another card for the hostess and will take this project to my office to make my co-workers wear it in turn. Here's a slightly more blurry one with another model.