February Donation - UPROAR

This month, I decided to donate 10% of my sales to UPROAR.

Picture from their website

UPROAR stands for United Protection and Rescue Organisation for Animal Rights.  They use the money raised to promote awareness about animal rights issues.  They also perform rescues and investigations.  I'm glad to say that I have helped them out a little bit this month.

Check out their Facebook page here.

This month a total of $39.80 was raised to help them out :).

Stylish Blogger Award

Stuff About Stuff was nice enough to tag me for a Stylish Blogger Award (thank you!).  Now I have to figure out 7 facts about myself to share with you.  Luckily no one said they had to be interesting ;).

Also check out the list of 7 people I have chosen for a Stylish Blogger Award :).

1.  I'm a vegan.  This means I don't eat/wear/use any animal products.

2.  I love baking.  Chocolate cake, brownies, cupcakes, jam donuts, rainbow cake, jam drops, gingerbread cookies, rum balls...  Yummy!

3.  I have done three 1st years of different university degrees; Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science.

4.  I never thought I could sew well enough to sell anything.  Kommoner was just a Facebook experiment.

5.  I've owned a guitar, keyboard and violin but can't play any of them.

6.  My favourite comic is Transmetropolitan.  I don't own/know of very many though.

7.  I donate to/loan through Kiva, Uproar!, Buy This Satellite, Oxfam, RSPCA and The Wilderness Society sporadically.  I also try to donate items to any auctions that are around to raise money for a good cause.

Well, that's me!  Now the following 7 people have been chosen - go check them out :).

Pannikin
Kyla Does Stuff
Manx Minx
Sienna May
Cupcake Kitteh
Esberts Collection
Hungry Designs

Creeper Tutorial

Completed Creeper

The Creeper is a 'character' from the game Minecraft, which is a game that a lot of my friends play.  Basically you run around building things then whamo!  A creeper appears "Sssssssss" and explodes behind you, destroying everything you've built.

Below is one of the images I was given to work from.  It's a lot more detailed than the one from the game (everything is square and pixelated) but it gave me something to work from.

I then got to deconstructing it.  How many pieces would I need to do the head?  What size were the leg pieces, underneath piece, side bits...  I think I ended up forgetting underneath the head until I was actually constructing it, not to mention underneath the body haha.

Deconstructing the Creeper

I'll list the pieces here for you so that you can try it at home if you'd like, or just so you can tremble in awe at the sheer number of pieces.  Although, it didn't have as many pieces as the police box (tutorial).

Creeper Pieces

Green felt

• 4 head pieces - 8cm x 8cm
• 8 top and bottom of leg pieces - 2.5cm x 3cm
• 1 under head piece - 8cm x 8cm with 5.5cm x 4.5cm hole cut in it
• 4 fronts of leg pieces - 2.5cm x 5.5cm
• 4 inside of leg pieces - 3cm x 5.5cm
• 4 under body leg pieces - 3.5cm x 2.5cm
• 1 under body piece - 4.5cm x 5.5cm
• 2 side body + leg pieces (see picture above - second piece down shaped like a spanner-ish)
• 2 body pieces, front and back (see above pic - shaped like a rectangle with a tiny piece sticking out)

Black felt

• 2 eye pieces
• 1 mouth piece

After cutting out the 30 body pieces...

...I set about sewing them together.  As I wanted it to look 'boxy' I sewed it up on the outside.  Normally I sew it up in reverse, then flip it inside out and stuff it.  Although, for the edges that weren't poking out (under the head, inbetween the legs, etc), I sewed them on the inside.  It's all quite fiddly but totally worth it for the end result.  In the below pictures you can just see that hte top of the legs, where they join to the body, are sewn up on the inside.

It took a while to get it all sewn up, as there were a lot of pieces.  I left one of the body sides at the back slightly open to stuff him.

Ssssssssss

Bleeding Heart Gallery

I have a lot of respect for the Bleeding Heart Cafe & Art Gallery.  They are the sort of business that I could be happy working for (as opposed to horrible things like Myer *shudder*).  The Bleeding Heart Gallery puts the money that you give them into " funding charitable and community enterprise".  Isn't that great?

I've only been there a couple of times myself; for a friend's exhibition, for fun and to check out their gift shop.  It is a really nice place and the people there are really friendly.  Hopefully I get the time to hang out there more often (and maybe meet some more awesome people *hint hint*).

Which brings me to my point.  The gift shop.  They have various little boxes for $60 per month (if I remember correctly) where you can find things that have been made by local crafters.  While I was checking it out for myself, I found things by Hungry Designs, ReClaimed Records and other crafty folk I've seen on Facebook and at the Suitcase Rummage.

If you have a chance, go check them out and have a beer knowing that your money is going to a far better cause than if you were drinking at the local pub.

University is Coming!

So there are now only about two weeks until I am back at Uni.  I'm on probation due to failing and not attending last semester.  Let's just say I wasn't in a good place mentally haha.  Science is just so boring!

Anywho, this year I will be doing a second year (finally; I've done three first years!) in a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Sociology.  I get to do subjects like Moral Philosophy and Thinking Ethically and Culture & Lifestyles.  They all sound really interesting and I cannot wait!

How does this relate to Kommoner?  Well Kommoner will have to take a back seat as I need to try and get HDs and As again (I remember the good old days of being a straight A student lol) so sewing will not be my first priority.

Although I am addicted to it all now, so I will definitely still be doing it as a sort of stress relief haha.