Z-O-M-G!

... We've been busy, guys. Like.. really, really busy; both Sandy and I got real day jobs that take up a lot of our weekdays, and the weekends are full of everything we're not getting done during the week. The GOOD news is that we're still working on TPD.... which means that if you want us to make something, all you have to do is ORDER! :D

I actually just finished making some beautiful memorial charms for my ex-sister in law's family, and I've been working on simplifying the webpage order form for Awareness Bracelets! Before, I had everything separated by type and color, and pretty much just repeated every page 100 times with different colors.... which was HIGHLY annoying, and very hard to take care of from a web designer point of view. So I did away with that!! Now, there is ONE page for ALL of the bracelets, and you pick and choose from a list of pull down options and go! 1-2-3, That's enough for me!!

"Memorial Baby Charm Necklace with Birthstone"
Soon to be added to the webpage!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to rip all of the yarn out of the blanket I had been crocheting for almost 2 years, and started over again. I've added in some white, and it looks quite a bit different. Nicer, cleaner. Here's hoping it doesn't take me another 2 years to decide that I hate it, and rip it all out, and start over again. haha That's kind of the problem with me and crochet: I have finished a total of TWO projects..... ever. Everything else I've ripped out over and over and over again. I know it sounds silly, but I always find something wrong with the piece I work on. It's too small, it's too large, it doesn't look the way I wanted, it's the wrong color, or I've run out of yarn and don't have the money to get more. So.. out it comes, back into a ball of yarn to one day make something else! I tell my husband constantly that I don't really like to crochet, I just like to count things... over and over and over again. :D It's kind of nice to see the blanket progressing the way it was originally supposed to, though. And it's SOOOO warm when I'm working on it, at only 1 foot wide... I'm sure it will be *amazing* when it's finished. (I hope!)

"Crocodile Stitch Crochet Blanket"
Basically an abnormally large amount of double crochets
with a slip stitch thrown in  every once in a while for fun. 

I've also been coming up with some new jewelry pieces. I had a friend challenge me to make my own professional jewelry (after attending a Premier Jewelry function and stating "I make my own jewelry, and I could probably make MOST of this as well!")... so I'm going to give it a go! We'll see if any of it ends up for sale.... or if I just keep it in my own jewelry box of shame. haha

What have you been up to? Anything crafty to keep you entertained during the long winter months? Share your projects in the comments! I'd love to see them! :)

-Lanine

A Mascot is Born.....

Before we started a webpage, Sandy and I sat down (in Y!M) and talked about names, logos, color scheme, website design.... and a mascot. Not happy with anything in the clip art section, or any of my previous creations... I sat down and penciled a dragon. I spent at least two days working on him, making sure he looked just the way I wanted him to... and then I scanned him in, loaded him into photoshop to "ink" his lines... and then I promptly gave up. He was a mess. Smudge lines everywhere, and no easy way to color his lines in without losing too much detail and spending at least another day cleaning him up. So... he sat in a folder, alone, waiting for the day when I might get around to coloring him. I opened him up a couple of times.. dusted him off... but still didn't feel confident enough to make him look the way I wanted him to.... so I always put him back and let him alone until a better time.

But then we got a domain! (*yay!*) And I really needed something more than that little clip art dragon that used to be in the corner of the webpage.... and so I pulled our little prism dragon out again, and got to work, and finally, after several hours of work.... he was inked.. and colored, and ready to be placed on the webpage!

Which is, of course, when everything went down hill. I then spent the next two days working on code, and trying to get the measurements right, and the frames to work, and ARG STAB ARG! until... FINALLY... on the morning of the third day... I threw everything out the window, and started over. haha And it was glorious... and now you too can see the glory of the Prism Dragon that I spent so long working over. Or maybe you can't.... because Internet Explorer makes me stabby, and refuses to leave my frames alone. So the coding may be a little wonky for you.... and if you have a resolution less than 1280x1024, I'm sorry... his wing might not show up as well as it should. But again... IE makes me a little stabby, and I can't figure out how to fix it right now... so for now that's what you get (until I can figure out a better method!). But rejoice! For you can see him in all of his glory, here, so you aren't missing anything that anyone else is seeing. :D

Please welcome our new Mascot... the Prism Dragon.... and know that he will eat anyone that displeases him. >:D

Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog for The Prism Dragon.

What IS The Prism Dragon, you ask? (or maybe you didn't. Doesn't matter, I'll tell you either way. :D) Why, it's a store. Well, sort of. It's really more of an outlet with vague dreams of occasionally making money.

You see, once there was a Mother and her Daughter. They did the usual girly things like Girl Scouts and crafts, and both grew to love pretty shiny things, while still enjoying the tom boy side of life with horseback riding and camping with the whole family. For (almost) all of the Daughter's school life they were involved in Girl Scouts. The Daughter, of course, hated it. But that's the way of children.

All of those years of the Mother being first an assistant, and then a Leader, and then a Camp Director led to having a whole bunch of 'stuff' lying around the house. Beads, and cloth, and glue, and glitter, and popsicle sticks, and pom poms, and BELLS, and paper, and stamps, and markers, and.. well, you get the point. There was a LOT of stuff. Of course, after the Daughter turned 18, there wasn't a need for it anymore, since finally she was able to leave the Girl Scouts forever (or so she thought, until the Mother decided that the perfect graduation present would be a Life Time Membership to said Girl Scouts. This didn't make the Daughter very happy, but she still carries the card in her wallet for some unknown reason.) And now the daughter is grown, and has a boychild of her own. So the stuff just sat there, collecting dust. Occasionally pulled out for special occasions like special meetups with Girl Scouts and Girl Guides who happened to be in town, the Daughter's baby shower, and baby's first Christmas.

Until one fateful day when one of the Mother's favorite book authors blogged about a neat little bookmark idea called a "Book Thong". As both the Mother and the Daughter were avid readers, this sounded like a cute little project they could do. And of course, we all know that crafting leaves it's mark. The Daughter also braided. Everything. Anything she could get her hands on. A gift from her Grandmother who used to braid horse hair for jewelry, before arthritis had set in. So the Daughter made a book thong. It was rainbow colored though it showed more red and pink than anything, and the beads were very expensive and mismatched. It was sparse in decoration and highly simple. But it's the bookmark she still uses today. So the Mother decided to pull out the beads, and they sorted through them until they found just the right ones, and then the Daughter made some more. And some more. And then she gave some away; to family members, for a baby shower, a wedding, and a couple of birthdays. She had so many she didn't know what to do with them all, but she absolutely loved making them, so she was happy. They kept her entertained while the boychild napped or played by himself, and she was finally stretching creative muscles that had begun to atrophy over the years.

But then someone bought one. Suddenly the Mother and Daughter were buying more beads, and more floss, and more buttons, and more tools, and making more custom orders for people, and making a webpage (http://www.dragonroseadoptions.net/store/prismdragon.html which is still only partially finished), and coming up with more ideas, and making new plans. Thus The Prism Dragon was born.

And then.. the Mother also happened to see a post from someone online, asking how they should go about making a blog for their beads... and WOW, that sounded like a great idea. Thus this blog was born. And hopefully everyone will live happily ever after... but I guess you'll just have to keep reading to find out. :)

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So what is this BLOG about? Yes it's a craft blog, and yes it's specifically for The Prism Dragon... but it's not just to sell you things. It's where we can tell you about each item that we make, Mother AND Daughter, because we enjoyed making it so much. It's about where we can teach you how to make some of these yourself. It's an outlet for the scars that being all crafty and girl scouty have left on our psyche. But best of all.... it gives us something to do. :D