SPACE:

The final frontier. You knew that was coming, right? Well, I bet Monika did at least. She could probably feel me typing those words through the invisible sister tether the three of us have. (Monika's activates when I engage in nerd activities, Catherine's when I think about knitting and making cookies.) Monika is probably pausing right now, thinking: Something's up. I wonder if Christine is watching Battlestar Galactica... Oh I will be, sister, soon enough.

Not the point though--the point is: SPACE. It has everything, right? Science, mystery, danger, energy, darkness and light, and the essential components of all life (let's just call it stardust). Oh, and a dash of romance. Wait, you say, romance? Ugh, yes. Any time you have that combination (science, mystery, danger, energy, darkness and light...stardust), you're going to have romance in there. I don't care whether it's space or sewers. OK, maybe not sewers. But then again, maybe sewers.

The secondary point is that I'm way covetous of any space-related item. Is it stellar? Is it cosmic? Love it and love it even more. I'm a super nerd that way. Here are a few of my current outer-space needs/wants/desires/obsessions:

1. This meteor silk scarf by Anabela and Geoff of Fieldguided

2. This Crab Nebula quilt by Jimmy McBride of Intergalactic Transport

3. This full moon stamp by Stephanie of Extase

4. This astrological necklace by Julie of Julie Nolan Jewelry

5. This star projector from Infmetry

Le sigh. To all of it. 

Of course, I can't justify spending $112 on a scarf right now, or dropping $13,000 on the most amazing quilt ever. Which is definitely not to say, on the off chance that one of the artisans of these lovely items happen to stumble across this post, that I don't think those items are worth their price tag. I do think Jimmy McBride's quilt is worth that much, and if I had tens of thousands of dollars to play around with, I would sure as hell buy that badass quilt. Know that. So, what is the point? I'm not entirely sure I have one, but I would like to note that I'm inspired by all these items. I think it's time to make something! 

SPACE: an infinite source of inspiration. 

most sincerely,

We officially broke the 100, 000 views mark today, which is kind of a big deal for our little operation. We definitely owe a lot to sites like craftgawker and pinterest for the monumental exposure they provide; still, since starting at the end of August of 2010, I don't think any of us envisioned a point where we'd have actual followers. And we're thrilled to death to have you! Every new person or comment sparks a flurry of sister-to-sister texts that usually run along these lines: Sisters!!! We have 37 followers! Also, Beauty and the Beast is back in theaters in January!! Yep. 

So, to all our stellar new and old friends and followers, thank you! 

how to horcrux

Remember the horcrux necklace I made? Well, I think you should make one too. Everyone should, really.

I started with this ho-hum necklace that I found on clearance at J.C. Penney's. I was thinking the glass "stones" might be cool if there were just one per chain, but I abandoned that for the moment, after finding my horcrux stone. But I'm still thinking about doing something with them, and I do have some recently purchased glow-in-the-dark paint, so...

Anyway, I took this sucker apart. You can see that each of the glass pieces is held in place with a crimp bead on either side. I just cut that with my wire cutters and pulled it off. I liked the idea of knotting the chain to keep my horcrux in place and--what luck!--that worked. If you're going to knot your chain, make sure that you measure and place your stone precisely, otherwise it'll be lopsided. And no one wants an inexact horcrux dangling from their neck.

It still needed a little something, so I added this charm. 

(Pst...I found this charm at Kit Kraft in Studio City, CA. We sisters are big fans.)

I love it because the stone looks like it contains a galaxy in miniature.

Oh, and the stone I used for my horcrux isn't a stone at all! It's glittering glass, a blue goldstone, to be exact, which sounds misleading, I know. Goldstones are manmade; minerals and chemical elements are melted down and then oxygen is removed, allowing the crystals to re-solidify. The process is explained quite well here. I purchased my blue goldstone for $3.50 at Beyond Beads in North Spokane.

I'm quite certain your horcrux is awaiting discovery.

In the interest of keeping my super-nerd bases covered, I should probably say here that I do understand

 the purpose of the horcrux is, in some ways, defeated by keeping it on my person. I don't care.

horcrux

I made this necklace on Monday night. I've taken to calling it my horcrux, which only means that I referred to

it as such in a textual message to the sisters and also gave it that label on instagram. It does not contain

 aspects of my more Voldemort-ey nature. Although, the deep cobalt sparkle does tend to suggest otherwise.

skewered

Cake toppers, drink stirrers, plant adornments...take your pick. 

supplies: sparkle poms and bamboo skewers

instructions: skewer the pom with the bamboo

I borrowed these poms from Matilda.

It represents only a small part of her pom reserves, so I don't think she was too concerned. 

brand new

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hey, it's a brand new bloglovin widget for on my honor. Welcome to 2010, sisters, we finally made it.

bows that sparkle

Somebody stop me. Seriously. Someone please pry these sparkle pipe cleaners from my hands, before it's too late. Well, it might already be too late because I made a sparkle bow barrette from a pipe cleaner and a bobby pin. 

Can I just say that it is incredibly difficult to take pictures of the side of your head?

But I do believe my ear looks lovely. Uh-oh, that's ear hubris. Now my ear will probably get burned off in a fire. 

P.S. Glitter pipe cleaners can easily be fashioned into kitten halos.

Even for bad kittens. 

sparkle & fade

The silver and gold pipe cleaners will not be denied. Let's make some sparkly table decorations!

Supplies: small glass jar or candleholder, tealights, matches, pipe cleaners*

Graft the pipe cleaners together. 

Make sure they're tight, like best friends.

Tape the end of your pipe cleaner chain to the bottom edge of the jar.

(Whoops! Forgot to mention tape.) Don't worry, it'll get covered up.

Start wrapping around the jar, making sure to keep the pipe cleaners tight. 

If they get loose, this happens:

So keep things in order. 

Wrap and wrap and wrap until you come to the end. 

While keeping the coils tight, push down the upper rings and tape the end of the pipe cleaner to the jar.

At this point, it should be safe to release the coils. Arrange the rings so they cover the taped end

and are evenly spaced. Just be sure to leave some gaps to let the light through.

Happy crafting!

*The number of pipe cleaners will depend on the size of your jar or candleholder. For my 2.5'' x 3.5'' jar (in gold), I used nine pipe cleaners. The 2.5'' x 2.5'' candle holder (in silver) took four pipe cleaners, but the silver pipe cleaners are about twice as wide.  

glitterati

Recently, I happened upon some gold and silver pipe cleaners at the craft store and snatched, snatched, snatched them up! My immediate plan was for initial package toppers. Like so:

After I made that dream a reality, I wondered what the future might hold for these little gems.

And I decided that pipe cleaner initials would make lovely badges for a New Year's Eve party.

So I made more. 

And more.

Um, and more. 

Yes, even though I have no plans to throw a New Year's Eve bash, I'm making little party accouterments. What can I say? I like festiveness. And maybe you are throwing a party and would like to greet your guests with a wee bit of SPARKLE. 

So curl those pipe cleaners around your fingers, make sweet swirls and giddy loops,

and then pin them to collars and lapels and let the sparkle speak for itself!  

P.S. While you're at it, why not make a bit of sparkle for your hair...

top it off

Monika was big into tiny this year. 

She found a pack of these teensy trees

and mini bows at Michael's for a dollar. 

And she combined them for an infinitely sweet package topper.

Or knitted urchin topper. Whatevs. 

Merry Christmas!