Friday, September 30, 2011

Friday's Projects


Today was supposed to be a cleaning day. Yeah right. Scrubbing the oven can always wait when creativity strikes!

My wonderful in-laws visited a few weekends ago and while they were here, changed Ryan’s bike tire. We were left with an old tire and inner tube and I just couldn’t bring myself to throwing them away. I knew they had some potential.

Sure enough, I went to a craft fair a couple weekends ago and found a few artists who were creating accessories with bike tire inner tubes! (For example) I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with the inner tube yet, but I’ve decided to use the tire itself as a frame for a giant embroidery.
So far, I’ve drawn the image to be embroidered and I've dyed the muslin. Hubby forgot his coffee today, so I put it to very good use as a subtle, pretty dye.
Given the enormous size of this embroidery, I think I may use yarn instead of embroidery floss. I’ll do a few samples to see if it gives the look I want. So excited to see how it turns out!!

I’ve been helping out at a yarn store nearby! I met Lisa, owner of Sifu Design Studio, about a year ago when my department “yarn bombed(also see here) a bus shelter on State Street in Madison. Lisa was a visiting artist who spoke on the topic of the handmade/DIY revolution (or comeback in my opinion).

Anyway, I’ve been helping out by knitting store samples! My first project is the Felted Bracelet Trio by Imperial Stock Ranch. It uses this awesome yarn that reminds me of dense, soft, squishy roving.

Here are the bracelets knit:
Then into the sink for some hand-felting. I’m sure my roommates will never forget how much I looove hand-felting. (translation: yuck) Something came over me though and I had to felt them by hand instead of letting the washing machine have all the fun.
They’re a lot tinier now! I can’t wait to show them to Lisa. I might even be teaching a class on how to make these! I really hope I get the chance to do that. I’ve already been practicing.
I suppose I should get back to that oven now, shouldn’t I?

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Settling Into Chicago


Settling into our new home together, and our life together as husband and wife, has been so great! I love our little apartment and it has been so much fun making it our home.

My first jump back into knitting after the wedding and the move, was actually crochet! I have very basic crochet skills, so I was especially pleased to have ended up with something so sweet!
Matching pillows are in my queue, but I don’t think I’ll be getting to them until after the holidays.

Ryan and I went on another very fun date! We went to Logan Square for their “Square Affair” concert, featuring five local bands.  They were The Shams Band, Chaperone, Go Long Mule, Musikanto, and Jonny Rumble. You should definitely check these guys out (Mom and Dad, you can do that by clicking on the names). I'm especially loving "Every Which Way" by Musikanto. I think I could listen to them forever.

Here we have Go Long Mule, featuring Mr. Musikanto himself (the one with the cast on his foot), along with his main man on keyboard
And The Shams Band - Incredible closers
What amazing musicians! It was so much fun to see these great Chicago bands with my Honey! 

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Welcome to the Windy City!


Welcome to the new blog! My new email address (with my new last name!) didn’t coincide with my old blog, so here we are at a fresh beginning! After getting married, graduating from UW-Madison, and moving to a Chicago, I really feel like I am becoming an artist and designer.

Natalie Seib: Wife, Designer, Chicagoan.

Wow! That’s me! I would never have guessed that I would be all of these things in the year 2011.

There will be plenty of posts coming about all of the exciting projects I’ve been working on, but for now I’ll just show what the newlyweds have been up to in this Windy City.

The first weekend we were here, we went to watch the Chicago Air & Water Show. The show was centered around the North Shore Beach House, but the stunt planes, jets, and parachuters could be seen from Navy Pier to Belmont Harbor.

Our favorite part was certainly the F-16s. I think we both had a little bit of Navy envy as we watched six fighter jets maneuver so precisely and gracefully in tight packs of four or five, or dueling each other. Those pilots have so much control over their jets.
It was a beautiful afternoon in downtown Chicago!

Later that day, we took a walk toward Wrigleyville. Ryan had a sports bar type restaurant in mind that he wanted to take me to for my birthday. There was a game going on that evening, so we joined the crowds shuffling toward Wrigley Field and found our restaurant just kitty-corner from the stadium. It was such an exciting place to be! The food was soooo delicious - the best fries I can remember having to date, and the juiciest burger too.

After dinner, we stepped out onto the sidewalk surrounding Wrigley Field just in time to hear the National Anthem being sung. We took a walk around the stadium to see what all was going on and Ryan surprised me by asking if I wanted to try to find some cheap tickets to the game. Yeah!

Ryan found some tickets for the right price and we stepped into Wrigley Field to find our seat among our fellow Chicagoans! We found them at the very furthest back row.


They turned out to be the best seats in the house! The view behind us was of a gorgeous sunset reflecting off of the downtown skyscrapers.
Do you see those bleachers on the roofs of the buildings across the street?! 
The Windy City really is windy! So much so that the chill sent us home before the end of the game. What a great day it was!