Crystal Madrilejos

Design & Creative

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Fuko Ueda

Okay, I know I said I was going to post about other things, but I was just browsing the internet here at the office and I came upon this amazing artist/illustrator that I felt compelled to share. Fuki Ueda is a Japanese artist who paints very surreal, dream-like images, mostly of young girls and nature with a sinister twist. Check out more of her work here. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!

Fondly,
Crystal

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List Post



I was planning on posting all day, but I got wrapped up in this: crystalmadrilejos.com
which I’d been trying to get together FOREVER. This is my website for my design work if I ever want to try to get a new job, it’ll make things infinitely easier. There is still a crap load of stuff that I need to compile and photograph. It’s still in the works and many things are not as they should be, but hopefully I’ve gotten the ball rolling enough that I won’t be too overwhelmed.
So, what I had plans on posting about today were:

1. Christmas presents. I am going to make a concerted effort to make all my presents this year. It’s only been a few years that I’ve actually been able to afford to buy presents, but it seems to get more and more difficult to think of new things to buy for my friends and loved ones. I’ve made some gifts in the past that I was going to post about, which hopefully I’ll get to tomorrow.

2. Apartment photos. I’ve been meaning to do this one forever. The evolution of our apartment has been something that I take much pride in. One of these days… As for now, I’m totally beat and heading off to bed.

Fondly,
Crystal

oh! and P.S. The Golden Compass!! Love it! Everyone should go to the movie site and find out what their dæmon is too!

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New on Etsy

We put a few new things up on Etsy. They are things that we’ve been holding onto for awhile, but I’m not sure why. A few small felt pouches (I have one of my own that I use for my Metrocard), a duffle that Andrew made awhile back, and a set of vintage salt and pepper shakers. Random, I know. But you should check them all out! We’re working on more duffles, some new dolls, and possibly some photography prints in the near future.

I visited a friend of mine today that I haven’t seen in a really long time. She has two amazing kids that were born a couple years ago. Last time I saw her, she was pregnant with them! I made a doll for each of them along the same lines as the bear from the Japanese craft book (see a couple posts down) but with more dog heads than bear. I am really happy with how they turned out, but unfortunately I forgot to take photos of them!

Fondly,
Crystal

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Crochet

My Auntie Vita taught me how to crochet a few years ago, and I am eternally grateful. She has been crocheting since she was in grade school and she is now 70+ years old which has resulted in the most beautiful and even stitches I’ve ever seen! It is truly amazing and I aspire to be that good someday.

Recently, I started a new project which is the first I’ve crocheted in a really really long time. Pictured above is my progress, but man, has it been frustrating. I seem to have briefly forgotten how to end rows which resulted in crazy uneven edges. Luckily, the project i’m working will require that the ends be folded over and sewn. I even undid the stitching more than once to attempt to fix my errors. It got to the point where every time Andrew would see me undoing all my work, he would have to look away because it frustrated him. Finally, I think I’m on the right track. I just don’t have it in me to start over again, but i think it will still turn out ok. If anyone was wondering, the yarn I’m using is Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Naturals.

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Elephant Shoe

The past couple months I’ve been working in collaboration with Major Matt Mason and Dave End over at Olive Juice Music to put together a zine. I find it hard to believe that I hadn’t mentioned it up until this point, mainly because it was such a fun experience! To be honest, I’ve never actually made a zine but luckily I didn’t have to come up with the content. A bunch of artists and musicians centered around the OJ community contributed all the content and I was the one fortunate enough to put it all together. Andrew even proofread it! That might be against some sort of zine rule, but who cares? I design magazines for a living, and it was such a breath of fresh air to be able to work on something closer to my heart, but it’s still hard for me to put out something if it has spelling errors!
All the artists and writers who contributed are amazing, and I’m crossing my fingers that next time around even more people will want to grace it’s pages. As far as I know, the zines have only been circulated by hand at this point. But, I think, eventually the intention is to have them up for grabs through Olive Juice Music. But you should check out their site to be sure. Here are some more photos of the zine.

Fondly,
Crystal



The yes, have some. presents Toby Goodshank line of goods if finally up for sale on our etsy shop. We put things up first thing this morning and we’ve already got a couple takers. Thank you to everyone who checked out the stuff. It’s been a long time coming and we couldn’t be happier.

Tonight I’m putting together little mailing kits that will go out with each purchase. We have been wanting to do this for awhile, but lack of time had been holding us back. Now we have yes, have some. postcards and stickers. I’d like to eventually have them printed up nicely on a nice printer, or even get them done somewhere if funds permit. But for the time being we’re settling on printing things from our inkjet, which seems to work pretty well. It would be nice if we could silkscreen them, but screenprinting in our apartment has become somewhat contentious. The frustrations seem to run too high whenever we try to screenprint these days and it doesn’t seem worth the bad vibes. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get back to it…someday.

I have to get to cutting stickers, but tomorrow I plan on posting about a zine that I had been working on for the past couple months. I realized the other day that I had never even mentioned it, and I have no idea why!! It put out by Olive Juice Music and I’m very happy with how it turned out. So tomorrow!

Fondly,
Crystal

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Labels

Things are finally slowing down at work which means more time devoted to other non-work related things. Today I added labels to most of the previous posts so now you can view them by category. If you check out the sidebar, there should be list of categories to choose from. If people are just hearing about the Toby Goodshank line, they can just click on the category for “YHS presents: Toby Goodshank” and get the full process from start to finish.

Also, I added more links to our “Friends” section, which is now called “Friends, Websites, and Blogs We Love”. There are so many sites that I visit everyday that are very inspiring, so I figured I should share them so they can continue to inspire other people as well.


Have I ever mentioned that Andrew is a whiz in the kitchen? I’ve been trying to get him to post about all the wonderful things he makes, but for some reason he has yet to venture forth. I’ve been itching to make a cookbook for him with all his recipes! Here is a photo of him making strawberry jam, that makes me extremely happy.

Hope you are well!
Fondly,
Crystal

I hope everyone had a swell Halloween. We had a great time at the Dream Bitches CD release party. Our costumes went over great and it was all around fun for everyone.

The official date of the release of the yes, have some – Toby Goodshank line of goods has been set. We will be selling the things starting November 5th through our etsy shop which you can go to through either the link in the sidebar to the right, or directly through yeshavesome.etsy.com here is the announcement if anyone wants to post it anywhere, feel free. We are so excited about this project and looking forward to doing many more collaborations in the future. Enjoy!

Fondly,
Crystal

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A few things…

Just a few things for today, which I have a feeling will turn into a big update. First off, it’s Halloween time again, which is also birthday time for me. Here is a picture of pumpkin I carved a couple years ago. I hadn’t carved a pumpkin in years it seems. I thought it turned out cool:

Secondly, we have a new addition to our home. I had been working on him for a little while now. Slowly but surely, and now he’s done.

The pattern is from a Japanese craft book that I bought online. I altered some of it because, even though I used the pattern for the head directly out of the book (I can’t read Japanese mind you) it was a totally funky shape.

I also altered the pants because I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how suspenders were supposed to stay up if dude has no shoulders. The pants ended up too big so I had to improvise a drawstring number so his pants stayed on his extremely long torso. He’s made out of almost all vintage bedding, except for the head and the handkerchief pattern. I had some serious problems with the fiberfill I used to stuff him. I’ve searched and searched for answers, but I couldn’t figure out why so many little fibers were sticking out through the fabric. It was driving me batty!! It’s possible that I just got not great quality fiberfill, it could be that my fabric is too thin…who know?! I’m trying not to stress it too much and i’ll just try to be more aware of it earlier on in the process next time around. I should take a cue from this guy and just chill out by the plants.

Lastly, the release date for the Toby Goodshank line is within our sights. We pretty much just have to pick a day, print out some labels, tie up some loose ends and we’re good. I’m guessing it’ll be in the next couple weeks. So make sure to check back.

Hope you all are well.
Fondly,
Crystal


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News

It’s weird how blogging has the ability to make you feel either really productive or really really unproductive. Maybe it’s the whole archiving system that is a constant reminder of how many time you have or haven’t posted.

Yes, have some. has been taking a hiatus due to some really sad and unfortunate circumstances that I won’t get into here. We look forward to getting back into the swing of things very soon. So don’t give up hope yet, there is still much to look forward to before the end of the year. Hope you all have been well.

Fondly,
Crystal