My latest crafting for charity project is a set of hand towels for the Global Knit Haiti Earthquake Relief Project. While this felt like it took me forever because most of it I did in single crochet stitch, the basic idea is simple enough that anyone with very basic crochet skills could handle. Using cotton yarn, you make a small 10×10 inch wash cloth and a larger 12×18 inch towel, put them in a zip lock bag together, add a bar of non-scented soap, and send them off to Global Relief’s office in Ohio. I’ve made two sets using Lily brand yarn (very inexpensive and nice to work with), and now I just need to pack them up and mail them out.

For more information about this program, go to the Global Knit site.

I am constantly battling with my weight, but lately I’ve decided to take a different approach. Normally, I diet (as in pretty much starve myself), get the pounds off (though it gets harder and harder the older I get, so it comes over more slowly each time!), and then I’m back up on the scale again in about a year or so. My food choices while dieting would be a mix of processed foods, like Lean Cuisine, and lots of vegetables and a tiny amount of fruit (since it is high in natural sugar and thus calories).

This go-round on the lose weight journey I have decided to try a more holistic, general, get healthy type approach. This means avoiding processes foods. I haven’t had a Lean Cuisine all summer, and I think I have kicked my habit. I look on ingredient labels before I buy anything to make sure there aren’t any weird or unrecognized ingredients. And, most recently, I joined an organic food buying group. Actually, I’m testing them out but more than likely plan to commit next time I pick up my food.

I’m eating lots of fruit - natural sugar and calories be damned! - and lots of vegetables, and they are so amazingly fresh. My local grocery store, which I switched to from another one because this one is so much closer to where I live, has just the worst produce ever, so I have really missed decent produce. I almost forgot what it was like!

Now, I still have to work on just eating less, but now at least I’m eating good food that is good for me. In fact, I will be enjoying some organic vegetable quiche for lunch today!

Here’s to good food and good crafting! Enjoy this week’s craft link installment!

Aileen’s Musings
If your anything like Aileen you have a lot of extra embellishments you haven’t used. Stop by and see her Altered Embellishment video where Aileen gives you some ideas on altering them to fit your project!

About Family Crafts
Now is the perfect time to get a jump start on your holiday crafting. Discover how you can make a fun and unique holiday gift for everyone on your list this year.

Carmi’s Art/Life World
Inspired by an antique find Carmi creates a new piece of wall decor.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
The Artful Crafter’s motto is “Helping Crafters to Be”. To turn a phrase, today we have “The Artful Crafter – and Cyndi – Helping Crafters to Be-ad”.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside’s giving away 2 copies of the new book Sew Retro along with a whole bunch of beautiful fabric from the on-line store Sew L.A., a no-pattern tutorial on how to make a triangle tank top, a free Hennya (devil mask) print download, a how-to on drawing an eyeball and wings and our schedule for Make and Takes at CHA Supershow in booth 324.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Kathy Peterson has a new line of Adirondack chairs and five fabulous designers have been challenged to decorate them!

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi has 4 books to give away this summer on crafting with tin! Book #2, “Tinwork” is up for grabs this week…come leave you comment and you may win!

I haven’t been blogging here much lately because other than the jewelry book landing back on my doorstep, I have been working on school stuff for the fall. That includes making lots of blogs for my classes. So I have been blogging, just not here!

I have been using blogs for awhile as on-going class assignments for a few reasons. First, it is a way to allow my students a chance to express their opinions. A great deal of the writing I teach is analysis, so while technically they do give their opinions, most feel like they aren’t since they can’t use first or second person (I and you) in their work. So on the blogs, they can let it rip, as long as it as least half-way grammatically together.

Another reason to use the blogs is it gives them tiny writing assignments on a regular basis, just 4 to 6 sentences. Added up over the semester, I think it makes a difference in their thinking. They are limited in the length of their responses, so they have to be selective with their words. They have to actually write complete sentences, so they can’t just slap up any old pile of bologna too. It has to be grammatically correct bologna at any rate.

Finally, it helps them connect to each other a little since it creates a virtual conversation. I don’t treat it like a message board, so they aren’t required to respond to each other, but often they do after they start relaxing and get into it a little.

So far, weblogs have worked well with my full on-line and my blended (a mix of web and traditional) classes. I did try it last year with one traditional class, but I just could sell it that well. Students were too used the idea of walking out of class and away from the subject. To ask them to get on-line and write their thoughts was too much for most of them.

This year, out of 6 classes I have only one totally traditional class. This means 5 blogs, folks! Some of it I can recycle, but some of it I had to add to and tweak a little. I have found some great on-line resources too, especially for my technical communications class. In particular, I have used TED.com and embedded some pretty cool videos over there that relate to what we are studying. Students are more visual than every these days, so being able to add a video to my blog posts and then connecting that to reading material has been a big winner for me, especially when some of the videos include celebrities like Jamie Oliver or Mike Rowe.

If there are any teachers out there who would like some TED URLs, feel free to email me and I’ll send them to you or maybe even post them here, though I have a pretty long list!

The galley pages of my book, The Complete Photo Guide to Jewelry Making, showed up late Friday afternoon. The galley copy (also called a laser copy) is a pile of pages unbound that has all the text and photos in it pretty much how it will be in the final book. Larger photos are not totally clear, but for the most part, you get an idea of what the final product will look like. I could have had this sent as an electronic file - these huge pages are a mess to deal with - but I read so much better on paper than I do on the screen that I opted for hardcopy.

I have a little less than a week to review and send them back to the publisher. This is the one chance I get to see it before it goes off to press. I can, at this point, make minor changes, like typos. I’m still going back and forth on a few things with the publisher, but we are now at the point that decisions have to be made, obviously! Hopefully, they will trust my judgment - err…yes…I’ve written a tad about jewelry before you know - and we’ll resolve some of the issue quickly, as in they’ll do what I am asking them to do!

I think that is one of the issues about books that a lot of people don’t know. The writer can often have limited control. Things like page count and layout can become so important that creativity and credibility go on the back burner.

That said, the book actually looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I forgot how much stuff is in this sucker, a lot!!

Ah, the day is starting to get away from me, and I have so much to do! Our Sunday mornings around here are normally pretty relaxed. We enjoyed some yumo Yorkshire Pudding this morning for breakfast. The recipe came from Jamie Oliver’s latest book, Jamie’s Food Revolution. As you can see, we (as in I) put a big dent in them already and it’s just shy of noon! Now it is time to get something accomplished today, and I’m starting with some great crafting links.

About Family Crafts
Sherri has fond memories of making and playing with paper dolls when she was young. Perhaps that is why she was so excited to create these printable paper dolls.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen is offering a crafty blog giveaway. She offers 4 different ways you can enter to win her Tic-Tac-Toe 3 in a Row Blog Giveaway! Hurry over and enter today!

Carmi’s Art/Life World
Carmi creates some glamorous shaker cards with her sewing supplies.

Cathie Filian
Surf’s up and Cathie has a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a beach towel roll up. It even has a secret pocket!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside announces the new Qbookshop.com along with a chance to win a copy of 1,000 Poses in Fashion; there is also a tutorial on how to make a rubber stamp out of a garden kneeling cushion and a couple of quilt border ideas.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Here are some more ideas from Eileen for decorating canvas tote bags.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi has a copy of The Fine Art of the Tin Can to give away! Pop on over and sign up to win!

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
See how I used the stitch doodle technique from The Big-Ass book of Home Decor to embellish a skirt with a jackalope.

The Crochet Dude
Drew unveils the July purse from his Purse Pattern of the Month club. And it looks like there is still room to sign up!!

Of course, just as I was complaining about finding some decent on-line yarn sources, JoAnn’s has yarn sale that I have to admit is pretty decent. It ends tomorrow, 7/17, so if you are interested, you’ll need to hop to it. I wasn’t too impressed with the Red Heart Super Saver prices, but the Bernat baby yarn and Vanna’s Choice yarns are well-priced. They also have free shipping if you purchase at least $25. I stocked up on baby yarn, and I plan to keep an eye out for the next sale.

After getting an email that Heartmade Blessings was in need of afghan squares, I pulled out my cherry red and soft navy yarn and got back to work. This is one of about a half dozen squares I whipped up over a week’s time. For me, a 6 squares in a week is fast since I mainly crochet in the evenings while watching TV, so that’s only a few hours a day.

As I started in on the project, I realized that my yarn stash was very low on the needed colors and type of yarn. They prefer acrylic, since it washable, and have certain colors from the Red Heart Super Saver brand designated for specific types of afghans. About 6 or so months ago, I could have just gone over to my then favorite yarn source, Crafts Etc., but no longer.

The old Crafts Etc. URL directs you to Hobby Lobby’s web site now, and they do not have the same yarn deals in any way shape or form. Back in the day, they had yarn sales anywhere from 25% to 30% off and free shipping on orders of $25 or more. Hobby Lobby never has anything near to this as far as sales and free shipping together, so I put a call out to my fellow yarn people via forums and emails. While I did find some interesting yarn sources, still none had the same deals.

This means the dreaded trip to Walmart, ugh! And I have to admit that the prices there were - not surprisingly - pretty awesome. I scored 7oz Super Saver skeins for $2.48 each and Bernat baby yarn for 3.28 (solid) and 3.97 (variegated). Of course, when I check out at Walmart, I always have to be careful that my yarn doesn’t get dirty. Once I was behind someone buying raw chicken, yikes! Usually the cashiers are pretty understanding when I tell them I’d rather not set my yarn down on their dirty counter and to please scan and set them directly in the bag, thank you.

I have no local yarn store at all, and though Michael’s is up the road, its sales are so-so at best when it comes to yarn. Since many of the items I make I give away, obviously it’s kind of important that I keep to a yarn budget as best I can, which is so hard so who doesn’t love lots and lots of yarn? I’m just going to have to get my nerve up every so many months and go to Walmart and buy a ton at each visit so I can keep my trips to a minimum.

We have a lot to be thankful for at our house. I think it is important to stop every once in a while and say that out loud We both have great jobs, fun side interests like jewelry making and other crafting, a furry family that we adore, and of course each other.

This weekend we are celebrating 5 years of dog freedom at hour house. It was five years ago that we adopted our “guys” and broke them out of the big house (aka the local Humane Society). This was just a few weeks after losing the last of three dogs who had been part of our family for many years. It was tough to think about bringing new babies into the house so soon, but we knew there were some other dogs out there who needed us. Admittedly, we needed them as well.

Our yearly tradition to celebrate Jasper and Rocky’s “rebirth” of sorts is to make them turkey dog snacks. Actually, I say “we,” but I mean my husband makes them. He also made some way too yummy lasagna today as well. The dog snacks are made with ground turkey, eggs, and a little breading and then baked. Of course, humans can eat them too. In fact, we joke about how we should bring them to a pot luck party sometime, stick toothpicks in them, and then after everyone has eaten them, tell them that they just ate dog snacks.

I hope your family has found something to celebrate as well this weekend. Okay, now for some crafty link fun.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Turn your ‘worst’ traits into positives; Madge shares how in this post about The Tao of Success.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi shares the results of her needle felting experiment.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Read a book recommendation (and not just because I am included!) Craft Corps by Vickie Howell.

The Artful Crafter
Yikes! Eileen learns she can’t doodle.

The Crochet Dude
Drew is giving away two copies of the new book Crochet Prayer Shawls that features ones of his designs! Just leave a comment on his blog to enter!

About Family Crafts
Have even more fun doing painting projects with kids by whipping up one or more batches of paint using free recipes.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen is excited to announce 4 new videos uploaded. Stop by and check them out, and share them with your friends!

Carmi’s Art/Life World
Carmi uses a stencil to silk screen this faux necklace t-shirt.

Cathie Filian
Cathie shares a template and design ideas for creating snapuit themed baby shower invitations.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Over at Craftside there are a bunch of hats from the new book 1,000 Fabulous Knit Hats with a tutorial on how to make recycled sweater giant curly pom poms, a tutorial on how to make a calligraphy award certificate, and a charming twig doll.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy has her fourth earrings kit and tutorial up, and it has a lovely vintage feel to it.

Networking is one of the great things about the Internet. It is a way to get to know others who have similar interests as well as help each other out now and then. Andrew Thornton is helping me out today by hosting a give-a-way on his wonderful blog, The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton.

I have donated a gorgeous sterling silver mermaid charm that I cast myself, and Andrew is offering it up on his blog as sort of a drawing. Those who post a comment enter to win, and you can get extra entries by posting about it on various social networks too.

So head over there now, and enter to win it today! The deadline to enter is Monday 7/12 est midnight.