Though I am a crafty person, I have to admit that one area of craftiness that I am challenged and not overly interested in either is interior design. As long as my house is semi-clean and comfortable (like our still-under-construction TV room pictured above), I’m good. In fact, I don’t like have an excess of nick-knacks to dust and arrange. Also because of my furry menagerie, I am limited to what we can have in our house any way. Sometimes I joke with my husband that we just should have everything made of cement like the Flintstones and have a big hose and drain so that I can just hose the place down now and then!

That said, I am still curious about a new home design show I’ve heard coming to HGTV called Design Happens. Though there seems to be a number of bloggers talking about this show over there, one person stands out, not necessarily due to her interior designing but due to her blogging, Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com.

I am not the avid reader of her blog that I once was due to lack of time, not interest, but when I was studying for my last degree, I actually worked her into my dissertation as a case study. Part of what I was writing about was how people (especially women) are creating on-line journals that resemble scrapbooks, and Dooce.com is a wonderful example of this trend.

Any way, I am eager to see how they might transform her web writing to the screen, and I find it interesting that we are seeing a blogger transition from the computer screen to the TV screen versus the other way around for a change.

The college I work for has a sort of open house for local high school students once a year. The idea is to show them what is available as far as possible programs and future careers. This year there was a theme too, recycling and going green. This made me think of book art, especially altered books and artist Tom Phillips who is known for recycling an old book and turning into a new narrative.

In the past, our approach to this event has been to try to talk to students and get them to discuss their career goals, but we have  never been that thrilled with the outcome. At 15 or 16, how many teens really know what they want to do? So this year, we decided to make our presentation as interactive as possible, and that is where altered text comes in. We briefly discussed the idea that you can literally recycle text to create new meaning, and then we let them loose with paper, magazines, old books, glue, markers, glitter, and even crayons.

We challenged them to write a new story using old paper material that would normally be thrown away. Think cut up text combined with the idea of those word magnets you can use to make poetry. Mix those up, and that’s the idea we offered them.

Pictured above are just a few of the finished products. Considering they really only had about 20 minutes and no preconceived ideas about what they were going to do, I was very impressed with the outcome. They seemed to have a great time. They were smiling and talking and making a huge mess of the place!

It was a fun day and nice to be able to combine two things I like, writing and crafting.

I know many of us in the US are remembering today. For obvious reasons, I’m in a patriotic jewelry wearing mood, as I’m sure many other are.

If you are looking for some ideas to beef up your red, white, and blue jewelry designs, I have lots of ideas in a new project list I put together. Many of these designs can also be adapted to different countries by simply changing the colors.

One of the cool things about crochet that actually is similar in many ways to jewelry making is that you can re-purpose a lot of the supplies. For example, you can take a beaded necklace apart and a large percentage of the materials are easily recycled into new jewelry. The same goes for yarn. With knitting or crochet if you don’t like how something is turning out, you can unravel and either start over or reuse the yarn for a different purpose.

Here’s another example of what I’m talking about pictured above. I was originally using the peach and brown variegated cotton yarn to make a purse. I stitched and stitched and then realized when I was pretty far into the project that I was not happy with how it was turning out. So I set it aside for awhile to rethink the design. I thought of a different approach, but that means different yarn. But no biggie because my crochet group is now making wash clothes for a woman’s shelter. Ta da, I unraveled the purse and now this yarn is making up into some handy wash clothes.

After making a little ditty bag, I decided that I wanted to use the same pattern but make it larger. Thus, here is the bigger version of that bag with a few changes. After following the pattern, I continued just making it larger (as in more stitches and rows basically). Then I wanted the last few rows to taper the bag at the top, so after about 10 single crochet stitches I did a single crochet decrease stitch (sc2tog). Finally, instead of one strap, I made two straps. I like how it turned out, and I plan to make another one (this time for me), but I think I’ll try something different with the straps. Those turned out okay, but not great.

I made this bag for my big sis who is celebrating the big 5-0 this month, and then I filled it with lots of crafting goodies like bamboo crochet hooks, some cotton yarn, some beads, and some crystal pendants. Like me she makes jewelry and also crochets; however, this is not just a birthday gift but a propaganda bag that I hope pulls her into a new level of crafting. Not unlike myself about a year or more ago, she is stuck in the “big hook, acrylic yarn, and granny square” mode as far as crochet. Now, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that, but my own experience since deciding to branch out more in fiber has really made me enjoy the craft that much more. Maybe now that she has some tools and supplies in her hands that are a step up, she will also find out what she is missing.

Sorry I have been missing in blogging action around here lately. Between school and other obligations and some crafting, I have just been a really busy bee crafter, more so than usual. While I love blogging, if it comes down to spending the little extra time crafting something like a new necklace or writing about it, I tend to prefer making something, ya know! Plus, I have some relatives down for a brief period of time, and for some reason, they did not check on either of my class syllabi before making their travel plans!

I stopped by today to see them and other relatives that at least live in the state, and I brought along two amigurumi frogs for my youngest nephews. I wasn’t sure what the guys would think of them, but surprisingly enough they were actually well received! So if you are looking for a little gift to craft for a youngster, I can definitely recommend amigurumi animals, or at least frogs. There’s a big birthday bash planned soon, and I’ll be bringing tigers, so we’ll see what the reaction is to them.

This is version 2.0 of a coupon holder project I was working on. I made one for myself, and then I made another one for my sister. I’m not 100 percent satisfied with the design, but it is functional enough, so I figured I’d go ahead and post it.

I used left over 4-ply wool yarn and a size I crochet hook. First, I stitched a chain of 23 across, and then I made 22 rows of single crochet back and forth until I got a rectangle. I used red wool yarn for the main part, and then finished the last few rows (to create the folded over part) with blue wool as well as did a row all the way around of single crochet.

Next, I used more blue yarn to stitch up the sides, thus creating a pocket.

Then I turned this inside out so that the seems were on the inside, and I washed it a few times in an attempt to felt it. This is one issue I have with my design so far, the felting. Even after washing it twice, I didn’t get the felted look I was hoping for.

Here’s a picture of the flap part folded over. Another issue I’m having is a proper closure. On my first version of this, I used velcro, and it’s not holding up that great. On this second version, I sewed on a button to close it and included a strand of yarn to tie it. I’m still not thrilled with this closure either, though it does work better than the velcro.

After the closure was added, I took index cards and made them into dividers by trimming them at the top to make tabs on each one.

Right now, I’ve got too many other projects going on to pick this up again, but hopefully, I’ll find time at some point to perfect this.

This is an image I used in an art book I made for a class I took a few years ago. Without going into too much boring detail, our project required that we construct an alternative book. The assignment really made our heads spin. What the heck did this professor want? I sent him idea after idea, and he kept saying, “No,” but he never really would verbalize what would bring a “yes” answer. Finally, a friend of mine who was also taking the class who also knows I’m a huge Emily Dickinson fan said, “Just channel her.”

We were down to the wire at this point with one week before the project was due, and we both realized we basically needed to just “do it” and hope for the best. So I took her advice and thought about Dickinson and how she did what she wanted to do with her life (at least what she could do that was within her socially restrictive environment). She wrote poetry but threw out the poetry rule book. She wrote what she wanted to write without thought about what someone else would think, without censoring herself.

And that’s what I pretty much did for the next week as a labored over my project, which I crafted using all types of techniques from cross stitch to decoupage. My professor raved about it, and I really feel the experience forced me to break through creatively as well as academically. I’m such a rule follower that typically my censor is on full blast 24/7!

I’m calling for her help again as I work on a presentation I’m giving about her this Friday. Wish me luck!

I just ordered this special issue from the Interweave magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors. According to the blurb on its web site, “Cloth Paper Scissors brings you a special issue dedicated to creating beautiful, inviting, unique, and functional studios for making collages, quilts, handmade books, and other types of fiber and mixed-media art.”

Here is what looks like the Table of Contents for this issue, again from the web site:

CLUTTER OUT, CREATIVITY IN
With less stuff, you’ll find more inspiration
By Lesley Riley

SPRING CLEANING Tips and products to give your studio a fresh look

FEATURED STUDIOS
Melissa Averinos
Margie Woods Brown
Tim Holtz
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Yvonne Porcella
Helga Strauss
Carol Taylor

STUDIO VIGNETTES
Featuring the studios of 15 artists

STUDIO ART PROJECTS
Three beautiful ways to contain clutter

ROOM WITH A VIEW
Essay by Leilani Pierson

With shipping, it came to $13, so even if I get just a few good ideas, I think that’s worth the price. It doesn’t come out until Summer 2009, so that means it’s pre-orders only right now. Considering the pace I’m at getting this studio in shape, I think I can wait.

Finally, my husband and I got our act together and finished our collaborate jewelry piece, which I call the “I Heart Animals Necklace.” I made the pendant out of metal clay. You can find a tutorial for it on my About.com Jewelry Making site, of course. My DH made the chain using sterling silver jump rings, a combination of twisted rings and doubled half-round wire rings, all of which he made and assembled into the approximately 18 inch chain. I made the hook (tutorial to come) using sterling half-hard round wire, and I also added a small metal clay heart charm and stamped a “P” for Powley on it as a way to add a signature to the piece.

To make a complete package, I put it in a velvet jewelry box (re-purposed from my mom who is a QVC jewelry fan) and also put together a one page flyer with information about how the piece was made, a few pictures of the process, and of course, a picture of our fabulous doggies who are Humane Society alumni.

Hopefully, an animal and jewelry lover (or two or three or four) will bid on this puppy and make our local Humane Society some much needed mulla!