October 20, 2011
by Tammy
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Virtual Craft Show

Lori Anderson, the brains behind the Bead Soup Blog Party, has cooked up another amazing idea, a Virtual Craft Show. The very small nutshell version of this show is that participants offer to give away merchandise, such as finished jewelry, beads, etc. and Lori will promote them on her weblog during the show. I will be giving away a copy of my latest jewelry book (The Complete Photo Guide to Jewelry Making). I will post more about this when I have more to tell on my end, but you can learn about the basics of her virtual show over at her weblog, Pretty Things.

October 19, 2011
by Tammy
1 Comment

Crafty Princess Escapes for a Few Days

This is the view from my balcony. Yes, the Crafty Princess managed to escape her comfortable domesticity and headed for the big city of Melbourne, Florida for a few days. I attended the 2011 Florida College English Association Conference and stayed overnight at the Crowne Plaza, located right on the beach.

I don’t get out much, and admittedly, I am okay with that. In fact, I really do not like to travel. There, I said it. I’m sure some readers will shake their heads in disbelief, but I love to stay at home, spend time with my husband, play on my computer, read on my Kindle, chill with my cats, and make fun stuff. What’s not to like?

However, I will say that the very few times I venture away from home, I am usually (not always mind you) glad that I did, and this was one of those times. The conference only lasted a few days, and it was very close to home, so I got up super early on the first day and made it there a little after 8am. The first panel started at 9, so I was there in plenty of time. I stayed at the hotel (where the conference was being held), and after listening to some great readings and breaking for lunch, I stopped by the brief mixer and rubbed some elbows, had dinner with my fellow faculty peeps (many of whom I never get to see), and then ended the night with a little crochet and a few stupid TV shows before going to bed. The conference ended the next day with more panels, a speaker, a lunch, and then I was headed back home by about 2:00 that afternoon.

I have attended this particular conference a few times, and it is always refreshing to spend time with fellow English professors. While there are a few of the “celebrity” types who always act like they have never seen me before in their lives, 99% of the attendees are just super nice people, and I always become energizes when I listen to their presentations. I learn about authors I either never heard of before or knew little about. I mull over unique teaching methods some of the presenter share. And, of course, I usually try to present a paper as well. This time, I presented a sort of silly paper about Flannery O’Connor’s South and whether or not we Floridians belong there or not. Luckily, my audience laughed with me and not at me. I was even stopped while walking down the hall by someone who had heard my presentation and commented on how much she liked it, wowie!

While I am not a traveler at heart, I do wish I could do something like this a little more often, including academic as well as craft-related functions (I’m reminded of the Bead Expo I went to years ago in Miami). It is amazing how much I learn from others who are knowledgeable about a topic that is so important to me.

October 18, 2011
by Tammy
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Sqeezing in Academic Publishing

I tend to spend most of my time writing about crafting, especially jewelry making, so I don’t have a lot of time to write on other topics. Usually, I try to assign myself a non-craft writing project to work on during my summers off from school. That seems to be the only way I can squeeze it in.

Just like any form of publishing, academic publishing takes a really long time. Actually, it can take about 10 times longer than when I write a book. Sometimes, I feel like I am sending my work into a big black hole, ala the Big Bang Theory, only I get zippo for my bang.

So I am very happy to announce that one of my academic articles made it through the universe and landed in a real, true to life book. It is a piece I presented in 2010 at the Florida College English Association Conference. After the conference, I submitted it to be considered as part of the published proceedings, and hot-diggity, it was accepted and just recently published this month! The article is a kind of mix of narrative and analysis entitled “NASA Becomes Nostalgia: Retrospection and Prospects for Florida’s Space Coast.” I just ordered my copy of it this past weekend, using my author’s discount. I hope to get it in my hands very soon!

October 16, 2011
by Tammy
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School Color Loom Knit Hats

Our school colors are royal blue and bright yellow, so I got the idea to make school color hats. One issue with these Knifty Knitter looms is that you have to either use very thick yarn or double lighter-weight yarn. I bought some Red Heart yarn in royal and bright yellow, and doubled up to make one, of what I hope with be a few more knit loom hats in our school colors.

While club members have taken to the loom pretty well, it still takes a few hours to get one adult hat made, so we haven’t gotten really far in making as many hats as I had hoped in time for our November holiday show. I took a few skeins of yarn home this weekend, and voila, got at least one hat made. I started it Saturday afternoon, made some major project that night while watching a movie with my hubby, and then finished it up the next day. It turned out great. I’m glad to see that my tension is now a lot more even, so there are no weird burgery spots. Now I just have to figure out how much to sell the hats for.

October 11, 2011
by Tammy
1 Comment

Making Memories with Memory Wire Bracelets

While my craft club has been hard at work learning to crochet and making a few loom knit hats, we really needed some hand-made items to sell at the November DECA Show. Thus for October, we are concentrating on easy to make items that we can sell, and we started with jewelry, more specifically beaded earrings and matching memory wire bracelets.

Memory wire is great because it is one size fits all, and you don’t have to attach a clasp to it. I ended up getting a bunch of crystal and glass beads. Then I cut up the memory wire, and I made loops on one end. I gave the memory wire and beads to club members who strung up the beads, and then I finished off the ends with another loop.

At just one meeting we managed to make 10 memory wire and earring sets, three extra memory wire bracelets, and two extra pairs of earrings. Members loved making the jewelry, which I figured they would, and they learned how to make a few basic pieces. They walked away knowing how to make beaded earrings and memory wire bracelets. We have one more meeting scheduled where we will make more jewelry. For the other October meetings, we will make greeting cards. Between the jewelry, cards, and a few hats and wash clothes, we should be set for the show.

October 9, 2011
by Tammy
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Sunday Crafting Links

Lola loves circle time, especially when she has a little company from the little hairy blue and pink guys next to her. I do not know if I will ever figure out the allure of this old crocheted afghan that I rolled up and formed into a circle, but 99% of the time, there is a cat in it.

We have been having buckets of rain here the past few days, so it is a very lazy house full of sleepy cats, dogs, and humans, a perfect weekend to travel the web and just chill out.

Aileen’s Musings
This week Aileen shows you how to make a frightful Halloween mail art tin.

Carmi’s Art/Life World
Carmi has a cricut cartridge give-a-way this week!

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a crochet cone flower granny square pattern, how to make a mood board, a chance to win a copy of the book One Drawing a Day, and a recipe for slow cooker vegan pizza.

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
Did you know that you can recycle greeting cards into cute little gift boxes?

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi messes around with the layout for a new quilt made from hand-painted silks.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to make a recycled plastic milk jug Halloween skeleton

October 8, 2011
by Tammy
2 Comments

Martha Stewart Yarns, Too Price?

I was at JoAnn’s Fabrics and Crafts the other day picking up red ribbon and straight pins for an AIDs walk that I agreed to have the craft club make ribbon pins for, and I took a brief cruise through the yarn isles. Most often I either buy my yarn on-line or at Michael’s, which is much closer to me. JoAnn’s has about twice the amount of yarn and selection than my local Michael’s has, so it’s a treat to get to see so many different types of yarns in person for a change.

During my yarn review, I was able to see some of the new yarns from the Lion Brand Martha Stewart collection. I have been hearing a lot about it on Ravelry, and in fact, someone took some pretty nice photos of her yarns, if you go to this Ravelry.com post.

One of her new yarns that I have been particularly interested in is a hemp blend, 65% cotton and 35% hemp. You can see more about this yarn here on the Lion Brand site. The skeins are 50 grams or 66 yards in size, which I new was pretty small, but boy, howdy! When I saw them in person and then checked the price again – $5+ per skein – let’s just say I’m no longer curious about this yarn. Yawza!

In fact, I found all of this collection to be pretty darn pricey. Now, I am a frugal gal and have not (as yet…maybe this will happen some day) gone over to the “super fabulous and pricey yarn” side of crochet and knitting, so keep this in mind as I pronounce this judgment. Maybe those with finer yarn taste than myself might find this yarn perfectly priced. I just know I will be sticking with Lily’s Sugar and Cream and Lion Brand’s Cotton-Ease for awhile longer when it comes to cotton yarns.

October 4, 2011
by Tammy
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My Late Craft Links

Sorry for the late crafting links and no cute pet story today. I have been sick, sick, sick! I’m actually still feeling yucky but moving on. Work still needs to done no matter how I feel!

About Family Crafts
Do you have a fun and fabulous collage idea? Share it!

Carmi’s Art/Life World
Carmi had new 3D rose cards to showcase this week.

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of Modern Calligraphy and Hand Lettering by Lisa Engelbrecht, two ways to position a patch pocket, a cool finger print poster, an eye dropper drawing tutorial, and how to nalbind from the book Knitting Around the World.

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
Eileen had fun learning how to create fine art with Photoshop.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi’s got a rack full of freshly painted fabrics, and she knows how to use ’em!

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to make a recycled #6 plastic shrunk skull necklace.

October 3, 2011
by Tammy
1 Comment

Next Bead Soup Blog Party

Lori Anderson is already gearing up for another Bead Soup Blog Party. If you participated in the last one like I did, then you have a little time to breath between the last one and the next one. Registration will run from January 7 to 9, 2012, and this time, there will be only 200 slots, which is understandable considering how popular these blog parties are now. She is going to run it like a lottery where a random number of entries will be selected from those who registered.

You can find out more information about how she has tweaked the procedure a little and the due dates on her weblog. Just click on the image button below.

The Crafty Princess Diaries

Tammy Powley’s Crafty Weblog