May 6, 2009
by Tammy
4 Comments
in no particular order…
make jewelry, make jewelry, and make more jewelry
work on my About.com site, which includes making jewelry & misc. organizing
work on a fiction piece I’ve been writing, hopefully get a full draft together
read/research about Jane Austen’s novel, Persuasion
exercise, including some yoga
work on curriculum for next semester
crochet some baby hats for charity,
do some house cleaning/reorganizing.
May 5, 2009
by Tammy
0 comments
Soriee, a new web site from Leisure Arts, has a contest going on that ends May 8th. It’s called the Dance Card Contest and the idea is that after watching various videos and slide shows on the site, you collect words to fill out your dance card. After submitting your completed dance card, you then enter to win the contest. The winner will receive the above prize, a load of crochet goodies including yarn, hooks, tote, books, and more.
While you are over there, cruise around the site some. It looks promising.
May 4, 2009
by Tammy
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I thought this song by Alice Cooper was appropriate today. Stick a fork in me! I’m officially on summer break until summer II semester.
May 3, 2009
by Tammy
4 Comments
My Mother’s Day gift is finished, packed up, and ready to mail out tomorrow to my mom. I have made her a ton of jewelry over the years, so I opted for a crocheted bath mitt, some lavender soap, and a card. I made the mitt using a pattern from the Lion Brand Yarn site, but rather than use organic cotton yarn (which the pattern called for), I used an eco-cotton blend. It’s 75% recycled cotton and excellent to work with.
For the lavender soap, I ended up finding B.E. Dicken’s Etsy shop and ordered a bar from there. I haven’t used any soaps of hers before, but I went with a shop that I thought was reasonably priced and had the specific type of product I wanted, very purple lavender soap, which I found was not necessarily that easy to find over there. Some soaps were a mixture of lavender and other ingredients like avocado and many didn’t look as purple in color as hers did. Along with the bar I ordered, she sent me some small sample soaps, which is nice. This way I can see what else she has, and if my gift seems like it’s a winner, I may do more of these for people during the holidays.
May 2, 2009
by Tammy
0 comments
The Crochet Dude
Drew talks about his latest hook/needle find in an All Boye Review!
About Family Crafts
Help needed: Looking for creative graduation decorations… Ideas anyone?
Aileen’s Musings
Aileen offer’s another great Mothers or Father’s day gift idea using more bottle caps!
Blisstree Arts
Cyndi has rounded up all of her favorite posts on making background papers and fabrics for your projects.
Vickie Howell
Create customized cards out recycled fabric and keepsake images!
The Impatient Crafter
Learn how to make beaded wire circles with Madge!
Cathie Filian
Cathie volunteered to make 40 centerpieces for an Awards Gala – Check out her trip to the flower district and step-by-step instructions on how to make the arrangements.
Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside’s got a crochet pattern for a pop art roll of toilet paper cozy, a detailed tutorial on how to make a photo based painting, a free dress silhouette template from the new book: Cloth Doll Artistry, and a couple of necklaces made from some very unusual recycled elements.
CraftyPod
In her latest podcast, Sister Diane interviews Sarah Hodsdon about the future of the design profession in a global, digital economy.
Cross Stitch at About.com
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Connie’s latest fun, fabulous, and did we mention FREE Cross Stitch pattern.
Naughty Secretary Club
Jen does a little painting, searches for vintages images and boils a pair of eyeglasses all in the name of creating a necklace with a little specs appeal.
Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
See how to make stitchless embroidered fabric from the cool new book: Fabricate by Susan Wasinger.
Crafty Princess Diaries
Go shopping in style with your own crocheted tote bag. The Crafty Princess shows off her latest finished fiber project.
May 1, 2009
by Tammy
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I saw this posted while hanging out on the Ravelry forum. I have seen some other hand-crafted swine flu masks, so obviously this is a trend. Of course, these are for kicks, not for actually keeping you safe from this or any virus. You can get the free pattern over on Sarah Mundy’s Ravelry page.
April 29, 2009
by Tammy
4 Comments
Ah, it is done! I have already taken it on one test run toting books around, and it works fine for that. Though, of course, I have a ga-zillion book bags. This is really meant for the grocery store, and I plan on using it there today.
Here is a picture of it hanging from a doorknob so you can see how long the handle is and get an idea of how large it is. Again, I’ve just got books in it for this picture.
April 27, 2009
by Tammy
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Thanks to a post on one of the crochet lists I’m on, I had a chance to view an interesting video about crochet, coral reefs, and math over that TED.com. I’ve actually used other videos over there for classes before. There is good stuff on story telling, narrative, and poetry, but I usually shy away from anything science or math related. However, since this video includes crochet talk, I gave it a shot and did find it pretty interesting, even for a math-phobe like myself.
Unfortunately, TED.com does not have an option for embedded links, so you’ll have to go over there and watch it: Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math that links coral, crochet and hyperbolic geometry
April 26, 2009
by Tammy
0 comments
I’m almost done with my latest crochet project, a market bag. I found the pattern on the Lion Brand web site, and rather than use an H hook (which I haven’t gotten yet in bamboo) and its Cotton-Ease brand yarn, I used an I hook and Lily Sugar and Cream cotton yarn. The color is called “Country Side Ombre.” It looks more blue in the picture, but it’s really more purple with shades of green as well. So far, I’m up to 5 skeins on this guy. I love working with this yarn and stocked up recently with the idea of making more market bags and possibly some dish or wash clothes.
The jury is out on what I think about my bag. The pattern is labeled at “easy” level, and I wouldn’t call it super hard, but it did take me a few brain cells to figure out a few parts of it. It’s also a lot bigger than I imagined, though yes, I am using a little big larger hook. We will see how it holds up to actual grocery store use.
April 25, 2009
by Tammy
0 comments
Check out the yummy box of yarn goodies that recently arrived. Most of it is destined for afghans, but needless to say, I have a lot of projects in general planned. I also don’t see myself trudging up to Michael’s any time soon. Besides this box, I also got a box full of cotton yarn I plan to make items like crocheted market bags (which I’ve already started on) and maybe some wash clothes. I thought they might make some nice gifts this year, possibly teamed up with a few other items like some nice hand-made soaps.
My crafting blogger buds are also very busy:
Cross Stitch at About.com
How do you organize your flosses and fibers? See what other stitchers do, then share your own methods.
Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Earth day Jewelry Making Inspired by Heidi Boyd’s Simply Beaded Bliss- making charms from button covers and advertising buttons.
The Crochet Dude
Drew met the King of San Antonio!
The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares some thoughts about copyrights, artist’s rights and intellectual property theft in this thought provoking post.
About Family Crafts
Why not make a special May Day treat for your neighbors!
Aileen’s Musings
Aileen has a Bottle Cap project just in time for Mother’s Day or for that end of the year teacher gift!
Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner
Swelldesigner finds some colorful inspiration by Wrecking her Journal!
Blisstree Arts
Cyndi’s done a round-up of all her image transfer tutorials.
Cathie Filian
Cathie Filian has lots of spring garden projects! Pop by her blog to learn how to recycle paint stir sticks into a garden planter, blend up fresh fruit smoothies, easily create wood burn garden markers and ideas for painting a garden set that is perfect for mom.
Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside has a call for entries: 1000 Artisan Textiles, a tutorial on how to upcycle an old promo charm with stamped polymer clay, fusing plastic bags from the soon to be released book: Green Guide for Artists, and two asymmetrical jewelry designs made from recycled elements.
Crafty Princess Diaries
More about YuDu – If you still aren’t convinced after seeing Margot Potter’s video on how to use this interesting contraption, then here is some more information for you to consider.
CraftyPod
Sister Diane is super-excited to launch her new ebook, Making a Great Blog: a Guide for Creative People. It’s all about how to write and photograph compelling blog posts, and how to keep the inspiration flowing.
