Reading

I love to read.  Are you on Goodreads?  I had to join to keep track of books I want to read and love to see other people’s recommendations.  (I had to, keeping track of recommendations on scraps of paper, or potentially crashing pc, wasn’t working for me anymore!)  Join me there if you like, would love to chat up favorite books with you.

Why am I blogging about this? Because I took up my entire Sunday afternoon starting and finishing a great book – wanted to share it with you.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I gave it 5 stars and read it all in one afternoon.  I just thought it was very compelling and an emotional story.  I’ll have to see if there’s a book 2 now. 

 

 

 

That’s why I didn’t get any crafting done.  Have fabric cut out and some bunnies I wanted to stitch… maybe for next spring…  Missed out on posting a project I wanted to share at Craft Schooling Sunday – but you should see who’s linked to it, pretty nice projects so far. 

I’ll be back in a few days, at the latest by Thursday for an Artful Thursday project, maybe sooner.  Happy Passover to everyone who celebrates! 

Gardening & Seed Starting 2010

This week’s EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival is going to be hosted by Tricia of LazyTCrochet.   It’s always fun to post about the given subject and then to read everyone’s replies the following week – you learn a lot about everyone this way, and sometimes the theme isn’t necessarily what we’d be discussing on our blogs (check Tricia’s blog around Monday to see the list of posts).

Two questions posed this week – 1) something about Cabin Fever…. I don’t get it, so not answering that one – I love to be stuck inside…. &
2) Planning a garden this year? Tell us how you plan or prepare. Do you start your own seeds and how?

Ever since I moved to NH, and finally have a yard to grow things in, I’ve enjoyed gardening.   (Older gardening posts, pictures and a few how-to’s.)  When I first got here, I read every issue of Organic Gardening that the library had, researched shade plants for my front yard and started saving seeds from the tastiest fruits and vegetables that we ate.  It was very exciting at the time and I’ve learned a lot by trial and error, too. (It’s been 15 years!)

I just don’t know what I’m going to do about it this spring.  I’m really, really busy, and I expect the end of May/beginning of June is going to be even more hectic this year due to lots of projects and events coming up.  Usually I save seeds from year to year and start them indoors for my vegetable garden.  Half my kitchen and a few folding tables get taken over by this.  In the past I’ve also started lots of ornamental perennials from seed – much more affordable than trying to fill large open spaces by purchasing full-grown plants.

When it comes to saving seeds from existing plants, one of the most important things for me has been to make sure they’re completely dry before storing.  Any dampness, and next spring you end up opening a jar of mold!  Jars – prescription bottles, vitamin jars, film canisters (pre-digital days, sigh) – save those throughout the year for great re-usable, recyclable storage.  Just remember to affix labels, or write on with permanent markers so you know what is going into the ground!

I’ve also learned to buy seed-starting mix for starting seeds – the fine soil makes it easy for roots to establish.  It’s so, so exciting to see the first buds popping out!

Another thing that has come up over the last few summers is that we haven’t been around when it’s harvest time.  How frustrating to be gone just when cucumbers and tomato plants are ripening in August!  Especially when I’ve been nurturing them in my kitchen since February or March.  My neighbors are happy, but I’ve missed out.  It’s a very short growing season here and I think 2010 is going to be different for me.  Most likely I’ll put in lettuce and beans very early (late May) sowing them directly outdoors as long as the weather is mild.  Depending on summer travel plans, I may not do much else – maybe buy a few cucumber & cherry tomato plants from the local farm stand to put in.  I’ve never bought a tomato plant before – only grown my own.  I’ve been thinking about a cold frame – but not sure I’d be as vigilant as necessary to let out the hot air that would build up in our sunny spot. 

I do love to grow things, it’s almost magical.  What about you?

Artful Thursday – Loose Ends

There are often unfinished projects around here.  Lots of ideas that haven’t even made it to the creation stage yet.  And then there are the patterns that I purchased over the years – downloadable .pdfs being some of my favorites – they’re usually affordable – and I can have them in my hands within seconds.  The only problem is, sometimes they’re impulse purchases and I forget I have them stored on my computer!  That’s why I’m calling them “Loose Ends” – my projects and ideas that need some tidying up!

 

This week I mentioned CraftyPod in a blog post and recalled buying one of her tutorials for “Magazine Page Jewelry”.  Found it on my hard drive.  It was simple, took under an hour & I love it.  (The peanut gallery over here wasn’t impressed I’m sad to say.)   I think it’s great that I would have normally just tossed these colorful magazine pages into the recycling bin, but now I can play with them in a way I hadn’t thought of before. 

As all my Artful Thursday projects (and most for 2010 I expect), I’ve only used what I had on hand.  Magazines, glues, gloss varnish.  Inside I wrapped up some hearts:

That’s the back of a Kashi cereal box used for stability in the piece. 

Could I have done something more original today? unique?  Come up with this on my own?  Yes, maybe, but it would have taken me lots longer than one hour, and probably would have ended up in trial and error/frustration.  That’s why I don’t mind purchasing a “how-to” once in a while – no need to reinvent the wheel.  But… like my kids pointed out, I can certainly embellish it, add some sparkle…. so I’m looking at this as a launching point. I’ll revisit this project again in the future, but I’m sure it will end up looking very different now that I’ve gotten the feel for it.

Be sure to visit the other participants this week – there’s always something great going on in this group -

Do you buy patterns and kits from other crafters?

It’s not what you think

I’m not just going to say thanks and pass on the award – so if you scan pictures and are inclined to just skim over this one, don’t!

I got a blog award from Linda. She’s awesome. And she has a fantastic etsy shop, too – lindab142.

I love it. So cheerful. (I wish the weather outside was as beautiful.) Thank you! Thank you! I’m excited that she took the time to think of me. I’m just not sure I can pick 12 favorites from all the blogs I read. Seriously, I read so many blogs, and I’m behind lately, there’s over 1000 posts in my feedreader waiting for my eyes right now.

What to do? How about I share some of my blog reading enthusiasm here -

Let me share my scattered thinking with you – Have you read the Make & Meaning blog? It’s fantastic – great articles. One in particular comes to mind - “What if we paid each other?” Take a look – it’s very interesting, and I wholeheartedly think we should all support each other in this hand-made marketplace however we can. Kristin, mentioned in that post has a great site – Craft Leftovers. Once upon a time I won something over at her blog and I just purchased her March zine and it’s adorable.

How did I hear about Make & Meaning? Listening to Sister Diane’s CraftyPod while working out. Her site is full of resources and great podcasts! (I also bought one of her tutorials and it’s excellent – will blog that project one of these days.) That’s where I also heard about her mom’s crafty blog, Gingerbread Snowflakes.

Speaking of podcasts, I wouldn’t think of updating my ipod without an episode of CraftSanity. You don’t even need an ipod to listen to these – just a computer. They’re fantastic to listen to while crafting.

So here I am blabbing about blog hopping and I don’t want anyone to think that I don’t appreciate them reading my blog. I do! I appreciate every single comment and the time that everyone takes to share their thoughts. Just pulling the names of a couple of recent commenters, there’s: Splendid Little Stars; Thea (who has made me so happy connecting me to that wacky crochet-along that I posted about yesterday); the magical Jacqueline; the Fab Miss B; Jane (who makes me smile and laugh all the time!); Lil’ Bit Sassy (who I also like to follow on twitter); and Dabbled – the art, links and talent here are amazing!!

That’s 12. To wrap it all up, that's how I feel we should support each other - by sharing our ideas, letting each other know we're reading them, shopping and paying others when we can. Want more? You can see lists and lists of my favorite sites over at delicious. Between that and my feedreader, it’s a miracle I ever get out of this chair.

Have you found any new blogs lately that you really love to visit? Thanks again to Linda for the blog award!

If you’re still here, just a little more to go….

Do you have an etsy shop? How many times do you relist something before calling it quits? I have a few expirations coming up, and thinking about dropping those and not renewing them anymore.

I know there are more than five of you that read this blog. What do you think about replying to comments? Please take my poll here (link for those of you reading in an rss feeder or email), at the top of the right-hand sidebar.

A Little Crazy

This is a little crazy, but it’s good.  Very good actually.

I’ve been wanting to try freeform crochet for a while now – checking out people’s websites, joining yahoo groups and learning all sorts of stitches – but I couldn’t get the hang of the “just let go” aspect of it.  I even bought a book, Freeform Knitting and Crochet on Amazon, for a “how-to”.

I wish I could remember who’s website I saw the link on –but there’s a Ravelry group doing a Freeform Crochet-Along this month, so I joined and have been stitching up these crazy additions every day.  I have one basket of yarns I’m working from and hopefully I won’t have to pull much more from my stash for it (I’d like this to aid in my stash reduction goal for 2010!) 

It’s “very good” because each there’s only a short bit of instructions to follow each day.  Once that’s completed, I can feel some accomplishment and wait to see what the next day’s addition will be.  It’s also fun, a little silly, and great to see all the participant’s progress, too.  There’s no stress about it, I interpret things as I like  - I really think once this is done that I’ll be able to get my own original project off the ground and try some of the pieces in the freeform book that I bought.

 

Another bit of craziness – something has been growing & I didn’t even notice it!  The last piles of snow finally melted over the weekend.  Something’s already chewed on these little crocus flowers, but at least I got one look at them before the weather turns cold again tomorrow.

Did a craft project ever “just click” for you?  What did it?

Artful Thursday - Family Portrait 2010 - Complete!

Painted, glued, taped, tied, sewn, stapled and crocheted to completion! Maybe I’ll add a few more crochet bits to the upper-right of this picture, but otherwise, it’s finished & already hanging on my wall. (Original post, here.)

Everything I used here, I had in my stash. It's pretty satisfying to use what I have this way and become creative when I'm tempted to run out to the store.

♥ Thanks again for coming by & to those of you who took the time to comment and also to check my blog side-bar and take the Following Up After Comments poll.

Also, you can join me here for some exciting projects from around the world!

Artful Thursday – Family Portrait 2010

♥ Thanks ♥ everyone for your well-wishes and comments this last month.  Getting a cold threw me for a loop and I’ve fallen behind on many things.

 

I’ve put a poll at my blog > Following Up After Comments < what do you prefer?  Could you click over and look at the right-hand sidebar to put in your opinion?  I’d appreciate it!

As of Thursday night, this is what I came up with -

What: The Tamdoll Family Portrait 2010

I know… not finished yet… work, kids, housecleaning… you know all the excuses… BUT!  I have a ton of ideas scribbled onto a piece of paper and hopefully it will be completed tonight (that isn’t in the Artful Thursday rules, but I’m not waiting a week to finish it!) 

How: I had this frame in my basement and the scrapbooking paper was in my stash.  When it didn’t go to the edge of the frame, I cut out the border of another piece of decorative paper to fill in the space.  As for the sheet music – it’s “Home on the Range”, and I cut it out in the shape of our state of NH. 

The floating heads were giving me the creeps and I thought about doing a collage like Teesha Moore, even circus themed (since sometimes I feel like we’re all juggling so much and existing in a side-show).  Then I was inspired by the Thompson Family Life site, and all her creative layouts, and I remembered having purchased these leather frames a long time ago.  I thought they were a great fit.

I’m not going to add too many embellishments, so it’s just a matter of assembly with the few more bits I have & will update the picture here soon!

Thanks for coming by!

Also, you can join me here for some exciting projects from around the world!

Creative Kids

A few hours stuck inside this weekend and this is what my girls came up with:

My 12 yr old has been crocheting for weeks – finally completing the elephant from the Mr. Funky Super Crochet Wonderful You can see & buy the book here.*  Someone [else] around here doesn’t like to follow directions as you can see with the elephant-turned-bear.

My 14 yr old got a hold of my recycling bucket and the glue gun and created this masterpiece.  I think it looks like a tropical island.  But I didn’t ask her what it was.

Ever since my girls were little, I thought it was important to let their creativity flourish by not asking them to define what they do.  So I never asked them “What is it?”.  When they were younger, they’d hand me all sorts of crazy drawings and creations and I’d smile and say “That’s great!”  I think it worked - they’re both pretty creative and never tried to conform.  I read Tomie dePaola’s book The Art Lesson to them so often to reinforce that, too. Book link.

Someone else blogged about this recently, and it’s always irked me when parents helped their kids to make things.  In the pre-school years, we’d be at the library making an age-appropriate craft project and someone would always get their hands on their kid’s piece and start fixing, cleaning or straightening up bits.  Not me.  Instead, I now have a great record of how my kid’s skills have developed over the years and they’ve grown this way with no criticism from me.  It think that’s important.  Getting off the soapbox now.

Having some fun editing the pictures…. Photo editing is something I want to learn more of & how to draw with vectors. 

Silly?  Goofy?  A waste of time?  Just having fun.  Now I’m off to crochet and think about the other two projects of the week – working on that quilt & Artful Thursday’s family portrait collage. 

 

*A link to an item in my “Amazon Affiliates” store list.  I’m always shopping there… so I hope you don’t mind me sharing the links once in a while, too.

Little Details

Ever notice little packaging details?  These caught my eye recently.

Florida’s Natural Orange Juice 1/2 gallon lid (looks like a slice of orange)

Yogi Tea bag quote “You are infinite”

Pizzelle’s “Caution” clipped from back of package

Have you noticed the little details lately?

Artful Thursday – Family Portrait

This is NOT my Artful Thursday project. This is the project I need to replace.

(I’ll be working on it today and tonight, will have updated pictures here in the morning.)

This is the family portrait I have hanging in the entry of my house. There’s a couple of things wrong with it. First of all, I lost my head. Nobody knows where it went, it just came unglued one day, disappeared and I put up a post-it note to replace it. I think that was at least a year or two ago. Secondly, the little child is now almost as tall as I am. Not to mention the unhealthy candy-bars we’re made of (but after a week of thinking I still haven’t thought of a better substitute) So… it’s time for a do-over. That’s what Artful Thursday is for!

Come back on Friday for updated picture! (or subscribe for email updates…)

Thursday night update: This project will be delayed a week... my girls freaked out when they saw that I wanted to re-do this picture, so I need to find another base and re-think it a bit. I'll start from scratch on another frame I have around and keep this one hanging in an upstairs hallway. Also, I think I'm coming down with a cold, so I'm not going to stay up late working on it like I usually do.

Also, you can join me here for some exciting projects from around the world!

Tamdoll’s Tech Tip

and it’s Tuesday… Too bad I couldn’t get a superscript in the title, would have been cute “T^4”.

(Update from Monday – have squished the quilt under my presser foot and working on it in the evenings, I’m so happy!!! Thanks for your comments and support.)

I am a bit fanatical about Firefox and I wanted to share some cool things about it.  I don’t know if you can do these things with Internet Explorer or other internet browsers, so I’m just talking about what I know.  I’m not affiliated with anything either, just sharing!

Once I switched to Firefox as my default browser I have a lot less problems with web pages crashing and there’s a lot of add-ons that are fun to use.  Here’s where you can get your free download. 

Totally useless, but less-monotonous than the blue and white – check out this add-on feature:

Colored Facebook pages!

It takes the color scheme from the profile pictures, so each one is different.  

After downloading and running Firefox, download Greasemonkey – it will probably have to restart FF, but that’s ok.

After this, it’s easy to search for add-ons that you like and can use.  Each one gets installed and will automatically update when necessary.  Coloring Facebook pages is just one cool add-on that I’ve downloaded.  (One glitch I’ve found though, is that my text doesn’t show in the Subject: when I send private messages to people in Facebook – it’s there, I just need to highlight to see what I’ve written in that one spot – everything else works fine.)

Love to browse the web but need a translator sometimes?

A right-click brings up a language detector and translator with BabelFish.  Great for just a word or two, paragraphs, and very helpful if you have no idea what language you’re looking at.

Have an Etsy shop?

There are GREAT add-ons for shop owners.  Everything from quick copying of products so new listings are easier – to being able to upload all your pictures at once.  There really are an endless amount of Etsy add-ons for FireFox, you just have to search for [Etsy FireFox add-ons] online and you’ll see.  Check out etsyhacks, too.

Do you have a favorite browser or tips to make your web surfing easier or better?

What – If

What was I thinking those years ago when I started this?

At least it still looks ok after being mashed in a paper bag for a long time.  I just have to find the bits that are missing from the three corners.

If I finish this, I can go fabric shopping.  That’s the incentive to get this done.  And to cover my living room wall already.

Today I’m going to see if I can stick this entire thing under my walking foot – and forget about hand-stitching.  The time for patience is gone.

And here is where I go off the deep end….

Do you ever craft when you’re in a bad mood?  I usually don’t.  I can’t do anything when I’m “down”.  I heard something on the radio yesterday, a Dr. talking about how depression in creative people is what gets them thinking creatively – thinking of ways to escape their discomfort through art – to create a new reality for themselves (of course this isn’t an exact quote, but what I took away from it.) 

Well, I’m in a bad mood right now, not feeling well – and thanks to this artist's post and her comment about being honest, I’m exposing myself a little here.  I’ve seen too many friends with “perfect lives” – only to discover years later that it’s just been a facade – and no need to pretend here on my blog that I live in a perfect happy world, either.  For the most part, I avoid discussing much personal stuff because it’s the crafting that really keeps me happy – I can focus on it and really feel good.

I don’t want to put folks off with words like “depression” or getting emotional and grumpy – but it’s a big part of my reality.  My blog, and creating, are a bright spot for me and I love sharing it online and meeting like-minded folks to be inspired by.

I really think I need to conquer this quilt – like it’s been cluttering my mind and the corner of my workspace for too long…

March Featured Blogger - Knitting Dragonflies

Once a month there’s a featured EtsyBlogger & it’s always a treat to see who will be picked next.

Wow.  In reading just one page of Vicki’s blog, I learned about dyeing yarn, and got a knitted hat & a mitten pattern each added to my to-do list. Her blog is really fun and full of eye-candy.  I admit, I’m a bit jealous of how much her husband helps out!  (I think mine has figured out that when I ask him to “just hold this” it means sitting there for a while so I can wind a ball of yarn….)

I once thought about trying spinning… and even dyeing with kool-aid, but I think I’m going to leave that to the professionals.  I have more than enough hobbies to keep me busy.  Speaking of busy… this woman has two etsy shops!  Two!  Here they are:

I have a favorite of her hand-dyed yarn – I thought the colors fit my blog’s scheme:

 

I’m off to her blog again now.  Going to follow her on flickr and etsy and see what she’s up to!

Artful Thursday – Ideas Come Alive

I had an idea to make an apron for a friend.  A 50’s, retro-inspired, domestic-diva-type creation.  Then I said to myself…. “she won’t wear it…” … so I thought, I’ll make it into a handbag.

(Original handbag idea is on the blue scrap of paper – I keep lots of recycled paper around for these things.)

Then I thought…. “who’s going to carry around a bag like that?”…. so decided to make a little clutch-purse.  Great idea!   You can see some of my drawings and then I cut one out of paper to use as a template.

Next step – dig out the inspiration fabric – you can see here, I found a sleeve – from some vintage fabric I had -

  (Oh no! Don’t use the vintage fabric on a prototype! … Too late…)

Cut out the pattern pieces out of stiff interfacing (I wanted the shape to hold up) and ironed it onto the wrong side of the fabric:

Cut out about 1/4” around the pieces and pinned it to lining fabric (remnants from curtain lining) to use as a cutting template:

Next few steps, I forgot to take pictures ….  I made a little embellishment for the front of the pouch and sewed that on.  Then I basted black piping to one side of the outer fabric before sewing front and back together.  I also sewed the lining fabric together and realized that the 4” zipper I had for this wasn’t going to fit.  So, I added snaps to the lining then slipped it inside the pouch.  Once that was done, I used some bias binding to cover up the raw edges at the top and create a carry-strap.  Done!

As you can see, it needs a little work – stitching on the embellishment on the front went a little wonky and I’d like to make one wider at the top to insert a zipper. 

I think this method – of  a stiff interfacing - would lend itself to making little purses with definite shapes.  I’m thinking of a cupcake, a house and another apron.  I have a bunch of white and tan 4” zippers, so that’s what I’m going to work with – searching in my fabric stash for some coordinating fabrics.

What shape would you make?

Read more about Artful Thursdays and visit the other participants here:

Keeping Warm

  

When it’s cold outside, you want something warm on, inside:

I think this is the coolest project!! I made shoes!  The first attempt didn’t go so well.  Instead, I changed to this moccasin style (sans fringes) and they were easy to do.  Pattern here on Ravelry.  I still have some of this yarn left, I think I’m going to try to squeeze another pair of slippers out of it.

Altered photo:

I’m trying to learn how to use all the tools in my Paint Shop Pro software – having fun with it, but it is time-consuming!  Very grateful for the Vladstudio Tutorials – I just sometimes need to figure out how to adjust Photoshop instructions to PSP’s.