Necklaces

I've been working on a few pendants recently and put just a couple in my shop yesterday.  There were two in my stitched birch theme and one of oak and moss (wool moss anyway). 



look! a shadow!  That means sunshine!  (briefly anyway)



The next few weeks will be pretty busy as I finish some project proposals, prepare for a visit with a friend (soo excited), and work on pieces for an artists' mart in April.  That and chase these increasingly energetic children of mine of course.  (I'd say that most days these lunatics have the keys to the asylum.  Spring can't come soon enough so that little rodent better be right about an early spring...)

Have a good weekend, everybody!

A wooly giveaway

I've been spring cleaning lately, going through the studio and putting excess supplies in my "extras" shop, and through the closets and donating bags of unworn clothing. I found, tucked away in a closet, my wool dress coat. It is several sizes too small (sadly), and not really my style anymore but holding it in my hands it was clear that it wanted to be useful to me somehow. It was begging to be cut up and used for crafting, and that's just what I did.




Because the weave of the coat was so dense, there wasn't really any felting that needed to be done. I cut it up at the seams, pulled out the liner and cut off the buttons, and washed it on hot for two cycles to make sure it was clean. After it dried and I ironed it out, it was a beautiful pile of felt - 2 and a half pounds worth - that was remarkably similar to commercial 3mm wool felt. Making your own wool felt is remarkably easy and if you're a wool lover I encourage you to try it. I'm so pleased with how it turned out that I'm offering a small giveaway to celebrate and share the recycled wool love.



I'm offering a small stack of recycled wool pieces and a little blackbird brooch made from the wool to one random reader. All you have to do is comment here and make sure I have a way to contact you should you be the winner. I'll be randomly drawing a name on Monday and will post the winner here.

Good luck!

Small Things

There are "small things" we can each do in our lives to live a thriftier, more earth-healthy life. In looking at my own habits, I've identified some things that while not earth-shattering, have simply become a way of doing things for me. I thought perhaps I'd share some of these things weekly and hope in turn you'll share some with me.

Today's small thing is....thinking "repurposed" for your envelopes and tags. Let's face it, we like pretty papers, and there are a lot of pretty papers out there to choose from. There are many offered now that are made of recycled content with earth-friendly dyes, but many more that aren't.

If your aesthetic runs like mine, however, you'll be inevitably drawn to vintage and repurposed papers. See, I love the slightly yellowed look of old paper, I like its texture, and I love its history. Instead of buying new, I make my envelopes and tags out of old book pages, vintage sewing pattern instructions, and vintage sheet music. But hey, why stop there? In the photos below, I'm using a 1933 shorthand textbook that I found in a free pile at a yard sale, but you could use phonebooks, catalogs, junk mail, your kids' endless supply of take home information sheets from the PTA, whatever you have around. How about paper shopping bags or old holiday cards?

Last week, Kelly from macaroni and glue, commented that she saves "...little bits of kraft paper, snippets of patterned paper, etc. It's amazing how often you can avoid buying something new if you're not wasteful in the first place!"

Impact? Depends. If you use a lot of paper, opting for a free source such as a catalog or saving those snippets of paper, could save you a fair amount of money and make you feel good too. What's better than that?

And if you don't have the time or inclination to make your own, a quick search on Etsy will yield some beautiful results.

Repurposed envelope set - The Golden Shore from maidenlove's etsy shop.

Stop those unwanted catalogs at: http://www.catalogchoice.org/

The blues

Can you tell how I'm feeling today?

It's a chilly, overcast day here. I'm low on sleep, feeling a bit out of sorts, and well, a little blue. Painting usually helps me feel better, but the toddlers are so busy that it's not practical for me to spend any time with that pursuit. I think I'll go sew a few hearts. That will help.

A new road

I've been wanting to try my hand at wet-felting scarves for quite some time. I've gathered the rovings, pictured my pieces in my head (no, I don't keep a sketchbook, just ask my old prof. Used to drive her crazy), and just waited for the right time. That time came last night and although my first attempt had some flaws, I'm downright tickled with it.

My inspiration has been the calico-like patterns of the fall leaves. My friends and I used to go on a road trip to Devil's Lake in WI hiking each fall and sit on the bluffs admiring the foliage. It looked like someone had thrown a quilt over the rolling hills, and I loved it.

I attempted to capture this feeling with the scarf and it is a mish-mosh of a fall colored calico. Sure, this one has some holes and my technique needs some tweaking, but I must admit I really like it, holes and all. It was a road worth traveling and one I'm sure to be trying again soon.

Vintage button bouquets in action

As a crafter, I think there are few things more satisfying than knowing that one of your objects has been appreciated. Sure, the creating is fun, the sense of accomplishment when you complete a project is great, but knowing that you've made someone happy is just the best. I was lucky enough to feel that surge of satisfaction today when I received an email from one of my customers for whom I had created wedding bouquets and bouttonieres out of vintage buttons. She was sweet enough to send me photos of my work "in action" and I just had to share them with you.

The couple had chosen ivory, pool blue, and yellow as their colors and the end result is such a happy combo. How can you help but smile when you see it?

Here you see the bridesmaids' and the bride's bouquets. The bride had chosen a mix of ivory with touches of her accent colors, and mostly yellow with touches of blue and ivory for the bridesmaids.

The bridesmaids each carried a bouquet of 12 stems while the bride's bouquet had 28.

The groom and his groomsmen each had coordinating bouttonieres with reclaimed tan leather leaves.

Thank you, Carlee and Ryan, for allowing me to be a part of your special day. Congratulations!

*All photographs courtesy - Drew Wilson http://photography.drewwilson.com/

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

The challenge - completed

It's been a week since I challenged myself to make some quiet time for sewing. I'm pleased to announce that I consider my week a success. Not only did I make the 6 each day, but managed a few extra too. Granted, I didn't always get to sew in quiet but that's to be expected with three rowdy kids running around. It did feel really nice to accomplish a goal, however small. So here's a visual round-up of my efforts.

Wordless Wednesday

A challenge

I've decided to give myself a one-week crafting challenge. I will make 6 wool hearts every day for the next week and on next Sunday will post pictures of what I've completed. Why? Well, life has become a little hectic in my neck of the woods. What with kiddies and obligations and preparing for winter, there leaves little time to sit and relax. Since sewing is one of my favorite things to do to relax, I've vowed to myself to make more time for it. Whether or not I get my completed works listed in my Etsy shop is another matter. I'm hoping though to feel a little sense of accomplishment, get a chance to kick my feet up, and enjoy a little quiet creation time. Want to join me?

From start to finish

It seems lately that I haven't been able to finish much of anything. We've hit a busy spell in our lives and many things we love have hit the back burner. Our yard is unkempt, our veggie garden needs weeding, the house is all a-clutter, and my crafting has stagnated. A frustrating thing to be sure, as I am normally quite a prolific thing-maker. Projects that I would normally whip through in a day are taking me weeks to complete and I'm feeling out of sorts. I guess that's why today I let out a big sigh of relief when I *finally* completed a project.

I've been working on an order of felted wool brooches in the shape of apples and oranges and today I finished the last one. I nearly did a cartwheel but not being sure if I could still do cartwheels, I settled for a squeal instead.

What had started out as discarded wool sweaters has been transformed through felting, dyeing, and sewing into (if I dare say so myself) cute little oranges and apples. I found a few shipping tags in the studio on which to display the pins and added a bit of recycled paper and vintage seam binding, just to finish it off. I'm pretty happy with them and I hope the dear customer will be as well.

My to-do list is still ridiculously long, but I feel bolstered by this one small feat and am setting off to accomplish more. Wish me luck.

Back in the saddle

Oh my, it's been quite a while since I've written. The last few months have been spectacularly busy. Between crafting, kiddies, and life, I've been up to my gills. I'll do my best to pop in here more frequently, if only for a quick photo post or observation.

I am so excited to have been chosen to participate in a special exhibit at The Bakken Museum in Minneapolis, dedicated to recycled crafts. The exhibit is tomorrow, July 24th. Sadly I won't be able to make the drive down, but just knowing that my work is in any kind of museum is enough to make me giggle. The Bakken is supposed to be fun and interactive for the kids so if you're in the area, stop on in!

This leather bouquet is something I created for the exhibit. It's made of reclaimed leather from purses, coats, and clothing pieces with vintage button centers.

I also sent some recycled felted wool items made from felted sweaters including some bird pins, a mushroom, a wallet, and some heart ornaments. I haven't had much time to sew lately and it felt really good to take a few hours for the quiet retreat.

Speaking of recycled wool items, please do check out my friend, Woolly Fabulous' work on Etsy, you'll marvel at her feltwork. She uses felted wool sweaters and creates the most detailed, amazing pieces. You'll love it.

Whirlwind

Whew! It's been a while since I've checked in here on my little blog. Seems the past month has been a blur of activity. I've been busy preparing for my biggest craft show of the year, No Coast Craft-o-Rama in Minneapolis on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, as well as finishing up some custom orders, trying to keep my etsy shop decently stocked, chasing the kids...etc. Then wham! Sickness in the house and my efforts were thwarted. We're all healthy again and I'm sewing my little fingers off. Yay! I've been working on a large order of birds, but had also been asked to create some owl ornaments. I'm glad that request came up, because I think they turned out nicely. I have a few new ideas in my head that I'm looking forward to working on too once it quiets down a bit.

I'll check in here more often, I promise, so please check back.

Enjoy your day!

Round and round we go

My oh my, has it really been a month since I've loved thee, my little blog? What a crazy month it's been. The kids and I made a trip "home" to Illinois for a trunk show I hosted with work from Kathryn from jewelrybytiki, Sheryl from shayster61, my son, Riley, myself, and the incomparable Charlene from Skin and Tonic. It was a fabulous time. I'll have to post all the details later, but let me tell you all you crafters out there, if you haven't done a home show, you should consider it. We served some wine and cheese, had some music playing, tons of product out, Charlene was demonstrating her bath and body products, and people were mingling and shopping. We all made a little money, but beside that it was a really nice time. No pressure, just a comfortable situation in which to show and talk about our work.

Other happenings of note lately would be the two big totes of wool sweaters I scored that are just waiting to be felted, and the multiple dabblings in new projects. One of which is shown here. Remember making newspaper bowls in school? Well, I sacrificed a couple of National Geographics and made one. I'm not sure if I'll put it in my etsy shop or not, but I do love how the inside looks. Maybe I'll just keep it on a shelf, tilted so I an enjoy the round and round.

'Til next time!

Making the time

Ah, summertime. I remember summertime as a kid, sleeping in, running around unsupervised, causing minor mayhem, kissing boys, and growing freckles. I remember feeling so free and eventually tiring of the freedom and wishing for school to start again. These days the option to sleep in and run around unsupervised isnt' one I'm afforded. I have, however, been MAKING the time to take some time for me each day. I need my creative time, it's my vitamin.

I sat down to paint the other night, and as always, didn't have a plan for my painting. As I started to manipulate the paint, I began to see a meadow and remembered a time when driving down a country road, we had pulled over so we could run through a field of grass, just like Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. We took the time to be goofy, destination be damned. I miss that sort of detour. It seems now that it's just priority one to get to where we need to go. Stopping to run through tall grass would throw off the schedule horribly, would dirty our knees, and cover us with bugs. Or would it? Perhaps we need more silliness and simple pleasures in our lives. Let's all stop the car and run through the meadow and share a good laugh. Hold my hand, here we go.

Carving a new niche

If there's one thing that Minnesota has in abundance, it's sand and rock. And well, sandy rocks. And mosquitos, but that's besides the point. I've been picking up rocks since I was wee. I still have boxes of rocks that I collected as a kid and polished in my trusty Thumler's tumbler. Oh how my mother hated that tumbler. It mysteriously disappeared sometime during my adolescence and I have no doubt she tossed it in the dumpster when I wasn't looking.

Now that I'm a mom, and still a rock-picker, I was only too happy to buy my 8 year old a tumbler of his own. Together we gather rocks and polish them up. It's great fun. Probably more fun for me than for him though. We have found numerous agates in our "yard" and they are bumping noisily in the barrel as we speak. I say "yard" as we haven't laid down sod yet and our yard actually looks more like a beach with trees than a yard. Which (finally) brings me to my point. In our yard-beach, we have not only the aforementioned tumbling agates, but loads of river rocks worn smooth so many millions of years ago. With this plethora of natural material, I was moved to start creating with them.

And the carved stone magnet was born.

It's fun for me, and it keeps my husband from complaining about yet another box of supplies in the basement. So, I've been happily grinding down my diamond bits, filing the carvings to perfection or rather intentional imperfection, and sealing the stone with beeswax that I purchased from the very nice catsewg on etsy. Check her out for her great deal on beeswax and some other nifty items.