Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden sun

We've had what feels like weeks of grey weather here.  When it isn't snowing, it's been cloudy and grey.  I bemoaned aloud this lack of sun yesterday and as soon as the words left my mouth I thought "we should make our own sun."  So that's what we did.

I gathered up a thrifted teak bowl, some sticks, a few pieces of old yellow and orange bed sheets, yarn, and other fabric scraps.

I gave the bowl a face and drilled holes around the perimeter, slightly smaller in diameter than my sticks.

The tips of the sticks were whittled down and glued into the bowl.  I made sure to have an odd number of "rays" so the kids could easily weave the strips of bed sheets over and under, over and under.  I taught the boys how to rip strips of fabric, a task they found especially fun.  In hindsight, I'm not sure I should have shared that tip with them, I forsee many torn bed sheets in our future.

I started the weaving out with some sheets that I had previously spun into yarn and as I started to wind, what should appear?

The sun!  I couldn't believe it!  His appearance was brief but oh so appreciated.

The boys took turns weaving from there.  My youngest boy especially liked this project and told me, very excitedly, that he no longer wanted to be a "plane driver" when he grows up, but rather a weaver.  And he wants to vacuum.  I'm not sure why he's giving me that weird look.  Or why he's apparently wearing an ascot.  He's a funny guy.

Once our sun was suitably full I delighted the kids by wrapping a string of LED's around the back.  Once plugged in, we had a glowing sun on our wall, long after the real one had gone down.

It kind of looks like an eclipse, no?

I hope the sun finds you this weekend, too.  Have a good one, everyone.

ABC Book Origami - love!

While sipping my coffee and reading my feeds this morning, I stumbled across a post by Heather from rhymeswithmagic and in it she showed off her recent project. She is a librarian by day and paper-folding genius by night and I love that she works books into her craftwork. This new project had me all agog. She's taken a set of books from the recycle bin and folded the pages so they show the alphabet. I can just see these set on a shelf in kid's room, in a home library, or right here above my desk might be nice...

They are in her Etsy shop, along with other wonderful folded pieces, including custom folded books and book jewelry.

Go check it out. (check it out, get it? haha.)

A shop update

Whew! I just updated my shop and am excited by how much color is in there. Check it out if you're so inclined. There are a few bouquets, brooches, acorns, and more. I'm hoping to do another update in two weeks with some totally new ideas I've been working on so stay tuned....

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Happy crafting!

Working on it

Just a glimpse at what I'm working on today. I've had very little time to craft lately, but in the snippets of free time I do get, I'm dividing my time between some woolly sewing, and this project. This particular project has been in my head for quite a while and I'm excited to have a start on it. More glimpses to come...

Blog Love

Hooray! One of my favorite blogs, Crafting A Green World, included some photos of my uses for sewing pattern tissue paper in today's post. Check it out here. There are some great ideas there from some really talented people.

If you're using patterns, don't forget the instruction sheets are great too. I use them for making tiny envelopes but I'm sure there are a myriad of uses for them.

Yay for repurposing!

Just a little bit

This is my wee project for the week. These little bitty hearts take just a little bit of time using just a little bit of wool but I like them a lot.

I use felted sweater material a lot in my crafting and inevitably end up with lots of scrap pieces, of all shapes and sizes. The teeniest pieces of scrap that can't be easily used in another project are cut up and made into stuffing, but the smallish pieces are sometimes made into these little hearts. (and then stuffed with the teeniest pieces of scrap)

I imagine them being surreptitiously slipped into your loved ones' pockets as a surprise "I love you!".

Wordless Wednesday

Something new

I'm a little short on time to do my Sunday window shopping post today (boo!) but I thought I'd show you what I made this weekend. I guess I was feeling Christmassy when I made up these holly ornaments.

The leaves are reclaimed leather from a thrifted coat. They're a wonderful aged green, and I did a little bit of machine embellishment on them. The berries are vintage buttons from my collection, in a mix of red and gold. I had a hard time letting a few of these go, but they looked so right on the ornament that I eventually convinced myself to give them up. I sewed these ornaments together, without glue, so as not to damage the buttons. The hanging loop is a narrow length of red satin ribbon.

They're a new venture for me, and one I'll likely try again. I hope you like.

holly by golly - ornaments of reclaimed materials - set of 3

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/