Crafting For Ourselves

1. Handwoven rug with felt flowers- custom order (detail), 2. Storm lady, 3. another necklace for me, 4. yellow bird necklace 008 (2), 5. silouettes on clouds, 6. being green, 7. Table mat, 8. The Prince of Boboli, 9. February Baby Sweater

Just some of the loveliness found in the Crafting For Ourselves Flickr group.  Come join us!

Grey Day

It's rainy again here today.  We've had a string of grey days that are starting to yellow my plants and dampen our spirits.  A couple of the little ones are down with colds and the mood under the poplar and pine is less than cheerful.  Today will be a quiet day (relatively, I do have four unruly children and a sassy dog in this house after all).

I've made a potholder loom for my oldest boy (he wants to make money by selling potholders made of recycled fabric) and today he's going to paint it.  He's decided on blue and though it doesn't neccessarily need a coat of paint, I think that the process of prepping and painting it will make the loom feel like his own.  I'm sure the little ones will want to paint too so I've layed out a huge roll of brown paper to try (in vain) to protect our already "loved with creativity" furniture.

While cuddling my youngest this morning, I reached over for my old copy of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.  I picked up the book at a garage sale a while ago but have never read it.  I hardly ever get the time to read anymore and it's something I sorely miss.  I'm already deep into this book and am counting the minutes until naptime when I can read more.  I hadn't realized how much I missed holding a book.

Wishing you all sunshine today, and a wonderful weekend ahead.

Rainy Day Wander

I took a short wander after the rain with my new camera.  Yay!  New camera!  It's a bit more complicated than my trusty point and shoot that I've been using (and will continue to use), but I'm having fun figuring it out and am loving the depth that it's offering me.

The grey rain clouds are still covering the sky, and I can feel the damp chill even with a sweatshirt on.  It is quiet and still and I'm grateful for the peace. 

Here's wishing you some peace even if your skies are grey today.

Wordless Wednesday

Moon Moth

Another moth sighting on the barn, but this time a Luna Moth.  So very, very beautiful isn't  it?  I had spotted this one on the side of the barn, not very high up, on my way to let the chickens out and ran back inside to get my camera. 

You can see here how she looked while clutching the screen window.  Like a little fighter jet, streamlined.

But then when she opened those wings, OH!  The beauty!  Her wings were slightly translucent and one of the most beautiful colors I've ever seen.  Nobody out-paints Mother Nature.

Fearing that the chickens would find and subsequently eat her, I put her on my finger so I could  moved her to a tree in one of the overgrown gardens.  She stayed for a second then fluttered to the ground, unable to fly.  I'm guessing she was brand new.  According to Wiki:  "Adults emerge from their cocoons in the morning. Their wings are very small when they first emerge and they must enlarge them by pumping bodily fluids through them. During this time, their wings will be soft and they must climb somewhere safe to wait for their wings to harden before they can fly away. This process takes about 2 hours to complete."

I caged my fingers over her and carried her carefully over to the garden and sent her off with good wishes.

That furry body!  Those antennae! Those wing spots! (click on the photos for a closer look)

This is the first time we've seen a Luna Moth here and I feel truly lucky to have had the moment.

I hope you all have a moment of awe courtesy of Mother Nature today.

Button Monday (better late than never)

Well, it's early evening and I'm finally able to access Blogger.  It was unavailable for me all day which bummed me out because I have some new buttons to show you and I've had to wait all day!  Be forewarned, there are a lot of pictures...

I stopped at the local antique store this Saturday and grabbed this little $5. jar of buttons.  I had seen one little beauty peering out at me that convinced me to spend the 5 bucks, but I didn't look at it more than that.  I kind of like to wait until I get home to really dig through them.  Truly, the digging is my favorite part.  Let's discover it together, shall we?

What's inside?

This is the little beauty that lured me in.  Isn't she lovely?  I have a fondness for these little Victorian-era "picture buttons".

These little rhinestone guys will make cute eyes on a bird ornament.

Some cool carved sets.  These are plastic.

This tiny guy looks like a sea urchin.

The shape of these metal buttons is kind of unusual.

Art Deco-esque plants?

These remind me of sour cherry candies.

I loooove this one.  The silver has just the right amount of patina.

Another cool floral motif.

Lovely aged pressed leather.

This little iridescent sweetie is glass.  Beauty.

This one has me intrigued, as most uniform buttons do.  I can't find information leading to D.R. Thomas, but all signs point to Port Madoc being in Wales.  I'll keep looking and see if I can find anything.

There were a bunch of shell and mother of pearls in all different colors and shapes.  Beauty.

I read an article in The Storque today about the history of mother of pearl buttons in Muscatine Iowa, (a topic I touched on in a previous Button Monday post), it's a good read if you'd like to check it out here.

Thanks for coming along on my button dig.  What treasure have you found lately?

Crafting For Ourselves

 

While teaching the mighty 11 year old how to make rag balls, I whipped up a little denim necklace for myself.  I ripped three narrow lengths of denim (we were cutting up an old pair of jeans), braided them, then sewed a vintage milk glass button to the end.  It's fastened right into the braid itself.  Easy peasy.

I'm loving all of the amazing creations I'm seeing in the Crafting For Ourselves group on Flickr, and here are a few that I'm certain you'll love, too.  If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you.  Just go here.

1. Crocheted scarf, 2. first blouse modelled, 3. Skirt renewing- neddle weaving flowers, 4. Orange!!, 5. Prehnite Necklace - mine, 6. Wood buttons, 7. back - Alabama Chanin swing jacket, 8. Brown Ursa Sweater, finished, 9. day of the dead amy butler frenchy bag completed by isewcute

Make some crafty time just for you.

Happy Weekend!

Pillowcase Shopping Bags

A little something I made for myself recently...pillowcase shopping bags.  I found the wonderfully clear instructions on Spider Woman Knits, and being in need of some new bags, thought I'd give it a whirl.  I had a few vintage pillowcases in my fabric stash, so I dragged them out along with my long-neglected sewing machine and gave it a go.  I'm not an accomplished machine-sewist so my bags probably took me 30 minutes, instead of the 15 that it took Spider Woman.  Still, that's a pretty small investment. 

Each pillowcase is doubled so they're quite sturdy, and the straps are wide so they don't cut into your hand when you're carrying a heavy load.  I packed a few milk jugs into mine to see how they'd fare and they held the weight with ease. 

Garage sale season is upon us, and you should be able to pick up some pillowcases for a pittance.  I really liked that this tutorial uses all of the pillowcase...no scraps left over to add to the fabric stash.  Yay!  They'll wash up better than many of those store brand bags, too.  Double yay!  (besides who wants to advertise for some store when they're shopping, anyway?)

I think they'll be great for shopping, for hitting the farmer's market (does it bother anyone else that some of the farm stands hand out plastic bags?), for the beach, or even as a diaper bag.  I'd love it if you'd let me know if you make one.  Spider Woman even has a Flickr group set up for showing off your bags, here.  So give it a try!

Gutter Birds

We recently had a mama robin make her nest right in the gutter on our barn.  There is no shelter from the rain and sun and I thought surely the nest would be abandoned before any eggs could be layed there.  Clearly I was wrong.  I've watched the mama laying on her nest in the rain and in the unseasonably hot weather we've been having and today I saw tiny orange mouths raised to the sky, peeking from the nest.  I didn't want to get too close so I raised my camera and shot blindly into the nest.  It looks like there are two little fledglings in there.  Two future flyers who had their start in the gutter.  I'm rooting for them.

Really?  This is where you want your nest?  Listen honey, location, location, location.

She's managed to work some toilet paper or tissue into her nest.

Feed me!

We also have a junco who's made her nest on the gutter downspout right outside my kitchen window.  It just happens to be right above my little herb garden and she sits and glares at me from a nearby shepherd's hook when I'm in there weeding. 

I'm enjoying the return of the birds very much.  Our hummingbirds are back and could care less if we're outside.  I've had them buzz so close to my ears that my hair moves.  I'm pretty sure they're telling me to back away from their feeder.  I saw two scarlet tanagers yesterday and had a mama blue jay screaching and bobbing her head at me. (I must have been too close to her nest)

What kinds of birds are you seeing by you?

Wordless Wednesday

Pinecones!

I spent the past week working around the house, taking a break, and fiddling with making pinecones out of wool.  I wanted to mimic the shape of the cones we find from our jack pines.  It took a bit of tweaking, but I finally got something that comes pretty close.  I added a spray of "needles" too, for color.  They're not exactly like pine needles of course, but I thought they brought to mind that piney look.

I used felted coat wool for these and the thickness was just right.  I have a few in the works in different colors and hope to have pics soon.

I hope everyone's week is off to a great start.  I feel a little bit rested (yay!) and look forward to sharing some new stuff with you this week.

Fluttering

I feel like I've been fluttering lately, and doing it with far less skill than these magnificent moths.  I need a break for a while so I'm going to take the next several days off and hermit a bit. 

Before I go though, I'll tell you about these beauties.  The boys found the three of these hanging on the side of our barn this morning and called me out to see them.  They are breathtaking.  Huge! and breathtaking.  I believe that the two darker ones are Cecropia Moths and the tan one is a Polyphemus Moth.

I'm not sure why there were all hanging around together.  I'm sure the barn light drew them in but then maybe they decided to sit and chat.

Look at their beautiful furry, chubby bodies.

and those antennae!

and those markings!

I'm in love.

I've had a moth project in the works for months now, and seeing these beauties is making me want to bring it out and finish it.

Take care, everyone.  I'll see you in a few days.