Canyon Park - Originally uploaded by Bloom Radio
Hope you all enjoy some relaxing time… I personally hope I’ll get some embroidery and fruit (berry-picking? I wonder if the black caps are ripe) in.
xoxo
It’s time for an imaginary shopping spree. I couldn’t sleep and remembered that I never wrote a post today… so this is something fun and semi-mindless to do. Whittling down a list of jewelry I like on Etsy is a near impossible task, though - this list could be five times as long, and these are only things that were already on my favorites list.
Meadowflower bracelet by cserdan
lemon topaz & pink tourmaline necklace by prunuspersica
Green vintage lace earrings by modesign
Cipher necklace by tinctory
Summer dusk necklace by envejewelry
Artisan forged pearl and sterling hoops by LisasLovlies
Pink and Green Pendant by SarahsSky
Nouveau Pearl Necklace by MiaBeads
Tourmaline Peacock earrings by aloka
Garden Gate earrings by Katinkapinka
Peacock Bird’s Nest Pendant by StarryDesigns
Bohemian (Blend) Necklace by milaradesigns
I think it’s fairly easy to guess what kinds of jewelry I gravitate toward from this list: fiber and needlepoint pieces, things that look like leaves, trees, plants, bright colors, tourmaline, non-standard pearls, and jingly-jangly earrings and necklaces. Actually in real life I rarely wear jewelry these days and am pretty picky (I feel like my glasses frames compete with too much jewelry), but I like to dream.
Edited to add: all images are from the sellers’ etsy shops on the pages I’ve linked to.
I made this bag from the great tutorial on Lula Louise a couple of weeks ago. I did something weird though (I don’t think it was the fault of the tutorial, just me being in a hurry), and managed to somehow sew the sides together so the bag’s handle is twisted, sorta like a Mobius strip. I tied a knot in the top and decided it was fine, I’d already done topstitching and everything by the time I realized it, and didn’t want to tear it all out. This made me think that I probably wouldn’t make the bag again (also, it uses quite a large couple of pieces of fabric), but now that I’ve been carting around M’s friends and other stuff in it, I’ve realized how practical it is. Comfortable and holds tons of stuff. It would be a good grocery bag, even. So I’m thinking about making it again. Especially if I can get my hands on some of that new Erin McMorris Park Slope fabric, I love those prints!! I might make one out of some of the *yards and yards* of leopard print I got from freecycle so I can look funky at the grocery.
And now for the not-great pictures of my bag:
Stitch n bitch group - Originally uploaded by Alicia Yeah
The internet is an amazing place. You can find out about nearly anything! Here’s a list of some of my favorite sites for exploring craft ideas, talking craft, and asking questions - I haven’t participated actively in all of them (yet) but love to read peoples’ tips and questions.
- Craftster - the sewing machines category has been very helpful as I’ve gotten my used machine set up. And there are some great tutorials on here too.
- Flickr groups - I didn’t really realize that Flickr was such a social networking place, we’d just used it as the family photo album; but now I’ve got my own account and have been enjoying making contacts and reading posts in the groups - it’s especially great for seeing what people are making with particular products, like the Bend the Rules Sewing group or the Anna Maria Horner fabrics groups.
- Threadbanger - I feel like I might be a little stodgy for Threadbanger, but you can’t beat the video tutorials! And really cool projects.
- Mothering dot commune - not a craft dedicated forum but some great tips in the sections that are related to craft, especially about crafts for kids and using natural materials.
- Stitchin fingers - I haven’t used this yet but it seems like a great resource for fiber artists.
- Ravelry - I’m not enough of a knitter/crocheter yet to really use this but I intend to, someday.
- Sew Mama Sew forums - I love the blog, haven’t used the forums yet but the blog is so helpful I bet it’s really great.
- Threads magazine forums - just found out about this via the CraftStylish blog.
- Get Crafty - one of the oldest online crafty places! The forums can be fun.
- Ask Metafilter - some of the categories have great tips for crafty stuff. Always nice to see people’s answers to others’ dilemmas.
- Craftzine community - haven’t used this one yet either but judging by Craftzine itself, should be very cool and useful.
Our air conditioner is broken and although one night was hot and sticky, I’ve been enjoying the breezes blowing into our usually-hermetically-sealed apartment. It’s been coolish and rainy off and on, so not too bad. Having the door open also makes me more likely to go out onto our balcony, which doesn’t have a terrible view but not a fantastic one either - but M likes to water the plants (and eat the herbs, an idea I introduced which she is maybe a little too interested in) and it’s nice to sit out and just watch the neighborhood, chill… wish we had nicer chairs and a little table.
One of the reasons I’ve been so delighted with my summer crafting is that it’s giving me a creative outlet, and I think I’ve been seriously needing one for quite a while now. Motherhood - with its sleep deprivation, its billions of small interruptions, the constant partial attention to everything - coupled with grad school and just, you know, *life,* made it difficult to be creative or even figure out what I wanted to do creatively. Writing is hard because I write so much for school. Art is hard because, well, I don’t have the supplies. Crafting was hard until I got the supplies, dropped from heaven via freecycle. But then there’s just finding the time to be, to mull and ponder and marinate. Something I’ve been missing from my younger years is the ability to be up at night - to go outside, to go out, to stay awake past 10 pm - because nighttime is very inspiring for me, and a creatively alive time. I struggle to stay up now, and need to get more sleep in general, but sometimes I really relish a good stay-up (unless it’s paper-deadline-related).
I have more creative plans for the week ahead, and they’re not only crafting, although I think I’ve finally gotten over the “scrapped skirt” confidence flagging and can move on to more stuff - and I have a pincushion, coasters, beanbags, and some other stuff to show you. Oh, and I figured out how to do a decent handstitch to close up a seam, finally. I figured it out by taking apart my great-grandmother’s pillows - I just observed how she made her stitches, and it clicked the way it never did with illustrations or photos in a book. More evidence of the importance of examining things, learning about process from the objects themselves.
My daughter is making me want to read the book Your 3-year-old: Friend or Enemy these days. She is amazing, delightful, funny, sweet, everything you could want in a kid, and just about everyone, from her teachers to people we run into on the street, tell me what a sweetheart she is. On the flip side, she protests everything I tell her, which is making my patience run thin, and she has been whiny and fighting our new bedtime system this week. After getting to play with my sister for a couple hours one evening, she greeted me at the door with, “do you want to go check your email? I like Auntie better!” Yeah, especially when Auntie has promised ice cream! Yet immediately after she does something that pushes my buttons, she’ll be whining that she needs more help with something or that I need to do something for her. A constant push-pull.
But some evidence that she is truly my daughter, a daughter more like me in temperament and taste than I would have guessed, is beginning to surface: 1) she insists on putting her barrettes in herself. She shoves them in on top of her head so none of them hold her bangs back (we’re trying to grow them out), and are all in a clump. But she likes them better that way because she can really *see* the fancy parts. and 2) Today we went to the bookstore to pick out a book for my nephew’s birthday. I told M she could pick out a magazine for herself, and she immediately picked out Martha Stewart’s Good Things for Kids. Yep. Somehow she knew that it had “instructions” in it (I didn’t tell her that!), and she set about trying to find the instructions for the soda-bottle piggy bank on the front.
What else? I have been loving so many blogs and finding so many new ones. I have some in my RSS feeds and then I have these other bookmarks lists that I keep in my google toolbar - I have 17 lists of approximately 10 blogs each, so I can “open in tabs” and not have them crash my browser. It occurred to me today after spending a while going through some of the lists that that’s OVER 170 blogs. Um. Maybe I need to pare that down a little. I don’t check them every day. I read maybe 3 or so lists per day. I should at least move some to a less-frequent list or something, it’s just that I’m afraid I’ll miss something really awesome. And you know, there’s that feeling of connection, inspiration, commisseration.
Case in point of something awesome not to miss out on: Grosgrain’s plan to start giveaways! She is starting with the Strawberry Quart Capelet. And now by linking to it I hope I’ve entered the giveaway - I enter as many as possible. Love them. Blogland is so great.
Now to go sit on the balcony for a few moments and appreciate the night air.
