A Place Like This......

Playing With Books

Normally I'm playing in books but yesterday called for something a little different. I've been working very hard lately with all of my creative projects and then I had to get my taxes done. By yesterday afternoon, the realization that I hadn't crafted in quite a while hit home and I decided right then and there that I was going to spend the rest of the day in a little crafternoon.

(image by bird and little bird)

Recently I had caught wind of a new and wonderful magazine called Alphabet Glue. A magazine devoted to families who love to do activites with books. Produced by Annie from Bird and Little Bird.  Inside are so many wonderful things to do and many items brought back wonderful memories of my "playing library" days with our family book collection. I would make library cards, and even had a card catalog. My mom wouldn't let me charge over due fines, however.  Alphabet Glue has created your very own "home" library card as well as book suggestions, favorite reading list, story cards and  awhole bunch of crafts pertaining to books. 

 

My chosen craft was the book in a sliding box project. I decided this would be a great way to use the myriad of paper I have laying around the house and it would give me the opportunity to make something for my girls.

 
 

It was so relaxing to just sit there listening to music as I folded paper and thought about what I was going to write in these little books. Why not write our some of my favorite quotes which just happen to be a little motherly advice as well? said I.

 

 

Many of the sayings and quotes in these little books are much loved family favorites. I know the girls will be surprised and they love little tiny things and this book fits into that category perfectly.

Next craft I want to try in the paper house.  Wouldn't it be fun to make a couple of them, decorate them after our favorite story books and put them on the fireplace mantel? Well it's raining today, so there is a great chance of this happening.

Thanks Annie for a wonderful magazine with many happy moments to share inside.There are a couple of giveaways going on right now. One I'm very kindred spirits with so go visit Emily and say hi. Nancy is also having a give a way.  If you just can't wait go and get your copy right now. It's delightful. Happy Playing With Books.

 

Crafting for Courage

 

 
 

We are almost two weeks into the devasting aftermath of the Japanese earthquake,tsunami,and radiation concerns. To date For Japan With Love has raised $57,545 US dollars to send to Shelterbox.This is just incredible!

Today we have another great opportunity to help Japan and to place a piece of beautifully crafted art in your home. Crafting for Courage is a combined blog of Artists who have donated items to be auctioned off for the relief efforts in Japan. They are sending their funds to Save the Children. Many of them are blogging friends such as Gennine, and Maribeth from Lovely World. Along with donating their artwork, many of the contributors are also taking a percentage of sales from their personal online shops at putting it towards Save The Children fund.Take a moment, stop by and see what catches your eye.

I just want to say thank you to all who are doing something to help the great people of Japan.

Be well !

Favorite Hat Conversion

 
Ta-Dah! Here it is.....my new sacky hat. When I was visiting Emily I bought some Noro yarn, surprise surprise. I just love Noro yarn and as much as I try to stop knitting with it I can't. Can you believe I went all the way to England to buy Noro yarn from Japan? I had never seen this Noro yarn before. It's Noro Blossom . They have the greatest colorways in this!....And this is why I had to buy it or at the very least that was the reason I gave myself to make another noro yarn purchase.

I knew immediately that I had to make her "favorite hat"with this yarn.  I've made Soulemama's hat at least 12 times. It's such a fantastic hat but this time I wanted a sacky hat like I was seeing everyone wearing in Europe. Ok go ahead and call me a fiber fashionista. So I knit Amanda's favorite hat with amendments. I'm sending you to Amanda's for the hat pattern and the amendments are below. How does it look?

 

You will need two 50 gr skeins of Noro blossom

Head on over to Amanda's to get her favorite hat pattern.

Amendments:

I did 2 inches for the ribbing.

I knit Amanda's pattern a total of 6 times.

The next row after the final purls I K2tog.

Do the entire pattern one more time.

K2tog for the next round

Purl the next round.

Do this to the very end. You will need to switch to double pointed needles. When you get to the top, turn the yarn to the inside of the hat and pull. Tie it off and now you have a sacky hat.

Have Yourself a Happy Crocheted Birthday

(Please sing the title of this blog post to the tune, "have yourself a merry little christmas." ;)

The entire reason for me going to Wales in the first place was to celebrate Emily's 40th birthday. So on a designated Saturday in January we loaded two cars with a gagle of fiber loving women and headed to a great little shop called Fiber & Clay.

 

After settling down with a cup of either coffee or tea, we got right down to learning the wonderful craft of crochet.

 

We were so fortunate to have Sarah Hazell  , the crochet goddess from Rowan yarns, come and teach us a class in crochet. I had always wanted to learn how to crochet and now I can. Many thanks to Sarah's help. She came equipped with this neat little book which teaches left handers like myself the fine art of crochet and granny square construction.

 

 

Dividing into groups  of have and have nots, i.e. have crocheted/ have not crocheted, we began immediately.

 
 

All of this creating worked up a very large appetite and so we went to this cute little restaurant just behind Fiber & Clay. It was also a small museum holding quite an incredible collection of Farthings.

 

 

 

What's a farthing you ask? It's one of those very large bicycles with a large wheel in front and a small wheel in the back.

 
We couldn't very well have a birthday party without cake. Emma made cupcakes to celebrate the occasion. This might surprise some of you, but cupcakes are a very  new and unique thing in Wales and England. They were so very tasty and the icing was so very good. I enjoyed watching others enjoy the cuteness of these little cakes and allowed me to put cupcakes back up on the adored pedestal they belong on.

 

 
And here's the promised photo of our birthday girl. To read more about the festivites, head on over to Emily's or to Fiber and Clay. Many thanks to Emily for a wonderful day, to Emma for the great cupcakes, and to Sarah who has so happily taught me how to crochet. I've already got a granny square festival going on. Back tomorrow with a real life tale of wearing the gauntlet.

 

Snow Star Tutorial

Today I'm off through the ice and snow to fetch our Mimi from University and bring her home for the holidays. While I'm away, I thought I would share one of my favorite things to make this time of year and that is the snow star. They look so impressive but are so easy to do.

 

Supplies :

 

• copy paper
• scissors
• glue stick

1. Fold the sheet corner to corner to make a square.
2. Cut off the excess flap. Now you have a triangle.
3. Fold the triangle in half again to make a smaller triangle.
4. We are going to make four cuts. Feel free to us a pencil to make little marks so you know where you want to cut. First, make a cut following the length of the triangle. Stop a little bit before you get to the edge.
5. Move up a little on the triangle. Cutting in the same direction, stop before the edge and a little before the previous cut.
6. Continue in this way for two more cuts.
7. Unfold your triangle. Once open you will have a square.
8. Fold the two center cuts and glue. Hold with your fingers for just a few seconds to make sure its secure.
   
   
9. Turn the square over and fold the second cuts, gluing them together. Again, use your finger to hold in place until they dry a bit.
10. Turn the square over and fold the third cuts, gluing them together. Hold with your fingers.
11. Turn the square over and fold the fourth cut, gluing and holding them together.
12. Turn the square over and fold the fifth cut, gluing and holding them together.

Ta dah! You've finished the first point of your star. Now you have the honor of doing this five more times. It goes very quickly.

 

Once you have  six star points, its time to put them together.

1. Glue together the side part of each point and build your star. Again hold the sides together with your finger until they are stuck together.
2. Continue all the way around. On the last section, after I've glued the last side, I hold it with a paper clip.
3. Now it's time to do something else for an hour while your star dries. When we come back, we're going to glue the inner tips together and thread a ribbon to hang our lovely snow star.

Point Gluing

1. Glue the three sides of the points together and then the tips/ends.
2. Do this with the other three sides and tips.
3. Now glue these two sections together.
    
4. Thread a string to the top and hang with glory.  

I hope you enjoy making these. We had a lot of fun doing them. Be well and I'll be back tomorrow.  

 

 

 

 

Some Things in my Ear

Yesterday Mimi and I headed to the store to do what's known as the "big shop"; buying everything needed for Thanksgiving dinner. With all of the cooking,crafting, and writing I'm doing lately, I have many things loaded onto my ipod to work by.  Some of them are  very unique items and others are old friends but all serve the purpose of creating an atmosphere while I'm creating.

 

New favorite podcast is Radiolab. This is by far one of the best productions I've heard in awhile. Radiolab is a radio show and podcast weaving stories and science into sound and music-rich documentaries. 
  They have a great sense of humor. For the most part these are family friendly podcasts. There are only a couple that I listen to in the privacy of my own headphones. Have a look.

 

Next on my list might land me on the "So Lame" list by my children but I really like the Outloud audio books. Kathy Goldner has done what every cook and knitter could only dream of and that is to listen to these activities when they're not actually doing them. These are very well produced and inspires me to think up new things to knit and cook. The cooking out loud book has me travelling throughout the Mediterranean cooking up a storm. It isn't like I don't already do that in my real life  but this is my listening life.  You can find Kathy and her great catalog of great listens here or on audible.

Now here comes the music. Some standards on my ipod are Coldplay, Abigail Washburn and one of my favorites Lisa Hannigan.

After the Punch Brother concert I went to in Nashville, I can't get enough of them. Their lead singer Chris Thile of Nickel Creek has formed together this band of brilliant musicians. The concert was an organic experience that had me wanting more. Check out their new album Antifogmatic.

 
One more fave I'm going to share is Regina Spektor and her album Live in London. I've always loved live albums and this one is a gem. I find her voice completely captivatingand has so much depth. Her words capture the imagination and bring things to light from a different perspective. This one is worth a listen but I have to warn you to preview before you let the kids listen. She is graphic at times and some  songs are not appropriate for children.

 
(photo by willy in copenhagen)

And now I leave you with a video of one of my favorites which started my paper cutting craze last year. Last year? I'm still cutting away. Enjoy all of these audibles. Be well friends.

Felt Ball Afternoon

 

Over the weekend the weather turned very cold and we saw our first snow flurries. With it, brought a whole bunch of children up to my house for an afternoon of felt ball making.

Use a variety of colors of roving. Make a bowl of hot soapy water: 3 tbsp of clear dishwashing soap to 4 cups of hot water.

First you take the wool roving and you squish it into a ball. Then start rolling until it is a ball. Start wrapping little bits of roving around your ball, dip it back into the hot soapy water, and keep rolling.

 

 
Keeping rolling and dipping until you have balls that look like these. You can make them any size you want. Once you have your ball felted at your desired size, rinse it under cold water and let it dry.

 

 

These are juggling balls for a special friend. All of this is being done as part of our handmade holiday being hosted by Tonya over at Plain and Joyful Living. Head on over and see what everyone else is up to.


 

 

Scribble Lantern Tutorial

 Here's a look at Tuesday Through my Window.

 
Your wish is granted. So many of you asked how I made these lanterns that I thought I would leave you a tutorial.

Supplies:

• 18 x 12 manila drawing paper
• Tissue paper in a variety of colors
• Double stick tape
• Scotch tape
• Glue Dots
• Scissors
• Poster board
• Pencil
• Variety of color crayons
  

Take your manila paper and scribble all over it using one crayon at a time. We oftentimes would use 6 to 8 colors on each sheet.

 
Fold up the bottom 1 1/2 to 2 inches.

 
On the bottom fold that you just made, cut one inch slits aloong the bottom and up to the fold line. Once that is completed fold both sides of the paper.

 

 

And fold down the top. Using a maple leaf pattern, trace this onto the back side ( non colored) side of the lantern.

 

 
Next, cut out the maple leaf pattern, being careful not to rip the lantern itself.

 

Taking one sheet of tissue paper,cut out a square which will cover the leaf. Go ahead and tape this onto the leaf cut-out with tape. You will want to tape all four corners and the top and the bottom. This will hold it into place when we bring the sides together to make a cyclinder.

 
Now hold the piece of paper up with the tissue paper facing you. Bring the sides together by hooking the tops into one another and taping it into place. Once in place, use your double sided tape and put it under the lip of the top part of the which is overlapping. I use a couple long pieces of tape to make a really nice seam which sticks together. Now adjust the lantern so it is truly a cyclinder.

 

Using the top part of the lantern, place it on the poster board, trace a circle and cut it out. This is the bottom to the lantern.

 

 

Turn your lantern upside down so that the fringe is on top and facing you. Adjust the fringe so that it becomes the bottom of your lantern and the fringe folds down nicely. Place double stick tape on the bottom of your lantern.

 

 

Taking the bottom posterboard piece of your lantern bottom, place glue dots all around the perimeter but not too close to the edge. Place this piece on top of the double stick tape and fix it to the lantern. Trim the bottom piece if necessary. Turn your lantern right side up and you are finished. 

Inside the lantern we place battery LED lights which flicker like real candles. It's so much fun. Enjoy.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

The Great Pumpkin

 

Hey....what's that over there?

 

 

Mimi was home last week for Fall break. We had four wonderful days with our girl. She had a lot she wanted to make and do while she was at home and pumpkin carving was high on her list.

 

 
Of course pumpkin carving always works a lot better when the family cat is checking up on things and helping out.

 

Here's some of our afternoon's work.

 

 

Handmade Holiday: The Knitted Cowl

This year I'm happily taking part in the Handemade Holiday sponsored by Plain & Joyful Living. Last year I made so many of our holiday gifts and everyone really enjoyed them. Actually they enjoyed them more than I had ever remembered them enjoying presents. This year I'm fully committed to giving handmade gifts, whether handmade my me or someone else.

First project on my list is this knitted cowl. When I came back from Sweden, I had a lot of catching up to do with my blog reading. As I was reading Soulemama's blog, she mentioned this great new yarn company called Quince and Company. Their yarn is so incredibly soft and comes in a variety of colors and all of these colors come in a variety of yarn sizes.

I fell in love with this grey and used one of Quince and Company's patterns to put together this cowl.

 I also knitted one for a special friend from my every growing yarn stash. There are a couple more patterns from Quince and Company that I would like to try. I just really love their yarn and their patterns.