Today's Inspiration: Fabric Stitchy Bookmark

Today's inspiration was brought to me by Craft Leftovers Fabric Stitchy Bookmark (via Craft Zine's Craft Daily).  I've been wanting to play around with the other stitches on my sewing machine and this is a great way to use scraps.  Waste not, want not.  I think I will be adding this to my Christmas project list as stocking stuffers.  Changes I may make: using photo fabric to incorporate a picture to personalize each bookmark. 

Today's Inspiration: Quilting with literature

I was over at Kirsty's, as usual (I wish I had more hours in a day to get to all the Creative Spaces each week), and at link #1 was Kate's One Flew Over and her beautiful quilt.  Not only is it a beautiful piece of craftswomanship, but I really liked the printed word sections.  I'm not sure how she found/made those sections, but I am inspired to work pieces like that into my work.  Pick a favorite or interesting passage from a novel, cookbook, etc., print it onto printable fabric and add it to a yet to be determined creation...

All these wonderful inspirations floating around and so little time.  How do you all do it?

My Creative Space: Household Insanity

No pictures for this week's Creative Space yet.  We might update a little later with pictures from yesterday.  Our household is usually pretty crazy, but this week has been pretty insane. Dare Bear had a cold last week, which he gave to me.  While I have not been overwhelmed by it, I do have this nasty cough that just won't go away and has been interrupting my sleep.

Then Nana Bear come down with the flu on Friday and spent the whole three day weekend fighting a 104 fever, which is by far the highest her fever's been in years.  So yesterday she and I stayed home. It was mostly a pleasant day.  She watched TV and then inventoried her new arts and craft supplies from school.  She was very taken with the index cards and practiced writing between the lines on a bunch of cards.  I took this time to use the nice clean space on the floor of her room to cut (and pinned) some fleece and flannel for a blanket for Dare Bear as well as cut some flusible fleece for another project. 

Then came the lunch time meltdown.  Ka-boom we both went complete with tears and yelling.  Finally we both found some quiet space and had lunch.  Both our moods improved significantly and after a little more TV, Nana Bear took a nap without any fuss.  While she slept I ironed the fleece to my project, and vinyl to another project.  So, overall a very crafty day and except for the midday meltdown, quiet peaceful.

So the weekend was spent keeping the kids calm and restful.  I did do a little crocheting this weekend and want to try crocheting with beads to emblish my bracelets and pins.   Also did get to see The Mechanic (Jason Statham is just so... yummy) with Tiger Daddy too, while my mother-in-law watched the kids. 

Today, I have a minor procedure scheduled this afternoon, so we'll see how I feel later and how much crafting that I get done for the rest of the week. 

For more Creative Spaces, head over to Kirsty's.

Today's Inspiration: Everyday Exercise

I was browsing My Creative Spaces at kootoyoo and found Keep Cate Busy.  Her post for February 16, 2011 was regarding everyday exercise and how to increase the amount of movement we do and I found inspiring.  My favorite tip: she dances with her daughter everynight before bed.  Love it and so will my kids.  Can't wait to start doing this...  Thanks Cate!

A Little About Me

It's been almost a month of posting on this blog and it's been quite enjoyable and fun.  Thank you to those have visited and especially those who have left comments and well wishes.  I really enjoy the crafting community and finding such wonderful inspiration from you fellow crafters.  You all inspire me not only with new ideas, but to keep crafting on a regular basis.

Just a little bit about me and crafts:
I was blessed with crafting grandmothers and aunts and an inventive mother.  For almost as far back as I can remember, probably when I was about 5 years old, my mom and I would make holiday themed gifts - valentine cards/gift baskets, Easter baskets, Thanksgiving place cards, etc.  These would usually include stickers, glue, pipercleaners and other "easy" crafts as my mom would say. While my mom denies being crafty, she underestimates her creativity to keep kids busy.  She was a preschool teacher so I think that really helped. 

When I was a little older my grandmothers taught me how to crochet, bake, quilt, and various other crafts, and my mom and I did some basic sewing together.  I have to say that I am quite an uncoordinated person and not very precise so most of my projects didn't turn out quite they way I had envisioned them.  Quilts rows/columns didn't quite match up and my dresses and skirts just didn't look great.  I was more successful with baking and it is one of the things I love to do with Nana Bear. 

After the carefree days of college (read: when I had time during the day to goof off), I only crafted when necessary, ie Christmas time and for my wedding.  I'd say for the past 10 years I would start thinking about Christmas gifts that I could make in September and October.  Then I would have a rush of crafting adrenaline in November and December as I rushed to finish my projects.  Each year the projects have become more and more elaborate and more and more projects go unfinished.  But, those that get done have been quite rewarding.  Finally, last year I decided that my crafting skills are much improved since my childhood and my crafting imagination has begun to blossom as well and here I am, blogging about crafts. 

The Players:
Tiger Daddy - my wonderful, extraordinarily-good-to-me husband.  The man is like MacGuyver, so he can pretty much think me out most jams.  And he has be super supportive as I embark on this journey to open an Etsy shop or some similar thing. 

Nana Bear - my precocious, exuberant 5.y.o daughter.  We fight like cats and dogs at times.  She is wise beyond her years and people say she is a carbon copy of me, which scares the dickens out of me.  She loves arts and crafts and yearns for the day I will teach to crochet. 

Dare Bear - my little 2 y.o. daredevil son.  He loves trains, planes, and automobiles and basketball.  He speaks his own little Darelish language, which we have only partially figured out, much to everyone's frustration. 

We are happy, tired little family creating wonderful memories together.

Today's Inspiration: Scrabble Tile Art from Waste Not, Want Not

A few months ago an auto mishap (no one was injured) made cleaning out my parent's garage imperative.  During the clean up I found many treasures from my childhood through college years - letters from old friends, pictures, greeting cards from various occasions, etc.  I also found two boxes of board games my parents had boxed up and saved for me, which had completely forgotten about.  Of those games was Scrabble, which I have since replaced in my own home, but I could not let those wonderful letter tiles go.

Since finding it, Scrabble has sat atop my dresser waiting to be used for some crafting purpose.  I've considered doing wall art or jewelry, but nothing has really clicked.  (ie I have not gotten off my butt to do anything with it) 

Today's inpiration comes from Waste Not, Want Not and her 20 Min Craft Project.  I love the simplicity of the project and the sentiment of her words.  Lovely, lovely, lovely.  It pushes me back towards a wall art project.  Still need to find an occasion... but the wheels are turning again and hopefully  the light bulb will go off brightly. 

My Creative Space: Valentine's Day Insanity

Last night was another last minute scramble, this time to make sure that Nana Bear's Valentine's and class gifts were all ready for this morning.  We started on most things weeks ago, but really the final details and last minute ideas just bogged me down.  Nana Bear's homemade valentine's were simple enough: red construction paper folded in half and a white heart shaped doily glued down the middle inside.  Nana got to decorate the cover anyway she wanted.  We did 22 over three separate weekends.  She can only do 6 or 7 before she gets tired.  I had wanted her to do some for the family as well, but it was just too much for her overall.

I made the flower bracelets and was done with them a couple of weeks ago.  On Friday, I decided to make heart pins for the boys and the hearts were quick and easy to do.  However, the details - ironing the bracelets and hot gluing the pins to the hearts - I waited until 10pm last night to do.  Doh!

I had found a great Instructable to make paper flowers and with a modification or two, I embarked on making flowers bouquets for her teachers.  While the flowers were easy to make, when thinking of trying to do 24 of them at such a late hour, they became almost a herculean task.  I ended up doing 12 and saving the rest  to do today for my grandmother and mother.

But I am overall pleased with the results.

Happy Valentine's Day!  Hope it is filled with lots of love and crafting.

For more Creative Spaces, see Kirsty at kootoyoo.

New Project Idea: Dry Erase Board Carrier

Dare Bear, just turned two last month, loves to draw... espeically on dry erase boards.  For Valentine's day, I bought him a Backyardigans travel dry erase board.  I have yet to see the product, but I got to thinking during my lunch break, that I could make a portable dry erase board set, similar to a crayon caddy.  It's still in the brainstorm stage, but I think it is very doable.  It wouldn't be "cheap" to make since I would need to buy the dry erase board - though you can buy uncut/unfinished, so to speak, dry erase board for fairly cheap.  I don't own or have space for an electric saw to cut it on, however. 

My first thought was to cover a binder with fabric.  On the left hand side would be pockets for a number of the fat dry erase markers and on the right side would be where I would attach the dry erase board. My thought with the binder is that the dry erase boards are heavy and would need something heavy duty to hold it.  However, as I type, I'm thinking I could detach the writing surface, the actual board from the case and it would be lighter and then the entire product would be lighter.  The right side of the carrying case could be a window that I slide the board behind.  I think I will cover the fabric with vinyl so if the markers bleed or Dare decides to dry outside the box, as he often does, it will be easy to clean.  hmm... ideas, ideas...  I can't wait to spec this out!

Edited: I can't believe my luck!  This evening when I got home a Discount School Supply catalog was waiting in my mail box and in it, double sided dry erase boards - one side is blank and the other side has a space for drawing and have two ruled lines for writing!!!  What perfect timing.  They are $2.79 each, so way cheaper than I had first anticipated.  Also found dry erase makers and crayons in the catalog.  So now I just have to figure out my design, which is easier said than done apparently.  A big part of the problem is I am spacially uncoordinated - I have a hard time figuring out how objects will look when rotated in any direction without physically rotating it.  So, when it comes to how to sew this together, I have a hard time figuring out which sides I want to keep unsewn and what layer and direction to place the handles.  It makes me cross-eyed.  But I have a rough plan and just have to get some measurements and finish the nitty gritty.

Today's Inspiration: Random Acts of Kindness

Today's inspriation is not craft related and is from a friend, an old friend, who now lives in Texas.  I have redacted his name to protect his privacy, but his Random Act of Kindness is both inspiring and humbling.  This friend and his wife worked with Tiger Daddy and I almost ten years ago.  We lost touch with them and I recently found this friend, who I will call Outdoors Dad, via Facebook.  The weather in their area is below freezing temps.  This morning he posted this:

Random Acts of Kindness

by an old friend on Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 8:44am

 

Last night Aubrey, Owen and I made breakfast tacos and drove out to down town Austin to give them to the homeless who were unable to get indoors. I can not tell you how humbling it is to see the fear and despair in the face of a fellow American who is hungry and freezing. Randy slept under the bridge at I-35 and Elmhurst last night as temps. dropped to 20 degrees. I had to unwrap the taco and feed it too him as his hands were already too cold to use at 7:30pm. Tonights low will be 17 degrees or less. I spent $9.49 on 2 dozen eggs, 40 tortillas, 1 pound of bacon, and a bag or hash browns. The kids helped me cook and wrap the tacos and hand them out. We were home and in bed by 8:15pm. The pride in the face of my children will warm my soul for years. It's more than just a bumper sticker my friends, so tonight please consider to "practice random acts of kindness."

Again, I was humbled and inspired by this post.  Humbled because I reminded how much more my family can do for others and inspired to do more.  I was also proud that we were allowed to be apart of such good people's lives, however briefly, in the past.  They are truly, truly good, giving people.  It doesn't take a lot of money or time to do good things for other people.  Be inspired.

My Creative Space: Practicing Loop Stitch

After a fun filled weekend, I loathed to go back to work and chores.  Instead I caught up on the craft blogs I follow.  At One Pretty Thing, I found this link to Craft Passion's Sheep Earmuffs.   The loops stitch intrigued me, so after watching her demonstration, I started practicing it.  Here is my result:

I made the loops with my index finger.  As you can see, the results are lacking... I'm still trying get my loops to be more uniform.  The middle stitches are bit more uniform, but the loops closer to the edge aren't.  But this was my first try, so I've lots of practicing to do.  I like learning a new stitch, but I'm not sure what I would make with it.  The earmuffs at Craft Passion are very cute.

For more Creative Spaces, visit Kirsty at kootoyoo.

Today's Inspiration:Twig and Toadstool's Heart Stamps

One of my favorite sites to visit is Twig and Toadstool. I love how Maureen gets so much inspiration from nature and uses many natural supplies.  I also just love the simplicity of many of the crafts.  This post from Maureen is Today's Inspiration.  It's amazing how three little potato heart stamps can be used for such beautiful effects.  The top photo is valentines Maureen and co. made using gold metallic paint and the bottom photo was made (again by Maureen) with glue and sprinkled with plenty of red glitter.

http://twigandtoadstool.blogspot.com/2011/02/potato-print-valentines.html
February 3, 2011 Potato Print Valentine by Twig & Toadstool

http://twigandtoadstool.blogspot.com/2011/02/potato-print-valentines.html
February 3, 2011 Potato Print Valentine by Twig & Toadstool

 Beautiful no?

Homework

This week Nana Bear is Star of the Week.  Her kindergarten teacher reminded me on Friday while we were away at Disneyland, so we did not have much time to work on the various tasks needed.  Luckily Nana's teacher is very understanding and allowed us to split it up in two days.  Today, Nana brought her picture, 3 of her favorite books, which ended up being quite  heavy, and 3 favorite things: Gromit (of Wallace and Gromit), It's a Small World snow globe, and a Year of the Rabbit bunny bell.

Tonight we scurried to put together the last 4 pieces: something depicting what she wants to be when she grows up, something depicting her favorite thing to do, something depicting her family and something depicting what is special about her.

We are done, though I did have a typo on "Detective" and unfortunately only discovered it after I saved the file as a jpeg. Doh!!!  Note to self - proofread 2x.  At least it's just kindergarten... 

Today's Inspiration



From Maureen Cracknell, February 2, 2011
http://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/2011/02/warm-hearts.html



I love these Warm Hearts at Maureen Cracknell Handmade.  Similar to the handwarmers/wrist pad I made for Christmas except heart-shaped and with flax seed and cute as heck.  And a great activity to do with the kids.  Nana Bear is always wanting to help out with my crafts and letting her pick out the fabrics would be a great way to let her help out.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Happy Lunar New Year!  Spent the start of the new year in Disneyland and had a wonderful time.  Didn't have time to craft, but relaxed and recharged a bit.  (Though 2 hours at work is a great way to undo all the relaxation)  I'm still chugging away on my heart chains and hope to have enough of varying lengths to hang as curtain to the kids' room.  Tiger Daddy will probably not like that idea, but I'll deal with that bridge when we get there.

My Creative Space: Chain of Hearts

I was purusing Kirsty's My Creative Space at kootooyoo the other day and found a blogger who had crocheted single hearts and stitched them to fabric and made a bunting out of them. She had made it for an auction for the floods. I am ashamed to say I cannot remember whose blog it was that linked to Meet Me at Mikes' tutorial to make Sweet Hearts. I had to mentally convert the directions for US crochet stitches, but eventually I figured it out. I am trying for a trickle effect and started with hearts crocheted 10 chains apart (3) and then 15 chains apart (2-3), 20 chains apart (3), 25 (3) chains apart and maybe even a couple 30 chains apart. I need to press the hearts so they don't curl in on themselves (as you can tell in the picture).

I am playing around with lengths and size of the hearts by changing how loose I crochet. The bottom most hearts are the tightest and I am trying loosen as I go up, so the hearts get bigger. Though, as I type, I think that I should make the bottom most hearts the loosest (biggest) and get tighter as I go up.

Not sure what I am going to do with the various chains. Maybe I'll attach them to a hoop and hang from the ceiling. Or attach to a rod, hang above the kids' bedroom door like a curtain. I'll take any suggestions.

For more (more beautiful) Creative Spaces, head to Kirsty's

Crocheting Flower Bracelets

One of the projects on my list is to embellish headband/hairclips with crocheted flowers. It was inspired by Creative Jewish Mom. So I googled Crochet flowers and found this link for three different flowers. I tried out the first one for a String of Flowers and decided I could modify it a bit and make flower bracelets in rainbow thread for Nana Bear's classmates.

Modification: I made it a five petal flower instead of the instructed four.  I chained 34 stitches to begin with to have enough room to tie in the end and chained 30 at the end for the same purpose. 

I gave one to Nana Bear to try on by tying it on like a friendship bracelet. Wondering what I can do to make a better "clasp"... will have to think on it a little. Looks good, though, and fits just right. They're fast and easy to make.

I'm thinking that I can sew it to a crocheted backing or felt and attach to a hair clip.  Ideas, ideas, ideas... so many ideas, so little time.

Goodbye Tiger, Hello Rabbit

Today is the last day of the year of the Tiger in the Lunar Calendar.  While both my husband and father are Tigers, I can't say that I am sad this year is ending.  It has been a difficult one overall and I can't wait for a new year to start fresh.  And what better place to for a bright start to the new year but Disneyland!  Because of the Nana Bear's school schedule (she gets Chinese/Lunar New Year off as well as a furlough day on Friday), we get a long weekend and decided to once again visit Mickey Mouse's house.

Reflections on the Year that has past:
The Bad:

• Dealing with the loss of my grandfather from previous year 
• Various injuries and illness, one as of yet still undiagnosed
• Passing of my dear husband's grandfather
• Work is not challenging, yet never ending
• Extended family drama

The Good:

• Nana Bear (5 y.o.) and Dare Bear (2 y.o.) finally started playing together, sometimes.
• Great vacations/camping including Yosemite, Vancouver, BC and Disneyland.
• Brother-in-law married a wonderful woman on 10/10/10. 
• Dear husband (Tiger Daddy) has been doing very well at work, effecting change and rebuilding the company in a positive direction.
• Dare Bear is consistently sleeping through the night.
• Found my creative drive again.

The Ugly:

• Gained back all the weight I lost from breastfeeding Dare Bear; back to pre-pregnancy weight. 
• My home looks like a tornado went through it...at least twice.

Overall, when looking at the good and the bad (and the ugly), this past year hasn't been the worst; it just feels that way.  Lots of good came from it like a new sister (in-law) and great family times for the four of us.  Most of all I reclaimed my creativity and found some confidence in my creativity (though that waxes and wanes with the moon).  I am building a plan (both life and business) to manage all my goals, both short and long term and hope to open an Etsy shop this year.  I guess sometimes we do have to take a step or two back before we can move forward. 

Goals for the New Year:

• Continue crafting a little every week, if not every day.
• Hope to complete my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's 1st anniversary gift - two 3D origami Swans from The Craft Penguin. Considering a 1st anniversary only comes once this will be a priority project.
• Really, really want to complete our Family Cookbook - Tiger Daddy is an excellent cook - but it's been a goal for 2 years running now and still not done, so not holding my breath.
• Now that I've stock piled some brocade, silk and flannel, need to work on making my blankets and scarves for my shop.
• Crafts for and with the kids: current project Valentines for Nana Bear's class.
• I have 20 or so projects and keep find more and more inspiration from all you fellow (and much more creative and wonderful) bloggers. 
• Keep this blog and my family blog up to date - post at least twice a week here and at least twice a month on the family blog.
• Take Study for the GRE and hopefully take it.
• Open an Etsy or Etsy-type shop. 
• Get my driver's license. 
• Be a better parent.
• Find a new job??  sigh

Gung Hay Fat Choy!! (a day early)