Felt Obsession

No school and no work is driving me up the walls. Stuck inside due to street floodage, I have become obsessed with felt. Tomorrow's big plan includes an attempt to make one or more of the following (items in the photos). Main goal is the successful completion of a felt envelope and something else...a surprise for some special people! (unless I fail.)

This is something Cara would be so much better at than me, but I need to learn to live without her artistic input. She will giving it to someone else in not to long. Sigh. :)









The felt sheep remind me of Jordan's mom's sheep collection. I think they are a little out of my felt-novice league.

Advent Calendar

My grandma's funeral was this past weekend so I've been doing some remembering. She was a well-traveled woman who loved to give gifts. Every Christmas my cousins and I got many little trinkets from all over the world. A few memorable items included a carved owl, a koala fanny pack (fake), and many ethnic dolls.

To get us into the Christmas spirit grandma used to send us each an advent calendar to help us count down the days until we came to visit. I think this worked far better than she knew. To this day I get very excited about small pieces of chocolate and Jeanelle started pulled out the "winter" decorations last night so the house was decked and caked with ornamentation before December had even officially arrived. She has several huge tubs full of sparkly gold candles stuck on faux pine wreaths with beaded icicle wreaths inside the pine wreaths and red velvet ribbons wrapped around the whole shebang. She then sprayed everything with silver glitter, fake snow and mistletoe scent. I had not been aware mistletoe had a particular scent but it turns out it smells like Christmas. The whole place looks, smells and sounds (the Christmas records are playing 24/7 now) like a department store at the holidays - not a pleasant experience. Even so, I'm feeling jolly.

Since I discovered geocaching (after everyone else as it turns out) I've been thinking about little things. I thought about what tiny treasures I would put into my cache when I make one. Then, when we split up grandma's stuff I got a lot of little bits and bobs: brooches, tiny picture frames, costume jewelry, coin purses etc. Everything is just so wee and wonderful! Anyways, the combined experiences led me to this which is positively brilliant.



Blogger Sweet Paul says this about his creation,
"I made this advent calendar for Country Living.
Its made of matchboxes and some scraps of paper.
Just hot glue the tops of empty boxes to one another so you get rows.
The bottom should be 9 and decrease by two until you have a single box.
Cut wrapping paper to cover each row, secure with hot glue.
Then hot glue the rows in a tree shape as shown.
I used small stamps to stamp the numbers on each box.
On top you can hot glue a star or a cut out like I did on this one.
Fill the boxes with candy and trinkets and you are ready to go."

Oil and Water

via ffffound

I have experimenting with oil painting. Literal oil painting. As in I recently tried using our house Canola variety. I don't think that's how people made these. Unfortunately, quick Google searches only yield the usual oil painting techniques. Does anyone know what to use to produce results similar to these images?



My two favorite pollution-related images are: the sublime sunsets smog creates and the liquid rainbows of oil spills on a wet street.





Unrelatedly, there are lots of free business card websites, but I'm interested in finding one that will give me a lot of design freedom. Recommendations? (See how I'm making it more difficult for you know-it-alls not to comment? Asking for advice is my latest tactic.)

Aren't these sweet cards?

How to make your boss smile

...when you're late for work. Awesome.

Prescription to Feel Betta

My Milk Toof. 3 Steps to feel betta. I'm in love with Ickle and Lardee, the sweetest teefs you eva saw.
They have wonderful simple and sweet adventures.

DIY Pillow

Using some scraps of old fabric and a couple of puffy blue pillows I recreated Anthropologie's awesome creation...

Build me a turret

Shelf books by color! Such a fabulous filing system!

“Surely there must be some way to find a husband or, for that matter, merely an escort, without sacrificing one's privacy, self-respect, and interior decorating scheme. For example, men could be imported from the developing countries, many parts of which are suffering from a man excess, at least in relation to local food supply.”

I really love the mixed media look - natural wood looks striking and fresh against bright graphic drawers.
I like furniture with personality. This is gorgeous but not squashy enough for me.

This is the kind of bedroom I want to build for my kids. They can sleep in the teepee or the turret. Of course then I will have to find somewhere else to send them when they are being naughty...

A City at Play

This is the best use of the disgusting warm air blowing up peoples' skirts on the sidewalks of New York since Marilyn Monroe used it as portrait prop (choosing instead of windblown hair, sexy sewer gusts to poof her dress up).



I like the moat monster and the giraffe.

Wee Folk

Etsy find:

I wish I could afford to buy tons of these Fairy Doors (or if my dreams ever come true I could make them in my wood working studio...) and place them on trees, buildings and nooks and crannies everywhere! It's the kind of thing that makes you stop. in the middle of your busy day and think about possibilities. You wonder and dream like a child for a moment and then have a laugh at yourself.

I would love to see a business man bend down to try and open the tiny door. I would make little mailboxes and signs to go beside the doors saying things like "Keebler Elve's Residence", "Wee people welcome" or "Entrance to Rivendell".

DIY To Try list

I hope I get this story right... My mom had this roommate in college who was a total hippie. My mom was too but my mom was in the peaceful protest kind of way. Her roommate was a hippie in the a free love and stoner van kind of way. Anyway, she gave my mom a poster of people of all different colors and races holding hands around a big picture of the Earth. All around the border was a pretty, ferny looking plant and on the poster it said, "God grows his own". I don't think she knew my mom very well...haha!

I think I might paint a few cans and grow some grass myself: here's how.

I can't believe I didn't think of this myself! Food coloring and snow! Fun will abound. Of course I have to wait a year and drive a few hours, but I'm a patient girl.

Nifty gifty idea. Homemade snow globes: glitter, plastic toys, baby food jars...

Cotton balls plus spray paint = Instant mini (fake) cotton candy. Actually, this is just mean. It's too realistic. Must come up with other ways to use colored cotton balls...


Pretty pins but kind of boring. I think I'll make some circles and then stitch faces on them.

Scrap fabric wreath. Somehow I don't think it would be as easy as it looks. Not that it looks that easy.I've been thinking a lot about baking cookies since convention is just around the corner.
These look good but I think I'll stay loyal to chocolate chip.

What do you call a guy with no legs who is hanging on the wall?

This famous saying that the British government printed during WWII (but never actually used) has recently become popular for posters. It's a calming message during uncertain times.

I love the following take on it. I really want to get it for all the crafty girls I know and love.

Lastly, this one is a sarcastic take on the original. The Etsy poster designer says "This poster was produced by slightly less optimistic government officials."


For more fun wordy prints check out sarahgardner. I'm going to make my own...a terrific typography project for someone who can't draw!

Answer to subject line: Art. Obviously.

Stitchery witchery

Now that I've started my first embroidery project I can really appreciate how insane this is. I love the unusual use of mixed media (the spider is painted on and the rest is embroidered). The details sell it. The tiny black spiders and the swinging spiderman are random in a pleasing way.

Hehe Flight of the Concords. I enjoy the rivalry between Jemaine and Bret. Obviously whoever came up with this was a Jemaine fan. I don't really have a favorite. It would be Bret except Jemaine's deep voice thrills me. I just realized that a new season must be going on. There are lots of new songs on YouTube (like this one that is classic FOTC).

The power of a high-five. (or a bzzt! right Sammy?!)

P.S- One more FOTC song. Friends!

*ping.

Banjos and buttons

I bought a random assortment of buttons at Wal-mart (they're top quality. really.) and I've been looking for button crafts. I really liked these.


I also really like bluegrass music (which I called bluesgrass for way too long).

I desperately want to go to a bluegrass festival! The excessive amount of cornbread, overalls, people of all ages, banjos and those large instruments with three (I think) strings that sound so plucky (probably because they are being plucked).

Here's a nice slow song by Great Lake Swimmers called Your Rocky Spine.



I prefer jazzier, more upbeat banjo music like The John Butler Trio or this rousing little number from Oh Brother Where Art Thou.

Anyone know any great bluegrass bands?

Just hanging out.

I have to admit I'm proud of how Mark's hammock turned out. This isn't how I imagined he would use it but at least it works! Unfortunately, it is definitely meant for only one at a time. The concept was in Readymade magazine...it's just a sheet and some very sturdy rope.

Sweet hearts

Better late than never...

Valentine's cookies. The delicious smooth and crackly icing is simply tons of powdered sugar and water. Add food coloring, put in plastic bags with a tiny hole in one corner and decorate.

*beware sugar high...
Me, Dee and Bree created these masterpieces.

How to: Beautify a Lead Pipe

Something about big cities. Something about constantly being surrounded by people, by
strangers, makes me lonely. So much humanity with little contact and even less genuine connection.

What's popped up is a silent communication: ironic slogans on t-shirts and bumper stickers and various forms of graffiti.

I love murals and sculpture on what would otherwise be an eyesore. The giraffes painted on the pillars of an underpass (?) in Oakland make me as happy now as they did when I was six. I would love to see giraffics spread to so. Cal.

This Etsy artist found a unique way to combine urban art with spreading anonymous love. Great and inspiring article...

Some other creative ways for babes on a budget to get and give the warm fuzzies...

- Put a bouquet of flowers together (from your front yard or the neighbors if you are naughty!) and deliver them to the hospital front desk. "These are for Room 24 (replace with your favorite number)". Extra credit for adding a homemade card!

- Try baking a new pastry and leave it in your neighbor's mailbox or on their doormat. (Must do this if you purloin their flowers.)

-Write hopeful fortunes, cheery haikus (my favorite) or favorite lyrics/quotes/poems on bits of pretty stationary and put them in library books you've enjoyed.

Have you ever done anything like this?

DIY Projects for the thrifty

Brooches for drawer handles. Simple, eclectic and each one is totally unique. I would paint or wallpaper the drawers too. Sigh... whenever I have room for furniture.