Busy Reading

I've been busy reading this week instead of making things.  Thats why you haven't heard much from me lately.  I have been slowly working on a project for a swap.  Today I made an artist trading card, my first one ever.  I needed some way to release what I was feeling after finishing a trilogy today.  Art is great therapy.  I also needed to do something more along the lines of art than craft, even if it was my usual doodling.  I'll scan it and share it with all of you tomorrow.

I re-read The Host by Stephenie Meyer.  This is the book that she wrote while one of the Twilight books was being edited.  I love it.  It was different but still special the 2nd time through.  Think invasion of the body snatchers after the body snatchers have won.  Like Twilight, it is a love story and there is a love triangle, but with 2 bodies.

My local library is asking people to read "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins.  Its part of some program to get the town talking about a single book.  Then in June a friend of mine who is a librarian will be leading a book discussion on it.  So I agreed to read it after I finish The Host.  I wasn't sure about it, because it isn't the type of book that I usually read, but I could not put it down.  I read the whole trilogy in 4 days.  Incredible!  It is an emotional roller-coaster.  I highly recommend it.  I'll probably re-read the 1st book before the book discussion so that I can not only refresh my memory, but I won't accidentally mention things that happen in the other books.

Not only did I make an artist trading card tonight, but I did some watercolor painting so that I can make a few more.  I'll take pictures tomorrow.

Episode 37: Birthday Bags

How to make a felt birthday goodie bag.  I used eco-fi felt and puffy fabric paint to make this bag for my son's 4th birthday.


How to make a gift bag out of Hershey bar wrappers and duct tape.

Chrysanthemum Hot Pads

Today I finished making these two floral hot pads.  I had crochet the center of them a few days ago, but I didn't feel like adding the 2nd color to them until today.  Crocheting the last 2 rounds in the 2nd color on these two hot pads used up an entire skein of Lily's Sugar'n Cream yarn.  After making these for other people, I finally get to keep some for myself.

Earth Fair Purchases

At the Earth Fair you could not miss the corner carved out by Jeffrey Merrill.  Jeffrey makes furniture, picture frames, bird houses, bat houses, and butterfly houses out of reclaimed lumber.  

I knew that once my husband saw these adirondack chairs that we would be talking about buying one or more of them.  We both have wanted one for several years.  These two chairs and the foot / leg part on the one were sold as a set.  Sold!  My husband is really looking forward to a nice and sunny weekend so that he can sand them, stain them, and seal them.  Jeffrey left them unfinished on purpose so that whoever bought them could either leave them as it or finish them however they wanted to.  

I just knew that I wanted one of his rustic looking benches.  It really adds a nice touch to the chairs.  Now we can sit outside and have a place to put our drinks or whatever on.  

My very first purchase was this bird house from Jeffrey Merrill.  I love it.  It only cost $10!  What a steal.  

Susanna Delgado had all sorts of beautiful glass objects on her table.  I bought this brown glass necklace from her, which was made from a beer bottle.  I think that it was made from the top of a beer bottle, where the hole is.  She also had candle holders made from the bottom of glass bottles, beautiful lights inside of decorated glass bottles, sun-catchers, and more.

My mother-in-law bought some of her other items.  

Gopika Narula's table had many different items made using pressed flowers.  She had coaster like items like this one, placemats, glass coasters, and much more.  She also generously donated 1 free art lesson and 4 of these pressed flower items for the raffle table.  I plan on putting a picture hanger on the back of my little pressed flower.

You can see more pictures and read more about the Earth Fair here.

Earth Fair 2011

Last Saturday was my town's 4th annual Earth Fair.  I've been a vendor at this event for all 4 years, and I have organized it for the last 3 years.  We were at a new venue this year due to our last venue undergoing renovations.  There were 23 vendors, 2 bands, a dj, and a storyteller.  The above picture is of my table.  I was selling a variety of items made from recycled materials.  There were a lot of cool items for sale as well as a lot of information ranging from light pollution, how to make a solar oven, solar power info, town recycling info, the harmfulness of GMOs, and how to reduce your paper usage.  Allied Waste provided popcorn.  When you returned your empty popcorn container to be recycled, they gave you a mini trash barrel filled with candy. It was so cute.  I walked away with some outdoor furniture made from reclaimed wood, a very cool bird house, a necklace made from a beer bottle, and framed pressed flowers.  I also left with joy in my heart from people saying that they wanted to do it again next year, and that a few of them would help me put it together and advertise it.  Yes, the planning for the 2012 Earth Fair has begun.

This event was covered by The Patch (an online newspaper).  You can read their article here.

You may have notice a lack of blog posts from me lately.  It was because I was getting ready for the Earth Fair.  You'll be seeing more of me now that things have calmed down.

CAL, Star, & Bucket

On May 1st I participated in a CAL (crochet along) on ravelry.  My friend Claudia designed the potholder pattern for the CAL, and today she wrote a blog post on it.  As of today there are 50 people who made a total of 100 of these potholders.  I love all the different color combinations.  You should go check out her blog post here.  The 6 floral potholders above are the ones that I made.  The first two were for a swap, but it seems that my partner has flaked out on me (so I get to keep them).  The 3rd one I gave to my mom, the 4th one went to my grandma, and the 5th one was given to my mother-in-law.  The last one was for me.  Thank you Claudia for hosting such a wonderful and successful CAL.

'Tis the season to start my patriotic crafting.  There are at least 3 patriotic holidays from May - September, which means that red, white, and blue items can decorate my house all summer long.  I've been really into making cotton items for my kitchen this month, so to kick off one of my favorite holidays, Memorial Day, I made this star dishcloth/washcloth.  I don't plan on using it as a dishcloth though.  I plan on using it as a hot pad.  The beginning of the pattern confused me a little, but after that it was very easy.  A bonus to the pattern is that it would be easy to make a large star afghan using it.  

One sad thing about this week is that Tuesday was the last drop-in craft day at the library until next school year.  They gave each child a bucket and shovel to decorate with foam stickers.  The funny thing about the foam shapes is that 99% of them were not stickers and they did not provide any glue.  So I pulled out the center of all the Os, As, Rs, and other letters with holes in them so that my son could put the shapes on his bucket (all the letters were foam stickers).

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Old Crafts Revisited

Last Tuesday the library brought out the leftover items from past crafting days.  It was great, because my son got to make things that he didn't make before (due to missing that day).  

He combined two past crafts into one: the sun and the hat.  

He has really gotten into rainbows lately, so he asked me to color rainbows on the craft sticks, the bunny's ears, and on the bunny.  The antenna on the butterfly is two colors of pipe cleaner twisted together and folded in half.  After taking this picture we changed the hat.  We took a 2nd cut out hat piece and stapled it to this hat piece to make more of a pirate hat.