Creating from Scratch

Walk to work

footwear

facades

flora

Help?

I'm signed up to take a screenprinting workshop next month (yay!), but would also love to try my hand with the DIY freezer paper stencilling approach. (Yes, I know, I know, I'm coming a bit late to the freezer paper craze. Angry Chicken, and Little Birds, as well as plenty of other crafty bloggers, have each done wonderful things with it).

Problem is, though, freezer paper doesn't seem to exist (!) in London (where I currently live). :( I'll be back in the States to see my family for Xmas but can't wait until then!

Anyone willing to do a swap? I can send you something fun from the UK. Promise!

Please? Pretty please?

Aw, shucks...

Kind words arrived via email from Seattle from fellow journo Trish, who writes:

"I love your blog. I’m so happy for you to be stretching your wings in such a way.

You know, I did this earlier in 2006, buying a dress form and sketching books; started sketching with my Graphire tablet ideas for clothes, just for me, nothing amazing, but wow, it really does light up other parts of my brain."

I've received so many lovely emails from women who are attempting, in their own ways large and small, to connect with their creative sides...it's fantastic to hear from you! You're truly inspiring.

Inspiration collages

I am enjoying getting back into the habit of collecting scraps, photos, etc. that speak to me in some way and collecting them in an oversized journal. I'm finding the process incredibly cathartic and it's something I can do even when (especially when!) I'm otherwise overwhelmed with work or life in general. This page is decidedly unfinished but that's OK. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm recouperating after surgery (that means spending time with my laptop looking at many, many inspirational craft blogs!) so I'm not cooking a big ex-pat turkey meal this year.

Enjoy your day.

P.S. When you're too stuffed to move, check out CraftySynergy, a wonderful blog all about women and their creative businesses. Enjoy!

I could get used to this

I made this little bag last night, loosely inspired by a patchwork purse pattern by Lyn Roberts in the previously mentioned Crafter's Companion book.

It was a very spur-of-the-moment thing. Spontaneous projects are somewhat difficult, given that I have all of about five scraps of fabric in my entire collection and this is only the second project I've ever attempted!

I found these fabrics in a tiny (and I mean tiny) vintage clothing/textiles shop known as "the shop" on the wonderful Cheshire Street, which I read about here a few weeks ago.

Anyhow, I went the patchwork route - using three different prints. They probably weren't the sort of designs I'd usually go for, but it was a useful exercise nonetheless. (Anyone out there want to swap?)

(Note to self: using heavyweight interface leftover from another project is murder when you're trying to finish the edges by hand.)

Supplies

Things I bought today. . .

1) for time spent inside the hospital:

2) for time spent recouperating outside of the hospital! :)

P.S. Oops, I really only needed two buttons - but as I unpacked my stash, I realized that the woman accidentally gave me the entire tube...with about 20 inside...does anyone need any purple buttons?? If so, please email me and I'll send them along!

Frosting fixes (almost) everything

It's been a rough few days. Have been worried about an upcoming surgery. Actually, not so much the surgery - am looking forward to having it over and done with! - but more like all the other stuff surrounding it, such as the intenese fatigue that has floored me for the past two months.

Anyhow, things were a bit tense around here today (understatement of the century...) so baking cupcakes - especially chocolate ones with thick chocolate frosting - seemed like a perfectly wonderful plan.

Mix mix mix.

Bake bake bake.

Decorate decorate decorate (with lots of help from Little R.)

Yum yum yum.

And breeeeaaaaaathe out. Ahhhh.

Wanting

If it weren't sooooooo far away, I'd definitely visit this exhibit (a collaboration between blik surface graphics and Didi Dunphy of Modern Convenience ) at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. Swings! Giant colorful spots! Art! Fun! Joy!

(A shout out to the folks at the blik blog - scroll down for more pics of the exhibit - by way of the wonderful poppy talk - for the link.

No excuses

Currently, we're living in a *really* small house. We've lived here for about a year, having purchased it during a desire to downsize from a property that felt too large (too many stairs to climb with a then-infant). Even though we've always planned to stay here short-term then sell the property on, this house feels really small.

I mean REALLY, really, REALLY small.

So I've been wondering how in the world I am ever going to have the space to create the projects that now seem to occupy each and every one of my brain cells, and getting a bit frustrated just thinking about it. Part of me feels like "oh forget it I'll never have the space...how can I possibly even get started, etc."

And then today I had an "ah-ha" moment involving the little triangle of space beneath the stairs. (Yes, the place where two, and sometimes three, bicycles currently call home).

No excuses. Get going. So my next plan of action is to figure out how to create a usable crafty creative comfy nook in a space about as large as my big toe. Perhaps I'll find a suitably pint-sized muse over at On My Desk? Or here.

For now, it will have to be a bit of messy painting fun with Little R. using some crumbly old children's watercolors and far-too-large brushes on the kitchen table. No, they're not the ideal paints for doing tiny, precise Japanese-print-fabric style imagery. No, the brushes are scratchy and raggedy. Yes, there's water-water-water everywhere.

But sometimes you simply have to go with what you've got. And often, you find that it's exactly what you need.