I’ve been getting into the spirit of Christmas, an early onset for me. Usually it doesn’t strike me the semester’s over. I guess now that I don’t have that end of semester deadline it’s hit with the flush of new holiday magazines, music, and of course crafts! Yep, well before thanksgiving I’ve been making ornaments, dreaming up weaths and cards and handmade gifts. It’s been fun really, more than I thought. I think it started with getting Craft Leftovers Monthly finished up for the Holidays. It had me thinking about it more than usual. 

I was at Borders the other day killing time between two things browsing the art and craft magazines. I saw this great white and red cover, a sheep made out of felted sweater and a card with a snow man button. Yoink! Mine. I looked closer and there it was “Martha Stewart”. Nestled over the “ay” in Holiday. I decided to take a flip through. There were so many amazing projects that I did what I have never done before. I bought a Martha Stewart Holiday magazine! Now I think I have admitted to this, I did subscribe to Everyday Foods, so I do read her publications. And I do check them out from the library. But, I had never bought like the big main deal mag before. Especially for Christmas. I’m usually quite a bit more bah humgish. 

There are so many great projects in here. Tons of ornaments, cards, cookies, treats, goodies, yummy cute and fun!

Do you see those marshmallows! Those are homemade marshmallows!

Best thing is that a lot of these projects and recipes can be made with what’s on hand — Felted sweater, oranges and cloves, cinnamon and apple sauce, yarn bits and card stock! Lovely. 

Strange the day that I would say this is just the thing to get you going with some low cost crafting for the holidays. But that’s what I’m saying here. You should at least thumb through it. If you aren’t normally taken with Martha, this might just be the issue that inspires you.

I went to the library today too and found a treasure trove of back issues. You can’t check out the current month, but you can check out november/december of last year. And my library clumped all their Christmas Crafting magazines together in one section. What a great idea! So if you don’t want to pick up a magazine at the news stands, check out your local library for back issues of holiday’s past.

Best wishes and Happy holiday Crafting!
Kristin

For this month’s e-newsletter giveaway, I asked subscribers to email me their favorite election crafts. It was the day after the election and I just couldn’t resist.

These were my favorites:

Obama Bean Portrait - Love this! Legumes in Action!

Hallmark Magazine’s Hartford Election Cake - I really like this for it’s historical component.

From C Jane Knit - A nice selection of Obama lovin’ knit patterns. I see a sweater coming up for me, haha.

And the winner is: (Drumroll please)

Deb!

And what did she win for participating in the e-newsletter giveaway? A free subscription of this month’s Craft leftovers Monthly! Pretty sweet right?

There’s a giveaway each month as well as a sum up of the past month’s new pattern’s, how-to’s, and any updates and upcoming plans for crafty goodness. It’s only sent out once a month so your inbox won’t be flooded. You can sign up for the cl ezine by entering your email in the Mailing List box on the left hand side.

Happy Post Election! And Happy Crafting!

Kristin

I’ve had the desire to learn how to crochet amigurumi for quite some time. I keep imagining all the cut little softies to be made and had and how great it would be for little scraps and just so cute. So cute all the time.

I have picked up and put down Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Amigurumi several times now and two weeks ago, I did something I haven’t done in awhile. I bought a new book. It was impulsive I have to admit, but it was on sale and under $10. And I love it! I’m already finished up with my first bear head.
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I have been fortunate enough in my life to receive many things through the generosity of others. My grandma gave me all of her craft supplies getting me started on my life adventure of pattern writing, craft leftovers, fiber arts, and now teaching classes and workshops. Continue reading →

I have waxed poetic about my love of Erika Knights books before and here I am again. She edited this great series of books called the Harmony Guides and after purchasing Harmony Guide: Basic Crochet Stitches: 250 Stitches to Crochet, I am considering buying the other guides. I feel like it would be a great asset to reference library for sure. Continue reading →

I fell prey to the Martha Stewart Living craft a day and recipe a day email newsletters. I started clicking on the recipes and the crafts and ending up on her website more and more. Well I started reading about her more… then I started picking up back issues of her magazine at the library (and devouring them in one sitting). I was faced with the fact that, sure she has a great staff working for her… but they are her staff and she does play an active role in her company. Then I came across this back issue that showed her craft studio and it talked about her many many filing cabinets of ideas… all cataloged for later use….. Damn! I want to catalog all my ideas efficiently in my beautiful studio in my beautiful house on a beautiful hobby farm. Still not quite willing to admit I like her….
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Today was the day to start putting the drawers back together. They were all painted and as dry as they were going to get in the humid weather we have been having lately.

This is what I started out with this morning:

First I put the drawers back together. It was an easy matter of some wood glue along the seams and some nails to tack them in place until it dries. You see it’s not really the nails that holds things together, it’s the wood glue that creates a permanent bonds between two piece of wood that are next to each other.

Once dried, I screwed all the handles back in.

And here is where I stand. I’m going to sand down and paint the rest.

Where that one drawer is all banged up, well that’s really bugging me so I’m going to touch up where the sides of the drawer aren’t painted, but showing. I’ll move that one so it’s on the bottom so hopefully it won’t be too noticeable.

So I have the issue with the drawer being more banged up than I would like or really can do anything about. And then I have another issue. There are only 3 wheels! So I’m starting the search for one more of these or something similar:

Next on the agenda is sanding the rest of the dresser, then painting that. I’m hoping to have it finished and moved in by next week.

See you tomorrow!

Kristin

I am a fan of full disclosure, so I want you to know upfront that the fine people over at Immedium Publishing emailed me last week and asked if would like to review this book and sent me a preview pdf. They thought you might like to hear about it. After reading the description and looking into it a bit, yes to both. I had a lot of fun reading this 36 page adventure into the Black North Forest where the Woollyhoodwinks live and I think that you would too.

It’s a fun story based on the creature creations of Jeff Roots, the ‘hoodwinks! They are super cute and originally they were made from old wool suits that the artist purchased at Goodwill. Even though they have gone larger scale since then they have maintained that sense of thrift, handmade, and ethical responsible production. On their website they just announced their partnership with Southwest Creations Collaborative, a wonderful company that was founded on the desire to provide low income woman with jobs. They now employ 28 woman and work on handmade production for sewing as well as other handmade products, what a lovely choice for making these sweet little critters.

Back to the book. The illustrations were done by Jeff Roots and Scott Runcorn. I have a background in illustration (it was my first major, long story why I changed to painting) and was delighted to see the art work in this book. They successfully and uniquely preserved the stitched textile aspect of the Woollyhoodwinks through a combination of fabric texture and digital illustration. It’s a joy simply for the visual aspect! The story line was created and written by Phil Dumesnil and Asa Sanchez. The narrative gives leads you nicely into their bedtime and then the discovery of the “dark patch” oooooohhhh noooo! What to do? They go through a variety of problem solving until the…… not going to spoil it for you, here is what they say about it on the site:

“However, their carefree existence is interrupted when a piece of the sky falls to earth. There this dark patch begins to grow! As it spreads over the ground and disturbs the tranquility of their woodland home, the five friends take turns trying to solve this strange mystery. How will the naturally inventive ‘Hoodwinks save the day?”

You can preorder the book (it is due for shipment/release in September) from the Immedium website or The Amazon.com (you can “look inside” and see some of the beginning pages of the book on amazon).

I’ve been pretty taken with these little guys, the website is really fun and you can see each Woollyhoodwink and get the info on each one’s sweet personality. They even have their own theme song! There are free downloads and then you can actually get your hands on a little Woollyhoodwink for your own home. Being a fan of sandwiches, I love that they are referred to as sandwich sized. You can get one or all of them here or here.

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Now make sure you go pick up your subscription to Craft Leftovers Monthly (1 or 3 months available in the shop), today is the last day to pick up a September issue. I’ll be taking them out of the shop tomorrow morning, first order of business after morning coffee.

In other news, I went a little “stitch marker nuts” yesterday and had a ton of fun playing with polymer clay. I have a lot of ideas for handmade beads and will be sharing them after I get back from vacation. Sporadic posts next week, but still a pattern this Friday. Jason will be manning the shops though so feel free to order kits, yarn, and postal goodies to your heart’s content :)

I have a lot of plans for September: pattern testing will start (i’ll be sending out to everyone who responded to a call the last week of August), a newsletter for the mail list, and other things that are underwraps for the time being. It should be a lot of fun for all of us! I’m hoping to recharge and foster some ideas while I’m away and be all set and energized for September onward!

See you all Friday! Have a good hump day! It’s all down hill to the weekend now!

++ Kristin Roach ++