I just recently started making dolls again. I believe it has been since the late 80's that I have made any rag dolls. I have made some seasonal stuffed items over the years but no dolls. I'm not really sure why I stopped making them. I think that the appliqued/embroidered clothing and jewelry just started to sale so well that I just got known for that and therefore spent all my time creating those items over the years. At my shows, I was known as the "Pin Lady". I'm not sure how many I've made over the last 24 years but I'm thinking hundreds if not a thousand or more. At some of my shows, I might of made 50 of just one kind and there were usually 50 or more different kinds of Fall, Halloween, Christmas, and Winter pins. No wonder they called me the Pin Lady!! I really loved making all those pins and decorating the clothing but I am so ready for a change. To just slow down a bit and make some one-of-a-kind items.

I have been looking at all the dolls that some of my favorite doll designers have been making and I realized how much I missed making them. I've made 3 raggedy ann dolls over the last few months and I feel that I'm very rusty at it, but I am happy to say that all 3 of them sold and went to live with some very nice ladies.

I've recently purchased some Halloween primitive folk-art doll patterns to make for the "Ohio Sauerkraut Festival" and can't wait to get started with them. I already have a couple doll bodies made just waiting for me to make their dresses and finish them up.  I also hope to list a few on eBay and Etsy in the near future.

Raggedy Blessings for Now.

I realized today that I have about 3 months until "The Ohio Sauerkraut Festival". Around here this is the show of all craft shows, about 300,000 people come to this show each year. There is over 500+ craft booths lining the main street through the village of Waynesville. It has been my favorite of all the craft shows I've done for the past 24 years even though we have to get up at 3am the day of the show. We use to live down there from 1985 to 1993, so we always see old friends and neighbors that stop by our booth to visit. It is a long weekend but a fun one!

With it only being 3 months away, I need to get busy crafting and start thinking about Halloween items to make.(Chirstmas & Snowman also) Seems strange to be working on my primitive halloween goodies when it is in the low 90's outside. Fall is my favorite time of the year, so it really isn't that hard to start working on them. Family and friends most likely think I'm weird for having halloween items sitting out on display in the middle of summer, but having to get ready for a fall craft show is a good excuse to have them hanging out and about in my house. After all my hard work, it is nice to enjoy them before I have to pack them up and put them away in the crates until the show in October.

I've put a few pictures here and there in this blog of some primitive halloween goodies that I made last year . Some sold at fall shows or on eBay and some are of ones that I will be listing on eBay in the next few days. So be sure and go to eBay in the next day or so to check out my listings.

Toodles for Now.

 I had a chance first thing in the morning to walk down the street to a neighbor's, who always has alot of country primitive items at her garage sale. She had this country quilt shelf that I really liked but didn't purchase, but picked up these 3 painted grungy pears for a $1.00. I kept thinking about that shelf all day and decided at the end of the sale to go back down and see if she still had it. She did and she let me have it for $25.00. Yeah, what a find! I cleaned it yesterday and my wonderful husband hung it up for me. Now I just have to figure out what goodies I want to put on it.  I'll post another picture of it after I get it decorated.

Prim Blessings for now.

She made this using the "Happy Home Sampler" design from Embroidery Library that she purchase on-line. You can check out this design and other sampler designs at www.emblibrary.com. It is from the "Heart and Home-Saltbox Houses" department.  She sent it to me just as the sampler design on the fabric so that I could either make it into a pillow or frame it. I decided to frame it because when we visited her last fall, I saw the one that she had made for herself which she had framed and I just love it. So I took an old frame I already had and sanded it, painted it black, sanded it alittle more, and then stain it with antique aging gel. Our local craft supply store carries mats that you can purchase right off the shelf and their red matched the saltbox house perfectly. I also purchased an unfinished wood star that I painted to match the frame and placed it right above the picture. I really like how it turned out.

Also want to share a web-site I just discovered recently that specializes in primitive and country machine embroidery designs. It's HeartStrings Embroidery and I have it listed here as a favorite under my Web-sites in the right side column. If you love machine embroidery and primitive country you will enjoy looking through their designs. They are very prim & cute and the prices are very reasonable. I think I'm going to purchase the make-do designs.

Here is my three favorite places to find primitive machine embroidery designs: Tattered Threads, HeartsStrings Embroidery, and Mad Woman Embroidery (These three you can link from here on my blog under the Web-sites.) Their designs are great to put on dish towels, pillows, pillowcases, curtains, placemats, table-runners, napkins, etc. and of course there are the samplers. Hope you check them out and make a primitive country sampler or two!!

I have been going flat out and working way into the night (this actually means 11pm, which is drastically late for me now, but not so impressive when I think that I used to happily stay up till 4am writing CSS and PHP before the small child arrived into my life). I'm trying to do it with minimal help from Dan, primarily because then if something breaks or explodes then I will have the knowledge to fix it myself instead of relying on him finding the time to do it. Before Dan crash landed into my life I used to do this all without even thinking, but living with a geek has made me lax, so it's been a steep learning curve to sit down and teach myself everything all over again and catch up with the developments made since I've been out of the loop. I can't believe the amount of stuff I used to be able to do without even thinking about it that I've had to look up over the last few days.

I think it's time to hand in my geek badge until I earn it once again.

CraftBlog is currently on the hunt for contributors, there's more information on the site, but if you're interested in writing something either as a once off or as an ongoing arrangement, let me know and we can have a chat :D

Thought I would give everyone an update on my kitchen redo and share a few photos of our progress. As you can see from the photo above that the cabinets on the left are painted and the ones on the right are waiting for me to get to. First, I would like to tell you that this was a bigger job than we ever dreamed it would be. When we pulled off the old wallpaper, we found out that the walls were in really bad shape. My husband had to patch and sand them. What a mess that was! We painted the walls and got the trim done, but then craft season last fall started and the kitchen got left to wait until the season was over. 

So this Spring when I knew that I was retiring from the craft show circuit, I decided to devote alot of my time to getting my kitchen done. All the while, working on getting my on-line business up and running. What was I thinking! I only had 38 doors & drawers, 2 lazy susans, 2 appliance garages, a range-hood, shelving, and a micro-wave cabinet to paint, antique and age. At times it has been very overwhemling but I know it will be worth it in the end.

The artist in me wants them to look very professional, so I've been putting several light coats of paint on them and letting them dry really good in between coats. So this has taken alot more time than I thought it would, but I'm now about a third of the way finished with painting and have part of the staining done. I've had to take some breaks to give my bad knees a break from going up and down the step-ladder. During the breaks, I started working on repainting some of the tiles on the wall. There are tiles on the wall between the upper and lower cabinets with 24 of the tiles having blue flowers on them that just had to go. Needless to say, we really did not want to remove them, so I decided to repaint them. Off to the craft store I went to get some tile paint and painted them red. There are two cabinets in the corners that have stain-glass panels in them with red flowers; so I'm not sure why they put blue flower tiles on the wall in the first place, but I fixed that problem.

I hope to have the kitchen completely done within a month or so. Be sure to check back and I will have pictures to show what the end result looks like. But in the meantime, here are a few sneak peeks of what I have done.

This is what the cabinets looked liked before I started to paint them and I still have these to work on. I started on one side of the kitchen and am working my way around the room.

  This is the shelving that goes above some of the cabinets and is completely done. They have been antiqued with stain but it is not showing up very well in the pictures.The cabinets doors are done that go back behind the rooster but they have not been hung back up yet.

This is the rangehood and the open shelves that hold my cookbooks. They are all painted and I'm ready to start the antiquing with the stain, but they have to wait for a week or so with the July 4th holiday and a neighborhood garage sale next weekend.

Hope you all enjoyed a peek at my country kitchen redo in progress.

 This Raggedy Annie(a Twigs-n-Sprigs Pattern) was painted on an old vintage rolling pin that I picked up at a neighbor's garage sale. At first, I had second thoughts about painting on a very old rolling pin, but I had seen one painted in one of my painting books and really liked it. So finally decided to just do it and I love the way it turned out. My friend Karen collects raggedy ann's and gingerbreads, so this was perfect for her. She was so excited when I gave it to her last week and gave me the biggest hug. Needless to say, she loves it!

  The sheep(a Terrye French pattern) board sign I made for my friend Linda, who has recently been redoing her living room in primitive folk-art. A few months ago, I helped her put up a wallpaper border that had crows, sheep, saltbox houses, game boards, and band boxes. So when I saw the pattern for this, I knew it would be a great addition to her room. I gave it to her earlier today ("Happy Birthday" Linda) and she couldn't wait to find that special place to put it. She had several places in her lliving room that she thought might be just the right place for it.

It gave me great joy to see their reactions when they opened their gifts and to know how much they really liked them. What a true blessing to have such good friends! 

But recently, I have fallen in love with primitive sampler embroidery designs and painting primitive folk-art on old pieces that I find at thrift shops and garage sales .

Be sure to keep an eye on eBay and Etsy. I hope to have some of my new creations listed soon. I've still been working on what direction I want to take my business since I'm retiring from doing craft shows. I know I'm ready for a change after doing clothing and jewelry for so long but am having a hard time deciding what I want to do. Change is scary after 24 years! Should I specialize in one kind of item or offer a variety of different things?

I still love doing machine embroidery and love the look of samplers but it is hard to find primitive folk-art sampler designs in machine embroidery. I have found a few single primitive designs on embroiderydesigns.com, embroiderylibrary.com, and on eBay. But no samplers until on Etsy I discovered the shop of "The Mad Woman of Locke Street" and her wonderful primitive sampler designs. If you love country and machine embroidery, go check her shop out. She also has a web-site: www.madwomanembroidery.com. I have been having so much fun making up different samplers from all the designs that I purchased from her and can't wait to see what other new designs she will have in the future. I know I will go back for more. Now all I have to do is start stitching my samplers out! I will post a few pictures when I get some of them done.

I'm currently taking a little break from my sea glass art and focusing on something a bit different....my Frosted Fakes shop, which I have been neglecting! I've been spending a long time "in the lab" hunched over illusory dessert options, experimenting with a dash of this and that. It's difficult to come up with just the right concoctions to replicate the look of real food. If it doesn't look absolutely real, it looks ridiculous, so I have been spending time trying to perfect some ideas that have been brewing....like the above faux cappuccino! I am really happy with the way it turned out, and have similar items (like "not hot chocolate") in the works :)

I've always had such a love of those kitsch, retro, homestyle recipe books (think: the old Betty Crocker books from the 50's), and I am trying to bring that vibe out in my Frosted Fakes shop. I've also just started experimenting with backdrops for the photos that will help bring out that feel. Here, I experimented with yellow gingham (which, I am not 100% happy with, because the gingham ended up looking a bit washed out) -BUT- I just picked up some new "backdrops"that I think really have that fun, retro wallpaper look.

Another recent creation I am happy with are my Hyperreal Chocolate Chip Cookies. It took quite awhile to get the realistic look I wanted on these, but I am very happy with the result. These are one of my favorite things I have made this week. I was super-psyched to find little cookie-sized bakery boxes that fit them perfectly too!

I've been feeling like I really want to focus on the fakes as far as home based business goes. I am tired of antiques and auctions, and I feel like I can really find a niche with the faux foods. So, I'm spending a lot of time dreaming up new ideas and potential marketing opportunities. I know that there is a huge (and potentially very profitable) niche for these types of things for home staging, displays, visual merchandising and more. I was walking by Pottery Barn yesterday and saw a kitchen setup in the window that was BEGGING for one of my cakes! :) So this is my new dream (of the moment, anyway)-to be able to work with a retail chain that can somehow utilize my work in their visual merchandising or POS plans.

Someone bought another cupcake from me tonight, so I am feeling inspired. I recently listed the cookies and cappuccino on Etsy for sale. It makes me so happy to see that others like these enough to buy, because they are so much fun to make. I love creating illusions, and all of the different projects that I am working on now are illusion-based. But then again, what's NOT illusion-based? :)

I haven't been putting much attention on my faux desserts lately. As usual, I have gotten carried away with another project (the sea glass). I've been meaning to make a bunch more faux desserts so that I can continue to bulk up my Frosted Fakes shop, but the art jewelry muse is under my skin and won't let me make time for it. My aunts birthday was just the impetus I needed to get going in the fakery again.

I made this chocolate cake as a "permanent birthday cake" for my aunt. She loves to display fake desserts in her kitchen, and I though this would be perfect. I am going to get a cake box for it and present it to her as the real deal. I also put images of it in my shop, so that I can recreate it for anyone who wants one. It was really fun (though difficult) to make, but I am really happy with the results since it is my first cake. I really expected the first one to be a disaster, but it came out as effortlessly as the cupcakes did. Maybe I made faux desserts in a past life?

I am happy that I was forced to stop procrastinating over the Frosted Fakes project and at least try my hand at a full sized cake. I hope to make a pink strawberry one and a yellow lemon cake soon.

Click the photo below to see the listing for the cake.... :)

I am so excited about this it is probably just too nerdy too describe but here it goes. The AIGA is having a big paper fashion show/vendor showcase in June and they made an open call for designs, and since as a small child I dreamed of designing fancy dresses I decided to enter. Lucky for me I am in (okay so maybe everyone made it in but whatev) so my creation will walk the runway with 13 others and I am pumped! The best part is there is no sewing to worry about since it all has to be made from recycled/re-used paper! Above is my first sketch for my vintage inspired dress/apron combo but of course as I am creating the design is evolving so I will be sure to post more on the final product!

I have been really hung up on the sea glass lately. I think primarily because the process of finding and transforming them is a very peaceful and cleansing one. Spending several days a week walking along the seashore and finding the most beautiful little pieces of glass is not something that I think I could abandon anytime soon. This week, I finally bought a Dremel to drill pendant holes in the glass. The thing scares me to death (I am not a fan of power tools that could potentially cause harm...and my balance and steadiness are not good at all!), but V has perfected the pendant drilling process, so she is really helping me out. I've also settled on hand making the bails out of tiny seed beads. I think it matches the style and the spirit of the pieces. Not to mention, I am tired of spending way too much money on pre-made silver or silver plated bails. The more "handmade" that goes into them, the better.

Of course, selling these are important too. I have a shop on Etsy, but I need to market to local boutiques and shops in order to have any degree of bill-paying success. This is where I get stuck because I end up splitting my energy in too many directions. If I started focusing on marketing the sea glass, I would never be able to devote my time to my art photography and the marketing of that. I manage to squeak by on my EBay and other auction sales, but I really want to move my life in the direction of being able to get by on handmade and art alone. The creating part is easy, and the marketing part is where I get stuck.

I'm also feeling a bit irritated that I have not done a photo shoot in so long. I was having such success with my art, and I dropped the ball so hard. I have not had a new series since the Resurrecting Ophelia series, which was way too long ago. Lately, I've been feeling so restrained as I realize that there is not enough time or enough me to do everything I want to do. I wish there were a way for me to discipline my time and give myself a schedule. I tried that once not too long ago, but it didn't work. I thought I could work solely on the photography one week, solely on bill-paying auction stuff another week, and totally on handmade things the next week. It doesn't work, because I cannot create or do anything unless the muse is there. If it's forced, it's not real and it won't reflect in the result.

I'm off to the beach before it gets dark. Maybe an answer will come from the sea.

In the meantime, here are two pieces that I made last night:

I also found a way to upcycle a lot of small silver plated bails that I have. They are too small and flimsy for pendants, but they hang the smaller pieces from a ribbon very well. So, I am using them in conjunction with the smaller, thinner sea glass pieces and offering a line of wine bottle charms. I wanted to have a series of items with a lower price point, so it looks like these are it.

I also have more new pendants posted in the Sea Glasserie.

I'm fortunate to live in an area with some amazing beaches, and this new venture is forcing me to visit them more often. I am not a beach, tan or sunshine fan (the fact that some people actually "lay out" in the sun is astonishing to me.), so I usually go in the early mornings. This works out, because the tides have rolled out a whole blanket of untouched treasures in the dawn to early afternoon hours. I've always enjoyed scouring the beach, but now that I have actually found a little art form to project on my finds, it's giving me more of an impetus to get out there.

I love sea glass and sea pottery. They are like little gifts from the ocean. Scouring the shore for perfectly smoothed shards of glass, china, pottery and who-knows-what is such a meditative practice. Not to mention, I have such a huge love of all things old, worn and ancient...as well as the "treasure hunting" aspect of the process. Last week I found a HUGE pottery shard with a fairytale looking wolf carved into it. Judging from the design and pottery, it's probably from the 1920s. When I finally get around to learning wirewrapping, it's going to make a really stunning piece of jewelry.

I also love this process because with the near extinction of glass bottles, sea glass is a dying breed. I like being able to take something that is washed ashore and to give it new life. I've mainly been experimenting with these ghostly images of vintage women, because I like the effect that is achieved. They look like little ghosts of the ocean trapped in glass.

The ones I am posting here are the transparent ones. They tend to look very three dimensional in person because of the nature of the glass and the dimensional finish that I use on the front and back. I have other ones that are opaque, or part opaque and part transparent. I am just experimenting with different textures and images.

One thing I want to change is the hanging process. I don't like that the bail can be seen through the glass. This week I hope to practice drilling, this way I can have a drilled hole with an attachment rather than a n adhesive bail.

The Sea Glasserie is at http://www.seaglasserie.etsy.com !

I had been thinking for a long time I needed a yoga mat bag and I started googling around to find a pattern or some kind of instructions. This video at Pink of Perfection was really inspiring so I decided to give it a whirl...but rather than buy new material I found a super looking pair of old men's trousers to use which worked perfectly! I am sure there are a variety ways to do this but here is mine...

Step 1: Cut off the legs from the top of the pants
(you use one leg for the bag & the second leg to make the strap)

Step 2: Cut open one of the legs along the seam (you are making the strap)

Step 3: Trim the material so it is about 5" wide

Step 4: Fold the 5" wide piece in half so the good side of the material is facing

Step 5: Sew your 5" piece along the cut edges

Step 6: Use the old safety pin trick (see the video) to turn out your strap

Step 7: Sew together the bottom of your bag (top of pant leg) with the strap lined up to the bottom corner

Step 8: Sew the strap to the top of your bag just below the pant cuff

Step 9: Slit the pant cuff and insert your drawstring

Step 10: Slide in your mat and strut to the gym in style!

This isn't the 'perfect' way but its quick and easy... and it is good for the earth because your re-using rather than buying new...which definitely means a few good karma points!

This weekend I saw this great sign at Deception Pass (the top sign about falling) and couldn't resist digging out a few others from my Flickr pool. Sadly the smaller two are from the 1 mega pixel razr phone I had just a bit ago but I like them all the same. I mean who doesn't love creepy kid cut outs and two-headed' stick figures? ...okay I know it's a sign bolt that makes the stick figure look two-headed but still I think it can be filed under ‘awesome’.

If you also qualify as signage obsessed check out these fun Flickr sign groups...
Sign City
Altered Signs
I love Old Signs

Since it was sunny (for the first time is far too long) on my lunch hour I decided to pop on down to the market (and by 'the market' I mean the oh so amazing Pike Place Market) and pick up some dinner supplies. Nothing beats the fruits/veggie stalls and of course the French bakery with AMAZING baguettes and more. It feels like I am back in Italy (I was lucky enough to live in Rome for a summer) seeing the specialty shops, bakeries, butchers, seafood mongers (not sure if this is a proper term but I like it) as I stroll through the market.

While I wandered I also have made a long to do list in my head of things I am desperate to craft including the following...
-A new apron (now that the deadline for Tie One On has been extended I think I can make one by June 1st)
-Tunic dress (from the super cool tutorial here)
-Reusable shopping sacks (based of ones I saw in Readymade)
-Typographic lino-blocks

...and so much more! I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the new geranium I got for my porch when I was snapping shots of my market goodies. I am hoping it will survive…I am somewhat bad with plants…but I am hoping to turn that around.

So I guess I haven't been doing much posting since I have been back (with the excuse that I was trying to 'settle back in') but I have found time to surf around and dig through my inbox. One delihgtful treat I cam across in a Daily Candy email was great desktop wallpaper by Farmidable the whales featured above are currently frolicking in the waves on my laptop as I type.

I guess I did get a little crafting in today, while I was on the phone at work I came across this post at How About Orange for how to create a business card holder out of five business cards...I love paper crafts so I of course had to make it that second. It turned out cute but it wasn't very photogenic since my boring corporate company has ugly off white cards with boring typographical choices. I guess this just inspires me to get a pack of those fun moo cards and make a cute set of cubes for at home.

Yay! I am back from Africa...okay I have been back for a little over a week but sheesh that time difference is a killer! Only super humans could fly 20 hours (two back to back 10 hour flights) and not need a little time to catch back up with life. That being said here is a top five of my favorite parts of the trip...

1. Art Museums... I dragged the boy (my boyfriend) to four different art museums in the two weeks we traveled around South Africa

2. Safaris...animal spotting from those super cool jeeps while the sun rises is simply AMAZING

3. Wine...even though my idea to bike through the wine country rather than drive left me huffing and puffing it was awesome (and I even met a donkey along the way!)

4. Penguins...okay call me slow but until I went I didn't realize penguins lived in South Africa but they do and they are adorable!

5. Sharks...I still can't believe I was convinced (this was the boy's pay back for all the art museums) to get in a cage and hang out with great white sharks but it was pretty awesome!

So after all that I was welcomed home by a stack of mail which I was overjoyed to discover contained numerous magazines! Including my new subscription to Readymade! This magazine is so me its crazy I cant wait to dive into their DIY projects!

So here is the letter C in the list. The letter B was published a week or so ago and as I said when I introduced the list with the blogs that start with the letter A these blogs are on topic and written by textile practitioners who do such things as quilt, are interested in art and design, stitching, they dye, sew, embellish fabric, bead, use visual and art journals.

There are quite a few blog in the letter C which is why I saved the list for a long weekend as it gives people time to browse it - So enjoy!

• Cailun info is a the blog of a paper and books arts practitioner.
• Cake and Pie is an Art, Craft and Design blog kept by Kathlene Losche
• Calidore covers crazy quilting, quilting, dyeing and various textile explorations
• California Fiber Artist and Composer Susan is working on her City and Guilds Patchwork and Quilting Level 3
• Camilla Engman is a Swedish illustrator and artist
• Camille’s Place covers silk ribbon embroidery and crazy quilting.
• Candi's Eyecandy is a blog devoted to crazy quilting. Candies other blog is Quilts 'n Things which covers her sane quilting
• Card and Art Ilka works mainly with paper using mixed media, to create cards, ATCs, Postcards and the like
• Carol Marine's Painting a Day Carol creates one small painting a day and posts them on her blog
• Carol Sews Carol is a doll maker who also does crazy quilting and sews
• Carolina Arts Phyllis King is a mixed-media artist who beads dolls, quilts and sews.
• Carpe Diem Marion is a painter who also blogs images of her visual journal page spreads
• Carolina Quilter Jody quilts using traditional piecing and hand applique. She also does thread painting, and crazy quilting
• Caryl's Realm Caryl creates books cards, and paper items using mixed media and assemblage techniques
• Cast On Brenda writes a knitting blog and podcasts
• Cestandrea Design is a French textile artist who blogs her current work in progress and often included page spreads from her visual journal.
• Changeling Things covers hand embroidery, cross stitch and knitting
• Changelings Knit and Stitch is a blog of show notes to podcasts that cover knitting and stitching topics.
• Cheeky Beaks Kirsten keeps a craft and design blog
• Cheryl’s Chatelaine covers her needlework interests which include hand embroidery, cross stitch and crazy quilting
• Cherold's Place Cheri is a quilter who is busy stash busting
• Chicana creating Art through Chaos art quilter Sabrina Zarco keeps a blog to share the stories behind her work and the communities she encounters
• Chloes Place by Linda covers crazy quilting and since she documents collections in small rural museums and collections she often encounters interesting textiles and objects related to domestic textile production and care.
• Chocolate a chuva Tania keeps a blog of crafts and sewing projects.
• Cindi’s Sewing covers sewing projects
• Cinzia is a new blog set up for the Take it Further challenge
• Clothmatters Connie McBride Johnson writes about her cloth dolls, sewing, embroidery and crazy quilting
• Cold Feet Quilter by Deb who describes herself as a quilter, Fiber Artist, painter, dyer, doll maker, and needle felter.
• Collage Contessa is interested in textile related crafts, art journals and altered books
• Color My World Judy Rys is interested in contemporary textiles, fabric post cards, ATCs (artist trading cards) fabric printing and dyeing and is participating in the Take it Further challenge.
• Coloribus is the blog of a French Illustrator who regularly published page spreads from her visual journal.
• Comfortable Shoes Studio Leslie Herger is a book binder who blogs about making books. There are tutorials listed in the side bar and anyone interested in the paper arts should enjoy this blog.
• Committed Stitcher Meg covers cross stitch embroidery and patch work and is participating in the Take it Further challenge
• Complete Organizing Solutions is a blog that focuses on organizing the home. If you are interested in getting the clutter in your life under control this blog is full of ideas and tips to do it.
• Concealed, Discovered, Revealed is written by staff at the V&A and an example of a great museum blog
• Confessions of a Bead Counter Amy is a beader who bloggs about beading, inspiration and her thoughts.
• Confessions of a Yarn Addict Anni dyes yarn and knits
• Constant Partial Attention Julia Molina is a mixed media artist.
• Cotton Spice covers Karens quilting, sewing, knitting, and crafts and publishes some great free projects and tutorials.
• Crackle Mountain Florence Forrest is a fellow who is a art critic and theorist as well as a toy designer. She is interested in folk tales and writes in an engaging manner.
• Craft Apple Sewing and craft as well as some useful tutorials in the side bar.
• Craft Boomis aimed at crafters interested in turning their craft into a home business. Content covers how to market and sell products online to how to plan and balance your studio and personal time. Interviews with successful crafters, day to day business advice, tips on getting started and hints on craft blogging are all covered.
• Craft Lab is part of the DIY network. Jennifer Perkins and Cat Greenleaf present craft projects in video format. Crafts covered are altered books, soap making, polymer clay, collage, art dolls, computer crafting etc
• Craft Leftovers writes about patterns that are suitable for using up scraps ie left overs from other projects. There is a pattern archive that is slowly growing on the same site.
• Craft Monkeys Amanda Kavanagh produces the most delightful sketches and paintings. She publishes page spreads and writes about her work.
• Craft Research is blog tracking a research project titled "Past, Present & Future Craft Practice: exploration of the inter-relation between skill, intent and culture"
• Craft Sanity Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood describes her blog as "a blog and podcast for those who love all things handmade"
• Craft: is a project-based blog that describes itself as "dedicated to the renaissance that is occurring within the world of crafts."
• Craftblog wardi.dk is another craft blog
• Craftlog Maitreya writes about all ssorts of craft projects
• Crafts of Texture covers arts and crafts knitting beading and sewing.
• Craftster.org blog the blog of Craftster featuring news and highlights from the Craftster site.
• Crafty Pod Podcasts bi weekly about creating things.
• Crafty Synergy interviews inspiring artists
• Cramzy Emmy explores contemporary textile and embroidery techniques producing all sorts of interesting things
• Crazy Art Girl's Musings covers mixed media art
• Crazy Daisy Mandy writes about her knitting, sewing and quilting.
• Crazy Here and Now... Jane tracks her interests in crazy quilting and quilting in her blog
• Crazy Quilting for Fun a blog of work in progress pics of crazy quilting
• Crazy Quilting International a blog kept for for the members of the "Crazy Quilting International" yahoo group to showcase their work
• Crazy Seoul Sister Lil documents her life in Korea and her crazy quilting.
• Crazy Q stitcher is Maureen's blog who is a crazy quilter who posts images of her work
• Crazy Valsusa Lorenza is an Italian who keeps a bilingual blog, is interested in crazy quilting and contemporary fiber such as fabric postcards, inchies, and ATCs.
• Creatilfun Francoise tracks her textile interests in fabric postcards, dyeing, design, stitch and quiltin
• Creating with no Rules is kept by Sharon who is a crazy quilter and silk ribbon embroiderer
• Creative Chatter Shari is a mixed media artist who creates art journals.
• Creative Chick Susan Sorrel's blog on what she is making. Susan uses contemporary fiber techniques and uses the blog to announce her workshops
• Creative Dabbling Erica is an Aussie art quilter
• Creative Diversions Kim ia a rubber stamper and blogs about what she makes.
• Creative Force online Nicky Perryman is a textile artist and creativity coach
• Creative Kismet Regina writes about crafts and making hand made items. There are tutorials in the side bar
• Creative Lenna Lenna Andrews works with paper and blogs about techniques.There are tutorials in the side bar
• Creative Life and Times Molly writes about Art Quilts, Altered Art, Altered Books, and published pages spreds from her visual journal.
• Creative Meanderings Doreen writes about crazy quilting, sewing and crafts
• Creative Organizing this blog focus is on organisation skill for creatie people "Organizing and creativity go hand-in-hand. Organizing creates space for creativity and creativity makes organizing more fun!"
• Creatively Self-Employed Kristen Fischer's blog tag line is " how artists and writers deal with career ups and downs" this blog focuses on freelancing for a living offering tips and advice
• Creativity Liz Berg is an art quilter and writes about her life and quilts
• Creaworx is a fiber artist's blog which covers many of the needlearts including beading, dolls, crochet, quilting and stitching.
• Croque-choux fiber art and crafts
• Crossed yarns is the blog of an Aussie cross stitcher
• Curbside treasure Annie is interested in art journals, ephemera, mail art, collage and crafts.
• Curious Bird Leya writes about her sewing projects and crafts.

So this Saturday I am leaving for a bit of a big trip/vacation thingy (South Africa to be specific) and I have to admit I am getting a little nervous. It's not the flying...I actually dig the flying... it’s more the 'what am I forgetting' sort of nerves. I need to get over trying to pack and just toss in the necessities and go!

So I guess this post is more my way of saying sorry for not posting anything super cool for a few days. I have mostly been trying to pack, finish all my projects at work and I have even had to stay up late (yes I am like an old woman and consider 10:30 late) to call people in South Africa on Skype in an effort to confirm all sorts of reservations and the like...which means I have been wiped! Here are a few of the cool places I am head to in South Africa...

*Kruger National Park (home to the Klipspringer my new favorite animal)
*Capetown (which includes lovely Tabletop Mountain)
*Stellenbosch

P.S. Sorry the photo isn't really of Africa! It's actually one from my last trip...Costa Rica but I promise to try and post while I am traveling.

So I am absolutely infatuated with vintage patterns. For the last few months I have been dancing around the idea of buying some of the cheap lots of vintage patterns off eBay and attempting to actually make something. (Insert my mother's laughter here) No my mother isn’t cruel she is simply one of the few people that have seen my sewing handicrafts and my sad machine. Well it’s not sad its just a bit older (a Necchi from the 70s) and finicky like old machines can be. So for now since I am super indecisive about buying a bunch of patterns I changed the look of the site to satisfy my vintage pattern cravings.

I have always admired people with mad sewing skills (and when I say mad skills I mean those sick people that the inside of the garment is just as neat and tidy as the outside). I hear that’s the sign of a good crafter…yet I am one of those people that sometimes I get in such a hurry no one should look at the back of my work because they would be shocked at the amounts of snagged thread, tape or whatever.

So this is my new goal…take it slow, stick to a pattern (I even found a site that links to tons of free apron patterns) and sew something not too hideous. I really want to participate in Amy Karol’s TIE ONE ON. I don’t think I have time for this month’s theme, but by the time the next theme is out maybe I will have built some sewing skills of my own.

March is turning out to be quite the month! First I am informed by a good friend (you know who you are) that it is craft month (and free workshops are even happening in our delightful town) but it has also come to my attention that March is Small Press Month as well! In the last year and a half or so I have been getting into letterpress printing...my photos are from the School of Visual Concepts where I have been learning this great art.

After spending years designing on a computer letterpress printing is like a breath of fresh air! It’s all the joy of mixing typography, imagery and graphical elements but you get to mix inks, use your hands, and make spontaneous choices as you work. I’m not sure if one little blog post can really do justice to the joy that is letterpress so you will have to take my word for it and enjoy the following links...

* Great video of the Wayzgoose fun in Tacoma at Kings Books
(amazing what you can do with a steamroller)
* Briar Press
* Hamilton Wood Type Museum
* Letterpress on Flickr
* Chocolate Movable Type
(I really just added this cause it mystifies me)
* Letterpress Mania on Flickr
* Letterpress at SVC on Flickr

After seeing crazy amounts of adorable hand-made envelopes all over Flickr Groups and Etsy I decided to go ahead and make my own. The materials are few and the process fairly easy. To create these envelopes all you really need is... an x-acto knife with a new blade, any old magazine or book you are willing to sacrifice to the craft gods, a good glue (I like this ph neutral book binding glue), a random piece of card stock or thin cardboard, a ruler, and a surface you can cut on (I use a self healing cutting mat but the back of a magazine or a piece of cardboard might do).

So step one is to find a simple note-card sized envelope and gently disassemble it, or If you can use my Envelope Template printed on letter size paper. Use the template (or disassembled envelope) to trace on to the backside of the ad. Using your straightedge and x-acto trim out your envelope along the traced lines (if using the template these are the solid black lines). Fold along the dotted lines of the template and place a thin line of glue along each skinny flap. To finish simply press the bottom flap (see template) to the flaps where your glue lines are. After I glue each envelope I place it in a heavy book like the dictionary, or my favorite Vanity Fair, and after a few hours of drying (depending on your glue) you will have an amazing set of old magazine envelopes!

To turn this craft into a gift all you need is to make a matching set of 4-5 envelopes from an ad series (my set was created from a 7 page ad spread in Vogue...which I landed on for because of its heavier matte paper and vivid imagery). Then just add address labels, seals and wrap it all up in a cute matching box.

So it might be a little cliché but upon today, the re-birth of my blog, I felt the "back to the old drawing board" phrase more than fitting. Which is why the visual treat above is one of my '30 minute' pen drawings from college.

My little blog sprang up without much original purpose and survived a few rants and the usual self indulgent postings about nothing in particular before it began to gather dust, until now that is. I have brushed aside the cobwebs and given Frantic Pants a new purpose... crafting and artsy related joy. I am a graphic designer by trade, an artist in my heart and an avid crafter! So what better way to celebrate my crafty urban adventures than a blog... so welcome!

I would love to tell you what is to come, but if I could do that I would probably be working for Tarot.com writing people's horoscopes and not working in uncomfortable shoes while I crank out graphic design for the man. So be sure to check back in often and you might find...

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Another reason I'm not blogging here as much (for now) is that I also have to blog at work several times a week. I'm no longer contributing to Poetic Asides since I've changed jobs; I'm now posting here (it doesn't launch officially until March 17 -- I'll add it to my blogroll then and even do a little announcement about it, but go ahead and take a peek if you like, especially if you're into all kinds of crafts and needlework).

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Snow again tomorrow! This just isn't "us" in Southwestern Ohio, especially not in late February. Last Thursday night was the worst white-knuckle drive home I've had in a couple of years. It wasn't just the snow, which wasn't deep but was very slick; it was the traffic. I stayed at work until well after six and still ran into several bottlenecks. The most frustrating was the half hour it took to go the last quarter mile or so to my apartment. My complex is at the bottom of a curvy, steep hill, and cars were taking turns going up -- so I had to wait in line just to get to my apartment. By then the freezing rain had been falling for about 20 minutes, but it may have been a little less slick than the snow. Everything got crusty very quickly, which gave the road surface a little "tooth." 

A half hour later, overnight bag packed, I drove a couple of miles to my mother's house. Salt trucks had been through with their plows, so the roads were decent. I still skidded badly turning one corner, but I made the trip in 15 minutes or so, which was actually quicker than when there's normal traffic. 

I just hope it's not bad for the commute home tomorrow. I'm still trying to uncurl my fingers from gripping the wheel last week.

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Yes, I watched the Oscar telecast last night, even though I hadn't seen a single movie. I've heard so much about some movies that I felt quite familiar with them as their various nominations were announced.

I used to get very emotionally caught up in the Oscars. I rarely saw every movie released in any given year, but I usually had a favorite or two I was rooting for. I'd get so pumped when a movie or actor or musical score I particularly liked won. I kind of miss my own enthusiasm. I watched with mild interest and was pleased by some of the winners (I especially like the Coen brothers as writers and directors, although I don't know how soon I'll see No Country for Old Men -- I have this thing about really violent, gory movies), but nothing really made my night. Not like in the old days when I got some kind of vicarious thrill out of the Oscars. Not sure whether it's them, me, or a combination of the two.