Craft Talk

I've seen this from Leslie Hall several times today and I can't stop listening to it. Thanks Sarah, Zakka Life, Craftzine, and Craftastrophe.



My recollection is that gem and bedazzled sweaters were an early 90's phenomenon although they do look 80's. I was a crafty elementary school teacher, so I also was familiar with the iron-on applique puffy paint t-shirt thing of the same time period. In fact in 1993, I received a fully sequined t-shirt as a going away gift from my teacher friends back in Texas. Sadly, she used the wrong adhesive for the sparkles and they very quickly fell off. I don't usually wear sparkley things, but it was a quintessentially Texas sort of gift.

I love the way she says, "You sure looking happy, cause you make it snappy.. and not very crappy."

I also think "Do you want to paste together something we can use forever... I'm thinking Key Chains" could be the motto of our Chicagoland Craft Collective.

Enjoy! And "work through the pain" my craftastic friends.

Kreativ

Aww-- Thanks Nan!

Rules:List 6 things that make you happy. Pass the award on to 6 bloggers for Kreativ. Link to the blogger who gave you the award. Link to the blogs receiving the award. Notify the recipients

So.. 6 things that make me happy:

1) My family. My husband and I have the same goals and values. We enjoy many of the same things and agree on so many essential things about life and faith, except politics. We avoid discussing politics. Our children are delightful!

2) Nature and the outdoors. I love living where we have dramatic seasonal changes. I enjoy nature walks, geology, birdwatching, camping, cooking over the open fire, all that outdoorsey stuff is awesome.

3) Seeing movies at the movie theater.

4) The ability to see things and know that I can make them myself if I try hard enough. This is also a curse because I don't always have the will or the supplies to try hard enough.

5) Going away on vacation to a cool, quiet, natural place. If I can't do that, then I want to go somewhere historic and educational.

6) When we all sit down to supper together and everyone likes the food.


Okay, now for my 6 award choices. I read so many inspiring blogs! It is hard to narrow it down.

I love the creativity gone horribly wrong over at Craftasrophe.

Bent Objects makes the most humorous wire sculptures.

Syko makes fantastic things up in Finland.

Sharon-Lizette cooks vegan and creates gorgeous projects at NastyWench's All Things Crafty

Peacock Chic might inspire me to try harder at garment sewing.

Quilt While You're Ahead- beautiful, colorful projects.

Craftster Linking

The truth is that my little dyed lace project that got a Best of award at Craftster is cute and all, but is kind of lame when you see some of the other winners.

I'm going to do links here because I don't want anyone to get the idea that these are my crafts!

Merwing (Aimee Ray) honored her childhood heroes with charming embroideries.

Look at THIS fantastic crocheted mushroom house.

Mario is beloved by all, HERE in an epic crosstitch and his buddy Yoshi is HERE in glass mosaic.

This treasure map quilt is cute and inspired. This Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt is incredible. This pattern is very difficult and must be stitched entirely by hand.

This dinosaur play mat is ingenious and she even includes a pattern and instructions.

Doesn't she look cute in her Old Timey Bathing Costume?

Seriously, y'all have to dye your own wool with Kool-Aid or try dyeing your own self striping yarn. I also use food coloring droplets in a vinegar solution.

If you are quietly crafty, I encourage you to find a halfway decent camera and a bright area of your living space and start taking pictures and posting your creations on forums like Craftster. Craftster is my favorite because people are nice, not snarky, and the discussions stick to crafting. It really is inspiring to see all the things people make!

New Year

Ahh the new year.. We are crashing headlong into all sorts of stuff I forgot I was supposed to do..

I still had time this morning to fiddle on the computer. This video cracks me up. Note that it is from The Onion and is completely false, but seems like it is real.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Twas the Night for Latkes

This image is borrowed from Bent Objects. His blog is fantastic so you really should check it out. Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends and readers!

We were caught up with our Christmas weekend with out-of-town family and I didn't even realize the Festival of Lights has already begun. We are totally having latkes for supper tonight. I like any excuse to make these. My children cheer with joy when I serve them. I might even do some doughnuts too. Last year I tried doing jelly doughnuts and they were awful so I'll stick with the regular kind. We use Canola oil or that Smart Balance oil, so they aren't that bad, right? It is so super cold here in Chicagoland that we are all craving the fat and carbs anyway.

Creative Blog Feature!

I feel so lucky today to be featured by Kim on Today's Creative Blog!


My article is HERE. Thanks Kim! I'm tickled to be in such talented company! You really should check out all her awesome featured bloggers. Such inspiration! I'm particularly fascinated by people's creative work spaces..



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My brain is fried! We are having our first snowstorm and true to my winter biorythms, yesterday I was drowsy all day and wide awake at night so I got to see the weird snow lightning we had. The power went out when I was watching a spooky Korean ghost movie and crocheting... Don't ask me how I read subtitles and crochet at the same time, but it is fortunate that these Korean or Japanese horror movies are always about the same things: ghosts tormenting schoolgirls. Asians don't seem to have the same good vs. evil themes we have in our scary movies. It's always vengeful ghosts. I didn't see the end because the power went out at my house, but I suspect that the ghost was connected in some way to the scared schoolgirl's family past. They always are!

Snow lightening is odd because you can't hear any thunder. Since there was already a white blanket of snow on the ground, it was unearthly urban orangey light outside. Then just as the ghost was scratching at the window in my movie, the sky lit up bright orange like an explosion. I thought we were having some strange fire while the power crackled out. I went and peeked outside and it was that glorious, wonderful silence that you only experience during a snowstorm. All was well by morning although all our clocks are wrong. My kids even seem to fit into their boots from last year and my son has gotten to the wonderful middle-schooler age where they do not require snowpants every day during winter.

Goofy Videos

Maybe figuring out how to embed this video is more trouble than it is worth... I missed this goofy song, "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" from 30 Rock when it made the rounds last fall.



And this is a 10 minute video in Japanese of cats stealing fish. I cannot lie, I watched the whole thing:


Thanks to Cutesypoo for posting the cat video. Check out her blog for more entertaining videos.

Awarded and Tagged

Reading Carina just now(from whom I stole the title of this post), I remember that I also was awarded by Martha and now I've been tagged.
Here are the award rules:
(1) The winner can put the logo on their blog.
(2) Link the person you received your award from.
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
(4) Put links of those on yours.
(5) Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

Thanks Martha! I like your blog too. She just redecorated her house in some lovely greens. I promise I didn't copy you, Martha, but I changed out my brick red curtains a couple weeks ago for some new leafy green ones from Ikea.

Other blogs I like are Mom-O-Matic - She could only stay away from blogging for about 2 weeks and is thankfully back to keep us updated about the ups and downs of her family life.

Rebel's Work In Progress- She knits, but most notably, she abruptly quit her job to take up language studies in Thailand and is sharing her adventures.

Lily's Block-a-Day- I think she really does quilt a block a day. So inspiring!

Syko- Colorful charming whimsies from Finland

Welcome to Girl Land - Vintage adorables from my old stomping grounds in Metro Detroit

Feeling Stitchy - All the coolest embroideries are featured here.

Crazy Mom Quilts - Inspiration from another fabric junkie like me!



And then Carina tagged me (Carina, I love your blog too!)

The rules are: Post rules at the beginning of the post. Answer all of the questions, tag 6 people, go to their blog and leave them a comment to inform them that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog for rules. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answers.

1) What were you doing 10 years ago?
2) What are the 5 things on your to do list today?
3) Snacks you enjoy
4) Places you have lived
5) What are 5 things you would do if you were a Billionaire?
6) People you want to know more about


1) 10 years ago, I was caring for my 18 month old baby boy and living on a very tight budget working my way very slowly through graduate school in Michigan.

2) I just got over a migraine, so my to do list has already gone to hell.... I would have gotten something homemade cooked for supper, folded the rest of the laundry, finished sewing up the cut off bottoms of those Ikea curtains into tote bags and pillows, purchased some underwear that fits for my daughter, and retrieved my watch from the inside of our tent which is already compacted into it's nylon bag. I'll do that stuff tomorrow or maybe this evening..

3) I enjoy hummus, chocolate brownies, crackers and cheese, Japanese rice snacks, and cookies of all kinds

4) I have lived in Arlington Heights, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Winnetka, Illinois; Bloomington, Indiana; San Antonio, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Commerce Township, Michigan (this area is known as Metro Detroit and is quite distinct from actual Detroit); Grayslake Illinois, (which we sometimes refer to as "Almost Wisconsin"). I actually despise moving more than pretty much anything else, but you would never know it from all the times we've moved... (edit: Yipes What a dull list! We love the midwest!)

5)Honestly, I'm not sure I want the responsibility of being a billionaire. We are pretty happy already... I don't want my life to be about managing money so I think I wouldn't want people to really know that I was extremely wealthy. First we'd get hubby the new hearing aids he needs. For sure we'd finally take that dream trip to Alaska. We'd probably get a home in this same community that would have an office for my husband, a craft room for me, and a nice extra bedroom for visiting friends and family. I do not want to live in a giant house! And then there are all the charities we'd give to, and the tithe to the Presbyterian Church. We'd probably go a little bit wild with some extravagance, but wealth wouldn't make us suddenly not like camping or anything like that.


I tag anyone who is looking for blog inspiration!

RIP Bo Diddley

I listened to several Bo Diddley performances on You Tube last night and the beat is still going in my head this morning. I don't know how those audience members inthe video can sit still to that hopping beat! Many years ago, my brother was going to make a mix tape with only songs with the Bo Diddly beat. I don't think he ever got to it. Mr. Diddley grew up in Chicago and I read yesterday that he was always skeptical of the music industry, "A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun."

My son keeps pestering us to take him to Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. I hope we can go sometime soon. He'll love it.

Sewing Machine Song

Did you see this on the Craftzine Blog?


I can relate.. The sewing machine "a girl's best friend...At night I get so weary that I never get out to play".

I did get out tonight to my Chicagoland Craft Collective Meeting. It' so much fun with a great group of people. More about that tomorrow.

Five Years Ago

Today a big event in our family has been on my mind. 5 years ago, my husband was in a serious car accident. He's doing great, but that was a frightening time for us. Our son was in kindergarten and our little daughter was only 2 years old. I'd just decided not to take a new part time job and it was a good thing because all of our time became about helping his recovery.


This was him five years ago. It really was a bad accident and completely the fault of the other driver. Everyone survived and the other guy had no injuries. At the time, he felt he had to go right back to work. He really isn't a workaholic, but he is very responsible. Looking back, we should have taken a medical leave, but he still recovered. I did have to chauffeur him to-and-from work every day with the kids in the car. We listened to a lot of pop radio and Justin Timberlake and Snoop Dogg had big hits. It gets a little bit embarrassing when your 5-year old can quote Snoop Dogg....

This really was a tough time, and we got through it day by day. We feel extremely lucky and grateful since this event. Although it eventually led to my husband getting what we call an "amicable divorce" from his job. He was able to start his own business and we lived frugally on the settlement money while the business got underway. In many ways, our life is better since this accident. We had to confront some other issues and although I'd say we focused on the right things before, an event like this puts everything in sharp focus.

These days, he still had to drive and drive all over Chicagoland to see his customers. He once liked rollercoasters, but those are forever off limits as is downhill skiing, which we never did anyway. He always avoided heavy lifting or big jobs around the house and yard, but now he has an aching neck to blame.

Just today, I realized this car accident is part of the reason I'm still a stay-at-home mom, even though my children are both at school during the days. Having me at home gives us the calm, low-key life we all prefer. We all have our individual lives, but we are very much a team and support each other.

And completely changing the subject, I've been on a nostalgia trip on YouTube. I saw this several days ago and the tune is still going in my head. Anyone from the USA who was a kid in the 1970's will remember Schoolhouse Rock. These little shorts ran on Saturday mornings alongside the cartoons on network television. Some of us at a certain age can't read the words "We the People" without this tune embedding itself. It is election season here too, so I guess it is timely. My husband and I vote for completely different parties which only increases our resolve to vote in every single election in every race no matter how obscure in order to cancel out the other's vote.



Conjuction Junction is another good one as is A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing.

"I'm Just a Bill" is probably the most iconic of the Schoolhouse Rock shorts:


I also got nostalgic today about classic Sesame Street too. I'll save that for another day.

Happy New Year!

We are back from our post Christmas Road Trip. This year we went to Nashville and it was fun, but the Country Music Hall of Fame was a big disappointment. Can you imagine a music history museum with scarcely any music clips? We bought the audio tour and everything, but the audio tour has long (loong) speeches, and no music. What were they thinking?

We passed through Paducah, Kentucky on the way and went to the American Quilt Museum. It was lovely and is really a showcase of modern quiltmaking rather than a history of any kind, but it was nice and it had a whole exhibit on Kaffe Fassett. I found a lot of his fabrics int he remnant bin at Hancocks of Paducah.

This video cuts out too soon at the very end, but legendary Hank Williams died suddenly on New Years Day at the age of 29 in 1955. I guess he used to make the women swoon with his lanky good looks.



Of course, we hardly heard any of him at the Hall of Fame.. we had to go home and research him on YouTube....

High Five

Since I didn't make the turkey, we find that we are woefully lacking in delicious Thanksgiving leftovers. My husband likes the turkey sandwiches better than the regular meal. I might cook a small turkey this week just for us just to make up for it.

Meanwhile, This video cracks me up every time I watch it:

New Camera!

Yay! Thanks to my hubby for getting me just what I wanted for my birthday including a homemade chocolate cake with raspberries. My daughter picked out a funky necklace at the craft show and my son got me Simpsons dvds that we can watch together.



Photo taken with my old camera.... I thought I wanted a nice SLR, but maybe changing lenses isn't really my thing. This one has better more user friendly settings than my old one. We actually did some research and this one has some top ratings. Hopefully it can take brighter more detailed shots!

and completely outside of crafting... Roger Ebert says this video is the greatest YouTube video of all time. See if you can name all the movies. Roger did, sort of... from his AnswerMan column: "I got them all. Not always by title, of course. A lot of them I correctly identified as, 'Oh, yeah, that movie!' "



I'm pretty sure I've seen all 100 of those movies, or at least 90 of them. How about you?

Wardi.DK

Pile of granny triangles, originally uploaded by wardi.

I've been interviewed by the wonderfully talented Carina over at her blog, Wardi.dk. I first spotted her blog awhile back when she posted these gorgeous triangle crochet granny squares. Aren't they fantastic?

My interview is HERE.

She also contributes lovely embroideries to our Flickr Embroidery group. Look at this happy summertime pincushion:

Pincushion challenge - Summertime, originally uploaded by wardi.

Here is another embroidery that suggests the changing seasons:

Seasons embroidery, originally uploaded by wardi.

She is also a talented softie maker. These went to the recent Plush You event:

The three Quapos, originally uploaded by wardi.

Thanks, Carina for interviewing me. I admire your work very much!

Rockin Girls

Floresita nominated me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger last week. Thanks so much! I sort of can't believe people I've not met in real life read this. Actually, it so happens that the people I do know in real life don't read it either, only the ones who are craft obsessed...

Yesterday, I was reading up on various people's accounts of the BlogHer conference that was here in Chicago last weekend. Did you know that bloggers (particularly I gather, Mommy Bloggers) get approached by PR people? I have never heard of that. Does this happen to crafty bloggers too?

Anyway, Amy Sedaris was the big star at BlogHer, eclipsing Elizabeth Edwards and the winner of Project Runway, Chloe. I did not attend, but was pleased to hear that Amy Sedaris livened things up for the crafty types. At one point she pointed out that her book "is very visual so it's good for for illiterate people." See a video clip HERE.

Well, that's a roundabout way of saying that's the kind of blogs I like best. The ones with giant colorful pictures of luscious crafts and a cute or funny story here and there. I just started using Google Reader and now I can browse gazillions of blogs every day.

So now I should nominate 5 people.

I adore Floresita and her Vintage Transfer Finds blog. Flor also contributes to Feeling Stitchy.
Does she count though since she's already been nominated?

I love reading Craft Critique. My friends over there just might get me started collecting paper crafting and stamping supplies.

Have you seen Softies Central? Almost every day she posts pictures of the best handmade softies around.

Kleas is another crafter who prefers needlework like I do.

Sunshine's Creation's has lots of the wonderful traditional things I love. She's inspired me to find my tatting shuttle and get going on some trim. And today she's got gazillions of yo-yo's photographed. One day I'll get going on more yo-yos too.

Wardi.DK makes beautiful projects. Check out her gorgeous pincushion HERE inspired by the colors of Denmark.

There is so much inspiration, I can scarcely tear myself away from the computer to get my crafting done! I've been kind of wordy lately for someone who likes big juicy pictures. I did do some stitching today, but for a swap, so it's Top Secret.

Timothy Teacup

Oops! I forgot to share the awesome mascot/stuffie made for me by Peachcake!

Here's Timothy Teacup:



And the whole package:



She added some yummy teas and a delicious walnut chewy chocolate candy. Thanks, Peachcake! She even came to my meeting of the Chicagoland Craft Collective so we could exchange in person. At the meeting, we practiced some of my personal fave embroidery stitches. I prefer doing the chain stitch, while Donna is a master stem stitcher. French knots are tricky too, but once you get the hang of them, they are awesome. Here's a post from one of my new favorite blogs about french knots.

I got wrapped up in a giant project uploading all of our family photos onto flickr. Good Heavens! We've taken a LOT of photos! It could be that we've actually taken a normal amount of pictures, it's just that uploading them all makes it seem like more.... I ordered one of those bound books you get from those publishing services with some of our pictures from this year. I hope it looks good, I'm not so much into organizing photo albums and scrapbooking, although I do like to page through pictures.


And totally outside of crafting and collecting: I came upon this article in Slate. So do you know the Aunt Jackie dance? I guess it's the latest thing in Harlem. Last year's big craze was the Chicken Noodle Soup("with a soda on the side".) I totally missed that one, which is not surprising, since I'm a 39 year old housewife in the middle of outer-suburbia. Those kids are really having a blast. Here's a school principal entertaining his school last fall with the "let it rain" move. That's probably the only move I can do too. I need a very supportive jogging bra if I really want to take up this sort of dancing, but my daughter is trying it out. My son is getting to that middle schooler age where he is too cool for silly moves like these. I have very few opportunities to test out dance moves since we only go to weddings every couple of years, and I'm of the "Love Shack" era. These songs with their "old school flow" are really stuck in my head now.

Fabric Stack

Fabric Stack 1, originally uploaded by IamSusie.

These are fabrics from a kit I bought at the Chicago Quilt Festival. Normally I don't go for kits, but it's been so long since I've made a quilt, I thought getting a bunch of coordinated fabrics would jump start me. The kit was for a child quilt so I added some fabrics from my stash to have enough to get a lap quilt from it.

It's going to be this pattern. I have had trouble doing this type of star in the past. I did it for a friend's baby quilt. On this pattern however, notice how the genius designer made the star tips just a little bit away from the seam so I don't have to worry about sewing through the tips of the stars? Non-quilters will have no idea about this, but trust me.. I think this one will go together pretty nicely.

I already cut out most of the colors. My daughter wants me to teach her how to sew the leftover scraps into a doll quilt. I think she's ready...

And here's some links:

Mariska's pattern for the little chick she designed for me in our swap here.

Novastarlet's gallery of regional Hello Kitty Japanese omiyagi (souvenirs) here. Really, this is fascinating..

And I'm still waiting for my package to arrive, but check out the felt food swap gallery we did on Craftster. People made amazing packages. The swap thread is about 16 pages long, but if you click on the blue tab that says "Show Images Only" you can see the pictures only without all our chitchat and encouragements.