and the winners are…
February 27, 2009 at 11:42 am | Posted in books and mags, button it up, chatty | 6 Comments
I picked the random numbers yesterday but haven’t had time to post until now… so here are the four winners! Congratulations!
First, Lyndsay (51) and Hope (73) both won signed copies of Button It Up…
Lyndsay said: “Congratulations on your new book! I can’t wait to see it when it comes out. And of course I’d love to win a copy! Buttons are super fun to get crafty with. My grandmother gave me a tin canister full of buttons from her and her mother (my great grandmother) so I have lots of old buttons to play with. Thanks for the chance to win this great giveaway!”
Hope said: “Oh, the book sounds fabulous. I’ve got scores and scores of buttons that I can’t seem to find enough uses for. I’ve got the old tin that my great-grandmother and then mother used to store buttons; I’ve got another stash that my best friend’s mom gave to me; more I’ve found at garage sales; and the odd few that I bought at craft stores.
Some of them I’ve sorted by color into baby food jars (which are just not big enough) and have them displayed on a tiered platter because they look good enough to eat.
Oh I can’t wait for the book to find more ways to use them. Hurray!!”
And miss james (62) and essymar (50) won button stashes!
miss james said: “my (now color-sorted) button collection has never looked so appealing…”
essymar said: “Congrats on the book! I love getting buttons at antique and thrift stores. There is one antique store here in my little town that almost always has something that will work for whatever little knit project I’m working on at the time. My most recent project involving buttons was a slew of snake shaped scarves for Christmas gifts with button eyes. It was fun looking for the perfect buttons to match the color and texture of each.”
I want to thank everyone for the really wonderful comments on the giveaway post. I loved reading them all — so many great ideas and so many sweet stories about crafty grandmothers’ button collections — which is exactly how I fell in love with buttons too. Playing with buttons and sorting them out and stirring them all up is one of my favorite memories of my childhood, and I loved hearing about other people’s too. So thank you!
And I will post more about this next week (when the book is officially out — yay!) but I hear there will be a couple more book giveaways coming up on a few of my favorite crafty sites… stay tuned. And have a great weekend in the meantime.
felt! food!
February 25, 2009 at 9:59 pm | Posted in chatty, crafting with kids | 6 CommentsOh, this is a busy week! I just wanted to share this photo of all the felt food from our swap this month… so awesome. I made 20 sets of the little tiny fortune cookies at the top and got back all this cool stuff for me, I mean Pearl. Thanks, everyone!
(I put notes on this photo on flickr if you want to peek at all the handmade details…)
I just love felt. It is a miracle crafting substance.
I’ll be back tomorrow with prize winners and button stash photos!
three good things
February 23, 2009 at 12:32 pm | Posted in button it up, chatty, new writing!, oregon | 1 CommentJust a Monday round-up of things I like…
First, I am so excited that Sarah, who contributed her magnificent button tree to Button It Up, is offering up an amazing giveaway: she has made another button tree and will be giving it away to one lucky blog reader! Hurry over to her Let’s Celebrate post and comment to enter to win. Her adorable son Jack is showing off her beautiful project in the book here — I love this picture so much. Yay, Jack!
Speaking of giveaways, tomorrow is the deadline for my books and buttons contest, too — please swing by and tell me a little story about buttons before midnight tomorrow and I’ll draw the four winners on Wednesday morning. Thank you again to everyone who’s commented so far!
Also — I have a new mini-tutorial up at CraftStylish, how to make pet photo magnets, if you want to check it out.
This was a fun one to do — not only did I get to spotlight Sarah‘s Saoirse and Caitlin‘s Patches, it was such a cool throwback to the good old pink-and-brown getcrafty days (1999-2000-2001). It reminded me so much of having friends over to our old apartment on 20th to cut up magazines and glue endless sets of marble magnets together. Good times! Anyway, it is a fun and easy little project to do, whether you use photos, art paper, magazines, color-copied fabric, or your own drawings… you name it, it looks pretty good under glass.
Last, I took this little ten-second video last weekend when we were in Salem for the Sesquicentennial party.
I am a pretty terrible gardener, all I successfully pulled off last summer was a bumper crop of zinnias, but this really makes me want to try some kind of ornamental shrubbery I can turn into letters to adorn our yard. Maybe spelling out P-E-A-R-L?
Props to the Salem Area Garden Club for such a lovely example of state pride!
Home Ec + StitchCraft = true love
February 20, 2009 at 3:33 pm | Posted in books and mags, california, crafting with kids, crafty events | 1 CommentFor about the millionth time, I wish I could be in a few places at once… and this weekend, I would love to be in California! We are planning a trip down there in May and I can hardly wait to visit these super crafty places and learn a thing or two.
Tonight is the kickoff party for Home Ec, Jenny Ryan‘s lovely craft studio venture with Tootie and Billie of ReForm School! As a bonus, along with the crafty treats to check out, classes to browse, and cupcakes to enjoy, she’ll be signing copies of her fantastic new book, Sew Darn Cute.
It sounds like such a fabulous evening — if you are in Southern California and get to go I would love to hear all about it! Home Ec is offering some amazing classes, including paper-maiche jewelry, power tool empowerment for women, and this awesome kids’ charm bracelet class taught by Laura Stokes-Estrada.
Meanwhile, in Petaluma, Nicole Vasbinder of Queen Puff Puff is celebrating too — her StitchCraft studio has been open for a year, so she is offering her customers 20% off on all her fabric and craft supplies!
Besides all the pretty things she has for sale, Nicole also offers some amazing sewing and craft classes, from a-line skirts (my personal favorite sewing project, ever) to running your own crafty business, pattern-making and draping, and creating a custom-fitted duct tape dress form (which I have always wanted to do). Here’s a photo from one of her recent handbags classes… so cute.
I got to stop in and check everything out the month StitchCraft opened, and it’s such a lovely place to find something pretty or learn something new! Be sure to keep an eye on the blog for more shop + class announcements, too.
for Ike
February 19, 2009 at 2:57 pm | Posted in craftivism | 5 Commentshello! I hope you’ve already seen lots about this very worthy cause to support, but I wanted to post about Baby Ike and his family here too…
By now, many of you have heard about Baby Ike here in Austin who is currently in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Dell Children’s Hospital, sedated, on paralytic medications and recovering from an operation in which he received a tracheostomy. Ike’s mom, Kari Anne Roy, is a brilliantly hilarious writer and a beloved member of the Austin community. She and her sweet family have been put through the wringer this year. You can read their full story on the Ike-a-saurus web site, and be sure to check out how the “Ike-a-saurus” name came to be.
Rachel also suggests five ways that we can help as crafters and craft-buyers, and thanks to her ideas I am pleased to announce that everything in my Etsy shop (all of my Bead Simple kits and next week, a signed copy of Button It Up) is for sale with all proceeds going directly to the Roy family. If you have a chance to spread the word or get involved yourself, they are welcoming all crafty and financial support.
My heart goes out to Kari Anne, Steven, Sam and Georgia, and I am sending my love and best wishes. I have not talked about it much over here, but this has been a tough year and my own little baby, Pearl, has had some persistent medical problems. After some very hard months, we’ve had the gift of working with some wonderful doctors and therapists at the children’s hospital here in Portland, and I am more grateful than I can say that she is doing so much better. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for the Roy family as they face this crisis so bravely — I’m hoping that Ike’s treatments will be gentle, his recovery will be quick, and that they will be together at home again very soon!
Thank you for reading and please let Rachel know if you would like to join the cause as well!
orla kiely revisited
February 18, 2009 at 1:37 pm | Posted in chatty, house crafty | 4 CommentsI got a few more pieces of Orla Kiely’s housewares stuff yesterday and I just love it. As a bonus, it inspired me to clean the dining room — it’s deteriorated into a piles-of-mail and stroller-debris world for the last while, and that stuff is not nearly as fun to look at as pears are.
While I would love to have the whole line to hang out with, in my crafty dreams at least, some of it (like the pear canisters, which I think are adorable) is not really Andrew’s thing, and it’s his house too. So I’ll be admiring everything pretty in the Orla Kiely pool instead. Half of it was gone from my Target by the time I got there anyway, so it’s cool to see what other people snapped up.
spring sewing
February 17, 2009 at 3:20 pm | Posted in books and mags, house crafty, I love to make things..., projects to do | 3 CommentsI’m getting super excited about some new sewing projects, just in time for some really lovely craft books coming out… so I wanted to give a heads up that I’ll be doing a little review and giveaway at CraftStylish next month for two of my brand-new favorites, Jenny Ryan’s Sew Darn Cute
and Kathy Cano-Murillo’s Crafty Chica’s Guide to Artful Sewing!
They are both fantastic collections — super-inspiring and filled with handy tips and extras along with the very cool projects. I’m looking forward to the interviews!
Speaking of sewing, I’m in the middle of making something for myself to wear (for the first time since before I was pregnant, I think, so that’s 18 months at least… wow). Here’s a sneak peek — I’m hoping to be done and wearing it out and about in the next few days.
I edged it with folded twill tape, and it gave me an idea for some sewing-room organizing. Until this morning, I kept all my bias tape in a huge jar, jammed in there so that I couldn’t really see what I had unless I dragged it all out. I recently did a little upcycling project to convert a plain can to a beaded scissors-holder, so I thought I’d do something similar with my bias tape menagerie…
I divided it into two groups: workhorse (plain/solid colors) and fun (patterns, lacy edges, tiny baby-width for cute projects) and put each set in an industrial-sized tin can like the one I used for the scissors.
Then I cut two lengths of bias tape in colors I had a bunch of and hot-glued it on in horizontal stripes. The whole project took about five minutes, counting the hot glue gun heating up, and now the cans are hanging out with my jars of ribbon and cup of sewing tools, ready to go.
I also reorganized some of my other craft shelves and now (with a few more Orla pieces from Target) I like it all so much more! Much easier to find what I’m looking for and easier on the eyes, too.
Now, I’m waiting out Pearl’s next naptime so I can get back to that tantalizing sewing project…
pretty pet tags
February 16, 2009 at 3:09 pm | Posted in crafting with kids, new writing!, projects to do | 1 CommentIt’s been a busy weekend, what with crossing county lines and all, so I’ll be quick today and show you a shrink art project I did over at CraftStylish. I don’t know if you also became addicted to shrink art as a kid, but I still love making little things with it. Julian and I have done some cool projects together, and I’m looking forward to the magical time when Pearl can use scissors, markers, toaster oven, and hole punch (not real soon, obviously) for some shrink art collaborations, too!
This time I did a little set of pretty pet tags. And since we don’t actually have a pet to craft for, Caitlin was nice enough to offer her sweet kitty Patches up for modeling duty. I think she looks very nicely accessorized with the floral scallop-edged one on… though the P one sure looks good on her too.
Anyway, if you want to make up a set of your own, I wrote up the super-simple tutorial over here — thanks to Caitlin and Patches for their glamorous contribution!
happy birthday, Oregon!
February 14, 2009 at 11:04 am | Posted in oregon | 3 Comments
Happy birthday, Oregon! We’re off to Salem to celebrate with everyone, but speaking of birthdays, Andrew surprised me with the beautiful Sesquicentennial Pendleton blanket last month for mine. One of my treasures, for sure.
Hope you have a wonderful Sesquicentennial, and a lovely Valentine’s Day wherever you may be!
schmancy-ness from coast to coast!
February 13, 2009 at 4:21 pm | Posted in art and craft, washington | 1 CommentKristen emailed me this week about the opening she’s hosting tonight at Schmancy, I will never forget you. It looks lovely! I wish I could make it up to Seattle for the show, but I’ll definitely be there sometime soon. It’s been far too long, I had such a great time at her Plush You! opening awhile back — could that really be the last time I was up there?!
One of the featured artists is Portland’s own Betsy Walton, and here’s one of her pieces from the show, I will not forget you:
Kristen also sent over some photos from her opening last week (in New York — busy girl!), Forget-Me-Not at Gallery Hanahou. It includes some gorgeous embroidered work from some of my favorite artists, like Heidi Kenney, Jenny Harada, and Kayte Terry.
She and Kayte led a very cool crafty workshop as part of the opening weekend, which looked like so much fun…
Anyway, if you are not in either place (like me… sigh) you can see all the work from Schmancy here, from Gallery Hanahou here, and browse Kristen’s other fantastic finds at the Schmancy online shop. Happy Friday the 13th!
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
