Linda organized a fantastic patchwork swap this spring and I was very lucky to be paired with Sarah! This lovely hand-decorated box from her appeared on my porch a couple of weeks ago… …and the paper doll theme continued with her handmade gift to me — she made photos of me and Pearl into dolls…
I’m finally feeling better and I’ll be back with an actual crafty post tomorrow, but for now I wanted to make a quick announcement to any fellow Portland sports lovers: my father-in-law Paul Dickson will be at Powell’s tomorrow night, May 1, to read from and sign his Dickson Baseball Dictionary! If you’re a baseball…
Wow, after a super busy week and a lot of things I’m excited about and wanted to mention (mason jars! inventing some hanging flower baskets! estate sales! garden! making a cookbook!) I am suddenly feeling horribly under the weather so I’m going to save those bits and pieces for another day. Bummer. I do have…
I am still completely obsessed with terrariums and I’m always on the lookout for Mason jars… but this week I branched out and made one on a smaller scale, using a baby food jar! I think it turned out pretty cute. I wrote it up for CraftStylish: how to recycle baby food jars into a…
I made a new owl toy project this month — this time, he’s a baby-friendly bigger cousin of the Big-Eyed Owl toy from Button It Up! To keep him safe for the smallest children to play with, I replaced the covered-button eyes with felt circles, and left off the button claws. To make up for…
I just snapped up Diane’s FANTASTIC new e-book, Making a Great Blog, and I am happily reading it. And I just got to a very sweet surprise, a mention of Bead Simple, among all the other fabulous bits and pieces decorating Diane’s clear, thoughtful and inspiring advice — she works in so many lovely things,…
Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day! Blazers in the playoffs! And a raised bed!
Months and months go by and I don’t manage to get anything sewn at all, but this one little week has been so exciting sewing-wise! Two fun tutorials I did just went up, and I made Pearl a crafty little Easter basket, too. Triumph x 3 after a very long drought! If you’re in the…
I thought I’d try to collect some favorite bits and pieces from the Handmade Nation weekend and write about what I loved the most. Instead of posting photos one by one by one, I put 16 favorites (from me, Lee, Kim, and Diane, all collected from the excellent flickr pools here and here) into a…
I thought I’d write up some of my favorite places to find vintage and new buttons… and the first shop I want to spotlight is The Needle, right here in Portland. It’s a tiny shop full of fascinating books, antiques, and ephemera, including bowls full of vintage buttons to sift through and choose your favorites!…
This weekend (the Handmade Nation premiere and panel, Crafty Wonderland‘s big 3rd birthday, lovely crafty friends in town, the Final Four games and Carolina’s victory, the Blazers clinching the playoffs) was amazing but I am in a whirlwind of tying up loose ends and finishing work and planting things, and my writing just for fun…
Last Sunday night, I helped make pennants and fill goody bags for the Handmade Nation premiere at the Museum of Contemporary Craft! I snapped a few photos if you want a peek… The gocco prints and lettering are by the fabulous Kate Bingaman-Burt and the bags are courtesy of CraftStylish and Princeton Architectural Press, the…