Maggie's Crafting Adventures

Tour de Sock

2011-10-05T10:22:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I am about to say this, but I am currently knitting in a sock race. Yes, a knitting race. That is probably the only type of race this woman is ever going to run. Anyway, the event is a fundraiser for Doctors without Borders, and you can see details here . If you look to the right there are links to go read about and or donate to Doctors without Borders. I am most definitely not a leader, as I am finished only one sock so far, and some people have finished the whole pair. But I will keep plugging along.

My family seems to think I am insane. They got a chuckle last night when I mentioned my team. "There are teams, too?"

Hats for Sailors

2011-09-13T08:43:00.003-05:00

This morning I read a blog entry over at Adventures in Paradise
about a project to get knitters to donate enough hats to give one to each sailor on a ship. I read along last year but never got my act together to make any hats. This year I am determined to knit at least a couple of hats to send in to the effort. I feel like that is the least I can do...

Flashback Friday Labor Day Edition

2011-09-02T09:50:00.004-05:00

Here is the little girl Maggie chillin' poolside, to wish you a relaxing Labor Day weekend!

Flashback Friday July 29, 2011

2011-07-29T07:39:00.004-05:00

I have been thinking a lot about my mom this week. Last Tuesday would have been her birthday and yesterday was the closing on her condo (fingers still crossed here that it went ok!). I love this photo of my parents on their wedding day. It was August 25, 1951 and their reception was in my grandparents back yard.

Check out all of the Flashback Friday posts at Heya, Sparky!

It's Like it was Another Lifetime Ago

2011-07-26T16:42:00.002-05:00

pinwheel quilt 072611, a photo by magscrafts on Flickr.

Recently, we have been working on a huge home cleanout. Some of this was sparked by the fact that our family was cleaning out my mom's condo to sell, so to bring some of her stuff home, some other things had to go. Then of course there are some redecorating plans.

So my husband calls to say let's go eat out, and get some paint samples for the bedroom. I had a vision of the bedroom that involves a blue that matches a quilt I had started long ago. I was not even sure I wanted the quilt anymore, but still wanted the color palette. I went digging in the sewing bins in the basement to find the fabrics. Once I found them, I was amazed! I had finished 25 blocks! How had I gotten so far, yet never finished??? I think the reason I did not finish it was because I had used all my main fabric, but did not have enough blocks to make it the size for a queen sized bedspread like I had originally planned.

I recently bought a new white textured bedspread, so this quilt would just be more folded on the end of the bed and pulled up in the winter for extra warmth. I am sure to the quilter's among you the fabric and the pattern are quite dated, but I still love them, so I am going for it!!

This whole cleanup process is a bit like an out of body experience. We look through shelves of books or long hidden boxes and wonder who was this person that bought this or put it in this box? I know that these quilt blocks were started in a class, but I have absolutely no recollection of being in this class, how long ago it was, or even where I took the class. It's like it was all another lifetime ago...

Flashback Friday - The Day Trip Edition

2011-07-22T10:08:00.006-05:00

In a recent attempt to organize our house, I found a big bag of film that we had never had developed. I have lately been sending them off 2 or 3 at a time to Snapfish to get developed. It has been nice remembering the nearly forgotten events recorded on these rolls. It also shows the great advantage of digital photography, that you can see the photos right away and retake as needed. We have a lot of really bad photos. Anyway, one day many moons ago, our family took a day trip into DC. To let you know how long ago it is now, here is a photo:

The blonde on the left is now a bearded 21 year old and the red head on the right is now 6'5" tall and a 16 year old football player.

We went to the FDR memorial, which I think had been only recently opened at the time. It is an interesting memorial, with a series of realistic statues. Here is a bread line:

The thing about the realism, though, is that people were posing with the statues for photos, and to me that somehow diminishes the reverence that a memorial should possess. It seemed ok when people joined the bread line, but not so much when people sat on FDR's lap like he was Santa or something.

After that we went to the Korean War Memorial, another design with a bit of realism:

Somehow the way the pathways were set up for traffic flow, and I think because there were stone pillars in the grass, people got the message not to join the soldiers in the field. (Actually, as a side note, I just looked up the memorial online, and the field is filled with juniper shrubs, not grass, so that is probably more why there were no photo ops with the soldiers.) It was a moving experience. The memorial also includes a shiny stone wall, which reflects the soldiers from the field. Also, etched into the wall are a variety of images of people involved in the war.

We also went to the Vietnam Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial that day. Looking at these photos made me miss the days when our kids were little and we could just declare "hey, let's go for a ride" and everyone's schedules were clear.

Welcome to My Office!

2011-07-20T11:15:00.002-05:00

07-19-11_1047.jpg, a photo by magscrafts on Flickr.

This is the third summer my boy Matt has been doing football conditioning camp at his school. Camp is just long enough that it makes no sense for me to trek all the way home. Summer #1 I would go to Starbucks or a park until the local library opened and I could go use their internet. Summer #2, I discovered the joy of hanging out at Panera and using their internet. Well, this summer, evidently the rest of the people in PG county also discovered that Panera, as it is full to the gills most days. So, armed with my trusty notebook computer outfitted with a mobile broadband, I have been hanging out in the shade at Allen Pond Park. This is a great park, with a large pond, shaded picnic tables, clean restrooms. What more could a person need?

Yesterday, as I was knitting away happily on a lovely purple sock, I got some wildlife visitors. First, there was the friendly squirrel that I was convinced was going to forage through my purse. There were also a bunch of little birds, bathing in the sandy area around the picnic tables. I love watching the birdies roll around in the sand. Next, a couple of fuzzy visitors dropped down from the trees:

Two of these white fluffy caterpillars with brown faces and big brown spikes joined me. The smaller of them even sat on my knitting pattern for about 40 minutes before he went on his way.

I wanted to also take a photo of the giant army of ants marching up the bathroom wall, but there was someone else in the bathroom and I figured she would not be thrilled to hear me snapping pictures in there.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-29T09:32:00.003-05:00

Project Let's Make Sweaters that Fit Us

2011-06-27T17:20:00.005-05:00

Since I started knitting with a vengeance a little over a year ago, I have made 54 different items. Only one of these was a sweater for me. The main reason for this is because as a plus size really tall woman, I am a bit of a fitting nightmare.

But, you know what? That is the reason I SHOULD be knitting for myself. Not many stores are going to market to a woman over 6 feet tall, much less a plus sized one.

So on Ravelry, I joined a number of groups for plus size knitters, and often what I found was that many of them were also knitting tons of socks and not many sweaters. Plus mittens, scarfs, all the stuff that does not need much fitting. The best group I found was one called Knitting at Large, which is a group "Dedicated to the proposition that all women deserve sweaters that fit

Through this group I found this book : Knitting Plus

Within the group, we started a knitalong for a very simple sweater called Banstead. This sweater is all in stockinette stitch with no cables, so we can concentrate on getting the fit right without having to work around major stitch design elements.

I have knit the first sleeve, and am halfway through the second. I knit on this project mainly while I wait for my son at school while he lifts weights for football. Today I worked on it in a lovely park while he was at conditioning camp.
06-27-11_1102.jpg, a photo by magscrafts on Flickr.

By the way, Amy Herzog, over at Knit, Stash, Repeat is working on a project to try to make the measurements designers use for plus sizes more realistic. To do this she is asking us plus sized women to donate our measurements to a data base she is making.

Flalshback Friday- The Who is that Edition

2011-06-24T08:39:00.004-05:00

As you get older, it gets harder to flash back with any degree of accuracy. My classmates and I are turning 49 this year. We have recently reconnected through Facebook. One of our friends lives in Colorado these days, and she mentioned a few months back that she would be in NJ in early July if we wanted to get together. This led to much planning, and not a little bit of reminiscing.

So I posted this photo:It is from the Kingsmen Indoor Colorguard of West Deptford, NJ. We were at the big championship in 1980 in Wildwood, NJ at the convention center. After this the details get sketchy, and the Facebook comments got hysterical. If you never marched color guard, suffice it to say that it takes hours and hours of practice to get your show as perfect as you can. And some of us had been marching together for 4 years at this point. At the time, it was the most desperately important thing to us. But evidently, since then, ZAP all memory of events has left our collective brains. Not only could we not recognize each other, we could not even recognize OURSELVES. Some of us could not even remember for sure if we had even been in it that year!

I wanted to tell my kids about this phenomenon, let them know that these things that cause so much stress for them now will someday just be a distant semi-memory. My kids are guys though, so this conversation would just make them look at me like I am crazy or something.

The fuzzy brain kids in the photo turned out ok- among us we have a school board member, a music store owner, an advertising exec. I just hope we come out of our fog enough to talk to each other at our get together.

If you want to join in on Flashback Fridays, check out Heya, Sparky for details. Or click the block below.

Feeling the Sock Love

2011-03-05T20:54:00.006-05:00

new sock book!!! a photo by magscrafts on Flickr.

So I already mentioned here in this space before, that the knitting bug has hit me hard in the past year. In January, I purchased the book knit.sock.love. This is an absolutely beautiful book full of sock patterns, with amazing artistic photography for each sock.

I then joined a group on Ravelry that is focused on knitting each and every of the 19 (yes, 19!!) sock patterns within this book. We start one each month (I tend to stay up until midnight and cast on as soon as its legal.) and we have 2 months to knit each pair, so there is overlapping of the schedule.

In January I knit Hedera:

The sock of the month for February was Monkey. I loved Monkey so much that after I finished this pair:

I cast on this pair:

Now in March, we started Thelonius. I made this set of stitch markers to keep me on track.

Here is my cast-on photo of Thelonius:
I am much further along now, working on the heel of that sock, praying I have enough yarn to get me to the tip of the toes.

So my sock frenzy has gotten me working on some knitting related stuff for my business as well. I offer stitch markers for sale, and I made this banner and placed an ad on Ravelry to drum up some more business for my stitch markers.

I also have plans to make some project bags and needle rolls, partly to stop my mad addiction to carrying everything around in zip lock bags. I am working out a design that will let me easily hang my project bag on the arm of my chair while I sit at football practice, but also let my buddy Ruth hang hers from her belt while she stands at auctions and knits. (It was Ruth's attempt at hanging her project off her belt in a ziplock bag that led me down this path originally, so she gets free prototypes to test out.)

So watch this space for product updates, as well as reports on my knit.sock.love knitalong progress.

Oh, and my apologies for anyone who goes to sign up for my business newsletter and is annoyed by the captcha. I never used one before, but some moron signed up for my newsletter like 1300 times with trashy gmail addresses, so it called for drastic measures. Sorry!

Flashback Friday

2011-02-17T23:56:00.004-05:00

First of all, I want to include this photo, as yesterday would have been his birthday:

I was in a funk all day, I think because of this, plus the fact that on that day last year, mom went into the hospital.

On another flashback note, I have been gradually mailing my mystery bag of film off to Snapfish for developing. Today they posted this old photo:

I am not positive what year this was, but my kids are now 16 and 21, so definitely this was many moons ago. We had gone to the B+O Train Museum, which let me tell you was a wonderful haven for little boys! In many of the photos the little redhead is just a blur, he was running around so excitedly. The day even included a ride on a train pulled by Thomas the Tank Engine!(and I notice that you can still get that ride today, but I don't guess either kid would still be interested.)

Flashback courtesy of Christopher and Tia:

In With the New

2010-12-30T00:21:00.006-05:00

The new year is quickly approaching, and I need to buckle down, force myself out of my funk and go full force into 2011 with a positive attitude. With that in mind, I am thinking about what my goals should be for the new year. (I don't like to call them resolutions, I feel like that sets me up for incredible doom!)

A Facebook friend invited me to join a group of jewelry makers, which would post pictures of some daily progress toward our line of jewelry. I joined with an enthusiasm that I hope will last. That got me thinking that my first "goal" will be to try a lot of the new techniques that I have been meaning to try. I have started jotting down ideas, mostly in the jewelry realm because I wanted to be prepared for daily jewelry progress.

I also searched Ravelry looking at knitting patterns, and set up a queue of projects many of which involve techniques I want to either learn or really improve in. As a start, I am working on these colorwork mittens:
They are great practice for the colorwork, which thanks to someone commenting on Ravelry, I finally learned a technique for how to hold both yarns that will work for the odd way I knit. It also has the first braid and picot edge I have ever knit.

Then Santa got me some sock yarn, needles and a book about knitting socks from the toe up, so I started on these babies:
They are really loud, but if you are going to knit socks, you don't want them to be boring!

Anyway, so goal one is Try New Things. We'll see how far I get.

Flashback Friday- The Formal Dining Experience Edition

2010-07-23T08:39:00.003-05:00

This week I started a mammoth project which involves scanning the photos of at least 2 lifetimes. My brothers and I are in the process of sorting through my mom's stuff to prepare her condo to sell. There were a ton of family photos in there, some as far back as our grandmother's childhood. We agreed to split the modern photos randomly 3 ways- we all pretty much have photos of our own kids, but wanted some of them with their cousins. But when it comes to the photos of our childhood, our parents' childhood and our grandparents' childhood, we all wanted copies. So I piled the photos into the van (this helped a little to convince me to pass on some other stuff!) and then on Monday I started scanning.

I decided to not really edit- I would scan everything (except really blurry or things like the photo of an unidentified baby from the neck down). What dominated the first batch of scans were a number of photos of really rather formal dinners:

This was my father's side of the family. His mother died when he was quite young, and he grew up in a household with his father and four aunts. We always called them collectively "The Aunties". I don't remember being particularly impressed by the cooking of The Aunties, what I remember is the formality of the whole occasion. I think these photos are probably a holiday because my uncle and his family were there too, but they would put out a spread like this on any random Sunday, too. And for The Aunties, good manners were beyond crucial.

I am not sure if the formality was a sign of the times, or if it was just something our family did. These photos are from around 1960 I believe. I find it particularly funny that in this one, my poor brother appears to be crying, my dad is looking at him with a bit of a disgusted look, and my uncle is tensely trying to pretend nothing is happening. I am sure The Aunties are telling my mom to control her kid! (We always became property of Mom when we misbehaved!)

Lest anyone think it was an isolated phenomenon, here we are at my mom's parents' house! (Actually not "we" as I am not born yet in any of these!) My grandparents were across the street neighbors, so on occasion we did two of these elaborate formal events IN ONE DAY!

Evidently this formality has not carried on into the newest generations. I always beg my sons to "at least pretend you were raised by humans" so perhaps that is a sign they are not quite so well versed in the finer points of ettiquette.

This post is in response to this Flashback Friday post over on Christopher and Tia!

Day in the life-The Summer Edition

2010-07-11T13:52:00.001-05:00

Day in the life-The Summer Edition
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

This week my younger son started football conditioning camp, so I started my driving routine. The trip back and forth to the school is very long, and for things that are less than a full day over there, I tend to try to find somewhere else to go. Last summer I hung out at a local Starbucks until the library opened, then went to the library and used the internet access there,

Since then I found a Panera, which although it is a bit farther away from the school, is larger and more convenient. At the Starbucks I had to keep feeding a meter, and it was often hard to park at the library if there were popular children's events going on.

So last week, I spent 2 days in the Panera. The first day, I took some photos to document my day. I had a lovely cup of light roast coffee and a toasted sesame seed bagel for breakfast. While I ate, I read the paper I had picked up in my yard on the way to the car that morning, and a pile of mail I had dropped into my knitting bag.

I surfed the internet on my Ipod touch. Partway through that experience, I sent my wonderful husband a message complaining about my old eyes trying to read stuff on that little screen. To remedy that, we went out on Friday night and bought a little netbook, which I am typing on at this moment! It is so light, and I can drop it down in the bag with my knitting, and still am able to manage carrying all my stuff plus buy my breakfast. When your office is a Panera, portability is vastly important. I love my regular laptop, but it is big. Big is good when you do a lot of website work and photo editing, not so much when you are trying to dig the money out of the bottom of your purse to pay the clerk for your bagel!

Then I pulled my knitting out of the bag, and worked on my Jaywalker socks. I finished sock 1, and to avoid being accused of having second sock syndrome (a common malady among knitters, where after the first of a pair is done, the thrill is gone and you never make the mate.) I cast on and started knitting the ribbing for sock 2.

I spent a good bit of time sitting outside the school, because things never seem to end when you expect them to. Also, the boy had summer band that evening, and that only lasts a little over an hour, so I sit and wait for him there.

Traffic was so bad that day that I was going slow enough to pull out my camera and take a photo as we went. Normally I would not do this, but I could have walked faster than we were moving! I also snapped a photo of my sleeping teenager, and he was not amused.

I can see where if the weather was not a steamy 100 degrees, I might like to visit some local landmarks, and I will most definitely pay another visit to a nice local yarn store I found, but for the time being I am enjoying my new office. I even met a friend there on Friday and plan to do it again this week!

Flashback Friday- The Football Edition

2010-07-09T06:04:00.006-05:00

OK, we are flashing WAY back today. A while back my cousin mentioned that he had seen online that our granddad had played football for LSU back in 1923. That started me on a quest to find a yearbook from back then, or at least a photo. The other day it occurred to me (duh!) to write to LSU and ask if they had any photos from back then. In less than a day they had sent me this photo!
That is Granddaddy there in the lower left hand corner. OMG I was so thrilled! Imagine them being able to find this nearly 90 years later! My younger son is actually named after Granddaddy, and he is also a lineman, playing for his high school team. Here is a flash forward to my Matt:

Please excuse the blurry phone camera photo, I have a true block about being able to get a good football photo. This flashback is inspired by the regular feature over on Christopher and Tia!

Wandering Lost

2010-06-26T21:14:00.006-05:00

Anyone who know me would not be surprised to hear the title of this post and picture me turning around on some road, miles from where I meant to be. That is sort of how my mind feels right now. My mother passed away on June 8, and I feel like my mind is reeling with thoughts I can't organize. She had been ill and in and out of hospitals and nursing homes since mid February. So I guess I have been wandering for months.
I think if things I need to do, and then just the thought of them starts feeling overwhelming. For example, I almost never post to blogs without adding photos, but I poked around a little bit looking for one, then decided it was too hard to decide which photo to use.
Oh! I just thought of a photo I can add- I have not really been doing much in terms of creative crafting, but I have been knitting, since that is mostly (for me at least) following patterns written by someone else. So I made this shawl, called Travelling Woman, for a dear friend. (It will only be 2 months late by the time I give it to her!)
I have also been working on some cool socks called Jaywalkers, which I hope will fit me once they are done. Because I was working on them at the nursing home sitting with Mom, I did not measure as I went and made the leg part way too long, so now I have ordered another skein of yarn in order to have enough to finish.As part of trying to be kind to myself and let myself heal, I have left the mistakes in both these projects, rather than beating myself up and ripping them out because they are not perfect. I know my friend will grant me the grace of ignoring my mistakes as only a true friend can.

I have a big sewing project to work on for a family member (once I set aside the fabric I had pulled from my stash to make something for my mom) and I want to make some items for a few swaps in a fiber art group I am part of. I am hoping that will spark me back to feeling creative again and not just lost.

Art Quilts now Online at Chickadee Friends Studio!

2010-05-24T12:38:00.003-05:00

Karen, my business partner at Chickadee Friends Studio, has been so very patient with me, I need to publicly thank her. She has been super productive and supplying me with a bunch of art quilts to sell. I very diligently mounted them for hanging, and rotated a handful through my spot in a brick and mortar store where people could see them in person. I was just super horrible about getting them onto our website. Anyone checking out Chickadee Friends Studio before last week saw a handful of quilt photos with no description and titled "quilt 1". I had wanted to have something up there, just as a sort of placeholder while I finished working on photos and descriptions. I did not predict how busy I would get and how long it would be before it was a proper website. So, thanks, Karen, for your patience and for remaining my friend through all my personal foibles.

Last week, the weather turned beautiful, so I took my tripod out to my back yard and took a boatload of quilt pictures. The week before, while the weather was rainy, I measured quilts and wrote descriptions for them. THis is just a few of the fabulous quilts now nicely displayed on Chickadee Friends Studio:

Also, there are just a few days (until May 27th) to enter a giveaway on my friend Tara's blog to win these really cute earrings:

Flashback Friday- Mother's Day Edition

2010-05-06T20:26:00.003-05:00

Here is a photo of my mom and a baby I believe is me. Neither Mom nor I ever like photos of ourselves, so we never pose and this leads to the fact that there are not many photos of us together. It is sort of ironic that we both really treasure photos of our loved ones, but are totally uncooperative when it comes to letting our loved ones take photos of us.

I sent my mom a Virginia Tech shirt as her Mother's Day gift. She announced a few weeks ago that she "needs one of those shirts like you all wear with the VT." It struck me a little funny, as her first kid went to Tech in 1975, and she just decides now she needs a shirt. I think it is because she is living at an assisted living facility right now, and this gives her an opportunity to brag on her grandkids to her new friends. She has 3 grandkids in college- 2 of them at Virginia Tech.

Mom will most likely never see this unless some annoying brother of mine shows it to her. She as no interest in anything computer related. Now that I am the mom of a teen and a 20 year old, I understand that we all do the best we can do with what we have. I did not always know that. I hope that any hurtful things the teenage me might have said fell on her deaf ear and not her good one. Now that I am 48 and she is 80, none of those things seem to matter any more. Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Check Out This Great Giveaway!

2010-04-17T13:24:00.005-05:00

My friend Tara over on Scarborough Seashells is hosting a fabulous giveaway! Click here to find out how you can enter to win your choice of sea glass or pottery jewelry.

If I win I would choose something like this fabulous shell pendant!

Flashback Friday- We Are Virginia Tech

2010-04-16T00:22:00.003-05:00

This is a photo from a college tour we took with our eldest son at Virginia Tech on March 30, 2007. Just a short time later on April 16, 2007 a gunman took the lives of 32 students and faculty in a bloody rampage.

But on March 30, it was a quiet idyllic place that held fond memories for our family (my husband and I met there!) and great hope for our future (our son did end up choosing Tech, and is now in his second year there). (Notice also that my younger son still had a hero in Michael Vick- now he mostly gets jerseys with no name on them.) Here is the site the school set up to memorialize the victims. Here is a link to the previous post I did on this event.

Flashback Friday-

2010-03-11T23:29:00.004-05:00

Awww...Look at Maggie, the sweet innocent first communion girl of about 1970. Don't let her fool you! I remember this photo op well, and she was being the biggest brat ever! Brownie camp had started the night before, and my mom was to drive a carload of us up later after we made our First Communion. I was very impatient to get on the road and my dad kept promising, "Just one more shot."

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a good person, daughter, sister, mother, wife. And about how you can ever be all of those at the same time. My pastor sent me a card the other day, referring to the fact that I am in that "sandwich" phase, where we try to juggle the needs of our spouses and kids with the needs of our aging parents. I am not sure it can be done. So I stew, as I sit with my 80 year old mother in the nursing home I promised her years ago I would not send her to, while my husband does the school transportation that I agreed to do back when we chose the perfect-in-every-way-for-our-boy-except-so-far-away school. Like the Maggie in the photo, maybe I can convince them all I am "good" if I paste on an innocent smile.

Dreaming of Spring

2010-01-24T22:23:00.003-05:00

Today I went on a road trip to a quilt exhibit, and then to the Conservatory at Brookside Gardens. Even thought the weather was very grey and gloomy, the flowers inside the conservatory were spectacular, and have me looking forward to Spring, and all of the beautiful colors it brings.

Here are a few of my flower photos to share:

Happy Holidays

2009-12-27T22:15:00.004-05:00

Here's hoping you and yours had a great holiday and are looking forward to a happy New Year! As you can see from this photo, we had a lovely white Christmas here in Maryland. (My guys might not have been loving the snow while they were busy digging out the cars, I imagine!) It was sort of nice to be snowed in for a little while, we were forced to spend time together and not worry about our normal daily stresses.

On a sad note, one week ago my wonderful kitty Gracie died rather suddenly. She was a very sweet quiet girl and I will miss her very much. She was my very first cat. We got her from an adoption at Petsmart- her mother had been abused and she was the only survivor of her litter. She loved boxes, catnip toys, racing up and down the stairs, and using her litter box whenever Dad was eating. R.I.P. Gracie, August 2001-December 2009.

Snow Day

2009-12-05T13:47:00.003-05:00

Today we are having the first snow of the season! It looks lovely. My planned outing for the day was postponed, hopefully to happen tomorrow. The teenager and I bought groceries (and the required pre-snow bread, milk and toilet paper!) on the way home yesterday. So we are chilling out today in sweats, drinking hot beverages and decorating for the holidays. My Itunes is playing some holiday songs (I love you Jose Feliciano, but I like that I do not have to hear your Feliz Navidad hourly when I choose the tunes.)

The tree is assembled. I have allergies to real trees, so we have a fake one. Along with my husband and I, it is celebrating its 26th Christmas. The lights are in progress. I am going to cheat and make some slice and bake cookies to munch while we hang the ornaments.

Flashback Friday- The Where on Earth Did the Years Go Edition

2009-11-20T10:30:00.004-05:00

On Tuesday, my husband and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, so in response to the Flashback Friday on Christopher and Tia, I dug out our wedding album. The photo above is the cover, and yes, those are our hands and my bouquet. It was silk flowers, so I probably still have it here somewhere.

Here we are, posed up at the altar. We were married at a house of all faiths, a cute little place out in the country where I had flown up from Brownies to Girl Scouts. I was a little shocked at how much the place had shrunk since I was 10 when I went back to reserve it for the wedding. In my fantasy world the place was a palace. Anyway, it was very cute, and there was a covered bridge outside, but it was a bit cold to enjoy it that day.

Remember, this was 1984, back when wedding dresses had sleeves and sometimes even a high collar. I watch that show "Say Yes to the Dress", and I do not think anything in that whole store has sleeves. Brides with shoulders as broad as mine need sleeves. Maybe not huge puffy sleeves, but this was 1984, people! Sometimes I watch that show and wish someone would tell some of those girls that not everyone can wear that tightly fitted sleeveless style. My mom made me this dress and it was fabulous. She made the veil, too. No one would sell us the veil unless we bought the dress from them. Mom had to borrow a friends house to cut out the dress, because she had so much fabric and our house was not deep enough to unfold it all. There were something like 72 buttons, and my dad breathed a sigh of relief when Mom bought them precovered- he was usually her go to guy for covering buttons. I remember sitting in the dining room one weekend and Mom and I sewing on sequins. The enameled pin on the neckline is a family heirloom, I think my great grandfather gave it to my great grandmother. (I better ask my mom and write that down somewhere!)

Here we are making our getaway, but really we were just leaving the church and still had our reception to go. Our reception was evidently quite the party, since 25 years later, people still occasionally tell me so.

Anyway, Happy Anniversary, Honey, and here's hoping our next 25 years together are as wonderful as the first!

Flashback Friday- The Veteran's Day Edition

2009-11-13T10:43:00.004-05:00

I know Veteran's Day is past, but I wanted to concentrate on it for my flashback Friday post. Here is a photo of my Granddad in his Army uniform- he served in France (I think) in World War I.
Here he is (on the left), on Memorial Day 1968. He was very active in the American Legion (VFW? I will have to look this up.) This is the Granddad I remember- I was 6 years old that year and still little enough to sit on his lap when we would go visit him. I had other girl cousins, but they lived far away, so I got to be the princess.He had a stroke and passed away when I was in 7th grade. Thank you, Granddad, and to all the others who went away to fight for the rest of us.

A Time for Gratitude

2009-11-09T22:58:00.004-05:00

My family took a beautiful drive this weekend through rural southwest Virginia. I had a lot of time to think (and nap, but that is not my point!) I kept coming back to how grateful I am for so many things, especially this time of year.

First, Veteran's Day is this week, and I am grateful to all of the veterans and the current active duty service members for the sacrifices they have made to try to keep us all safe.

Second, I am thankful for my family. This weekend was a nice opportunity to spend some time together, as we went down to hear my older son sing in a concert. When he comes home, he has so many people to see, our time together is so limited. I was reminding my husband how it seems so long ago when we used to dream about when the boys would be 15 and 20, like it was so far off, and now it is only months away.

I am very thankful for my husband- in a few weeks, we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. It seems like just yesterday we were dating. He really is my best friend. He is so supportive of me in everything I do.

I am thankful we have resources. Today, I guess because of the sudden warm weather, there were a lot of people begging at intersections. That got me thinking about our financial life. We might not be rolling in the dough- our home is modest and our car has nearly 150,000 miles on it, but we don't want for anything and I am quite thankful for that.

Any of you who know me in person, know that I am often anxious. I am thankful that we live a sort of low key life, so that I can try to keep myself from getting totally frazzled. Don't get me wrong, we are often busy, but I think because my guys all seem to have an easygoing attitude, that keeps me grounded. Today I stopped in to check out a thrift shop near my younger son's school. It was a huge place, and evidently Monday is some sort of sale day, so it was packed. When I got to the register, two women were there screaming obscenities at each other. It seemed that one of them had interfered with the other's turn to get waited on. I just can't imagine what slight would be worth treating another person so harshly.

I am thankful that my younger son is getting baptized in a few weeks, that is the answer to many prayers I whispered.

What are you thankful for today?

Flashback Friday

2009-10-30T10:24:00.005-05:00

Taking inspiration from Chistopher and Tia , I am posting a Halloween flashback. I don't have any photos of me as a kid at Halloween- my dad was the photographer and I guess got home after we had left to trick or treat. He was really much more of a posed portrait kind of guy than a snapshot taker anyway.

Anyway, back when I first became a mom, I remembered that I had as a very little kid worn cool costumes made by my mom. So to me that meant that mom's made costumes. So here are some of my attempts:
This was a Dalmatian costume I made, and I had actually made it for him the year before, and he refused to even try it on that year!
This was my first Halloween with 2 kids, and I guess by then had gotten over my overachiever tendencies, because the Power Ranger costume was store bought, and my younger son is wearing the clown suit I made for his brother's first Halloween.

This was the year my boys were Batman and Robin! I have no photos of them together, because Robin was deathly afraid of Batman. The Batman suit was homemade from a pattern, the Robin suit was storebought. I think this was the last costume I ever made from scratch using a pattern, after this I discovered the joys of doctoring premade clothes with paint or sewn on appliques (the elaborate Elvis costume made from a white sweatsuit is a story for another day!). I think the year after the Batman suit, the boy requested a Superman suit he saw at KMart that had "the muscles already in it".

It's all About the Attitude...

2009-10-22T10:18:00.002-05:00

...and yes, mine seems to be in the crapper. I was just writing a message to a friend, and realized that everything I started to type was just one bitch and moan after another, so I ended up stopping pretty much at "How are you?" I am not sure if it is because I have had a bad head cold, or because I am so behind in my household chores, or because I am so behind on what I want to get done for my business. Or because some days I spend almost 4 hours in the car transporting a kid, and he is only a freshman, so it is not likely to end anytime soon. Or maybe it is all of the above. What I do know, however, is that something has to give!

So today I will attempt to start pulling myself out of this mess. First, I am going to put a yummy dinner in the crockpot- pot roast with red skinned potatoes, carrots and onions. Then I will get my shower, catch up on bill paying and do as much house straightening as I can get done. That better be the extent of my to do list, as an overwhelming list is just grounds for more downward spiral!

Back to Reality

2009-08-09T18:58:00.004-05:00

Well, my beach vacation is over now, and it is time to get back to my real life. My favorite beach activity was sitting at the water's edge with my toes in the ocean watching the people and the surf. My sister-in-law and I were doing just that in this picture taken by her husband (thanks, Lew!). For maybe the first time ever, we could sit on the beach and be totally unaware of how long we had been there and even what time it was! (The only horrible flaw in this plan reared its ugly head when the sunburn appeared!) We chatted for hours enjoying each other's company and the feel of the breeze, sun and surf. We took it as a sign to go back inside when the rising tide chased us back up the beach to our shoes.

Back to Crocheting

2009-07-23T20:17:00.001-05:00

granny square 001
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

So now that my crafting is my business, what is there to do to "relax"? I decided the other day to crochet myself an afghan. I remember from my childhood that my grandfather's house had a granny square afghan, that was black and a million other colors. I decided that is what I would do too. I bought some cotton yarn, and here is the first square- I plan to join the square using black yarn and some crochet stitches.

I made an afghan for my first son before he was born, and those were the last granny squares I made. He is 19 now!

Message to Entrecard Peeps

2009-07-07T09:26:00.003-05:00

It is generally my policy to return drops to every Entrecarder who has visited me that day first thing when I log onto Entrecard. Unfortunately for most of the rest of the summer, I will be dropping amongst my errands while I wait for my son to finish football stuff. I will be working using the internet at the public library. I apologize, but certain blogs get caught in the library filter, so they will not open for me (the example that comes to mind is Sexy Old Broad- I love you but the filters, not so much!). I hope everyone will be patient and still drop in to visit, and I will reciprocate as soon as I can!

In the meantime, here is a pretty flower photo from my backyard!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T13:51:00.003-05:00

I want to wish everyone a happy and festive 4th of July. This year we are staying close to home and cooking on the grill. It will be nice to relax.

Chickadee Friends Studio

2009-06-23T23:13:00.006-05:00

A longtime friend and I have been for many months now inspiring each other to stretch our creative wings in the fiber arts. Her name is Karen Campbell, and she is quite a wonderful quilter. Karen and I used to work together - her degree is in Cell Biology, mine in Biochemistry. She taught me a lot of what I know about the world of quilting.

Karen and I like to share inspirations- walks in nature, art shows and galleries, interesting color combinations. At some point recently, I invited Karen to join my business, and we created Chickadee Friends Studio to represent our fiber art endeavors. It seems like maybe the way we will work best will be that often one of us will start something, and then pass it on to the other. I already have a ton of pieced blocks that Karen put together that I will incorporate into my own work. I am working on a section of my Maggie's Handcraft Studio site that will showcase the Chickadee Friends stuff, but so far most of our stock in for sale at The Shops at Fabian House.

For example, I took this dog themed quilt to the shop last week. Karen made the quilt and I made a copper wire hanger for it.

The Windows and Doors quilt pictured below (and made by Karen) will go into the shop tomorrow. This quilt has some great surface thread embellishments, which do not show up very well in the photo. I definitely have to work on my quilt photography!

Crafty Virginia Road Trip

2009-05-30T23:06:00.004-05:00

arboretum 016
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

My friend and future business partner (more on that another day!) Karen and I took a road trip last weekend. We did not travel that far from home, we left Maryland and only got as far south as Richmond, Virginia. Our plan was to travel the area hunting out artsy or crafty destinations.

We started in Purcelleville, VA at a great fabric store called Webfabrics. They have a really wide selection of some great new fabrics. We bought a few really cool pieces to share (from this collection) , Karen has custody, and I will get my portion soon!

Then on to Leesburg, VA. We had lunch there at a great deli, but did not find much in the way of craftiness.

We headed up the road, intending to go to Front Royal, which was our stopover for the first night. We decided to stop in Winchester, and wow, am I glad we did! They have a lovely section of town with great shops, where they have closed off the roads to cars. We found The Potomac Bead Company, which is a huge bead store. They were having a trunk show of Unicorne beads, and we both got a few items to try out.

The next day we went to the arboretum at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. We often feel really inspired by nature and the sights were really breathtaking. It was great to sit on a bench for a while and just watch and listen to the birds.

Then we went to Staunton, VA, and stopped back at Sunspots Studios, which is a great glass gallery where you can also watch them blow glass. Then we went and attended Art in the Park. This was a juried show of artists who I believe were all fairly local. They had a nice mix of jewelry, glass artists, potters, photographers and others. I bought a pair of earrings featuring beautiful dichroic glass. The setting was a lovely city park, and there was a stage there with live music. We stayed in Staunton for the night.

The next day it was rainy. We planned to get up and go straight to the P Buckley Moss Museum. We took a wrong turn however, and ended up deciding to loop back on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a beautiful drive despite the rain. It started to pour just as we got to the scenic overlook. I felt especially bad for all the bicyclists and motorcyclists we saw on the parkway.

I really enjoyed the P Buckley Moss museum. I had been there years ago, and at that time was enamored with her prints of the Amish people, but this time I enjoyed her landscapes and pictures of florals and animals much more.

From there, we went to Charlottesville, to an area called the Downtown Mall. This area is old storefronts that have been revitilized and the street is closed off to traffic. Because it was Memorial Day, many stores were closed, but we peered in the windows and thoroughly enjoyed a few gallery type stores that were open for business. It is a great area, and we hope to return soon on a non-holiday.

Then we went to the Richmond, VA area. We went to a really nice mall to a cool and nicely eclectic jewelry store called Cocoanut Jewelry. I bought this bracelet stand:

I plan to use it for my displays at the Fabian House.

We had planned to hit Occoquan, VA and the Torpedo Factory in ALexandria, VA on the way home on Tuesday, but I was ill so those had to be left for another day. I know we stopped at other places as well, that I cannot even remember, because it was such a whirlwind of inspirational craftiness!

Some Gave All

2009-05-22T11:54:00.003-05:00

Let's all please try to take a moment this Memorial Day weekend to remember those who have given their lives to protect our freedom. I saw on the news last night a report showing soldiers placing the flags on the graves in Arlington National Cemetery- over 250,000 of them. This was a really sobering number, especially since I know that many veterans were buried in family plots across the country.

So I hope we can all take a moment at least, away from the cookouts, holiday sales and beginning of summer road trips to remember those who paid the price.

Stopping Along the Way

2009-05-19T09:44:00.005-05:00

About a month ago, I was driving south on route 81 in Virginia, on my way to pick up my son to bring him home for the weekend from college. I found myself ahead of schedule- he was taking an evening exam so I knew he would not be able to leave at the time I was due to arrive if I just continued on my way.

So I started entering keywords onto my GPS to look for points of interest. I would love to say I entered "museum" or "park", but I entered "bead", "quilt" and "yarn". (I can hear it now, "sorry officer, I was distracted by the yarn!")

What I found was the Orchardside Yarn Shop, in Raphine, Virginia. First off, it is not exactly right at the exit off of 81, but the drive out there was splendid- with rolling green fields and roadside streams. I honestly found myself thinking "hmmm maybe we could retire to this area", even though I have vowed to never move again.

The card I got from Orchardside yarn shop describes a "knitting cottage nestled along the creek featuring fabulous selection of basic and novelty yarns, books, needles and accessories." They do not lie- at first I thought such a tiny place could not hold much selection, but they had some fabulous fibers, and a really huge selection. The people there were so welcoming. I was buying one skein of each item I selected, and explained that I am not really a knitter or crocheter, but am a fiber artist. They told me I should come back some time and let them teach me to knit, and I will admit it was very tempting. The staff is helpful without being smothering, and they definitely know a lot about all of the yarns and patterns they sell.

The shop is set on a farm, with a creek running by it and ducks and peacocks wandering around out back. (I had forgotten how loud peacocks can be!) They even have a little picnic area for an enjoyable lunch on a nice day.

Here is just a hint of the yarns I bought!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-09T17:06:00.002-05:00

Fiberart for a Cause

2009-05-04T21:26:00.003-05:00

Fiberart for a Cause presents Collage Mania 2009! May5-7, 2009, buy a collage and help support the American Cancer Society!

Thanks to April's Top Entrecard Droppers!

2009-05-03T10:21:00.003-05:00

I would like to thank all my readers who stopped by in April, and especially the following, who were my top Entercard droppers for the month:

On the Bricks

Split Rock Ranch

Hello Kitty Gifts

The Matthias Chronicles

Success Bound (disclaimer- I am a contributor on this blog, but this is the first time it has been a top dropper!)

Daisy the Curly Cat

Symphony of Love

my review

zero

Youniquely Chic

Texture Collection

2009-04-14T11:32:00.003-05:00

When we were at the quilt show a few weeks back, we saw this fabulous set of floral quilts. The flowers were realistic applique, and very wonderful, but what struck me the most was the backgrounds. They were very interesting, but I would have never known what they were if it was not explained. The artist had been inspired by a photo of a glass block and what was reflected in it. Even seeing the photo, I could not tell what was reflected, but it made a cool pattern that was the perfect setting for her flower. Because her background had its own interest, she could just applique one simple flower and the work was complete.

I decided that I would take more photos, and of things that I might not think of as necessarily photogenic, in order to have some photos of my own to try to look at in this different way. I had some photos of cherry trees I took the day after the show that were a good start. Today I went out in my back yard and took some more, and the resulting FLICKR set is in the slideshow shown above.

Quilt Show Inspirations

2009-04-04T20:44:00.011-05:00

Today my friend Karen and I went to a quilt show in Lancaster, PA. It was fabulous- so many inspiring works. The above photo is the wall of colorful quilts that greeted us as we entered the exhibit.

I loved this quilt because the sheep can remind us not to take ourselves so seriously. Don't get me wrong, it was a fabulous quilt, with a ton of work. It was also a picture of a grinning sheep wearing red sneakers.

There were a lot of quilts, like the one here on the right, that pictured trees, mostly closeups of branches, rather than the entire tree, and often not a realistic representation, but more a suggestion of trees.

This quilt had fabulous quilting, couched fibers with beads, and some cool transfers and photos of leaves. We are going tomorrow to see some cherry blossoms, and hope to take some photos that maybe we can use in a quilt. Below is a detail which I hope shows you the quilting and couching.

This quilt was unbelievable: each little flower is a separate piece. Often for groups of little flowers, people find a fabric with pictures of the flowers, and sew that onto the quilt, but on this one the person cut each flower individually!

Well these are just a few examples of some of the wonderfully inspiring pieces that we saw today. They made me want to run home and sew.

Taking a Break

2009-03-31T20:50:00.003-05:00

My hands are killing me. I went to hand therapy years ago for an inflammation in my thumbs from repetitive motion in a job I had in a laboratory. I have no idea what is messing them up at the moment. I am trying to take a couple of days off, but am discovering that we use our thumbs for EVERYTHING!

Anyway it does not hurt to type, so maybe I will catch up on my computer tasks. First- here are my top Entrecard droppers for March!

Alteredevents
The Junk Drawer
Youniquely Chic

My gypsygoods
Kids Toys
Pat's Encaustics - Art in the Wax
The Frugal Housewife
John Wright Art
On The Bricks
Tips and News on Healthy Lifestyle

Ok, now I am going to go list some stuff on my sites. It can't sell if no one knows I have it!

I am a Facebook Junkie

2009-03-27T08:21:00.002-05:00

I avoided the whole social networking thing for as long as I could. I am shy in person and I guess I feared I would sit friendless in the corner in my online life as well. I finally signed up in order to keep an eye on what my kids were up to.

I admit, I was on my way to friendless in the corner-ness, but then things just sort of took off. I started out mostly being friends with my own kids, and my niece and my husband. Then as time went on, I added other moms from football, my brother, a brother-in-law, more nieces and nephews. Then the whole networking thing too off. Now I regularly catch myself saying "wow, what a small world!"

The sister of a girl I played with in grammar school found me and asked me to contact her sister. I noticed that my nephew joined a group for alumni of our elementary school, so I joined too. My BFF from 7-12 grade contacted me, and then through her I found some other old friends from the era. That was sort of funny- that is how we worked in real life too, she was friends with people, and that is how I met them.

I found a dear friend who moved away in 3rd grade, who I lost track of about when I got married. She had married someone with a very common name, so it was hard to find her. I ended up finding her based on the fact she is "friends" with her little sister, who has a very unique name.

I have connected with some of my old high school band buddies. It turns out one of them lives right here in my town, his daughter goes to school with my son and our moms live on the same block up in NJ!

One of my college roommates and I became "friends" this week. Ha, she should have at least had the decency to age in the 25 years since college!!

Anyway, now that all of these connections are renewed, I need to maintain them. Also, I have to avoid "lurking". These people have let me back in thier lives, if only virtually, but I can't sit back and read about their job losses, identity crises, accomplishments, and not even comment. Wow this being a social human being is hard work!

I Stimulated the Economy Part 2

2009-03-12T23:01:00.006-05:00

The other week when I bought so many supplies, I promised you I would tell you about my other purchases. I got some fabulous fusible web called misty fuse. Misty fuse sticks very well but does not stiffen the fabric as much as other fusible products. I also got some button blanks for making covered buttons.

I got a set of watercolor pencils. I can't wait to try these out- you can color with them like normal colored pencils, then put a water wash over them to see the lovely watercolor effects. I saw someone using them on fabric in a FLICKR photo once, and I plan to try that out as well.

Then I also ordered some silver- lots of wire and some leverback earring hooks. I had previously mostly used leverbacks on request, but I think I will incorporate them into more designs in the first place now.

Also, I got a Portable Bobbin Winder, which I have not yet gotten a picture of , but I will try it out soon and take a photo. I can use it to wind bobbins for my old Singer machine and I was also reading a technique last week about using a bobbin winder to make twisted fiber cords, and I want to try that too.

Waiting for Spring

2009-03-03T21:10:00.002-05:00

snow 0302
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I had wandered off to NJ for the weekend, wearing my summery mesh sneakers and only a sweatshirt for a jacket. I had decided it was time for Spring, but I guess I don't get to choose- I awoke Sunday morning to a bit of slushy snow. I trudged through in my meshy shoes and made it home, only to have it start snowing here in Maryland on Sunday night and it snowed most of the day Monday!

Now that the weather has calmed a bit (although they still call for single digits tonight!) I need to remember to thank my top Entrecard droppers!

The Junk Drawer

Youniquely Chic

Parental Instincts

Unique You

Dallas Marketing Services

Moshi & Kibo's Dog Blog

My gypsygoods

Toys For Kids

Alteredevents

John Wright Art

I've Been Stimulating the Economy

2009-02-22T19:29:00.010-05:00

I have a recent interest in collages and making ATCs to trade, so that sparked a bit of a buying spree for supplies.
On the left are some collage making supplies I got from Tidbits Trinkets, including some preprinted images for collage, joss paper, assorted metallic confetti and sequins and a fabric sampler of creamy colored fabric.

On the right are some really nice ATC sized blanks from assorted papers and some fancy paper one inch circles, from time2cr8. She was nice enough to label the papers for me so I can know which kinds I like best for buying more later. ( I also got one of her ACEOs- she does fabulous work!)

As a door prize from a flea market we held in my fiber art traders group, I won a piece of Lutradur from The Material Girls. I can't wait to experiment and see what I can do with it! Check out their site, as they have a large assortment of many kinds of fabrics. I am interested in the African, Asian and Australian fabrics.

I also won a door prize from Treenway silks, which was the package of silk ribbon shown here at the top. I bought the set of threads. I am still at the stage where I don't want to use these yet, I want to enjoy looking at them, and think about the perfect project for them. Treenway has a huge assortment of fibers, it was really hard for me to decide what to buy.

I will save the rest of my purchases for my next post. I have kept the postal service busy, that is for sure!

OH, How I Love Sharpies!

2009-02-15T21:22:00.002-05:00

zen doodle 0215 back
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I recently joined the site called ATCsforall, which is for trading various art pieces- for example artist trading cards(2.5x3.5 inches), inchies (1 inch square)and various sizes of journal pages. Because all of my trades up until now have been through the Fiber Art Traders group on yahoo, I have only made fiber pieces. Now I want to branch out into other types.

My family has known for years of my long time love affair with Sharpie markers, so much so that I usually get at least one set for Christmas. I reignited this love this week while working on some doodle type cards to try to find the artist that I hope is buried somewhere within me. I love the look of these cards, and the feel of the markers as the ink hits the page. I might even be a little obsessive about them! Here are some things I have done with my trusty Sharpies this week:

That is just a bunch of doodles in my sketchbook, which I ended up cutting up to turn into other projects.
This is an ATC that I made by collaging some tissue paper with some cut up doodle.

This is a set of inchies from that original doodle, where I colored in the backgrounds with assorted Sharpies.

I had heard sometime back about an artist who was making a journal of sorts in a rolodex. Then on ATCsforall I noticed a lot of people making rolodex pages, so I decided to make some as well. I have done 2 rolodex pages of these Sharpie zen doodles. I am bidding on a rolodex on ebay right now, I hope I win it!

It's Only 8 by 10 for Heaven's Sake!

2009-02-09T22:40:00.003-05:00

The Fiber Art Traders group I am in on Yahoo has a challenge going to make collages to donate to Collage Mania 2009. Collage Mania is Fiber Art for a Cause, and they will be auctioning off donated collages in May to raise money to benefit the American Cancer Society. I was super excited to get started on my piece to donate.

Then, BAM, I hit the wall nearly as soon as I started! I am totally intimidated and have been avoiding my sewing table for days. Fiber Art Traders even had a tutorial to help give people a starting point for making the collages.

It makes no logical sense that I am stuck on this. The piece is a manageable sized project, and I could make a ton of them if I wanted and just send the best, even cutting up "failures" and making something else out of them. The material commitment is not so much that I would feel the sting if I even tossed some of them.

So what the heck is my problem? Is it that hard for me to think of myself as an artist? That sure seems to be the case, and it is really annoying to me! I feel like that little kid in art class again, who could never do the assignment quite "right". It is totally in my head though, and I need to get over it and just get to work!

Thanks to January's Top Entrecard Droppers!

2009-01-31T17:41:00.007-05:00

I want to thank my top entrecard droppers for the month of January:

Parental Instincts

Cheapest Airfare

My gypsygoods

Alteredevents

Online Games

On the Bricks

Septagon Studios Inc News Blog

Curiously Awesome

Shih-Tzu Gifts

amy lilley designs

Also a big thank you to all of my readers. I hope 2009 is starting out well for you.

Fiber Art Explorations 2009 Part 2

2009-01-25T22:23:00.001-05:00

finished cupid tin lid off
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

For my second trade of the year in Fiber Art Traders, I made this altered tin. The theme was Cupid's delight, and it had to be based on a mint tin and include one heart. I appliqued a batik heart onto a piece of denim (the leg of a pair of jeans- the body is already a purse!) I embroidered in feather stitch along the rim of the top, and then made stem stitch vines and satin stitch leaves. I sewed on some flower shaped buttons. I then glued the denim to the lid, and also covered the bottom of the tin with some red velour I had leftover from a robe I made my mom. I made a little scalloped edge with seed beads on the lid. Inside I placed some handmade paper I bought.

This was a really fun trade, and I can't wait to see what my partner has done!

Congratulations Mr. President!

2009-01-20T13:41:00.004-05:00

First- a word of warning- I was up all night last night, so I might not be totally lucid. My son had the opportunity to sing with a choir at an inaugural gala last night, so he had to grab it! Unfortunately, his Physics professor was expecting him at an 8 am class this morning, so we left our house at 2 am after my son returned and drove through the night, arriving just in time for him to grab a coffee at Starbucks and go to class.

Luckily my hotel let me check in early. I had already gotten a parking ticket on campus this morning, and the bookstore had cancelled my son's book reservation because he had not picked it up yet, so I was in no mood to sleep in my car this morning. I got a nap in, and woke up just as the swearing in ceremony started. Here is the view from my seat for the inauguration:

With that in mind, excuse my while I share my rambly thoughts. First, holy crap, I am the same age of the President of the United States! Somehow I find that scary. I guess the next step will be being older than the president, but this is just a little strange for me now. Second, I was surprised by how emotional the swearing in has made me. I have been the cynic, when I hear everyone talking about the change that will be coming, I sort of think "I'll believe it when I see it" because I know that change is often so hard to bring about, and we have been disappointed before. It was so moving to see the huge crowds of excited people. President Obama's words were so strong and effective. My sleepy foggy brain can't put my feelings into words. I'll just say God Bless you, Mr. President and then I will go finish my much needed nap!

Fiber Art Explorations 2009 Part I

2009-01-08T10:24:00.003-05:00

snow divas
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I started sometime last year wanting to explore the fiber artist within me, and to help achieve that I joined a yahoo group called Fiber Art Traders. (Yes, it is FAT for short!) This is a group of wonderful artists that share ideas, talents and then trade the resulting works of art.

One of the current trades is a challenge to make fiber art postcards with a wintry theme that are felted or incorporate felt. I pulled my Babylock Embellisher out of mothballs, dug through my fiber stash to find something resembling snow, and went to work. I started with a background of the leg of an old pair of jeans (the body of the jeans is already a purse!), and needle felted the fiber into it to be snow on the ground and then a snowperson. Then I added a scarf of eyelash yarn, and a red hat of a bali cotton batik print. The result was the snow divas pictured here!

I used embroidery to add the details, then mounted the fabric to a backing of pink cardstock (they are snow divas after all!).

I thoroughly enjoyed the felting process, and decided to leave that machine on my worktable for the week. I have a lot of colors of fibers I would like to experiment with. First, I need to figure out how to change the needles in my machine!

Also, I am excited to mention that I have a few pieces hanging in an exhibit- The Cyber Fyber Exhibition! To get your art into this exhibit, all you had to do was trade with the artist, so it's not like I am suddenly some great "ahteest" or anything, but I am still thrilled to think of my little works of art hanging in a gallery. My postcard is number 232, and my ATC is nnumber 157. I think the exhibit looks beautiful, and wish I could see it in person!

Hair Accessories Finally Available!

2009-01-03T16:04:00.003-05:00

Some time ago, I started experimenting with adding buttons to bobby pin blanks. I had a lot of fun finding interesting buttons, including covering some with my fabric scraps. I sold some wholesale to a local store, then the rest I had made just sat here waiting for me to pay attention to them.

The time has finally come! I listed all of my hair accessories, here in my store on Mainstreetmallonline! Check them out, they are really fun! I can't wait to get back to making some more.

December's Top Entrecard Droppers

2008-12-31T20:02:00.004-05:00

My top droppers from Entrecard for the month of December were:

Alteredevents
Curiously Awesome
My Gypsygoods
More than Sew So
Amy Lilley Designs
Custom Blog Designs
Diana Rambles
Unique You
Simply Stamping
What the Bald Guy Needs to Know about Sports

Thanks to all my blog readers, and I send New Year's wishes to you all!

A Day Off and a Great Date

2008-12-29T23:04:00.002-05:00

washington monument
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

My husband took the day off, and offered to take us to see the newly renovated Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington, DC. I felt a little bad for him driving down there when he goes downtown every day for work, but he wanted to see the museum, too. Neither of our kids wanted to go, which is ok, they are teenagers so we can abandon them for a few hours with minimal damage to our house.

I did not recharge my camera batteries, so I got very few pictures before the camera died. As you can see from the picture of the Washington Monument, it was a pretty, clear day. It was not too cold either, the perfect day to walk around the city.

The museum was super crowded. Everything is nice and new, but I did not feel like the layout was as good for crowds as the old layout was. I actually got stuck in a room because it got too crowded in there and no one could move! We did see an exhibit called "Thanks for the Memories" which had iconic items from our history, like Judy Garland's ruby slippers, Kermit the frog, sports memorabilia. We also saw a number of priceless musical instruments, an exhibit about the presidency (that was the crowded one, and they already had Obama on the timeline and his picture up!) and a cool exhibit about the history of one house and all the families that had lived in it.

Then I got overheated and overanxious so we left and walked to Old Ebbit Grille for a great lunch of crabcakes and then stopped at the White House visitor center on the way back to the car.

It was a wonderful day. The funny thing is, when my husband invites me somewhere, I get this idealized image in my head, and it is always as if he and I will be the only ones there! Then reality strikes, and there are hundreds of people and metal detectors and it is really hot, and I get all cranky. He is such a treasure and "gets me" and we just do what we can and then move on.

Thanks, Santa!

2008-12-27T20:12:00.002-05:00

Santa is the best, and he got me Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Automobile Navigator ! If anyone on the planet needs this thing, it is me. I am rather famous for the fact that I am always getting hopelessly lost. As a toddler my younger son was always asking "are we yost?" whenever he saw more trees than he thought were appropriate. ( I have to admit, he was right more times than he was wrong!)

When I originally hinted to Santa about getting me a nuvi, I was thinking entirely about its usefulness for navigation. It surely will help me immensely with this, but I also found that it has a built in media player, so I have loaded it up with some audiobooks and podcasts of interest, so that I can listen to them while I am busy being Mom's taxi service or travelling. I won't have to worry any more that I will lose my radio station before the guys at Car Talk finish talking!

I Opened a New Store!

2008-12-22T00:27:00.004-05:00

I am not sure if I am insane or a super savvy businesswoman. I have been hearing the buzz about ArtFire, a new site for handmade items, and decided to try to get in early and establish a presence. They offer a free version, which includes 10 listings at a time- I opted instead for the $7 a month plan, where I can have unlimited listings, plus a number of other perks that will be great for branding.

I set up my store tonight and added my first item. I decided to make my ArtFire store The Earring Annex to Maggie's Handcraft Studio. I need to add the earring annex part to my normal store banner, but I did not want that to cause me to delay this move any further. I think in the new year, I might change around how I do my stores, and have certain things sold only on certain venues, but I have not figured all of that out for sure yet.

Here is a preview of my store on ArtFire:

I am not convinced that I love the look of the site, but I want to give it a chance. I plan to list at least one pair of earrings a day, hopefully more.

Taking Time to Smell the Gingerbread

2008-12-14T11:22:00.002-05:00

archway
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

Not so much gingerbread (yet, anyway, maybe next week!). But I am trying really hard to remember that the holidays are so much about family and not just about the to do list. To this end, I have been baking cookies, and taking time to watch Christmas movies with my son, and this week we will take time out for a birthday bash for the baby of the family and go pick up the older boy from college.

Last night we went out to a local park that has a great light display that you drive through. I am not sure how many years we have gone to this display, which is mostly the same every year, but I do still enjoy it quite a bit. Last year for whatever reason we ended up missing it, and I was sad when I realized it. So my husband braved the heavy traffic last night to make sure we got to go. There are certain traditions, like we always play Christmas music on the car radio, and in the part where the reindeer are jumping over the road, my husband taps the roof of the car to make it sound like reindeer droppings are hitting the car. This year we decided to try to take photos with our cell phone cameras. We all got a bit silly.

This is the stuff my family will remember, though. By January they won't care a bit whether or not I finished my to do list. But I have a feeling we will remember our goofy trip through the lights snapping photos on our cell phones.

Big Blog Giveaway!

2008-12-11T23:05:00.010-05:00

I have some items included in the big blog giveaway over on the Oh So Lovely Shops Blog! It looks like a really great giveaway, go check it out!

Enter the Oh How Lovely Shops Big Holiday Giveaway!

Decking the Halls

2008-12-09T09:48:00.003-05:00

1208 decorating the tree
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

Some years I bite off way more than I can chew as far as my Christmas plans go. I am trying to behave myself this year. My husband, who clearly knows me well after 26 Christmas' together, requested I not try to make stuff for gifts this year. I told him "I am only making one thing." His reply- "yeah and you will be sewing at midnight on Christmas Eve." He has a point, I think the only Christmas where I was not working on gifts the night before was the one where I had had a baby the week before. That was not a relaxing holiday- between the newborn and the gifts for the 5 year old (SOME assembly required, ha!) we were up all night. We refer to that as the Christmas of a thousand stickers. We had found the coveted Power Rangers for our eldest son, left them in the box until Christmas Eve and then discovered they required serious attention and about a hundred stickers each. Sorry, I digress, fast forward to this year, and that newborn is 14...

Sunday night the guys had assembled the tree and strung it with lights, so last night I joined them and while they watched football, I put ornaments on the tree. We have collected a multitude of ornaments over the years, and I love to try to remember the people who gave them to us or the places we bought them. Just in the one photo shown, there is the Ziggy ornament from a dear old friend (we were probably about 15 when she gave it to me) (and what the heck happened to Ziggy, haven't seen him around in years, he was everywhere in the 70s!), a cool polymer clay pointsettia I got from Blockpartypress last year, a little pink angel I painted in Brownies, and a boat I bought on a day trip with some friends to St. Michael's Maryland about 10 years ago.

I am going to try to take time to enjoy the season this year, and as Ziggy says have a "Happy Everything". I am also going to attempt to finish my one project before Christmas Eve as a surprise for my husband.

Earring-o-rama!

2008-12-05T23:33:00.002-05:00

Earring-o-rama!
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

Every once in a while, I kick my own butt in the form of an all out drop everything and make some earrings kind of day. Now that I make my own earwires, and other components that might need tumbling, this can be a multiday affair. I like to call it earring-o-rama, for no logical reason beyond that it makes me feel like it was a fun party or something.

Pictured are 22 pairs of earrings made in my latest earring-o-rama. I was aiming to restock a local shop, so i wanted a variety of styles, beads and colors. I took quick and often blurry pictures on a piece of cardstock on my desk. This served 2 purposes: I don't want items to sell that I have no photos to remember them by and it reminds me why I love my photo tent so much- photos on my desk stink!

I have 5 of these pairs left, and I will take better photos of them, and use them as some of the opening stock of my new store on Artfire. I am thinking to make that one a "New day, New earrings" sort of store. (I have asked my friend Tara to try to help me come up with a better tagline!)

Holy Mackerel, It's December!

2008-12-01T23:28:00.003-05:00

Wow, while I was living my life time just flew by and now here is is December! I had my own little mini cyber Monday, so now I am super busy. Today I have been working on earrings and Christmas ornament hooks.

I have a rather extensive Christmas CD collection, so I need to start listening if I am going to make a dent in it this year. Right now I am listening to Crescent City Christmas Card
by Wynton Marsalis. (Check it out, it is on sale right now!) It is full of the familiar songs, but done in unique ways., which is usually true of Marsalis' work. I love it! It is really helping me focus on my work.

I want to thank my top Entrecard droppers for November:

AlteredEvents

Multiply Themes/Marviepons

OK, I Admit It!

2008-11-20T00:08:00.007-05:00

...I was so wrong about digital scrapbooking! For some odd reason I thought "eh" whenever I saw blogs, etc. about digital scrapping. I did not get the point of it, and I did not think it would be fun.

Then, at one point I bought a set for digiscrapping along with a commercial use license from The Shabby Princess, and used that set as the graphics for my websites. (The banner on this blog is made to match all my sales websites!) I loved being able to make my sites look nice even though I do not have the talent to make my own graphics. I still resisted temptation and did not use any of the products for personal use.

A month ago or maybe more, I got a newsletter from The Shabby Princess and she had templates to make Christmas cards and a calendar, both of which intrigued me. I bought a set to make a calendar that would fit in a CD case, and another to make some Christmas cards.

The other day I decided to make a calendar for my son's girlfriend. I had promised her I would make her some copies of some baby pictures of my son, and thought this would be a nice way to present them.

Wow! It was great to go back through the old photos, and the calendar went together like a dream! I really have minimal skills in Serif Photoplus (graphics manipulation program similar to Photoshop), but I found it really easy to put these pages together! Unlike scrapping with printed photos, this method lets you resize your photos in an instant to fit onto the page layout.

Here is the cover:

At the top is a photo of him taken at the hospital when he was born, and then at the bottom is him in all his bearded glory a couple of weeks ago.

Here is a page for February, which is his birthday month, so I used a photo of him at his birthday party, which had a power ranger theme, I think.

The Shabby Shoppe has a number of different calendar formats, as well as a ton of sets that make albums. I might try an album next, I think it is neat that you can print them in different sizes from the same set! I was thinking I could print them 8x8 and make my own fabric cover. My mind is reeling trying to figure out how I can use this stuff to make some gifts for the holidays!

If you have a chance, stop by and enter The Deck the Halls Giveaway on my other blog, Success Bound.

Another Rainy Day

2008-11-15T12:50:00.002-05:00

It has been so rainy lately around here, I think it is really having an effect on people's moods. If I wanted to put a positive spin on it, I would sew all day wearing my pajamas, with a crockpot of lovely stew or chili cooking and a fire in the fireplace, sipping some fabulous tea. Unfortunately, I got showered and dressed early to take my son to a football practice that ended up being cancelled, I don't have the ingredients necessary for any of my crockpot comfort food recipes, and we have no fireplace! I will try to carve out some sewing time and go forage in the pantry for some fabulous tea, so maybe 2 out of five isn't bad?

Also on the schedule: clean up my dining room/crafting area, clean the kitchen, pay some bills. I should add: hug my family, adjust my attitude, and seize the day!

Thank You, Veterans

2008-11-11T10:01:00.003-05:00

I just don't have the words to express my gratitude today to our veterans for all they have done for the rest of us...one day a year is not enough to remember the debt we owe them.

Chatting with my Dell Buddies

2008-11-09T23:19:00.003-05:00

computer bottom up
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

SUddenly one night last week, my trusty computer started to freeze up in almost every screen. I was trying to uninstall a program and when I clicked on Control Panel, the program list NEVER finished loading. I tried to do online chat with the Dell tech support folks, but that is nearly impossible when your computer is freezing up.

So I called their tech support number, and over the next 3 days spent at least 10 hours on the phone with the tech support reps. Two days in a row, I was still on the phone in my pajamas when my son got home from school. I ran what seemed like every diagnostic known to man (or woman). At the end of the first day, the representative broke the sad news to me that I needed to reinstall Windows. (This is basically the death knell for any information on your hard drive!) luckily, we had purchased an external hard drive, so most of my stuff was backed up.

Well, Windows would NOT finish installing. I repeatedly got to the "completing installation" stage, then the progress bar would stop, never to move again. JR, my rep on day 2, dispatched new hard drive and memory to me. The hard drive was to be preloaded with Windows.

WRONG! Evidently the new hard drive was empty! So me and my very nice rep for day 3, who was very clearly and much too slowly reading a script, started again with trying to reload Windows. (I say he read too slowly, because he would say "When you see the Dell logo, press F12" and by the time he finished the Dell logo had long since come and gone!)

We eventually had success, and I was happily reloading my programs on to the computer when it started freezing again, and at some point, the computer would not even turn on any more! I had to abandon ship and go to NJ to see my mom, and I left the laptop home since it was not working. While I was gone my husband ran more diagnostics and figured out my memory was bad! Jr, from day2, had sent 2 memory things for one slot, so my husband substituted the extra and now my computer works great. I will be typing with my fingers crossed for quite some time though!

Finding the Joy Along the Way

2008-11-02T19:33:00.004-05:00

Otter Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, VA
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

I have returned from my road trip and I am happy to report I had a fabulous time! What might have been a tedious drive down to Roanoke turned into a lovely adventure!

We left Friday afternoon and stopped at a quilt shop along the way. IT was That Little Quilt Shop in Madison, VA, and they had a wonderful assortment, especially of my beloved batiks. Then we attempted to go to a quilt shop in Charlottesville, VA, but we got to Charlottesville at rush hour and the place was total gridlock! We decided to get out of dodge and go find someplace for a relaxed dinner then check into our room in Staunton.

Saturday was an unbelievably full day. We went to have a look around Staunton. We went to a glass blowing studio called Sunspot Studios. They had beautiful glass art on display. We got to see an artist make a globe that holds plant cuttings. IT was really interesting. Then I started my Christmas shopping. (I am not telling what I got!) In April, they are having The VIrginia Hot Glass Festival there and I so want to go! There will be displays of the works of many artists filling 3 floors of this studio, which is a huge old building, plus multiple artists demonstrating their craft.

Before we left Staunton we found a quilt shop and a bead store for some retail therapy.

Then we went south towards Roanoke. We cut over and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway- what a wonderful display of Fall colors. ALthough the driving was a little crazy on the winding mountain roads, the views were totally worth it! We did not have time for any hikes, but there were plenty of things to be seen from the road.

Then we got to Roanoke to hear my son sing in a concert with a chorus he has joined called the Virginia Gentlemen. They sing barbershop and it was a really great show. The singing was spectacular and there were several quartets that did spoofs that were hysterical!

I think I might have been the most lost I have ever been trying to navigate Roanoke. We got lost nearly every time we got in the car! Even that was not too bad, we were laughing like a couple of lunatics as we wandered aimlessly looking for familiar road names. For some reason it struck us really funny that 3rd street was NOT between 2nd and 4th and that it seemed like all roads were somehow route 11.

I feel tired, but revived and hope that I van be inspired to create some great stuff this week.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-30T23:19:00.005-05:00

Happy Halloween! I wanted to send fun wishes your way, I won't be around for a few days because I am going on a road trip this weekend.

My top Entrecard droppers for the month were:

Unique You
24patrol
Journal of Journey
Multiply themes
Alteredevents
A second Cup
Money Saving Pro
Triz's Beading Mania
Peek Tech Blog
jael's artjewels

Thanks to all who stopped by!

Trying to Find Balance

2008-10-29T13:09:00.003-05:00

I have been feeling overwhelmed lately nearly to the point of paralysis. I looked over at my to do list that was stuck onto my laptop screen, and it was a huge list of items to make for my business- way more than I could ever accomplish in a day. The list also included none of the family maintenance tasks I do every day, and not one bit of mindless entertainment.

So I decided to toss out the list. (Well, not really, I need to keep it because I do need to eventually get to all the stuff on it!) I wrote a new list, which included more reasonable items:

Make tie bags. This is the one product item I am including, because it is a custom job with a waiting customer. All my other original list was for stocking my sites, and I really can't let myself stress over it so much any more.

Plan trip. A friend and I are going down to Roanoke to hear my son sing in a concert. She requested that we try to do part of the trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway. She is brilliant, and I always get a new attitude when we are together. I picked up a map at AAA, and I am also trying to include a quilt shop or 2 in the agenda. My husband had some Hilton points so we have a reservation at a cool place in Roanoke for Saturday night.

Drink more water. I thought about it last night as I went to bed early because I was feeling crappy. I have not been getting anywhere near the water I need, and I have been eating stuff that is not so great for me as well. I decided to start with the water drinking, and fix my food AFTER my trip!

See Fall leaves. (The Fall version of stop to smell the roses!) I saw some lovely leaves on my way out to AAA for my maps, but I really hope there are some left to see on the Parkway this weekend.

Window Shop. I will accomplish this on my trip as well, but I did wander in to a local bead shop near AAA that I never get to see because they are usually closed when I am in the neighborhood. It was inspiring to see someone putting their beads to good use, maybe I will try it someday soon!

Clean Kitchen. Goes without saying- it is not going to clean itself any time soon. I usually don't put it on the list, but maybe adding it will help me be more realistic and reward myself for a job well done.

Laundry. I need to get ahead because of my trip, and my husband has a business trip that he flies out for the day I return. Plus with a football player in the house, I can't leave it sitting!

Mindless tv. OK, maybe everything doesn't have to be constructive. Maybe sometimes I can sprawl on the couch and watch a good soap. I've lost track of how many marriages Erica Kane has had, but I am pretty sure I have caught a little bit of each one. (There was a tornado and a kidnapping this week in Pine Valley!)

Blog. I need to keep up with my blogs. When I start feeling down, I think all my ideas are trash so I stop blogging. I'm just gonna put it out there and you guys feel free to skip it if it's trash.

So that's my new list, trying to turn over a new Fall leaf and strike better balance in my life.

Custom Millefiori Knitting Stitch Markers

2008-10-16T13:55:00.004-05:00

I was contacted a while ago by a woman who said she was a knitting teacher, and that she loved these millefiori stitch markers. She wanted to get multiple sets of them to give to her students, but the list price was a little steep for the quantity she wanted. I worked with her to figure out how to make the item more affordable for her, and here is the result:

I made a total of 24 sets, all of them with one star bead and two other beads.

I love millefiori beads! Here is a description of them from Wikipedia :

"The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers). A. Pellatt (in his book "Curiosities of Glass Making") was the first to use the term "millefiori", which appeared in the Oxford Dictionary in 1849. The beads were called mosaic beads before that time."

Here is a better picture to see the assorted beads I used:

I have lots of sets of stitch markers in my etsy store , check them out over there! Or, if you want some custom sets for your students or knitting guild or any other group, contact me and I would love to work with you!

I'm a Winner!

2008-10-15T13:42:00.005-05:00

Well, actually 2nd place, but I am thrilled nonetheless!

This morning when I logged onto Entrecard, I had WAY more credits than I had when I logged off last night. I did not know immediately what was going on, but went about my business dropping some cards. Then I remembered the contest I had entered (I blogged about it here!) and went back there and looked and I got 2nd place! There are other cool prizes besides the credits, I will have to look at how to get those later after my errands. Thanks to FreebieReporter for sponsoring a great contest!

I also won a contest on The Junk Drawer last week, and I got a really cute magnet which looks great on my fridge!

Blogs are fun, and these wins came just when I needed to be cheered up!

Ugh, The Stress is Really Getting to Me

2008-10-10T07:34:00.003-05:00

I feel like I become increasingly stressed out with each passing moment. I can't stand all the political arguing that goes on in election years- it is getting to the point where I hear "blah blah blah" and I am desperate to just have them tell me what they believe in and what the policies would be, but all they can talk about is the bad things about the other person.

Each day the economic news gets more and more grim. My family seems to be doing alright, but there is just such a sense of impending doom and you never know how much worse it could get.

I think all this national stress is making me stress about everything in my own life as well. Family decisions leave me feeling paralyzed trying to decide what options are best. I feel like I drive my poor patient husband batty trying to weigh all the pros and cons-sometimes when I bring up another point, I feel him screaming inside "why are we still talking about this?" He has the great attitude that if you reach a point where you need to hurry up and wait, you should do just that, and I tend to still stew about it even if things are beyond my control.

All of this is effecting my creative and business activities. I have projects I need to get done, but this general sense of impending doom leaves me a little scared and not knowing where to begin. It's almost like I am afraid to touch the materials and somehow do something "wrong". OK, I so need to get over that and get moving!

Book Review!

2008-10-06T22:07:00.004-05:00

Fabric Art Journals: Making, Sewing, and Embellishing Journals from Cloth and Fibers (Quarry Book)

I decided that from time to time I would include product reviews when I find items that I love and want to recommend. I suppose I should also warn you off of anything that makes me say "eh".

A while ago, I ordered the book pictured above, called Fabric Art Journals by Pam Sussman. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this book! It is not so much a book like some craft books, where you make those particular projects. The author explains a ton of different techniques, and shows some samples. I felt so inspired! I really want to do some fabric art pieces, even if they don't end up being a whole book. She talks at length about image transfer, embellishments, applique, embroidery, sewing the book bindings- a treasure trove of techniques too long to mention.

I have to confess, I felt so fired up about fabric art after reading this book, I made my quilting friend Karen borrow it. THis is the first time ever I have FORCED someone to borrow one of my books. She was in the process of making some art quilts for her home, and the book helped her think about using her materials in some less traditional ways.

If you are into fiber arts, I highly recommend you check out his book!

Evolution of a Football Mom

2008-10-05T09:10:00.002-05:00

football 009
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

Ok, I will admit that I generally have hated the term "Soccer Mom" and have pondered the difference between a soccer mom and the mother of a kid that plays soccer. I guess the difference is subtle, but I think we moms can cling to it in an attempt to maintain our own identity and sense of self when we spend so many hours taxi-ing kids and watching games and being "Steve's mom".

This is my son's third season in football. He is a huge kid- the sort that makes everyone ask immediately "Do you play football?" I have for all this time tried to repeat the mantra to myself "He's only 13" or whatever age he was at the time. This was an effort to avoid being sucked into the high pressure mentality that goes along with so many organized team sports. Oh, he stood straight up? Well, he is only 13. His guy got right past him? Well' he is only 13. Honestly, based on the stories we moms share while we wait at practice about the idiosyncracies of our mostly 13 year old boys, it is quite a miracle that they manage to accomplish anything!

Yet if you listen closely to the sideline talk at the games, there is a serious sense of urgency. It is the same sort of feeling I got when as the mom of a preschooler I was with other parents who were all worried about whether their 3 year old was going to get into the best preschool. There are high school coaches visiting these games scouting the kids. These 13 year olds face the fact that what happens in this one game can effect them for years to come. (I won't even go into the whole threat of injury thing, that scares me too much!)

So at yesterdays game, something "clicked" and my son was suddenly having his best game ever. Because of sickness and injury of some teammates, he was playing a position he had never played before, and he was good at it! I found my usually mild mannered self screaming "Get him!" and high fiving with other parents. It was actually fun at the time. THe problem is, eventually it occurs to me that the "him" in "get him" is some other mom's baby. I think maybe I am not cut out to be a football mom, and it's going to be a bumpy ride!

Fall Festival Report

2008-10-02T15:43:00.004-05:00

Just one downpour of many
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

Well, if a picture is worth a thousand words, this one says it all! Wow! The Bowie Fall Festival was so rainy! Periodically the skies would just open up and dump huge amounts of water on us.

Luckily, I was up on the porch of the Shops at Fabian House, so I was mostly dry. There was a big leak in the roof right behind me, but the drips managed to miss me even when they turned into a steady stream. It was funny how many people said "My grandparents had a house with a porch just like this, and theirs leaked too!" It became almost a point of nostalgia and for a moment no one minded the fact we were all getting wet. Kids stomped in puddles and we all wondered why kids so rarely do that anymore.

I felt sorry for the guys who had brought their antique cars over- you can see them in the picture across the street. Especially the dude with the convertible. The first storm took him (and all of us!) by surprise, so nice people held their umbrellas over the car until he could close his window flaps.

I did not have a lot of sales, which was not a huge surprise based on the economic climate lately and the wonderful weather. I had a great day though, visiting with the people at the festival. I had a lovely bowl of lentil soup for lunch from the cafe and a Heath crunch cookie. It doesn't get any better than that!

Thanks to My September Top Entrecard Visitors!

2008-10-01T10:25:00.006-05:00

I recently joined Entrecard, which is a cool blogging network where you drop virtual cards on other blogs to show you have been on their blog. I find it a great way to blog hop and have found some interesting blogs that I like to follow regularly.

I would like to thank the following blogowners for being the top card droppers on my blog this month (I joined partway through, so it was a short month):

My gyspygoods

Unique You

Simply Stamping

Turn-u-off

Jael's Artjewels

Over a Cup of BARAKO

time2cre8

First Door on the Left

The Social Arrow

In a Real Life

Getting Ready for the Fall Festival

2008-09-24T22:49:00.004-05:00

This Sunday I will be at the Fall Festival in Old Town Bowie. If you are in the area, stop in and enjoy the fun. You can find me on the front porch of The Shops at Fabian House.

As usual, I am scurrying to try to get my stock together to take over there. I set up really a very small display, so I don't know why I stress so. I only use a card table, because there is a lot going on up there on that porch, plus I leave myself a little room on the table to work on some stuff while I am there.

I have been working on all different things, in an attempt to maybe have some variety finished. The other night I glued buttons onto bobby pin bases. Some of these are buttons I covered myself with fabric scraps, some are vintage buttons
.

I was also sewing some bags- I do not have a lot of room to display bags, but I need to take some to stock the shop inside. I have 6 jeans purses all cut and in various stages of completion. I sewed the lining into one bag while I watched Project Runway tonight- it felt like a sewalong! I have to be careful making those jeans purses, as I have been known to make my hands really sore sewing in the linings. I would love to also make a few colorful quilted totes to take up there, but we will have to see how much I get done.

I need to card and price my items for display. Since I mostly sell online, I can just drop earrings in a baggie and card them when they sell, but for a festival I need them all pretty and priced. I stamped my business name onto a new batch of cards tonight, I want to get a lot of this work done and not be up half the night on Saturday getting stuff ready.

Wish me luck! I don't count on selling much with the way this week has been economically for our country, but it will be nice to get out there and meet some people and hopefully we will have enjoyable weather.

Trying Out Entrecard

2008-09-21T12:34:00.004-05:00

This week I joinend Entrecard, which is a site for advertising your blogs. It is free to join, and you earn EC points by clicking on links on other peoples blogs. You can see the box >>>>> in the margin of this blog. THere is a little box which says blog of the day over it, and has a yellow stripe. See it?? I'll wait while you go look...

Anyway, Entrecard users click on that yellow bar to earn points, and those points are used to buy ads on other blogs. I have bought a number of ads which will run next week. If nothing else I am reading a lot of really great blogs.

Also, FreebieReporter is having the biggest EC point giveaway ever! I hope I win! I would love to win the first prize, which includes among other great things 30,000 EC points! Ooooh, please pick me, pick me!

Follow up: Outdoor Photo Success!

2008-09-20T21:22:00.009-05:00

Well, a vast improvement anyway! I started the day with my exposure set on zero. I thought the pregame photos turned out pretty well. I was in the shade, the players in the sun:

Then I tried the same shot at -1 exposure:

Then the game started and I took some action shots. At this point I had gone back to the zero exposure setting:

I especially liked this one, where the tackled player is laying in the cloud of dust! (he was fine, no worries): Not sure if my kid (#77) was in on it or just walked up to look at him later. One insight I had today is that it is impossible for me to watch the game and take pictures at once, and also that I tend to get shots just before or just after the big events happen. As a result I only took about 10 pictures and then got back to watching the game (plus I was water mom so I had to fill the bottles throughout the game.)

Towards the end I tried a few more shots with the exposure at -1 again:

Those were even a little better, and I want to try going all the way to -2 for the bright sunlight pictures on my next attempt. Also I would like to go back to trying out the sports action photo setting, which takes three pictures in succession, then I might get the right moments!

Overall, I am still not likely to be voted team photographer, but I am going to be able to get some photos that my son can look back at and remember his football days, which was all I wanted.

I Need Photo Help!

2008-09-19T19:49:00.009-05:00

OK, I like to think that I have nearly mastered the whole product photography thing. (Just humor me here!) My major issue now is trying to get photos of people- mainly my family. In any kind of bright light, the color white gets oversaturated bigtime. Here are some examples:

Here is a photo I took of my son at football:

See how bright the white is? It gets worse when they put on their white helmets, it is like they have auras or something! See how the little kids behind him are little white blurry blobs? Sometimes everybody looks like that!

When the sun went behind clouds it got a little better:

Unfortunately, with games mostly at 2pm, the odds of catching this perfect lighting are slim. I have had this problem repeatedly and it is making me nuts! Today I was trying to use the sports photo setting on my camera, which is a Nikon Coolpix L3.

This is a picture from last season taken with the normal settings, no flash, all the adjustments set on auto:

Does anyone have any advice for how to fix this problem?

Fiber Art Explorations 3

2008-09-15T13:43:00.005-05:00

I have had a busy time lately, with my oldest son heading off to college, and my younger starting 8th grade and playing football. I have been trying to carve out time to continue my fiber art explorations though. I am going to talk about them in no particular order, mainly commenting on the pictures I have to share with you:

Here is a picture of some felt leaves I made for a trade in Fiber Art Traders. They are double layers of wool blend felt, cut in the shape of oak leaves and with the veins embroidered on with a variegated thread. I chose oak leaves because there was until recently a historic oak tree in my town of Gaithersburg, MD.

To make those leaves, I got brave and printed the inspiring words I needed onto muslin fed through my printer. I have a long standing phobia about this, but I survived and it worked on the second try!

I tea dyed some muslin which I plan to use on an art piece which will incorporate an old picture of a distant ancestor. I have tea dyed before years ago, but this time I fan folded the fabric, and it really gives me a different texture.
Here are some fibers I traded with my Fiber Art Traders group. We traded with 10 people, so now my stash is really growing!
I made these inchies to trade with Fiber Art Traders. They have an Olympic theme, and I transferred the icons for 5 different sports using the gel medium technique (see fiber arts exporations 2). Ziggzagged the edges with my first spool ever of sulky thread- love the sheen!
I reorganized my sewing area, with these shelves above my work surface to hold my various fibers, plus zippers, fusibles, etc.
I am continuing on my Take a Stitch Tuesday, I am currently 2 stitches behind - I will post a new pic when I catch up!
I was reading about buttons made with fiber, and follwed a link to a tutorial to make these Dorset buttons. I made a few using variegated DMC floss. I am not sure what to do with them, I might try them in some jewelry creations!
Stay tuned for more fiber art explorations!

Fiber Art Explorations 2

2008-07-06T23:12:00.009-05:00

I continued in my quest to try out as many fiber art techniques as I can find. I am sort of using one at a time, and as I get more secure, I will start mixing it up a bit.

First, I fused some cool Angelina fiber to itself, then put the resulting sheet of weblike fibers on top of some mistyfuse and fused again. All this was accomplished with my trusty iron, between 2 sheets of parchment. The result was a sheet of angelina that can be cut and fused like any applique. I cut mine into random strips and fused it onto some green mottled fabric.

The next technique I tried was painted fusible web! I just took a sheet of fusible web, and painted it with some red craft acrylic paint. After it dried, I used a shape cutter I have for scrapbooking, and cut the web, some circles, hexagons and the letters to spell peace. then I laid out the web onto some black and white print fabric, and ironed it between two sheets of parchment. I think the results look really great, and I plan to paint up some more web and try to overlap some different colors!

Then I did a transfer of a picture to fabric using Golden Matte Gel Medium. I printed a picture onto the rough side of a transparency using my inkjet printer. Then you take the fabric of choice, in my case a batik, and paint the medium onto the fabric. Then lay the picture transparency on the medium and burnish. I loved this and hope it always goes as well as my first attempt went!

Also, this week I joined the Stitchin Fingers community on Ning, and there I found a group doing TAST or Take a Stitch Tuesday, where you explore a new embroidery stitch each Tuesday. I was late joining in, so I did 4 stitches last week- Herringbone, buttonhole, detached chain and cretan. After practicing on a sampler, I used some of the stitches in these Dottee dolls I was working on for a FAT trade.

Tonight I made these paper beads:

I have wanted to make paper beads for so long! These are from the colorful pages of a Hancocks of Paducah fabric catalog. They send me a catalog with each order, so I want to put them to good use!

On Saturday, a friend and I went to a place in ALexandria, VA called the Torpedo Factory art Center, which is full of studios with the artists working and displaying their work. It was so inspirational. Too bad I have to do garment sewing this week, but my mom and I both need new robes, so that is what I will be making.

Fiber Explorations Part I

2008-06-29T15:11:00.010-05:00

I have been quilting for years, but tend to cling rather stubbornly to the more traditional aspects of the craft. I recently started exploring my inner fiber artist buried deep within...or rather dragging her out kicking and screaming. I think the scientist in me finds comforts in the rules and formulas involved in traditional quilting techniques. However the artist in me is always drawn to the more "artsy" items I see.

While looking for resources to read about art quilts, I stumbled upon a group called Fiber Art Traders, or FAT for short, on Yahoo. These wonderful artists share techniques and trade items they make. SO far I have participated in a trade where we made paper towel jewelry, and one where we made button fairies.

Here is an example of my paper towel jewelry:

And here are my button fairies:

About the time I found FAT, I read an article by the leader of FAT, Normajean Brevik, where she was talking about inchies. Inchies are little one inch square art pieces, which can be done in many different mediums, but her article was talking about fiber art inchies. So I started exploring different techniques in fiber art, and making different batches of inchies.

First, I made a batch where I fused fabric to a background, then laid organza over it and machine quilted the surface. Here are those inchies:

...and here are some hair pins I made from them with some beading added:

Next, I took some black and white print fabric for the background and made some inchies where I couched some fancy yarn onto the surface of them:
I have not done anything with those yet , but I think they are very interesting.

Stay tuned for my next installment, where I will play with Angelina fibers and maybe some picture transfers to fabric!

It was time...

2008-06-24T22:40:00.002-05:00

I closed my Ebay store tonight. It was a little sad, as that was my first store. But it was time to move on. I have other stores that serve my purposes better, and Ebay is not the place it was when I opened my store back in the summer of 2005. Really, I am different too and so is my business. Now I can focus on my path forward.

Watch this space for my newest adventures!

Life's Milestones

2008-06-11T22:43:00.007-05:00

Within the span of a week, my elder son had his senior prom, became an Eagle Scout and graduated from high school. I don't know about him, but I am exhausted! Except for the prom, the events were the culmination of years of hard work on his part, and encouragement on our part (ok, maybe some serious shoving towards his goals!).

Officially, we had told him that our gift to him would be the elaborate (meaning expensive!) computer he needs for college. We were advised not to buy that until July though, because one bought in June would be old technology before school even started! We wanted to get him something he could have now, and also something that he could keep to remember these milestones.

I had seen some great handcrafted vine twisted walking sticks in The Shops at Fabian House in Bowie, Maryland. These sticks are all one of a kind, made with great care by John, a retired gentleman who finds the sticks on his regular walks from trees that have grown with a vine twisted into them. I spoke to John about making us a custom stick for our son- he agreed to embed pins with Boy Scout insignia on them into the stick. We met at the shop one day and he let me choose from an assortment of "raw" sticks he had that were waiting to become walking sticks. We all agreed that the best option was a fabulous maple stick he had found. He set in an Eagle Scout pin, one that shows the Boy Scout sign, a larger eagle pin and also a pin for Order of the Arrow. He did a fabulous job carving out the stick so the pins are set in. He peeled part of the bark away, and left some. He polished the stick to show off the wood to its best advantage. He added a leather string so it can be hung up on display.

Here is my son with his walking stick, and some closeups so you can see the details of the pins and the twists on the bark:

The stick is a fabulous reminder for him of his path to Eagle Scout, and a symbol that we hope will give him strength as he walks life's roads into his future.

If you are ever in Bowie, check out The Shops at Fabian House! They have a great selection of beautiful walking sticks, as well as antiques, books and an eclectic selection of gift items. You have to see it to believe it, I notice different things every time I go in there. Oh, and don't forget to have a great snack or lunch at the cafe - I am especially fond of the apple spinach salad. The cafe is vegetarian fare, but they have something for everyone!

MSOE Organic Chemistry Challenge!

2008-05-26T23:22:00.003-05:00

I recently joined a team on Etsy, called MSOE, or mad scientists of etsy. They run monthly challenges and this month's challenge is organic chemistry as art. I have a degree in Biochemistry, but I took organic when Reagan was president, and retired from the field many moons ago, so it took some thinking to come up with what I would do.

I wanted to do something with jewelry and molecular model type structures, but hesitated because molecularmuse does it so fantastically.

I remembered one fantastic day in organic chem lecture. One weekend at a party, a guy hit on me and one of my best friends on the same evening using the same lines ( his lines failed him miserably on both of us). When we compared notes later, we realized what had happened, and were more than slightly annoyed. I realized that Mr. Ladies' Man was in my organic chemistry lecture. My friend, who was an English major who had taken Astronomy for her Science requirement, agreed to come to class with me. We sat right behind him talking about the party, and watching him squirm as he came to the realization we knew each other.

That day the lecture was about cyclohexane's two forms- the boat and the chair form. Decades later my friend will still occasionally refer to the chair and the boat, perhaps in homage to the abilities of my professor, Dr. Kingston (she loved his British accent!)or maybe because boat and chair were the only familiar words in the entire hour! So, with a wink to molecularmuse, who can take one look at my item and know there is no need to worry, I took some sterling wire and formed two hexagons and bent one to be the chair and one to be the boat- they make an interesting if mismatched pair of earrings!

Here's to you, Jenny! I hope you still remember the boat and the chair with a smile, like me, even if you don't remember the name of Mr. Ladies' Man either!

It Was Bound to Happen

2008-04-29T21:52:00.004-05:00

I'm 46, which I can remember at one point in my life thinking was really old. But I then the more years went by, the younger 46 started to sound. I only occasionally feel old, like when I look at other moms from my kids classes and think they must be siblings, or when I get creaky joints.

A few weeks ago I had the rude awakening of needing to get reading glasses. I knew my old glasses for driving needed to be updated, so I went to the optometrist. This time there was no denying it- when she showed me how clear my vision could be with reading glasses, I really had to get some. Not only did I get reading glasses, I got the little no rim on top granny reading glasses, so I could look at the computer or stuff across the room over the top.

I'll have to claim one of the eyeglass chains from my inventory now that I need to wear 2 different pairs!

Fingerprint Friday

2008-04-18T15:24:00.004-05:00

Check out this blog post by PamperingBeki!! She is talking about a Steven Curtis Chapman song that refers to seeing the fingerprints of God. She issues a challenge to take photos of whatever makes you see the fingerprints of God. I think it is a really great idea, and maybe would help me to see the preciousness of the people and things in my life, and not fall into a funk!

So I will start here, with a picture of my "baby". I put that in quotes because he is 13 yrs old, 6 ft tall and a football lineman. But much to his chagrin he will always be my baby! My grandmother always wished for a grandchild with red hair and brown eyes, because her best friend had that combo, and she did not get it but I like to think somewhere she is pleased that my boy has that combo.

A New Look!

2008-04-06T16:15:00.006-05:00

I have redone my ebay store! I used the graphics I got from The Shabby Shoppe . The shop sells sets of graphics intended for digital scrapbooking, but I bought a set and then a commercial use license from them and now am using the graphics on my websites. Here is how my store is looking now!

That is my store header, and the little gift tags are clickable links to my store categories.

Here is a view of my listing template. I tried to keep it fairly simple and clean.

Now to go stock the thing and sell, sell, sell. My eldest son starts college in the fall, and it is far from free!

I Got a Plugboard!

2008-04-02T22:16:00.003-05:00

OK, until a few weeks ago, I did not know what one was. A lot of sellers over on Etsy were talking about them, so I worked out on my Serif PhotoPlus how to make the little animated banner and I started plugging away on other people's plugboard. They are free little areas where you can advertise and post a link to your business. You can see my plugboard over on the margin to the right!>>>>>

Here is my plug:

Slow and Steady

2008-02-08T14:12:00.000-05:00

My poor neglected blog is just a symptom of the rest of my crafting life lately. In mid January, my gall bladder decided it was very unhappy and it needed to be removed. I had the open operation (old school large incision, not the little camera guided operation) and was in the hospital for a week. When people say you are not up to par for a month, believe them! I have been able to make a little jewelry and keep up on orders for that, but I have not been up to sewing, and I totally dropped the ball on a special order. I am hoping to be able to sew a little over the next few days and then I will give the customer the item for free.

I have a huge to do list floating in my head- stuff to make, business paperwork, taxes, hunt for loans and scholarships for my college bound son. I just have to chip away at that list and try to keep the household running and hopefully make a little more progress every day...

Here are a few things I have been working on in the past few days:

Wish me luck, off to straighten up my work table!

Wow, Time Flies!

2007-12-05T16:56:00.000-05:00

I have been working hard since my last post, but unfortunately not posting my progress. I have a lot to catch up on, but I am going to start by talking about today.

For some time I have wanted to make my own earwires for a different look on some of my earrings. I was waiting until I got a tumbler, so I would not have to individually harden each wire. Well, my mom got me a tumbler for Christmas, and told me to order it and just start using it. SO, today I made some earwires!

I used two different methods of shaping them:

First, I wrapped a length of wire around a large (size 17) knitting needle. (Thanks to Sheila for giving me one!)

THen I cut the individual loops apart. I filed the wire on both end of the rings.

Next, I put a loop on one end to hold the beaded dangles and flattened out the other end to go in the ear.

I also used this lovely jig that I bought from glittercritter on etsy.com. I have a fancier jig, but I like the fact that this one is set up to make these simple earwires all the time, and I don't have to remember which peg I used.

Here are the wires I made with this jig:

All of these wires are tumbling right now! I can't wait to get them out after dinner. I will make myself some new earrings so that I can test out both styles.

Thirty Days of Crafting 365

2007-10-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

So I have been crafting every day for the past 30 days, so I wanted to tell you about my progress! It was very motivating, because it made me do at least a little something every day to have something to post to the group (although I will admit that for today's entry I let fabric shopping count!)

Over the past 30 days I have done a variety of things: made earrings, bracelets, necklaces, ornament hooks, my first ever felted amulet bag, quilted totes, jeans purses, earrings for Halloween and Christmas, my first experiment in oxidized silver.

You should give it a try- Crafting 365 is fun, and makes you feel so productive!

October's Charity in my Ebay Store

2007-10-07T10:52:00.000-05:00

This month all the proceeds from the sale of my glass candy corn earrings will go to The U.S. Fund for UNICEF, which supports child survival, protection and development worldwide through education, advocacy and fundraising.

Fun Halloween Earrings!

2007-09-23T22:59:00.000-05:00

I decided to make a line of kinder, gentler Halloween earrings. I got feedback last year that maybe my monster picks were a little too intense!

This new line includes whimsical earrings showing friendly bats, spiders, vampires, witches and frankenstein monsters, along with candy corn and black cats! Also I have handcrafted wire spider web earrings in both silver and copper!

I also still have my trademark monster picks:

I know I also have some skull and vampire picks, I just have not made the earrings yet to get a picture of them.

Crafting 365

2007-09-19T19:24:00.000-05:00

A great Etsy seller posted on the forums today talking about a new commitment she had made to herself to get something crafty done every day. (THanks Lupin!) THis sounded like a great way to get motivated. She has created a group on FLICKR called Crafting 365, where we can go to post our daily project pictures. I am going to give this a try!

Today's project:

I made some Christmas ornament hooks!

Hopefully I can keep this up!

Fun with Felting

2007-09-15T22:52:00.000-05:00

I have these grand plans that I am going to make amulet pouch necklaces, and I decided I would bead and embroider on a felt background. So I got out this great box of goodies that I bought as an assortment from Mohairwig.com . I got it months ago, having ordered it right after I got my Embellisher. The customer service was great- she showed great patience with me, especially considering I had no idea what I wanted!

So then I took one bundle of wool roving in assorted tones of blue, and just started felting layer upon layer with a water soluble embroidery stabilizer as the base. At one point I seemed to have overdone it a little, and ended up with a hole, but then I cut a few pieces off and rearranged and felted them onto the base, which seemed to fix the problem and add a little more visual interest.

Watch this space to see what I do with my piece of felt!

Charity Sales for the Month of September

2007-09-02T18:34:00.000-05:00

I have been sewing feverishly for the past week or so to hem a bunch of band uniform pants for my son's marching band. These are nearly brand new uniforms and working on them has reminded me how lucky he is that his school has a music program and that they could raise the money to get the uniforms.

So when I went looking for the charity to feature this month in my ebay store , I decided to choose VH1 Save the Music. According to their profile on Missionfish, "The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of education in Americas public schools by restoring music programs in cities across the U.S., and raising public awareness about the importance of music participation for our nations youth."

Please check out my guitar pick earrings and save the music!