Category: crafty

I love knitting. Crocheting I can take or leave on a project by project basis. This project is worth it. With a balloon, some jute and watered down glue, Margie over at Resurrection Fern created this wonderful glowing orb. I can see how you could make a bunch of these to cover larger christmas light bulbs. via

A little known fact about my Grandfather is that he loves fire. When he is up at our property we have to keep a very close eye on him lest he burn the place to the ground or possibly worse, put something in the fire that shouldn’t go in, like plastic or rubber. I am certain if left on his own he would start a tire fire. When he really gets going he has two burn barrels that he set up for us, starts the blaze with kerosene and adds wax to keep the whole thing going. Today I found two recipes for DIY firestarters. This one would be perfect for the burn barrel. I will make sure to have some for you next time grandpa! And the following recipe is from an article from Body+Soul with 25 eco chic ideas for your home. I can’t wait to try these with my next campfire. Rosemary smoked marshmallows anyone?

Herbal Fire Starter

Pinecones and dried herbs such as rosemary, sage leaves, and cinnamon sticks make fragrant kindling for a winter fire.

1. Bundle dried herbs and small pinecones in a sheet of newspaper and secure the ends with raffia or cotton twine.
2. As you pile up logs for your fire, nestle the herb bundle underneath, with paper ends sticking out.
3. To start the fire, light the newspaper ends.

As the paper burns up, the herbs inside will ignite and incinerate, giving the logs a chance to catch fire.

Although I own a decent number of reusable bags, I somehow manage to forget them enough that I am still overrun with evil plastic bags. I reuse them a few times but I still feel guilt throwing them out. There are lots of projects out there that used fused plastic bags for purses or pillows, but nothing has appealed to me enough to actually make it. Until now. Kelly at make:grow:gather made a lunch bag out of her plastic bags. This is something I can get behind. It seems that she used some combination of this post and this post to get the job done. I am going to add it to my ever growing project list. via

I can’t remember if I talked about this beautiful handspun newspaper yarn by Greetje van Tiem in a past post but I was reminded recently and figured it couldn’t hurt to do a google search. I was pleasantly surprised to find that someone posted a tutorial!! Fantastic. I just happen to have a drop spindle at home so thankfully this does not violate my craft diet pledge.

I don’t know where I first saw this bird mobile with free sewing pattern, but I loved it so much, I downloaded it right away. I have a bunch of fabric samples that are screaming to be used on this project. In fact I can’t imagine a project more perfect. We happen to have quite a few friends who have new little ones so I am thinking this is what they will be getting from M & me. M is actually the sewer in the family so between the two of us we should be able to crank them out. The plan was to get started this weekend, we went out for a walk, got some pinking shears and good quality fabric scissors, got home and promptly wilted from the heat. Hopefully we will get started matching and cutting fabric this week.

If you are like me, you are trying to get your plastic grocery bags under control and out of your life, but you aren’t quite there yet. You are pretty good about carrying and remembering your reusable bags. But you still have quite a few plastic bags left over and every once in a while you forget and have to get a new one. Today I got fed up with my plastic bag situation. They were taking over. I remembered seeing plastic bags folded into triangles and how little space they took up. It only takes 5 minutes and now I can make sure to carry one in my purse along with my other bags.

I saw this fabulous project on design*sponge for a DIY felt laptop case. I love so much about this project. There is no sewing, it is super easy AND it is felt. I can see making a few in different color combinations. Also I could see doing this with some of the scrap fabric I have accumulated while looking for the perfect couch cover.

I have been drinking tea at the office lately because the coffee is just terrible and buying coffee every day is an expense I am trying to do without. $2 a day adds up. I like my tea hot. What is the point of drinking a hot beverage if it is only lukewarm or worse yet cool. Ick. So I have a little teapot to keep my tea warmer longer. Even in this teapot my tea doesn’t stay all that hot all that long. I was thinking to myself the other day, “Gee, I wonder if I could come up with a tea cozy pattern for my little pot.” I am a good knitter, but not a good pattern maker so I let it fall to the wayside. How happy was I to see this pattern today! No more cool tea for me! I can’t wait to knit it up. via link