Category: Uncategorized

At least once a day my laptop starts whirring and making a noise that makes me think it is about to take off.

Phew, where does the time go! I feel like some days I have a ton to talk about, but no time to sit and post.
I am trying to spend one night a week unplugged so that I can work on non computer projects without the distraction of the web or TV. I’ll be honest, although this should be week three, I have yet to actually do it. I have a lot of ideas kicking around, all of them helping deplete my craft stash. I am also working on getting pictures of these projects up on my blog. I hope to have something to show soon.

Sometimes I have ideas for blog posts when I am not in front of a computer. Usually by the time I get back to one, I have lost the excitement about that particular topic. Well I have found a way to blog on the go! I can type up my post in my iPod Touch and when I can connect to the internet, I send an email to my blog. The post then gets cued up as a draft so that I can refine and add photos if necessary. Maybe this will help me keep up a little better with the blog.

As I mentioned, M&I are talking about building our own home. We have scoped out a plan for a small house with the possibility of future additions. We have agreed that although we will be building a fairly basic house we are going to try to make it interesting with our material choices. I am a designer who works for an architecture firm and reads a lot of blogs. This means I have a lot of ideas rumbling around about what materials are good and how I can use ordinary materials in a different way. I taking cues from The Rural Studio and old school Gehry. One material I have had my eye on for a while is 3Form. They have a lot of really interesting panels with great things embedded in them. I think the hardest part would be choosing which one I want to use!

As I have been researching prefab housing I have realized a few things. As far as location I am probably on the wrong side of the world but at the very least the wrong side of the country to get my hands on any really cool designs for less than my first born child. It seems that Australia and New Zealand have figured out prefab is the way to go. Europe seems to be holding their own as well as far as ease of availability and interesting design choices. The US is lagging… especially here on the east coast. It seems that everything I look at has huge shipping costs and doesn’t having something shipped negate any “green” good I might be doing? When I finally think I am on to something, it turns out the hidden costs can make that enticing bottom line price swell up by a factor of 10 in some cases. I am starting to feel like a double wide is the only thing really in my prices range… ok ok, things aren’t that bleak. I could also plunk down a Cape (yawn) for a reasonable price. M&I are seriously considering building our own house. I mean like with our own two hands (and I am hoping a few helping hands here and there.) I was reading this blog and figured if he could do it, so could we… Have I lost my mind? Quite possibly.

This is a picture of a plant at work. I swear a few weeks ago it was nothing more than a few sticks with a single leaf. I have watched in awe as more leaves sprouted, then white pods which finally produced red flowers! Just amazing. If someone out there knows what this plant is, I would would love to know.

If you have a cell phone but no landline, you may have found yourself in the situation where you can’t locate your phone and there is no one around to call it for you. Enter Where Is My Cell Phone. Hopefully you didn’t leave it on silent… via

This is such a fabulous design for a vase! What a great way to reuse your water bottles (I know, I know, we are all trying our best to not buy water bottles, but we are still a little ways off) AND it is felt which, as far as I am concerned is a perfect material. I may have to try a DIY version of this for some people on my Christmas list. There are other product concepts on the site that are worth checking out. via link

I have been looking for a felted bowl pattern for a while now. As I was clicking around the other day I saw that someone on design*sponge posted about the felted bowls they knitted using a pattern from the book One Skein. So I promptly put the book on my library list and this past weekend grabbed a few different types of wool yarn and went to town making bowls. They are actually very easy to make and you can be creative with the pattern once you get the basic principal down. Honestly they are just as easy and even quicker than scarves which makes them my new favorite thing to knit.

There is an excellent story in the Washington Post about consumerism and being green. I have already admitted that I am a consumer and this story hits a little close to home for me. Will I change my ways. Not overnight. But I think I will hang on to my outdated towels for a bit longer.