Creative Energy April 10, 2009

Creative energy has been bubbling to the surface for me the last couple of days. It has felt good. I have been accomplishing many little tasks.

Yesterday I made fresh pasta from scratch. Bernie helped me for about half of the process. This is the pasta maker that he bought me for Christmas, pretty handy little machine (Thanks Honey!).

I have only made pasta from scratch a couple of times, and unfortunatly in the past it has been a process that frustrated me greatly, and made me quite mad actually. Nothing seemed to go right, and it is so much work, it felt like it just wasn’t worth it. This time thankfully things seemed to come together for me. It is still a time consuming process (maybe I am just not doing it right…) but I enjoyed it this time. A step in the right direction for sure.

Now I just need to get a drying rack to hang the noodles on so that they can dry. I started making this a little late in the eveninig, so they did not have a chance to dry as much as they should have I think. In the future I think I need to make the pasta around lunch time or something like that. It sure did taste good though when it was all done!

And then tonight I had a bunch of stawberries that we bought, that needed to be used before going bad. And, our rhubarb is starting to come up. What better combination than strawberries and rhubarb. So I looked up some recipes and decided on Rhubarb Strawberry Bars. As I sit here typing this post I have not yet tasted them, but I do have to say they smell wonderful! They will be a weekend indulgence!

Today I finished another shopping bag. I usually am not drawn to such bright colors, I am much more into earth tones and such. But I just loved these fabrics when I saw them, and decided to make a bag out of them. The stripy liner is a little hard to see in this picture, but the colors are exactly the same, and it makes a wonderful summer shopping bag. I have really been enjoying matching fabrics for the outside and liner of these bags.

We will see if the creative energy carries over into the weekend.

A Bag of Butterflies March 19, 2009

 

Working on my shopping bags has been on my mind the past few days. But I have really been in an off mood lately, which has left me low on energy to express myself in any way. Today my creativity bug came back as it were.  

I have really been enjoying finding beautiful frabrics to do these bags with. I love the colors of these butterflies and the flowers in the background. You can’t really see it in this picture, but there are little golden vines in the background for highlights.

Sewing is one of the many crafts that I taught myself. I used to be facinated with fashion, and wanted to be able to make things myself. I have made a few clothing items over the years, but have done many other crafts with my trusty little sewing machine.

It’s very strange to me that sewing your own clothes used to be much cheaper than buying them in the store. When my parents were children it was very common for their mothers to sew them different clothing items that would last a few years. But now with the ability to mass produce everything, you can buy a dress at Wal-Mart (or any other mega store) for $10. With the cost of fabric, and your time, it would cost you much more to make the same item.

The ironic thing is, I have found Wal-Mart to be the cheapest place locally to buy fabric, and so that is where I have been going lately. I have very mixed feelings on all of this. In certain ways it is great that these stores are able to provide us with very reasonable prices, so even people on a tight budget can afford new clothing. But at what cost….. There is no love put into those items, and at what cost to both the environment and the people who had to produce these items.

Well anyways…. even though I am using mass produced fabric, I made this re-usable shopping bag to cut back on using plastic bags at the grocery store. I put my love, and energy into it. Its really satisfying to me to take the raw materials and making something out of them.

A Handmade Giveaway January 26, 2009

This Giveaway is now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered!

Here it is! This is my handmade giveaway. I love to share with the world in many different ways. And I thought it would be a lot of fun to participate in this giveaway with a few things that I have made.

 

 

 First is this Shopping Bag. I loved this fabric from the moment I saw it. I have been wanting to make re-usable shopping bags for a while now, so I finally broke down and bought a pattern and some fabric and went for it. I have been very pleased with the results. I have only made a few so far, but plan on making many more in the future. This bag comes with its own little pouch to store it in when not in use. When you are using the bag, the pouch clips onto the side of the bag so you don’t loose it!

 

 

 Second is the little Bluebird of Love. This cute little guy is one of the many needle felted creatures I have created. He is only a couple inches long, so he makes a great little pocket pet, or would be a great company sitting in a special spot.

 

 

 Third is a hat that I recently made. I love the color of this yarn, the gentle shading effect. This one should be hand washed and laid flat to dry. I hope it can bring warmth to you or someone you love. There is nothing better than a handmade hat on a chilly winter day! Well maybe accompanied by a cup of warm coco.

 

 

 And last but not least is a set of five cards. Each card has a different image of a bird in flight. These beautiful photographs were taken by my significant other, Bernie. The humming bird you see in this photo is one of the cards, but I will leave the identity of the other four a surprise for who ever wins this package! They are all stunning, and capture the personality of the bird. These are blank greeting cards, so that you can fill them with your loving thoughts and best wishes to family and friends.

I hope who ever wins this little package is filled with as much joy receiving it as I will have by giving it! To enter please leave a comment on this post telling me something that you love to do. Please enter only once, so that everyone has an equal chance. The deadline for entering this giveaway will be at 12:00am PST Saturday January 31st. I will pick the winner at random and contact them that weekend. This giveaway is open to everyone. Please be sure to include your e-mail in your entry so that I am able to reach you if you are the winner. If I can not get a hold of the winner by February 7th, I have the right to randomly pick another winner.

To see MANY other wonderful giveaways visit:

A New Craft January 4, 2009

I have to confess, I am a Martha Stewart groupie. I watch most of her shows, and while I zone out once in a while at what she is saying, I learn new stuff pretty often. I record her shows on my DVR, and currently I am a little behind, still on the pre Christmas shows. So this project I just accomplished was one of her ‘make it yourself gifts’. She did a cloth pin cushion on top, but since I have been playing around with needle felting I thought I would play around with some ideas. So this is a little sewing kit made out of a canning jar. It’s a wonderful idea because all your little sewing supplies are in one spot. You wouldn’t believe how often I end up searching all over the house for each little piece. I made this one for my mom, because her items are never in one place. I plan on adding to the sewing kit. What I have in it so far is some thread, a measuring tape, and one of my felted acorns to hold the sewing needle. I am pretty pleased with this one as a first time try, but I think I could make the felted part a little more refined.