So very ... Robin!

My own magic for Black Friday

2011-11-26T00:17:00.000-08:00

Remember the Magic Feather Project from talented artist and Spirit Cloth blogger Jude Hill? A couple of new feathers are now flying her way thanks to my own little un-Black Friday. As much as I love the bustle of the holidays, I just couldn't see pushing through the crowds to look at the same old things in the mall today. Instead, I saved the kitchen from yesterday's boisterous cooking and relaxed with some sewing.

Just to remind you, Jude's goal is to sew together the feather blocks she receives into something for charity. Her "magic feather" design incorporates black and white with a floating feather motif. My first feathers (a few weeks ago - you can click on the cloud in the sidebar to the right to see them) were actually black and white. I broke out into some different colors for these and basically free-handed the design, letting the colors dictate the pattern.

The feather pattern, which looks a bit like a leaf, is very easy to draw and stitch. As I mentioned before, there's even a little video tutorial on the Magic Feather Project site that shows a simple how-to. If you check out Flickr, you can see the work of some really talented fiber artists for inspiration.

If there's such a thing as Black Saturday, my plan is to avoid that, too. There really might be some great bargains out there, but I think I'll leave them to someone else. I hear it's going to be another beautiful SoCal day tomorrow!

It's a good (notebook) day!

2011-11-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

It's a good day when there's notebook news around my house. In this case, the notebook is actually old news - it's a Midori Traveler's Notebook I've had for a little while now and happen to love big-time. The big news is that I found a couple of inserts that actually fit in it!

Midori refill with my own embellishment

If you take a look at the great Midori review at Rants of the Archer, you'll see an excellent review with all the ins and outs of this terrific notebook. The problem is not the standard Midori insert itself that came with the notebook. The size is perfect (of course) and the paper is OK, even if it is unlined. The problem is that the inserts are not a standard item in lovely Los Angeles, so getting more means a lot of internet surfing and even more waiting. The other problem is that the inserts are expensive - about $7-$8 each for a tiny notebook. This is not ideal for someone who actually uses a lot of paper. And I so do!

I was pretty sure there would be notebooks everywhere that might fit. Oh, I was so wrong! The problem is not the width of the notebook, which is about 3.25 inches. The "fit problem" ends up being in the length, which is about 4.75 inches. This is too short for most smallish notebooks. For instance, the Moleskine pocket model is 5.6 inches long. This is also the approximate length of all the cute notebooks at places like Target. I suppose a good printer could slice larger notebooks to size, but this is yet another stop on crazy-busy days.

Rite in the Rain notebook with a handy ruler

So I ended up internet surfing anyway (go figure!) and found a couple of pretty good replacements. The best fit is the Rite in the Rain All-Weather Journal, which measures 3 1/4 inches wide and 4 5/8 inches long. Each little notebook only has 24 pages, but they are sold by the dozen, so this is pretty handy. The best part of the notebook, if you ask me, is the ruler on the back page! Other people might think the best part is the weather-resist paper. Again - go figure! LOL.

Clairefontaine notebook with yummy paper

The other fairly good fit is the 3 X 4-inch Clairefontaine classic staple-bound notebook with a laminated cover that has 48 pages. The smooth, lined, 24-pound paper is a joy to write on and makes up for the fact that the notebook is a tad small. Believe me on this, though, the size here is not a deal-breaker and neither is the price - about $2.75 each. This is such a deal for an excellent writing experience.

One of these days, I may break down and buy a few more Midori-brand refills. In the meantime, I'll keep hunting for other ways to go. The Archer made some of his own inserts, which looks both fun and do-able. Hmmm - maybe next time ...

Sometimes, things just happen

2011-11-23T22:20:00.000-08:00

When needle gets applied to cloth without a specific plan in mind, something unexpected always happens. That's the case with a yo-yo micro-quilt that seemed to appear tonight.

The yo-yos are about 1.5 inches in diameter. They appeared when I was fiddling around with my usual little pile of scraps. Amazingly, that little scrap-fest in the photo below is all that's left from a pretty large pile of fabric in an equally large fabric bin. If you've been reading here for a while, you know my goal is to use up all my fabric before buying more. Oh, yes! Getting there!

I haven't figured out what to do with my little quilt. It might become a pillow top or it might just stay quilt-like - maybe a doll quilt? A little wall hanging?

Meanwhile, I'll just enjoy it.

My new house (sort of)

2011-11-20T21:32:00.000-08:00

So I needed a new pin cushion. Any right-thinking person would have grabbed a square of fabric, sewed, stuffed, and stuck in some pins. Slam dunk.

Instead, I rummaged in the scraps and made a little house that really came out way cuter than I expected it to! I love it when that happens! Now I'm kind of sorry to stick my old pins in it! LOL.

This was a really easy project. I cut a simple house template out of a piece of cardboard and traced it onto a scrap of linen-y-looking fabric. Then I sewed on a rectangle for a the roof (and angled it when I sewed the sides). The tiger kitty in the fussy cut window was just luck - it was a micro-scrap from some flannel. The door and chimney were bits of flannel, too. (If you've been reading this blog for a while, you have seen every piece of fabric I used in some other project!) The lace was a bit of leftover stuff, too, and I just freehanded the birdie. Finally, I sewed around the outside like a pillow and stuffed it. No muss, no fuss.

Since it's almost time for the Christmas tree, I'm thinking I might make this again in something a little more intentional as an ornament. It would also be cute as part of a softie play set - maybe with a little matching doll. Hmmm - an idea!

Create: Prayer Flag Project

2011-11-14T21:54:00.000-08:00

I really do believe that each of us can make a difference - a huge difference - in the world. Every day, I work in the most disadvantaged parts of Los Angeles, which really is one of the most beautiful cities. Of course I see the sadness, the crime, the poverty, the aimless, vacant looks on the faces of many of the people on the streets. It would be impossible to look away.

But the reason I keep going back every day is that I also see the hope, particularly in our schools. When I think about my work, I know I'll struggle along with the teachers and the kids, participate in the mock interviews with the middle schoolers, cry at all the graduations, laugh at the general goofiness of high school. I know that every day, I get to create a new beginning for someone, even if it's just a new beginning after a horrible yesterday.

The reason I bring this up, is that I've joined in The Prayer Flag Project. This doesn't have anything to do with a particular religion or belief. It's just my way of offering up a little more hope that I can continue to create a bit of light in areas where this is sometimes a rare commodity. Viveka Hansen DeNegre, the creator of this project, puts it like this: "In June of 2011, I started a new journey, asking artists from around the world to join me in making Prayer Flags. Each flag is created in the artist's own style, then hung outside for a while, its words and sentiment dissolving into the wind and being spread to all whom the wind touches. They are a living, breathing, kinetic journal of our hopes, dreams and concerns."

So there you have it. My flag says "create," which means "making" in the literal sense (as in art) and in the more global sense (as in hope). The orange-and-turquoise combo is my favorite - I like the way the opposites in the color wheel shimmer against each other. The spiral in the center is an early symbol of the sun, which is both light and life-giving. It might also be the first spiral I've ever made in cloth. Hmm - maybe this is a symbol itself?

Everything on the flag was free-handed - the finished dimensions are about 5 X 8 inches with a hanging sleeve on the back. The fabric is cotton, mostly stitched with pearle cotton #8. The beading at the bottom adds a little weight as well as sparkle in the sunlight. The backing is plain muslin to add some substance while the flag is hanging and make it a bit less transparent.

I know a lot of you are artists. I hope you join in this project not only to show your talent, but also to show something about who you are and what you stand for. C'mon! Spread your spirit on the wind! I haven't decided where I'm going to hang my Prayer Flag just yet, but I'm thinking it may go into my office to remind me why I'm there. Maybe I can convince some of my work mates to join in, too!

Adding my feather to the nest

2011-11-10T18:11:00.000-08:00

There is a jet stream of creativity and generosity flowing through the blogosphere. Witness The Magic Feather Project, which is the brainchild of Jude Hill of the terrific blog Spirit Cloth.

Jude said it best herself: "The Magic Feather Project is a collective stitching project focused on creative sharing and giving. The magic feather has been my personal symbol for almost forever. With the idea of making it a symbol of something bigger than just myself, I thought I would share it with you and you in turn might stitch one (at least) and send it to me so I might, in turn, sew a bunch together and put the larger cloth to some charitable use."

Of course, the minute I read this, I had to sit right down and stitch up my own little 5 X 5-inch feather block. I used Jude's "magic feather" design that basically uses black and white floss to create a feather that looks like its floating. Even for a beginner, this would be an easy pattern to draw and stitch. There's even a little video tutorial on the Magic Feather Project site that shows an easy how-to.

Since this is the holiday season, how about joining me in supporting this effort? If you read Jude's blog, you'll see how add your own feather to the nest!

Wow! My first-ever award!

2011-11-07T22:12:00.000-08:00

Even though it seems like I sit around doing crafts all day, the job that pays the bills usually captures six days a week. So I sometimes get behind on the fun stuff, like reading other blogs!

Well! It just came to my attention that Filomaniac, a terrific German blog, gifted me with a Versatile Blogger Award. That really made my day!

So here are the rules, straight from Filo to you:

You have to thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. (Thank you!!!)
You have to share 7 facts about yourself.
You have to send the award on to 15 other bloggers whose blogs you appreciate and then let them know that they have been given the award.

OK - here are the facts:

My hair is the perfect weather barometer. It has been known to accurately predict storms and the location of fabric stores.
My family laughs (and quickly leaves the room) when I say, "Hmm. How hard could this be?"
I love all sorts of pens and paper. As a matter of fact, LOVE probably means "unhealthy addiction" at this point.
It's pretty nerdy, but I wear my glasses all the time. Happily, this means that I can see all the time, too.
I love to read almost as much as I love to craft. These two passions intersected recently when I read "Dottie Angel: The Peachy Crafty World of Tif Fussell." Super-creative book!
I've always loved school. As soon as Kid #2 graduates from college this year, I'll be starting on my doctorate. Apparently, I love being in debt, too.
I'm not that crazy about chocolate, but I do like vanilla and caramel. Of course, if the vanilla and caramel happen to be dipped in chocolate, well ...

So enough about me! Here's my own list of Versatile Bloggers - and I'm passing the torch! (And you'll see I have eclectic tastes.)

Dottie Angel - http://dottieangel.blogspot.com/
My Owl Barn - http://www.myowlbarn.com/
Sketchnote Army - http://sketchnotearmy.com/
Chez Larsson - http://chezlarsson.com/myblog/
Dispatch from L.A. - http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/dispatch_from_la/
Tall Tales from Kansas - http://talltalesfromkansas.typepad.com/tall-tales-from-kansas/
Film in the Fridge - http://www.filminthefridge.com/
House Wren Studio - http://housewrenstudio.typepad.com/charlotte/
iHanna's blog - http://www.ihanna.nu/
The Tempered Radical - http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/
David Seah - http://davidseah.com/
Prudent Baby - http://www.prudentbaby.com/
The Prayer Flag Project - http://theprayerflagproject.blogspot.com/
Unclutterer - http://unclutterer.com/
Journal Revolution - http://visualchronicles.typepad.com/visual_chronicles/

Phew! I could go on and on since there is such talent in the blogophere. Go! Read! Enjoy!

Recycling or upcycling?

2011-11-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

The front with button closure

When I was rooting around in my purse today for something very important - I think it was a hair tie to tame the wildness from being out on a windy day into something a little more office-worthy - I ran into cardboard band I'd saved from a visit to Starbucks. I remember at the time that I thought it might be useful for ... something. I also remember at the time that I didn't need any other extraneous items in my purse, but you never know when you might need a coffee sleeve!

Inside with a couple of test pins

I've seen these little sleeves used for all sorts of mini-notebooks and albums, but I already have some favorites that I use all the time. However, the thought struck me that the cardboard sleeve (made with 60% post-consumer fiber!) would be the perfect size for a mini-needle case that might keep me from losing pins and needles in awkward places, like the couch. Or my purse. Or the car. (Don't ask.)

I really do like the Starbucks graphic with the iconic green-and-white logo and little white stars, but I wanted to make my own mark. So I carefully unglued the flap (just wiggled it apart with my finger) and flipped it inside out so the corrugated side was showing. Then I used the unfolded sleeve as a template to cut a piece of felt to fit along the inside. I glued the felt in place with some heavy-duty tacky glue and let it dry for a minute. Before it was completely dry, I got the brilliant (!) idea to use an old hair tie as the closure, and squeezed it between the felt and the sleeve just in the nick of time. If I'd been too late, I was thinking that I might use a spare piece of Velcro. Happily, I didn't have to put that to the test!

The outside of my new needle book is decorated with an old button, some scrapbook paper and a little bird die cut from a notebook insert. One more spare button, and it was done! I didn't want too much embellishment since this is destined to get knocked around.

I let everything dry thoroughly and put in a few test pins to make sure the felt was thick enough. It was! It's amazingly sturdy, too. Now I know why crafters use these sleeves for all kinds of things!

Now what should I do with the other coffee sleeve I found in my purse? Hmmm.

Getting warmer

2011-11-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

Californians don't have any conception of cold. Seriously, when it drops below 70 degrees, we all run for our coats and scarves! And don't even get me started on what happens when it rains. Let's just say that it's better to stay home.

So it was cool today - maybe a high of 66 degrees in Los Angeles - so I did what any right-thinking Californian would do: I crocheted a pair of wrist warmers, following the pattern so generously offered by Craftyminx. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've ever read or followed a crochet pattern. When you teach yourself some things, there are definitely some blank spots. This was mine!

The pattern was pretty easy - it took me about two hours to make the pair with yarn I already had. It was a little bit of a miracle that I was able to dredge up the right size crochet hook (H) to make the gauge come out right. I wasn't sure if they would be long enough, but they are! And they are super-cozy.

As amazing as it is that these fit, it's even more amazing that I actually followed directions instead of going rogue! It's a big day in the craft world!

[By the way, have you ever tried to take a picture of your own arm? Not that easy!]

Flowers in my hair

2011-11-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden - must be fall fever - I have the urge to wear flowers in my hair. Blame it on the fact that I saw some really cute flower hair clips the other day that were expensive! Of course, my first thought was that I could make 'em. And I did!

Talk about easy! First, I cut some circle-ish shapes from polyester lining fabric. I really did just free-hand it - ranging from about 2 to 3 inches in diameter. (I didn't worry about whether they were perfect circles.) Then, I did what any right-thinking person would do in the middle of the night: I lit a candle and melted the edges of the circles so they wouldn't fray. The cool thing is that the melting also added a dimension to the edges of the circles and made them curl up into a slight cup shape.

[Safety commercial (in case you're thinking of doing this): The beauty of polyester is that it melts, which is great for crafting and bad for wearing. You can't do this craft with cotton fabric without making a huge mess and possibly setting off your smoke alarm. Regardless, you have to be really careful not to burn your fingers or let the fabric linger in the flame. Melted polyester would be a major owie! Smart people might even hold the fabric with tweezers or tongs!]

Yep - that's my head.

Then, I layered four or five circles together, not being awfully careful about lining them up. I used some quilting thread to tack the circles together and then grabbed a few beads to sew into the center. The tacking helped stabilize the slippery fabric, but the flower is really held together by the beads.

Then I cut a small circle of felt and slipped it onto the curved top side of a bobby pin, added a glob of hot glue, and stuck everything together into a flower hair pin! Phew!

The only hard part about this whole process was waiting for the hot glue to really dry so I could try one on and not permanently glue it to my hair. My mane is super curly tonight because I just washed it and let it air dry, but I'm not sparing you that sight - yep that's my head in the picture above. What I am sparing you is a picture of my whole head, which looks kind of like I'm wearing a lion's mane at the moment. The color of the flower looks a little muted here, but I think it was washed out by the halogen lights in the kitchen.

Upside: Easy! Downside: None! I instantly need to make more!

A gift for ... me!

2011-10-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I tend to keep "the good stuff" for someone else. The "good dishes" are for company. The expensive yarn is kept for some unnamed project in the future that will (1) stay in the conceptual stage because it would be a shame to "ruin" it, or (2) be turned into a show-stopper scarf that will go to someone else.

I do love gift-giving. But this time, I made a gift for myself. Wow - that sounds strange! But I did!

I ordered some absolutely gorgeous hand-dyed size 8 pearle cotton embroidery thread from Artfabrik that I've had an eye on for quite a while. It was delivered right away and instantly galvanized me into action on a project.

The other thing that's been on my mind lately is a needle book. I've seen some beautiful ones around the blogosphere, but I decided to chart my own course with a few little scraps from the fabled scrap bin. The base fabric looks like linen, but is a just a bit of osnaburg, which appealed to me primarily for its oatmeal-y texture and its unfinished edges. If you look closely, the bottom edge of the needle book is actually the selvedge.

I put all my thoughts together - new embroidery thread, a needle book, a scrap of osnaburg - and there was my new needle book! Yay! And can I tell you how luscious it was to sew with hand-dyed thread? Yes, I can get used to that! As a matter of fact, I sewed the whole thing by hand so I wouldn't waste even an inch!

The inside has a little pocket in the front and back to hold packets of needles. The "pages" are simply a piece of felt folded in half. The fact that it matches the color of the needle book's outside fabric was totally unplanned. I love happy accidents!

I'm not sure I'm finished embellishing this yet. There may be some stray beads added to the front. Wondering about the buttons? They're just for fun. I figured it would be a good way to enjoy some singletons that might never see the light of day.

From: Me. To: Me.

The first spider I've ever liked

2011-10-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

It's a great day when I have time to troll around the blogosphere marveling at the creativity that just sweeps right through it. Seriously, the creative work everywhere in the world is amazing!

Char, over at her blog Crap I've Made (which has no crap at all, by the way! It's a fabulous blog!) made a super-cute spider web pillow recently using a doily as the web. Of course! I instantly had to try this out.

You know by now that when craft fever strikes, I must make something. So I dug into the scrap pile again and pulled out a few Halloween-y fabrics. If they look familiar, they are! I used some of the same fabrics for the Halloween pumpkins I made a while back. As luck would have it, I also found a lone doily. Well, voila!

I used most of the doily in the upper corner of the center block. The parts of the doily that got cut off looked so very sad sitting there on the table that I had to use those, too. The little spider findings are flat-backed. Luckily, it was easy to sew around their little legs to secure them to their new "web."

The pillow, which ended up being about 12 inches square, is slightly padded with fleece. I eyeballed the web quilting and then went back in and hand embroidered over the lines radiating from the web with #8 white pearl cotton so they would stand out.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, I really don't do a lot of seasonal decorating. But I seem to be nesting like crazy. It's still 90+ degrees here in beautiful SoCal, but I've heard that it's autumn. The days are still hot-hot-hot, but the nights are getting a little cooler. There's also a particular change in the light that signals a change of season. Maybe I'll even see a fall leaf one of these days!

Oh, October!

2011-09-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

I was driving home tonight with 10,000 of my closest friends - and I use the term "driving" loosely. I was really sitting still on the freeway with my traffic peeps. Lo and behold, I looked up and there was a swatch of rainbow color right over the mountain ahead of me. It wasn't a rainbow - it was literally a rectangle of color. I couldn't believe my eyes since there was no rain in sight!

(So, of course, I had to quickly snap a picture with my phone before traffic started moving again. Look closely at the center of the picture near the top of the mountain in the distance!)

As I got closer to home, the sunset was glorious! We don't have seasons in California, but there are some times of the year when the sky is a season all by itself. Amazing! The picture at left is looking west up my street.

Happy October! My favorite month has arrived!

Here comes the groom

2011-09-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Album closed with an organza ribbon

It seems like I've been hip deep in baby flannel for forever. Is there something in the water around here?!

This time, though, I wanted to make a gift for a guy who is both a friend and a co-worker. He's getting married in early October, so we're all getting together this week to have a little celebration for the groom.

A couple of the pages were turned into tag holders

The fully extended album measures 6 X 18 inches

It's easy to think of a bride gift and there are all sorts of things to make for women. But I wracked my brain to think of something a little more masculine, yet wedding-y all the same. When I found out the wedding colors were purple and lilac, I was even more stumped. So I did what I usually do: stood in the middle of the craft room and stared off into space for a while.

Then it hit me! A photo album!

So I trolled through all my paper and was even happier that I had taken the time a while back to sort it by color. Lo and behold, I had more purple and lilac than I thought! After adding in a few pops of orange and red (really, it seems strange, but it works!), I started folding away to make a 6 X 9-inch gate fold album. This is an album where there are spines at either edge and the pages open from the middle. When it's fully opened out, this album is 18 inches wide!

It's really easy - cut an even number of pieces of 6 X 9-inch patterned or plain cardstock. Set two pieces aside to use for the cover and the back and fold the rest in halves (into 4.5 X 6 inch rectangles). Glue two pieces of folded cardstock to one of the 6 X 9 inch pieces you set aside earlier and glue the rest of the folded cards front to back until you have as many pages as you want. The folded sides form a spine on either side of the album. The remaining 6 X 9 piece is cut into two 4.5 X 6-inch pieces and adhered to the top as a cover. To cover the exposed spine, I fold a couple of 2.5 X 6 inch pieces of decorative paper and wrap it around each spine, gluing it to the front and back.

The only trick is that you need to fold the pages so the plain side is on the outside, and the patterned part is on the inside. The outward sides of the cards get glued together, so whatever is on them won't show. Believe me, I learned this one the hard way!

Then it's all a matter of embellishing. I tried to keep this one simple so the happy couple would have plenty of places to put their photos and pieces of ephemera. The album itself ends up having a 6 X 9-inch footprint, but it easily holds 20 photos and journaling - more if the photos are smaller. I included a couple of tags, too, for a little journaling or small photos.

This kind of album goes together in a snap and it's easy to make it larger or smaller as long as the folded cardstock pages are an even number (like four on each side) so the album stays balanced. In the past, I've made them with magnetic closures, but I added an organza ribbon closure to this one so it would be more festive.

I don't know the bride very well, but I think the groom will like this one! And, yes, I may have to instantly make another one! LOL.

Back to the scrap bag

2011-09-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

Whenever I make something new, I always have the compulsion to make numerous versions to be able to put my own stamp on things.

This is the case with the cute pumpkins designed by Virginia of Gingercake. Her version has 6 X 8.5-inch panels, which really showcase the fabric nicely. My new version is literally a scrap pumpkin. I used numerous scraps of 2-inch or 2.5-inch fabrics (still 8.5 inches high). I jammed through my fall colors - including purple! - and I really like the way it came out. I didn't measure the circumference of tube that became the pumpkin body, but I eyeballed it at about 36 inches.

My other tweak was to use a long (doll-making) needle threaded with quilting thread (for strength) to pull in the middle of the pumpkin. I think I might go back and do this to the other ones, too, although I do like the soft, puffy appearance of the originals.

I still have a few fall scraps left. Guess what I'll be doing with them?

I need to step away ...

2011-09-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

... from the sewing machine!

Apparently, it's Halloween around here already. True, it is one of my favorite holidays, but I'm not sure I really want to accelerate the season quite this much. So this was kind of accidental - it happened because I had the fabric sitting right here. How could I even resist?

This is a pillowcase for Flawless Daughter, who is away at college and who really likes to have a bed with something made by mom. I made her a Halloween Hello Kitty pillowcase a long time ago - and Kitty got a lot of use. As a matter of fact, the orange-and-black pillowcase stayed on the bed until it was replaced with a St. Pat's case. Time for a new one! Plus, she's a polka dot maven. So this should be perfect.

(I'm equal opportunity, by the way. I made a pillowcase for my son when he went to college, too. The last time I saw it, it was filled with laundry in the trunk of a car. Hey - should I make him a laundry bag? LOL!)

Of course, there's nothing to making a pillowcase at all - all straight cuts and simple seams. A standard case is about 20 X 30 inches, so it's a perfect use for around a yard of fabric. The only fun part was the jumbo rick rack. Oh, I love rick rack! Easy and cute!

FD has asked for a new cover from her body pillow ... 20 X 54 ... Do I even have enough of anything for this? Could it be that I can finally go fabric shopping again?!

It's pumpkin time again!

2011-09-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

So there I was, innocently trolling through the blogosphere, when up popped an oh-so-cute tutorial for scrap-fabric pumpkins. Say what?! Scraps? Fabric? Pumpkins?

Count me in!

The awesome blog Prudent Baby recently featured the pumpkins designed by Virginia of Gingercake. If you haven't seen these two blogs, instantly drop this one like a hot potato and click on over there! You will find all sorts of things to spark your fancy!

But back to the pumpkins ... These were easy as (dare I say it?) pie. The pumpkin body is a tube made from 6 X 8.5-inch scrap rectangles and the top and bottom are interfaced circles. The scrap tube is gathered and attached to the circles in a way that resembles setting in a gathered sleeve. Simple! The stem is another scrap that I just free-handed (or should I say free-sewed) into a stem-ish shape. The only place where I deviated from the tutorial was in the use of interfacing. I used iron-on fleece to give the pumpkin top and bottom some added stability.

Apparently, I wasn't paying attention to the fact that the rectangles were 8.5 inches tall because I was really surprised when my pumpkins came out so large! (The picture in the tutorial makes them look small for some reason.) My first clue should have been the size of the circle for the top and bottom! These look pretty small, but they're actually the size of a little kid's head. (The picture of the pumpkins in the bowl above is a little deceptive - the bowl's almost 20 inches in diameter!)

The good news is that I was able to use a bunch of orange and yellow scraps for these. Since orange is one of my favorite colors, I had a pretty good batch. The bad news is that these are addictive! I still have a little fiberfill left ... maybe a multicolor pumpkin? Hmm.

Robin needs an intervention

2011-09-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

I think I need an intervention. I just organized my embroidery thread!

If you've read this blog for a while, you know there's no craft I won't try - especially in the middle of the night when no craft stores are open. And I've made it my mission for the last couple of years to use up everything before buying anything new, so I have to keep things pretty organized so I know what's where.

Oddly enough, this has worked pretty well (which tells you how much stuff I started with, huh?). But the bane of my existence has been the crummy plastic ziploc bag that holds my embroidery thread. It is always a tangled mess, no matter how neat I am with the skeins of thread. Who needs Velcro? This stuff sticks to everything!

I'm not sure when I got them, but I found a package of little plastic tabs that hold - you guessed it! - embroidery thread! So I spent a happy evening watching Hulu and winding thread. OK, I know. The entire universe (animals and insects included) just yawned. But it was so satisfying to untangle the thread, wind it around the plastic thingies, and admire the colors. Really!

This worked so well, I instantly had to embark on an embroidery project. Stay tuned.

What?! Another baby?

2011-09-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

Wow - this has been a bumper year for babies! Shh! The latest one will be celebrated at a surprise baby shower for a colleague.

I really like making double-faced flannel blankets. It's fun to match up fabrics and it's a super-practical gift-y item for mom and baby. It can be used as a blanket, a play mat, a nursing cover-up, a save-my-work-clothes-from-baby-spit lifesaver ... it's endless! I still have the ones I made for my own babies and they still get used when friends visit with their own little ones.

This set (with decorated burp cloths) was made for a baby boy. Believe me, the flannel choices for boys are so much more limited than the ones for little girls. And I categorically refuse to make a sweet little blankie out of camouflage! Polka dots seem like kind of a happy medium - almost a neutral but with a little pizazz. The little bears on the cream background are precious! Plus the size - about 20 X 20 inches - is small enough to be useful, but big enough to last well into toddlerhood.

I was thinking that this might be the end of the baby boom, but I just found out another one was on the horizon. The fabric bin is (finally) almost bare - I've got to get some more flannel!

Crafting frenzy

2011-08-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

All I had to see was the tiny stuffed owl on Bugs and Fishes, and I was up the stairs rooting around in the fabric box looking for felt! (Translation: Once again, I didn't really have quite the right materials, but I couldn't wait!)

Lupin has a cool tutorial on her blog that shows the little 2.5-inch owlie in super-cool colors. I did not have super-cool colors. Apparently, the last time I bought felt, I thought it was a good idea to buy green - heathered green, bright green, dark green, light green ... Maybe I was making Kermit? Hmm. I scrounged a little further and found a couple of tiny rectangles of light pink and cream. Success!

Lupin also shows that she is a whiz with scissors! For some reason, all my scissors would do tonight is hack. If I needed them to cut my way out of the Amazon, I probably would have been OK. For cutting felt? Not so much. I persevered.

And don't even ask me about why I couldn't find a needle. Seriously? The one I finally dug out of an old pin cushion must have been used last Thanksgiving to truss the turkey. Big and blunt. (Believe it or not, the stuffing was not a problem! A huge bag was sitting right there waiting for me, not acting up at all.)

Nevertheless, after an hour of crafting frenzy, I got my owlie! Now I want to make another one, but it will have to be green!

It's a boy (card)

2011-08-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

September is the hot-hot-hot month in California - ugh - no fall in sight! And I am sweating up a storm! So I had to take my mind off it all by doing something crafty that involved sitting very still. Since my friend Laura is having a baby shower on Friday, it was card time!

I (slowly) wandered over to all my paper scraps and tried to find something that would scream baby boy. Oh! Not so fast! There were a lot of girly scraps and some girly-er embellishments and not a whole lot of anything else. Plus, Flawless Daughter had just completely raided the paper drawer to make a gorgeous 12 X 12 album for a friend. Hmm.

Oddly enough, the inspiration for this 5 X 5-inch card was the tiny brown-and-cream striped paper on the left side of the card front. That was literally all there was of this scrap. The tan and white are scraggly scraps of card stock punched with a Fiskars edge punch. The little outfit was free-handed and the baby embellishment was just a little leftover from FD's album.

The inside was made the same way. I ran the tan cardstock through the printer to get the text. The paper was punched and layered over another piece of cardstock that was also decorated with a corner punch. The envelope started out as a 10 X 10 piece of paper that I folded into an envelope shape. The front was decorated with cardstock and yet another couple of punches.

I love doing this type of thing. It has nothing to do with the cost (zero!) and everything to do with making a special little something for a friend. There will be a baby blanket and burp cloths sometime before Friday. Hopefully, the heat wave will abate a little!

Stocking my Filo on the cheap

2011-08-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's recycling - maybe it's frugality - maybe it's the fact that I seem to use a lot of paper ... I needed to find a way to keep my lovely bronze snakeskin Filo stocked and still be able to buy food. Seriously, people, those refills are pricey!

If I were keeping most of this stuff for posterity, I would be a lot more interested in acid-free loveliness. What I'm usually doing with my personal Filo is scribbling something in the car, writing a quick note from a phone call, jotting a snarky note to myself to stay amused in a meeting, or making the kind of "note to self" that has a pretty short shelf life.

It came to me a week or so ago that anything that could be cut to 3.75 X 6.75 inches could be fodder for new paper! This flash of brilliance came as I was about to toss a large piece of paper off a lined pad that only had a little writing on it. I noticed that the unused portion of the paper was easily Filo-sized. Out came the little paper cutter and voila! a new piece of Filo paper was born.

Since then, I've been putting aside anything that could be cut to size. It takes a couple of minutes to do the actual cutting, and a couple more for punching the holes. (I just use a piece of "real" Filo paper as a template.) I've probably finagled 30 pieces of paper into "personal" size in the past week. I've easily used 25+ sheets in my quest for world domination as school has started. Easy peasy!

By the way, I like to write on paper with lines, but this would work with any type of paper - flyers, ads, envelopes, junk mail, samples of something luscious ... endless! Also, as you might have noticed in the picture above, this paper sits in the front of the Filo, ready for a quick jot. This means that I don't keep a separate pad to clutter up my purse. The "good stuff," that has a reason to be kept, is on the inside.

Mother Earth thanks you!

Object lesson from the universe

2011-08-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Life never ceases to humble and amaze me.

I had my next-to-last drawing class today, where we had our cross-hatch drawings critiqued and then learned to draw in one- and two-point perspective. All of us were hugely focused on our work, listening intently to the teacher's individual critiques, basically going about our business. So far, so good.

At break time, a couple of us were chatting with the teacher, an older man - already retired from some real job. We were (not so) jokingly begging him to teach our next class in watercolors when he told us it would be too taxing. "We're that bad?" my classmate said. "No," said the teacher, "I have epilepsy and sometimes I can't speak. It came on later in life and I never know when it's going to happen."

Well, then.

Here I was, worrying about whether my contour was correct while my teacher was worrying about whether he would be able to speak, or even stand in front of us, from moment to moment. Humbling. But also an amazing object lesson from the universe.

Message received and understood.

10,000+ thanks to y'all

2011-08-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

I've been struck silent with awe that my blog counter has passed 10,000 page views! As a matter of fact, I'm still trying to process how this could even be!

For now, I'll just say ... Wow! Thank you!

Zero degrees of separation and some pens

2011-08-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

There I was, minding my own business, when I got the urge to test out all my pens. OK - not all my pens - I'm not sure that would even be possible! But I did test out the ones that travel around with me, sorting them by type. Next time, I think I'll sort them by color! (Wait - is anyone getting excited about this?)

There wasn't any real reason for my penmanship practice, but it turns out that there was a little serendipity in the air. While I was in a zen state in California, Alison and David were having a guest chat over on Philofaxy that included mention of Alison's rainbow of Frixions that made an appearance during their London meet-up. Hmm. Maybe this proves that there are really zero degrees of separation in the world.

Regardless, it got me thinking about my own Frixions - which I love, by the way - and my current pen crush colors: ultramarine, gray, and blue-black. Blue-black is my go-to color for business, especially when I want to sign my name with some panache. Gray is perfect for note taking in a meeting. Unless someone looks right over your shoulder, it's hard to see what you're writing. This is excellent for boring meetings when my "notes" are really something else altogether. And ultramarine - especially in a super-fine point - is just plain pretty.

I'm a pen junkie, but not much of a purist. Give me a good old Bic and I'm pretty happy. Just don't give me a pencil! (I've gotten my comeuppance here, though, since everything in my drawing class is done in 6B soft lead. Oy! Maybe I'll post a couple to prove I actually own a pencil.)

What do you like to write with?

Babyland

2011-08-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

It seems like babies are busting out all over the place! At my work alone, there is one newborn and two more babies on the way - all boys! Amazing!

So it's my firm belief that babies must have something handmade to see them into the world. Nothing fussy - just a soft blanket to toss on the floor for playtime or some snugly cloths to go on mom and dad's shoulder. Washable? Yes!

For the latest baby boy, I pulled out a yard or so of a couple of pieces of coordinating flannel. It was astonishing that I even had enough, but I eked out a blanket that was about 30 X 40 inches. It was easy as could be - sewn wrong sides together with rounded corners, flipped right side out, pressed, and top stitched. The burp cloths were super-simple, too. I just took a couple of cloth diapers (the kind with the padding down the middle) and sewed on a panel of coordinating fabric. Done!

Of course, I nuked everything before sewing. Shrinkage is definitely an issue if you wash 100% cotton flannel after sewing. Baby stuff gets washed a lot, so I had to make sure it could take the heat. I washed everything in hot-hot water again after sewing to make triple-sure. This is the first time I'd made the burp cloths with just a strip of fabric down the center, so I wanted to make sure they would work. (And they washed like a charm!)

By the way, someone recently asked me how to round corners. Let's see ...

1. Get a bowl out of the cupboard.
2. Place it at the corner of the fabric and trace around it using the pen you just found under the table.
3. Repeat 3 more times.
4. Fill corner-rounding bowl with cherries to eat while sewing.

Two more babies to go!

So summer was ... when?

2011-08-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

Some people think January 1 is the start of the New Year, but I happen to know that the year starts when school begins. For us, that's Aug. 15, which is right around the corner. Considering school got out on June 24, this has been a super-short summer.

So instead of blog silence, maybe you should picture me in a frenzy of activity getting myself, my family, and 170 new teachers ready for the school year. Yikes! It looks even more frenetic when I see it in writing!

Be back soon!

I spy ... another new toy!

2011-07-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

OK - this is what happens when I beta-test something! I have to try it a few million ways before I can declare it done-ish! This is especially true with things I make with scraps. It's seriously the greatest way ever to use up the scrap bag.

This is the same size "I spy" pillow as the one below - 7 X 7 inches - except this one has a round opening! It was made the same way (with a facing to keep the opening from having an edge that might ravel).

~~I still have a third of a bag of poly fill left. Guess what's going to happen? LOL! {Walking back to the scrap bag ...}~~

UPDATE: Can you believe one little bag of poly fill made four of these little pillows. These were about 7 X 7 inches ... it probably would have made five 5 X 5-inch ones. I instantly need more! I spy everything! LOL.

I spy a ... new toy!

2011-07-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

Never one to be calm in the face of temptation, I felt compelled to make an "I spy" pillow today. It would be a lot more lucrative if the creative voices in the universe pointed me to a winning lotto ticket, but I guess I'll take what I've got.

It was really easy! I cut three pieces of 7 X 7-inch cotton fabric - one each for the front and back and one to layer on the front to serve as the facing of the square opening (so there would be no raw edges showing). Then, I ...

Layered the front piece with the facing piece (right sides together) and sewed a 3-inch square to serve as the eventual opening.
I cut out the center of the square and cut diagonally into each of the four corners, being careful not to clip the stitching, and turned the two pieces so they were wrong sides together.
I pulled the facing so the square opening was pretty square (!) and pressed it flat.
Then, I taped a piece of heavy-gauge clear vinyl to the wrong side of the piece with the square opening in it, and layered a piece of tissue paper on the back so the whole thing wouldn't get stuck in the jaws of my sewing machine.
Using a fairly small stitch, I sewed around the square opening, sandwiching the vinyl between the top fabric and the tissue paper. I expected the poor machine to expire at this point, but all was well.
Finally, I sewed the front to the back as you would an ordinary pillow, leaving an opening for the little trinkets and poly fill.
I filled the pillow with all sorts of cute stuff I had laying around - buttons in the shape of hands, buttons in the shape of buttons (LOL), sea creature beads, wooden flowers, a bowling pin (don't ask), some huge faux pearls, and a few other goodies. I poured the poly fill in last, making sure not to fill it too full to sew shut.
(Oh - and I sewed a loop to one corner so it could be hooked onto a stroller or car seat.)

Voila! When I sewed everything shut, I got to smoosh everything around and see if I could "spy" the stuff I put in there. I could! It was a miracle! Don't tell, but I sat there for about 10 minutes squishing it around in my hands, looking at the shapes!

I have a co-worker whose little girl is having a birthday soon, so I'm sure this will have a good home. It's a great toy for quiet play as well as for sorting and safe manipulation of small items that would be choking hazards if they were let loose. Everything is triple-sewn so there won't be any escaping! Even better, this toy was free since I used scraps of fabric and little stuff I already had. I love that!

Simple pleasures? You betcha!

Liking how the other half lives

2011-07-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

I don't just like tile - I love it. The look, the feel, the colors ... oh!

Today was the big traffic nightmare in L.A., and of course I was right in the middle of it because I had to go to a meeting in Santa Monica. I knew the meeting was going to be in a "luxury hotel on the beach." Usually, this means that there are peanuts instead of goldfish crackers and there's water somewhere on the horizon. Or maybe boat oars over the bar.

Was I ever wrong! This was a luxury hotel on the beach! The Casa del Mar is very small - almost discreet. And it's very pretty. And it's two steps from the beach. And it's waaaaaay out of my price range as far as rooms go. But it was fun to see how the other half lives and I got a few ideas about color and design that will percolate into something.

What does this have to do with tile? The whole place was filled with it - beautiful and very old-school. It might be hard to tell from the photos, but the color combinations were luscious. The interesting thing is that they paired tile floors with velvet furniture and ceramic garden stools. This sounds tacky, but somehow it works. I'll skip the velvet part - it would end up as a kitty scratching post. But I like the garden-stools-as-end-tables a lot! Dare I say it - this would even go with my Spanish-style house.

I really was working (almost) the whole time I was there. I did get out onto the beach for about 15 minutes after lunch. Warm, breezy, uncrowded, beautiful - very tempting! I haven't been tempted to go to the beach at all this summer because I've been on crutches. Now that I (almost) have two shoes again, I think I see a beach trip in my future.

Cute or creepy?

2011-07-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

When I was sitting in the waiting room at the vet's office today, I looked up and saw this in the overhead lights. I still haven't decided whether it's cute or creepy. Are they looking down from heaven? Is that the right message to send in a place where there are sick animals? Probably not. (Although the dogs and cats all have pleasant expressions. Well, at least the dogs do. The cats look kind of irked.)

And now, for something completely different

2011-07-08T23:17:00.000-07:00


Cat gifted me with a lizard. Ugh.

Random stuff:

Rarely does this happen, but I'll just say WOW a few zillion times after watching series (season) one of BBC Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock Holmes on Netflix. Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman) have tremendous chemistry as the famous duo. The story lines are good, but I have to say the dialogue is great! I hear there's a season two afoot. Oh, goody!

On a completely different note, my broken foot has been released from its boot! This is amazing news for many reasons, only one of which is that my drawing class on Sunday is on the fifth floor of a building with a wonky elevator. At my last class, I hauled myself up five flights on crutches. This time, I won't have to do anything quite so heroic.

I got a fantastic pen from my fave JetPens - a four-color Zebra Surari .07 with emulsion ink. Seriously, I think this is the smoothest line I've ever gotten from a pen and I am in major love. The sales pitch says it's smear-proof and water-resistant - that's correct! I tested it out on some crummy paper and watercolored over it to see what would happen: It kept a crisp line (ta da!). This means that I can sketch with it and come back later to add color. The world is a better place!

The Royals - William and Katherine - are here in SoCal. At this very minute, they are at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, which is about 30 miles from where I live. Sadly, this is about 10 miles from where I work, which means traffic nightmares. It's not their fault - this is what happens when the Obama crew comes to town, too. Interesting that this is Katherine's first visit to the US. (Even more interesting that my daughter's name is Katherine, too. Her brother quipped that this will make Katie act like even more of a princess. Even Katie had to laugh at that one - after she considered it!)

The weather has finally cooled off to a low burn, so this might be a good weekend. As always, I have a project up my sleeve!

A flash of brilliance!

2011-07-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

In a flash of overall brilliance, I finally figured out how to use the darning foot on my crummy Singer! Yay! Double yay!

Yes, I know this isn't big news to anyone, but I've been struggling with this thing for ever so long. First, I couldn't figure out how to attach it to the machine. Then, after fiddling with it, I figured out that you have to have a lot of finger strength to mash it where it is supposed to go. Then you have to have massive manual dexterity to get the tiny screw threads to catch in the tiny screw hole. Easier said than done when your fingers are sweaty and the cat thinks it's a play toy.

And don't even get me started on setting the tension. I've been sewing for decades and I still don't even know what I don't know about this. It's a mystery my children ever had clothing at all.

So my triumph is over there in the picture at the left. No, I'm not color blind - the machine was already threaded with red, so I just went with it. The bobbin side accidentally matches pretty well; you'll just have to take my word for it.

The secret to the whole thing is to not think about it. If you go too slow, the stitches have a wonky edge to them. If you go too fast - well, is there such a thing as going too fast? I think not! The circle that shows in the picture is me sewing at blinding fast speed. Yes!

So why was I doing this? (1) It's still hot, hot, hot. (2) I cleaned and sorted the entire fabric bin after work today. I separated it out by color and size (!) putting all the tiny scraps in a ziploc bag so they don't get twisted around anything else. I even sorted by type of fabric, believe it or not. I discovered a couple of pieces of flannel that are destined to be a baby gift for my best friend's cutie-pie boy. (3) Messing around with the sewing machine instead of doing real work was my reward. Ah, there's a quilt brewing!

The inside of the journal

2011-07-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

I got a nice email regarding the journal cover made from the cookie bag (see a couple posts down) and asking how the inside worked.

This is what the inside looks like. It's a Moleskine cahier with a kraft cover - 5 X 8 - with plain paper inside. The light blue area that can be seen on the left side is an ad from a magazine that I cut in half and sewed onto the cookie bag to make a larger, sturdier flap to hold the front and back covers. It has sort of a glossy texture, so I thought this would aid in reducing smudges. At the very bottom, you can see a tiny bit of one of my fave tapes.

Also, answering a second question, no - this didn't hurt my sewing machine at all. I have a very basic Singer that I picked up for about $75 several years ago. I use it to sew paper, fabric, thin plastic, felt - pretty much anything that will fit under the presser foot. I've broken a couple of needles with my guerrilla sewing techniques, but so far, so good.

My advice, as always: Go for it! What's the worst that could happen? (Disregard blind contour drawings below. Hahaha.)

My date with Kirk and Bones

2011-07-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

Capt. James T. Kirk

I've mentioned that I'm taking a drawing class that is making my brain hurt. A lot. And my ego is pretty scratched up, too.

Dignity notwithstanding, though, I'm still practicing even though there was no class this past week because of the July 4 holiday. Not knowing anything about anything, I decided to practice blind contour drawing. Somebody should have warned me that this would not help my hurting brain. In fact, it would make it hurt more! Eye-hand coordination? Not so much.

Premise: Draw something without looking at it.

Reality: Easier said than done.

David Boreanaz, of Bones

Anyone looking in my windows tonight (OK - now that's an unattractive thought!) would have seen me peering intently at ... well ... Captain Kirk, of the starship Enterprise. Stop laughing. I thought that I would have a leg up if I drew a face I was familiar with. Really!

I picked a photo that showed William Shatner - in his better years, I must say - staring straight into the camera. Without looking at my paper, I drew what I saw. In ink. Without stopping.

Poor Capt. Kirk! Imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw all of his Star Fleet-y goodness transformed into a Picasso-esque sort of jumble. Hmm. Then I tried again. And again. And again. And then I figured it was time to draw someone else. So I picked David Boreanaz, lately of Bones fame. I hear laughing again. C'mon - I was looking for familiar!

Again, I drew without looking. In ink. Without stopping. The result? What can I say? All those rugged Boreanaz features were so disorganized! Oy!

At least it was fun looking. Enlarge these drawings at your own risk. LOL!

Lo-cal journal cover

2011-07-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

Now that it's officially summer, it's been hot, hot, hot! Even worse, it's been humid. Ugh!

So of course this meant I had to do something to take my mind off my sweaty self. This means that I sat myself down in front of a fan and started cruising through the blogosphere. I ran into lots of cool stuff (cool, as in non-air conditioned), but one post in particular caught my fancy. Gwen Diehn, who is famous for books like Real Life Journals, has a terrific blog of the same name. A while back, she posted a tutorial for making a journal cover out of a chip bag. It was really cute - and got me thinking ...

Usually, when I'm looking for something to write on, my hands are covered in paint, or charcoal, or pencil-y and inky stuff, and the covers of my journals get pretty smudgy. Or I'm in the car doing heaven knows what besides driving. Or I'm outside ... you get the point. It occurred to me that a durable cover would be just the thing to keep my journals looking pristine.

Sadly, I didn't have any chip bags laying around. I did spot a cookie wrapper, though. (OK - don't judge.) I'd been admiring both its color combo and its graphics (and what was IN the bag, of course!), and zap! a new cover for my journal was born.

Naturally, me being me, I did not follow Gwen's excellent directions. Instead, I just got a pair of scissors and went to town on the bag. It was barely big enough to cover my 5 X 8-inch journal, so I sewed a little extension from a sturdy magazine ad that was sitting nearby. All I did was fold the bag around the journal and sew a couple of flaps for the covers. It was a tight fit, but I wiggled it in there and it worked like a charm! My enhancement was adding a pen loop on the front (made from a bag scrap). Now I don't have to rustle around for something to write with!

I love recycling things - especially when it's something so simple and useful. I figure if this cookie bag can withstand the rigors of being shipped all over the place and thrown on shelves, it can survive my torture. Now I'm eyeballing the kitchen for something else to sew. Hmm - who needs fabric!?

Talent optional, part 2

2011-06-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I experienced my first drawing class. Ever. As in never before. Here's what came to mind:

Humbling.

Brain draining.

Ego poking.

And really, really fun.

Our first task was to draw a woman's face. Oh, sure! But we all slugged away at it anyway, with varying degrees of success. This is where I found out some people had taken the class before! Yes, I know we shouldn't compare ourselves to anyone else. Yes, I did it anyway. LOL.

But I digress! Apart from ripping my creative skin off (in a good way), the class also gave me a chance to do my first-ever sketchnotes! If you haven't heard of these, instantly Google Mike Rohde, who is an amazing and talented artist and designer who created the concept of and coined the term for distilling notes into a visual form. Using a Moleskine and a pen, Rohde takes real-time notes at presentations and other events. They are works of art, believe me.

I've been ~~stalking~~ following Rohde on his website and Twitter for a while, so I thought I would give sketchnotes a go. As always, I just dove right in and (aha!) found it was a very effective way to distill what my drawing teacher had to say. I thought about taking notes and them turning them into a visual version later, but then thought better of this. The real-time aspect of sketchnoting is the point - so that's what I did. As the prof talked, I wrote and drew - more of the former and less of the latter, but words are probably always going to be my default mode.

I can truly say I learned a ton from both my first class and my first sketchnotes. I'll post my first works of art later - they are not for the faint of heart.

Onward and upward!

So I got nuthin'

2011-06-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

See #10 below

Generally speaking, I wait until I have something to say (or show) before I post something. Tonight I'm breaking that laudable tradition. I.Got.Nuthin'. (Pretty bold talk for an English major, huh?)

OK, I really do have something, though. So let's have a list:
1. I'm taking my first-ever drawing class this weekend. I have already declared talent optional, so this is way OK.
2. The weather in SoCal has gotten markedly warmer after the official Summer Solstice. Since my foot is sweating in its broken-foot boot, I am not amused at this.
3. I am shamelessly loving Hulu+ and I'm not even hyperlinking to it because it's so useless and cool. Basically, this means I can watch TV on my phone. Or, I could watch TV on my phone if I wanted to. I haven't wanted to just yet, but I see that day coming.
4. The homemade daily pages in my Filo are still going gangbusters. Remember that I stamped a date-ish stamp at the top of some of the pages a while back? This is working great. I can use what I need and not waste a thing. I'm keeping them in chronological order for now. However, I might do a color-coded-tab thing soon.
5. I do not like industrial Velcro. (See # 2 above.)
6. I've heard that there are new Sharpies in "glam '80s" colors like Valley Girl Violet and Leg Warmer Orange. I am resisting, but I hyperlinked this just in case my resolve shatters.
7. I've been taking a couple of online classes from Alisa Burke (Sketchbook Delight) and Mary Ann Moss (Full Tilt Boogie). The former is a terrific compilation of basic sketching techniques; the latter is quasi-bookbinding with a Moss twist. Both are well worth the dough!
8. I might post some of the products of the online classes I'm taking (see #7 above), but I am very nervous about this given that apparently there's lots of bad web stuff going on in the art world. Understandably, neither of the artists who are hosting classes wants to have her stuff pirated, so I'm a little leery of posting photos that might infringe on their techniques. We'll see. If I do post anything, I will link back to them. Cross my heart.
9. I've been reading lots and lots of art blogs lately. My Google Reader is melting! I'll do a link-y round-up one of these days soon. There is some terrific stuff out there!
10. I'm still messing around with watercolors. Teaching myself has a real upside: the freedom that comes with no knowledge whatsoever.

Happy solstice-ish time, all. Leave a comment - let's see what you're up to!

Not waiting for talent to strike

2011-06-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

It's still fairly cool here in SoCal, but there's definitely an undercurrent of summer. Last night it was hot, hot, hot upstairs. My hair was a fright this morning and required some major reorganization to be presentable for work. This means that some warm days are on the horizon.

So maybe that's the reason why I've been drawn to watercolors lately. The transparency of the colors is so evocative of summer weather. It makes me think of cold drinks on the patio or a dip in the pool.

Never one to wait for actual materials or instruction, I've been teaching myself to work with watercolors. Those who know about watercolor painting might be a little horrified that I'd even show my nascent work, but I'm not so into personal dignity. LOL. I can truly say that I've been having some fun with this. The sketchbook I'm working in is not really meant for watercolors (or any wet medium), but it seems to work fine. If I saturate the paper, I might have a problem. But I like the sort of crackly nature of the paper after it's been a bit wet.

The leaf motifs are a practice page for cross-hatching. The agapanthus-esque flowers were inspired by breakfast with my mom the other day. We sat at a small table by the window of a local place - the sun was shining, the place was bustling, and it was a morning where time just crystallized. Right outside the window, there were agapanthuses (agapanthi?) growing with abandon. I wished right then that I'd had a sketchbook handy. I didn't, but I did draw these from my mind's eye. (Lesson: Take the sketchbook with me!)

As always, I say go for it! I resisted painting for the longest time because I thought that talent was required. Now I think the only thing required is the will to press on even when everything is going a little wonky. Post your stuff! Let us see!

Much ado about picnics!

2011-06-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Sew Much Ado, I just made a super-cute Fourth of July picnic tote for a friend's little girl!

As always, I couldn't wait until I had all the proper supplies. Instead, I just raided the fabric bin and came up with a couple of coordinating colors of cotton fabric. The original tutorial calls for interfacing (which is always a good idea for this type of thing), but I couldn't rustle any up. Instead, I used fusible fleece, which I think I might prefer in this project for the sturdiness factor. I also altered the measurements by about an inch to make it fit the fabric I had. (Hence the July 4 theme, by the way. The fabric scraps were ... red, white, and blue for the US of A!)

Other than that, I followed most (!) of the instructions, which were abundantly clear. Ms. Much Ado did a terrific job showing all the steps. Her blog shows the one she made for her little one; it had a cute initial appliqued to the front, but I skipped this step since this was more a try-it-out than anything else. Don't tell anyone, but this became an official "gift" when it came out so darn cute! LOL.

The inside has pockets for cutlery, a napkin, and a plate. I also foresee this being used as an art kit. Pens, markers, crayons, stickers, paper ... Seems like it might be a good let's-keep-busy car tote. And since it's cotton (AKA washable), nothing too bad can really happen to it. When it's opened up, the outside becomes a place mat. This might save the car seat from taking too bad a beating. Clever girl, huh?

The pockets that hold the picnic/art supplies are really customizable. I stuck close to the original measurements, but it would be easy to make some adjustments here, depending on the desired use. This might even be a good "mom" lunch tote - paperback/journal/Filofax in the large pocket and cool pens in the other ones. Oh - and maybe some actual lunch, too!

The weather has been our usual June Gloom, which means foggy mornings, glorious late afternoons, and foggy nights. So far, it's not really picnic weather, but I am so NOT inviting the inevitable SoCal summer blast furnace! If the Universe is listening, color me happy!

This is what it looks like folded up - it's a place mat when it's unfolded

I swear I was paying attention

2011-06-07T09:42:00.000-07:00


What happened in yesterday's meeting.

I love a good rubber stamp

2011-06-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right?

As I mentioned, I've been thinking of using my new (and exceptionally cute) Filo pages as daily pages for a while to see how that goes. Now I could hand-write the date on each page. But what fun would that be? Instead, I could use my cool rubber stamp! Yay!

I didn't stamp every page, of course - probably about 20 pages altogether. This way, I have the stamped pages when I want them, and the plain ones the rest of time. Win-win.

(By the way, the stamp is from a set called Travel Words by Stampendous.)

Some good-lookin' Filo paper

2011-06-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

Original bound journal

When I was little, I was always the bane of my parents' existence because I had the habit of taking things apart. Sometimes, these were things that should not have been reorganized - like the time I re-engineered a bunch of my clothes by cutting off the sleeves. I was about 4. How was this little Californian supposed to know that winter rolled around every year? (Although, looking back on it, I'm still pretty proud of being a scissor-worthy tot! Hmm - I wonder who left sharp things where I could reach them? I'll have to ask my sister.)

Lest I digress - the habits of our youth ... well, you get the picture. I still reorganize and re-engineer stuff to make what I want. A case in point: I wanted some nice paper for my new Domino A5, but I wasn't quite finding what I craved. I was able to use some paper from the Arc brand by Staples - and I still like it. A few holes later, I had some smooth and serviceable paper.

But I still wanted the elusive "nice."

Ivory with faint pink lines

So I went in search of paper that might fit the A5. Easier said than done! But the other day I happened across the Markings notebook by C.R. Gibson. It was on sale, so I figured I could mess around with it and not lose much if my experiment didn't work. (The picture is at the top left.)

But it did work! Voila - 252 pages of nice-ness for the price of a couple of bucks! In case it doesn't show in the picture, the paper is a smooth, heavy-ish stock in an ivory color with pale pink lines and a faint pink flower impression at the edge (front and back). It's about an eighth of an inch longer than A5 paper, but I'm OK with that. I love the rounded corners. It's this kind of detail that makes a paper addict like me a little swoon-y.

So, all I did was tear the paper out of the binding and use a paper cutter to trim the spine edge so it was smooth and the proper width. (I measured it against a piece of "real" Filo paper.) Then I used an A5 punch to make the holes. Done and done. I will say, though, that my hand got a workout! The paper was a little tough to put holes in because it's pretty thick.

A5 punched and ready

By the way, I've heard a lot of grumbling about the thinness and lack of quality in the Filofax-brand paper. I kind of like it, even when I use a fountain pen. There is a tremendous amount of show-through, so you have to plan ahead or just decide that a little shadow on the reverse won't hurt anything. But the paper is very smooth and white, and the pages are pretty finely ruled. It's darned expensive, though!

I've been looking at daily pages on the Filofax USA site, but they aren't available yet for 2012. At something around $25, they would cost more than my pretty Domino! I think I might use my new pink-y pages instead. I can date them at the top, there's plenty of room to write, and I don't have to feel wasteful because they were a bargain! I think they'll make good jotter pages to go along with my electronic calendar. We'll see ...

My left foot

2011-05-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

Take one pack of watercolor pencils, one black Pitt pen, and one water brush. Combine with one broken foot ...

I've never actually done much drawing - and have never done watercolor at all - but this seemed like a good way to keep from going stir crazy.

Practice may not make perfect, but it sure does make the hours fly on a holiday weekend. Hopefully, there will be an ortho in my future - and hopefully tomorrow! Apparently, all medical personnel in Southern California are enjoying the long Memorial Day weekend. It's a good thing I didn't break my liver, or something that I really need. Like a left foot.

(By the way, the hand isn't mine. Flawless Daughter was home from college for the holiday. Little did she know ... To give her credit, though, she didn't even look twice when when I said, "Hey, Kater, can I see your hand for a minute?" LOL.)

Haven't done this in a while

2011-05-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

Journal with wrap cover closed

A looong time ago, I made a Remains of the Day journal under the video tutelage of Mary Ann Moss, of Dispatch from L.A. fame. (You can see a link over at the right.) The journal came out great - this is what happens when you follow directions. LOL. It used up all sorts of envelopes, scraps, and fabrics, and turned into a pretty sturdy little book. I'm not sure I posted any pictures of the final product, but I will.

Just this past week, a colleague of mine moved back East. Since she was about to embark on a new adventure, I thought a journal might be just the right gift. As she was leaving her goodbye luncheon on Friday, I heard that there was a new "boyfriend" in the picture. So maybe she'll have even more adventures coming up, huh? I hope so!

Anyway, I vaguely remembered the actual directions for making the ROD journal. As usual, I was undeterred by the absence of an actual plan. Instead of starting with the cover, and making the pages fit, I started with the pages, and made the cover fit. It was sort of a happy accident all around since the base for the cover - an old file folder - ended up being the perfect fit for a cover to fit around 6 X 6-inch pages. Gotta love that sort of luck.

Journal (front) with cover flap open

The pages themselves are of varying sizes. There ended up being two signatures of about 10 pages (20 sides) each. Considering the weight of the paper I used (sketching paper and light card stock), it's a wonder that I got the awl through it at all! I considered making four signatures, but realized that I only had enough bookbinding thread for two. Since the signatures have to be sewn into the cover, I just used a little muscle and it all worked out. And now I "have to" go to the art store for more thread. Go figure.

Back view - I put beads on the binding thread (far right)

I shaped the wraparound cover by cutting a file folder to fit two 6 1/2 X 6 1/2 panels, two 1/2-inch gutters, and one quadrilateral-esque flap. I added some iron-on fleece to bulk things up a bit. The embellishments started out a little plain - just some bird fabric and a little lace on sort of a linen-y background. A few more passes through the scrap box yielded some ribbon and a few more pieces of fabric. Until I actually sat down at the sewing machine, I didn't have any idea what might transpire.

Inside pages - various sizes and shapes sewn into signatures

After a few minutes of ripping and sewing (and ripping more and sewing more), and some faux free-motion stitching, there was a cover! The tie was scrapalicious, too. Before sewing the cover together, I sandwiched it into the flap. Voila! Did I measure it? Well ... no. I just kept sewing until I ran out of appropriate scraps.

So this is yet another installment in guerrilla sewing! C'mon - get your stuff out and try it! What's the worst that could happen? (Since I'm sitting here with a broken foot, maybe I should knock wood or something.)

Back to the Mole

2011-05-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

Here's something funny - not funny ha-ha, but funny makes-you-think.

Last month I wrote about searching for the Big Foot of planners. Just in case you didn't happen to read about this, LOL, I noticed that I was using my 18-month Moleskine planner more as a journal and less as a calendar. In point of fact, the Mole had failed miserably as a planner.

Just today, I was given a really nice journal with pink flowers and pretty paper. Shortly thereafter - and we're talking less than half an hour in real time - I heard a very touching and simple loving-kindness meditation that I wanted to remember:

May you feel safe;
May you feel content;
May you feel strong:
May you live with ease.

Nice, huh?

Instead of reaching for my new journal with the pink flowers, I dug my old Mole out of my bag and jotted it there. Somehow, this felt right. And it has occurred to me more than once now that the fancy journal stays home, while the workhorse stays in the bag.

Hmmm. I feel a deeper meaning coming on ...

Ultra-sexy, ultraviolet

2011-05-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

Why is it that the UK site has way better Filofax stuff than the US site? This is definitely wrong and should be fixed. On second thought, maybe it shouldn't be fixed - there wouldn't be as much temptation!

Regardless, I have a new Filo! {Cue singing.}

If I had a lot of discretionary cash, I would go for the posh leather models every time. But I can have all the Filo fun and still pay tuition by going for the man-made varieties. When I got my personal, bronze snake model a while back, I wasn't so sure I'd like the Domino model. The color was bronze-a-licious, but I was wary of the elastic. After a few months of hard living, however, I can say that my fears were groundless. In fact, I've gotten used to being able to shove stuff under the elastic so papers don't go flying around my bag.

The new guy is an A5 Domino in pretty ultraviolet, which is basically purple, but definitely not grape. I've been looking for something that will hold a larger sheet of paper, but still be compact-ish enough to use in meetings and lug from here to there. I briefly thought of a basic, three-ring binder, but rejected the notion because of the enormity of the size. My personal snake (sounds funny, huh?) fits perfectly in my purse, so I certainly didn't need a duplicate of that size.

After reading posts from all the Philofaxy crew, I grew more and more enamored of the idea of an A5 size. But brown? Black? Something else dark that I can't remember? Ugh! No! It's spring in California! So of course I had to go to another continent to find the perfect color. Seriously?

Arc system paper fits the A5

Once again, though, I benefited from the kindness of strangers at Filofax UK. Not only did they take care of the translation of dollars to pounds, but there was a mysterious discount! Shipping was even less than I had calculated, so it was a bargain - actually cheaper than buying it in the US (if it had existed in this color)! Plus, there was an extra packet of vertical week-on-two-pages inserts to carry me through the end of 2011 in addition to the standard inserts that came nicely packed inside. Such a boon for international relations!

I immediately had to go looking for lined inserts (because this guy is primarily for work-based note-taking). Sadly, I found out that these were just plain expensive. Ever-resourceful (!), I realized that the Arc paper put out by Staples (which is a disc-bound system, like Levenger's Circa) is a perfect fit if you don't mind a little something going on at the left edge of the paper, which doesn't bother me at all. Plus, the Arc offers a very smooth, heavyweight paper that comes in lined, graph, and project-planner styles. And it's pretty inexpensive - 50 sheets for $3.99 (less, if you find a sale). This compares to 25 sheets of lined paper on the Filofax US site for $4.50.

Yes, my little Filo family is growing. Will the next stop be the Flex? Hmmm ...

There's a new Filo in the house

2011-05-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

With love, from the UK

Lesson #1: Loosen up!

2011-05-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

Cover of the tiny book

This is the year that I'm dedicating myself to (among other obsessions) becoming a better artist. I have to say that things got a little easier when I got over the notion of "talent." No - really. But I guess it's a lot like the search for the Loch Ness monster: Whether Nessie is there or not, the enjoyment of the search is all that really matters.

I'm working through a cool project called The Journey of You, by (actually talented) artist, blogger, and teacher Kelly Kilmer. With her instructions and tips, you construct a small book made out of common items such as scrap paper and magazine images. The binding is easy - just some packing tape.

So guess what I didn't have when I started making my book? Packing tape! Washi tape? Check. Scotch tape? Check. Duct tape? Check, check, and double check!

Nevertheless - uh oh, we've been down this road before - I persevered and made a tiny little try-it-out kind of book that I decided I could use as a tester-outer for larger projects. Here was my thought: I could test out ink flow in pens, the way certain glue works (if I ever want to branch out from a glue stick - lol), how certain magazine images behave, what colors can be blended for certain color effects, what the doodles that are in my head actually look like on the page - all in tiny, manageable form! No fuss! No muss! No stress!

Drawing pen, pastels, stamps, mag images over tinted gesso

Here's what I did. I ripped a few sheets of regular lined paper out of an old school notebook and tore it into rectangular pieces approximately 3 X 4.5 inches. Following Kelly's instructions, I bound them together using the scotch tape I had sitting nearby, making a little book with 10 pages (20 sides). Then I used an ad for a luggage store that had come in the mail and cut out images, words, and colors I liked, and glued them down.

I hated it.

Since this was my usual midnight romp, I left it on the table, thinking it might look better in the light of day. I was wrong. I still hated it.

So, when I got home from work, I did what any right-thinking person would do with scraps of lined school paper bound by scotch tape - I gesso-ed the heck out of it! Yep - I painted right over all the stuff I'd glued down. Voila! I was starting to like the texture and the pages were definitely more substantial than the lined paper I started with! Hmm - I need to remember this!

Pastels, drawing pen, book page, china marker over tinted gesso

While I was gesso-ing, I mixed in a little of my usual tube watercolor and made the pages some interesting colors. Since this was still a "scrap" in my mind, I was a lot bolder in mixing than I usually am - and the colors came out pretty interesting. Some of them are interesting-good; some are interesting-weird. A couple probably still need covering up!

Then, I ripped up another ad for women's clothes that I got in that day's mail. I used a few bits here and there. After this, I went all wild and crazy and started playing with everything in sight - stamps, pastels, drawing pens, book paper - even a mint wrapper. Again, since this was a "scrap," there was no pressure to make anything for the ages. It was just a way to try some things out in real time. For instance, in the green page above, I tried doing some journaling and then covering it with an image. I had heard of this technique, but wasn't sure what it looked like in practice. Love it! In the lavender page with the houses (my triumph of drawing!), I tried repeating a phrase for texture.

You know what? I liked it! This little scrap book turned out more "me" than most of the things I've intentionally worked on. Lesson: Loosen up and try it!

Stamps, mag images, book page, tiny doodles over tinted gesso

When I start working on my larger book (which means I need to remember to get some darn packing tape!), I'm going to keep my little book around to test out pens and such. I've even upgraded its status from "scrap" to "sample"! The poor little thing has been through the wringer - it deserves some love!

In a couple of weeks, I'm taking one of Kelly's "live" classes as a local art shop. I'll let you know how it goes!

[Edit - In the orange picture above you'll see why you probably don't want to use regular scotch tape! The pages separate because the tape splits easily. I'll stick it together with something else so my sample won't fall to bits. I might even use what you're supposed to use. LOL.]

Having my cake

2011-05-15T00:30:00.000-07:00

"Layer Cake" style made with watercolors

By now, everyone knows that I don't ever wait until I have all the "real" materials at hand to get started on a project. Case in point: Urban Layer Cake by terrific artist and blogger Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow as part of the 21 Secrets project.

Tammy does an excellent job on her 21 Secrets video tutorial on how to construct a "layer cake" of fluid acrylic paints layered over fiber paste (or molding paste). The rough texture of the paste, which is applied in a thin layer over the surface of the page with an old credit card, gives the painted page a grunge texture that would be excellent for the background in an art journal. The paint itself is also applied with an old credit card in radiating squares or rectangles. Trust me on this: Tammy is an artist!

Watercolors pulled across the page with an old credit card

Well ... the only things missing in my art kit were the acrylics, the molding paste, and the heavyweight watercolor paper. In other words, I was short on almost everything needed for this project - except for the old credit card. I have lots of those. LOL!

Never daunted by reality, I used what I had: white card stock, watercolors in a tube, and an old credit card. On my first try, I used Tammy's technique, spreading the watercolors with a credit card in ever-widening rectangles, using burnt umber, Phthalo blue, yellow ochre, and Payne's gray. I liked it! Even without the texture of the molding paste, there was a sort of texture-ish sense from the scraping of the credit card. It was even a little grungy!

Watercolors pulled across a wet surface, topped with salt

Then, I went right off the farm and did my own thing with the technique. I used the same colors (minus the gray) in stripes, pulling the color down the page with the old credit card. The paper remained white-white around the edges, so I dipped the credit card into plain water and pulled the color out to the sides. I liked this, too!

On the third try, I used the credit card to scrape plain water all over the card stock, and then pulled the watercolor through the wetness. Of course it was more transparent, but it was a cool look with the sap green and Phthalo blue. Before it dried - it was really wet! - I sprinkled table salt on it to break up the color. Guess what? I liked this, too!

The scraping process on all of these was relaxing. It was impossible to really control the placement of the color very much, so there was no "right" or "wrong" way to go. This was freeing! It was also surprising to see how each piece emerged. This is the way art should be!

That's my girl!

2011-05-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

Flawless Daughter (on phone from college): "Hi Mom. What are you doing?"
Me (sitting at kitchen table messing around with watercolor pencils): "Nothing."
FD: "Are you blogging?"
Me: "No ..."
FD: "You're making something."
Me: "Sorta ..."
FD: "You aren't speaking in complete sentences."
Me: "Am too ..."
FD (laughing): "Mom...!"
Me: "I'm coloring on a paper towel."
FD: "Oh, OK. Have fun. I'm going to bed. Love you!"
Me: "Love you, too! G'night, honey."

Did you notice that the fact I was coloring on a paper towel at 11 at night didn't phase her at all? That's my girl!

Hello, Chicago!

2011-05-13T17:11:00.000-07:00


Where am I? O'Hare Airport in Chicago.

In love with my boy

2011-05-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

I got my first-ever (delivered!) bouquet of flowers from my son today for Mother's Day. As I shared with Pamela over at her super-terrific blog, I wasn't 100% sure my son had sent it because he neglected to put his name on it! I busted out laughing because this is the culmination of close to 2 decades of did-you-put-your-name-on-your-paper-Josh? I think I said this and tie-your-shoe about a billion times! LOL!

Here's what the note on the flowers said: "You deserve this and so much more. Thank you for everything you have done for me. You're my hero."

I'm almost, but not quite, ready to stop bawling now.

Happy Mother's Day!

Gesso explosion aftermath

2011-05-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

This is the aftermath of the paper-painting session I had last night thanks to Alma Stoller and her 21 Secrets class called Child's Play Workshop.

The envelopes are about 3 3/4 inches square. I lined them with some old origami paper. To make the box, I adhered a piece of the magazine paper (which is pretty thin) to some scrap cardstock. Otherwise, there would not have been enough body to make the box sturdy. It ended up being 4 inches square and could also be used as a little stand-up canvas. This is a pretty good haul from a magazine that was headed for the dustbin!

Only after the fact did I realize that the envelopes fit perfectly in the box! LOL! Hmm - I may have come up with a Mother's Day gift!

Gesso explosion

2011-05-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

Front and back of the magazine page

I just started working through some of the classes in 21 Secrets, an art journaling ning that's already been loads of fun.

You know I can never wait to have the "real" materials at hand. I usually just dive right in, use what I have, and hope for the best. This batch of painted background papers was made using Alma Stoller's technique. I covered regular, glossy magazine pages with a mixture of gesso and the watercolor that comes in a tube like oil paint. I used the same technique to paint some of the subscription cards that were still stuck in the magazine. Most of the time, I pull them out. I was happy to see a few left intact to practice on!

I just used an old foam brush to paint with. Nothing exciting, but it developed a nice stripe-y pattern. The "texture" came from layering the watercolor and gesso and dabbing it with a paper towel.

(About those watercolors: I think I got the whole set for something like $5 on sale. It lasts and lasts. Funny enough, I've never actually used it for watercolor-ing purposes - always to tint something like gesso. Maybe I should learn to paint one of these days? I think that might be a lost cause unless it's painting the walls in the dining room. LOL!)

Creating another word storm

2011-05-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

I don't think there's anything more absorbing than messing around with paper and glue. The point is not to make a masterpiece - rather, it's to indulge that creative side that doesn't get to play so much in the grown-up world.

I used to get hung up on this one: What's it for? (Corollary to: What will I use it for?, What is it?, and Where does it go?) Nowadays, I just create to create. Pages get made, unmade, used, unused, created, torn apart and made into something else. Just. Plain. Fun.

This little piece of poetry happened when glue met magazine picture. A bunch of words I had cut out for other reasons just spilled onto it and made sense to me.

Way back forever ago, I wrote about Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge's book Poemcrazy. Wooldridge advises putting words on cards and the backs of tickets and all sorts of things and using them for inspiration. I do this reflexively with words and phrases that catch my ear or my eye. When I stick them down on paper, I call it word storming because words seem to blow all over the place in both the literal and metaphoric sense.

Try it! Throw a link to your creation in the comments and let the world see how creative you are!

Mead v. Rhodia: The meeting book smackdown

2011-05-01T23:24:00.000-07:00

Product image from Mead website

Product image from Rhodia website

What better way to celebrate May Day than with office supplies! Even better - meeting notebooks!

Say what?

If you happen to be taking pen-and-paper meeting notes, which would make my iPad feel kind of left out, the latest, greatest thing is to have "meeting notes." These are pre-printed forms that cover all the important items from our everyday meetings: date, topic, objectives, next steps, action items, and so on. This is how meeting minutes can be formalized if you happen to be unplugged.

As is happens, I currently have two types of wirebound meeting notes books, one by Mead and the other by Rhodia. Let's see how they stack up to each other.

Full page of Mead book

The Mead Cambridge Limited Meeting Book is 8 1/2 X 11 inches and has 80 legal-ruled sheets that are perforated near the wire binding for easy removal. The 20-pound (recycled) paper is 30% post-consumer material. The lines are a crisp forest green and the headings are in maroon ink. In the pre-printed sections, there are spaces for the date, topic, meeting objectives, attendees, notes, and action items. All the pre-printed parts are on the front side of each sheet - the back is ruled with no other markings.The price is between $9 and $10.

Upside: recycled paper, legal-ruled, lots of room to write, check boxes next to action items that make me feel like I'm getting something done.
Downside: somewhat harsh paper (although it is quite white), only room for the names of six attendees (if you list them instead of writing them in a series), only room for seven action items, bland, greenish cover that cries out to be hidden in a portfolio.

Full page of Rhodia book

The Rhodia Meeting Book is 9 X 11 3/4 inches and has 80 ruled sheets that are perforated near the wire binding for easy removal. The 80g paper is extra-white with a smooth, satin finish. The lines are a subtle gray and the headings are in gray ink bulleted by Rhodia orange squares or triangles. In the pre-printed sections, there are spaces for the date, notes, and action items. The pre-printed parts on the front and back of each sheet are in columnar form that looks something like Cornell notes.The price is about $22.

Upside: smooth, satiny paper, cool gray-and-orange color scheme, few pre-designated areas, vertical sections that allow notes and action times to be written next to each other
Downside: fairly wide lines, slightly unusual size that could preclude it from fitting in a standard portfolio, price.

So which one is best? In terms of price, the Mead book wins hands-down; it's half the price of the Rhodia book. In terms of paper, Rhodia wins. Period. Rhodia also wins in terms of color scheme and, most importantly, functionality (despite the wider rule). The tactile quality alone makes it a pleasure to use.

The downside of both? Each book only allows one meeting per page. This is great, I suppose, for longer meetings, but ends up being a waste of paper for short ones. Plus, unless you scan your notes right away, real-time sharing with colleagues is impossible. Then again, sometimes paper notes are better than electronic ones since there's no danger of incompatibility or forgetting your plug!

Pen lust with vanity plates

2011-04-22T20:58:00.000-07:00


On top my iPad case

Far be from me to be unfaithful to my friends at JetPens, who definitely have me on speed-send. But I took a walk on the wild side and bought my first "luxury pen," a Monteverde One Touch Stylus. All I can say is O.M.G. This pen is beautiful!

I don't remember when I first read about this pen, but one little factoid stuck in my brain: it had a stylus that would work on devices with a capacitive screen (like my iPad and iPhone). Essentially, the stylus part gives you an extra finger when you want one. I'm pretty content with my original 10, but this gives me a way to scroll on my touch screens without making them a smudgy mess. If I were to ever wear gloves or have long nails (maybe and never), this little doo-dad would really come in handy, too. It also works with my drawing and note-taking apps that require a stylus.

But who are we kidding. I wanted it for the pen part. In the spirit of summer, I got the white, which has a pretty, pearlized finish. The other colors are graphite, pink, red, and black. The barrel is somewhat thicker than my usual pen-lust pens, but it's slightly heavy and well-balanced. It's s statement pen - no doubt about it. Let's put it this way: If my usual implements were Hondas, this would be a full-on Escalade with vanity plates.

The stylus end

Since this is a one-touch pen, it has a retractable point and a plunger-type clicker. The mechanism is smooth and comfortable with a well-oiled click. The Monteverde comes with a black "Soft Roll" ink insert that writes like butter. Apparently, it can be equipped with a standard, gel, or liquid refill. I love gel and liquid ink! I see some experimentation in my future.

It's been said that "having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting." So here's the question: Did I need this? Or did I want this? All I can say for now is that I love this.

No one said I could draw. But I did (with the stylus).

Failure to launch (a planner)

2011-04-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

My mom gave me an enormous bag of her old shoes the other day. On the surface, this would seem like good news, since Mom has excellent and sometimes expensive taste in shoes. It would also seem like good news since it reinforces my belief that much of my early rearing didn't really take. To wit, I prefer to be barefoot when possible. But I digress.

All this good news almost - but not quite - obscured the bad news: Her feet and my feet are a completely different size ... and always have been, except maybe when I was 10. So the local charity (good news again) will get some nice shoes.

Amid all this good-news/bad-news stuff was some weird stuff: Some of these pairs of shoes were 10 years old (at least!) and showed little signs of wear. Now I love my mom, but she is not a domestic goddess and I'm 100% sure she has never touched a tin of shoe polish in her life. So I asked her about it. She simply said, "I've never worn out a pair of shoes in my life. It's too much fun to change them." Did she feel badly about that? Heck no!

Cue angels singing.

Is this why - OK, guys, feel the stretch - I have such a hard time committing to a planner? Maybe it's just that it's too much fun to change it up! Maybe I am hard-wired to need to change planners!

Think about it. Once the Filofax comes out of the box, what happens? In my house, the cell phone buried in the bottom of my purse starts to ring, the cat attacks the tissue, and I might have a few minutes of bliss smelling all that new planner smell. That's not the fun part! The fun part is sitting down at the table and deciding what will go where, how to use the tabs, what color ink to use to copy over what needs copying over. Oh, the endless possibilities!

Hope of a shiny new organized life rises again!

However, if this doesn't work out, was I wrong? Should I feel badly about this? Heck no!

Cue angels singing again! (Why not. They're not busy right now.)

I really do envy those who use the same planner all year and have 365 ruffly, used, written-on, tabbed, and well-loved pages. At the most, I might have about 60. Well, maybe 40. Then I get the itch to change it up again. Back to the table I go and out come the office supplies again!

It's not failure to launch. It's a labor of love!

Notebooks, Italy, and France

2011-04-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

(That title made me want to rhyme it with underpants! Oh, how immature.)

It must seem like I have a lot of time on my hands, but I really don't. I have a family and a job and a dysfunctional cat. This is one busy life around here.

So how, you ask, is it possible that I even have time to read a book? Here's my best answer: IDK. (Yep, that's I Don't Know in text talk. Annoying, but useful!) But I do. And here's what I've read lately - in no particular order. Maybe you can start your summer reading list here!

Writers and Their Notebooks - Diana Raab. There's no bait-and-switch here. This is a collection of essays - more like testimonials - from authors about how they use their notebooks. How can you resist when there are beginnings like this: "Thirty-six years and and one hundred-thirty five spiral notebooks ago, my daily journal was born of an innate desire to set down the thoughts, feelings, and events that shaped me." (Zan Bockes - who also has bipolar disorder). Or maybe this: "The relationship between journaling and my own poems became apparent once I grew tired of apologizing for our lovely but deranged cat, Shimmy." (Tony Trigilio - who also wrote a blog called Shimmy's Blog, the last entry of which will make you cry.) There are definitely some ups and downs in this collection of essays, but this is a pretty good summer read since it only demands a chapter at a time and no one will look at you disapprovingly if you skip around. Books are not the boss of you!

Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life - Frances Mayes. Yep, this is the same Frances Mayes who wrote Under the Tuscan Sun, the same movie that made me want to run out and rehab an Italian villa. Mayes is deeply in love with (1) Tuscany, (2) Italy, (3) Italian Renaissance painter Luca Signorelli, and (4) her husband - probably in that order. She is a witty writer, but sometimes gets lost in the weeds of her obsessions. For instance, one whole chapter filled with the minutiae of following the "Signorelli trail" almost made me pack up my passport and turn in my bookmark. But then there were chapters that started like this: "If you are dead in Italy, you are not as dead as you could be." Well, OK then. Yes, this is one long travel poster, but it's a good read and contains some terrific recipes based on the seasons in Tuscany. You gotta eat, so why not?

I'll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do) - Mark Greenside. This story of a disheveled American in Brittany made me laugh out loud in public. Multiple times. Embarrassingly loudly. Greenside, who speaks only the most basic French, tells the downwardly mobile tale of almost accidentally buying a house in Brittany and becoming (almost) a local. He learns the customs, manners, and language of his adopted country the hard way: through trial and error. Here's a snippet: At one point, he becomes locked in his rented house and has to exit through the window to get breakfast. A French woman carrying a baguette happens by and he uses the international language of pointing to try to find out where she bought her bread. "I point to her bread and nod my head up and down like a yo-yo. 'Ou.' I say, 'Ou ... ou est le pan?' As soon as I say it, I realize that what I said is, 'Ou est lapin,' 'Where, where, where is the bunny?'" I only speak rudimentary French and this had me laughing hysterically, as do most things. Forget how dorky I am. This book is terrific!

I have a few more for a later time. Grab a beach towel, some sunscreen, a snack, and a book - and start reading! Also, let me know what you're reading this summer. Kindle is the devil! :-)

Can't even give it away!

2011-04-17T18:35:00.000-07:00

Having not tried climbing K2s or swimming channels or busting a move on the Silver Screen (and we are all thankful for that last one!), I like to think that there's really not too much I can't do. After all, I manage to go to work everyday, drive a multi-ton vehicle filled with explosive fuel (AKA "a car"), dress and feed myself ... So why is it that I can't even GIVE something away?

A few days ago, I posted a long-but-true story of my quest for an Ecosystem journal. Oh! I was so happy that after much travail, I had found one. The kindness of strangers was so wonderful! I was giddy with delight and ready to pay it forward. The only snag in my plan was that only a single, wonderful person had the perseverance to wade through my happy post (thank you, Glenda!!!!). Or could it be that only one person in the whole blogosphere wanted a free Ecosystem (ruled) essay book, grape in color? Meh.

So here's my plan: I'm STILL going to send a free essay book to someone - even with international postal rates that I do not understand. If you leave me a message that you want one ... I'll send it to you!!!

(Edited to include follow-up: Remember that I said my mom wanted one? She doesn't want one either! If I ever have grandchildren, I am so NOT telling them this story. They will cry!)

The Big Foot of planners

2011-04-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

There are some great blogs out there about planners, notebooks, yummy paper stuff ... I can't get enough of them! There are a lot of us searching for the Big Foot of planners (or journals). The "perfect" one is the stuff of legends and cousin to the-one-that-got-away.

As I've mentioned before, I have to use a shared Outlook calendar for work. I'm sure my calendar colleagues enjoy entries like "Mom's bday" or "No car today" as much as I like writing them. LOL. This works because I have a lot of daily appointments and juggle changes all the time. Even the hardiest Frixion couldn't keep pace with this! (Oh yes, I've tried!) My friends at JetPens can attest to my pen addiction - they have my address on speed-send!

Regardless, I went all wild and crazy last year and bought the Moleskine 18-month weekly planner, thinking it would allow me to (1) track work appointments, and (2) note personal stuff, and (3) look so darn cool. Update:

#1 failed miserably because I have too many appointments. Period.
#2 failed (but not too miserably) because I don't have enough personal appointments to make it worthwhile. Hmm - interesting.
#3 - slam dunk! I did look cool.

So I switched over to using a Filofax for no other reason than I wanted to and I was horribly enabled by the Philofaxy community. Three Filofaxes later (all in use), I still love them. My raspberry Finsbury (pocket) is my wallet. The bronze snakeskin Domino (personal) is my purse/bag/everywhere else repository of stuff, and my chocolate-brown Sketch (personal) is used for the writing that goes with my Walking in This World work. Phew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

But back to my Moleskine.

I could not justify putting out $15 or so for a planner I wasn't going to use and that was going to haunt my desk for no darn good reason. So I just started using it as a journal-journal to stick odd bits of stuff in. The book is slim, so it fits in my purse/bag/everywhere else. It's not fancy, so there's no need to write something Important (capital I) in it, and it's cool. OK - I'm shallow, but this shouldn't detract from the fact that here's a LOT of usable space in the Mole! It might take me the whole 18 months to fill it up!

Interestingly, I did recently buy a very pretty real-journal-journal from Mudlark, thinking that I might copy out the best bits from my Moleskine "journal." So far, the pretty journal is nicely decorating my desk and the Moleskine is still bumping around with me.

Thanks to Girl in Maths for prompting this! Speaking of terrific blogs ... !

Postcard bonanza!!!

2011-04-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

I think I must be the luckiest person alive. Five - yes five!! - postcards from the iHanna swap arrived today. The mailbox was vibrating with the excitement of it all!

Thank you to Gilda (Frida image), Nancy (fish on the blue background), Tina (butterflies), Kimber (bird on the rainbow background), and Maudy (Buddha on the purple background)!

The craftsmanship on these cards is magnificent. They are truly works of art. A few of them arrived in envelopes - even the envelopes were lovely!

Uncharacteristically, I'm speechless!

Notebook story

2011-04-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

Spoiler alert! (LOL) This is a notebook story with a happy ending!

There's been a lot of interest on Twitter and elsewhere about the Ecosystem line of paper goods, so I wanted to see for myself what all the hubbub was about. So I wandered off to the Ecosystem website and found all sorts of cool-looking planners and notebooks - and even a clever build-your-own bit! In true nerd-central style, I even watched the Ecosystem video and wanted to have all the fun the Ecosystem people were having. After seeing ruled and plain and squared, of course I had to have one. (Yes, that's right - had to.)

So ... seeing on the Ecosystem website that the paper line was sold at Barnes & Noble, I hied right down to B&N and asked for one. Not only did they not carry it, they'd never heard of it! Hmm. I figured that maybe a larger B&N would be the place to look. Strike two! Again, never heard of it, and didn't carry it. The plot thickened!

Sadly (for Ecosystem) there was a cheery "contact us" link on the website - and that's just what I did. I emailed my tale of woe into the cybersphere and expected that the ordeal was over and that I was not meant to have this notebook. Case closed.

Case opened! I quickly got a reply from a nice person named Jennifer who said she was puzzled by the fact that B&N didn't have the product, but suggested a few other "local" places where an Ecosystem notebook could be had. In Southern California, "local" does not always mean "close." With gas at $4+ a gallon, I wasn't driving anywhere out of the ordinary to salve my paper lust. Happily, one of the vendors, Vroman's, was actually close. And it is actually one of the best independent book stores in the known universe. So I was happy!

(Wait - don't give up yet!)

My happiness turned to sadness when Vroman's did not have the Ecosystem and - guess what?! - had never heard of it. Even the buyer at Vroman's got involved in the hunt - to no avail. Oh! Highs! Lows!

I emailed back to my new BFF (Jennifer) that I was officially giving up the hunt. Quickly, Jennifer emailed me back that she would send me one (yay!) for all my trouble and would investigate the vendor problem herself. Can you even believe it? It's 2011 and someone, somewhere is going out of her way to do this? Wow!!! I thanked her profusely.

Here's the happy ending: My new kiwi-colored (lined) Ecosystem ruled journal arrived today along with a sweet hand-written note and an extra pack of little essay books in a pretty purple color that is probably called "grape." Could this get any better? Superior customer service has earned Ecosystem a fan for life. And I haven't even taken them out of the plastic yet!!!

(Did you keep reading?! Here's a prize!)

In my very small attempt to pay this forward, I will send a grape-colored Ecosystem essay book to someone who sends me a message that says he or she really, really wants one. As a matter of fact, I will send this to two people who would like one. (Yes, it's a pack of three, but I promised one to my mom. You know how it goes.)

I will pick two people at random if a comment is left on this post by Saturday, April 16, at midnight PDT. Make sure there's some kind of link that allows me to contact you!

Teeny, tiny collage

2011-04-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

I think that sometimes we get hung up on making a (capital M) Masterpiece and forget to have fun with a little something. Wait - maybe that's just me! Lol.

This little collage is approximately 4 inches square(ish) and uses my fave washi tape and machine sewing. Oh - is there anything that's more fun than sewing paper? No fraying!

Hello there, sunshine

2011-04-04T23:13:00.000-07:00


Don't ask me why this is sideways, but you get the drift

A reader of Laurie's super-terrific-informative-and-totally-addicting blog Plannerisms asked if there was a bookmark made for spiral notebooks that fits in the spiral binding. Of course, Laurie's readers came right to the rescue. I, however, went straight for my own little spiral notebook where - you guessed it - there was a bookmark! (OK, don't get too excited - it's pretty simple!)

You could stick some post-its here!

I needed something to keep my place in the spiral notebook I was using to write my morning pages for the Walking in This World read-along with some of my friends from around the blogosphere. Since I didn't have anything that wasn't going to go sliding out, I made a little quicky out of some paper and a couple of paperclips.

I simply folded the paper in half and poked the loose end of a paperclip though the fold about a half inch below the top. I did the same thing further down, about an inch or so from the bottom. I sandwiched the whole affair together and - voila - I had a bookmark that wasn't going to slip around and annoy me. Knowing that I absolutely must embellish everything, I just made a little paper tag for the top that makes me smile every time I see it.

I realized that I could have actually measured it out, but what would have been the fun in that? I took note of the fact that the spiral coils are pretty close together. No matter where the bottom paperclip ended up, it would be OK. At least that was my theory!

This is a close-up of the paperclip assembly

So this probably didn't answer Laurie's reader's question, but ...

Postcard mania!

2011-04-02T22:10:00.000-07:00


Step one: Fold a paper lunch sack in thirds.

Step two: Add an image and stitch around the edges

Oh, happy day! My postcard pictures have come back to me! (Which means that Flawless Daughter is back at school after spring break and finally sent them to me!)

There's not much to say that hasn't been said - except that I'm really having fun anticipating what might be waiting in the mailbox on any given day. Wait - did I say that already LOL? All you iHanna postcard swap fans out there: You know what I mean!!

This is how I actually made my postcards, which are approximately 3 by 5 inches. Believe it or not, it all started when I was fooling around with a paper lunch sack. On the prototype, I folded the bag into thirds and stitched around the edges. This real version has stitched edges, too. The difference is that there is something inside! I can't wait to see how these get through the mail - especially the international post!

Hot, hot, hot

2011-03-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

It was hot, hot, hot today, so I found a cool place to read a book about Tuscany. I swear I never wanted to leave ... unless it meant actually going to Tuscany!

Little piece of spring

2011-03-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

I got an excellent surprise today! My very first postcard from the iHanna swap was sitting in the mailbox!

It's a real beauty - like a little piece of spring. The luscious pinky-peach background looks painted. It's embellished with torn text and an elegant butterfly with a sparkle outline that sets it off from the matte background. Many thanks to Patricia from Cleveland, Texas! If I had a URL, I'd link right to her. (Maybe she'll even read this!)

When I took my own postcards to the post office in beautiful Altadena (!), it caused a lively debate among the postal ladies. Would the cards be machine-able? And weren't they adorable!? And was I sending any to Mexico or Canada because the postage would be different? And would anyone be sending something to me? Maybe they would even see it! And how did I put mine together? And, let's see, what stamps would fit on there? And did I want to re-write my return address so it showed after all the stamps were put on?

This kind of human interaction is what email will never duplicate. Even though I was hot and late for work and thinking that a little more breakfast would have been good, it was such a pleasure to just stand there in the post office and chat with the ladies and show them my wares. When I stepped back out on the main street, I half expected to see horses and buggies!

I hope, hope. hope that more arrive. I test-mailed one of mine to myself to make sure they would go through the mail intact, so I also hope mine arrive in mailboxes soon!

The (postcard) is in the mail!

2011-03-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the infamous and ever-wonderful iHanna, a couple of hundred people all over the world will be trading postcards in the next few weeks. This kind of art swap is always great fun - it's a chance to try out a little art without the stress of having to produce Art (with a capital letter).

This is a little preview of what I sent. I made it a little mysterious so that those on the receiving end will be surprised. (This is how to put a great spin on the fact that I snapped a quick pic with my phone-camera that isn't all that great.) Each one contains ... well, I can't really say. But I promise to make it clear after the swap closes. You can see that it has something to do with sewn paper.

I'm sending cards to the USA, Taiwan, Canada, UK, Germany, Australia, and Hungary. Oh - I'm really looking forward to seeing what the post person brings!

This is what it means to be on spring break

2011-03-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

All you need is sweats, the couch, and your cat.

Filofax update ... it's a snake!

2011-03-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

Inside of Sketch

Monthly tab

Outlook calendar

It was pouring rain yesterday and I was half-drowned after making a zillion different trips for work. Californians really don't do so well when water falls from the sky! By the time I got home, I was wet, cold, hungry, and aching for dry clothes and hot food. Instead, I decided there was no harm in getting a little wetter and made one last slog out to the mailbox. Am I glad I did! Hidden in the soggy junk mail was a post office slip that said my new bronze snakeskin Domino - which was not sold in the US at all (double-yay for online shopping!) - had at long last arrived!

Side by side

Domino (top) has a rounder spine

Of course this meant that I had to wait for this morning to drive over and pick it up. The metal grate at the desk was still sealed shut when I got there, but I wanted to be one of the first in line so I could pick up my new toy before heading to the office. The sleepy postal worker who finally opened up her window eyed my ticket suspiciously and disappeared for the longest time. I was wondering if maybe she had fallen and couldn't get up! But she finally returned - surly and unharmed - and made me sign three times and show proper identification before my new baby was all mine! (Picture me hustling down a steep, wet street juggling my purse and keys while trying to get that mailer open! It was really well-sealed!)

I found this personal-sized Filo online at the Pen Shop at Jenners in Edinburgh. It was the very last one! Definitely fate! After a hilarious number of Twitter and email exchanges, James and Audrey were fantastic at helping me navigate currency conversion and shipping rates. All-in-all, the Domino wasn't pricey at all for a Filo - it was the shipping! Oy! My Filo is a fancy world traveler all by itself!

My phone-camera pictures don't do justice to the finish. It's a dark bronze metallic embossed with a snakeskin pattern. There's nothing gold-y or gaudy about it at all - very understated! The inside is a smooth dark brown with four card slots and a slash pocket in the front and another slash pocket in the back. It came packed with a week on 2 days calendar and some other inserts that I will happily explore and possibly use, including a three-slot credit-card holder.

Not to be disloyal, I have to say that I've really enjoyed using my brown personal Sketch (which you can buy in the US), and plan to use keep using it for a writing journal. The fabric is super-durable and there's not one bit of evidence that it's been rained on numerous times and smashed around in all my various bags. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm required to keep my work calendar shared online through Outlook. But I've found it ultra-convenient to print the Outlook calendar (reduced to 90%) for quick reference since I often have multiple school sites to attend to each day and it's not always easy to juggle my phone to see what's what. My electronics toy box is never too full, mind you, but sometimes I just need a nice, steady analog display.

I like the set-up I've got (pictured at the top of this post), and plan to just do a wholesale swap of the contents from the Sketch to the Domino. I found some springy Garden Path Daytimer inserts to keep the months separate. I use the weekly calendar as a place to write my personal appointments and my myriad checklists. Oh, the satisfying click of checking something off!

Oddly enough, when I unwrapped my new Filo, I could have sworn it was way smaller than the Sketch even though both are personal-sized. Maybe I couldn't see it clearly because I was having a heart attack running down the street! Putting them side-by-side, though, I realized that they were almost identical. OK - duh - I know they are both personal size! The only real difference is that the spine on the Domino is markedly more rounded. Plus, the Sketch has a snap closure and the Domino has the elastic band.

Does this mean that I've officially joined the ranks of Filo collectors? Let's see ... My wallet is a raspberry-colored pocket Finsbury, my (new!) planner is a snakeskin Domino, my (new/old!) writing journal is a brown Sketch ... Hmm ... I see the problem!

(Edit: Sorry for the wonkiness of the pictures and text. I just couldn't get poor old Blogger to line them up correctly. This time, it will have to be function over form! Lol!)

Walking #3: Redrawing boundaries

2011-03-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing that there are a lot of forgiving souls in the Walking in This World community. At least I hope there are! Here I am at the end of the Week Two chapter (even though it's probably the end of Week Three.) Regardless, I'm pretty pleased to be still bumping along.

This second chapter made me want to write some more found poetry. I'm not exactly sure why, but this type of process really synthesizes the contents of the reading for me. I haven't had a chance to check in with the rest of the WITW community over on Journaling Saves, but I will be interested to see what everyone else is up to! Here's my contribution based on Week Two ...

Redraw the boundaries.

Make yourself a fuller size.

Seek the magical click

of recognition.

Yes, we are what we dream.

Less made than born,

We have that stubborn seed

of inner knowing,

the tracery of inner imperative

called Destiny.

All art calls forth art.

Calling it modesty, 

we try to play it small.

Even as we crowd the cage

of arid circumstances,

we know the trajectory of our growth

is not as lonely as it feels.

Large, clear, and powerful

one day,

tiny and defenseless

the next.

Changing skins, the image blurs.

Living between

what we are made from

and what we wish

to make of ourselves.

Pink + white

2011-03-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the people around me will just not stop having babies! Lol! My poor sewing machine is not used to all this heavy lifting!

The latest iteration of my usual diaper clutch has a removable wrist strap, which is quite the engineering marvel. I figure that new daddies (or mommies, for that matter) don't have a lot of extra hands when it comes to the diaper run. The wrist strap can come off to hold keys or be attached to a stroller. Oh! The wonders of wrist straps! One of these days, I'll have to learn how to make a proper one.

This is a gift for a male colleague whose wife recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Dad is a 6-3 macho man, so I can't wait to see him carrying this little pink-and-lace wonder with the cute flower button! Since it holds all the usual stuff - diapers, wipes, hand cleaner - I think it will be OK.

Pink + white says ... Welcome spring!!!

I got 'The Look'

2011-03-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

This proves that I'm officially a geek:

The Google destination map interested me more than the on-board movies or satellite TV on my flight to Washington, DC. There was something about constant update of the air speed, altitude, and outside temperature (which hovered around -85 F) that was oddly compelling - sort of like a home shopping channel! For some reason, I even felt the need to write it down! Lol!

The best part? It was the hypnotic little red plane icon that zoomed over the map to track the progress of the flight! The person next to me gave me The Look when I took a picture of the screen!

And so I turned and took a picture

2011-03-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

Regardless of one's politics, there is something that is just awe-inspiring about Washington, DC. The picture (above) was taken with my phone - just a turn-and-snap from across the street. But it captured the day perfectly for me: somber sky hinting at rain, the crisp breeze that was slightly too cold for my business clothes, just a few people lingering around 5 pm, most on their way back to more snug surroundings.

I took a brief trip to DC this week to work on a little education legislation. This was heady stuff for me. The fact that my own self could be involved in this was so hopeful. Those who know me know that it doesn't take much to inflame my urge to fix, but this made me want to work even harder to solve the problems of urban education!

The morning was taken up with policy briefings; the afternoon included a talk with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado). With only a hour or so more of daylight - and knowing I had a 6:30 am flight back to Los Angeles - I made the most of a quick walk around Capitol Hill. And I mean quick since the temperature had dropped to about 40 degrees, the wind had picked up, and droplets were falling by the time I rushed back into the hotel.

So I made a dash by the Supreme Court building and the Library of Congress. At one point, I stopped for a moment because it felt like both feet had only one giant toe each since I'd been scampering around in my business (not walking!) shoes. When I looked up to see if I was about to get drenched, my breath was taken away in equal parts from race-walking and from this: the bronze visage of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on top his war horse Cincinnati at the Grant Memorial. There was Grant himself, calm and clothed against the brewing skies, sitting atop a horse caught in mid-stride. Amazing!

Apparently I'm not the only one who has been in DC lately. Lisa, one of my favorite writers from around the blogosphere, was there in the finer style that befits Privilege. She has got some fantastic photos and intriguing text, including an account of her ancestor, Gouverneur Morris, who had a brush (via lineage) with the signing the Declaration of Independence. Scroll down through her blog a bit and take a look at her review of the St. Regis, too. My blitz through the capitol does not compare!

Yep, that's my picture up there ^

2011-03-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

I'm still laughing about the picture sitting over there in the profile box. Up until the time I became a mom, I always had really long hair - like to the middle of my back. Always. Then I had a beautiful baby boy and I quickly learned that the water flowing in the bathroom during diaper-changing time wasn't always from the sink. Eew. I also learned that I had the capacity to move like a gazelle toward the shower when my beautiful boy accidentally vomited in my hair that one Christmas morning.

Fast-forward to kid #2 and my hair got shorter and shorter, all the way to short. I'm here to tell you, though, Halle Berry never had anything to worry about. Her pixie looks pixie-ish - mine looked short, as in excuse me, sir.

Fast-forward to sometime last year when I decided the heck with decorum - I wanted my long hair back. (I know there's probably something deeply Freudian there.) Thanks to some productive genes, I guess, my long, thick, wavy-ish hair was still in there somewhere, and I let it grow past my shoulders again. Yay! My hair was back!

Why am I telling you all this? Flawless Daughter and I go to the same hair person, the lovely Joanna. When FD was home from college last week, I told her that I thought my hair was getting a little too long. This gave FD, who happens to love my long hair, the impetus to tell our mutual hair person to disregard if I happened to want to cut my hair. When FD went back to school, I made an appointment to get my hair trimmed.

As a joke, I told FD that my hair was short again. Ever style-conscious (but knowing her mom), FD was shocked and asked for proof. I sent her the picture you see in the profile box along with the very mature message, "Made you look!"

I, of course, thought this was hilarious. I still think so. Even more hilarious was the effort it took to use my iPhone to take a picture of the back of my own head in the middle of the office today.

Some days are just like that.

And some would call this 'random'

2011-03-10T21:39:00.000-08:00

Those who would call this a random collection of factoids would be correct!

I'm joining iHanna in her postcard swap! I've had a lot of fun in the past swapping ATCs and paper and all sorts of artsy things, so this should be a blast. Thanks, iHanna!

My town of Altadena (CA) has been dubbed "Farmville" by The Los Angeles Times. Apparently, we're all raising fruit trees, goats, and chickens on our "rich alluvial deposits." Hmm. I wonder if my apricot tree counts? Oddly enough, I was just thinking of planting an avocado tree and maybe some citrus. I guess I could be an urban homesteader, too!

I finally found a way to order my much-lusted-after bronze snakeskin Filofax (personal size). Yay! James and Audrey at The Pen Shop have been super-helpful! It's also been loads of fun (not!) endlessly converting pounds to dollars to see if shipping would be more than the item itself. The answer is: almost. I'll post a picture when it arrives, which I hope is soon. (And since this Filo apparently was never sold in the USA, I will be unique!)

I'm usually reading a number of books at a time. This time, three of them are sort of related: Creative Journal Writing, by Stephanie Dowrick, Writers and Their Notebooks, by Diana Raab, and Take Ten for Writers, by Bonnie Neubauer. As you might imagine, copious amounts of writing is not a problem! It's what I do! Lol! "Take Ten" has something like 1,000 "inspiring" exercises and the Dowrick book has a bunch of to-do sections called "your turn." Sounds like I have my work cut out for me. Better get a new notebook! Ha!

I was visiting a high school today and a boy told me that my hair looked like Beyonce's. Well, goodness. I haven't stopped laughing yet.

It's been a good day!

This is pretty rough duty!

2011-03-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

I've been on the road for the past couple of days attending a conference for work. There is some real work going on, but I can hardly call it rough duty since it's in sunny and beautiful San Diego, California, which is about 200 miles south of where I live.

One of the speakers this morning was the former mayor of Los Angeles, who is now quite elderly and very prone to doing good works - especially in education. He received an award, which he almost forgot to take off stage with him, but got a bigger round of applause for what he said about his core beliefs:

Have the courage to make decisions.
Be giving by treating everyone as equals.
Empower other people.
Be relentless in pursuit of your goals.

I liked this, too.

(The details at left are the San Diego Convention Center, which is a beautiful glass structure. Below is the marina on San Diego Bay. I took these for no other reason than they showcased the beautiful day!)

Just a little more baby stuff

2011-03-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

Once I get started with sewing baby things, it's like eating peanuts - I can't stop at one! Lol.

Maybe you remember the other day when I made a baby gift for my colleague? Well I added a little bit to it in the form of some matching burp cloths. No one has to worry about ever seeing the butterfly/flower print again - I used every last itty bitty scrap to carry this off! Maybe one of these days, I'm actually going to have to buy some fabric so I can say that I made something without scraps! Ha!

Even though this set is for a little girl, I made it out of fabric that doesn't scream baby girl. Plus, the Asian-inspired print (I think you can get a glimpse of a pagoda at left) is a tiny homage to their Asian heritage. I mostly wanted it to be suitable for dad to carry without feeling like he had to hand of the girly stuff to mom. He's already smitten with his new baby, though, so I know he'll put in equal time!

These were really relaxing to make since it took no brain power whatsoever. I took a cloth diaper and sewed it (right sides together) with fabric that matched the diaper clutch. Then I turned the whole thing right side out and used a zigzag stitch all around so the burp cloth would keep its shape because cloth diapers are pretty loosely woven. Then I stitched along the padded inner panel of the diaper to make sure everything stayed in place. No sweat! I could make a million of these! Good thing babies are pretty drooly!

The only important thing about this project is the pre-washing. I washed everything on super-hot to make sure I got all the sizing out and all the shrinkage taken care of. As you can imagine, baby stuff needs to be washed a lot! I wouldn't want to risk any unintentional ruching!

A beautiful day in SoCal

2011-03-05T22:02:00.000-08:00

I sat outside this afternoon reading Walking in this World, by Julia Cameron. Week 2 talks about knowing ourselves for who we really are and reconsidering the limits with which we've lived. It's pretty heady stuff.

I was struck by this quote: "Part of us knows we're more than they see; part of us fears we're less than we hope. This inner friction is painful."

Right after reading that, I looked up and was equally struck by the canopy of backyard trees above me and the blue, blue sky. There was a crystallization of that moment of perfection - comfy chair, warm breeze, cold drink, good book. Ah!

It's baby time again!

2011-03-05T21:50:00.000-08:00

One of my colleagues announced the birth of his new baby daughter today, so I had to dig around in the fabric box to see if I could come up with a little something to greet baby Haley. I think all babies need something handmade to commemorate their birth. It really is the connection between the hand and the heart that binds us together.

Have you noticed that I use a lot of scraps? This is because I love fabric and use it down to the last inch!

This is another little project that started out with some coordinating scraps - two 8.5 X 10.5-inch pieces for the outside and two 8.5 X 10.5-inch pieces for the lining. The pocket is about 8.5 X 6 inches and is lined with the same fabric that I used for the outside. The body of the bag is padded with iron-on fleece. This makes it soft, but with a little body to it, so it will hold its shape. The strap that holds it closed is similarly lined. A piece of Velcro holds everything shut so dad (or mom!) doesn't have to fiddle with buttons or zippers while trying to change a wiggly baby.

I've never really used a pattern for any of the bags I've made. I believe in just winging it with the sewing machine. Anything that doesn't work can be ripped out - and anything really ugly can be re-purposed into something else! If nothing else, everything goes back into the scrap bin to await another fit of creativity.

I really like this size for a bag to hold all the essentials - a couple of diapers, wipes, maybe some hand sanitizer. (The pocket is big enough for a phone or some cash for that diaper you forgot.) Plus, it's really handy size for sticking in a larger bag or using on its own. We get used to carrying around our entire house with us, but sometimes is better to pack light!

Walking #2: Finding poetry

2011-03-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

Here I am, Walking in this World with lots of others as inspired by Kristin's blog, Journaling Saves.

At the end of Week #1, I was inspired to take a leap of faith, as it were, and put forth a bit of found poetry based on Julia Cameron's opening pages.

There’s no un-seeing it.

We begin

where we are

who we are,

challenged by the universe

to let go,

to draw to an ancient

and comforting scale.

We feel so drained,

trading in authenticity 

for approval 

overwork

underplay. 

The unraveling

of who we think we are.

Angels to no one
in particular.

We live as we move

one step at a time.

Not a line,

but a series of now points.

Feeling the light

definite touch

of the unseen world.

Courage at this time,

to affirm rather than deny.

Kindness at this place,

occurring as we need it.

Dazzling

moving

slowing our tempo

to match the natural world.

Solvitur ambulando,

walking and talking 

to humanize life,

to discover a sense of origin.

What were you inspired to do?

Walking #1: Upside and downside

2011-03-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

This is a good news/bad news situation. Or maybe it's just good news/other news.

I started working on Walking in the World, hosted by Kristen at Journaling Saves. By this I mean that I read the introduction and first chapter, which were both pretty good.

So here's what did get done: I made my own Artist's Date! Now I'm not sure if it's cheating or not, but I discovered the Crusades over at the GPP Network Street Team. My cyber date consisted of me scrolling through the various challenges and deciding which art journaling technique to try. This would be the good news! I'm thinking of #42 or #43. (Mysterious, huh? You can see them over at GPP.)

Here's the other news: About those Morning Pages ... well, those didn't get done. I'm ever-hopeful though, that I can be a little more organized tomorrow and make them so.

Baby it's cold outside (sort of)

2011-02-28T22:51:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist the headline, but the truth of the matter is that it has warmed up a lot in Southern California over the past day or so. For some reason, though, I was shivery all day. I guess it's a good thing I don't live where there's real weather. I'm not sure anyone would be impressed by a woman who's freezing when it's something like 65 degrees and sunny. No pioneer here!

Despite the fact that going to work every day really cuts into my leisure time (lol), I have been doing a lot of sewing. My challenge to myself has been to use as much of what I already have as often as I can. This has worked pretty well in the fabric department - I'm down to one small-ish box! Yay for me!

The fact that all my friends and co-workers are having babies is what's really driven the famine in the fabric box. I've found myself using scraps of scraps to make ends meet. This means that my non-existent pattern drafting skills have gotten a lot better (or at least a lot more creative)!

A case in point is the diaper set I made for a co-worker who is having twins (girls!) and who will soon be a stay-at-home mom. I wanted to make her something that was useful and cute. And I know from experience that there's no such thing as a "free hand" around babies, so I also wanted to make her something really portable.

I came up with a diaper pouch with a pocket on the front that holds a couple of diapers and a package of wipes - only the essentials. I figured she could ditch the big baby bag once in a while and go light. Since there were twins involved, I made two pouches so her hubby could have some diaper fun, too, which I am sure he will appreciate. I also made a couple of flannel blankets in a cute pink dog print (because her dog was her first baby!) and a carrier for everything. Grand total for this gift: $0. Everything came from scraps! Even the diaper and wipes were "extra" ones I had left over from another baby gift.

Maybe this is why sewing and crafting are so addicting! It's a beautiful feeling to see something come from nothing!

C'mon and walk with us!

2011-02-28T16:23:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note: Starting tomorrow, I'll be joining Kristen and hopefully many others around the blogosphere in a creative exploration inspired by Walking in the World, by the renowned Julia Cameron. You can find us on Twitter with #witw. Come play with us!

This is my excuse for not working

2011-02-27T23:17:00.000-08:00

Miss Fatty with the lovely heart tag was cold

Getting ready for the wearin' of the green

2011-02-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

It looks like a cabbage patch!

Of course everyone is Irish on St. Pat's, but in California it's just sort of a pretty good excuse for a party! Since it falls midweek this year, I can predict there will be a lot of green apparel in the office.

What I really wanted this year was a green brooch of some kind. I saw lots of pretty vintage ones on Etsy and found a couple at the local mall. But nothing really caught my eye enough to also snag my wallet. That's when my brain finally kicked into gear: I could just make one!

After a quick trip to the fabric store - and only about $2 later - I came home and fiddled a bit to make a flower pin that satisfied the requirements of (1) not too fussy, (2) green, (3) actually pin-able, and (4) not too embarrassing to wear to the office - even if it's just on my purse.

To make these, I free-handed some circles, with the largest being about 3 inches in diameter. And when I say "freehand," I mean that none of the circles are actually round. Some are round-ish, some are oval-ish, some are more, um, organic. Then, I craftily lit a candle and singed the edges of each circle. (This only works with 100% polyester fabric, by the way. If you use anything else, you risk an unfortunate smell or worse!)

Then, I stacked the circles in a jaunty manner and hand-sewed them together. For a little extra something, I added some black glass beads to the center, and sewed on a pin back. With a little elbow grease and fire, I had a brooch!

Not content with just one, I made three (which will go to my office mates). Let's get this party started!

And for no other reason other than it was pretty

2011-02-26T17:38:00.000-08:00

The sky was really this blue!

It's amazing what can get done on a quiet Saturday!

2011-02-26T17:31:00.000-08:00

Ever-anxious to improve my impressive set of 17th century skills, I spent the morning making a swatch of chenille (to see if I remembered how) and then rooting around in the fabric box to see what I could attach it to so that my experiment would not be frivolous. Wow - I'm not sure I've ever packed that much justification in one sentence!

Making chenille is easy. I took a bunch of pink scraps and layered them on top of each other. Then I sewed straight lines about a half inch apart along the diagonal until the entire piece was covered and everything was stuck down. Then I used a chenille cutter (!) to slice it all apart into ... well ... chenille! The chenille cutter looks sort of like an envelope slicer, and it's really sharp! Since it took an hour to make a little 5-inch swatch, though, I'm not looking forward to making a blanket even though the texture can't be beat!!

Regardless, I used pinking shears to freehand the heart and then attached it to a frayed linen-y scrap which was layered over a piece of felt. I did a blanket stitch to attach this whole assemblage to a another piece of linen-y material. Whew! Then, having no common sense, I went looking for the extra piece of pink rickrack I found in the cupboard the other day and used it as trim around the edge. Since this is the first time I've ever sewn rickrack around anything, I think it came out pretty well. Someday, I may have to read up on how to really do it!

The back has an overlapped envelope closure that is trimmed in another scrap. (Weirdly, I almost like the back better than the front.) I stitched up a quick pillow form to hold the inside fluff and - voila! - a new 13-inch pillow that I like a lot! The best thing is that it cost zero dollars! And my impressive set of 17th century skills: priceless!

Written by hand - tag, you're it!

2011-02-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Now this is just a fun one. Mayaari, via The Pen Addict, responded to a meme about handwriting - as in actually writing by hand.

I learned how to write in cursive in school. In elementary school, we were required to write all our exams this way. I guess it added to the gravity of the situation. Unfortunately, we were required to write in pencil on very pulpy paper with very wide lines! Ugh! But at least writing on the chalkboard with actual chalk was fun. The noise alone made every stroke satisfying!

By the time I went to middle school, I think the teachers were just happy to have us speak or write at all! By this time, almost everything was going electronic, so handwriting was a moot point. In high school and college, everything was computerized. But it was still important to write really fast in the lecture halls. Plus, the faster you wrote in the library, the faster you got out to do other things! Ah, academia! I swear I would be a student forever if someone would pay me a handsome salary to do it!

I thought about writing the sample in my "good" handwriting - the lines that go into the nice thank-you card - but I thought it would be more representative if I just grabbed a piece of paper out of my Filo and scribbled away the way I usually do. I was using my new favorite fine-point Liquid Stylist pen with brown ink. I think it's actually a drawing and sketching pen, but I like it for writing. It leaves a bold, but clean, line and it's acid free, so my scratchings will last forever! Lol!

OK - it's your turn to answer the following questions:
1. Your name/blogger name
2. Your blog name/URL
3. Write "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
4. Favorite quote?
5. Favorite song?
6. Favorite band/singers?
7. Anything else you want to say?

Then feel free to tag a few more people and see what pops up!

With just a little Filo tweaking

2011-02-25T16:15:00.000-08:00

Remember my monthly calendar that looked way too big for my personal-sized Filofax (but really wasn't)?

When I printed it out for the upcoming weeks, I realized that I could scale it (duh!) and that's just what I did! I set the scaling preferences for 90%. Now it is a perfect fit (but still without Sunday since that's hardly ever an appointment/work day).

Also, if you look closely, you can also see my washi tape evidence page sticking out. Oh, I heart tabs! Even when I have to make them myself!

Stick 'em up!

2011-02-24T19:29:00.000-08:00

More washi evidence

It's freezing by California standards tonight, which means it's somewhere around 45 degrees. I know this is making a lot of people laugh because they've been enduring winter temps of about negative 10 zillion. Regardless, it's enough to make a body want to stay in and do something cozy.

As luck would have it, the rest of my washi tape came today (!) so I have something to play with. If you recall, a few days ago I was raving about the "evidence pages" taught by iHanna. I added a little to my own evidence tab in my Filo. The tapes at the top - pink stripe and black dot - are the new ones. The yellow and green are from the cupboard. The darker pinks holding the cute tape business information actually came from the packaging. Believe me - I don't throw anything away! (By the way, you should take a look at iHanna's site today - just like every day!)

The other thing that came in the package was a set of a million little translucent stickers called Murmuring Deco Sticker ver. 2. Well, goodness! These are about the cutest little stickers I may have ever seen. And I am a sucker for a good sticker! The picture doesn't do them justice because of the reflective quality of the background (and the fact that I was shooting with my HTC Evo). The little bows alone are worth the price of admission! They appear to be from a Korean company called Afrocat, but they came from the same "cute tape" online firm that gave birth to my washi tape. ("cute tape" is actually the name of the company - I'm not just gushing or forgetting to use my caps key!)

Murmuring Deco Sticker v. 2

I see lots of happy sticking in my future!

Monthly plan and a Filofax hack

2011-02-23T21:59:00.000-08:00

Monthly Outlook calendar

So there I was, wondering how to get a good monthly view of my days into my personal Filofax. Monthly pages? Too small. Weekly pages? Maybe. Daily pages? Need a larger view to keep track of things since I have a lot of appointments.

Then came the aha! moment when I was looking at my Outlook calendar: Just print it! One of the print options was 5.5 X 8.5 inches - actually a little too big for my personal Filofax Sketch. But when I cut it down to the essentials (goodbye Sunday and page title), it was close enough for jazz! Success! I punched in a few holes and was on my way in no time. Truthfully, it would have been a better fit without Saturday. Sadly, sometimes that's a workday, too. No, Universe, I am not complaining.

In the picture (above) it looks like it's way too wide, but it really fits well within the cover dimensions - maybe about a quarter-inch longer and wider (top, bottom, and side) than the personal pages themselves, which I am way OK with considering we are required to used a shared calendar and sometimes it's a pain to transcribe it onto paper pages. (This proves that sometimes an iPhone picture isn't worth a thousand words!) No, Universe, I am not complaining here, either.

Happily this little augmentation came hot on the heels of my mini-hack: changing a 2.5 X 7.5-inch plastic holder for page flags into two 2.25 X 3.5-inch little plastic holders that serve as both a page marker and flag holder. And they each hold about 100 flags! Yay!


Arc product photo from Staples

Two sets of page flags

Here's what I did. I started with an Arc System Page Flag Holder, which is meant to slip in to the disc-bound notebook made by Staples. Using the page trimmer that I use for scrapbooking, I sliced off the tabs that are meant to hold onto the discs in the notebook. This left about three-eights of an inch of exposed plastic - plenty of room for holes to fit my pocket Finsbury. The problem at this point was that the whole thing was way too long. Easy! I moved half the flags down a little and chopped the plastic holder in half. Voila! Two flag holders! (By the way, even though the plastic is firm, it's no match for a regular hole punch and a little muscle.) The holes I punched even fit my personal Filo shown at the top of the post - a great value for $1.99!

No restraint

2011-02-22T22:46:00.000-08:00

Hankie bonanza!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have no restraint when it comes to crafting. Some might say that I have no dignity! Lol!!

Regardless, I saw a super-cute tutorial earlier tonight over at Craft Passion about how to make lace-trimmed hankies. Do I actually need lace-trimmed hankies? Well - maybe not. But they were so darn cute that I had to give them a try.

Problem #1: Do I have a 10-inch square of something hankie-able?
Solution: Use the random 7-inch square that somehow ended up in the fabric box.

Problem #2: Do I have matching thread on my sewing machine?
Solution: Use the random tan on the spool/orange on the bobbin combo that somehow ended up there.

Problem #3: Do I have DMC pearl cotton thread #8 (double strand) or cotton lace thread #20?
Solution: Use the random piece of slightly slobbery raspberry-colored DMC embroidery thread that the cat is playing with for the blanket stitch that forms the base for the edging.

Problem #4: Do I have enough slobbery DMC raspberry for the lace part?
Solution: Use the random non-matching DMC #5 that is sitting in a wad at the bottom of that annoying embroidery thread bag that keeps falling out of the cupboard.

Problem #5: Do I have a 1.5 mm crochet hook?
Solution: Use the random 2.25 mm hook that is sitting in the annoying bag above.

See the pattern there: Random stuff that I happened to have. Sometimes, close enough is really close enough to try something out!

It was really fun to make - and took about an hour, tops. I see a possible new addiction coming on!

(Full disclaimer: If you want to see a really cute version of the hankie, check out the uber-cute photos on Craft Passion. If you don't look too closely, check out the picture! I'm still laughing about the tan/orange thread combo on the sewing machine. What in the world was I making?)

Break out the good stuff!

2011-02-21T23:11:00.000-08:00

Washi tape "evidence page"

There's all sorts of inspiration out there in the blogosphere. There's so much, in fact, that it's easy to be a watcher instead of a do-er!

When you have a few hours to kill (!), cyber-pop over to Sweden to see iHanna. Her blog is one giant inspiration for anyone who even thinks about accomplishing something creative. For instance, one of the ways she fills her art journals is by creating "evidence pages," where she tries out new supplies, literally showing "evidence that [she] once had them." iHanna says this makes her new stuff feel more like her own and she can see right away how the new materials will look on an actual page. Oh! Very smart!

A couple of iHanna's evidence pages show her new deco tape - also called washi tape - in her Moleskine diary. Great idea! Can you imagine the tabbing possibilities alone? I've started a new section in my Filo for just that sort of thing. First, it gives me a visual on what tapes I actually have. Second, it reminds me where I got them. Third - who needs a reason to stick cool stuff down on paper! Why wait to try out the good stuff!

Where, oh where, has Robin been?

2011-02-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

Some of you may have noticed that I've gone missing for quite a while. There's a pretty good story about this, but suffice it to say that ~~some just plain stupidness~~ life took some sorting out, but now I'm back. This sounds way more mysterious than I mean it to, but what can I say?

This tree is buzzing with bees!

Funny enough, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Namely:
* I'm currently mad about writing in brown ink.
* Flawless Daughter's enormous, dysfunctional cat is even more enormous and dysfunctional. But it is very sweet in its own gigantic way.
* There is a new, chocolate-brown Filofax Sketch sitting on the newly-cleaned-off table next to me that just cries out with organizational possibilities.
* I won (won!) a sweet little red Quo Vadis Habana notebook courtesy of Karen in honor of the Chinese New Year. Thanks, Karen!! You made my day!!
* Work has been work, play has been play - and sometimes the two even intersect!
* Despite enduring actual "weather" - as in water falling from the sky - California is once again blue and beautiful. The apricot tree in the picture is the one in my backyard. It fully believes that spring has sprung!

So that's the scoop. I've gotten a lot of really nice emails from my blogosphere buddies who have been concerned. Thank you! You will never know how much that meant (and still means) to me!

Also, to my cyber friends in New Zealand - I hope you are safe!

'Sew' many new things!

2010-07-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

Whew! July has been a sewing month!

Rebecca Ringquist designed a great preprinted sampler and I was lucky enough to buy one from her! I haven't done classic embroidery in a long time. This stretched my skill in a good way and it was soooo addicting. I think I worked on it (around work, home, and other stuff) for a few days straight! I also challenged myself to use only the embroidery thread I already had. It was such a temptation to stay away from the yummy racks of colors in the fabric store. But I like the way it came out. I may still add a few little things to it, but it's mostly done.

For reasons I cannot explain - except that I was in a stitch frenzy - I cobbled together my own little embroidered and beaded sampler. It started out with nine little torn scraps from the sewing bin, each about 2.5 X 3 inches. The center scrap, which might be my favorite, is a piece of the cuff from a cotton-and-lace blouse my mom gave me and still has the original button on it.

Since the grocery stores in California are phasing out bags, I thought I might need another little grocery tote. The checkered lining of this one is pieced together from another cotton blouse from my mom. I love the bird print on the outside! The bag is just the right size - approximately 17 X 18 - for a small load from the store.

I'm sure my mom thinks I might want to actually wear the blouses she keeps giving me, but they're so much fun to use for other things! Flawless Daughter, who is home from college for a bit this summer, woke up to me ripping apart the blouse I used for the bag lining. She didn't even look surprised! "Grandma?" she asked, and kept going into the kitchen.

So that's what I've been up to. I still have a little bit of floss left, so there may be a little more embroidery afoot ...

The secret's out

2010-07-07T11:38:00.001-07:00

This is the "secret" postcard I mentioned yesterday. Since it's already in the mail, I figured it would be OK to post.

This card was made the same as the first one - heavyweight interfacing and scraps. It's still the approved U.S. size of 4 X 6 inches. I found out (by taking it with some trepidation to the post office) that it takes the same postage as a regular letter. So that makes it a bargain to send! I did a lot more hand-stitching on this one, though, to keep the lace from getting too badly snagged.

I'll be interested to see what shape this one arrives in, since there is a lot of white. I'm hoping that it will age gracefully in the mailing process!