By Tara, on December 19th, 2007% Growing up, we gave Christmas cookies as gifts to anyone not closely related. Starting at Thanksgiving, my mom and I would start making the longer-lasting cookies (or making sugar-cookie dough and freezing it for later rolling and baking). We’d go to church the Sunday before Christmas, loaded down with tins filled with a variety of cookies, wrapped in ribbons, tagged for everyone we knew (luckily, it was a small church). As I grew older and my younger brothers and cousins were born, we started holding annual Cookie Parties: days filled 4 little boys kept busy rolling, decorating, baking and sugar rushes for all. Most of cookies from these years were best given to parents who could appreciate the ‘skill’ of the decorator.Now that I live hours away from my family, I miss a house filled with cookie smells and countertops that are as piled with cookies as the sidewalks with . . . → Read More: Sugar-Free Baking
By Tara, on December 18th, 2007% This week promises to be full of Christmas making. My to-do list is long but exciting and this week it’s my biggest inspiration:
Clapotis for Mom, out of Mati Hari Spinnery’s Seasilk yarn, dyed by me.
The gorgeous fibers I got in from (again) Mati Hari Spinnery. Seasilk and merino; I dyed it last week and will spin it up and knit into something for Mom this week, probably handwarmers to match the scarf, or maybe a hat.
Me and Hub are sewing Star Wars Cloaks for my little brothers (like this). It’s fun to have a project for both of us and it’s good sewing practice.
Speaking of sewing practice, I’m loving the book Sew U.
I’m dyeing to make a neckwarmer like Grumperina’s.
What’s inspiring you?
. . . → Read More: Monday Inspiration
By Tara, on December 14th, 2007% I am honored to be interviewed by the Dharma Design blog, as a Featured Artist! You can read the article here. I found the blog and shop through an Etsy forum and am so glad to have discovered her beautiful jewelry. I really love the photographs of her work and her jewelry is really unique. Wendy features different artists all the time, which is something I love in all forms: getting to know what makes other artists tick. I always flip to the interviews in magazines first (Mary Englebreit’s Home Companion has great ones with pictures of their studios) and most of my favorite podcasts have an interview or essay section (CraftSanity – my favorite!, NPR’s Fresh Air, CRL with Vickie Howell). There are many many blogs that do interviews but my 2 favorite are Crafty Synergy and the Featured Seller on Etsy. I’ve pondered for a long time . . . → Read More: Interview love
By Tara, on December 10th, 2007% I find inspiration all around me on good days. On not-so-good days, I often wish I knew where to go for an inspiration fix. So, a new weekly feature: Weekly Inspirations. It’s my hope to post, on Mondays, those things that are inspiring me today. I’d love to know what inspires others, so please comment, or post your list to your own blog!This week’s list is influenced by my recent receipt of a huge amount of wool for dyeing and spinning, my weekend in Gatlinburg with girlfriends and the upcoming holidays: Elf – the colors, the music, the mood, the illustrations and especially Elf’s outfit and those wondrous snowflakes! Corinne Bailey Rae – her songs are perfect for catching up on reading and for dyeing, even her website is beautiful Pies – Since watching Waitress, I’ve been seeing the world through her eyes, imagining a pie for everything Shari’s Friday . . . → Read More: Weekly Inspiration
By Tara, on December 2nd, 2007% It seems a bit…clichéd to say one is inspired by a sunrise or sunset but since moving to East Tennessee, I really find myself enthralled by the sky, at all times of the day For example, one evening, while walking the dog, I turned the corner to see this:
Now, I don’t live in the country. In fact I live in a row of townhouses, sort of in the crossroads of the commercial part of town and the residential. One street over is the ‘bad’ part of town with alleged drug deals and other unpleasantnesses. But directly out my front door, in the early morning, I see this: The colors, so unreal in their brightness, inspired this Organic Cotton yarn:
and as a compliment, this one:
I dyed them more than month ago and then put them aside…that orange is just so orange, I didn’t really consider the yarn . . . → Read More: Sunrise Inspiration
By Tara, on November 24th, 2007% Ok, I confess: my Grams is pretty darn cool. She loves anything I make her and we have similar tastes in books, so she’s a breeze to shop for. This year, I plan on giving her Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, by Barbara Kingsolver, because I know she’ll love it.
But my mother-in-law is another story. She’s not really into handmade; her house is immaculatley decorated, strait from the pages of a high-end catalog. My husband has neve known what to give her and in years past we’ve given cookbooks. And more cookbooks.
I bet I’m not the only one with a woman to shop for, so the first Give Handmade Guide is going to start with these women: classy, department store types; Grandmas, Mothers-in-laws, Moms, aunts…anyone who care about enough to give a thoughtful gift.
How about framing a picture of yourself (seems a little self-involved but I bet this woman . . . → Read More: Gift Guide: Grandmas and Mother-in-laws
By Tara, on November 23rd, 2007%
I’ve taken the Handmade Challenge and am very excited to see so many other people are as well! I’ve always preferred handmade for myself and my general distate for malls has necessitated our own version of ‘Handmade Holidays’ through the years. We do this by paring down the list, making special things for the people who reamin and giving cookies to everyone else. In the 3 years we’ve been married, we’ve developed a bit of a tradition:
We simply don’t buy gift for anyone we won’t be seeing over the holidays Jay’s extended family is huge (15 Aunts and Uncles + spouses + kids) and we just don’t want to mindlessly contribute to the masses of gifts they’re all getting each other, so we give tins of cookies or handmade ornaments. I’m not sure they entirely appreciate it, but after 3 years, they accept it. Same goes for my . . . → Read More: Give Handmade – Tips on managing the Gift List
By Tara, on November 21st, 2007% Ok, first of all, it’s hard for me to talk about *mojo* without using my Austin Powers voice (yeah, baby) but my loved ones don’t find that funny, so I’ll resist (oh, behave).
But in reality, I am feeling the mojo. I’ve been reading, devouring, savoring Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write a little bit each day, journaling my impressions. That bit about resting in a creative idle, well it really sunk in and started to work some magic in my creative life. After a weekend of emptying list of ‘shoulds’ and ‘musts’ .. I woke up with a buzz Sunday morning. I had a burning desire to create, to make, to flow. Luckily there’s a stash of yarn next to my bed, so I grabbed the first ball and needles I found and just started knitting. It doesn’t matter what I knit, or even that I knit…but what . . . → Read More: Creative Mojo
By Tara, on November 18th, 2007% Finding yarns for BCB isn’t easy.My commitment to using only recycled or organic materials really limits what I’m willing to buy. One of my favorite finds is what I call Bananiere (the French word for ‘Banana’). It is made from 100% Banana fibers, which is stripped from the leaves and barks of banana tress. It’s a very renewable and under-utilised material. Besides that, this yarn is actually made from the leftover fibers from the weaving industry, so it’s really recycled!
What made this yarn so irresistable is that my supplier gave me such great information. Below is what she shared with me:
Environmentally Friendly:
Bananiere is made from the remnants of the clothing industry. The fibers would have been thrown out if not for the ingenuity of the women who spin this yarn. They are using what they can to make a new, gorgeous product. . . . → Read More: Bananiere Yarn
By Tara, on November 17th, 2007% I am besot with pincushions.
1. three + three, 2. yet another, 3. cat pincushion, 4. bird nest 2 003, 5. Zingy!, 6. Donut Strawberry Erdbeer Pincushion, 7. red ladybird, 8. Cupcake Pincushion (bottlecap), 9. bottlecap pincushion, 10. koi pincushion, 11. custom order for fgantner, 12. Festival de alfineteiros!
They are just so adorable and small and fantastically useful! After stumbling upon the Flickr group, I discovered some great vendors of handmade pincushions: Kup Kup makes the most fantastic scenes with them MoJo has Poo CrazyCakes has, well, cupcakes!
edited to add: All of those pincushions inspired me to try my hand at my own. I used Purl’s tutorial…but only as a rough guide. I cut the fabric a little too small, and my pincushion is minuscule.The dog added himself for scale, but keep in mind, he’s little! . . . → Read More: Pincushion Love
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