In 2008, Let's Reach For More!

(edited from a post at BlogHer)
This week everybody is writing about New Year's Resolutions this week; the crafty blogger is no exception. Like everyone else, the evaluations of last year's resolutions find us all lacking; and the list of resolutions for 2008 sound remarkably similar:

Finish projects that have been started and are idling;
Work more from our stash. (use what is on hand);
Limit our acquisitions in the new year;
Learn some new technique.

Yawn. No wonder people who make these resolutions fail.

What inspires about these points? What makes one anticipate New Year's Day because... Thank Goodness, I Get To Work On These Resolutions! How do these fire creativity? How do these inspire?

When I've found myself limited to writing crafty resolutions like these in the past, it's been because in reality I was so over that craft that I had to punish myself to keep working in the medium. To justify the time and money already invested in an activity that I just didn't have the heart for anymore. Or my taste and interests had outgrown the stash and projects from previous months or years, but my frugal nature wouldn't let me let these things go.

Because, really, is there anything about "finishing a project that I've given up on" that sounds positive?

BlogHer's word of the year is REACH. I am praying that each and every one of us can find some way to word our plans for 2008 to incorporate that spirit into our resolutions. Write hope and adventure; creativity and inspiration; learning and sharing.

Yes, if you must finish projects that keep your spirit tied to the earth, then finish them, by all means. But give yourself a time limit (say, finish projects by 3/30... or begin each month by working for one week on finishing a project). When you've hit your time limit, give yourself permission to enjoy!

Plan a play date with yourself. It needn't be long. Bring colored pencils and a sketch pad to work and spend one lunch hour playing with form and color. String a simple bead necklace to wear that afternoon. Grab a glue stick and make a collage from the oldest magazines in the office waiting room. Meet a friend for lunch and trip to a gallery, show or museum. Artists call it "filling the well" and it's the one sure way to insure that you'll be more happily working at the end of 2008 than you are now.

How I Hope to Reach Further in 2008:

1. I have been knitting the same pair of socks for over one year. I've had to tear them out and start over 3 times. And I'm doing no other knitting. I know it's because I only give myself permission to knit at night while watching TV and the light is not sufficient for me to comfortably work long with the fine sock yarn. In 2008, I promise that I push the laptop away for one hour at mid day, and spend my lunchtime knitting in the good light of day. I know I can knit a pair of socks in about 30 hours (I'm a very slow knitter); I have 1 pair to finish; and 2 pairs to start. Plus my first knit top. Should be starting that top about April 1st. You have permission to ask me about it then.

2. Not crafty, but crafty-like. Just built myself a sweet little photography rig (which I used for the painted shoes demo),and I'm working on doing video recording. I aim to publish one craft demonstration video, and one craft interview/tour/other video a month on my blog. Guess I better start learning how to do so.

3. I love my work in surface design. Just haven't wanted to then put it all into quilts (my background). In 2008, I will reach into new area. I will learn how to apply techniques to wearables and home design items. Then decide if I should teach these techniques, sell the products (on Etsy?) or some combination of the two.

4. Reach out to more of the great crafting bloggers. I still dream about a CraftCamp 2.0; I still imagine ways to meet, share, promote and enjoy all your exceptional work. Spend time face to face to face with you. Time to stop dreaming and start acting! Maybe find a way to tag along on the BlogHer Reach Out Tour?

5. Write. Sometimes I write these articles like my soul is on fire; sometimes like I'm sleep walking. Reaching for the fire isn't always easy... but the results always make me happier. I wonder if you can sense it, too? In 2008, I want to reach my soul's fire.

Now, don't these resolutions sound more inspiring than cleaning my studio and sewing off my stash??

Hah! Did you notice that I did not have the courage to place #2 in bold type. BlogHer astrologer, KT, says that Cancers like me must remember that not all change is painful! I'm not sure that learning to edit video and make good vlogs can really fall into that list.


I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

About that Blogging MoJo...

So I went and bragged that I'd gotten my MoJo back. Posts regularly... original posts, even! Then I got hit with this plague/cold that's running across the country and my mojo took the first bus to Mexico. Deserting me when I need it most.

I'm trying to wrap up work from 2007 so that the new year comes in with a clean, fresh pallate (as it were), but it's not quite working. Yesterday, in a bit of a blue mood, I vowed to fold and organize the fabrics that I'm keeping in my stash. Could not get my heart or head wrapped around that task, however. In a move to honor being present in the moment, or completely lost in my work, I pulled out paper and did some sketching instead.

It's nothing totally original. We'd gotten these great tattooes at the Oakland Museum for the Day of the Dead. I'd used one as the inspiration for a paper cut-out and wanted to make a line drawing I could keep and refer back to. The more times I draw this out, the further away from the original I'll get. Eventually I'm going to have a unique skull drawing with my own fancy embellishments.

Anyway, totally lost myself in the work for an hour and feel better about that than having the fabric folded and sorted by color/theme/size/ or whatever qualifier I chose for the moment. Today I'll spend a little time doing the necessary work. But I've got to remember to spend time lost in creation, too.

What did you choose to do today that kept you lost in the present moment?

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Everyone Just Back Away From The Holiday Madness

Jake, packed up, walking through Briones.

Let's remember that outside of Britain (or is it merely England?) today is NOT a holiday. It's merely another ordinary Wednesday. And let's keep it that way.

Yesterday, afternoon was perfect for our traditional hike around one of the regional parks. We took the dogs out to Briones for a short-ish 3 mile walk. LOTS of hill involved. Hill that in the past would get me cursing about insurance policies and people trying to kill me and make it look like an accident.

Hill that was challenging but more than do-able. Tangible proof that hitting the cardio machines hard is making me healthier.

Other than a nice walk and fine roasted duck for dinner, the day was quiet. I spent some time in my studio and much of the evening visiting with friends online. It matched or exceeded my expectations, so the day was good.

Today: back to reality. I need to figure out what I'm blogging about Saturday; anyone have something to say about BurdaStyle Open Source Sewing? With all the heavy articles and holiday stuff lately, I need some fluffy fiber chatter. Or would you like to mention what you think was a key art/craft happenin for '07? My year end roundup would welcome your input.



I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

For Maria... and everyone

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

One of my hardest posts ever.

Last October I got several writing assignments for BlogHer's Holiday special. Two I didn't mind too much, but the last assignment, published Monday? Hard. Just plain hard.

Me, the non-shopper, non-gift-giver person had to write the gift guide for Kwanzaa. Now if you know anything about this 6 day celebration you know that it emphasizes a principle each day that the celebrants should focus upon. Oh, and gifts? Kwanzaa gifts should be meaningful, symbolic, personalized, ideally hand-made, and promote growth in the recipient.

Isn't this a writing assignment you'd give your eye teeth for? Suggesting items for a general population where the gifts should be personal.

Yeah. I knocked my head against my laptop for a long time while trying to cope with this. But a lot of thought and some help from friends yielded a post that I am now proud to attach my name to. Unless you find typo!

Won't be crossposting that one here. You'll have to go to the source to read all it's wonderfulness. Thank goodness on Saturday I hope to return to all the fluffy fiber fun I can find!

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Slow Cloth/Slow Craft: Is This the Birth of a Movement?

(crossposted at BlogHer)

If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing. W. Edwards Deming.

As I sit here writing, in the background morning news anchors are gluing "little plastic fake gems" onto styrofoam with Elmer's glue as "fast holiday decorations." Excuse me while I tune to something less nauseating, like maybe a death-cage match. May I please hear it for some real, slower crap craft than that?

Have you heard of The Slow Movement: a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace and maintaining local and regional distinctions? This idea started being discussed in fiber art as Slow Cloth.. and is expanding into a discussion of Slow Craft that has captivated me all week.

As Elaine Lipson describes it:

Slow Cloth, as I imagine it, is indeed a movement (and possibly even an organization) and isn't about hand vs. machine, or even the time it takes to complete a project or a piece of art. It has more to do with identifying, protecting, and sharing/teaching about the world's incredibly rich textile heritage, whether techniques are executed traditionally or by contemporary artists in new ways. The idea of craftsmanship and artisanship is absolutely part of this. . . .Similarly, for me, a Slow Cloth artist has a knowledge and skill base that respects traditional craft techniques, whether it's shibori dyeing or quilting or embroidery. But the results can be traditional or new. So in my mind, both a traditional quilt and an art quilt and even a fabric postcard can all be Slow Cloth. It's more about intention, approach, quality, and a sense of connection.

When Elaine Lipson began Red Thread Studio blog on December 2nd, one it's primary goals was to discuss and educate us all about Slow Cloth, which she defines this way:

Slow Cloth: Global textile traditions and techniques, and textiles, fabric, and clothing design with a story and a history and a cultural identity; Indian embroidery, Japanese kimono, indigo dyeing, American quilts, Indonesian batik, Western wear. You get the idea; the ethnography and community of cloth. Every culture and every region of the world has a textile identity, and before we're all wearing identical, dirt-cheap Old Navy clothes, we should preserve, protect and celebrate these arts.

This idea was picked up by Sharon B., working on two hand-pieced quilts:

I have been thinking much about this notion of slowing down in order to have quality rather than quantity in life. The idea of a slow cloth made me think that perhaps we need a slow craft movement too. A philosophy that celebrates the hand made and dare I say it the craft process. Not projects that are marketed and sold as a thrown together weekend quick recreational activity but objects that are made with care and with the expectation that we have a relationship to them in other words they have meaning.

At the risk of sounding totally idealistic do you think we need a craft philosophy that celebrates the hand crafted object made with care and meaning without regard to time. What do you think? Mull it over, go away think about it slowly … come back and leave a comment I would love to hear what you think.

She received 35 comments.. all worth reading. Compelled by these comments, Sharon went on to explain HER take on Slow Cloth/Slow Craft (emphasis is mine):

I want to make it very clear that the type of projects I am objecting to are those that promise things like “make last minute gift in 15 minutes”. ...This “thoughtful” project advocated buying particular materials and gluing on this and that to produce something that was simply awful.

I wondered what was the point and an even more serious question popped into my head. Where does this philosophy take craft?I am not talking about a machine embroidery/quilting versus hand embroidery. I am talking about a multi million hobby industry that promises skill, design sense and a meaningful project without you having to invest time or emotional commitment. Any skill takes time to develop and the thing about craft work is that it is skillful. No matter if its made using a sewing machine or by hand the item has taken time, skill and thought to make it! That is the opposite of what is being promised in these 15 minute gift problem solvers!

Sharon goes further to explain how she envisions a Slow Cloth/Slow Craft movement. Her definition suggests honoring the age-old tradition of mastering techniques and applying individual creativity to work. In the comments of this piece, Neki Rivera wrote:

i think it is not about the 15 minutes it takes or hand vs machine, but the lack of thought and content, in other words the banalisation of crafts.

i’d love to see some philosophy which vertebrates crafts, i mean other than i’ts women’s stuff.(having typed that i realize that there are crafts studies now being offered in some sociology departments in major universities.)i mean something more mainstream that involves crafters, a manifesto perhaps?

Is there a need for a Slow Craft movement? A Manifesto? Or does it already exist?

Ulla-Maaria wrote a draft Craft Manifesto last year on her Hobby Princess blog that sounds like the manifesto that Neki suggested. I wrote about in BlogHer's "Is 'Craft' Uncool?" article a year and a half ago (a surprising article to revisit, even for me!) and a final draft was eventually published in MAKE. Ulla-Maaria was the first person I read who equated the current Art/Indie/Craft 2.0 movement to the Arts and Crafts Movement from just over a century ago. William Morris and his associates called for a return to the spirit of CRAFT in design. These practitioners advocated simplicity, quality materials, respect for the environment and honoring the classic principles of design. It does sound familiar, doesn't it?

Tying these two recent "hot" discussions together in reacting to Handmade 2.0, Craft Research's Mike Press wrote:

Craft 2.0 is the true inheritor of the Morris legacy. Unlike the professionalised 'art school' educated craft makers it has an ideological position which, while largely ill-defined and diverse, represents a constructive reaction to the inequities and politics of the market economy. It is clearly using the market economy as a means of developing sustainable livelihoods, but is bringing economic and cultural innovation to it. Above all it is dealing with the politics of work and consumption in ways that the professionalised sector cannot.

I sense that we could be perched on the brink of a formalized movement, but I doubt it will happen. As Walker mentioned in his article last week, when the Craft Congress met in Pittsburg there was much talk but no driving interesting in defining roles and rules. Perhaps the Indie aspect of this movement applies even to the movement itself; how can one call them "indie artist" if they follow others' rules?

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Jenny Hart, the genius behind Sublime Stitching, is writing on Crafting a Business for VenusZine, a zine for emerging creativity. Jenny brings hip modern designs to hand embroidery reclaiming it from the bunnies, mushrooms and "cutesy" of the past.

Starting out in 2000, Sublime Stitching has grown. The website offers patterns, kits, tools and textiles for sale. You can also find easy instructions (titled Tattoo Your Towels, I love it!!) for the beginning embroiderer. There is also a Sublime Stitching forum on Craftster. Ofcourse there is a blog!!

But even if embroidery isn't your thing, you should read her article on beginning a crafty business. She honestly describes trying to a grow a DIY business in a way that both encourages me and still gives me that chill-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach feeling:

It still is scary. But the scary part is different now. Attempts at making bigger strides, having more demand than resources to meet those demands, managing money wisely, and trying to find financial backing and business people in the industry who get the DIY movement (psst … they don’t) to possibly partner with. I’ve often felt very much like running a successful business is discovering the emperor has no clothes. Only, you’re king at your own company, which means you’re the one feeling naked.

About encouraging others to take a similar risk:

I find myself struggling to come up with some snappy reply that is encouraging and informative without saying "Go for it! Work really hard and it will be everything you dreamed!" Unfortunately, that’s just not the whole story. But I will say this: If you don't do it, you'll never know. And once you start, you'll see the next step and take it. Then it will become easier, then harder again, then easier, then doubly harder, and you'll find you're on your way. Where are you headed? Well ...

It won't look like what you expected.

It won't go the way you planned.

If you can be OK with that, do it.

There's more in this article, the first of 5 on Crafting A Business. Part Two, from December 5th, is all about book deals.

(crossposted from BlogHer)

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Technorati Tags: crafting, Jenny Hart, Sublime Stitching

GoodMail Day!

I commented yesterday (somewhere) that I had gotten my old blogging mojo back! I had posted for a couple days straight on both of my personal blogs, and was well on the way to completing my assignments for this weekend for BlogHer (big fat lie!) I was smokin'!

Yeah. Then reality hit today.

It was mid-afternoon, I was vacuuming up dog fur and mud (the perfect combination of mess), and trying to figure out WHAT I was going to blog about today. Mojo my big toe!!

Fortunately, the spouser was home and perfectly positioned to notice the mailman ringing the doorbell (the spouser was upstairs contemplating a nap... like I said, perfect position). Now friendly Mr. Mailman does not come knockin at the door without a purpose; our mailbox is at a "group home" at the other end of our court. (those who know my court, stop giggling!). He has to move his truck and walk to get to our doorway. So this was something special!

Indeed it was! A Royal looking box was sitting under all the appeals for charitable donations. And I could guess what this box held:


A Royal Box Appeared on my doorstep


Cookies! From the Queen of Spain!!

I might share the klotchy's (bowties) with the spouse... and I will definitely share the candy canes and xmas trees. (I am told that that is what the green things are were.

Now I have some xmas cookies to get me in the holiday spirit.. and I MUST bake the Russian TeaCakes I promised her. Tonight! Let the powdered sugar fly!

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Social Networks: Weird and Wonderful

I spend a lot of time on Social network sites (Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Ravelry, Twitter.) They are strange time sinkholes that occasionally become magic. Atleast that's why I say I keep coming back to them. For the magic.

Like Wednesday afternoon.

I'm researching an assigned article for BlogHer on top gifts for Kwanzaa (I know... I know.. they assigned THIS to the non-shopper, non-gift giver?? It is so unfair. SO PLEASE HELP ME!!). I'm online hitting my head against my laptop trying to think of gifts to match the principles. During these exercises, I always keep a tab open on Twitter. It's like the background office conversation for those of us who work at home. Or our coffee room. Or it is the internet's biggest not-so-secret-addiction. The concept is simple: you tell the world (or your friends and online associates) what you are doing or thinking RIGHT NOW. In 140 characters or less. Short, sweet and on to other things. Mobile friendly, many twitter from their phones. (I did during Bay to Breakers.)

While NOT finding inspiration for my article (gee, the description of celebration emphasizes the lack of presents or that presents should be personalized and hand made!), I also got to:

1. brag to all my friends that I'm now pressing my weight on the leg press machines. When I started 45# was a challenge;

2. tell someone to try nasal irrigation for his head cold.

and

3. have 2 people tell me they love me. That's more than I normally hear in a year. Often more than in a decade!!

See? Weird. And Wonderful.

Now what gift would perfectly symbolize Nia?

Purpose encourages us to look within ourselves and to set personal goals that are beneficial to the community. Can I suggest ComplaintFreeWorld bracelets?? (BTW, I just ordered a bunch of these that I will be sharing with all my friends! Friends, you are forewarned!)

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

The NYTimes and Handmade 2.0

(edited from the article on BlogHer)
Last week, spurred on my too many holiday parties, I started trying to explain what my job is: I write about very hands-on activities (crafts and gardening) and how the people involved in these represent themselves and their work in a Web 2.0 world. Two seemingly opposite activities that in truth work together well. So I was immediately intrigued when Jill of Writes Like She Talks left a comment on BlogHer mentioning a NYT magazine article called Handmade 2.0. by Rob Walker. Walker regularly writes the Consumed column for the magazine, where he occasionally discusses craft. It was his research for those columns and his soon to be published book that gave him the access to research this article.

Handmade 2.0 is primarily a deep look into Etsy from its origins through its major support of the HandMade Pledge. In explaining Etsy, Walker says:

Browsing Etsy is both exhilarating and exhausting. There is enough here to mount an astonishing museum exhibition. There is also plenty of junk. Most of all there is a dizzying amount of stuff, and it is similarly difficult to figure out how to characterize what it all represents: an art movement, a craft phenomenon or shopping trend. Whatever this is, it’s not something that Etsy created but rather something that it is trying to make bigger, more visible and more accessible — partly by mixing high-minded ideas about consumer responsibility with the unsentimental notion of the profit motive.

Walker gives us a brief history of the indie-craft movement, pointing out such touch-points as GetCrafty, Craftster and the Church of Craft; places where the craft is a DIY mash-up of original thought and recycled goods. GetCrafty founder Jean Railla was used as the icon of "craft as a political movement" where handmade objects stand as political statements against the mass-produced, all-the-same big box store commodities that are dominating the American landscape.

Walker goes on to how this indie-craft-as-political-statement philosophy happened to give rise to Etsy. He profiles the websites creator, Robert Kalin, and gives an inside-the-box view of the business.

the luck or genius of the site is that Kalin and the other founders encountered in the D.I.Y./craft scene something that was already social, community-minded, supportive and aggressively using the Web.

In the third part of his story, Walker fit Etsy into the DIY-Indie Craft culture as a whole:

It’s still tempting to characterize anything that looks edgy and has an online component as somehow a function of youth culture. But the age of the average Etsy seller turns out to be 34. Many crafters no doubt feel passionately about the ideals suggested by the Handmade Pledge a horror of sweatshop labor and corporate conformity, concern about the environment and would be pleased to see the broader consumer culture embrace them too. Meanwhile there is also the more salient matter of how to make a rewarding, meaningful and satisfying living without having to give up on those ideals. The women who have led the craft movement don’t want to work for the Man. But many are also motivated by having reached adulthood at a time when the Man is slashing benefits, reneging on pensions, laying people off and, if hiring, is looking for customer-service reps and baristas. This is not a utopian alt-youth framework; it’s a very real-world, alt-grown-up framework.

Overall, I found the article informative and balanced. Initially, I sensed a lack skepticism by the author; however, after a deeper read I felt Walker was less unsure about the values and philosophies typically associated with the indie-craft movement, and more in tune with the real making-it-work-for-us ideas that I've witnessed by following indie-crafters on the web for these past 2 years. If you have any interest in craft, this is an article worth reading.

What are the bloggers saying?

First on his own blog, Rob Walker posts many of the links that the Times strips from article. Even better, he shares his del.icio.us links for Etsy, DIYism and reactions to this article! And shares with the reader:

[ PS: In answer to the question: Why does the online version of the story on the Times site not actually link to Etsy? Or to Getcrafty, or any of other things it might link to? My answer is: I have no idea. Please ask someone who works at the Times! ]

Experientia:

The author is particularly interested in the new technologically enabled “new craft movement” as a social commentary on consumer culture, but has not explored what the possibilities might be if these objects themselves would become carriers of information.

Ulla Maaria at Hobby Princess talking generally about the "new craft movement":

The emerging new craft movement is not about outspoken leaders or violent controversy. Instead, it’s about regular people following their passion and connecting with their friends.

Still, it’d be a mistake to shrug crafters off as clueless. Below the innocent appearance they are planting the seeds of change. Without making a big deal about boycotting big brands or saving the environment, crafting changes the way we consume. It exposes us to the original ideals of William Morris: the preference of creativity, sincerity, good materials and sound workmanship over wasteful mass-production. It’s just that this time the movement is not limited to a group of professional craftsmen. Instead, it’s spreading much further and broader than Morris could have imagined in his wildest dreams.

Shannon from knitgrrl reacted:

This article is the first one I’ve read in a long while about crafty topics in a major, non-craft publication that hasn’t completely squicked me out in some way. At least it didn’t go for either side of the usual “hipsters do crafts!” / “it’s not your grandma’s [x]” dichotomy most reporters choose.

Lainie of Red Thread Studio (parenthetical editing is mine):

(begins)Hot on the heels of our discussion of Slow Cloth, the New York Times Magazine offers Handmade 2.0, by author Rob Walker, deconstructing Etsy.com and the craft resurgence. (and later continues):Though Walker sounds a bit unconvinced in his article, it is revolutionary to make things, and if the whole world is built on buying things made anonymously far away, it may indeed be subversive.

So what's your take on this? IS the current DIY Craft movement subversive?

It reminds me of when my generation was in their 20s and early 30s. Energy was expensive, don't even talk about interest rates (hello? The spouser's first house had an 18% interest rate, I think!). So we all purchased olders houses and remodeled them. This gave rise to This Old House on PBS.. and a tons of other shows and gadgets and an entirely new industry for the power tool folks.

It was about Doing It Ourselves and Doing It Our Way. It was a bit anti-consumerism even before Big-Box-Nation.

I think we taught our children our values and they are simply carrying on in their own best way. But that's just me.

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

The Kept Man

Occasionally I'm sent books from Penguin just as they are being released to the public. This video is inspired by the beginning of Jami Attenberg's new book: The Kept Man. After hearing the intro, I can't wait to read the book.


I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Reading Handmade 2.0...

Let me just say that print media corporations that place articles on line and strip out all the links?? Just plain rude.

The New York Times does it; HoffPo did it with my post there last year, and I've noticed others doing it too. RUDE big media corps. RUDE.

Which is my way of pointing you to the article that appeared this week past weekend: Handmade 2.0. I'm working up a post for BlogHer to publish today; so it will repost here tomorrow. In the meantime, what's your reaction?

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Not Missing This!

It's photos like this from Sunday's Brown's game that remind me why I don't miss living in Cleveland. I'll bet my old house in Chesterland has about 2' of lake effect snow!

(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

I Live at the Intersection of Craft and Web 2.0

I've been hitting a number of holiday parties with the spouser this week. Explaining to people that I'm a blogger (and a paid, therefore professional, blogger) and explaining what that means is a challenge.

I've come upon a workable explanation in a way. Imagine that everything that exists on the web were placed along one line (websites, bulletin boards, groups, blogs, social network sites like Ravelry, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Then imagine that everything to do with handmade crafts and gardening existed along the other line.

You can slide the intersection up and down the Web stuff... or all along the craft stuff... from scrapbooking, through crochet and sewing and quilting and knitting. But wherever the two intersect, that's where I'm writing. The intersection of Web 2.0 and Craft.

While thinking about this, I found an old Gaping Void post that also explains the whole "web 2.0" thing. Where Web 1.0 was about taking (go, take information or buy something, then leave), Web 2.0 is about sharing... developing relationships.

Hey, if I perfected that drawing a bit, I could make it a t-shirt!!
\
I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

An Invitation To Stop Leaking

This fall several creative-type friends and I have been working together on a small project: plugging some of the energy leaks in our lives. It's not a new idea; it's not a new exercise. It was a slightly new approach for us for several reasons:

• It wasn't just a job list. We can all make to-do lists and work our way through them alone or with support of friends. We were determined to list those things in our lives that were standing in the way of our growing, in the way of our being more successful, in the way of our being more of who we really are.
• We were banishing some of excuses that hold us back.
• We were doing this in a group with encouragement and support.
  

There were interesting discoveries along the way:

• we all began to notice those little "chores" that in the past we would put off, then add to a "to do" list. And we began addressing them before they made a list.
• many of us found places of resistance: spots where the action we did not want to take was the block that held us back from taking a risk. If we removed the block, would we have no excuse for moving forward? Would we create another block?
• we began discovering that we deserved more than we'd been settling for. We deserve to return home from a long day of work to an uncluttered house, not a home where we then have to spend time clearing it up. We deserve to have fun, to pursue dreams, to grow as individuals.

Everything that we leave undone, incomplete or unresolved distract us from living our lives today and drains our energy:

• Doing what we've always done even if it isn't working;
• Not being honest with ourself;
• Avoiding conflict;
• Imaging a better life, yet not acting on it.

Every action you take uses energy, and every action you don't take uses energy. Yet you are left with nothing to show for your inaction.

Our exercise was designed to last for 3 months and those months are almost over. Several of us are extending the exercise. In the meantime, I would like to offer you an invitation:

Would you like to participate in a similar group? I would act as the "group encourager"(pushing for weekly check ins, making some observations, sometimes asking the hard question...) to the small extent one would be needed. If you think you would like this here are the guidelines:

First, go read one of these life coach posts on Energy Drains:
this post by Christine Kane. She asked if We Were Leaking. This started the first group.
A 43Folders interview with GTD founder David Allen where they discuss leaks. It's all based upon the GTD plan, so if you're familiar with it this might help.
A general self-help overview on Energy Drains
A great list of Time Drains and Energy Drains. Any feel familiar to you?

For some additional comments check out this older video from zefrank (warning, he sings a song with an obscenity in it. ) He talks about "brain crack"... getting a great idea and how not executing it can be addictive. (OK, I'm guilty).

We would begin on Saturday, January 5th.

I would ask that you create a "leak list" as a Google Document that will be shared with everyone in the group. (yes, you need to create a Google ID if you don't have one already. But doesn't everyone already have one??)

You have to commit to checking in weekly. Even if all you say is that Life got in the way of your plans.

Your list is more than a work list. IF there are growth opportunities, fun, and social activities that you've been putting off, make sure they make the list! Curious what this looks like? Email me and I'll send you the link to the current Energy Leak lis.

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Revisiting the Past

Have you ever gone back and re-read your blog from the beginning?? I have.

It's interesting that many comments, thoughts, ideas, complaints, plans and weaknesses get repeated over and over in my blog. A quick read through sounds like a broken record.

But when slow down a little, the voice changes... the thoughts seem similar but move to a deeper level of understanding. The complaints become smaller. The plans move into new directions. I just didn't realize that I was moving in different ways...

And there are small gems to be found here and there. Friends and activities mentioned that I'd forgotten. One sad observation: I've lost many of my early links. (I wonder why??)

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Disruptions are Good??

This week my home is being invaded by workmen. They will be fixing the hole in our ceiling created when we moved our cold air return from over the steps to over a level surface. They will be painting our living room and adjoining open spaces (stairs, hall, dining room). Those who think they could do this themselves are braver than I when it comes to facing a 30' high ceiling, the minimal walls that attach to it, and the wide open spaces and curving lines of our staircase.

It's necessary, it's anticipated. And I hate it.

There is the disruption of my routine. The workmen will appear early each day. The dogs must be fed and in their cages before that happens. I must presentable, well, atleast dressed with my hair combed.

There will be different noises (and different music?) in the environment.

There will require different planning of activities. The dogs will need long escape times during the day, riding around in the back of my car. (atleast there it will be quieter for them).

There will be different smells and as the paint finally get applied to the walls the rooms will take on a different appearance. We are going a bit darker, from a very slightly off-white to a bone, a light taupy color that given the huge expanses will darken the spaces.

It will be OK. Challenges to our routines gives us opportunities to see where change could occur. I might finally be able to give up that before-I-go-to-the-gym-workout-and-shower bath! So wasteful of resources!

And when the week is over, I shall a home that looks even less like the cookie-cutter house we moved into 10 years ago, and more like an individual's home. Atleast I hope so.

Goodness, slightly darker colors. I'm going to need more light.
I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Painted Shoes

(crossposted at BlogHer)
For me, it began when I was gobsmacked by the cover of Belle Armoire (Art to Wear) in the spring of 2003. There on the cover were Mary Sue Fenner's Hot and Wow Docs. Dr. Marten boots painted and shiny and wonderful!

Shortly after receiving that issue, I broke down and painted my first pair of shoes: leather boots I'd picked up at GoodWill just for this purpose. Using Lumiere and Halo-style jacquard paints I spent one afternoon gleefully painting.

Last weekend, I had fun again; this time painting a pair of Keds! Let me show you how:

My Keds were a bit stained but still had some wear in them, but they were the most boring beige. I decided to use a pair of knitted socks as my inspiration, chose simple acrylic paints and a perfect roll of ribbon trim to match.

The Keds were first painted with 3 coats of white paint to create a clean base.

First step was to paint the channel stitched spaces orange:


Then one set of side panels was painted in a check to echo the design on the ribbon trim:


Contact paper stencilled stars were added to the other side panel:


A feathered cable, plus a speckled background completed the painting. I let the paint dry for an hour, then used Fabric-Tac to glue a row of the ribbon trim around the base of the shoes. Three light coats of a silicone shoe waterproofer (CampDry), and they are ready to wear!


Links:

My leather painted boots.

Howard Rheingold not only gives great directions for painting Doc martens, he has a wonderful gallery of painted shoes.


I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

If you (like me) feel blue and lost and unloved and marginalized this time of year, go read Laurie's post at Crazy Aunt Purl. It's not going to drive away the blues completely, but it will give you perspective about life as a journey.

This past week I realized that my two best holiday memories as an adult occurred in the company of strangers:

One Christmas, as a Red Cross Disaster Volunteer, I spent the entire day helping about 300 families whose apartments were damaged in a fire. (note to all apartment dwellers: keep fire doors closed in your hallways even if it makes it harder to carry packages in or out. Losing everything when the lobby xmas tree catches fire is a lot harder.)

The second was the year that my parents died; we went on a Hawaiian cruise over Christmas. On Christmas Eve anyone who cared to met in a bar in the center of the ship and sange Christmas Carols. There were about 150 of us sitting or standing around, joined in song. During the quiet moments, I still might feel the overwhelming sense of isolation; but, during the actual singing I was a part of a whole something.

Sounds like this year I need to find a soup kitchen or something...
I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

Getting the Groove On??

I've spent this week pulling everything out of my workroom, carefully sorting through everything and deciding if I want to keep it, need to part with it, or must toss it in the trash.

I've also added two more lights to the room.

And an amazing thing is happening: I'm getting anxious to get this straightening over with so I can get in there and work!

Small things for now: a journal is decorated, but needs my pencil/pen holder for the spine; a couple t-shirts are asking to be dyed; a couple tops are ready for quilting.

But it's a start. And a sense that I haven't felt in months!

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

This is another week where I'm living in the real world, but not in such a way that it translates well to blogworld. It translates OK to Twitter-world, with it's short format and constant updating better than a format that seems to require more format.

Like a beginning, middle and end. Maybe a point.

The spouser is out of the country this week. I've pulled almost everything out of my messy, overwhelming work room. The first day I slowly pulled empty pieces of furniture in, arranging them in several ways to find this iteration of the perfect arrangement. I assessed lighting and lighting possibilities.

Day two I started sorting through all the STUFF I had in there. Was I going to use it? Really? Or have I merely been holding on to it because...

Because I spent money to get it;
Because it's pretty;
Because I've had for "x" years;
Because I might want to use something similar some day.

I have 11 boxes of stuff that I was holding onto for all the wrong reasons. (deep breathes there. I know many of you cannot imagine parting with perfectly good fabric or supplies that you've had for 10 years without using. Because you still think that someday you will. ) There probably still is stuff in there that I'm holding onto for the wrong reasons. But I'm making progress.

Today I hang the additional lights and continue putting away the things I'm choosing to keep. I hope to call a woman who will take these boxes and sell their content to raise money for charity.

Hopefully by tomorrow I will have a work space that I WANT to walk into. How long that lasts is the test of the design. We shall see. Photos will follow.

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

My Better Angels

My mind has been a bit of everywhere this week, and as a result the blogposts have been too. Here, there or non-existant. Take your pick. Choose all. It's true.

I've been thinking about one of my great characteristic flaws. I see it in other people and it used to make me angry. But I recognize it in myself, so now I'm moving toward understanding and guidance.

Understanding that I'm flawed and others share the same flaw.

Understanding that I don't truly WANT to behave this way, but it's comforting and bit safe.

Understanding that others with the same flaw may feel the same way but not know how to change and still feel safe.

My flaw? I can see dreams and hopes and changes and better things for me. I truly can. And when I see them, I get scared. I procrastinate; I perfectionize (I don't know if this is a real word, but I LOVE it.) I wait until everything is in place and perfect before I contemplate acting. (How many things can be perfect before you do them?? yeah...) I make excuses.

I stand in my way of getting to the things I want because then I will have no excuses.

This week, I've decided that I can't really do this all on my own. So I've enlisted a couple angels. People who understand what's behind the procrastination (possibly because they have the same flaw?? Possibly. Possibly not). People who can imagine the things I see. People who don't want me to quit.

When I mentally opened myself up to the idea of accepting encouragement from people, I found it flying toward me from every directions. Amazing. Keep it up, y'all, because I need it.

And my angels? I'm giving them a thread tied around my soul and asking them to hold on. To ask me if I've accomplished tasks, and to call me on my excuses. To catch me when I'm stumbling blind with uncertainty, and pull me back when my imaginings get to far ahead of my happenings.

In this season of angels, mine are a shiny special troupe bound with colorful threads.

I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.