the brief storm scrubbed and washed clean the sky. Sunny blue skies, a cool spring-like breeze, fresh green leaves in the garden, and an additional half-inch in the rain gauge have put a skip in my step today.
VGoT is an art project posing as a propaganda campaign for new, American homefront values. The message style draws from American mid-century homefront propaganda, and the messages essentially draws from 21st century needs as found in the current environmental sustainability movement.If you still need some indoor gardening inspiration, these posters are beautiful and would be fine decoration in an office or a mid-century designed home.
Two and a half years ago, inspired by the DIY creativity of a growing number of indie crafters, we launched CRAFT Magazine along with its companion website, Craftzine.com. Since then, we've become an integral part of the new craft community. We've been fully committed to encouraging more people to discover the joy of crafting.Craftzine.com will remain, thank goodness. This website is an inspiring and vibrant source for crafty information. The same day they announced the plan to discontinue the print version, Craftzine.com also announced a new feature: AskCraft
All along, we have noticed that Craftzine.com has been growing steadily. At the same time, we've come to realize that there were more and more challenges in publishing CRAFT as a print magazine, especially with the costs of print and distribution rising, and diminishing interest among advertisers in print. So we've decided that Volume 10, our Celebrate Like Crazy issue, will be our last print issue and that the future of CRAFT is online.
We want you to write in with your crafty conundrums, your material mysteries, your technique troubles! I'll scour all resources available to me to bring you an answer. Some weeks will be video responses, some weeks text, but always with plenty of advice and links to take you further!Have you seem Coraline yet? Tikabelle at Largely Unrepeatable went last week and agreed with the reviews that this is fabulous movie. She adds:
Coraline also gives good knit. There's a lovely starry sweater that's just adorable, but there's also a pair of gloves that Coraline - and I - desperately want. And there is as yet no pattern. Well, there was no pattern until yesterday, when I made one.
This is my Valentine Garden. I had originally planned to grow someNew to the Blogroll:
wheat grass in a longish planter then plant my "flowers" in a row in
the homegrown green. But, things happen, or don't happen, in this case,
and now I have a tin can garden full of M&Ms. I like it, though.
Very cheery.
For me, crafting-the act of making something with one's own hands - is always political. it's not a replacement for other means towards social change but it is important init's own right. As a wee Feminist Studies student, I developed and taught a discussion section on Feminisms and Fiber Arts.... Since then, I've done a lot more hands-on learning about the reality of being a craftsperson in today's global marketplace but many of my conclusions are the same. Craft is powerful. Craft is Art...and Science, and Religion. Craft is real in the way few "things" today are.I also blog at: Weight for Deb and BlogHer on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The stay of enforcement provides some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA. These businesses will not need to issue certificates based on testing of their products until additional decisions are issued by the Commission. However, all businesses, including, but not limited to, handmade toy and apparel makers, crafters and home-based small businesses, must still be sure that their products conform to all safety standards and similar requirements, including the lead and phthalates provisions of the CPSIA.This stay, which will remain in effect until February 10, 2010, gives the Commission time to work through proposed rules changes or new legislation which it is hoped will mitigate the demands on crafters and small independent manufacturers of children's clothing and toys.
Handmade garment makers are cautioned to know whether the zippers, buttons and other fasteners they are using contain lead. Likewise, handmade toy manufacturers need to know whether their products, if using plastic or soft flexible vinyl, contain phthalates.
...The Commission trusts that State Attorneys General will respect the Commission's judgment that it is necessary to stay certain testing and certification requirements and will focus their own enforcement efforts on other provisions of the law, e.g. the sale of recalled products.
found several Valentine's Day stuffed-animal toys sold by Rite Aid Corp. and Longs Drugs, a unit of CVS Caremark Corp., with lead exceeding the new national standards that take effect on Feb. 10. The lead levels found in one of the stuffed-animal toys were more than 15 times the new federal limit, the Center for Environmental Health said. "There should be something to back up a claim that the products are safe, but without testing and certification there's no assurance," said Charles Margulis, a spokesman for the group.How are crafters reacting to this stay?
The toys are made by Dan-Dee International Ltd., a China-based manufacturer of toys and novelties with U.S. offices in Jersey City, N.J. Company officials didn't return phone calls seeking comment.
Of the 63 recalls that would have been prevented by CPSIA, only 1 resulted in an injury (a child ingested lead paint from a crib and had elevated blood levels of lead). This means that had CPSIA been in place for 2008, one child would have been helped.In Part Two of her analysis, WH explains why it's impossible to know that all items are safe (in her example, snaps on children's clothing) without testing each and every item..
The most difficult part of zipper installation is making it look good.
With the glue-set method you eliminate most of the challenges. The
process becomes quite easy. The idea behind the glue-set zipper
installation is to use adhesive to hold the zipper in place, while
sewing, instead of pins. This allows you to top stitch the zipper
without having to wrangle with the pins. And, since you are top
stitching it into place, you have more control on how it looks on the
outside, thus, more chances at zipper success.
Part card, part minibook this little circle creation is a great way to celebrate someone you love this Valentine's Day (or any day of course). This project uses my new Love Circle embellishments from Designer Digitals that you simply download and print (or use on digital projects).I'm looking at my collection of souvenir circular coasters and thinking would make a great base for one of these books.
These would be perfect to give to friends and coworkers. PerhapsDabbled has declared this Cephalopod Week! Dot offers a charming watercolor squiddy valentine card as a free download.
you might package up a few in a sweet little teacup and present it as a
gift.There are 4 ways to assemble the teabag wrappers. The one
shown in the tutorial below is the most time involved (stitching by
hand) but the results are my favorite. Other methods would include
using tape, glue or a sewing machine. Pick the method that will work
best for you and have fun!
This binding is simple, elegant and adds a unique touch to the everyday card or book. You can use single sheets of paper, so you can use smaller pieces of paper, even scraps. You can use as many pages as you’d like, for a little book, or a few, like I’m doing now, to make a card.The four-hole book could be made even more special with hand-made paper for the cover sheet, don't you think? Back in 2007, Mainly Zaz offered a wonderful tutorial on making your own paper.
Sometimes when I'm lonely,
Don't know why;
Keep thinking I won't be lonely
Bye and bye...
This is an easy project, fine for a beginning knitter who has knitted
in the round with double pointed needles. The only tricky part is
making sure you add the "links" as you go, sliding them and moving them
over your needles as you go.
It’s knit on the bias so the variegated yarn makes diagonal stripes and stitches are carefully dropped to make a pattern in the opposite direction. This creates a scarf which tends to be a little more of a parallelogram than a rectangle, but I promise, it’s nice that way.
The best part? Once you get The Formula, you can make hats all the timeCookie A. designed the wonderfully Monkey Socks because:
with ANY yarn and NO PATTERN. This is my dream come true. Now if the
naked-rich-man-who-does-dishes dream would come true, I could die happy
the true driving force behind these socks was ADDICTION. There was no other way to get them off my back than to knit them.These socks have a lacy pattern that looks to work well with variagated, solid, or hand-painted socks, but I think not self-striping yarn.
