to the best of my knowledge...

i have an article in the newest issue of Collage in Color Volume 2! The tricky part is that I don't have an iPad and the issue is only available for iPad. Below is the video for the eMag and the subsequent link to the iTunes store (although, I can't seem to find my way to a table of contents for the issue - my bad, i'm sure).



I'll be getting a PDF soon from the editors - so I'll be able to see the article in full. The article is about making these tags.

fun fun!

I know i've been incredibly absent on the blog front. I'm busy, busy, busy at work building the online content for the Intro to Information Literacy class that I'm teaching this summer. Deadline quickly approaching!

gettin' there

I completely and totally believe in the following question/answer: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.



Thanks to my friend (with the initials JO) from my old job for handing me these words one fine day.

paddle on!

As I was saying in this post, I had some Essex linen/cotton fabric on board for a printing experiment. I wanted to try out my paddle design in white ink on linen. To be honest, I love the look, but I'm not super hip to what one does with linen besides get wrinkled in it...(?)



I shall come up with something! Other good things this week:

* We made it back from vacation and Little Man was pretty much a champ on our road trip to Snow Canyon State Park in Utah and Death Valley. Pics soon!

* Its been raining here (thank goodness). I know my mom gets tired of me discussing this issue :)

* Little Man saw a lifetimes worth of diggers, dump trucks, and big trucks on vacation

a pillow, of course

i've finished up my pillow for the Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition. I loved putting the different fabrics together.



I'm quite excited by my decision to do a frayed binding. I was thinking about the binding while the pillow was on my table, and a frayed edge piece of the linen fabric just happened to be laying right there - it was just begging for a chance to be the binding. I love the result!



The competition doesn't close until June, so I'm imagining that I'll probably need to pick up another little packet of trimmings from the Umbrella ladies and make another entry between now and then.

Other good things:
*I've possibly got another article coming out...is it library or craft-related? wait and see!
*Little Man is as cute as ever

trimmings competition!

The moment I saw that Umbrella Prints was doing their trimmings competition, I had to get me a piece of the action. I got my little packet in the mail the other day. As luck would have it, I had just ordered some Essex linen/cotton and the Umbrella trimmings work perfectly with it!



Once again, I find myself literally holding my breath while sewing because I'm so excited to have some crafting time. I even stitched during nap time! You see, I've been teaching another section of the Intro to Information Literacy class i teach, and its nearly impossible for me to do anything else (besides keep Little Man fed, clothed and loved) while i'm teaching. But - it ended on Saturday! Now I feel like I have to cram, cram, cram crafting before my next section starts...



On a different note, I rather enjoy that the Umbrella Prints ladies are from Australia. My grandma (aka Nan) was from there and it reminds me of her when I'm sewing away with these fabrics.

headboard building weekend!

Huge weekend here at the Daniels household! Dave and I made a headboard for our bed, which has been without a headboard for almost 9 years (ridiculous, yes). I was very excited when I found Ana White's free headboard plan. Perfect!

Since Dave was off on Monday, we planned this weekend as headboard-building-weekend. We hit the hardware store early on Saturday, laying in supplies. Built the board the rest of Saturday, then spent Sunday and Monday sanding and finishing.



All in all it went really well. Yes - there are some significant imperfections - but we think it looks pretty darn good for our first co-carpentry job!

four years of blogging...

Sometimes I like to cruise back through my archive, just for a little trip down memory lane. Today, it struck me that I started this blog in January 2008 - that's four years going! Granted, I don't blog a lot, but I like having my little electronic record of my craft projects. I remember when I first started this blog - I was equally excited about the technology side of it as I was the craft side. I spent many an hour designing my first banner, and have spent many more an hour working on the overall look, again and again and again (quite frequently when I should be doing something else).

I like to keep my blog on the upbeat and primarily about crafting, but I like that I can look back at a picture and read the entry for that day and I can still remember all that I didn't write in that post, or all that I wanted to write, but didn't so as to not put too much out there in the world.

It makes me happy to see my projects, even though there's not a ton of them. Its reminds me that crafting has taken care of me and that, right now, it is still taking care of me.

(above Circle made in 2009)

more of the same, or so it would appear

I so know that I appear to be posting the same thing again and again - more screen printed orange slices. While they may appear the same, it has taken me a hearty chunk of crafting time to get these lovelies to this stage. So - instead of posting nothing, I thought I would post more of my experiments.

I've gone through many an ink experiment, many a fabric color experiment, and many a printing experiment. Loving it all!

I also have four new designs that I've sketched up that are in their testing process. I like to do a test order of how the fabrics look through Spoonflower before proceeding to the screen process.

One thing is for sure - I simply cannot wait to sew with these babies! Of course, they will need a healthy dose of beautiful white fabric to make them look their best. some day soon...

oh, and for the record, boy's weekend was a smashing success!

boys weekend!

Yes! Tonight I will be departing on a plane to PDX...without Little Man. Little Man and his dad are having a boys weekend and I'm ecstatic. I so hope it is successful - this will be the first time that I'll be away from Little Man for even one night, let alone two!!! Its true that I love Little Man more than the world, but I need a break...its been 21 months after all.

I'm heading up to see some of my girlfriends for a baby shower, thus the photo, which is some tags that I made for the event.

I know I haven't had a lot posted on the blog lately. Truth is that I am working on a dream/project, which is occupying me - but its not blogworthy yet. For whatever reason, right at this moment in my life, I have a really strong creative drive that's pushing me in a certain direction...time will tell.

'nother pillow

...just like my featured pillow, but, you know, different.

What else? Little Man was helping me with some fabric today and I was licking my fingers trying to get it apart/unfolded, and there he was licking his fingers and trying to get his piece of fabric apart as well...what a cutie.