Random Acts of Kindness

Short and sweet today. I was reminded late last night of random acts of kindness. I went to the grocery store to get a frozen pizza, then remembered we didn't have milk, and then remembered I needed to "clean" the kitchen sink, and then a few other things too. Needless to say I didn't have a shopping cart because I only went in for a pizza but got to the checkout with a delicate balancing act of groceries. The nice gentleman in front of me told me to go first. I figure it's my own fault for not getting a shopping cart, but he insisted. Random act of kindness. I am very grateful I didn't drop my milk, or the rest of my groceries while standing there. What random acts of kindness have you done lately. I am that lady that let's your car in during busy traffic, the one who gently grabs the arm of the elderly when they are hobbling for the door of the store (I have a soft spot for kids, animals and the elderly). I am the one who pounded on my neighbors door at 1 in the morning when their garage was on fire and took their dogs so they didn't have get caught up in the mix of 4 fire trucks and their firefighters. My daughter is the one who walks those dogs 3-4 times a week because she thinks they enjoy it (I think she secretly wishes she could have that West Highland Terrier.) Do a random act of kindness today, take the 30 seconds to a few minutes out of your day and make a stranger smile, heck just smile at a stranger, you never know it might be just what they needed at the moment.

So I remembered I had to clean the kitchen sink. Our sink has some bizarre plumbing that has a tendancy to back up every so often. It's a rental so I can't really do much to "fix" the problem permanently just for the time being. Vinegar and baking soda. That's my home remedy of the day. Pour some baking soda on the drain and then some vinegar on the baking soda and watch the fizzies...I personally think it's better than Draino and the chemicals that come with Liquid Plumber not to mention I feel comfortable letting my 11 year old "clean" the sink.

Share the Love

I have had the pleasure of interacting with some ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL individuals on Twitter who also share a passion for creativity that want to share with the world via Etsy. I'm always moving in my own little bubble so I nearly always miss getting treasuries but I want to share these wonderful people and their wonderful work with anyone I can.

Maybe because I have 2 dogs myself and I love my puppies (They are both 2 so not really puppies) this photo really speaks to me. I LOVE it!

Davita Photography & Other Stuff :)
davitaphotograp on Twitter

I adore the colors here. Turquoise, teal, aqua and all the colors in between I think is my favorite.
Palettepassion - Unique, Wearable Art!
Palettepassion on Twitter

I sew in case you haven't noticed. I tell myself that the machine used here was beyond repair inspite of the fact that it was an old singer which are work horses. Tim has done so much to help out the handmade community and I hope he realizes that we appreciate it. :)
Timothy Adam Designs
TimothyAdam on Twitter

This is just super neat! Steampunk is so fabulous it has that old meets new gritty down in the mess feel with something almost magical.
novella Handmade Cross Jewelry, Swarovski, and Wall Crosses
novellajewelry on Twitter

This wonderful lady has been one of the KINDEST and sweetest individuals I have come across on twitter. Always willing and wanting to share in EVERYONES creations and happiness not just her own. I can't decide with this one if it's the pattern or the color that I really like either way it's a neat hat that makes wish I knitted more often in addition to crochet.
Peacefully Knitting in Arizona ~ Handknits & Patterns
arizonaknitter on Twitter

If it weren't for the fact that chalk and thought of chalk makes my skin curl I would be all over these mats. My kids love chalk! They also get to clean it up...I can't touch it.
DineNDoodle Chalk Mats + More ☆ Endless uses. Unplugged Fun!
LilBDesigns on Twitter

We are back to my favorite color! These are just adorable. It almost makes me want to send my daughter to school with a sack lunch and adorable little apple cozy.
Unravel Me Designs
UnravelMeDesigns on Twitter

I almost want to wear jewelry again. It's the color, that and these are just beautiful!
Maria Luna: Handmade Jewelry and Fine Art Photography
Maria_Luna on Twitter

Please remember that all products and product photography is owned by the respective artist. Visit their shops and support the handmade movement. Visit them on Twitter and find some really WONDERFUL people to tweet with. :) Smile at someone today.

Growing Children

I have been in the process over the past week of trying clear out my daughters 3 dressers. I would like for her to have 1 not 3. In that I have "confiscated" clothes that are too small and passing on to my son shirts that are boy friendly and the rest I have been making some T-Shirt scrubbies. These are so super fabulous for cleaning around the house and getting some of the "tougher" jobs. I enjoy using them in combination with the crochet cotton cleaning cloths that I make too. I should have the pictures themself edited and the scrubbies listed in my Etsy shop by the end of the weekend. Finger crossed.

Reformatting

I had the pleasure of reformatting my hard drive last week. It's kinda a long story but I was able to back MOST everything up. I had to go through the process of reinstalling everything and I have the fond affection for some older programs so the bulk majority took longer to install updates than the actual program. I had forgotten how long it takes to install photoshop. I am officially still alive though just barely and my computer isn't completely dead yet.

All that being said I have been able to get some really cute Halloween totes listed this past week week and a half. Just in time for Halloween!

Enjoy! Remember to back EVERYTHING up. Reminder to run your antispyware, antimalware, antivirus, anti whatever today, so you don't have to reformat. learn from my mistakes.

Ambition

Sometimes it has a one track mind, and well out of sight out of mind. I sometimes wonder if I'm meant to be a "blogger". I can remember to keep up with everything else, but this blog sometimes well out of sight. All that being said I got the tutorial that I had talked about for so long up, I had to rewrite it so many times because blogger kept eating. Figures I would choose a day with bugs in the system. :) I wanted to share with anyone who may keep up the end result of the basket begun in the tutorial.

So when that one was done I still rope and I still had fabric strips. I would rather have too many supplies than too little. I made another basket.

So with both of those baskets I don't have much else today unless you want to hear how I burried my sewing table unburried and need to figure out what to do about my storage unit. :) It has been a long week to say the VERY least. Thanks for hanging in and ocming along for the ride.

Basket Tutorial

I've have talked about it for awhile now, doing a basket tutorial. Finally I remembered to take pictures. Please keep in mind that this is not the "only" way or even the necessarily the "best" way of doing things. This is just the way I have found I like best, through much trial and error. Hopefully I won't ramble too much. Feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer them.

1.) Gather your materials. Really theoretically you can use whatever you like. I'm using 1/2 diameter rope and some horribly ugly fabric that I question why I bought in the first place but then later discovered actually make quite cute baskets so there was a reason. You can use rope, craft cord, twine, whatever for your inner cording. You can use fabric strips cut about 1-1 1/2 inch wide, yarn, twine etc for wrapping. I will give instructions based on the cord and fabric I'm using. Again if you have questions just ask.

2.) I start about 1 inch from the end and begin wrapping working my way to the end. I find this easiest because working from the end forward creates a weird kind of mess and poor coverage. I don't normally use the straight pin but it held the fabric great for illustration purposes.

3.) At about 2-3 inches of "wrapped" cord fold or bend the cord in half. You may discover that your cord shows when you bend it, it's early unwrap and then rewrap a little tighter and with your wraps overlapping a little closer. Continue wrapping the "loose" end together with the actual end. Notice in the picture you can see the table showing through. I'm going to call this a little hole. It will be important in a moment.

4.) Continue wrapping the loose end about another 2 inches and fold just like you did in the previous step. You should see the beginning of your spiral or coil right now. Take the last "wrap" and lay it on top of your coil right next to that "little hole", it's about to become important.

5.) I like using a medium size crochet hook. I've seen many instuctions say to use a large tapestry like needle and tried it but didn't like it. Push the crochet hook through that little hole and hook the fabric you laid next to it.

6.) Pull the fabric through that little hole. If you look closely you can see that you just created a figure 8. Remember that figure 8. It is possible to just keep wrapping in the same direction so doing circles around your cord occasionally wrapping the rows together but I really really like the figure 8's. At this point you should have 2 little holes one from the first fold and then one from the second fold.

7.) Continue wrapping the loose end say about 2-3 times and then repeat the figure 8 process in either the first or second little hole depending on which one is closer. Try not to reach too far it just looks funny and will pull your coils funny. At some point you are going to reach the end of your fabric strip. Wrap all the way to the end of the strip as normal.

8.) Take you next strip and continue working. When moving into a new strip treat it very similar to how you begin though with not as much distance. Work into the coil instead of into the loose end for 1-2 wraps and then back out to the loose end.

9.) Those 2-3 wraps in between your figure 8's are about to make real perfect sense. Eventually those two little holes are going to get covered treat the space in between your figure 8's (2-3 wraps) as the little holes. Continue working 2-3 wraps then a figure 8, 2-3 wraps then a figure 8.

9.) Continue working your coil will get bigger. When you are ready to start working the sides of your basket just gradually shape your coils on top instead of the sides of each other. Remember making play dough snakes when you were little and make little coiled bowls, same theory at some point you just start working up.

Day 4

I am easily entertained and sidetracked sometimes. My creation process is sometimes the most random process. I have several projects because 1.) I MUST multitask or I don't know what to do with myself, and 2.) I work on one for a few minutes while doing something else or on my way to do something else (see reason 1).

List of things to do today in no particular order.
Take care of sick baby
Start a new basket and actually remember to take pictures for the tutorial
Rephotograph several items
Continue working on little crochet projects I have scattered about the house
Water the lawn constantly (we laid new seed down and the ground has to stay moist)
Clean the old junker car out so I can maybe actually sell it
Dishes
Laundry
Im sure there is something else to do today too...and Ill come across it later.

What brought all this on? I was on my way to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee and put away the medicine for my son in the bathroom (just past the kitchen from my room). I saw a crochet project that needed a button so I stopped put the button on it, continued to the kitchen for coffee, washed the pans from breakfast (hash browns and pancakes) and then ground my coffee beans remembering I left the medicine in the hallway so I went back to get it put it away, did the big utensils in the sink started into the cups and saw dad's coffee cup, remembering to finish my pot of coffee (It helps to turn the pot on). Came back snuggled with my son then sat down and saw the package of buttons for a custom order and reminded myself I need to photograph them. That' s pretty normal. Maybe I should make a list.

So anyway I wanted to leave you with this loverly basket that was actually leftover bits from a variety of different projects. It reminded me of my kids crayon boxes, which reminds me I need to clean the kids room today too.