Adventures in beading

For my birthday this year, the Big Guy went together with a few friends to get me a larger bead loom. I have one my Dad made me a few years ago that’s large enough for necklaces (like this one) or small wall hangings, but I’ve wanted to try some larger pieces. This loom can be used as a traditional bead loom or with a double warp like a tapestry loom, which will be nice for larger pieces because it will make them stronger. It took be a full day to figure out the double warp but I finally have it strung and am working on a little test piece. Now I just need to decide on a pattern for my first real project.

More herb harvesting

I had enough lavender from my garden this year to dry seven bundles, plus oregano and thyme grown from starts my mother gave me last year. I spent this morning stripping leaves and buds off the stems and bottling them up. This is the first year I’ve harvested my cooking herbs and got enough of each for a nice-sized bottle of each. I love having herbs from my garden instead of buying them from the grocery store. Peppermint will be next, but it’s not quite ready to pick yet.

Dragonfly wall hanging

I’ve been working on this stained-glass style, quilted wall hanging (from this pattern) whenever I have a few spare minutes over the past several weeks. I’m really happy with how it turned out and the colors are a perfect match for my craft room walls. I hung it up and realized that, in spite of all the years of crafting, it’s the first thing I’ve displayed in my craft room that I actually made myself. I either give things away as gifts or hang up things I’ve bought from other crafters. It’s so nice to show off my own work for a change!

Sweet grass braids

This is sweet grass. A friend who’s Native American uses it for smudging in traditional ceremonies, but she wasn’t having any luck growing it in her garden. She gave me a little pot a few years ago to see if I could get it to grow. It seems to like my herb garden and spreads a little more every year. I can cut it back several times in early summer before the weather turns hot and dry, and it will come back thicker every time. I braid it when it’s fresh and let it dry for a few days, then send a batch of braids back to my friend. It has a wonderful, distinctive sweet smell when it’s cut. My craft room always smells so good when I’m drying a fresh batch!

Lavender harvesting

I’ve been watching the lavender for the past several days, waiting for just the right time to begin picking. This is the first batch hanging up to dry. I’ll probably have 3-4 more batches by the time I’m done, depending on how quickly it begins to bloom. Once it’s dry, I’ll strip the buds off the stems and use them for bath salts and eye pillows. I never have enough for all the crafting I do but it’s nice to keep my homegrown lavender for gifts for family and friends.

Creativity on Parade

"Parade the Circle" is a free community arts parade held in our city every year. It's sponsored by the art museum and includes guest artists, local artists, area families, schools and community groups. Everyone makes their own costumes and floats based on an annual theme. We hadn't been to the parade in years but decided this summer we really wanted to take the Little Guy. It's a wonderful, kid-friendly event and he just loved the stilt-dancers and music.


This phoenix costume was amazing, and she was surrounded by a group of little kids dressed as flames.


I love watching the giant puppets. Most of them have long robes that completely cover the puppetmasters, and they have to move slowly so the wind doesn't topple them. They look like they're gliding along the street.


These were my favorite puppets. Their expressions were so serene - they reminded me of colorful spirits out for a stroll among the rest of us.

Bath salts, lip balms and herb stuff - Oh, my!

For my sister's birthday this spring I gave her homemade bath salts, lip balm and some other herb-y goodness. She liked them so much she asked me to make up gifts for her kids' teachers. Here's the result - citrus bath salts, a grapefruit body scrub, an old-fashioned French clay and lavender powder puff, beeswax lip balm and lip exfoliating scrub. I really like how they they turned out, including the labels for everything. I found some fancy canning jars for the larger items that made it easy to put laminated labels on top, between the ring and the lid.

A Little Nostalgia

I've designed a couple small quilted wall hangings based on Celtic knot designs and want to do more. For some reason, the idea of creating a complex image from a single continuous line just fascinates me. I was flipping through my design inspiration files and ran across some photos that reminded me a lot of Spirograph designs. Remember Spirograph? I had one when I was a kid and loved drawing with it. I started checking Toys 'R' Us, Amazon.com and a couple other toy sites and realized they don't make the original Spirograph anymore. So, off to eBay and the start of a small-scale obsessive attempt to buy one for a reasonable price. After being beaten out at the last possible second on four different auctions, I finally won one. It's complete with all the original pieces - even the colored ballpoint pens and the little pushpins that hold the wheels in place. I can't wait to play with it!

Seed Starting, Round 2

We have a second crop of sprouts AND I figured out a cheap light system. I found several tutorials online for how to build an adjustable system with fluorescent shop lights suspended from chain, but I didn't need anything that big and I didn't want to invest in a huge set of lights, lumber, chain and various other bits and pieces to build a set. My seed flat is 22" long. I found two 24" under cabinet lights at Walmart that already had grow bulbs in them, and used a cheap 24" wire shelf to make an overhead holder for them. For now, the bulbs are hanging from long metal ties about 1-1/2" above the plants. As the plants get taller, I can shorten the ties. And when they outgrow that, I'll just have to prop up the ends of the shelf on something. Took me 5 minutes to assemble and cost less than $20, and it will be easy to store for next year. Works for me!

Starting Again, from Seed

Sorry, bad pun. We're giving the seed starting another try. The Little
Guy was not interested in helping, having indulged his need to dig in the dirt and play with peat disks on the first attempt. I was able to salvage the seed starting mix from the peat disks from the first round and just crumbled them up into peat pots for this batch. I definitely like working with peat pots better than the peat disks. The disks were awkward to place seeds in, especially the really tiny seeds, and nearly everything that sprouted ended up with a tap root poking out the side of the disk mesh. At least I learned something new in the first attempt!

This time, I tried all the same herbs plus calendula, violas, zinnias (which I'm hoping will deter the deer from my garden), cherry tomatoes and green peppers. I think I'm going to wait on the lettuce and start it directly in the garden boxes we used last year. Oh, and I have poppies to plant directly in the garden when the time is right.

We cleaned out the garden area last fall and pulled out boatloads of peppermint to make room for a true herb garden. Right now it's empty and sad looking. I can't wait to see it full of herbs and veggies this summer!