Solid Ideas

Reduce, reuse & recycle your craft area.  Here are some things worth hanging onto.

• If your clothes are past donation status, remove buttons, zippers and any decorative detailing before throwing them out
• Save frozen juice cans so the kids can make pencil holders (dad always needs another for his desk) - try gluing a winter felt scene with seed bead snowflakes...think outside the can
• Organize embroidery thread or small skeins of yarn on an old coffee mug rack
• Consider scrapping your worn clothing - one day your kids may sit under a quilt or blanket and reminisce about their old favorites (cut out those adorable t-shirt icons and iron-ons, too)
• Look over your empty laundry soap boxes/containers and all of those tubs from the kitchen - paint them or paper them and store an infinite amount of notions
• Your favorite paper catalog can be cut up for scrapbooking or a tiny paper project - for free!
• Grab something from the trash or recycle bin, drag it into your workspace, and force yourself to be creative (look what those designers can accomplish with car parts or coffee filters on Project Runway).  You'll feel better knowing you've been environmentally responsible.

I'd love to hear more crafty conservation ideas from you.  

Loom Envy

I recently visited the Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln in Hodgenville, Kentucky.  Lincoln's birthplace is no longer standing, however both his parent's cabins have been moved to the site along with a blacksmithing shop.  The log cabins still house several Lincoln family heirlooms including Thomas Lincoln's wood axe, hewn furniture and this loom (pictured).  

Not many bloggers possess a loom of this size and substance (where would most of us even put it?!), but weaving is something we can try on a smaller scale.  

I recently purchased a Beka beginner loom for my daughter, and see real potential for scarves, hand towels, washcloths and napkins.  Of course, pot holder looms are fun and classic, too.  I once even weaved a Native American vest out of brown grocery sack strips weaved over and under.    Make your own loom out of a cardboard box or just weave old newspaper or magazine strips and let your recycled imagination run wild!  

A fast fall furniture facelift

The hubbo and I walked & shopped the Plaza this weekend.  We noticed an obvious recurring trend in upper end retail shops:  inexpensive burlap pillows embroidered or appliqued which are sold for rather exorbitant prices.  I am compiling a list of links that may get your creative juices flowing.  

Pull out some scraps of fabric.  Try:

• Ironing on an image- make your own or buy some OTC, my favorites come from Sukie 
• Applying a single word in a graphic font via applique or stencil using fabric paint
• Weaving fabrics for a pillow top
• Embroidering fall leaves or a pretty quote
• Sewing simple sashes around your existing decorative pillows  
  

Pillows to adore:

Jonathan Adler's orange & pink Union Jack

Restoration Hardware: woven & embossed leather

Anthropologie: linen & jute transfer image pillows

Pottery Barn: burlap cafe pillows

Crate & Barrel 2: embroidered la vie pillow

Blissliving: prosperity pillow

Anyway, keep the $98 retailers are asking.  You can make a custom pillow that truly reflects your home's unique style at a fraction of the cost.  If you make some, email me some pics.  We'll post them to the site.