faerie visit

 the faeries have been whispering in my ear

 make a special spot for us

 where we can rest

frolic and play

so I did

and they have come for a visit

I do hope they will stay!

:::

Happy New Year!

handmade...alchemy cards

I had an hour before I left for a monthly gathering with a circle of women friends.  I really wanted to give each of them something special, something handmade.  I happened to have 6 small photos of the butternut heart on moss already printed out in a neat stack.  So I decided working small would actually work to my advantage.  I have done this in the past and it is much easier to work on a small scale like this.

I also decided to limit my materials to a small stack of cards, stickers, and an old calendar.  Having the need to have all 6 done within an hour required me to be focused and not waste time looking for something beyond the selection of materials I had in front of me.

I also decided up front that I wouldn't be overly concerned if they were not perfect.  I ended up making the first one upside down with the image on the other side. But I decided I liked that they were not perfect...they were so wabi sabi.

I gave each card a different theme: joy, heal, dream, peace, hope, shine.  And used various letters to place the word somewhere on the card.

Kelly's box of hope for the Wellness Tree Project.  

I have made several boxes like this out of altoid and other mint tins.

Since the backs all had the same image, I was able to place them in a small box similar to the one I made for Kelly (whose box also contained alchemy cards) for the Wellness Tree project.  When I got to our gathering, I shuffled the cards, and each person took the card on top.  I loved that I didn't know who I was making each card for, and each person seemed to genuinely connect with the card they received.  And now I am using those themes as prayers for my friends.

This was from Kelly's box of hope.

I forgot that dream was in there too and that I used birds flying...interesting.

I have a feeling you will be seeing more of these.  They are very satisfying to make and I love the idea of transmuting bits and pieces of things I probably could have thrown away into something more meaningful...that is powerful.

handmade...valentine gift inspiration

I am finding myself short on ideas for simple valentine's day gifts...so in hopes of getting my creative juices flowing, I'm going to share a couple from last year and ask you to share some of yours.... 

tissue holder (or even better hankie holder)

this tutorial got me started 

but I liked the look of combining different prints

if I were doing this again this year...

 I would put a few vintage hankies in each one

rosette pin

it ended up with three little pins in the center...

a fabric covered button works nice for the center too

this pomander tutorial shows the technique 

and the pomander is really sweet too!

do you have any sweet little gift ideas to share?  it doesn't have to be a tutorial, just a picture would be great or just a description!  I can't wait to be inspired;)

I love to give little gifts like this to the special women in my life...my mom, other women in my family, and special friends. I always seem to have someone in mind that I would love to make something special for even if it isn't valentine's day.

handmade...needle felting with yarn

I'm digging into the archives a bit by sharing this project that I did exactly 2 years ago as a gift for my niece.  I fulled a really lovely green sweater that I thrifted (it was already fulled a bit from the previous owner;).  I added a thrifted belt for the handles and created a lining from an upholstery sample and some other fun prints in my stash.  Yeah...there is a lot going on inside this purse, but I really love mixing up linings and I thought this purse could use a bit of that because I wanted to keep the outside simple.

Then I took a design from one of my favorite prints and traced it onto paper and transfered the shape onto the outside of the bag with a washable marker.  I used yarn (some that I dyed with coffee) to needle felt the design onto the outside of the purse.

This year, using felt from the same sweater, I made what might seem like a pretty silly gift for John...

it's a toothbrush travel case.  I know not the most romantic of gifts, but I am always trying to replace the plastic in our lives, and when we were travelling in december, I got it in my head that he needed this.  I was going to needle felt some elaborate design, but that is so unlike me and so unlike John...so I simply did his monogram by needle felting some of that coffee dyed yarn that I used in the purse project above.  Who doesn't need a monogrammed toothbrush travel case?  Well, silly or not, wool is the perfect material for this...it absorbs liquid and has natural antimicrobial abilities.

And that sweater for the black apple doll I showed you last week came from the same sweater.  That's what I love about repurposing...there is no end really.  I always save little bits of repurposed wool because there is always something else you can make with them.

Here are some other needle felted yarn projects I dug up to inspire you....

felted vest with needle felted yarn embellishment

needle felted laptop sleeve

needle felted cuff bracelet

Do you have a favorite repurposing or needle felting project in your archives that you'd like to share....put a link in the comments.  I'd love to take a peek;)

Have a blessed weekend!

handmade...black apple doll

I made this little dolly as a Christmas present for Jude...he is a little black apple doll. This is the second black apple doll I've made, and I actually started this little guy back in June when I made the first one for a Craft Hope project.  Dolly number 1, who I named Gabriel, is in an orphanage in Nicaragua hopefully snuggled in some little ones arms...or let's make that an even better image...Gabriel travelled to a new home with some little one who once lived in an orphanage in Nicaragua but now has a very loving family to care for him.  I like that one much better.

Jude's doll, who does not have a name yet, ended up looking like a little gnome.  I made him a pair of overalls out of a super soft cotton velour type material and his sweater and hat is from a green felted sweater that I made a purse out of a couple of years ago.  Nothing gets wasted around here.  After I got all the clothes sewed up, I realized Jude has a favorite outfit in just these same colors....his carhartt overalls and a green hooded sweater.

Yesterday, we tried to make the doll some pajama pants, and I had so many problems I just had to walk away from it.  Bad timing I guess.

I have a couple of more handmade Christmas presents that I made to share over the next couple of weeks...but if you would like to take a peek at the handmade Christmas presents I received pop over here.

blessings~

handmade...scarves

The number of crafting projects I try to tackle in December is a bit ridiculous for the amount of time I have to do such things. I think I understand where the idea of elves came about. I don't know how I manage to do so much in such a short period of time, and why I can't manage to spread it out over a longer period when there is not as much happening. Or for that matter why I can't be that productive at other times of the year. But I am grateful that I was able to pull it off.

As many have been doing since the beginning of the year, I am backtracking a bit to share some of the handmade gifts I created. I'm going to spread this out over a few posts, because let's just say I've already felt the shift in momentum. My productivity peaked around December 24 and its been in a free fall since.

First up, a scarf that I made for my mom from a really beautiful Japanese print of chrysanthemums outlined in gold and a solid cotton. I used stitches in play's super simple scarf tutorial that I found when Heather posted a picture of her beautiful scarf and said it was super easy and super worth it. It was really simple and saved me. The fabric choices make the scarf, and while I really started off with the intention of using silk for the ends, I just had to use the Japanese print because it was so striking.


The second scarf was extremely last minute, as in I finished it the morning I was leaving to visit my family in Georgia. I made this one for Mimi, my grandmother. At first I thought I was going to go with one pearl button's easy ruffled scarf wrap, and I loved the version they made. But with my fabric choices it looked too frumpy (too much contrast between the turquoise and the off white for that design I think). So after getting to the point of sewing the ruffled edge to the main part, I cut it all up into strips and serged the pieces together. There are three repurposed sweaters in this one. The blue one is cashmere (it had holes in it). The others were thrifted with the intention of repurposing them.

So there you have it...two handmade gifts that were fairly easy to make and appreciated by the recipients. I'll be sharing some more of my handmade Christmas gifts to come in the weeks ahead.

handmade...vintage finds

Yesterday was a really cool damp day. A great day for just staying home and baking, but I had the notion to go to some yard sales that were happening in a nearby town. I hit the jackpot for vintage handmade goodness at the first sale. And they promised they would have more in the spring....

I just love the aprons...gardenmama has given me a new appreciation for aprons, and these were just so cute. I loved the smiling flowers and color combination in the one on the right.

I love this hankie. I love that it is round and the pretty little flowers that also seem to be smiling.

One of these vintage pillowcase packages still has its $1.00 price tag...not the yard sale price...the original retail price. I especially love the print on the right.

Some of these could end up in my vintage swap partner's package...see anything you like?

handmade, homemade, homegrown...mystery wip

My life has been a little bit full lately. Lots and lots of ideas flowing through, but not a lot of them getting completed. So today, I thought it would be fun to play a little game and find the beauty in things that are in a state of incompleteness. So often I catch myself looking for some perfect complete state....but deep down I know that my joy is found right here, right now.

So here are three works in progress...

One homemade...

One handmade...

One homegrown...

Any guesses???? I'll be revealing the answers over the next week as they find a more complete (n0t perfect) state...

it's show time...

We are loading up for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. Well, I should say John's loading up because obviously I'm sitting here in front of the computer. This is our fifth year doing this show, and we were invited artists this year, which just means we didn't have to go through the jurying process because our "score" was high enough last year from the judging that took place during last year's show.

I just wanted to give you a peek at our treasure boxes...of many shapes and sizes. We did a custom order for someone on etsy earlier this year, and we liked the look so much John made several squattier looking boxes.

The first show John ever did, I put a little piece of treasure in each box to make them fun to look in. One little ring box that John made, had tiny little shells in each of six comparments. A guy bought it because he thought they looked like little skulls! Neither of us were happy that was the reason he bought the box, but it made it that guy happy...Now I use fancy, schmancy fabric to line the boxes with for the surprise factor, but also because it makes them each unique. Here's a group peek...

And some of my favorites...okay this ended up being most of them...

Whatever we don't sell this weekend may end up in our etsy shop if I can find time to post them. And I am thinking of bringing back my little treasure sharing game because the best part about treasure is sharing it with someone else;)

I'll probably get a chance to post favorites from the show on Sunday...hope you are having as beautiful a day as we are!

opened doors

Over the last week or so, quite a few doors have opened up for us around here. John was featured in this article on Woodworker Journal’s ezine as Today’s Woodworker earlier this week. That was a great boost for him. He has been working like crazy to get ready for our summer shows and this weekend.

This Sunday, John will be doing a demonstration at the Radius gallery in Harrisburg, PA which is located at the state museum of Pennsylvania. It might not turn out to be the best weekend to be doing a demonstration, but we are honored for the opportunity that came when John was selected to be the July’s featured artist at the gallery. He will be demonstrating the bent lamination technique that he uses to construct our curved benches and also the process of making a butterfly inlay.

A few weeks ago we found a great handmade website called TryHandmade and posted a couple of our pieces in their on-line gallery. This week we found another great blog, called Handmade in PA, and made a great connection with the editor, Tara. I’ll be writing a series of posts there on doing shows and may become a regular contributor. Both sites seem like great resources for artists and people who are interested in buying handmade.

And yesterday, we got word that one of our treasure boxes was featured in a treasury on Etsy.

The doors are opening and we are stepping right on through with gratitude...
I’ll try to post some pictures from the demonstration next week, but for now I’m signing off for the weekend. Enjoy yours!

a few of my favorite things...sean huntington's paintings

I’ve been waiting for a couple of weeks to introduce you to Sean Huntington and his beautiful paintings while he was getting his new website up and running. We met Sean a couple of years ago at Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts when he was a couple of booths away from us. He is a great guy, and his paintings are amazing.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I have a thing for trees. And Sean captures their beauty so uniquely. He uses watercolors and a resist technique to create incredibly stunning paintings of forest landscapes. Most of these forest landscapes are inspired by Pennsylvania forests so that makes them all the more special and attractive to me.

I love his aspen paintings….

He does a lot of shows around Pittsburgh and upstate New York including one at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, NY coming up August 2. This was the original Chautauqua, but there are others around New York and Pennsylvania. If you don’t know anything about Chautauqua’s, they were formed originally as small communities centered around arts, education, religion, and recreation. To me they are really charming picturesque communities and a great place to have an art show and view Sean’s work.

Take a look at Sean’s website; he will be adding more photos in the future. And if you are anywhere near one of the places he is doing a show, stop by and search him out. Not only will you be captivated with his paintings, you will not leave his booth without smiling and laughing because he is funny guy with a great attitude.

handmade...yugen cabinet

John finished up this little beauty this weekend. This is the third cabinet in this line that he has made. This one is has so much going on it is hard to know where to begin. The main wood is some beautifully figured cherry. He chose spalted ambrosia maple for the door panels. Ambrosia is a term for the reaction that the tree has to ambrosia beetles causing a gray oval coloring, and spalted is a term used for the mark left behind by a fungus that gets into the wood causing black streaks and other colors. Nature leaves her mark and the results are spectacularly beautiful.


The top has a copper and malachite inlay to fill a hole in the piece and a butterfly inlay to prevent a crack from splitting further. You can also see a mark in the top where the log roller grabbed the log before it was sawn (lower left corner).




I was reading an article today and learned that the Japanese term yugen means the "profound mystery of things". So it seemed a fitting name for this cabinet. Even with all the trauma the wood endured, beauty prevails.

We listed a small meditation cabinet in our etsy shop today. Hope you are having a splendid weekend!

a few of my favorite things...mike yoder pottery

On Thursdays, I am going to try to share some art from some of my favorite artists. This week, I would like to share Mike Yoder’s pottery from Muddy Run Clayworks.

Years ago, I was looking for a Christmas present for John in a local gift store. I couldn’t decide between a vase that had a tree carved in it or a bowl with the same tree block printed around the outside rim. I was really torn between this choice and went back and forth for quite a while before deciding on the vase. Christmas morning, John and I sat down to open our presents. When he opened the box with the vase he got a peculiar, slightly disappointed look on his face. I was crushed. Then he handed me my gift. It was the bowl! Neither of us had ever seen this potter’s work before and had never been in the store. Each of us thought we had found something the other would be blown away because of its uniqueness. We were and still are.

I love the rustic look and natural earthy colors of Mike’s pottery. And the "tree of life" pieces are still my favorite. Mike and John worked up a deal to trade a complete set of tableware for a yet to be determined piece of furniture. So I am the proud owner of a complete set of tree of life plates, bowls, and mugs. I love that we use these handmade dishes everyday and that each one of them is different and unique. That is the beauty of truly handmade functional art.