Maker Faire & Me

Snapshots of my day at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011.


Neon forest.


Egg buddies.


Giant felt Totoro. <3


Pacific Pinball camper.


Neat architecture.


There was an entire avenue of these guys. And they were interactive, to boot!


Interactive sound-mobile.


Wall-o-Stick n Clicks



The Scrap Tent. Tables of clothing, fabric scraps, notions galore, and sewing stations.


The Homegrown Village--booths dedicated to urban agriculture of all kinds. I'm totally setting up aluminum can planters at the new place.


Carousolar--the solar powered carousel.


The butchery demo. 1/2 pig sliced into familiar shapes right in front of my eyes. Really neat.


My maker doing his thing.


My goodies from the scrap tent: safety pins and scrap fabric for future embroidery projects.


Starter needle felting supplies courtesy of Moxie. This will soon be a mushroom. Right now I'm working on the stem. Hopefully I'll be able to add some spots. Stay tuned!

This Week in Crafts

Week of May 16, 2011

I joined

A neat new social networking site that allows users to create digital inspiration boards. You create an account and "pin" images that you like to one of your boards. You can create lots of boards and pin just about anything. You can even repin other Pinterest users' pins, announce your activity on Facebook or Twitter, and follow other users. Pretty neat. I spent a couple of nights going through all my bookmarks and pinning projects, sweet design, recipes, art, flowers, oddities, and vintage goodies. Check me out.

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Went to Maker Faire (Bay Area) 2011

I'm not quite finished with the photos yet, so here's a taste.

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Learned how to needle felt.

I saw lots of interesting people, wandered through a bunch of tents, and watched some neat demos at Maker Faire on Saturday. Needle Felting with Moxie was one of my favorites, especially because I was able to snag the last slot for the hands-on demo. Moxie gave us a crash course in needle felting safety (basically don't poke yourself) and let us experiment. Plus, she sent us home with a starter kit: a foam block, a needle, and a handful of wool roving. Hopefully, someday soon, this pink blob will become a mushroom.

This Week in Crafts

Week of May 9, 2011

Not much crafting this week. My plans to continue the bolero and start on this week's Iron Craft Challenge were thwarted by an unforeseen change in circumstances that has led to us looking for a new place to live. We've been apartment hunting and filling out rental applications all week.

The only upside: this whole apartment business motivated me to take a close look at my art supplies. I got rid of some supplies and sorted through my stash of collage materials.

flowers and fabric

And I finally got around to photographing my most recent additions to my yarn stash.

My dear friend Christina hauled this mound of yarn all the way back to the States from her epic trek through Nepal. There's four big skein of brilliant blue yak yarn and three skeins of yarn made from recycled saris. They still smell like the international open air markets from which they came...and it's glorious.

Happy Friday

Happy Friday everyone! Treat yourself with this super cute kitty video.
You're welcome.

This Week in Crafts

Week of May 2, 2011

A fair amount of crafting this week:

Mother's Day goodies for the mothers (biological and otherwise) in my life.


Sachets stuffed with lavender and handsewn together with embroidery thread.


Soothing bath mix of oatmeal, lavender, rose, and chamomile--purchased from an Etsy seller but packaged by me.


I added some fabric to the lids (to cover up the Starbucks logo) and included a tag with instructions.

I also worked on the bolero, but not enough to report on. Except that I think I've reached an impasse...

Farm Fresh Diary

May 7, 2011




First cherries of the season.


Pencil thin asparagus. Also known as lunch.


Vine ripe tomatoes.


Wheat bread from Panorama.




Breakfast. (Also from Panorama.)

This Week in Crafts

Week of April 25, 2011

Magic mystery box.

What could be inside?


Crafty Goodies! Passed on to me by my grandmother. Shall we take a closer look?


A neat flashy applique.


Pins and 2 sweet (now vintage) flower brooches.


And thread! Lots and lots of thread. Plus buttons and a mighty sturdy thimble.




I also worked on my summer bolero. I'm making progress. It's slow going at the moment but I made it through the first part.