Category — Craftiness

New necklaces (the Santa Cruz designs) are in the shop!

… two new designs!

Unfortunately, the coral is gone or spoken for.  Maybe some silver? Check them out on the right.

Hey friends, I have four necklace designs up in my brand new Etsy Shop, and many more to come. I’ll let you know as I put more out there. (There are multiples of the designs, so don’t be afraid to check them out.)

The way the story goes is that I wanted to buy something in Thailand, for resale, but was disappointed by what I was finding. So I decided to buy beads! Lots of beads.  And make things that I was really excited about. My favorite so far is the one pictured above.

So there you are, go check it out. Shipping is free in the United States and Canada.

Love,

Rae

Look how good the kids are in the van:

Except that the last picture is a shot of my shoes, not of Kid A, because Kid A was so far in the back of the van, surrounded by so much stuff, that a photo opportunity did not present itself.

We’re here!  Whew.  I need to chill a bit, and then tomorrow I’m going to bake another cake for a second (family) birthday celebration, which is also simply an opportunity to bake that spice cake again.  Mmmm mmm.

But what I want to tell you about is my friends in Portland who are the cutest and most creative girls in Portland.  (Possibly.)

They make hats and other clothing out of recycled teddy bears, like this hat that Leafy is sporting.  (This is the face he made when I said “Smile!”)

But not just kids’ hats– also hats for grownups who love stuffed animals.  I tried on a koala and a red bear.  Check out their Myspace Page and harass them for online ordering.

More later.  The men have cooked, tonight, and now we eat.

I haven’t got a photo of Leafy in his Indian Prince costume yet, but I will.

(Can you guess what I’m saying to get Kid A to smile like that?  Works every time…)

Last night I started piecing YaYa’s quilt. (Do you like how I wrote piecing, like a real quilter?  Pretty snazzy.)

I couldn’t help thinking of my Grandma, while my machine hummed away.  I think she gave me my sewing machine when I was about thirteen? Fourteen?.  My grandparents owned a fabric and notions shop for most of my life, and to this day, the smell, when I walk into a yarn shop or a fabric store, the smell conjures my strong and creative grandma.

It was quiet, last night, since everyone was gone.  I got a lot done, for me, for the first time I’ve tried this in, let’s see- fourteen years.  I could see my Grandma, sitting at her machine, talking through a mouth full of pins.  She always holds her pins between her lips while she sews, and if you think it’s hard to understand someone who is brushing their teeth and talking, you should try interpreting for someone who’s trying not to be stabbed in the lip with a pin.

I pinned and sewed and cut and ironed.  I could smell their house, feel the coolness of the basement, that summer when Grandma decided to help my sister and I put together log cabin quilts.  It gets hot in Edmonton in the summer, and her basement with the cool air and our lemony iced tea was a good place to be.

It seemed magic to me, then, following the instructions to pin this piece to that piece, and sew this to that, and then you iron it  and there before your eyes is a quilt piece, built like a log cabin, turning around itself.   It still seems like magic.

One of the worst things about my Grandma being sick is that she can no longer sew, like she has all her life.  Last night I thought, maybe I can show her my quilt as it progresses, across all these miles.  So, I’m going to show Grandma my quilt as I make it.  I emailed her these two photos today, and I almost can’t wait to send her more.