stuff

Despite spending the past year mostly blogging about my seemingly endless battle with clutter (and how to creatively transform that clutter), after a week of eating dinner on the floor and sleeping on an air mattress that requires a nightly topping off (and still isn't that comfortable, even after a west coast upgrade), I am pretty much living for Friday, when we're schedule to receive and unload our Pod. In fact, our moving crate is already in the area, having arrived in nearby Hayward today but because of schedules and parking permits and other such nonsense, Friday is still the earliest we can get at it.

Can't. Wait.

More on the move later, as well as the bizarre but ultimately pretty great experience of being back in my old/new neighborhood.

shake your booty

Alright, folks, here they are, the long awaited SYTYCD booty - I mean, "cheerleader" - shorts.


I can't remember now why I wanted to make these (although I guess I do have a bit of a history of ironing velour letters onto cotton apparel), but make them I did. Good luck getting me into these things, though, so they're up for grabs on my Etsy shop. The shorts are 100% cotton, gray, "ladies" size medium, and the letters are hot pink (dare I say my favorite color these days?) and white.


And that's it for my crafty ways until the dust settles for us on the other side of the country in about a month or so. Unfortunately, the number of boxes I've yet to pack greatly outweigh the unfinished projects on my ongoing to-do list.

As for the show, I feel like the dancers are finally hitting their stride (so far, at least, as the night's episode is only about halfway over as I type this). I was really disappointed the judges eliminated Katee's roommate when they did (I can't remember her name! That's what happens when you wait several weeks to blog about it...). Otherwise the show got off to a great start with that very first number choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon. I'm enjoying their numbers as much as I did last summer, as well as routines put together by Dave Scott, Shane Sparks, of course, and even Mia Michaels. I still think she's a tad overrated but was pleasantly surprised by the group number she did on last week's results show. As for the dancers, I think the gals overall are pretty strong, although I think Caitlin and Karla need to get their hands a little dirtier, if you know what I mean. Of the guys, I like Chbeeb for what he does and his personality, but I haven't been all that impressed with how he's handled the choreography he's been dealt. My faves are Ade and Vitolio, with Evan a close third. Yeah, so I pretty much like just about everyone still. I have a hard time picking out favorites until we get to the top 10. 'Til then...

assignment consignment

Thanks to a friend and former student of mine, I'm sending this set of coasters


and this set of coasters


to this store, on consignment. They take a lot more than Etsy does but they do a bit better than a gallery and well, let's be honest, they weren't exactly selling like hot cakes anyway.


And that's just about it for my crafty ways until we settle in Oakland since I officially packed up my entire arts & crafts corner today. I have one final project that I'll post later this week (there's a little teaser for you, above) that will also provide a nice segueway to finally write a few words about So You Think You Can Dance, Friday Night Lights, and other recent television obsessions. Hey, a girl's gotta unwind, right?

flying + felines = fun

Right? No? Last time we flew cross-country we learned a few things about flying with your feline friends. Mainly, don't do it if you don't have to. But if you have to, sedatives probably won't do much good and if you can keep them covered they may freak out just a little bit less. I remember our one-way flight almost four years ago from Oakland to Boston. Our friends were so kind to pick us up while it was still dark out and drive us, all our remaining belongings, and our two cats to the airport. Our two cats who had just about returned to a feral state by the time we got to the airport, through the long check-in and security lines, to the waiting area near the gate, and then finally, to the safe, secure spot underneath the seats in front of us, where our feet should've been. After the two-hour ordeal I thought surely the flight itself would be equally hellish. But as soon as we tucked them under the seats like little carry-on bags, they calmed down, curled up, and seemed to sleep peacefully for the rest of the five hour flight. When we got to Boston I put my jacket over them as I waited for Neal to return with the rental car and they remained calm. Which is why this time around, on their one-way flight back to California with Neal and my mother-in-law, who has so kindly agreed to house them temporarily while we finish packing and make the move with the toddler in a few weeks, we decided to forego the drugs and instead focus our energy on creating some sort of cover for their itty, bitty carriers.

I was torn between using felt and fleece (having narrowed down my options to those two non-fraying materials because I knew I wouldn't have time to whip out the sewing machine for the job the night before the big trip...not to mention the fact that this is the sewing machine I've barely used since I was about 14) but in the end decided felt would probably offer the best combination of sturdiness and breathability. I went with the beige, which in hindsight seems unnecessarily drab, because I figured it matched the carriers and the light material won't soak up any sun they happen to be in during their journey.


First I created a template with some brown wrapping paper.


Then I made some minor adjustments to the template before committing any of the two yards of felt I bought for the job.


I traced the template onto the felt, cut it out, and attached some velcro to the corners to keep the cover fairly snug to the outside of the carrier.


It's like a nicely wrapped little package of kitty goodness!


The packaged kitties are en route as I type, so I'm not sure if this last-minute DIY project will, in the end, make all that much difference. Xander hissed at me initially but quieted down as soon as I put the cover on and I didn't hear so much as a peep from him for the rest of the car ride. Sophie, on the other hand, still managed to, um, relieve herself minutes after being crammed into the carrier, but fortunately did so before we left so we were able to clean her up at home and not at the airport. However, because of her little incident, she's now curled up on a kitchen towel instead of the plush mat that came with the carrier. But other than that and some minor howling on the way to the airport, Neal's pre-flight report seemed to indicate that all went as well as could be expected. Hopefully the carrier covers will prove to induce a calming effect on the other end of their trip as well.

crazy cat lady

It's that time of year again.


Even though we'll soon be headed to considerably less humid territory, we decided to stick with tradition and get the kitties groomed and clipped again. Typically, only Sophie gets the full spa treatment, since her cottony fur tends to mat and she absolutely loathes being brushed. She doesn't self-groom all that well either these days so we've actually had her groomed and clipped year-round since last summer. Xander, on the other hand, is quite the groomer. In fact, he licked himself straight to a self-induced skin infection, possibly brought on by the winter air made bone dry by the heater, which we kept a little warmer than usual this past winter with the latest addition to the family in mind. That seems to be under control but now we have this crazy medicated spray we have to massage into his fur and brush out on a regular basis. Fortunately, he loves being brushed, but to get things started we decided to have him groomed and clipped this time. As luck would have it, despite writing on their little cards that customer prefers the blended version of the lion clip, whoever did the clipping did not in fact blend the shorn areas into the fluff around the head, paws, and tail. But I think the little poofballs at the ends of their tails are just delightful, don't you.

Aw yeah, I've finally gone and crossed the crazy cat lady line!

stationery fit for a queen

I'm not giving these away for free, but in the spirit of the Makery, I wanted to write a few words about the latest addition to my more paper-based Etsy shop.


Folded notecards created from prints created from imagery from Sofia Coppola's film, Marie Antoinette - fitting, no? As I continued to sift through all the stuff we've accumulated during our nearly four years in Beantown this past weekend, I came across a couple of large sheets of screenprinted paper, proofs for the wallpaper I've blogged about a couple of times already. I didn't want to just toss them so I decided to make stationery from the best bits of the print proofs, layering a lighter weight blank text page inside and pairing each card with a handmade translucent, magenta envelope.


Each note is packaged in a clear cellophane sleeve and available for sale at three bucks a pop.


The listing is for one note only, but I have a dozen of these so just "convo" me, as they say in Etsy-land (short for conversation), if you'd like more and I'd be happy to create a custom listing for you. Collect all twelve!

new, weird, old art

I know I should be packing or organizing some element of this crazy, cross-country move, but I need a break. A sit down in front of my laptop for a good while kinda break. I spent the better part of Elias's morning nap yesterday struggling with my printer, so it's nice to spend a little time catching up on things that involve little to no hardware.

During my last weeks in Boston, I'm trying to check a few things off my sightseeing to do list, and yesterday re-visited the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln. The three miles from the freeway to the museum seem long but the drive is just lovely, especially this time of year, when you can really appreciate the foliage New England has to offer. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit gray and misty but we still managed to take a nice stroll through the sculpture park.


We followed that with a quick tour of their new exhibit inside, The Old, Weird America, which includes work by a couple of contemporary artists I quite like, including Kara Walker, Allison Smith and Sam Durant. Although I have to admit that I think I missed Walker's work completely (that's what happens when your companion is not even a year old). I believe I blogged briefly about Durant's work after our first summer in Boston, when his solo show in one of MassArt's galleries followed shortly after a visit to Plymoth and Plimoth Plantation. The thing I enjoy most about his work, strangely, is the way the diorama rotates, ever so slowly, almost imperceptibly so as to surprise you and maybe even reward you a little for hanging out long enough to notice. Allison Smith's work I first saw after a fellow Bellwether Gallery artist, Amy Wilson, visited the Museum School and mentioned her work during a critique. Smith's contribution to the DeCordova show is interesting but doesn't quite match up to the project I'm most familiar with, The Muster. Anyway, the show and artists are all worth checking out if you're into folk themes, American history, and historical reenactment. Amy Wilson's website is definitely worth a visit as well, so long as we're talking about art and stuff. She's an example of one of those rare instances when actually meeting an artist and listening to her talk about her work adds to your appreciation of her practice instead of taking away from it.

thanks fuh nuthin'

That was fun. Elias and I took a stroll to the nearest post office this morning to send that box o' yarn (that I ended up putting in a large envelope but that's neither here nor there) to lucky winner Java Diva. Can't wait to see what she does with all that leftover cotton yarn. Anyway, this is never my favorite outing. I usually go to a post office branch in a suburb south of Boston since it's close to an area of shopping I frequent about once a week or so. It's a decent walk to this particular branch, through a less than desirable neighborhood of Dorchester, past an auto shop that almost always features at least one ginormous SUV blocking the sidewalk. But things worked out this morning to go for a short walk and I had that package to send so off we went.

There were just two people in line ahead of me and yet I had to wait for almost ten minutes to get to the front. I always state what I want when I put my package on the scale, no extra services, thank you. Delivery confirmation? No thanks. Insurance? No thanks. Any extra services? No thanks. No, no, no, NO! I'm not the most patient person in the world but I'm civil, polite, sometimes downright chatty. Anyway, despite asking for first class, all I see on the screen is priority mail and it's a bit more than I anticipated. So I ask for clarification, thinking maybe she didn't hear me when I requested first class. She barks back at me that it's the same thing for a package this size and weight. Okay, how 'bout parcel post? Usually you see a list of options on that screen, right? So she huffs and puffs, takes the priority sticker off, punches in some other numbers and letters and offers me the parcel post rate at a savings of 8 cents. Well, for 8 cents more, I might as well stick with priority, and that's what I tell her. I'm not happy about the lack of options, and I guess I let her know that, but I didn't attack her personally. I proceeded to get exact change from my wallet. Meanwhile she's still fiddling with the computer in front of her and I'm thinking what is taking her so long to print out another priority sticker, right? So finally she plops on the parcel post sticker and I guess I snapped at her a bit, saying no, I said I was fine with priority if it's only a difference of 8 cents. She barks back, that's what I was trying to tell you. Really? Because I thought you were basically not sharing my options with me and instead trying to tell me that priority is in fact what I asked for when I asked for first class. Whatever, lady, just charge me for priority so I can get on with my day. Meanwhile, she's trying to get the cashier next to her to gang up on me, asking her if that's what she understood me to be saying when I said go ahead and charge me for priority. And looking at the line that's formed as if I'm the reason things take forever at the post office, not the fact that they chit chat with the locals and then try to offer you a bazillion services you didn't ask for. She hands me my receipt and tells me, in an annoying I'm killing you with kindness kind of way, I hope your day gets better. Listen, lady, my day was going just fine until I stepped into this post office. But thanks. Or as they say around here, thanks fuh nuthin'!

And it turns out I could have sent the half dozen or so skeins of yarn in one of those priority mail envelopes that they hand out - for free - for a flat rate of $4.95. I mean, maybe she assumed I wouldn't want to transfer over the contents of my parcel but at least she could have told me for future reference, you know?

Sheesh.

Anyway, needless to say, with this move and all, as happy as I am to give this stuff away for free, I probably shouldn't be spending this kind of money every week on postage. And I don't want to make anyone who's "won" so far feel bad. Honestly, it's usually a matter of a couple of bucks. But I've got a lot of crafty stuff to give away over the next month and a half. So if I think something's going to be more than what I'd spend on a cup of coffee, I'm going to list it in my Etsy shop, as supplies, and essentially just charge the priority mail flat rate for the envelope or box that'll fit whatever's up for grabs that week. Deal?

All that said, if you're interested in the latch hook materials, here's the link to the listing. Because you can't list items for free on Etsy, the materials are technically $1, with shipping an extra $9. The priority mail flat rate box that should work for this stash of supplies is just shy of $10 so that seemed fair.

I mean, honestly, you'd think the economy being what it is, everyone fearing for their jobs, even some folks who never thought their job would be in jeopardy, that customer service would go up a notch. No such luck, not at the post office anyway. Not around here.

wanna be a hooker?

I'm a day late on this but, as they say, better late than never. And I am giving this stuff away for free so you can't really complain, can you? Not that you would...


Up for grabs this week is everything you need to make a latch hook rug, wall-hanging, or pillow similar to the pillow I made from a photo of Georgia O'Keefe taken by Alfred Steiglitz, originally blogged about here.


The pillow can be purchased for a mere fifty bucks in my Etsy shop.

At some point while I was working on the pillow, I must have purchased enough canvas and yarn to latch hook at least one other female artist's image. I'm pretty sure I even prepped several possible images to choose from but I can't seem to find them anywhere on my laptop, flash drive, or various back-up CDs. Doesn't matter too much since I'm passing these materials along to one lucky reader (hook included!). If you have some hookin' to do, leave me a comment on this post and I'll enter your name in a random drawing I'll do at the end of the week.

And stay tuned for more crafty giveaways of the raw materials variety in the weeks to come. Just six to eight weeks until our cross-country move. Yikes! I may need to do two or three posts a week to give away all the stuff I have in mind.

box o' yarn...kitty not included

No, time is not passing even faster than usual; I skipped out on the Makery altogether last week. I did actually manage to make a wee bit of progress on the whole operation declutter mission, whittling down a box of random stuff from Elias's first 11 months into this very neat and tidy scrapbook storage box.

Before:


And after:



Ah, much better. Nothing to give away there, though, unless, of course, you'd like a banker's box shredded by Xander (why is a cardboard box always more compelling than the multiple cat posts we've purchased precisely for this purpose?).

This week, however, since I've been busy the past couple of weeks crocheting a boa-type scarf (just in time for summer!), I thought I'd go through my various craft bins and get rid of leftover yarn.


The maroon chenille is leftover from said boa, and the rest of the yarn (minty green, light blue, and a bit of bright orange cotton yarn) I bought initially for this blanket and subsequently tried to use up making these coasters and then more coasters.


If you think you can get a little life out of this box o' yarn (Sophie not included), leave me a comment on this post and I'll enter your name in the random drawing I'll do at the end of the week.

As for that boa, it's taking me way longer to make than I thought it would and I even had to run out and buy more yarn to finish it (which is ironic since the only reason I'm making it is to use the first skein of chenille yarn I had on hand that I bought a couple of years ago when I thought I'd try to teach myself how to knit...turns out I'm a one-hook kind of crafter). I'm still deciding whether I'll keep it or give it away but stay tuned for that.

rainbows and things

The first rainbow of the season, as seen from our front porch as a thunderstorm passed through. The skies were indeed pretty dramatic as they tend to be this time of year as we returned from our mid-day "adventure" with the little one. We took him to the Tufts University art gallery to check out the final MFA thesis show of the year. I took him to the April show as well but I definitely didn't want to miss this installment, knowing that the show included an interactive sculpture by Elizabeth Amento, an artist I mostly know as a painter.


I enjoyed how surprisingly different the installation was from the work she was making when I had a more regular presence at SMFA and yet undeniably from the same artist.


I think Elias liked it, too.

fresh from the Makery: relocation edition

Nope, I didn't make this. Actually, I didn't make any of the stuff included in this week's project, a relaxation/sleep kit I put together for the first of a series of special relocation edition Makery posts. Nothing's final, but it's looking more and more likely that the family and I are going to say farewell to Boston this summer. It feels a little like the end of a slightly disappointing weekend in Vegas. I have no regrets - there are a lot of good things that have happened during the four years we've been here, and we always imagined we'd return to the west coast eventually, but professionally, for me at least, it's just not happening.

More on that as it unfolds. In the meantime, as you might imagine, I'm pretty busy going through stuff, getting rid of stuff, and starting to pack stuff. Even if we switch gears in the next couple of weeks, seriously tackling the clutter situation here will be a good thing. I may still make things from time to time, but for the most part, you can expect posts about what fun reorganizing project I've tackled that week, which may or may not involve a giveaway of some sort.


On that note, what I have to offer this week is primarily based on a sleep kit Neal brought home from a business trip several months ago. In addition to the audio CD, sleep mask, linen spray, and ear plugs, I've thrown in a body lotion sample from Victoria's Secret and a tea bag/coaster kit I picked up in Sisters, Oregon. Funny story, actually. I bought a couple of these handmade coasters to give as gifts to two of my in-laws, but several months after giving the first away, I couldn't remember who I'd given it to and didn't want to accidentally give the same thing to the same person twice. So it made its way to the bottom of my bag of gift wrap, gift boxes, and, occasionally, random gifts until I rediscovered it yesterday. The bag was part of a lovely graduation gift last year but the truth is I have all the toiletry bags I need so rather than toss this, I thought I'd use it to keep all the parts of this little kit together.

If you need a compelling reason to catch up on your sleep or just relax one weekend afternoon in the near future, leave me a comment on this post and I'll enter your name in the random drawing I'll do at the end of the week.

a dollop of daisy

With Mother's Day fast approaching and a limited budget, I decided to make a small set of notecards for my mother-in-law. You know how much I enjoy the embroidered French knot, and I saw somewhere how someone had used the delightful little stitch to create the center of sunflowers and such made from fabric. So I decided to give it a try using paper, and it worked out pretty well.


As with anything else, the third flower was a bit better than the first one I tried, but overall, I was pretty satisfied with this small set of three notes in green, blue, and purple. I may have to make another set to sell in my Etsy shop (like the mini thank you's that have yet to make their way there!).

In other news, I've been sitting on this for awhile, but I can't possibly wait a year and a half to share. After what feels like four months of non-stop job applications and responses to calls for exhibitions and the like, I finally got a bit of good news in the mail last week. My solo exhibition proposal for the smaller of two galleries at this art center in nearby Lynn was accepted...for September...2010! Which gives me plenty of time to put the final details on an installation that will pair the chick flick notecards with the related screenprinted wallpaper (you can see both here). The wallpaper has been exhibited a couple of times before, but I think this revised configuration with the stationery will hopefully allow one to provide context for the other. Lots of details to work out between now and then and I will, of course, blog about it again before the show opens. Now I need to work on squeezing in something for 2009...

is it Monday already?

Although I had about three or four ideas for the Makery for this week, sadly, it doesn't look like any of those projects are going to be realized in time for my usual Monday deadline. I spent too much time last week embroidering animal-shaped pieces of felt, was away for the weekend, and have too much to do today. Sigh. I'm actually a little surprised I was able to keep it up for eleven straight weeks before taking a brief hiatus. I hope to get back on track this week and have something fresh to post next Monday.

In the meantime, congrats to Java Diva. You won last week's miniature thank you notes. Email me your address and I'll pop those in the mail to you within the next couple of days!

Mother's Cookies notecards, take two

Am I restless or what? Not even three full days after I posted my Mother's Cookies notecards, I had redesigned another set, this time omitting the blue paper and going for a sleeker, more minimal look. The only reason I was using the blue border was because I had that color envelopes leftover from Elias's birth announcements. And since I've made the redesign the blue border is actually growing on me, but as soon as I posted the cards in my shop, something was nagging me to revise things a little. The revised cards are white cookies on pink paper with a lighter weight white paper on the inside, left blank for the sender's message of course, paired with a white envelope. And vice versa (pink cookie on white card with lighter weight pink paper inside and pink envelope). Like the blue bordered set, the redesigned card is available as an individual note or as a set (or, for that matter, as I write in my product description, feel free to contact me if you need more than three). Both versions are now available in my Etsy shop. I've already had two sales, one of each design, which is incredibly exciting. Really made my day yesterday.


And that's it as far as redesigns go. I've eaten the half-dozen or so cookies that remained by the time I was ready to photograph the second set (yep, what you see pictured is all that remained by that point).

fresh from the Makery: portable gratitude

I'm actually not very creative. As often happens, this week's project is inspired by something I saw elsewhere and decided to make my own, slightly more crafty version.


Standing in line at Paper Source with some pink and white paper goods for my Mother's Cookies notecards redesign (more on that in a later post), I noticed these miniature thank you cards. Great idea, right? Part of me feels a little guilty about making my own version for the Makery, but on the other hand, nothing wrong with a little competition. And it's not like I'm making any money off of these...yet!


Anyway, my portable thank you cards are a tad bigger, measuring 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. The white card is layered over some of that orange paper I purchased recently, as mentioned in my last post. I think I did a pretty good job of matching the ink to the paper color. Both the orange paper and "giddyup" font were inspired by the little starfish die cut motif. I've had this particular paper punch for awhile but had never used it in a project. It's a little random I guess. Seahorses seem like generous creatures, though, what with the males carrying the babies and all.


The set of ten cards comes with a felt holder, which, sadly, will only hold about half of the set at a time. But, really, how likely is it that you're going to have more than a few people to spontaneously thank in one day? So carrying four or five at a time should be sufficient. Otherwise, you're probably being a little too generous with your gratitude.


The cards plus holder are packaged in a cellophane sleeve and ready to send to the lucky winner, who will be determined from the names of folks who leave a comment on this post by the end of the week. If you like what you see, you know what to do. If you're new to the Makery, you can find some background info to your right.

And, hey, thanks for playing!

fresh from the Makery: pink pom pom pushpins

The alliteration is completely coincidental, I promise. And I should confess, right off the bat, that I broke my own rules this week, running to Michael's to buy all but one "ingredient" for this week's project. What can I say, I needed a break from myself.


I have lots of pushpins on hand, left over from two years of working in a crappy studio where I did little more than pin stuff to the walls and then spend days contemplating my next move. So I thought I'd give the dozen or so metal pushpins that I have on hand a little makeover. Naturally, that involved pink pom poms.


And I've learned a bit about pom poms this morning, as I edit my images and put together this post. Is it pom pon or pom pom, one word or two? I've always wondered that, ever since my middle school days when I belonged to a cheerleading-like dance troupe called, simply, Pom Pons. Turns out the word comes from the French pompon (not to be confused with the French sculptor), referring to a spherical ornament of some kind, like, in this case, a ball of fluffy, pink material.


There are twelve pushpins in the set, each one adorned with a pink pom pom, and stored on a small piece of cork in a brown box with a decorative ribbon trim. If your bulletin board needs a little flair, leave me a comment on this post and I'll enter your name in the random drawing that I'll do at the end of the week to determine the lucky winner of this week's giveaway.

I also bought a few pieces of white and pink felt to make more Mother's Cookies notecards to put in one of my Etsy shops (not sure which shop is the appropriate venue). I'll post a link once they're up and available so stay tuned for that.

fresh from the Makery: embroidered summer constellation flashcards

After last week's project I wanted to do something else with embroidery, specifically employing the oddly satisfying French knot. Naturally, I thought of toying with pointillism, but embroidering a crafty remake of, say, Seurat's famous Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte would probably take a little more than the week I give myself to complete each of these projects. I suppose I could work on something more ambitious on the side, but in the meantime, I had to think of what else I could use the stitch to create. Other than sprinkles and confetti, the little knots also reminded me of stars so I thought it would be fun to embroider a few constellations.


As usual, I wasn't sure exactly what to do with the embroidered paper but as (I thought) I had a couple more of the artist trading card holders similar to the one I used for the first Makery project, I thought I'd make a small set of flashcards. Since I had only one sheet of this dark blue paper on hand I had to come up with a way to select just a few constellations and went with seven summer star patterns.


Each of the seven cards is backed with a white card printed, in matching blue ink, with the name of the constellation embroidered on front. Unfortunately, when I went to package the finished cards in the ATC holder, I discovered that both remaining holders are cracked, so I put the set in this plastic sleeve instead.


Can you tell I'm not totally satisfied with this week's project? The embroidery was fun and I'm happy with the way the constellations turned out but I've noticed I have a tendency to design projects that are functional in some way. Like how I plopped last week's felt "cookies" on note cards. I'm never sure if I should just get over it or try harder to come up with project ideas that folks can use in some way. And I suppose flashcards are functional, if you want to learn seven of the constellations you're likely to see on a clear, summer night. If that's the case, leave me a comment on this post and your name will be entered in the random drawing I'll do at the end of the week to determine the lucky recipient of this project.

Meh. I think I need a nap.

sorry, you're not a winner

Eight weeks into this project and I finally had to do a real drawing to see who would win the embroidered felt circus animal cookie stationery duo posted last Monday. With Neal as my witness, Meredith was the name I pulled out of the hat. Congratulations, Mer! Also on its way to you is a variation on week seven's hot cocoa for one.


Since I had more cocoa mix, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows on hand, and there were only two folks interested in that week's project, I decided I'd send the hot cocoa for one to Jolina and put together another hot cocoa kit for two for Mer (and Jef...happy belated birthday!), using a larger baby food jar and topping it with still more decorative felt from that V-Day bag that's made its way into several of the Makery projects. Everyone's happy!

Unfortunately, while I do want to make more of the circus animal cookie stationery (I'm thinking a set of four notes - two white cookies, two pink - to attempt to sell in my Etsy shop), I'll need to actually go out and buy more felt since that V-day bag is finally down to a few, barely usable scraps. So to those of you who did not win this round, thanks for playing and, as they say, you can't win if you don't play (of course, you can't lose if you don't play either, but let's ignore that part).

fresh from the Makery: homage to Mother's Cookies

More felt, more embroidery, more stationery.


This week's project - a set of two 3 1/2 by 5 inch folded note-cards with matching envelopes - is a sort of homage to Oakland-based Mother's Cookies, which I learned a couple of weeks ago went out of business last fall, meaning their frosted Circus Animal cookies are no more (except on eBay, of course).


For now at least. Shortly after learning that the company went out of business I came across a few more articles that explained how Kellogg's, I believe it is, bought up the rights and recipes and plans to resume making the popular - and addictive - little cookies sometime this year. The closest thing I've found are Keebler's "animals cookies frosted" (that's what it says on the bag, just like that, in that order), which are okay but not nearly as good as Mother's. Even the color of the frosting is kind of dull and there are very few sprinkles (or jimmies, if you're on the east coast). Too bad for Mother's (not to mention all the folks who worked there) but probably not so bad for my diet.

So I wanted to do something to celebrate these little cookies. I knew I wanted to use some of the pink felt left over from that re-purposed Valentine's Day gift bag I've gotten quite a bit of life out of, but I wasn't sure what. I've got a lot of paper products on hand so, as they say, when all else fails, make stationery (actually, no one says that, but that's what I did).


I cut out shapes from the felt scraps that vaguely resemble rhino and lion blobs and created the sprinkles by embroidering French knots in white, blue, red, and yellow (which, oddly, is loads of fun...I'm trying to think of what I can do next with this little trick...crafty pointillism perhaps?). The French knots do double duty to adhere the animals to the white cards below. I mounted those to blue paper that matches the color of the envelopes, and then attached the whole thing to a folded note that matches the pink felt.


I even have little plastic sleeves and a matching blue ribbon to protect and nicely package this stationery duo. Want a diet-friendly alternative to Mother's addictive little cookies? Have a fellow Mother's Cookies enthusiast with whom you'd like to correspond? If so, leave me a comment on this post and these little notes could be yours by the end of the week.