Off working

More frequent posts should resume shortly... we're off working, getting ready for Got Craft on May 4!

Product, packed in the vintage suitcase, ready to roll:

Mini-Preview

We all met at my place on Tuesday night so we wanted to post a few pictures.

First, soap! We're doing some new soaps and some ones we've done before. Here's our re-formatted Grapefruit Loofah soap while still in the mold:



Second, as Lisa mentioned the first 30 people in the door at Got Craft will be getting swag bags. One of our new items this year are sets of fabric covered buttons and magnets as inspired by the amazing ones Megan sent us from Japan. So, we decided the swag we're contributing are fabric buttons.



Last, is a new item that I will be making. They are reusable cup cozies. I used to drink coffee or tea every morning so I used to bring a reusable cup. But now I only have it sometimes so I don't carry a cup with me like I used to. This is a small way I can reduce my waste. Plus they're cute. We'll have them in an assortment of fabrics.

Got Craft

We're very excited to be participating in the Got Craft? fair again this year on May 4. We did it last year and had a splendid time - met a pile of fantastically creative indie crafters and artists.

This year looks to be bigger and better with a stellar lineup of vendors, including some people we recognize: Toodlebunny I remember from Portobello West where I fell in love with a necklace at her table and had to be torn away from it (broken hearted), It's Your Life - fabulous new jewlery made of vintage bits, Anabella Designs - more amazing jewelry*.

People we haven't seen before that look awesome: Bootyfly Bags, Irit Sorokin Designs (jewelry), RumahKampung makes tweed Ipod cozies from recycled suit jackets, need I say more?

The biggest problem at this fair will be keeping myself from spending all my money on the fabulousness that will surround me.

Hope some folks in Vancouver can come check it out. The first 30 people in the door get a swag bag filled with free goodies!



*Why does anyone shop in those big generic chain jewelry stores when there are so many fabulous, unique, independent jewelry makers out there?


* * *

Rhiannon here! I just wanted to add something. See those awesome signs there? They were designed by Jaimie of Crookkid who I've blogged about in the past. She's also going to have a table at the fair, where I hope she will be selling these.

Scarfalicious

I made this simple scarf recently - copying a stitch/yarn combination that someone on Ravelry (Ravelry link) had used to great success. It's a diagonal box stitch scarf (crochet) done with Paton's SWS yarn which I love. The colours are fabulous and with this pattern it makes it look like you've switched yarn colours for each diagonal row where in fact you do nothing at all! You can be lazy and just crochet along and the end product looks like you were all fancy-pants with colour changes. That's my kind of pattern.

The scarf now lives with my mom in New Brunswick where it will get a good workout with all the cold weather.

Earth Hour - Saturday, March 29, 8pm

Today is March 29 - that's the day of everyone turning out the lights across the world for Earth Hour!

At 8pm local time - turn off your lights and everything else you can, unplug your stuff and relax for an hour - have a candle-lit party/dinner/playdate, stargaze, tell ghost stories, play advanced hide and seek (doing it with lights on is too easy).

Many cities are participating officially and you can sign up here to get your participation noted - which helps show our governments that this stuff really does matter to us!

A lot of places are also planning to measure the drop in energy use during the event (including Vancouver) - that will be interesting!

So - 8 pm on Saturday (today) - turn out your lights for one hour and have fun. Then - think about what you really need to turn back on and what you can do without.

Easter Sewing Project

First off, this project has absolutely nothing to do with Easter. I have been wanting to make this for at least 6 months. But tonight, on Easter Sunday I finally did it. This was facilitated by my new bedroom set up. This set-up replaced the bookshelf with a table that gives me space for my sewing machine to out all the time.

The before picture: A beautiful but unflattering t-shirt from The Suburbia Clothing.



The inspiration from the project came from this book. However, I lined mine and did angled sides so I didn't really follow the instructions.

And here's the finished pictures:


And here is the next t-shirt that I am going to turn into a purse. The handles are different (colour and shape) and the lining is going to be red. I might even tackle it tomorrow because this first one went really quite quick.

Interior Design - Ikea Hack

I've long been a fan of the website Ikea Hacker which shows awesome projects where people have revamped ikea items to better suit their needs/style. Very cool stuff on there. So when we moved into our latest small apartment and we realized that our 'office' would have to be in our living room, it became clear that I'd need to do something to hide the shelves full of school textbooks and binders. We have enough clutter due to my craft projects all over the place - I have to minimize visual clutter in other ways somehow.

Yesterday we finally made it to the hardware store to get supplies and I hacked something together pretty fast after we got home. We're going to live with it like this for a while and see if we want to put some embellishments on it or not.

Here's the before - messy shelves full of stuff. (Pardon the Christmas decor, this picture is a bit old.) I believe this unit is part of the "Journalist" line at Ikea - that's what the tag on the shelf says; I can't find it on the Ikea website, so I don't know if they still make it.

BEFORE:
And - about $20 later:
And, we've still got easy access - the panels hinge upwards:
I almost don't want to divulge the secret - it's embarassingly simple... but here it is. We got two sheets of that plastic stuff that goes over your lights in the kitchen - the acrylic stuff that comes in "ice crackle" or the dimond pattern. It was the perfect width right off the shelf. I cut it to the height of the shelf then taped the two bits back together with a tiny gap between them so it could bend. Then we slid the short bit under the heavy books on the shelf above. So the plastic isn't mounted to the shelf in any way, it's just wedged under all the books. Ditto for the top shelf - there are a few books on top of the unit holding that cover in place.

Possible modifications for the future - putting fabric or coloured paper on the inside to further hide the clutter and make more of a statement... or alternatively maybe just some trim on the bottom edges to define the 2 shelves.... we'll see....

Spring Preview

We have been spending a bunch of time sewing the last few weeks to build up our stock of pouches for the spring season. We're going to be focusing on local craft fairs rather than etsy so if you see something you must have, please come to one of our fairs, or email us and we can make arrangements.

Also, it's important to note that Rhi does all the sewing of the pouches. Lisa and I cut fabric, iron things, prepare the pouches into little ready to sew packages, help turn things inside out, and give tons of verbal encouragement about how awesome they look.

Anyway, onto the pictures, complete with low-lighting and even a little blurriness.



















Also, we were very excited to be featured on another blog for the second time. Thanks!!!

Follow the Lines

(Above quilt & photo by Sasikirana)
Kalin and Lisa were over tonight and I showed them my new sewing books. Lisa was particularly taken with the "Follow-the-Lines Baby Quilt" in Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. This si something I am definitely going to try once I get a machine that can do free motion. It's a great idea, especially if there's a fabric you really really love, you're not crazy about piecing, or you're just plain running out of time.

(Above quilt and photo by Mariarosa)
I told Lisa I'd send her the links to some pics I had starred on flickr, but then I figured I might as well blog about them. I don't know any of the makers and I certainly didn't have anything to do with the making of the quilts. I do however think the work is gorgeous and wanted to give it special attention.


Especially on this last one, the quilting can almost make it look like the designs were appliquéd on. And the same technique can be used to make totally different looking quilts depending on the fabric.

2 Quick Links

I really should be going to bed because I have an earlier than normal start tomorrow but I found something that's not entirely craft related that I really wanted to share.

Basically, it shows that I love the community I grew up in. I grew up on commercial drive. It was awesome and I only moved away from it a few years ago. I would move back there if circumstances allow. On a larger scale though, I think this article about commercial drive also says something about the philosophy you can find in Vancouver that also makes me love the whole city sometimes.

Finally the link: Street Banners become shopping bags!

I did say two links though. The second one is throughly craft related. The only crochet magazine I buy, Interweave Crochet, has released it's spring preview online. There's some clear favorite patterns already on Ravelry (troubadour socks, butterscoth cardigan) I'm loving the geometric dress, though it will require a neckline modification for me. The stitch pattern looks perfect for summer, and the hemline is just like one of my absolute favorite skits.

At last the link: IC Spring preview