Made in 2007

My second online year is coming to a close and I want to thank you all for the inspiration, feedback, and motivation. I really enjoy sharing the narrative of your lives. I love this crafty community! I can't wait to learn new things, see pictures of the next batch of babies, and witness the strengths of you all.

Many years ago, my very inspirational high school art teacher, Katie, had us imagine what a calendar year looked liked. Every one had such different ideas. What does *your* year look like? Can you make a representation of it? Or, is it too abstract? I'd love to hear/see what your year looks like, even if it doesn't make it onto paper, or some other medium. I'll share my idea in the comments after awhile, so I can leave you with a blank canvas.

Cheers!
Michelle

Give a kid a camera

and he'll take photos. It's so fun to see what catches his eye.

Grandma got him one of these. The image quality is lacking, but I kind of like the grainy, blown out look.

Now I need to go see if I can find the pictures from my first camera, a Brownie, from when I was five years old.

Ho, Ho, Ho

A winter scene inspired by and co-crafted by some online and real-world crafty friends. Merry Christmas!

Soft Trees inspired by the Little Birds pattern.
I made mine tall and gnome hat-ish.

Yo Yo Garland made by Two Lime Leaves

Red & White Needle Felted Mushrooms by Bitter Betty

Wooden Mushroom Gnome Home by Sarafoop

Happy Holidays from Green Kitchen

I put together a free download of the images from this vintage French stamp set — they're so cute, they had to be shared. The PDF is vector-based, so if you are Illustrator savvy you'll be able to select and scale the images to whatever size you wish without losing image integrity. For those more comfortable working with raster images (Photoshop, etc.) you can go to the Flickr set and view "all sizes" for whichever image you would like to use, then choose the size closest to what you want. You can also change the finished printed size with your printer software.

My first thought was to do some embroidery with them, then I thought I should get some new stamps made, then kid's clothes, then...

Whatever you do, let me know, so I can see, too.

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Download the PDF (8.5 x 11)
Go to the Flickr set.
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Peace to all. Love, Green Kitchen.

P.S. I just noticed that the frog is not on the PDF, so I'll get to that ASAP.

The Wiz

In the few minutes I had before leaving for our little friend's birthday party (we were already 45 minutes late!) I couldn't get a photo that showed off how cool this wizard's wand project is. It was *super* fun to make. And, I hear it was a success with the birthday girl witch, too. Best quote at the party was an excited squeal, "That's just like Hermione Granger's wand!"

500 Gumdrops, Less 30

OK. I love the way these gumdrop wreaths look. But, having just finished one, I think everyone that has ever made one is CRAZY, including me. Did anyone mention how time consuming and tedious they are? Did you know that three pounds of gumdrops is about 500 small gumdrops? I thought my five-year-old and I could whip one out in a little sibling nap session. Nope. He was done after about the first 80 or so. It took much longer than a nap, maybe three to four hours. It's definitely cool, though — I just hope it doesn't become a holiday tradition. ;)

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After writing this I went back and googled Gumdrop Wreath Blog and I got the actual time commitment from Alicia. Guess I should have done more homework. I never was good at reading the directions all the way through.

Here are some other gumdrop wreath stories:
Sparkle Power
My Paper Crane
Hula Seventy
Crazy Mokes
Hey Lucy
Sew Darn Cute
Bella Dia
Teen Sleuth

P.S. It's funny what crafty types will find too tedious to do. I've met at least one knitter who can't stand to rip out seams from sewing, but thinks nothing of frogging a sweater. Personally, I'm afraid of My First Sweater because it might involve large quantities of frogging.

P.P.S. I forgot to mention that I wrapped the Styrofoam form with masking tape, which made it impossible to poke a toothpick through. I had to make a pilot hole with a sharp metal tool first for each hole. This could have been part of my frustration.

Proud Mama

Sometimes I need to jot these things down here, because I'm not so good at getting them onto paper.

My oldest

Said:
"Those clouds look really low, like I could jump into them. They look like cotton candy. When I have a hang glider I'm going to fly into the clouds and see how they taste — and, I *will* have one."

"Do you know why I come and get into bed with you in the morning? Because I want to see my brother when he wakes up."

Wrote:
His name on a chalkboard, when asked to by a prospective kindergarten teacher, while being assessed. My first child's first test — I was a bit of a nervous wreck.

Drew:
A gnome — his fourth representational drawing of a creature. This has been a long, challenging process for him because he wants things to be perfect. The lesson we worked on was, that — if you don't like it — you can try again. We went through many sheets of newspaper. We also made a compromise, where I did the cutting and he did the drawing.

By my littlest

Said:
"Fabric" and "Gnome." They are two of his first twenty or so words. That makes me smile. So does seeing him wake up.

Thanks

I never did write a Thanksgiving post. I barely get the requisite tasks accomplished for most holidays — posting about them in advance, or on time, usually doesn't happen. Here is the short list of my crafty-related thank yous.



A long, long overdue (like a whole year) thank you to the wonderful group of gals who participated in last year's ornament swap. I finally took photos! The ornaments truly stand out in creativity and craftsmanship. Best bi-product of that swap was the crafty camaraderie — I feel like I can give y'all a big hug if we ever meet up, probably talk your ear off, too. Beth, Kristin, Meg, Trish, Steph, Cassi, Alice & Rose — you rock my crafty world — thank you for participating with such gusto.



A very grateful thanks to my very first online customers: KnitSonya, OldRound, GreenJewls, and local gal, A+. You make me want to do more and try harder. I'm stoked. Next step is to make some good marketing materials: hang tags, packaging, an identity — the stuff that I used to do in my old life. The picture above is some impromptu packaging for the painting that A+ bought. Any feedback about how the packages shipped?

And, to the crafty blogging community, THANK YOU for being here to inspire me; for welcoming into the fold; for keeping me sane while I raise small children. Poppalina said it the best. Didn't she?

An Octopus's Garden on the Tree

octophrost
Originally uploaded by Green Kitchen.

A special *hello* to all the visitors from Soulemama. I'm so happy you are here. Take a look around and when you're done, if you want more handmade holiday love, head on over to futuregirl's amazing story about one grandmother's handmade tradition.

Making Tradition By Hand

Growing up in a half atheistic, half non-church-going-believer type of family made my childhood holidays a find-your-own-meaning sort of situation. My mom created the mood, my dad tried to ignore the whole thing. I don't remember wondering what the meaning of it all was — I suppose getting presents was my main concern. But, I do remember loving the ritual of our family's traditions: opening family presents on Christmas Eve/Santa's in the morning; baking a long list of very specific goodies (Granny's Fudge, mom's Russian Tea Cakes, Becky's Peanut Butter Balls, grandma Ruby's Peanut Butter Cookies, Renie's Magic Bars, etc.); and, most importantly, the making of handmade gifts and decorations. We did *a lot* of making. We never stopped making, not even in those awkward teenage years.

When I was in college I printed a very small edition of miniature books about our family's Christmas traditions. Talk about being a dork! There is nothing more un-hip than illustrating Christmas when you are a fine arts major — my teacher was not impressed. It was an earnest book, though, full of love and memories. Each spread features an item handmade by family or friends: my sister's toilet paper tube angel; Wayne's machine-lathed aluminum tree; my soft sculpture snowman; Kathy's felt advent calendar; Patty's patchwork placemats; even our favorite baked goodies are in there.

My printmaking teacher might not have liked it, but it was tear-worthy over at our house that Christmas. It's probably the best present I ever gave to my mom. And, in a way, it's one of the best presents she gave to me.

Here it is:


Becky's Angel / My Snowman:


Patty's Placemat:


Kathy's Advent Calendar:


Wayne's Aluminum Tree:


The Goodies:


The End:


Some technical info:
I printed the book on a stone lithography press with black ink. I hand-colored each illustration with Prismacolor colored pencils. The text is handwritten (I forget what kind of pen — heck, it was 20 years ago!). Each page is glued together accordion-style. The binding is red leather with what used to be gold ink.

In the shop: Miniature Dog Paintings

These little guys are miniature (2 x 3 inches) acrylic paintings that I did a couple years ago. They spent one holiday season as decorations on our feed store's Christmas tree. Other than that they've been in storage waiting for their forever-home. You can find them over here.

The Cobweb Christmas

There have been a lot of book recommendations going around these days — always a nice thing, to my way of thinking.

Lori over at Camp Creek has a bunch of great lists, including: holiday favorites, read-alouds, and books for 8-to-11-year-old set. Amanda has her Winter reading list up, too. This got me thinking about The Cobweb Christmas — a favorite of our family. It's the story behind the tradition of putting tinsel on trees.

This spiderweb ornament that I made was inspired by the story, as well as the wonderful MSL beaded snowflakes. I put it together many years ago while recovering from surgery. It was definitely a pre-kiddeos endeavor — I can't imagine having little trays of beads and wire cutters lying around right now.

I didn't find a link to the version of the book that we have, but here's a picture.