How I Spent My Summer Vacation.

I drove.  I unpacked.  I made a lot of stuff.  I found a new addiction.  My ego got stroked.  My heart got banged up.  I made new friends.  I missed old friends.  Things I thought would succeed were rip-roaring failures, and things I never considered projects hit the big time.  I blogged too little.  I slept too much.  I created a haven.   I repeated myself more than I thought possible. I was given opportunities to do things that scared me---and I did some of them.  I did very little laundry.  I ate too much.  I survived a long and painful bout of EITTTS.  I bought myself a tiny vacuum cleaner.  I did a big, important repair and did it well.  I swept and swept and swept.  I discovered that OCD---not mine, silly!---can be a wonderful thing. I spent a little time alone---and good things came of it. I sniffed way too much spray paint, resin, and burning Sculpey.

DI Why?

I'm the world's biggest proponent of doing most things on a low-budget and ratcheting up the elbow grease to accommodate my frugality.  Until last week, when I'd spent days painting clever quotes on the art room walls like this:
Step one:  Print quote in desired font.

Step two:  Turn printed quote over and scribble madly (and heavily) on the back with a pencil, making sure to cover the entire letter on each sheet.

Step three:  Tape each sheet, penciled side to the wall, against the surface to be decorated.

Step four:  Trace the outline (on the front of the page, which should be facing out) darkly with pencil.
  Voila!  Like magic, a hazy, fuzzy image of your letter--perhaps missing small details, like serifs and such--has been transferred to your wall!

So after a couple of days of incessant pencil sharpening, I had myself a little revelation.
Carbon paper.

I'm amazed I didn't get a speeding ticket on the way to Office Depot.  And I hesitated not fraction of a moment when it  came time to fork over my hard-earned cash for that $18 package of black gold, knowing the amount of work it would save me.

I was right.  The quotes are going up chock-a-block now, and my investment was one of my better ones.

When is DIY less than wise for you?  Do you feel compelled to Do It All, or do you take the cheat's way out, like me, on occasion?

In other news, I hung The Most Wonderful Pegboard In The World this week. 
And made hairclips out of water bottles.

Hot, hot, hot!

So there's this glass kiln in my art room.  I bought it the first year I was at camp so we could do copper enameling, which ended up not impressing the kids at all.  And the kiln has sat idle for four summers, waiting for my harried brain to produce some semblance of a good idea.

When I stsrted my Etsy shop, I spent way too much time poring over other people's shops, looking for inspiration, making treasuries, and occasionally, falling a little bit in love.  That's what happened when I found Marblry, Carinne's gorgeous shop full of melted marbles.  I was smitten, and I began growing my own  hoard of vintage marbles, just in case.  Today I finally got a chance to pop a one in the kiln, and I'm pleased to report the results are good.

I MacGyvered a bail out of some 16 gauge wire, since I didn't happen to have any "proper" bails on hand, and glued it on the flat side of my melted marble with E6000, Smelly Glue of Champions.  When I make the next ones, I'll use a professional grade glass glue, but I was too excited to leave it be while I went glue-shopping, and this'll do for the time being.

Still going to have to play around with temperatures and timing, and figure out what to put the marble on while it's firing---mine has some firebrick attached to the back, and that won't do if I'm giving them as gifts. 

Don't you love it when crafty things work out?

Incommunicado?

I've been off the radar for days, now.   Forgive me?  Our little bungalow is slowly coming together, and the art room is making me want to rip my hair out.  Piece by curly piece. 

There are all sorts of exciting things to explore, so the kids are all over the place.  Rachmy managed to track down our friendly neighborhood poison ivy patch within the first 24 hours of our stay, and Chevi lost a cap while we were "in town" yesterday.  (You wouldn't want me to get bored up here, would you?)  I've set up a workspace in my bedroom so I can continue the shop while we're in camp...this is what it looks like if I don't bother to clean up before I take a picture.

Okay...bad photos---I'm using my get-out-of-jail-free card here, because I'm frankly too tired to edit them. 

I know you want details about the trip.  Who could blame you?  Everybody likes a gory story, right?  Let me begin by saying that the AC quit on me.  Jealous?  It was a cozy ride, and there were a number of little surprises that we could have done nicely without.  Shani chose to prove her status as The Queen Of Carsick, and Chevi threatened repeatedly to outdo her.   We listened to more Glee than anyone should hear in less than a month, sang along with Newsies and Beethoven's Wig till our throats were sore, made 26 truck drivers honk at us, and found license plates to all but 17 states.  We stopped 3 times for gas, once for lunch, twice to de-puke the baby, and made a solitary gratuitous bathroom stop.

And we're here, folks.  Which is a very, very good thing.

Oh, and while I have your attention?  Don't forget to check out today's installment of Make It Easy over at Hollybobbs!

In case you were wondering...

My Creative Space: Packed.

This morning, I gathered my tools and materials and laid them reverently inside the pair of tackle boxes I picked up at last weekend's rummage.  The contents of my shop were bagged, tagged, and stashed in our already full-to-bursting van, ready for our Sunday morning roadtrip---to camp! 

(Actually, to remedy the full-to-bursting situation, I snagged myself a set of Space Bags.  Veddy impressive...much more room now!)

The kidlets are counting the hours till our 5 AM departure time.  We'll be making the trip in one day, although it's a 15 hour ride, so we can make it to my "little cousin's" high school graduation in New Jersey on Monday.  I'm hoping I make it through the trip with my sanity in one piece.  (Stop laughing. You, too.)


Speaking of pieces, I put a few bits and bobs together last night, knowing the tool-packing would commence today.  I had an amazing thrifting day yesterday, and scored a huge jar of vintage buttons.  Which lent themselves nicely to these:

Creamsicle Ring

Periwinkle: Sewing Box Sacrifice Button Bracelet

Shiny: Sewing Box Sacrifice Earrings

I'm a little in love with them all, especially that first pair of earrings.  And I had to make my firstborn a ring--she's been nudging me for this little conversation piece since she came across the button in the center:

What's happening in your space this week?

My Creative Space: Just Plain Wonky

I stayed up late last night to roll these Sheet Music Sacrifice beads, so they'd be nice and dry by morning.  I could seal them before breakfast, make the earrings after carpool, take pictures, and put them in the shop. 

 Yeah, right.  I was golden till the picture-taking part, when I was confronted with this upsetting reality:

That is some profound lopsidedness, folks.  I don't even want to talk about it.  And it's not a wire issue---that would be entirely too easy to fix.  The actual beads are two different sizes.  No more late night rolling for me!
  So, these cuties were relegated to my personal jewelry box.  No one will notice their lopsidedness if I'm wearing them, right?  Besides, my ears are lopsided.  ( No joke.  Makes shopping for glasses a real joy.)

On the Not-Wonky Front, I managed to pop a bunch of new goodies into the shop.  The graduation-themed Dictionary Sacrifice Earrings have been getting a lot of attention, and the 50 Nifty United States bracelet was featured in a treasury today.  I have a blog project on the back burner---you'll hear more about it soon, I promise!---and the always greener FB page finally broke the 50-likers mark.

What's happening in your creative space?  Join in over here! 

p.s. Want to bid on a pair of custom Dictionary Sacrifice earrings?  Check out this auction to cover medical expenses for a local child who was injured in a recent train accident.

My Creative Space: Feelin' the Love

This week has been chock full of happy surprises.  Like having my giftbox included in an Etsy treasury  just nine minutes after I listed it.  And being featured in another treasury only a day later.   Waking up this morning to find that Amy had posted the interview with me on her blog.  And sitting down with my breakfast and my laptop for my morning dose of Handmadeology to see the Dictionary Sacrifice Rosettes tutorial I'd submitted staring me in the face.  (It was kind of like when you pick up the phone to call someone and they're on the line already, having just called you.  Weird, but really good.)

So, getting a bit of much-needed exposure there, but there seems to be a real dearth of comments.  Feel free to comment, if you pop by, so I don't look like a total dork in public.  And while you're protecting me from total dork-dom, are any of you guys on Facebook?  If you are, would you mind taking a minute to "like" always greener?  (Because my FB and my self-esteem are strongly linked, and I know you wouldn't want to damage my fragile sense of self-worth.)

Moving on, then, to some surprises of a more mundane variety, like the grocery sack of toy ponies I nabbed at the thrift shop yesterday, just in time for Shani's birthday.

 
And the mysterious email from a friend I haven't heard from in years.  And the parking spot smack-dab in front of the dentist's office this morning---in the pouring rain, no less.   And the new Jasper Fforde book I checked out of the library.  And the tackle box I scored this afternoon on my way home from the library.  (Why would someone throw out a perfectly good tackle box?)
 
I hope your space  has been full of pleasant surprises this week, too!

My Creative Space: For Kara

It's been brought to my attention that littlegreenbums has been suffering in the shadow of always greener.  There's been a manic amount of crafting going on here---from noon till night, and most often into the wee hours.  On the plus side, the shop is doing pretty well, all things considered.  But apparently I haven't kept you good folk up to date on the the non-craft aspect of life in the Little House.

First of all, we're trying like mad to get out of our (squishy little) rental house.   So there's been much packing of boxes and sorting of stuff.  (Always a big hit in my book...)  Luckily, our landlords are trying to sell the house while we're still living in it, which makes for giggles and snorts all around---8 people, 8.3 billion boxes, and an estate agent popping through with all manner of lookie-lous...

Camp looms just ahead.  More packing, sorting, ordering, and stressing---but in a good way.  New premises this year, which means a total restructuring of the Art Room.  Looking forward.  Lots.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...we took the kiddos on an afterschool field trip yesterday evening.
  We loaded the troops into the Mom-Mobile, and headed out to Rubicon, WI to the farm store.  Much fun was had by all, and I'll be whipping up a fresh batch of yogurt ce soir.

On the way home, of course, I had a carful of children bleating for a pet goat.

Craft-wise, (sorry, Kara...) there's been lots of scurrying back and forth between cutlery drawer and garage.

 

Whaddaya think?  (It's a pendant, silly.)

Check out more creative spaces in one convenient location!