croque-choux

Eureka!

My curiosity was piqued by something Sandy wrote about recently: using washable school glue for resist dyeing fabric. My brother tossed me a small bottle of this stuff* after much pestering, and so I tried it out on a little scrap of fabric. Lo and behold, it works! My little trial piece amounts to a few random squiggles and is pretty amateurish (I am no dye expert!), but this definitely has possibilities. Thanks Sandy! I found an interesting article on Japanese dyeing techniques here by the way, and you can find some free Japanese Yuzen dye patterns like this flower here.

* woohoo, he can get us more Sandy!

Fun European Food

Even though I'm feeling post-migraine icky and don't want to think about food just now, there's no reason you can't. For lack of a craftier post, here is one about some of the interesting food items that can be found on my side of the pond :o)

Aloe Vera flavored yogurt from France, where they are really big on yogurt and other milk products. My little boy's favorite was this children's lunchmeat (vegetarians please pardon this!) from Germany. This is similar to the baloney you find back in the States, only with this incredible kiddie design manufactured into it. You may recognize the illustrations of Janosch here. And here are 2 things that I remembered to take pictures of from Denmark: little popsicles (my kids call them "freezy-things" for lack of a better word in French), and these yummy round Wasa cinnamon breakfast crackers.


I think I'll go have a Wasa right now. I still have a package left. Maybe it will settle my stomach...

Pet Day

Pixie has been after me to put her furry face on my blog, after seeing Kim's adorable little Pica. So here she is, even though we're a half a day late for "Take Your Pet to Blog Day".

Another fabric postcard and a little organizing

I recently said that I hadn't had a chance to do anything crafty lately, but I forgot all about this little fabric postcard I made between visits from the bro'. I wanted to send this one out to someone, but I wasn't fast enough. Damn. My daughter says this one's not leaving the house, so I must bow to her teenage will. Aside from that, I started cleaning my work area i.e. sewing table today. So...If you don't hear from me soon, you will know that I fell victim to an avalanche of craft supplies, fabric, beads and buttons.

Virtual blooms

Make a flower or an entire garden online with this super fun Flash® game here. Then you can e-mail your creation to a friend. Cool! I can't get a screen shot of this, but check it out. (Warning: fun & addictive!)
Thanks to Zefrank!

Guessing game!

2 of these things I did NOT do today, on September 20th my birthday:

a) Go to the dentist to have a filling redone (ouch)
b) Had sushi for dinner, and chocolate cake for dessert
c) Received a fun book about Faeries illustrated by Brian Froud
d) Champagne breakfast at the Hotel Murano with George Clooney
e) Picked up a DB9 at the local Aston Marton dealer
f) Became another year older and perhaps a little wiser

Thanks for participating! Oh and you can play the Faerie Oracle game online here :o)

Dahlias, dahlin'

The Peppermint Dahlia I planted in a rare fit of gardening is blooming like mad in the garden out back, so I just had to snap a photo. Hard to believe that this huge plant sprung from just one bulb! Here I would like to admit that I am the world's laziest gardener. So no oohing and aahing, ya'll. And the number one thing I hate about digging in the yard is all the extremely gross creepy crawly things that one unearths while gardening. Eeeeeyew! But when something this amazing blooms it's worth it.

Frivolous eBay purchases #2

Yeah, I know I know... "what are you going to do with that? Okay, so I don't know yet, but I like the idea of altered dominos for jewelry like these here, and Stef Francis' idea I saw in Quilting Arts magazine for making lovely things with silk cocoons. If someone had told me a year ago that I would be buying empty silk cocoons on eBay, I probably would've told them that they were batcrap crazy... But maybe I'm the one who's crazy?

This that and the other

Unfortunately I haven't had time the past week for anything arty or crafty, but the good news is that my brother was able to come back for a couple of days on his way to Italy :o) YAY! Such fun, and lots of laughs. Nobody but my brother can make me laugh like that! Laughing is good for you :o)

So no crafty post just now. Just thought I'd throw a handful of links at you today. Who knows where they might take you?
How to do stuff- lots of tutorials and tips galore on hundreds of things at eHow.
I love this stencil site, stencilry is very cool indeed.
An arts & crafts link directory can be found at craftpop, so check it out.
If you're interested in illustration then see this site which has info on women children's book illustrators.
The fantasy art of Linda Matusich is awesome. Check out her sculptures, and come back to her site when the galleries are all up and running. Please be sure to read her open letter to adults who have a budding artist on their hands! Linda is right- children have more imagination than we do, so teachers or other adults shouldn't wreck it by saying stuff like: "Why did you draw a flying tree? Trees don't fly" or "Cows aren't purple"! Which reminds me of these 2 quotes, which I shall leave you with:
"One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination." ~Sam Levenson.
"It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block." ~Paul Gauguin

Random quote :o)

"Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise."

Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye, 1988
Canadian critic, feminist, novelist, & poet (1939 - )