Kitchen sink rainbow

Dear Shayne,

Again, the simplest crafts keeping me occupied. Yesterday, it was a rainbow envelope. Today, a rainbow dishcloth:


I googled this pattern and I love that it's found under the name "Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth," because this was, indeed, my grandmother's favorite dishcloth -- my father's mother made these for many a church craft bazaar and all of her grandchildren got them as frequent gifts.

love,
kelly

Mailbox rainbow

Dear Shayne,

Sometimes, the simplest crafts can really bring a lot of joy. Like making cool envelopes. Yesterday night, I turned this awesome scrapbook paper:


into this fabulous envelope:


What I love best about it is the starburst for the stamp:


I mean... who wouldn't be thrilled to open their mailbox and find this:


Whee!

love,
kelly

I want: This awesome bag.

Dear Shayne,

As you know, I love Canada. As you also know, I love tote bags.

Check out this gorgeousness from Etsy seller Yahee's Place that combines the two, made from a vintage mail bag. Perfection!



le sigh.

Unfortunately, it's a bit out of my price range right now. Still... a girl can dream, right?

love,
kelly

PS -- Photo taken from Yahee's Place listing right here. Check out her shop for other amazing awesomeness -- really nice work.

Amazing doily

Dear Shayne,

Here is yet another amazing crafty Christmas present that I have been lame about posting...

This one is from my mom -- it's made by a woman named Helen who lives near her in Ohio. It's a doily, crocheted with our last name. Super cool.

One thing that made it so special is the handwritten letter that Helen wrote to my mom:


She writes "This is the 1055th one I've crocheted since 1989" (Wow!) and then goes on to chat about her life -- recent surgery, her husband, some good friends of theirs. It's just wonderful. Makes me want to pick up a pen and write a letter!

You can find many artists on Etsy making these doilies and I cannot get over how many are undervaluing their work ($2-4 per letter!) (I did a search on "crochet name doily" and found these). Helen's work was also a bargain, so my mom sent her some extra money with the order for our name.

A few weeks later, Helen sent one with my mom's last name as well! She says she mostly gives them away and it's just a nice way to keep busy.

Shayne, we need to be more like Helen -- get busy crafting! (And writing letters, for that matter...)

love,
kelly

Little red bride-ing hood*

Dear Shayne,

Do you remember when I showed you this amazing paper sculpture bride made by the incredibly talented Brittney Lee? I'm sure you do -- how could you forget something so beautiful?

Well, my husband is fantastic and bought it for me for Christmas:


He pointed the artist to my post, and she swapped out the yellow mat for a red one! Totally great, right?

And I think she looks fabulous on our red walls:


Don't you?

love,
kelly

*PS -- Credit to Bill for the post title. It's silly, but it cracked me right up.

Moebius cowl from Jan

Dear Shayne,

In falling off of the blogging horse, I realize that I have never even posted the crafty awesomeness I got waaay back in December for Christmas and my birthday!

So I'm getting back on the horse by going back in time...

[insert wavy fingers and "doo doo doo doo" noises here]

Waaaay back in December, my friend Jan [Hi, Jan!] gave me the most bee-you-tiful cowl for my birthday. It's cashmere and it feels like angel wings:


That photo does not do it justice. From poking around on Ravelry, I believe the pattern is by Cat Bordhi (Jan, please correct me if I'm wrong). If you're a Ravelry member, you can click here to see other people wearing theirs and get a better idea of what it looks like on a person (although, of course, mine is more beautiful than any of those).

If you're not a Ravelry member, you can see another less-beautiful-than-mine version of it on a manikin at the Craft blog here and, for all you knitters out there, you can get the pattern for yourself on Cat's site here.

In a nutshell: it's gorgeous and it feels even more wonderful than it looks (if that's possible). This is a long-overdue public worshipping of my good friend Jan for making me something so wonderful. (Thanks, Jan!)

love,
kelly

Another crazy scarf

Dear Shayne,

Tap! Tap! Is this thing on?

Well, we have been neglecting this blog lately, haven't we? I don't know about you, but I have also been neglecting crafting. Which is No. Good.

But I did make another scarf! As I am now addicted to weaving, I used this handspun yarn to weave a wild scarf:


I only had 87 yards of it, so I used simpler sock yarn I had for the warp.


It went further than it would have if I had knit it (weaving uses less yarn than knitting! Yay!) but I still should have done better math, as it ended up a bit short -- around 5 feet long.


So I am now hatching a plan to attach some buttons to it and make it sort of cowl-y type of thing. Regardless, I love how it turned out. This yarn is awesome.


Sequins! Pom-pons! Yes!

love,
kelly