Materials:
Empty carton (distilled water, milk, whatever so long as it hasn’t held cleaning chemicals)
Scissors or box knife
Sharpie (not strictly necessary, but handy)

Optional:
Duct tape (the old reliable)

1. Rinse out the carton really well. Trust me, you do not want the smell of sour milk wafting through the house if you’re using a milk carton for this.

2. Sharpie on the outline you’d like to cut out. Or just start cutting. It’s not an exact science. The size of the part you remove will vary depending on the size of your scoop.

3. Cut along the marked area. I left the handle and lid on. It should be handy for picking up the scoop holder when it’s time to dispose of it.

4. Optional part – if you’re worried about the sharp edges of the plastic, you could put a little duct tape on them.

5. Voila.

Super easy, right? Martha Stewart might not approve, but seriously, it’s to hold a litter scoop. It doesn’t need to be expensive or particularly pretty.

If you make one for yourself or have a different way of making one, please let me know. I love seeing people be creative.

New Projects
Scrappy quilt as part of the Scrap Attack Project. Don’t think I’ll make it under the deadline, but I’m trying.

The blocks are 12×12″, and the finished quilt will be 5×6 blocks. It’s another QAYG (quilt as you go) project, because I enjoyed that technique so much with the bottled rainbow blocks.

Blocks finished: 0/30

Projects in Progress

Finished This Week: Quilt top is done! Want to see?

It wound up being 59 x 80″. It was supposed to be 64 X 80″. Guess who measured wrong? I was off by one inch on each block, give or take.

Things I Would (Or Will) Do Differently Next Time:

• Cut all the center pieces and borders at once, and sew them all together at once. Then start placing the tickertape pieces. I think this is the number one step that will make it all work better. Consistency matters. Who knew?
• Not glue-baste the pieces into place. Pins worked just fine and made the whole thing less fussy. I think I’d have gotten it done more quickly if I had fussed over perfection less, especially since the measuring mishaps guaranteed it wasn’t perfect, anyway.
• Use only white thread to sew down the appliqued pieces. I initially started with thread that matched the border of each individual piece. White would have been fine, if not better.

It’s going to take me some time to save up for fabric for the backing, so I may have to come back to this quilt later.

Remaining Steps For Rainbow Quilt:
*Decide on and purchase backing – not started
*Assemble the quilt sandwich
*Quilt
*Binding

Websites In Progress
SO close to having this site done. There are just a few minor tweaks left, and… finito! I’ve really loved making this site. I mean, it’s for a small, independent press. What’s not to love? The author wanted something simple to showcase her writing and the books she has for sale through her press. I think we did pretty well on that count.

Future Projects:
*Turn the wedding sari from Farah into a quilt or wall hanging.
*Make a table runner every month for a year. 0/12

Please don’t be shy when you comment – leave a link back to your blog and I’ll pay you a visit.

Are these cards sophisticated? No way. Fast and easy and fun? Absolutely. Weirdly enough, some of those also apply to the pseudo-artist.

Elegant, jaw-dropping handmade cards elude me. I love seeing what other people make, and how creative they are when it comes to cards. Get me anywhere near the same supplies, though, and my hands turn stupid. Seriously. It’s like they suddenly have a brother Darrel, and another brother Darrel. They turn into toddler hands. I keep trying, though, and I mostly read the product catalogs for the articles.

Cleaning through my office, I ran into several materials that suddenly clicked as having card potential. I thought I’d share this particular silliness with the world. (There are many sillinesses that I keep to myself. Be grateful for that.)

Materials:

• Premade blank cards and envelopes, or you can make your own. I can’t (stupid hands, remember?), but you, my talented reader, probably can.
• SNAIL adhesive. Any kind or brand will do. Or double-sided tape, or rubber cement, or paste, or hell, probably anything adequately sticky that will dry in a reasonable amount of time and isn’t organic. Don’t go there.
• Some kind of non-white paper
• Index cards
• Cheapie kids valentines of the type we’ve all given out as kids between the grades of 1 and 6. Unless you’re me, in which case you’ve done so much more recently than that.
• Postage stamps
• Addresses of people you worthy of your cards
• Optional: glitter glue, buttons, ribbon, whatever you’d like to use for embellishment

Right.

Now cut out a piece of the non-white paper to be a little smaller than the front of your premade card.

A little SNAIL trail, and…

slap those babies together.

SNAIL on index card (not acid-free, not archival, and not fussy).

Add to non-white paper.

Sticky-up that kid-sized valentine and center it on the index card as best you can. If it’s not perfect, well, that’s exactly in the spirit of the handmade Valentine card, isn’t it? So just go with it. Perfect is the enemy of getting things done. Better to send out imperfect cards than to send none at all. Besides which, most people don’t look at a card long enough to notice if something is crooked or not. I count on human imperception. Is that a word? It is now.

Now you can go crazy with embellishments, if you want. Remember using Elmer’s glue and adding glitter and getting it absolutely everywhere? Feel free to indulge, if you’d like. I mean, really, go crazy.

The most important part of this whole thing is this:
Address it and send it! NOW! If you don’t do it now, it won’t get done. Or is that just me? Is it? Oh god it is, isn’t it?

Pretty stamps are good, too.

Ok. I’m walking to the mailbox now. Enough stalling. I’m really going to the mailbox. Unless I get distracted.

Maybe just one cup of coffee first.

No, no, must go to the mailbox. Right.

Oh, look!

What was I doing? Why do I have these envelopes in my hand? Oh, the mailbox. Right.

Phew! Made it.

Now if you want a really beautiful card, I recommend seeing my friend Lael. She makes unbelievably gorgeous cards, and also has classes for people who are local to the Treasure Valley.

If you do this, please share it with me – I’d love you see what creative people get up to with this idea. Does that make me a creative voyeur? So be it.

Baker City, OR

Baker City, OR

Seven week old me, courtesy of a visit from Mert.

Flexi-Jayne!

I love my niece.

I can see the light at the end of the Rainbow Quilt.

Finished Block(s): Teal (Kona Everglade)

The very last block is DONE!!

Overall progress: 16/16 (!!!)
*Ruby (Kona Red) – Done
*Raspberry (Kona Pomegranate) – Done
*Petal (Kona Candy Pink) – Done
*Plum (Kona Violet) – Done
*Eggplant (Kona Berry) – Done
*Cerise (Kona Cerise) – Done
*Pumpkin (Kona Tangerine) – Done
*Tangerine (Kona School Bus) – Done
*Mustard (Kona Daffodil) – Done
*Moss (Kona Avocado) – Done
*Teal (Kona Everglade) – Done
*Indigo (Kona Marine) – Done
*Ocean (Kona Pacific) – Done
*Turquoise (Kona Peacock) – Done
*Grass (Kona Peridot) – Done
*Lime (Kona Cactus) – Done
Sew all the blocks together, and decide on backing – not started

Cat toys!

Trying hard to get my etsy shop restocked. I’m really happy about the seagull fabric. I think that blue is a nice antidote to a grey winter.

Future Projects:
*Turn the wedding sari from Farah into a quilt or wall hanging. Keeping it in a drawer is such a waste!
*Make a table runner every month for a year. 0/12

And something that made me happy.

Please don’t be shy when you comment – leave a link back to your blog and I’ll pay you a visit.