Posts tagged ‘akron’

My dear friend, Mary, has joined up with www.BringEliHome.com to raise money for a very worthy cause. Eli is the victim of parental kidnapping and is being held illegally in Turkey since 2010. Sara, Eli’s mother, has been fighting to get him home ever since.

Well, like I said, Mary has joined with Sara to raise money for her travel and legal fees through the sales of her crochet hat pattern, the Bring Eli Home Hat.

Besides being a fantastic cause, it’s also a fantastic hat pattern. Here’s me wearing my fuchsia version (which Mary made). It’s a perfect casual hat, awesome for bad hair days, and very very versatile. I plan on making one to use up some rainbow wool that I have left over from a previous project.

So, check out the links. Say a prayer, and buy the pattern or make a donation. I can’t imagine being away from my sweet girls for a week, let alone a year. Let’s help bring Eli home.

Ohio readers! Be notified! This has been the best year for local peaches I’ve ever experienced. They are sweet, juicy, ripe and cheap right now.

I got about 3 pounds from Bauman Orchard last week and they nearly fell apart in my fingers while eating them. The girls went through all three pounds (with a little help from me) in about three days. And today I was the lucky recipient of a handmade tart from Mary Contrary, which she made with local peaches from the Lock 3 Farmers Market.

This is a directive: go eat local peaches now before it’s too late!

Note: We ate the tart and peaches so fast that no one got any pictures, so that there’s a tantalizing shot I borrowed from sxc.hu.

Akron/Cuyahoga Falls locals should put this date on their calendars. June 24th from 9am-4pm there will be a Barn Sale (as in buying things in a barn, not buying barns) at my good friend Mary Beth’s Portage Trail Barn.

Mary Beth is a crafter/repurposer extraordinare! There are items to fit anyone’s fancy, whether you are a cottage crafter or a hipster.

I’ve been eyeing her aprons and flowers. Those are right up my alley, and I’m in need of a new apron to match my new kitchen.

Or the Momme and Poppe Shoppe.

Saturday the 30th from 10 to 6 you can find me doing my thing at Crafty Mart. I’ll be selling things from my Templeton Line, again. And adding a couple of new items for the men folk, as the theme is shopping for Mother’s and Father’s days.

And I will be having a special guest at my booth! My twelve-year-old Sister-in-Law, Emily, is an art prodigy. She’s going to be selling her own original art in coloring book form. I am so excited to be involved in the beginning of what is going to be a very bright artistic future for Emily. Her designs for the book have not been released yet, but here is a quick teaser of her talents.

See you there!

I’m volunteering with Zero Landfill tomorrow & next Saturday.  So if you decide to come for some free carpet & wallpaper samples, binders, fabric, stone, tile, etc., please say hello!

It’s open noon-3pm.

30 North High Street in Akron.

I sewed my first tote bag!  I love how it turned out, and I’m really pleased with the fabric (It takes me a painful amount of time to make fabric choices).  I took the Intermediate Sewing Skills Tote Bag class from Martha at Craft Akron, and she was amazingly patient & encouraging.  This is my first time doing a zipper, button hole, and using interfacing.  Actually, this was my very first sewing class because I’ve been self-taught.  This class revealed a few things I thought I was doing right but wasn’t.

Thank you Martha!

inside of tote

I must admit that I am sort of band-wagon jumping here, but how could you not? The best craft “fad” I’ve seen yet is the mustache. It’s just so funny. Something about the awkwardness of a bad mustache makes me really love the idea of putting them all over stuff.

For Crafty Mart (which was fantastic by the way, loved seeing many of you there!) I made “stir-staches” or a mustache on a stir stick for your cocktail glass. I held one up in front of my face for most of the day, and enjoyed making conversation with shoppers incognito. A good deal of people borrowed one for conversing with me. We enjoyed the silliness of it a great deal.

These guys are going to be for sale in my etsy shop soon. I’m waiting for the next sunny day to grab my camera and photo everything I have left over from the fair. As much fun as it is having a suitcase full of crafty-wares, it is more fun to have people out in the world wearing them.

More things being made. And these are my favorites to date. I can promise one of them will be mine to keep, and will be worn on Saturday.

These headbands are made with variations of suiting fabrics and broadcloth on the reverse. Some of them will be reversible. Some, like the one pictured here, will be more ornate. We can all thank the anthropologie catalogue for coming just in time to inspire me. There are so many muted, etherial colors in that catalogue, it makes me sew flowers for headbands.

There’s one more product reveal coming up. And one that I’m keeping a secret. Ok, ok, I’ll give you a hint: I’m calling them stir-staches.

I am simplifying my palette for my Templeton line and Crafty Mart this year. Trial and error has convinced me that I had overshot what I make and mostly left buyers confused as to what it is I offer at my booth. So this year I am making many of the same items, but only using men’s clothing fabrics that I have upcycled.

I have made flower pins many times in the past, and even made a tutorial on it. But this time I did box pleating and cinched it in the center, which I think makes a fabulous flower shape I hadn’t achieved before. I also have some other broach shapes I’m experimenting with. I haven’t decided if they are turning out or not, so no pictures at this time.

I have some other ideas brewing, this week is a big making week, so you’ll see how they’re turning out in a few more days.