Rayen

This looks a bit weird, I know, but a gift is all about the recipient. For my nephew's easter basket I found an exact copy of the little frying pan I have that he loves and has been threatening to steal when he moves into his new house. He'll be very surprised. I'm going to add some fake grass to the pan and fill it with Reese's peanut butter eggs, aka his favorite candy (I'm writing this on 4/1, so Easter is four days away.) For my guy I'm making a nice roasted chicken dinner and his favorite coffee cake, but no basket. I offered but he doesn't want one. I'm not going to dye eggs because my nephew already makes hard-boiled eggs weekly, and we wouldn't be able to eat them fast enough. As a diabetic there's not a lot about Easter I can consume. I did find a new treat I can have occasionally that is a consolation prize: a low sugar Oreo knockoff called Leos. They're quite sweet and a nice substitute for the real thing. I'm...

There aren't many words I dislike. This is because I need a huge arsenal of them for the day job, and using the majority of them has always made me happy. I think some of the old slang words when I first joined the online writing community bugged me a bit ( snark , podcast and webinar , I'm remembering you) or were what I considered unattractive ( blog , definitely) or trendy but silly ( chiaroscuro , and have mercy, it showed up in almost every SF book I read for years.) I also have names I don't care for or use because of unpleasant personal associations (Ryan is #1 on that list) but I think everyone does that. Who names their child Adolph, right? In any case, I'm a wordsmith, but not one who believes only the educated deserve access to ideas and stories. I avoid using gatekeeping language or any words employed to prevent a certain section of society from understanding what is being conveyed. I think that comes from being self-educated. I don't lik...

I considered doing another no-spend month in April, but after struggling through March (and falling off the wagon) I'm not enthusiastic. I was able to save quite a bit, but I also had to pass on a couple of very nice bargains, and say "I'm not spending this month" so many times I sounded like a broken record. What March taught me -- other than it is really hard not to spend any money for 31 days -- is that some of my behavior has to change. I need to avoid temptation, like searching for yarn lots at the online auction site. It's a fun habit, but it also tempts me to bid. Aside from what I need for one big Wool Ease project and some gifts I have planned for this coming winter, I really have enough yarn now to last me for at least half a year. If I see some sales on Hobbii, or spot Wool Ease for a good price when I'm out at the brick and mortar thrifts, I will buy them, but otherwise I'm good. I also need to find other ways to reward myself for fin...

To kick off March I finished crocheting the Sherwood throw out of forest-colored thrifted yarns. I used a vintage pillow sham to line a basket I thrifted. I crocheted a project basket out of some bulky yarn I got in a Herrschners mystery bag. For the last cold spell of winter I crocheted a hat out of beautiful hand-dyed mystery yarn from an Etsy seller. I crocheted, yes, a chicken purse. I crocheted a bottom for the second of my thrifted baskets. I made a book sleeve out of some leftover blanket yarn. I taught myself to crochet bookmarks with scrap yarn. I made the March tote for my calendar project out of a thrifted curtain. I turned a bag of macrame cord sample skeins into a yarn basket. I crocheted a wrap completely out of scrap yarn. Finally, I sewed and machine quilted a bowl mat for my nephew's dog.

Sometimes my curiosity about artists gets the better of me, and I go in search of information on them. In this case my search was spurred by the second panel of the tote that I was making from a vintage curtain for the March edition of my calendar project. While I was embroidering the panel I saw a copyright stamp on the fabric, and later decided to do a Goodle search on Cheri Blum, the artist. Sadly she passed away in 2003 at the heart-breaking young age of 34. This is part of the reason I've always devoted my free time to my own creativity. You never know how much time you'll have in life for your art. Cheri's work lives on in the home decor industry; her art has a timeless, effortless style that I think will continue to appeal for a long time. I was certainly swayed by it to thrift the curtain I'm using for this project; it was her painting on the edges (of narcissus, as it happens, not paperwhites) that caught my eye. I decided to get my butt in g...

I'm not sure if I will finish making the March tote for my calendar project, but here's an update on my progress. I finished embroidering and hand stitching one panel. I was going to embroider all the flowers, but since I was running out of month I went with mostly lace flower appliques with some French knots. I also ditched my original idea to have lots of word appliques and instead did one big patch with spring elements, which turned out well, I think. I'm going to spend the rest of March on the tote and see if I can get it completed. Then next month I will definitely simplify my idea for the April tote.