What I Am Crafting Today

Yesterday I finished a new design project
and this adorable Easter bunny for my shop! The super soft, sweet bunny was made from a repurposed cashmere sweater.

Today I am working on some new zippered pouches for my Etsy shop, Felt Sew Good.

I gathered coordinating colors of wool, decided on silhouette applique shapes for each color, and then chose cotton fabric to line each pouch. They will soon be available in the shop!

What are you crafting today?

Design and Inspiration

I had planned to work on, and complete, and new design project today. The weather forecast was predicting mostly cloudy skies and a slight chance of rain. So I figured I'd stay inside and finish my project. (More on this project at another time!)

But by noon it had turned sunny and the temperate rose quickly to the 70 degree mark and I just had to get outside for some fresh air and a little exercise.

I took my camera and went for a walk in the park adjacent to my neighborhood. It's still too early for blooming flowers and leaves on the trees, but some early plants are starting to sprout!

The wild iris has come up in the swampy areas.

Some tiny wildflowers have made an appearance among the old brown leaves.

The Canadian geese are starting to pick their nesting sites.

And a few fishermen were trying their luck in the lake. I'm so glad I took a break, but now I must get back to work!

First Look at Spring

It's still a little too early to plant very much in the garden here in the Midwest. My husband has planted a few seeds. . . early lettuces, spinach and radishes. And we're just now seeing the first tips of asparagus sprout out of the dirt. But it's not to early to dream of warmer days to come and to enjoy what's already in the greenhouse at the local garden center. In honor of the first day of Spring, we made our first trip the the greenhouse!

The beautiful ferns and small perenial plants will grow more lush as the temperatures rise.

The bright colored annuals in these hanging baskets will soon grow and cover the green planters!

And these tiny seedling of tomatoes, peppers and onions will be ready to plant in the garden in about 6 weeks!

But, I'd better not get ahead of myself, I still have lots of trimming, raking and Spring yard clean-up to do.

Read This, Feel Smarter

Check out these websites. . . they're fun and informative:

As a companion to Mental Floss magazine, "Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix", mentalfloss.com/blogs provides all sorts of random and interesting information. The site includes trivia, quizzes and "amazing facts". You'll find plenty of conversation starters for you next cocktail party!


Another interesting site is campaignearth.org. You can read about the campaign, learn more about green energy and sign up for the monthly challenges. The challenges all offer simple ways to gradually green your life. . . things like drying your clothes outside on a sunny day, buying local produce and ways to lessen your junk mail. Each challenge shows you the average CO2 savings rate. You can even get the whole family involved with the challenges!

"Resweater" Fun!

Kris, of resweater.blogspot.com, has a fun blog featuring items made from reclaimed wool sweaters. She has highlighted artists making clothing from recycled wool sweaters, and those using reclaimed wool yarn. This week she is featuring felted wool handbags and asked to use some photos of my Felt Sew Good handbags! Thank you Kris!

You can check out her blog here for lots of info on crafters using reclaimed wool sweaters, or go to her Artfire shop here to get some wool sweaters for your own recycled wool crafts.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I just made my 200th sale in my Etsy shop! Hooray!

To celebrate, I thought I would share a few of my Etsy favorites for this week:

Eastern Blue Bird by bethanyhomecrafts

Trillium and bird print by chickory

Handwoven dress scarf by barefootweaver


Playing Koi 3- wooden jewelry box with polymer clay filigree- koi pond with cherry blossoms by starless

Bella!

I've been working on some new handbag designs for my Etsy shop, Felt Sew Good, and this is the first new style I've completed. I'm calling it "Bella".

After some sketches and a lot of measuring, I made myself a muslin pattern and cut out the first Bella from two green felted wool sweaters.

I used a pretty Spring green wool for the bottom of the bag and a darker moss green wool for the top and strap. This is the end result!
A pretty Spring green handbag, available in the shop.

I was satisfied with the end result of my first new handbag and was ready to make another Bella, this one with a stripe pattern.



And this is the navy and multi colored striped Bella, also available in the shop.

Check back next week for more new Spring handbags and accessories and maybe an Easter bunny or two!