Looking in

I read a couple of reflective blog entries yesterday (here and here) that echo completely how I think and feel about art, making, creating…

I need to make things. Everyday. It seems hard to justify, though. It seems so comsuming and wasteful to my rational mind. It costs money, it takes time… But the drive to create is woven into the very fiber of my being. I know I won’t find my place or purpose in life, as a mom, a wife, a leader, without making things and exploring my ideas. I get paralyzed by the impracticality of it though. I wish I could overcome that. I wish I didn’t always feel like making and creating were a selfish waste of time, because I don’t think that is the right way to look at it.

It is a strange thing, this blogging thing. I have been real hesitant to write too much, to become too involved, to bare my soul here, because there are wierdos out there. ANYONE could come here and read it, and that seems like a huge risk.

I’ve been lurking and reading the blogs of other crafty moms, agreeing with what they say, admiring the things they make, the mail they get, the lives they display, and I think, “I wish I could be friends with her. She thinks so much like I do, and she makes cool stuff!” But, creating friendships over the internet seems so dangerous and silly. But, in reading the blogs of other women who have children and make art I’ve found that I’m not alone in my drive to create and all that it encompasses…

Anyway, I think I like this blogging thing. I want to make crafty friends. They echo my thoughts.

1st japanese craft book

So, there has been a lot out there in crafty blog land about japanese craft books. I’ve envied the ones posted over on angry chicken over and over. There’s this hand made felt one I’ve been drooling over for months now. Then this blog got started and I started browsing the eBay sellers. Well, here’s what I got in the mail today:

teaddybear world cover.jpg

lamb bears.jpg

baby elephant.jpg

polar and penguin.jpg


hedgehogs.jpg

I’m pretty excited about the baby elephant. It’s the perfect size for a punch-needle project. And my kids are definitely getting hedgehogs for Christmas. The patterns are clear and easy to follow, despite the fact they are in japanese.

I’m sure this won’t be my last japanese craft book.

little tiny Edwin

edwin.jpg

Here’s a little tiny guy. Despite his diminuitive size, he’s taken a long time to make. I spun super fine lace weight merino yarn, then made the fabric for each pattern piece with punch needle emboidery. That took me awhile because it was my first punch needle project and I didn’t get the same density of loops on the pieces, and then I forgot to make one of the body pieces a mirror image of the other. I was working on this way back in April while I was listening to the General Conference broadcast. I took him to Boise with me too, in hopes of finishing him, but I was quilting.

Anyway, he’s done now and I love him! He’s pretty crooked and wonky. Sitting down he’s 4 or 5 inches tall, fully jointed, with glass eyes, and ribbon Amy sent me tied around his neck. Now he’s sitting on the book shelf by his big pal Rupert.