i know it’s a bit late for an earth day post, but i just read a quote/monologue by Bill Maher that inspired me to recommend something everyone can do to help. stop using plastic bags! well, stop tossing out plastic bags. just say no to bags whenever possible; when you’re going somewhere where you know you’ll need a bag, bring one with you to use. use a huge purse all the time like i do, or get yourself a big tote bag that can fold up and be shoved into a smaller purse or pocket, or bike basket or whatever. if you’re lucky enough to work in retail like me, for smaller purchases always ask the customer if they need a bag, they say no at least half the time. when you do get stuck with a plastic bag, save it for later use. all the obvious things, like trash bags, pooper scoopers, etc…

and now here’s where the project comes in: if you are capable, knit or crochet a big tote with those bags! i’ve crocheted one little practice version, and i’ve just started a big knit project, which i plan to make nice and huge:

here are some links to get you started:

• one way of making the “yarn” – long single strands
• another method – double stranded (this is how i do it)
• diy network’s knit version – requires sewing pieces together
• marlo’s crochet corner’s simple crochet version
• photo of another bigger crocheted bag

there are tons more tutorials and pictures all over the web. also, the awesome book craftivity has a tutorial for a crocheted tote, featuring a photo of an amazing, unique bag by Diane Bromberg. this book is just super rad all the way through, i highly recommend it as an all-around cool crafts book.

i am not a great example for these kinds of things (i watch too much tv, drive a car, accidentally leave lights on, the list goes on), but i feel the need to remind anyone reading this to just do what you can. change over to the good kind of lightbulbs, walk/ride a bike/use public transit whenever possible, reduce reuse recycle…… just be aware.

i’m posting the long quote behind a “more tag” which i’ve never used before, i hope this works.

(more…)

i’m back! and i mean that on multiple levels…. my server was down for over a week (it was horrible!) so i have lots to report, it’s been an eventful week!

i spent a long weekend in portland with pete, seeing all that we possibly could, and very quickly confirming our plans to move there. when we arrived saturday morning we were saying “if we move here…” and by dinner that evening we’d officially switched to “when we move here…”. by saturday afternoon, i had my zines for sale at in other words and reading frenzy, and a copy in iprc‘s zine library. on sunday we got to attend both crafty wonderland and church of craft! we met sister diane, of craftypod fame, who was super friendly, chatting with us about p-town in the middle of her own crafty meeting.

some of my favorite places we got to see/experience: scrap (school & community reuse action project), the bins (overwhelmingly massive goodwill outlet!), pub theaters (we went to the clinton, but there are at least three in town), the aforementioned crafty wonderland and church of craft as well as the multitude of handmade-stuff stores all over town (and also awesome yarn and fabric stores!), amazingly delicious vege/vegan food everywhere (dots, laughing planet, paradox, juniors, lots of great pizza…), and of course all the fantastic bookstores!

so, our plan is to move up in mid-august. we’ll either find a cheap place with a month-to-month lease, or find a temporary sublet or something, so we can search for our perfect dream place once we arrive. i can’t wait!!

in other news…. alison gordon of wonderland q, an organizer of bazaar bizarre and sampler contributor relations superhero, had an emergency surgery last week, with no health insurance. the crafty community has jumped into action helping her out; her friends set up this etsy shop with all proceeds going to alison. i’ve just sent in my donation of a colored 7″ record bowl set. if you make things, they’d love more donations, and whether or not you make things, there are awesome things in the shop for sale!

and lastly, last week i sent in my first ever batch of sampler contributions, exciting! i contributed 10 zines and 15 wristbands/cuffs. yay fun stuff!

if you have issue #1, you can now check the links page to find links to every site mentioned in the zine, and related sites. sorry it took me so long to do that. oh, if anyone wants to exchange links i’ll be happy to add you, i’m always looking for fun new blogs to read and stuff, yeah!

i’m excited to say, i’m going to start contributing to the sampler! i’ve been hearing about the superrad marie, who takes in all kinds of handmade stuff, buttons, zines, etc to send them out as sample packages to subscribers, for awhile now, through craftypod and craftsanity podcasts and various sites and blogs, and now i have my zine to contribute (along with some other stuff), so i’ll be starting with the may sampler. yay!

i took this photo for photogamer on flickr, an awesome group that posts photo challenges every thursday night, to be shot and posted by the end of the weekend. i’ve been playing for 4 weeks now, it adds extra fun to every weekend, you should play!!

it’s a photo of me, proudly (and awkwardly) pointing to the zine i made, which features a photo of me in 2nd grade, proudly (and awkwardly) pointing to a painting i made.