Tag Archive | personal: crafts

Grocery Bags! (an Alter-Sprig blog post)

Mar31

While I was looking up how to, and then proceeding with, washing my reusable shopping bags, or at least the portion of them currently in circulation (they accumulate, like single socks, or shopping trolleys at the bottom of a steep hill…), my husband kindly suggested that the reasonable thing to do would be to make some. 

I grabbed this idea with both hands and both feet and ran with it (sort of a stumbling run, since I was holding onto that idea…)

So, things I want in reusable shopping bags:

* Washability (since that is what started this whole thing) – I want it to be washable and then look decent afterwards.  And I want it to be throw-in-washer washable, not something fussy. 

* Durability – able to stand up to the sort of shopping run where we get 2 bags each of flour, white sugar, brown sugar, & confectioner’s sugar. And then other stuff. 

* Size – not so big as to be unwieldy, either for me or for the cashiers loading the thing, but big enough to hold an 18-pack of eggs without tipping, or a rotisserie chicken, or that flour & sugar mentioned above.

* Nice – Why bother making something like this if I don’t like the way it looks? No more feeling awkward because half my bags advertise either a liquor/wine/beer place or a business I barely remember giving me the bag. 

* Pocket –  super useful for keys when I don’t have a purse or pockets on me.

* Foldable/packable – one of the things I really like about the store-bought reusable bags is how they fold back down into a nice flat package (at least until they get too rumpled or they’re washed or..)  Some of the good ones have the fold line on the sides pressed in & sometimes even sewn in; not sure I’ll go as far as sewing it in, but it would probably help. Maybe I’ll try it on one. 

 

Since none of the patterns were everything I wanted, I drafted my own pattern. 

Webbing handles that go all the way around, doubled on the bottom. 

A double layer of fabric on the bottom, with interfacing in between.

A pocket of something I have around the house sewn in between/under the webbing handles on each side, or at least on one side, depending on fabric scraps. 

The bag itself made from mediumweight cotton duck. 

Now… I need to find a place to mail me canvas where the shipping isn’t as much as the product. 

Please note: The below is a planning pattern that I have not tested yet at all.

The idea is to get two bags on one yard of fabric (or one bag on a 1/2 yard).  There’s some left over,  if it’s the 67″ wide stuff from the place I liked a lot until I read their shipping prices, so I may make a tote to hold the folded bags.

Blog Post: Junk Mail Envelopes

Apr2

Through the magic of following the #LetterMo, #SnailMail, and #MailArt hashtags on Instagram and Twitter, and through looking at a whole bunch of mail art things on Pinterest, I have been experimenting with junk mail envelopes and more broadly make-your-own envelopes

The first thing I learned is that the US postal service’s guidelines are a wee bit complicated and slightly arcane, but once you have done your algebra and geometry and figured out your allowed envelope sizes vs. the paper you have, you can have a lot of fun.

I had a couple fliers from AAA and magazine from our local grocery chain when I found someone on Instagram who was using calendar pages – https://www.instagram.com/p/BvKEsgzFweR/.  That sounds good, I thought, but where do I find a calendar for cheap?

The next day, I walked into the local Dollar General (https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/dollar-general-throws-a-lifeline-to-hard-pressed-communities-but-at-what-cost/ar-BBO0d5j ; https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/13/dollar-general-walmart-buhler-haven-kansas ) for a half-gallon of milk (Dollar General is literally on the way home even if I take the bus stop and is the only thing except a gas station and a strip club that is.) and there was a 2 foot tall stack of calendars for 70% off their $1 cover price.

Yeah, I have some calendars now.

I’ve read people talking about this sort of thing as being good for the environment, and I’m not 100% sure about that (more below), but it’s fun, and it’s a different way to make sure that the mail I send people has a pretty wrapper as well as a pretty inside and nice words – which is fun.  I get more excited when the envelopes in the box are fancy, or have wax seals, or are drawn on, or all three.  I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one, too.  (Do you?  Is it awesome to see some art in your mailbox?  I know my mom really likes it)

Okay, environmental impact.

As far as I know, the university I work at recycles all paper that’s put in the recycling bins, so not putting these fliers in the blue bin there doesn’t really keep them out of a landfill.  It might put them IN a landfill at the end, to be honest – I don’t know what people do with their envelopes. And as for what happens once that paper hits the county recycling plant – it’s hard to find concrete information on what percentage of paper that goes in a recycled bit ends up being paper again.

So that’s what I know about my boss’s fliers: almost nothing, but I probably didn’t keep it out of a landfill but making an envelope out of it.

Junk mail at home:  In the winter, everything paper without plastic attached goes directly into heat via our wood stove.  The ashes are composted – not in the garden usually, but in the meadow and other non-food areas.  Every piece of paper I turn into an envelope is actually taking heat and a decent soil amendment away from our house/yard.

And the calendars?  I don’t know what Dollar General does with things they don’t sell!  I know that the pile went pretty quickly, and that other people were buying them while I was there – I also know I went back and bought a couple more when they were 90% off, too.

The flip side: Not using store-bought envelopes?

Well, On the other hand, I’m sending more mail this way that I might have otherwise, and THAT costs a lot more fossil fuels than just sending an e-mail.

The end result of this is – I don’t feel comfortable in any way saying that junk mail envelopes are in any way better for the environment than any other craft.  If I’m being a responsible citizen and recycling all of my paper (or burning it for heat, which would be a reuse), then paper beads, junk mail envelopes, and other crafts from the back of magazines… decoupage!  I’m decoupaging my received-mail box! Collages!  – any of that is not inherently environmentally friendly.  There are things I can do that are a lot more so – like using reusable plastic containers instead of ziplock bags, bringing my own shopping bags, buying less…

… but the envelopes are really fun!

(and I bet they’re neat to get in your mailbox, too…)

 Zen and the Art of… art?

Mar7

I discovered probably a year ago that drawing maps, when there’s no stress and no requirement, is a very soothing activity for me.  I have some doodled maps that chart spaces that don’t yet exist in fiction and may never see paper, but they were still very fun to make.  I even plotted a journey of an unknown adventuring crew over one map!

(This may also be why I have more unfinished maps than finished ones…)

Yesterday, I discovered, or rather, perhaps, solidified, that folding-paper things also does this for me.

This is interesting, because I am a) not great at following diagrammed instructions (for a fox I made to stick in a piece of mail, T. figured it out from the directions and then showed me), and b) not great at precision at all.   Like, even the amount required to cut a perfect square is really pushing it for me.

But it’s fun.

I’ve been making scrap-paper envelopes, which are sort of barely folding-paper stuff, so I bought 3 calendars for 30 cents each at the Dollar General to play with.

And for Christmas, my friends got me The Art of the Fold, by Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol ( https://www.artofthefold.com/ ), so I’ve started working through these.

This led to me making a teeny accordion book (an inch and a half by just under three inches finished size) from one calendar page and putting little 1/3 index cards into each of the pockets, on which I wrote a rather short letter.  Since, you know, I’m still writing back replies from Month of letters. 😀

What will come next?  Stay tuned to find out!

Month of Letters and International Correspondence Writing Month: a Blog Post

Feb13

This month — as I did 2 years ago — I am participating in A Month of Letters / International Correspondence Writing Month.

The goals of these two remarkably similar things are, respectively:

  • Mail something every day the post runs in February; reply to every letter you get.
  • handwrite a letter every day in February.

For me, this is a combination of postcards, cards, stationery (there’s a lot of print-your-own stationery available online; there’s a bunch pinned on my Pinterest page Printables (Snail Mail Love is also awesome.).), and… well, a bit of notebook paper when, uh, writing where I don’t have anything else.

Have I mentioned that I love office supplies? The hard part of LetterMo for me is not buying All The Supplies. The printable stationary helps with that, because I can just print like 2 pages and an envelope.

…I think I want to visit a stationary store.  Anyone know any good ones? Online is fine.

Back to the actual letter writing.  When I first started, I found it was tricky to write letters to people who I talked to daily online.

This time, I’ve been letting my mind wander based on the cards or the weather or… anything, really.

I find I like it.  It makes me focus on questions, which is nice.  I practice my handwriting, which sorely needs the work.  I have an excuse to buy paper things!! And fancy pens… and STAMPS! Some of the current USPS stamps are super awesome.   And then there’s mail art.

Mail art! Have you encountered mail art? OMG I love it.  Banners! Flowers! Boats! A barn! Anything you can fit an address in the middle of in vaguely the right spot.  Envelopes drawn on or printed out or made out reused paper — magazines, calendars…. Anything.

There’s a pinboard for that, too. (There’s a pinboard for everything…)

I mean, on top of all of that, there’s **getting awesome things in your mail!**  Getting letters and post-cards is *so much more awesome* than getting e-mail, although I can’t even begin to explain why.  I mean, things like mail art, inserts, pretty cards, that seriously helps, but just a handwritten letter from a friend (or typewritten; when I was in college my mom would type and print out letters and mail them to me) in the mailbox instead of just bills… awesome.

So, letterMo, InCoWriMo, they’re awesome. It’s, granted, almost halfway through the month, but you could still play along late!

And if you’d like me to send YOU a letter or local/pretty (or Grand Canyon, oops) postcard (and, as I said on Mastodon & Twitter, is there is a non-zero chance that you will write back, or if *cough* I owe you a letter anyway), e-mail me or drop me a line with your mailing address and I will do so.

 

Blog Post: Last Weekend with Friend Visit

Jul22

I had an Eseme visiting last weekend!

I hadn’t seen Eseme in five or six years (she’ll know the specifics; I just know it had been ~forever~).  So this was a very special occasion, and not just because she drove 8+ hours each way to see me (and the kitties).

(Not that it won’t be awesome if I manage to see her once a year, like we discussed!)

We greeted her on arrival Thursday night with homemade pizza and equally homemade ginger ice cream, both of which I’m rather proud of.  

Friday we let other people do the cooking — my favorite diner for breakfast/brunch, my favorite Thai place for dinner — and in between, because I live in the Finger Lakes, we went out and tasted at a winery, a distillery, and a cidery. (She drinks a whiskey drink, she drinks a winey drink; they skip the lager drink, she drinks a cider drink….)

Oh, and my favorite ice cream place.

Saturday, we spent approximately all afternoon shopping, most of that at Hobby Lobby (there’s only one in the whole state of Maine!) and then at our local ReUse center, which is similar to the Habitat for Humanity Restores ( https://www.habitat.org/restores ).  Between the two, I ended up getting, notably:

* Some Washi Tape.

(This is my new thing.  It’s endless)

(I mean… After we bought washi tape at Hobby Lobby, I went online and bought us both some at Ali Express.  Which, being Ali Express, won’t get here for like 5-30 weeks (yes weeks) so it will be a surprise when it gets here).

(for those of you going “what is this thing?”  – https://www.cutetape.com/creative/blog/2012/6/what-is-washi-tape – Although at this point, many people call anything narrow-ish and decorative and adhesive washi tape.  For instance, one of the ones I bought was a zebra-printed very thin duct tape. Definitely not of the same origins as Japanese paper.)

* Some clearance yarn (of course) and knitting needles.

* a frame for a mini I bought from @Fax

And then from the ReUse Center, another frame (later spray-painted black for my postcard from Antartica), a Holly Hobby plate for Merit (long story, but that’s a cat), and some more knitting needles.

So all in all I’d call that a win for a shopping trip..

We hit the Commons – this is something Ithaca is known for, an area of two blocks long that has been blocked off to car traffic and is just for walking and shopping.  We had a blast there, too (I believe Eseme got a tiny dragon or two and I got some vinegar) and then bac home for dinner and s’mores. (With a pipe torch!)

Phew!

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful trip!  I sent Eseme home Sunday morning with a good breakfast, and I hope I get to see her again soon.

In the meantime, I can always mail her more washi tape…

Blog Post: Catching Up

Jan13

Well!  I haven’t done a what’s-Lyn-Doing blog post in quite a while!  Boring life, ey?

(I suppose after a summer of MRIs, spinal taps, blood draws, funerals, babies (other people’s) and major home renovation, anything would seem a little boring).

So, what have I been up to?  What have YOU been up to?

Crafts

Knitting, knitting, knitting.  I knit my mom and dad each scarflets for Christmas, knit a sleeveless jacket and a hat for Eclipse Viking Baby Capriox. I joined a knit-a-long and am working very slowly on a large asymmetrical triangular shawl, and I am almost done with Secret Project One and about to start on Secret Project Two.  Winter is good for knitting!

House

We were 1/2 of the way through installing new under-cabinet/over-sink LED motion-activated-switch lights 2 weekends ago – and then we realized we had no 1/2″ drill bit. *facepalm*  So now we have a bit and it’s too cold to go out to the garage. Soon!  Then the dishes and our new sink and awesome new faucet – and dishwasher! (it was a busy summer)- will be illuminated.

Oh, and we got a door and a front wall of sorts on the bathroom before we had company overnight back in the beginning of December.  And half the ceiling.  Maybe we’ll get the other half of the ceiling done tomorrow!

Health

I live!  I have new drugs which are jabbity once every two weeks and sort of make me feel like crap for a little bit afterwards.  But they should, ah, stop a repeat of this summer, hopefully! (The bad part with the big needles, not the good part with the home renovations).

Weather

I think the weather is trying to kill us.

I mean, I live on the North Coast; that’s kind of a given.

Yesterday it dropped /twenty degrees F/ in /two hours/.  And then is continuing to drop steadily an average of 1 degree an hour from 5 pm yesterday until about sunrise tomorrow.

Thursday and Friday the high was in the fifties F.  Today it’s 11.

How about you?

Keeping warm? Crafting? Writing? Arting? Healthy? Homed? Continue reading →

Craft Fest Craft Fest (Our trip to CornHill Arts Festival)

Jul13

This past weekend, we did almost nothing on the house – except plant one small squash plant, after clearing and turning over and weeding and hauling dirt into and weed-clothing sufficient area of our squash patch to let it spread (hey, it’s been a slow summer for gardening).

But we did go to a craft festival. Corn Hill Arts Festival is one of the biggest and best festivals in Rochester, and one that has been going on for a very long time (I first went with my parents, when it was a more hippy-feeling event and I was much smaller).

Back when we lived in Rochester, T and I went to many (not all: almost impossible) of the craft festivals in the area, but it’s been several years since we’ve driven back up for one (It’s about a 2-hour drive each way). It was nice to go back, and I think the break did us good. I felt far less jaded; there were many many new things, and even the trendy-thing-with-too-many-booths was new to us.

And we bought things! We did not buy wall art, because oh dear gods, the wall art I wanted cost too much. But I got a new mug! And some new earrings and a new bracelet (fork!) and a small piece of art and… *breathes* OH YEAH a fairy door.

Pics of the fairy door when we install it on Grandmother Maple. For now: My fancy new mug.

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