Tuesday, April 26, 2011

New Logo Design

My friend Lindsey Pack needed a logo for her crafty crochet booth at the Behive Bazzar thats coming up
May 5th - May 7th. She makes awesome crochet animals and wattle bottle holders. She will have some things for sale soon on the web at her shop.








Her business name is Pack-a-Doodle. She wanted a clean pallette of colors with an elephant. So I did this:
What do you think of the logo?

Monday, April 25, 2011

No sew totes help save on plastic bags.




Here are a few bags I made without a sewing machine.

A little info on the plastic bags they replace:
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide. 

That comes out to over one million per minute. 
Billions end up as litter annually.




What's crazy is that plastic bags don't actually biodegrade, 
they photodegrade-breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits 
contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web 
when animals accidentally ingest.

Even if you don't care about the environment or the animals, 
it is cheaper to use a reuseable bags. 
Most grocery stores will give you 5 or 10 cents for every reuseable bag 
you bring in to tote your groceries out with.

The bags featured have been proven sturdier than 
plastic bags so you don't have to worry about 
the bag breaking and spilling your stuff everywhere. 
Load it up with confidence.

Wondering how they are no sew? These bags are made with staples and duck tape. 

HOW TO:
What you need on hand: scissors, pencil or fabric marker, 1 yard home-decorating or upholstery-weight fabric, 2 yards of 1-inch or wider webbing (for straps), stapler, and Duct tape in complementary color. 
(Duct tape come in some awesome colors these days.)



DIRECTIONS
1. Cut a 20-by-36-inch piece of home-decorating or upholstery-weight fabric. Line the back of the fabric with iron-on vinyl to protect and reinforce.

2. Fold fabric in half, right sides together, to create a rectangle 20 inches wide by 18 inches tall, with the fold at the bottom.

3. Fold down and crease the top raw edge to create a 2-inch hem on the top, front, and back.

4. Mark where you would like the straps to go and staple the straps onto one side of the bag. Only staple through the strap and the folded over fabric, so that the staples do not show on what will be the front of the bag. Repeat on other side.

5. Use two strips of duct tape to cover the staples and "hem" the top of the bag. Trim the extra duct tape with scissors.

6. Fold the bag so right sides are together. Mark a seam line 1/2 inch from each edge. Staple up the sides of bag along the seam line. Cover seam with a long piece of duct tape, folded lengthwise over the raw edge. Trim the extra duct tape.

7. Create a gusset by flattening the inside-out bag with the seams together. Mark a line perpendicular to the seam, about 3 1/2 inches from the "point" at the bottom of each seam. Staple along this line. Cover the staples with duct tape and trim excess.

8. Turn bag right-side out.


More bags and ideas can be found in Jodi kahn's book, Simply Sublime Bags: 30 No sew, Low Sew Projects.


If you don't want to make your own, the bags featured are 
for sale along with many others.
My bags can be custom designed with 
whatever your heart may desire. 

Any ideas for future bag designs?

Easter Eggs

Tried my hand at coloring easter eggs. I used rubber bands to mask the white.  It turned out to be a really fun project.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Cookie Recipe


Here is a cookie recipe that I tried that turned out great. Just another reason to eat Amano chocolate.
Maybe I should have started a chocolate blog, ha.



INGREDIENTS
  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 cup chopped Amano Dark chocolate

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).



In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the peanut butter, water and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the rolled oats and chocolate chips. Have I told anyone lately how much I love my mixer? 

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet with parchment paper.



Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cookies are lightly toasted on the edges. 


Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Just sit down and get to work already.

Sometimes just sitting down to work, even when you don't have any ideas pays off. If you sit at that desk long enough, something might just come to you. If you just start typing, working, and moving things around you are more likely to get an idea, rather than staring off in to space, watching bad T.V. or napping on the couch. Get movin', something is bound to happen. 



Today I made a quick digital scrapbook page, with a photo Robbie took of me on the cruise back in November. A series of pages are in the works. It's simple but I think I like it. What do you think? I am taking on designing these sort of photo books for people, let me know if you need one for your family.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

chocolate break

Creative Block? Get out and have some chocolate.

My favorite place to eat is within walking distance of my house. Communal.
I would highly recommend just stopping in for dessert when you need a break from solving the world’s problems. I recently had a luscious bread pudding made with Amano Chocolate. It was served with milk and a side of caramelized bananas. This proved to be a great mid-day treat that had me cranking out tons of work afterwards. There’s no guarantee that this dessert will be on their ever changing menu when you visit. However,  I can guarantee what ever they offer will be worth trying.
If you feel guilty eating chocolate, think again. Dark chocolate has powerful antioxidant properties which are associated with less cognitive decline as you age. Just don’t go overboard with the portion that you eat.
Don’t go too crazy with the junk food. Sure, Coke and potatoe chips are tasty, but they don’t have the minerals your brain needs to work at top preformance. Whenever I tip the junk food scale I get a creative block. I think this is the bodies way of telling us it needs nutrients. Instead of popping the Pringles, try healty snacks like fresh vegtables and fruits. 

Communal now serves breakfast Tuesday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. 

For those of you who want to have breakfast later, they serve it til  2:00 p.m.Saturdays. Let me know if any one wants to have breakfast next Saturaday. I need more biscuits and gravy in my life and they give you enough to share.