Winter Darkness

Winter for me isn't just dark literally, it also puts me in a dark place mentally.

The cold, the snow and ice make me feel trapped and depressed.

Fear and anxiety of traveling on the ice covered roads limits my social life and I spend my days struggling to stay positive. 

Illness and age have changed me. There was no fear or anxiety when I was young. Winter never held me back or put me in a dark place. I loved the solitude of living in the woods, but since I no longer work I feel like the solitude is closing in on me. 

Creating these journal pages helps me to keep things in perspective. I paste my feelings onto paper, place them in my journal and try to leave them there. On days when the weather allows, I go out and then there is this blog and your blog and thank goodness for the internet…I so appreciate all of your visits and comments. 

Hope your day is filled with happiness!

Karen

Finding Beauty

Yesterdays walk was so therapeutic.

Jack and I ventured out again this evening.

 Looking for bits of blooms left behind by Summer.

There's beauty everywhere if you take the time to look for it.

karen

Spinning Fabric

Thought I'd try spinning some fabric strips today. 

 A reclaimed cotton gauze skirt torn into strips.

 

 Spun together with some blue wool.

 Another in purples.

Made some pretty interesting yarn.

karen

Textile Bracelet Tutorial

Just a quick how to:

You will need some...

memory wire

wire cutters

round nose pliers

scissors

fabric strips or ribbon (1/2 to 3/4 in. wide and 1 yd. long)

glue

embellishments

 Cut a piece of memory wire 2 inches more than the circumference of your wrist.

Using the round nose pliers, curl a loop onto each end of the wire.

 Place a dab of glue next to one of the loops and anchor the end of your ribbon.

Wrap wire tightly, overlapping as you go.

When you reach the other loop add another dab of glue and anchor your ribbon at this end too.

Wrap again in the opposite direction.

 When you reach the end or beginning, depending how you look at it...anchor with one final dab of glue. Trim off any excess ribbon. They should look like this.

You can either leave them like this

or add whatever  you like. I embellished mine with beads and wire.

 I apply a jump ring to each of the end loops to keep the charms and beads from sliding off.

Here are some made with torn strips of cotton textiles.

You can see I over wrapped some with flax, hemp, ribbon and wire.

Here you can see the jump rings and some beaded wire wrapping.

Another set with just bright copper wire wrapping and some simple silver beads.

If anyone decides to make some of these I would love to see them.

I think the possibilities are endless.

karen

Fiber Vessels

Fiber vessels in the works.

 Made with my own hand spun wool.

 Just the beginning of something great I hope.

karen

Making Christmas Bells

Last week while Mother was here visiting we gathered some supplies from the craft room and made a glittery mess in the kitchen.

 To make these Christmas Bells we started by painting a couple of seed starter pots.

The paper mache type.

After the paint was dry we added some glitter.

 We wired jewelry parts for hanging inside the bells, hung them from a pretty bow and embellished them with ribbon and vintage millinery flowers.

 I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, but the glitter was everywhere.

We laughed and talked and Mother loved the glittery mess. It brought back memories of her childhood Christmas crafting.

Maybe we'll do paper chains and ornaments for our next crafty project together.

No glitter involved.

karen

Simple Shabby Weekend

Mom is here visiting for a few days.

We did a little thrifting.

 And I was lucky enough to find this comfy cotton robe in perfect condition.

 We recycled some egg cartons into some fun mobiles.

 Used up some beads and ribbon scraps left over from another project.

Some salvaged old jewelry parts.

 A little paint as well.

Simple inexpensive fun and good memories.

karen 

New Life For An Old Chair

What better place to show off my updated pressed back chair than against the old rescued hutch in my dining room. This old rough chippy chair had been on my porch for years and had seen better days. I brought it inside and freshened it up with a quick almost dry brushed coat of turquoise paint.

 Last Fall I had such a nice harvest of pumpkins and gourds from my garden, but this year's garden was a failure.

 I opted not to spend money buying real ones and instead used some of my faux decor.

 I grabbed up the pretty blue blanket from my daughter's donate pile as she was moving things into her new house last month.

 This small stick wreath was packed away with the faux pumpkins and seemed like the perfect thing to hang on the hutch door.

I'm loving that old chair all over again.

karen

Lost The Creative Me Someplace

Today I tried to force creativity.

It didn't work.

Found frustration instead.

 The best I could do was a few photos.

 Enjoying blue.

 And coziness.

karen