kung hei fat choi

Happy Chinese New Year! Goodbye Year of the Rat, Hello Year of the Ox. The Ox symbolizes responsibility, dependability, honesty, practicality and industriousness.

I work with many companies in China, and this two-week celebration is a very auspicious (as many of my coworkers would say!) time for them. The country basically shuts down for two to four weeks as workers travel home to their families, many of whom live in rural China. The traditional gift at Chinese Spring Festival (as it is called by the government) is money tucked into red envelopes. As red is the color of luck, you'll also find red decorations, lanterns, and banners throughout the streets and shops.

Have a prosperous new year!

for a good cause

This is Murphy. I found him running in traffic last November, and he now has a great home with a friend of mine.


This is Mostly Crafty's mascot, Bristow. We all know what kind of trouble Bristow gets into.

If you couldn't tell, I'm quite the animal lover. I'm currently looking for a canine pal for the Bristowdog at the local rescues, which is why I'm happy to have found this great new song and artist (new to me, I'm kind of behind the times) who is also an animal lover.

Neko Case and her label, ANTI, will donate five dollars to Best Friends Animal Society for every blog posting her newest song, "People Got a  Lotta Nerve." I can't believe I hadn't really heard any of Neko's music before- I even checked my iTunes, and she's right up my indie-rock alley.  I'm checking out her album right now. It's fantastic!



Here is her latest song, "People Got a Lotta Nerve."




Add this to your blog too!

where I was

Las Vegas





Red Rock Canyon

a shout-out

My lovely dear friend K is posting about some of her favorite people on her blog, It's a Wonderful Life. Today's Valentine is me! I've known K since sixth grade, so we have had some good times. She has an adorable seven-month old and writes about family life and babies, with some crafting thrown in. She is an amazing knitter- much, much, much faster than I, and also more adventurous with the needles. She has knit socks AND sweaters. I have knit rectangles.

a type of heirloom

Another project in my To Do book is an heirloom type tray. I saw these on Ali Edwards' site a few weeks ago, and fell in love with the idea.



My mom has had a type tray on a vintage sewing machine base for decades- growing up I loved to look at it and have her tell me stories of what's in it:  casino chips from her first trip to Vegas, the ribbons the police department tied on my parents' squad cars when they got married, the hospital bracelet from when I was born. My mom had several type trays, saving them until we were older (or old enough to care, I guess).  



Type trays, old printing blocks, and everything typography is so "in" right now, but back when we were little, my mom couldn't give these trays away! See, this one even has the price tag from a garage sale on it: $12 (fun fact: these stickers are from old ATA seating assignment sheets. We'd get the leftovers as kids to draw on, and we used the blank ones at garage sales)


(Hamilton Mfg Co. was the largest producer of wood type, and based in Two Rivers, WI.)

Ali Edwards used photos and scrapbooking doodads in her tray, but I think I'll keep mine a bit more like my moms- some photos and keepsakes, glue-dotted in so I can hang it on the wall.

to do, or, procrastinating just a bit longer

I've been hard at work on my To Do list today, which is to say that I'm not actually doing anything. I feel productive, because look! A list! Of Things To Do! But what am I actually doing? Uploading photos onto Flickr, reading teh internets, and posting to my blog. I think it goes without saying that I am still in my pajamas, too.

Things on the To Do List:
-Clean the entire downstairs. There are actually 11 points detailing this, but it is essentially: the downstairs is a wreck (I have been gone for a week, left in a shambles when I hurriedly packed before my trip)

Okay, that is really all that's on the To Do List. So instead of mopping the floor, I made a Crafting To Do List too!

• Finish Elbac (not pictureD)- I am about 1/3 of the way through, thanks to four hours on a plane last week.
• Work on my Crafting binder (on my 101 Things list)- I've been printing out or copying projects and ideas for a few weeks. I put them in plastic sleeves rescued from the trash bin at work, and an old binder I found in a drawer here. I also need to make a cover for it.
  
• Sew a dress (also on 101 Things)- from a pattern I bought last year at this time. Maybe this year I'll buy the fabric and next spring actually make it! Ha!
  
• Butterfly collage inspired by Ali Edwards and craftster
• Hoop circles inspired by The Purl Bee. I found most of the circles at the thrift store near my house, although they also seem to be VERY inexpensive at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I probably paid about the same price.
  
• Wooden Christmas Tree inspired by the ones in this C&B catalog (although it's not actually IN this catalog, just on the cover?). Red and flocked in the photo, mine will probably be a white/blue/green color, though I would love to try flocking some day.
  

missed Christmas

Some how I completely missed Christmas on my blog. It should be the opposite- Christmas is when there are dozens of projects, crafts, ornaments and cards to do every day! But this year...I didn't handmake any gifts, although I did make an IOU for an apron for my mother. I didn't make cards like I did last year, nor did I make any scarves.

This year, I didn't want to feel pressured to hurriedly make gifts for people- I have two jobs this holiday season, which cuts into my crafting time. I also felt burned out on crafting. Now that I read all these fabulous crafting blogs in my Google Reader, I kind of feel like what I make for people is second-rate. I'm not a great sewer or knitter, and my projects are riddled with errors. It's been hard to feel inspired to make a gift.

That said, I have cast on one new/one old project to knit. I'm working on Elbac again, after a two year break, and a new scarf to try to bust through some of the stash I uncovered while "cleaning" (ie. looking for shoes in my closet).

Elbac is now three times as long, despite my many attempts to screw it up last week. I'd take a new picture of it but I lost the cord to my camera. Awesome.