Teaching Trash to Treasures

I've had a couple of occasions to teach my passion to others. I had a small program at the school I'm working at, which I called "Celebrate Sustainably" and taught the few families about ways to wrap presents that don't waste so much...and then we made tshirt bags, greeting card boxes and recycled notebooks.

I've also done a few individual projects with the afterschool kid care program. One week we made our own "wrapping paper" out of grocery bags, and the next time we made recycled notebooks. These kids just soak up this sort of thing.

Additionally, I get the privilege of teaching this to 15 college students for a wellness workshop. Pretty excited about that. Will probably be able to continue to offer it as I've been told there was high interest in the class (sizeable waiting list)

Come find me at the Farmer's Market

I've been in a crafting rut lately. I've done a few batches of crayons here and there, and I'm always knitting but I've been rather uninspired.

And then, last week I found out that West Duluth (the Spirit Valley neighborhood) holds a Farmer's Market on Thursdays from 3-6pm. Found it by accident....was taking Grand Ave home instead of the freeway. Anyway, I learned that for $30 I can set myself up every Thursdays from now until the end of the season...and I figured, why not. I'm going to give it a go.

I'm not 100% sure they'll let me pay and start the same week but I'm crossing my fingers that I can. I'm so darn excited. I might not sell much, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. If nothing else, it has me excited about crafting again.

Oh yeah, and even better....when I was checking out garage sales in my parents' hometown, I found a blender for $4. So now I can do papermaking again. Woot!

Goals Revisited

I haven't posted on here in forever so I figured its time for an updated goal list...
Re-do Sheldon's shell and send on to recipient.... Looked at this the other day and STILL not sure what to do to fix it. Might take it to Yarn Harbor and ask the lovely ladies there for some assistance


finish the sweater I started in 2007 and send to recipient... All done and given to my mother. Of course, I gave it to her in the summer so I don't think she wore it right away...but maybe by now?

have a garage sale or simply donate the stuff that needs to be gotten rid of... I have not done much of this yet...BUT I have assigned more belonging to be sold or donated, as well as corralling it all into one area instead of spread out through all belongings. Oh yeah..and I have gotten rid of at least one large bin of crafting tshirts as well.

no buying of yarn.  I succeeded for about 4 months, and then I had someone commission some baby hats and stuff so I ended up buying too much yarn as always....but that being said, I've made over $100 on that so I guess its ok.

finish at least 3 partially made things in the WIP box ... this one was particularly satisfying. Some of the "finishing" just meant weaving in ends, which I hate doing. But I've done it on the scarves and socks and other random things in my box, meaning they could progress to the gift/sale box of stuff. But additionally, I finished a partially made Knitter Critter from over a year ago..and sold it immediately and had someone commission three more! Made $65 off that endeavor!

make more gift bags and use or sell ... I have not even touched my fabric since moving in September but eventually I will hit the need to do them again and will probably whip off a lot.

 find something to make with the acrylic yarn...donate, sell or gift the FOs .... I've got one scarf made and another in progress. No reciepients yet but I love having stuff on hand for either selling or donating so its a good thing to have around. Doll clothes comes next! Its just a matter of my hands keeping up with my ambitions. Might donate some of the yarn to the people at Yarn Harbor...they let people who do charity knitting take the yarn they can use. I just have to get over the need to be a packrat and then everything will be ok!

Goals

I have lots of stuff and little space....so here are a few goals to help out with that.

__ Re-do Sheldon's shell and send on to recipient
__ finish the sweater I started in 2007 and send to recipient
__ have a garage sale or simply donate the stuff that needs to be gotten rid of
__ no buying of yarn. can only get by swapping stuff I don't like for stuff I do. (exceptions made for special gifts with specific recipients. Then only buying what will be used)
__ finish at least 3 partially made things in the WIP box
__ make more gift bags and use or sell
__ find something to make with the acrylic yarn...donate, sell or gift the FOs

One Week Left!

Wow...time has gone quickly. We're just spending this last week finishing up stuff I couldn't do at a distance or that couldn't be delegated, etc.

Working on programs today. Printer was being a pain in the butt and has ruined about 10 pieces of paper...thankfully I bought way more than was needed. I can always use parts of the papers for cards, or blend it up into homemade paper since its a nice shade of blue.

Did a second trial run of the makeup today since I rarely wear any.

Working on badges for my junior paparazzi at the moment.

Need to finish the seating arrangements....lots and lots to do!

Finally the dress fitting....

It hasn't actually happened yet...but, failing another poorly timed snowstorm, I should be doing my dress fitting this coming Thursday. It just so works out that I can also do a trial run of my hair that day. Its going to be a very short trip to the cities (drive down Wednesday after work and be back in time for work 5pm on Friday) but I think it will be worth it for those two things.

Crossing my fingers for no bad weather or mishaps on anyone's parts.

Not such a whirlwind of a weekend

So this has got to be one of the periods of time I have been at my parents house in a long time. Got done Wednesday night. I'm either leaving Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Wednesday I got a ride from the person who answered my Boreal ad and it turned out I vaguely knew. That got me to Duluth two hours before my shuttle. Read a really cheesy romance novel about a time travelling Viking....which I heard about in one of my favorite webcomics, Questionable Content. I'm not a big fan of romance novels but they are easy reads...and the premise was too goofy to pass up. Apparently everyone else thinks so to because there was at least 5 holds on the book before me.

Anyway, got to the Mall of America around 3pm, locked my suitcase in a locker and wandered for the hour or so until Mom got there to pick me up..but we didn't want to tackle traffic and wandered the stores for another hour and a half or so.
over
We printed all the sheets of vellum for the invites and let them dry just in case. Cut them all on Friday. Got the layout for the other piece figured out today and we hope to print and put together on Sunday. After that we just need to do the RSVP cards....and stuff envelopes (and label them).

My SIL came over today and played with makeup. I don't normally wear it. In fact it is possible that the last time I wore anything other than costume or stage makeup was probably at her wedding slightly over 3 years ago. So after we finally got that figured out we ran to Ridgedale and bought the things she wanted me to have my own of. Also took care of a couple other things.

Once we got back again we hashed out a basic timeline for the day of.

Jumping back a day, yesterday we went to the venue in the early afternoon to ask questions and  look again and then went to buy fabric for my flowergirl's dress......I swear the pattern looked easy but when we started trying to figure out what we needed, we got confused. And the first saleslady was really freaking snippy with us. Not cool.

Anyway...I think that's most of it for now.More in the next couple days..