Magic of Tidying Up

Alright, I finally got a hold of this book. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, about really cleaning out your house and lifestyle; and read it in one evening. (I'm a fast reader). The Japanese author Marie Kondo describes her lifelong path of figuring out how to permanently clear out the clutter in her home and how she uses her self named Kon-Mari method of  tidying up. In no way does she endorse "clean a little at a time", new and improved storage solutions, or even swapping out seasonal clothing twice a year. Amen to that, sister! She does encourage discarding things a category at a time, not a room at a time.

The first category is clothes. She figured this would be the easiest category for everyone because of the least emotional attachment to clothing. Kondo asks her clients to go and gather every single piece of clothing in the house and put it all on the floor. If you're a clothes horse, it may take you a while. This includes everything in your closet, in the spare bedroom closet, in the seasonal clothing boxes and your winter coats and hats. It must be all your items. She had a bad experience involving her family's possessions that they didn't know went missing.

Now, here's the key to deciding what stays. Does it bring you joy? You are required to touch and handle everything and ask if it makes you happy. If it did at one time and not so much anymore, then it goes in the discard pile. She does this for every category; clothes first, books, paper, miscellaneous and last is mementos. If there is anything there that doesn't make you light up with joy every time you see it, then you thank the item for its purpose and send it on its way.

The slight sticking point I have his Kondo's reaction to what she calls stockpiling. One of her clients had 64 toothbrushes under the bathroom sink. She figures use what you have and when it's worn out go and buy a new one or replace what you need. Mormon families are asked to have an emergency supply of food and what-not to last a year in case of a disaster when there isn't a grocery store open. So Kondo would probably be in shock when she'd see the mini-mart in the food storage room. While I think families should have their emergency store, it would make sense to still use Kondo's method of going through that too. Get rid of expired food, put all the like items together, get rid of the stuff your family won't eat, even in a disaster.

There are some other things specific to Japanese culture in her book, that would be easy to translate to American culture. I would love to have a Japanese style closet instead of the standard US closet of 'here's one shelf and a clothes rod from one end to the other'. Kondo came to the conclusion that clearing out the physical clutter from your space can make you physically feel and look better as she went back to check on her previous clients. They all were looking better than they were before they started her program. And to make sure that the new space stays that way, put everything back where it belongs.

We'll see if this works for this mess of a house.

Butterfly Birthday Card

I saw this gorgeous card on Pintrest using the big Stampin' Up butterfly stamp, and I thought "Hey! I can make that one!" Here's the link to the original card instructions Laura's Creative Moments. Yeah, it's in Dutch, but don't worry it's easy to follow.

The main stamps and supplies you need are: 

White or cream cardstock cut to 8 1/2" to 4 1/2" inches

Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Simple Sketched and some other flower and butterfly set. Stampin' Up! has loads of them, pick a set that you like to use.

One color of Stampin' Up! Ink for each card. I used Lost Lagoon, Cherry Cobbler and Wisteria Wonder

Ranger Distress Ink: Vintage Photo, Antique linen plus your blending pads

Any random Spellbinders tag die that will fit the birthday sentiment stamp.

And some natural colored twine.

The tricky part is stamping the butterfly in the correct corner of the card. That would be the left side of the card if you're pressing the paper onto the stamp like I do with large stamps. You want to stamp it at an angle and not straight across.

Then cut the edge of the paper around the right side of the butterfly wing to give that decorative edge. Then stamp and distress the edges of the paper as you please. The red ink wasn't very colorfast, so that's why the red card is not looking like a Vintage Photo color, but it still looks good. I also stamped off once before stamping the inside stamps. Score your fold line at 4 1/2" inches, and it will give you a square card.

How do you use your large stamps in card making?

LED Birthday Card

You don't see this kind of card everyday. How about a light-up LED Birthday Card?

For my father-in-law's birthday, he gets rather excited about technical things and anything math related. His favorite video game is Tetris and he likes interactive media. So, when I saw this awesome LED craft kit from Chibitronics, I knew I'd be using that in the near future.

The kit includes a spiral workbook, special copper tape, 2 flat coin batteries, 2 binder clips, 12 white LED stickers, and 6 each of red, yellow and blue LED stickers. Plus, some z-adhesive and conductive plastic. Just about everything you can find at a hardware store, except the special LED light stickers that brings crafting to a new level.

This particular card uses the parallel circuit, on/off switch and the hidden message technique that are all explained in the workbook. On the website there is a template for the battery holder pocket that helps keep the battery in place so it doesn't fall out. Hubby didn't use cardstock to make the battery holder, and I still had to use a paperclip to hold the circuit to the battery. But, I don't think anyone noticed that the entire circuit wasn't hidden.

Stamps used are from Jaded Blossom: Nerd and Close to My Heart sets that are all probably retired by now.

Easter Egg Booth

Happy Easter!

This was our treat for our annual Easter Egg Hunt. Each child could pick an entire paper basket with three treat filled eggs  The usual comments of "How cute!" and "So creative!" were heard from the parents of the children. Plus, a few pictures and questions of taking an extra one if there was some left.

I had my hubby help by using his recently learned scouting skills to lash some wooden dowels to the card table for the banners. It held.  Here's a quick list of craft supplies: gold glitter Happy banner (Theresa Collins), black paper banner kit (American Crafts), gold Sharpie, chalkboard paper (DCWV), white chalk marker (Chalk Couture), Berry Basket Die (Stampin' Up!)

We always seem to have an unusual amount of cardboard boxes around the house, so the case trays for food cans seemed the appropriate vehicle for all the baskets. And thanks to my grandpa's collection of farm related decorations, the added milk can and metal drink cooler were perfect decorations. I found the metal basket in a thrift store.

Now I need to think of what next year's treat will be...

Crocheted Plush Cars Playnket

I had to wait to post this one since is was a gift for a one-year-old. I think it turned out darling.This pattern was on Facebook thanks to Lion Brand Yarn posting the picture, and I thought it was perfect for a toddler gift. I used all Caron Simply Soft yarn, my favorite yarn of choice. And the pattern is from Repeat Crafter Me's blog. She calls them Playnkets (Play mat and blanket).

She only has the road going through the middle of the blanket, but I thought it would be fun to add the road around the border to have a connecting road for the cars. Just keeping using the same single crochet, chain one pattern stitch as the rest of the blanket to add the road on the outside.

I did use her suggestion on simplifying the car pattern and close up the back early to only have the windshield. Since I was giving this to a one-year-old, I couldn't use buttons for the wheels, so I used black felt instead. I cut two circles of felt for the wheel, tied a french knot with the car-color yarn in one and then stitched the edges together so the tires didn't flop around and were stiff. Then you stitch only the top half of the wheel to the car body  so the bottom isn't folded under the car. The wheels took me longer than the car bodies to make, but patience won out, and they're very sturdy.

The gift was received with Ohh's and Ahh's, and as suggested,the perfect quiet toy for church.

Black and White Iced Pie Afghan

Here's a new one, a black and white quarter circle blanket using this pattern. Ice Pie Crochet square

It's an eight by eight square pattern with half blocks at the top and bottom. Yeah, you could probably do this with quilting, but you can't lug a sewing machine around with you. I used either Caron, Lion Brand or Bernat yarn, in the pound of yarn variety. I don't really know or remember which ones I used. I was using my yarn stash.

I also used the joining technique described on the site. She said it was supposed to lay flat, but I still have some ridges where I joined the squares, but the back of it is flat. I'm not sure where this blanket is supposed to go, hopefully somewhere nice.

Stampin' Up! 2015 Party Order

It's here! My 2015 Stampin' Up! workshop order! I got most of it, some of the dies and embossing folders are on backorder. Hope they show up soon.

Stuff I paid for ( 3 dies on backorder), not as much as last year. I got picky this time.

Stuff for free (1 embossing folder on backorder), and the 50% off items. Gotta love Sale-a-bration time. Oh, and I split my hostess dollars with sis-in-law because she let me have the party at her house. If I didn't have to clean my house, it was worth it to split the party profits. 'Til next year!