Halloween choker

Here's a nice little choker that might compliment your Halloween costume.

Winter Goodies!

Now that it's officially Fall, it's time to start thinking about Winter!



In my Etsy store I have fleece scarves on sale - they're not only great for you, but also as gifts for friends with Fall birthdays, or for upcoming winter holidays. Browse around the store for more holiday gifts too!

Plastic Bag Yarn

I just saw an interesting idea for "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle": plastic bag yarn! Instructions on how to make it are here, and some examples of final products are here.

Now, I'm not a big knitter or crocheter, but I think making such "yarn" could be fun, so I'm curious if anyone would buy the yarn to make their own things out of. What do you think?

X-posted to Modern Science

Plastic Beads for Pegboards

Anybody know the real name of those plastic beads that kids put on pegboards in different shapes? I want to buy some for my bird to play with - I love making her toys. It's a little bit of crafting, a little bit of entertainment, a little bit of bonding with my bird, and a little bit of thriftiness.

Origami Instructions

Thanks to a comment on a previous post, I've just found the website Origami Instructions. There's some tips and hints in words, some line drawing images (like you'll see in books or sometimes come with origami paper), but most interesting to me is all the videos posted! There's nothing like watching it happen in real time to give you a good solid sense of which way to make certain folds (I never remember which symbol means mountain and which valley, so I always have to look at the next step to know which they meant), and to give you a three-dimensional feeling of what's going on - when doing origami you often have to keep mental track of the multiple layers of paper, and a line drawing never does that justice.

If you're new to origami, I suggest you start off by watching the video you want to try once through, then take it slowly, pausing after every single last step during the process.

Summer!

So now that it's summer, I should actually start having some time to actually DO crafts again. Too bad my brain's still fried from the Spring semester and I don't have any ideas right now... :-P

Lack of updates

Sorry for the lack of updates. This spring has been hectic for me, I'm teaching a new course, teaching an additional course, and also personal issues going on - my cockatiel Gabriel sadly passed away (seizure suspected) during the holiday season, and I spent a few months searching for a new bird, and then the last few weeks bonding with her. The full extent of my craftiness lately has been spent on making her new toys. Her name is Kappa, and she's a dusky conure.



As you can see, the toys I make for her aren't all that pretty, but she tends to like them. I just dropped some more money on toys from Birdy Booty, and they're really awesome toys, but so far Kappa's remained entranced with the simpler toys that she already has. I'm sure that'll change with time, but it's just silly. :)

So, my summer break's coming up soon, so expect more crafting from me as it moves into full swing at the end of May.