Continue reading »]]>

The key holder on our messenger bag inspired this project!

I dispensed with a major pet peeve of mine–digging through my purse to find my keys–today with a simple craft project using only items I had laying around the house!

My beloved Timbuk2 messenger bag has a nifty little clip on the end of a ribbon, so I can attach my keys and never lose them in the otherwise cavernous bag. So why not my other purses?

Now each of my purses is outfitted with a clip made to hold my keys. It was quick and easy, even for a novice with needle and thread like myself.

Materials

• 1 keychain with a swivel hook and several detachable key rings or several individual swivel-hooks as pictured
• several 4-8″ pieces of remnant ribbon, preferably in colors that coordinate with your handbags
• heavy-duty thread that matches the thread
• sewing needle

Here’s how I did it…

Everyone probably has something similar to this in their junk drawer, right?

My original idea was just to completely replicate the Timbuk2 bag, so I set off rummaging through all the shit treasures in our junk drawer and tool box looking for several clips.

Instead, I found this little gem! I bought it some time ago to do something similar to this and it failed because modern-day car keys are too big to fit on the tiny rings and it was far too bulky to carry around in my already heavy purse.

But what if I turned it upside down and used each little detachable key-ring in a different purse? That would give me four built-in key holders at any one time so that I could easily change bags on the run. Score!

For purses that had a clip on the inside, I wouldn’t even need to do any sewing, but for ones that didn’t, I would just sew in a ribbon just like the Timbuk2 bag.

My everyday keys.

Here are the keys that I carry on a more or less daily basis: one set of house keys, one car key.

They fit easily onto the swivel hook of the blue keychain, meaning that I can detach them without taking my gloves off when it’s -20C! That’s less convenience and more necessity here in Helsinki.

The other thing I love is that I can easily detach the car key and leave it behind on days that I’m taking public transport instead of driving without breaking a nail fiddling with a conventional keyring. Less clutter and weight in my bag leaves room for my Kindle, a knitting project, snacks for the kids, or a few small groceries picked up on the way somewhere else.

Attach a keyring to the zipper in your purse...

However, my new Marimekko bag has solid zip-pulls, and it’s extra-large, three pocket design meant there were extra nooks and crannies in which to lose my keys. So I pulled out my sewing box and got to work.

I chose a short piece of extra ribbon I had laying around. I eye-balled the length of the ribbon so that the heavy keys would rest on the bottom of the purse instead of dangling with hopes that the ribbon will last longer and that I’ll have less jingling as I walk around town.

The finished product.

Then I put one end of the ribbon through the key ring and folded the ribbon in half so that it overlapped itself by about half an inch. At this point, if you have a sewing machine, I would recommend machine-stitching for extra durability. However, I doubled-up about 18 inches of heavy-duty thread and hand-stitched down the edge of the ribbon, across the cut edge, back up the other side, across the top of the ribbon (just below the keyring) in a square and put a few stitches in the middle of the square for good measure.

Then I folded the other end of the ribbon down half an inch and carefully stitched it to the top edge of the canvas of my bag. I made sure that I was getting the needle all the way through the inside layer of canvas, but that I wasn’t hitting the outside canvas–I didn’t want stitches showing through or want my brand-new bag to pucker.

Leather or other materials may pose more of an issue than cloth, but hopefully you can find a tag or other bit of cloth that you can get a needle through to outfit all of your bags with this nifty little key-holder.

Continue reading »]]>

Our Easter craftiness involved a lot more than dying eggs this year!

Maybe it’s because we’ve had so many sleety Easters in Colorado over the years, or maybe it was divine inspiration, but I decided yesterday that we were going to embark on a multi-day Easter-related crafty project. When we woke up today to a gray, rainy morning, instead of being disappointed, we had plenty of stuff to keep us occupied.

First up on our list was planting rye grass for Easter, a Finnish tradition the kids wanted to try. But that was such a quickie that I had to come up with a few more things. We’d already boiled eggs, but I had another half dozen that hadn’t fit in the pan, so I decided to make blown eggs. This is something the kids did every year at their preschool back in the US, so they were anxious to try again.

How hard could it be, right? I sort of remember poking eggs with a toothpick and doing something to get the egg out, but it was all vague, so I turned to Google. I immediately clicked on Martha Stewart’s egg-blowing instructions in the results, thinking she’d have some simple and fool-proof instructions. Um, her materials-list included a dremel tool and required one of two types of egg blowing tool–wtf???

Just for a second opinion, I clicked on WikiHow’s article on blowing out eggs. It was slightly less complex, and had the great advice to bake the eggs for a few minutes to sterilize and strengthen them, but I still decided to improvise!

Step 1 - Poke a hole in the top of the egg

Note: If you are a raw-egg phobe, I suggest you stop reading here. If you are the type who, like me, not only consumes raw cookie dough, but lets your children do so, you may continue. Rest assured, no salmonella was contracted during the research for this blog post.

So I went to my junk drawer, pulled out a paperclip and a straight pin, and got to work. I did wash all the eggs in warm, soapy water, because here in Finland our eggs often show up with some chicken-detritus attached.

The first thing I noticed was that egg shells are a lot harder than I thought! I put a pin in the top, made sure I had punctured the membrane underneath the shell. This hole would allow us, in the absence of some nifty tool, to blow into the egg and push the contents out the second, slightly larger hole, in the bottom that the egg (see what I mean–salmonella-phobes should really stop reading and for heaven’s sake, don’t look at the pictures!).

Step 2 - Make a slightly larger hole in the bottom of the egg

This second hole is about the size of pin-head, although on a couple I accidentally made them quite a bit larger. You can do this by sticking the pin in several times in a gradually-larger spiral. Make sure you get the membrane out of the way, or it will just sort of reseal around the hole and keep the egg from coming out.

Next, stick a straightened bit of paperclip into the egg and jostle it around until you’re sure you’ve broken the yolk. This step is important–the more you can do to break up the stringy bits in your egg, the easier the next step will be.

Step 4 - Blow!

I let each of the kids blow one egg out. If your children are not yet old enough to blow up a balloon, they may not be quite able to do this. My kids are 4 and 6 and did pretty well. Be sure to catch the egg in a bowl and use it to make a frittata or something! You want to blow with steady, gentle pressure–don’t blow your ear-drums on this step!

Lily gets her turn...

Despite washing the outside of the eggs with soapy water, we all definitely got at least a little raw egg in our mouths during this step. So like I said, if this bothers you, consider buying organic local eggs skipping this activity.

It will take several puffs before you get all the egg out of the shell, and you’ll still want to rinse the eggs by putting the larger hole under running water and blowing them out again until its mostly water and not yolk coming out. Dry them in a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes to sterilize and strengthen them–we’ve had some of these things last for multiple Easters, and with all the work that goes into them, you may as well prep them for the long-haul.

Since I boldly proclaimed that I kicked dear Martha’s ass, I should sheepishly insert here that we only ended up with 5 eggs. Remember how I said those shells were hard? Well, the last one wasn’t, and I annihilated it when making the first hole in the top.

Gabriel's favorite part - Mommy screwed up!

I had egg down my leg and even on the floor, much to my son’s delight. He was in hysterics and when I asked him what was so funny, he admitted gleefully that he loved seeing me make a mistake. Um, does that mean he’s missed all the other mistakes I’ve made? I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a very bad thing, but I’m resolved to screwing up in front of him as much as possible in the future.

Luckily, Matt Artz missed this part:

NOT the biggest mess that happened this day

Once they’re clean and dried, you can decorate them any way you like. Ours ended up getting colored with oil pastels and dipped in traditional Easter egg dye, but there are all kinds of cool things you can do with these, including using white school glue and tissue paper to color them. Two things I noticed that were less-than-perfect is that the stamps they put on eggs here in Finland come off when you boil eggs, but not when you wash them by hand before blowing them out, so the stupid stamp showed through my dye. And second, the eggs float, so you have to spend some time moving them around to get the color even.

Pretty in Purple

This may not be so remarkable by itself (although I was impressed with myself), but making Easter egg pinatas was really a hoot. Again, there are all kinds of things from wallpaper paste to school glue that you can use in the making of a papier mache pinata, but we used water, flour, a balloon, and a bunch of newspaper we collected from the Metro on the way home from school yesterday. I mixed three cups of flour into four cups of water to make the paste, tore the paper into strips, and let the kids have at it. Two layers of paper was the goal, but that’s a lot easier for an adult to achieve than a little. Still we had fun, and made a mess, and you can’t really beat that.

Getting Messy!

If I had it to do over again, I would have covered the table. In the end, it wasn't that hard to wash up.

This was a little challenging for the kids, although Gabriel did eventually get the hang of it.

We used safety pins through the tied-off end of the balloon to hang them overnight to dry.

We painted our pinatas and then covered them with tissue paper to further strengthen them.

Balloon popped, hole punches & string for the handle, and you're set!

Lily added a little glitter glue & jewels to hers.

Gabriel with his finished pinata!

This is a fun, multi-day project that doesn’t have to be Easter-specific. Lily said my pinata looked a lot like a hot-air balloon, and of course it could easily be made into a Halloween pumpkin, a face, or an animal depending on what you were willing to stick on to it!

Continue reading »]]>

I particularly like the colors in these two paintings by my son, Gabriel

Let’s say we don’t put a crayon into our child’s hand until they are a year old (it was earlier than that for us!). That means that, when I began my decluttering adventure, I found roughly 8 years’ worth of artwork (combined total for two children) in a giant stack in my basement. We do craft projects nearly every day, and they spent part of every day of their preschool lives doing craft as well, so you can see how quickly that can multiply. Each piece is unique, captures their developmental milestones in visual format, and, especially now that my son writes “To Mommy” on almost every piece, is very difficult to let go.

And yet, I could not justify taking a three-foot stack of kids’ artwork to Helsinki with us. What to do, what to do? I turned to the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra for help with this tricky situation!

Reduce
I was able to immediately reduce the giant pile-o-pictures by pulling out some nice ones and sending them to out-of-state relatives. This made me feel good because I was sharing part of my children’s experiences with them, and they were appreciative too!

Reuse
I’ve already blogged about Zero-Waste Wrapping Paper, but it’s worth mentioning again. Larger paintings, especially those that come from easel paper, make great home-made wrapping paper. Not only does it add a personal touch to your gifts, but it doesn’t contain the heavy metals present in many commercial wrapping papers and can, therefore, be recycled. Double bonus.

Note to pack-rats: Do not fool yourself into keeping a life-time supply of child art for wrapping paper. Only keep enough for a month or so, or one major holiday at most, because you know they’re going to keep painting more!

Recycle, But Scan First!
Once you’ve sent some of the artwork on and set aside enough to wrap a holiday’s-worth of present-wrapping, it’s time to recycle 95% of the rest. Yes, I kept a small file-folder of items from the 8 years of artwork: Gabriel’s first rainbow painting, Lily’s first flower, a special drawing of Grandma, Gabriel’s first picture of our family.

But before I recycled, I took photos and/or scanned in the best ones and plan to keep those digitally for posterity. We have a combo printer/fax/scanner that is amazingly high-quality for the price, but I also took digital photos of anything too big to fit on the scanner bed. The photos are slightly lower-quality than the scanner, even with my 12.1 megapixel camera, but are good enough that I could easily put together a photo book for each child sometime in the future if I wanted to (and I do!).

I’m also planning to publish a digital album of their work so that friends and family can see the art they create in Finland. There are so many free services out there for digital storage these days (Picasa, Facebook, and Evernote just to name the ones we actively use) that it makes sense to store things this way instead of on CDs or even a disk drive that might contribute to your clutter.

So how have you found creative ways to declutter? I’m always looking for new ways to simplify!

Continue reading »]]>

My first knitting project - A hat & scarf for my daughter

Well, I’m here to tell you about some of my favorites. If you’ve always wanted to knit (did I mention that it’s very meditative???), these resources can help! I’ve now been knitting for six months or so and have graduated from scarves and hats to more complicated projects with the help of the following resources. I still consider myself a beginner, but I’m a beginner who is ready to tackle a few new stitches and techniques.

Best How-Tos – YouTube
Learning from reading out of a book is really hard for me, as a kinesthetic learner, so I really love looking up knitting how-to videos on YouTube. Once I discovered The Knit Witch, I knew I was set! What I love about learning to knit on YouTube is that the videos are short (1-3 minutes) and typically cover a single technique. So I can watch and then do, and then watch again until I get it right. Just my style!

Best Free Patterns – It’s a Tie!
I really love Lion Brand & KnitPicks for free patterns, but since I can find most of there patterns–and more–on Ravelry, I think I’ll have to declare it a three-way tie. What, you’ve never heard of Ravelry? It’s like Facebook for knitters and is totally addictive. You can find me at JulieArtz. Check it out immediately!

Best Knitting Magazine – Knitty
A friend introduced me to Knitty and I just have to mention it here. An online magazine for all things knitting, it is full of gorgeous inspiration…

Best Local Yarn Shop
You knew there had to be a local angle, didn’t you? I probably wouldn’t pick up a new hobby if there wasn’t, and Boulder County residents will not be disappointed with their local yarn shop, Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins. They have everything from straight acrylic to superwash wool/acrylic blends to an immense variety of handspun yarns made from all different materials. Needles, patterns, spinning supplies, and expert advice are also on hand.

I’d love to know if you have a local yarn shop in your neck of the woods! My mother-in-law introduced me to a great one in her town called The Dancing Ewe, but I love to browse yarn shops when I travel, so please post a link to your favorites in the comments section!

Best Yarn? Hand-spun of course!
Now that I’m spinning my own yarn, I really prefer to knit hand-spun. Sure, it’s not as even in texture and thickness as machine-spun stuff, but knitting hand-spun is an organic experience and one that I have enjoyed. There are so many artisan spinners out there and they’re doing such good work not only with preserving the art of spinning itself and the ancient tools of the craft, but in some cases preserving varieties of sheep that would otherwise be extinct. Machine-spun is definitely cheaper, so if you’re still trying to figure out if you love the hobby, shop sales and by all means buy machine-spun. But if you catch the bug, I bet you’ll be moving to hand-spun as quickly as I did Happy Knitting!

Continue reading »]]>

My first ever Phat Fiber box!

My father used to tell this great story about sawing off the treadle of my grandmother’s spinning wheel as retribution for her not letting he and my uncle go out to hunt. In the end, they climbed out the window and went anyway, and I can only imagine my grandfather’s reaction when he learned what the boys had done. Personally, if it were my wheel, I think Dad would have had to worry more about my wrath than Grampy’s, but who knows.

Those of you who have been coming here to read all about gardening are probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about. I admit it: I’m taking a break from gardening posts to talk about another (relatively new) hobby of mine–spinning. I started knitting this past fall and decided it would be even more fun to knit if I was making my own yarn. Perhaps it was the story of Dad and the spinning wheel, perhaps it was a desire to connect with my grandmother, but I was drawn to spinning and so I signed up for a class with an amazing teacher.

Not long after, I hosted a second class at my house and decided I needed a spinning wheel of my very own. One came to me gently used, and I’ve been spinning like crazy ever since. One of the first things I noticed is that there’s sooooo much out there that it’s hard to pick a place to begin. There are countless varieties of sheep, each with a different texture to their wool. There’s alpaca, angora (goat & bunny), llama, and I even know someone who has spun dog fur. Then there are the plant-based fibers: flax, cotton, bamboo, and the more exotic seacell. When an old friend from high school introduced me to Phat Fiber, I was instantly intrigued.

The idea behind Phat Fiber is to put together a box each month that highlights cottage industry fiber vendors. I should say three boxes each month, because you can choose just yarn, just fiber, or a mix of the two. For $33, I could sample quite a variety of fiber without having to commit to large quantities of any one thing. I went for it. Now, let me tell you, buying a Phat Fiber box is a bit of an adventure. The boxes sell out within a minute of being posted to Etsy and there are only two opportunities each month (usually about 12 hours apart) to buy each month’s box. I missed out on the morning purchase by seconds (I got to add the box to my cart, but the last one sold before I could complete the purchase), but later in the day I scored my first “Fluff” box of fiber.

It arrived a few days later and I was delighted with the contents! Over twenty samples ranging in size from about an ounce to a few grams, all representing the fiber artist’s vision of “The Elements.” Well, I could hardly wait to spin it, so I finished up some experimental yarn I was playing with so that I’d have three empty bobbins and could get started.

My Air & Water singles, still on the bobbins

I decided to do a skein of two-ply using the wool-based blues, turquoise, and purples. Spinning purists are probably shrieking at this point because they know I’m about to say that I mixed everything from ultra-silky alpaca to a fairly coarse South African wool to a gorgeous Merino-Silk mix in the same skein. But that’s what I did and I actually love the results! I split each sample into two bits (one for each ply of the finished yarn) and spun them in order on the first ply and in reverse order on the second ply to somewhat balance everything out.

I have to take a moment to call out my favorites from this first skein (I’m guessing I’m going to have a plant-based skein and another wool skein with browns, greens, and earth tones, but that will have to go into another post!). The first fiber I grabbed out of the box was my favorite in terms of texture. This gorgeous mix of ultra-smooth Alpaca, Tencel (a fiber made from wood pulp!), and wool was blended and dyed by Fiber Fancy. The color, appropriately-named “Earthy,” spun up as a lovely almost silver and the feel of this fiber sliding through my fingers was heaven! What a great introduction to Alpaca for this beginning spinner!

The plied yarn, still on the niddy...

Next, I have to mention the Merino-Silk blend from Extreme Spinning. The silk made it feel just a bit stickier than the Alpaca, but it was soft and easy to spin even at super-fine lace weight.

And finally, another gorgeous alpaca was probably the over-all winner. A blend of Mohair, superwash, merino, alpaca, and just a tiny bit of glitz, Frozen Lake from Silver Sun Alpacas was superior both in texture and in color. I loved that it was dyed first, then blended together instead of blended and then painted. And I really liked the blend of dark & light fibers–this spun up absolutely beautifully and stood out from the medium blues and blue-greens that many folks chose to represent the water element.

If you are a spinner or a knitter, check out Phat Fiber. You’ll be glad you did, and will probably be stalking their Etsy page the day the box goes on sale next month just like I will be!

Continue reading »]]> We had a solid week of single-digit temperatures, leaving me with two kids wilder than the Mad Hatter and a desperate need for fun indoor craft activities. Here are few things we did that were cheap, easy, and used mainly things we already had around the house:

Making them each their own miniature Christmas tree out of a Rosemary plant occupied a whole evening by the time we made popcorn, ate most of it, strung some on thread with dried cranberries using dull tapestry needles, and topped the lot with a star taped to a wooden chopstick and stuck in the dirt behind the tree. Don’t ask me why the kids opted for the Star of David instead of a traditional star. Matt drew out a five-pointed star and Gabriel said no, he wanted a six-pointer. Lily had to have the same, of course.

Turning them loose on the easel to make some Christmas-themed pictures that will end up as wrapping paper worked fairly well too! A little glitter paint, some poster paint, crayons, colored pencils, and some holiday-themed stamps I picked up on clearance last year did the trick and kept the kids entertained for a good hour at a time.

I also found an old box of scrapbooking supplies in the basement that I’m not going to be using, which, when donated to the kids, gave them a whole new set of craft supplies to explore. My son is now enamored of pipe cleaners, which he’s been bending into Christmas trees, stars, and little people. He also loves the scissors that cut all the different fun shapes from pinking to deckle cut. Lily used some of the die-cut paper punch-outs to experiment with gluing and loved coating them with glitter.

Do you get tons of address labels from different charities at this time of year? We do, and I never use them, so I gave them to the kids and they happily used them as stickers.

A friend of mine also recommended a small loom made out of a cardboard box and Gabriel loved it! I think this project is best with some adult supervision or a bit older child (Gabriel is 5), but we still had fun right up until the puppy ate the loom!

That same friend’s daughter brought us a home-made snow globe made by crazy gluing a small plastic figure to a canning lid, filling the canning jar with a little soapy water, glitter, and beads, and screwing the lid + figure on top. Instant snow globe. And canning jars are fairly indestructible, all things considered.

I was happy when the weather warmed up and we could finally get outside again, but I’m pretty sure the cold weather is just beginning. What are your favorite cold-weather crafts?

Continue reading »]]>

Durango sleeping in a pile of holiday wrapping paper

Hi, my name is Julie, and I’m a holiday addict. You know, the kind who can’t resist adorable Christmas ornaments, or holiday cards on clearance sale. The kind who has a ten-year supply of wire ribbon for wrapping presents and who starts listening to Christmas songs the day after Halloween. Yeah, one of those.

I think each of us forms our impression of what the holidays should be about during childhood. For us, there was a fairly elaborate procession of golf trophies and framed pictures being boxed and moved downstairs, and then a reverse procession of worn and familiar boxes of Christmas ornaments moving upstairs. We listened to Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing carols while we unwrapped decorations. It usually took most of the day, and I loved every minute of it, from the endless rebending of the artificial tree’s branches to unraveling miles of electric lights to crowning the thing with an ancient tinsel star.

I also witnessed my Mom going through her lengthy card list, making adjustments, endlessly signing and stamping card after card. I remember a tree absolutely swimming in a sea of presents, and stockings stuffed so full that they couldn’t hang on the mantel and had to instead lay on the floor. There was also the gigantic meal, the gathering of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and siblings, the midnight church service where the cousins got into trouble for singing Joy to the World in operatic voices or burning each other on accident during Silent Night with hot wax from the candles that were supposed to cast a reverent glow on the service.

Recalling it now, I think it’s no wonder this is my favorite season. And it’s also not too surprising that, from my desire to recreate these traditions with my own children, I put a fair emphasis on the trappings. My husband and I are not religious, so although charity is a part of the holidays for us, Jesus is just not. So we were faced with the dilemma of how to create traditions. In my twenties, I turned to oodles of holiday decor, elaborate holiday meals, and loads of baking.

Now in my thirties, with two children of my own, I want to simplify somewhat. Not just because the loads of crap (from ornaments enough to decorate 5 trees to miles of wrapping paper and ribbon to plastic stuff bought in the rush of post-Christmas sale browsing that even my holiday-crazed self thinks is totally tacky) take up too much room in the basement and is fairly bad for the environment, but because I want to slow down and enjoy the holidays instead of spending them in a frenzy of card signing, picture taking, decorating, and cooking.

Don’t worry, we still have two trees this year and I had my non-tree decorations up by Thanksgiving. So I’m not giving it all up. But as I announced yesterday, we’re not doing cards this year. We also quit buying wrapping paper and ribbon three years ago (full disclosure: I just used the end of my holiday paper this year and still have a ton of prefab holiday bags and pre-decorated boxes that will last a few more years), and I haven’t bought a single ornament or decoration for the past two years, although several have been made for me.

I feel good about these changes, and do not think they’re detracting from my children’s enjoyment of the season, or their understanding of the joy of being with family and giving to others. They caroled with us last week when we collected donations for the local Food Bank, and they understand that we are fortunate to have enough this holiday season, and that many others are not as fortunate. They have not only happily received gifts, but have made gifts for family and friends, and have watched me knit gifts like a crazed woman for friends and family.

So am I still the crazy Christmas lady who wears a light-up headband with Reindeer antlers while I decorate the house? Yes. Do I still have enough Santa ornaments to share with all my friends? Yes. Do I still plan to bake oodles of cookies and pies, and spend the holidays eating and drinking far too much with family and friends? Absolutely. But I think I’ve broken my addiction to holiday “stuff” this year, while at the same time navigating the murky waters of creating a secular, but still memorable, holiday experience for my children.