AMANDA'S BASKETS: BOOK, PROJECTS & MISTAKES

Friday, May 13, 2016

BOOK, PROJECTS & MISTAKES

The above picture was taken during my walk in the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The purple was so vivid that I took several pictures to make sure I could capture their intensity.

Today has been a wet, rainy day. It's also a day that I needed to do my laundry which is still hanging up but not quite dry. I may have to resort to using the dryer during the summer.

BOOKS
I thought I would share why I picked up the books that I purchased last week.

The Quirky Quilting book had three quick projects that I probably could have figured out myself but at $2, I thought it was a good buy and would save time. One project is called Indigo Nights which I really love. Another project is called The Wacky Tacky Bag. The third project that caught my eye was a Yoga Bag which had a unique design. When (if?) I get them done, I share the results.

The Sew Darn Cute book has a ton of projects, simple but really cute, that I want to try from making a narrow scarf (I am partial to narrow scarfs.), to remaking a sweater, to a cute wall hanging. Well, you get the idea, it's crammed full.

Why did I pick up The Creativity Workbook? Not sure, I'll let you know about that one later when I figure it out.

Anonymous Was A Woman is an older book about women folk artists and how most of them are anonymous. It's very sad to think that some of the beautiful art works in this book have no artist name attached. I am planning on visiting the American Folk Art Museum this coming week so this was a bit of preparation for the visit.

The Landscapes and Illusions book have two beautiful landscapes that I plan on making as gifts. I was so taken by them that I have begun to pull out fabric already.

WRONG SIDE
So, as I said I did the laundry today and I also worked on blocks for the guild. The blocks are paper piecing so easy right...well, not so fast. I partially finished one and then went back to make sure I was doing everything right. WRONG! The instructions were to work on the wrong side of the paper. I worked on the right side. Now I am looking for my seam ripper which appears to be lost...

Tomorrow is guild day so I will be spending all day in Manhattan. Stormy weather is forecast but I plan on going anyway. I hope whatever you have planned for this weekend includes time for your creative ventures.

Thanks for visiting...
Talk to you next week...

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?