Be My Valentine

Here is a quick and easy Valentine's Day card project for you. Remember when I made the cute felted sweater pillow? I wasn't sure what to do with the scraps, so I just cut them into random heart shapes. A few days later, I had this idea. If you don't have a felted sweater handy, just use felt from the fabric store.

Sew simple!

Snow Day Project

When my kids were in preschool and I was a stay-at-home mom, I loved to wear colorful, seasonal sweaters. Now that they are teens and I'm working for a living, not so much. Here's a fun way to upcycle your old wool sweaters (this would work with blankets or throws as well):

Step 1: Forget all the rules of laundry, and throw your sweater in the washer set to hot water. Add detergent and a few towels and/or a pair of jeans.

Step 2: As the washer agitates, the wool will begin to shrink and felt. When the cycle is done, check to see if you're happy with the progress. My sweater felted a little, but I could still see the stitches. I liked the look, so I tossed it in the dryer. Here's how it came out:

 Step 3: Cut the sweater as if it's fabric in a shape to fit a pillow form. I used one side seam as an edge. Turn right sides together, and sew the open sides, leaving a small gap to insert the pillow form.

Step 4: Turn the pillow case right sides out and insert the pillow. Hand sew the gap closed. You'll find the wool "swallows" up your stitches, so using a doubled thread is fine and you'll hardly see the hand stitching.

Tah-da! My new seasonal accent pillow:

Making mashed potatoes tomorrow?

Check out this recipe for "freecycled" potato skins. It's just what you need to keep hungry kitchen helpers satisfied -- that is if you can spare your oven for a few minutes.

Just say no to plastic

Happy earth day!
Do you use re-usable grocery bags? Do you always remember to bring them into the store with you? My 2009 earth day goal is to not only have them in the car with me at all times, but to actually bring them into the store each time I shop. I’m getting better, but I’m not there yet.

Here’s a project to jazz up your bags, so you’ll never forget them.

Materials:
Printed fabric (choose from pre-cut fat quarters)
Fusible webbing material such as Steam-A-Seam
Fabric glue (optional)
Grocery tote
Scissors
Iron and ironing board

Fuse the webbing to the back of the printed fabric.
Cut out pattern around the pattern, leaving a straight edge on the bottom and side.
If your bag is canvas or cloth: iron the cut fabric to the bag, matching the straight edges to the bottom and sides, or really however you’d like.
If your bag is made from recycled plastic, as mine is, the iron will melt the bag (trust me, even on low). Either use a pressing cloth and very carefully press the fabric to the bag, or use fabric glue.

Here’s a close up of my tote:

I heart Mondays & a new buzzword

First, here's the heart of the day ....

can you believe it? a heart-shaped potato.

Second, the new (to me) buzzword I have to discuss is "upcycle." It seems like recycling was for tree-hugging, granny-glasses wearing 1970's activists. The environmentally conscious eco-aware, savvy 2009 citizen is more about up-cycling and free-cycling. We're not only going to protect the Earth and free the landfills, we're going to do it in a way that produces a better, hipper result!

What's the tie in to my heart-of-the-day? I came across this potato as Haley and I were preparing a recipe from Food & Wine that pitched itself as "upcycling" kitchen waste (I kid you not) into edible hors d'oeuvres. We decided that the recipe as published had too much fat (and no solution to "upcycling" the quart of oil that was leftover after cooking). However, we've since modified it to our liking.

Here's our version:

1. Scrub potatoes until skins are clean.

2. Peel skins with a paring knife. You want thick peels with some white potato attached. Reserve potatoes for another use, such as mashed.

3. Toss peels with olive oil, cracked pepper, and coarse salt.

4. Bake at 400 degrees until skins are crispy and the white parts are soft.

5. Serve with sour cream (or our preference, plain Greek yogurt mixed with chives).

Look for more recycle-freecycle-upcycle projects to come, and feel free to share your favorites with me.

Do you Re-Do?

Here's a picture of one of the first pieces of jewelry I made as an adult. I was so inspired after my first interview at BeadStyle magazine, that I came home and made this bracelet based on ideas generated during a conversation with Mindy Brooks, the first editor of the magazine. Since I didn't have many beads on hand, I bravely cut apart a Southwestern Native American coral and turquoise necklace and mixed in some inexpensive base metal beads I had from the craft store. To this day, it is the one piece of jewelry I've made that literally stops people in their tracks who feel they must comment on it. It must be the energy of those ancient beads.

Before I started, I took a picture of the original necklace. I wanted to be sure I could restring it if I changed my mind.

If you're at a creative impasse, turn to your old jewelry for inspiration. Why have you stopped wearing a piece? Is it the fit? A bad clasp? What did you like about the piece to begin with? The colors? A specific bead or two? Then figure out what you can make using the best of what's there.

If you're still stuck, check out this new book by Brenda Schweder called Vintage Redux. I was the editor for this book and it'll finally be available at the end of this month. I'm sure you'll love all the creative ways Brenda has taken vintage finds (and some that may have remained lost if a less-creative eye was searching the second-hand shops) and made truly fabulous modern jewelry. My favorites are the class-ring-as-toggle bracelet (I wonder if my dad is ready to part with his?) and the charming bangle bracelets (attach a few charms and your plain-jane bands will have a modern look).

Let me know if you've ever been moved to "redux," and what happened when you did.