Be Prepared to Drool

Posted on February 27, 2007 by meghan

As soon as I surfed over to notcot.com my eyes glazed over and the warm cloud of euphoria fell upon me. Talk about brain candy. Not Cot in all its many forms ( there is an .org, .com, the gallery, and NOTed features section) is dedicated to fabulous design. At Notcot.org anyone and everyone can post their favorite designe find, notcot.com is home to hand picked editor finds, the gallery is a display of new and upcoming artist and the NOTed section is a hand crafted photoshoot by Not Cot editors, with descriptions of why they love the featured designs. The presentation of the site is minimalistic, with a comic edge. It is like stumbling into a museum currated by the love child of Willy Wonka and Audrey Hepburn, full of bright but restrained colors offset by sophisticated black and whites. The design of the website deserves a nod in and of itself. But the real fun is cruising through the clips of other people’s art/products. Its overwhelming the amount of good ideas that are out there these days. It’ll bring a smile (and maybe a little spittle) to your face.

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Welcome to the Land of Milk and Honey

Posted on February 23, 2007 by meghan

Oh. My. God. How did I not know about swap-bot.com until now? It is all of my favorite things combined. Getting mail, making things, and inexpensive gift exchange. How could you go wrong? So here’s the skinny on how it works: you open an account with your name, email and mailing address. Then you go and sign up for different types of swaps. For instance, right now I am participating in a swap where I will be mailing a tea packet and a magazine article out. There’s also a “swap a postcard from your home town” and a swap of hand made bags with treats inside, as well as a whole bunch more. It’s like being penpals, except with stuff. And if there’s only one thing I love more than letters is little treasure stuffs. After you sign up for the swap, you receive notification that you can see who your swap buddy is on your account. You’re given his/her name and address and you have to send out your swap item to that address by a given deadline. Assumably your swap buddy will be doing the same. I just signed today. I’ll let you know how it goes. I think it might be the best thing I’ve ever experienced, but I suppose I could be overestimating it somewhat.

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Too Cool For School

Posted on February 22, 2007 by meghan

Listen to me very closely as I am about to recommend something so totally amazing that it may or may not change your life. The graphic novel, Blue Monday: The Kids Are Alright by Chynna Clugston is just about the coolest thing I own and I suggest you go out and buy it too. While I realize this isn’t strictly craft related, it is the artistic fruits of a creative person, so I think y’all enjoy it. Set in the average suburban high school, full of the average suburban lame-o kids, Bleu Finnegan and her best friends Clover, Alan and Victor do everything they can to avoid becoming the mall-shopping, pop-star loving clones they’re surrounded by. Their hi jinx are hilarious, their musical taste sublimely awesome, their fashion sense enviable. If you took your years in high school, sifted out all the crap and kept only the good stuff then what you would get is this book. Drawn in Americanized manga (Japanese comics) and referencing every influential punk and Brit rock band in the last half of the century (The Jam, Adam Ant, The Kinks, and Blur to name a few), Blue Monday is as hip as it comes. Get your iTunes (or whatever, wink wink) ready because I guarantee that after you read The Kids Are Alright you’ll be itching to make a soundtrack. It’s less than $10 on amazon.com so I recommend digging in your couch cushions for spare change and jumping online. And after you do, come back and post your comments here. Tell me what you thought of it. I love to hear from you!

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Spaz Out!

Posted on February 21, 2007 by meghan

Jennifer Borton has found the key to my heart with her craft website, spazzticcrafts.com. That key? Weird randomness. Spazztic Crafts is an odd assortment of fun, unusual projects. You won’t find any scrap booking tips here. What you will find instead are clever, eclectic tutorials, such as how to make gummi bears, toothbrush bracelets, and marble magnets. I found her section on methods to remove super glue to be practical and interesting. I’m attacking the gunk on my desk tomorrow. What’s best about Spazztic Craft, though, is its comfortability. Like talking shop with your best friend, the tutorials are witty, fairly easy to follow and clearly are made with love. And no, I’m not just partial to it because my cat’s name is Spaz. Check out one of her free stencils and my baby kitties (Leo and Spaz) below.

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Do You Dig?

Posted on February 20, 2007 by meghan

Hopefully, someone out there caught my refrence from “The Tick.” (Spoon!) I, personally love interior design above most things. (Top Designer, anyone?) I think living in a space that revitalizes you after a hard day is one of the best presents you can give yourself. But if you look at some of these design magazines, they have not been created with the Pack Rat values in mind. (serious, if I had $2000, why would I spend it on a mirror?) Digs Magazine is a handy resource to have in that department. While some of their suggestions do involve going out and buying new supplies, a lot of their daily tid-bits involve repurposing what you probably already have lying around the house. One of my favorite articles, “Getting Crafty,” centers around the uphill battle one of their staff writers fought, trying to create a slip cover for her sofa. The writing is fun, functional, and (keeping with the most important Pack Rat value) free. Check out the aforementioned slipcovered sofa below.

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Scrubbing Bubbles, Who Needs ‘em?

Posted on February 16, 2007 by meghan

If you read my “Get Your Stink On” post, you know that I’m all about recipes for home made H&B products. This zealousness is extended to around the house hand made cleansers. Ernestina Parziale’s website, The Backyard Herbalist, is great for many of its money saving tips and advice on frugal living. It’s craft section is a little grandma’s country kitchen, but I find the section on cleaning recipes indispensible. A few call for ingredients I’ve never heard of (what is washing soda?), but most consist of things commonly found around the house. It reminds me of some words of wisdom I heard a long time ago: the most effective cleansers on the market are baking soda and white vinegar. Always have them and you’ll never have to buy harsh, expensive chemicals for your common jobs. Read Ernestina’s recipe for fabric softener below to see what I mean.

Laundry: You need not invest in expensive fabric softeners. Add one-half to 1 cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle of your machine. This is especially valuable when laundering cloth diapers as it will remove the problems usually causing diaper rash. It effectively rids the laundry of soap residue and allows the fabric to be naturally soft as well as balancing the pH which will extend the life of the fabrics. The smell of vinegar dissipates upon drying and leaves the laundry smelling fresh. If you wish to add fragrance to the laundry apply 2 or 3 drops of essential oil to a damp washcloth and place in the clothes dryer along with the wet laundry. I prefer lavender for its nice clean smell and disinfecting properties.

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Let Freedom Reign

Posted on February 15, 2007 by meghan

Why are we drawn to recycled crafts? For many of us, it is the cost effective nature of reusing things in combination with a desire to help protect the environment from unneccessary waste. This is why we dumpster dive, this is why we have boxes or drawers or corners of our homes stacked high with twist ties, plastic bags, boxes, and those soda six pack rings. Why throw it away if it can be reused? If this sounds like you, then I recommend taking a look at freecycle.org. Their motto, “Changing the world one gift at a time,” is perfectly indictative to the good spirit of this group. The way it works is this: you sign up for the Freecycle club in your area and everyday you get a ton of emails from other people in your city. Half these people are giving away things they can’t use anymore and half are requesting things that they need. The old adage that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure is alive and well here. I use it and it truly makes me feel like I’m a part of something good. You get to help out a stranger, work against our disposable culture and browse for free stuff for yourself every day. Its like a systemized frame work for random acts of kindness.

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No Lace, Pom-Poms, or Frills. Just Fringe.

Posted on February 13, 2007 by meghan

So, you love craft, but maybe the color pink isn’t you, or maybe you don’t want to own things with hearts or birds or anything else over the top and girly. I feel you. There are only so many animal themed t-shirts you can see before you want to roll your eyes. That’s why I love Extreme Craft. Full of personality, this blog dives into craft, rolling around in it. Garth Johnson patrols cyber space and real space, searching out all that is unique, weird, and hand made. The artists he features are just that–artists. They are serious about seeing the world in a kooky, original way. No toaster cozies or pot holders here. This cultural ephemera is made all the more enjoyable by Johnson’s clever voice as evidenced in this recent post: “Is any phrase in the English language more feared than ‘Starring Eddie Murphy…Eddie Murphy….and EDDIE MURPHY’?” Norbit fans need not apply.

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Chatting Crafty

Posted on February 9, 2007 by meghan

I love talking about crafts! I love it. And more than talking about crafts, I adore listening to other people talk about crafts. When you hear someone talk passionately about something you’re all about, I think a little piece of you becomes smitten with that person. So, what I am saying is that I have a new girly crush on Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood, the online personality behind CraftSanity.com. Her podcasts and blogs are a patchwork of the craft society. She interviews crafty people and delves into their creative past, charting how they got into craft, what they make, what craft means to them, all the nitty gritty. One of my favorites is the recent interview she conducted with Jessica Vitkus, the author behind “AlternaCrafts: 20+ Hi-Style Lo-Budget Projects to Make.” Jessica has a background at (among many many other things) Martha Stewart Living. Her story about getting a peek at Martha’s craft department will make you drool. And, she was part of The Daily Show!! I totally dorked out at the behind the scenes info. Also, if you check out the CraftSanity website, there’s a few projects from her book for you to recreate. And that’s just one podcast. There are forty + more. In short, CraftSanity f-in rocks!

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Lights, Camera, Action!

Posted on February 8, 2007 by meghan

All right, if you haven’t heard already, one of the most exciting things to hit the indie craft scene is in the works right now. That’s right, the Indie Craft Documentary is on a roll and you can be part of the action. The inspired love child of Faye Levine (mother of Flying Fish Design) and artist Micaela O’Herlihy, this documentary will be dedicated to the indie craft movement. They’ve gone from one end of the country to another, filming craft fairs, interviewing artists, and generally peeking behind the curtains into the backstage world of new wave craft. But it is a big endeavor and they can’t do it alone. Thousands of crafters and craft appreciators alike have already pitched in, and you can do the same. Visit their website at indiecraftdocumentary.com, or check out their etsy shop. The money you spend there will go toward the project and you’ll have a freaking awesome new treasure coming to you in the mail. I ordered mine today and I’m already looking out the window for the mail carrier.