Hi dudes,

If you read the myspace blog then you already know that I’m taking a break from blogging this week. Just putting the finishing touches on the new issue. I’ll be back next week!

Pack Rat Magazine loves you ’cause your deuces are wild

Free knitting/crocheting pattern alert! Now, I know this is a little off season, as we here in North America are heading into summer (I hope. We’ll see how this global warming craziness plays out), but I saw this free pattern today and it amused the bejeezus out of me, so I had to blog about it now, since there’s no way I’m going to remember to do so in, like, five months. The yarn purveyors at Berroco have a nice cache of knitting/crochet patterns that are Pack Rat friendly, a.k.a. free. And a lot of them are really cute and/or cool (their handbags are especially nummy). This is neither. The Footsie Pillow is so ridiculous, though, that it beat out all of the other patterns I actually liked. Look at it. It’s a pillow you put your feet into. Wacky, right? Right?

Pack Rat Magazine wants to know, what’s your sign, baby?

Okay, usually I like to keep these posts less about me and more about crafts and art and creative finds available in the great big world. But I came across this game (for lack of a better word) on the Twitchy Knitter’s blog and it looked so much fun I had to try it. If any of you do the same, let me know and I will post your results.

The Rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

1. Can’t stop taking photos of Meghan…, 2. Amigurumi Sushi by Christen Haden (Usa), 3. Paul de Vivie (Velocio), 4. Nant Ffrancon and Glyder Fawr, Wales, 5. A Scanner Darkly, 6. When i Give My Heart.., 7. Ponte vecchio, 8. eye candy!, 9. Party Perfect, 10. Peace Love Happiness Friends 63/365, 11. tmnt.jpg, 12. color tv

Pack Rat Magazine finds itself irresistable drawn to you.

Hiya party people. Let’s get down to brass tacks. If you are just starting to sew, I suggest you check out this helpful tutorial from the Family Homestead, writen by Crystal out of Washington. She shares a quick and easy method for gathering fabric, one of those tasks that seem daunting to the novice (a.k.a. me). This guide will be a time, and frustration saver.

Pack Rat Magazine likes to stir the stew

Well, we here at Pack Rat are pretty much across the board omnivores, but we have our misgivings about the meat industry and have nothing but love for our vegan brethren and sisteren. So, coming across the Post Punk Kitchen, a public access show devoted to tasty vegan meals even made me excited. Delicious sounding recipes like black bean and sweet potato stew, brown sugar fruit cakes, and roast squash pasta have me drooling. If you’re vegan this sounds like a sure thing, and even if you aren’t, who can resist a yummy new recipe?

Pack Rat Magazine can build you up, buttercup, but we’d never let you down or mess you around.

Due to a request from Jane Brocket, we have removed this blog post.  Please view our other posts for recommendations of super awesome crafting/thrifting/inspirational sites.

–Team Pack Rat

Pack Rat Magazine can’t buy you love.

This…is a silly blog. Or rather, this post is about a silly website. You’ll notice that it is uncategorized, because I had no idea what to put this under. And really, today’s recommended website has nothing to do with crafts or saving money or art or anything. But it amuses the underpants off me. It’s called This Peanut Looks Like A Duck and it’s dedicated to photos of everyday things that, well, look like ducks. Maybe I’ll be alone in enjoying this one, but for me, I’ve always found it fun to see stuff in other stuff. Here are two good samples, one of the eponymous peanut that looks like a duck, and the other titled “this fetus looks like a duck.”

Mr. T pities the fool who doesn’t love Pack Rat Magazine

This will be a real quick blog, no pics to accompany it I’m afraid. I acutally found this quite some time ago and meant to share it earlier. Craft At Home has a section to their website called Craft At Home’s Tribute to Dumb Crafters. I, personally, got a huge kick out of reading some of these flubs that these crafters made, such as embroidering a back pocket closed, accidentally cleaning paint brushes off in tea, and doing an elaborate gift wrap job on a mistakenly empty box!  It’s only funny because we all make these little errors…it’s only human.  I don’t have any specific mess ups of my own that come immediately to mind, but I’m always trying to cut corners to save some time and obviously things go awry so it ends up taking more time in the long run.  Oh!  I just thought of one.

Meghan did this! 

In undergrad, I beaded a necklace using a new wire I wasn’t familiar with. Rhodes scholar that I am, I decided to wear my new creation to my badmidton class.  When I stretched to hit the birdie, the strain of having my head pulled back busted the wire and beads went all over the gym floor.  (cue slide whistle).

Hi kids!  the Feb/March Issue is finally out and rarin’ to go.  Click on the pdf link below!  And remember, if you think you could do better, you’re welcome to show us what you’ve got. Submission deadlines for next issue will be March 20th.  Happy reading.

issue3.pdf

For more crafts and tips, check out our magazine.

After writing the post about “The Womanly Arts” last week, I independently received a photo of these “slippers” in my email.  Do I sense a fad coming on?