Tag: links

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Kicking Up Some Dust

You may notice things looking a little funky around the blog today and into the near future. Anodyne Design is undergoing a little bit of spring cleaning. And since I’ve always been one for instant gratification, I’ve been recklessly making cosmetic changes live, instead of rolling them all out out once. Unfortunately, that means you’ve got to deal with a little of my dust until I finish sprucing up the place, but it shouldn’t be long, and everything should be much nicer when I’m finished. (And if you read Anodyne Design in your feed reader, you probably haven’t noticed any differences anyway.)

Feel free to let me know what you think of the changes as you notice them. And please, do tell me if there’s anything you particularly loved or hated about the old blog that you would have to see disappear (or stay!) No blog is an island, or something like that, and you can help me to make the blog something more awesome for you.

Also, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to provide such supportive and thoughtful comments on the last two posts, about Motivation and making Connections. Joan, Carol Emma, Sarah, Kerry, Kristin, Liesl, and Emily — all of your comments have been so wonderful, but that isn’t a surprise, given what lovely blogs you all keep. I wish I could make real-life connections with each one of you.

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Vintage Sheets

A pretty pile of thrifted sheets

So maybe I’m a bit of a follower. I’ve been seeing projects involving vintage sheets pop up around the Internet. Oh, Fransson’s! Vintage Sheet Swap (flickr pool) and Rec Room Pillows, the Vintage Sheet flickr pool, this great wrap skirt at Supafine, Cluck Cluck Sew’s vintage sheet quilt, and lots of cool projects on Craftster.   I got it in my head that I needed to jump on this bandwagon. So last weekend I cleaned out the linen sections at both Goodwill and the Salvation Army and came home with this pretty pile. I think these sheets want to begin a new life of service as reusable grocery bags, don’t you?

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Crafty Project Wish List

Nicole at Craftapalooza just posted a list of craft projects she wants to start or finally finish. It seemed like a good idea to get all those ideas in one place, so I’m totally copying her. Here are the projects I need to finish and/or want to start:

I’m sure there are more, but that’s what I’ve got on my mind at the moment. I’ll keep you updated on my progress. What about you– are there unfinished or not-yet-started projects on your list? Shared them with me, so I can see if I need to add them to my list, too!

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Fancy Schmancy Flea Market: Preparing for My First Craft Fair

My first craft show, the Fancy Schmancy Flea Market, is coming up this Saturday, May 30th! (So if you are near Peoria, Illinois, please come check it out. The weather is supposed to be lovely!) I’ve been preparing by building up Anodyne Design stock, buying a fancy new canopy (just in case the weather isn’t so fine), and researching like crazy what one should know about selling at craft shows.

Building Up Stock

I have found lots of helpful information online.The Etsy forums have lengthy discussions on Craft Show Success Tips and What Not To Do At A Craft Fair. I gather some of this is really a matter of personal opinion (are you allowed to sit, or must you stand at all times? Do you talk to your customers, or leave them be?), but other things seem more general, like being sure to mark your prices and making sure you don’t smell. I also found some great advice at Hello Craft, Indie Craft Shows, Get Crafty, and Serenity Art.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to set up a booth. Fluffy Flowers has a great series on setting up a craft booth at a farmer’s market. And Flickr has a couple groups devoted to craft fair booths: Arts & Craft Fairs & Shows and Show Me Your Booths.

I’d love to hear your advice and tips on selling at a craft fair, too! Please leave a comment, or send me a tweet! Now, back to that building up stock bit…

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Refreshing Lemonade

Wouldn’t a nice, cool glass of lemonade just be wonderful right now? Of course, when wouldn’t a glass of lemonade be wonderful? Homemade lemonade, with lots of sugar, is one of my favorite summer treats. So how perfect that I found out my Lemonade wristlet was including in a lemon-flavored themed treasury today. Look at all that cheery lemony goodness!

Lemony Treasury

If that’s got you thirsty, check out this recipe for perfect lemonade, or bake up some pink lemonade cupcakes!

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Cute Stationery

Family Card

How cute is this? While I was replenishing my business card stash at Vista Print, I took advantage of some of their other free offers, including the one for free cards. The design I picked allowed you to create little cartoons of your family members (including beloved pets). I love having personalized stationery, and you can’t beat free.

Also, SciFi Man and I are loving this chana masala recipe at Thimble. If you like Indian food, you should definitely give this one a try. It’s the best chana masala recipe I’ve found, and it’s quite easy, which makes it extra nice. Mmm, chickpeas!

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Inspired By…

Lately, I’ve been feeling inspired by…

  • Canary Girl’s delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I made a batch of these for SciFi man and they were gone in no time. I should have listened to her advice and made a double batch. The cookies are perfect: soft and thick and tasty. SO good. I’d post a picture, but we ate them all before I could take one. I’m making a new batch today.
  • SouleMama’s bread bags. What a great idea. And I know a baker who definitely needs a few of his own. I sense a project coming on.
  • Reusable sandwich wraps from Betz White and snack bags at re-nest. I love the idea of finding another way to stop sending plastic to a landfill.
  • Google Reader’s Next button via HELLOmynamisHeather. I love being able to check my RSS feed and still see new posts in the form in which they were intended to be seen, all with a single click. If you use Google Reader, you should definitely give the Next button a try.
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Summer Napkin Swap

Summer Napkin Swap

I did some sewing over the weekend and made up some new cloth napkins. They’re much prettier than paper napkins, and I feel good about not wasting paper napkins or paper towels, too. They can also be quick and easy to make. So I decided it would be fun to start a summer napkin swap at Swap-Bot for handmade cloth napkins. I hope you’ll join me and trying making some cloth napkins, too.

If you haven’t made cloth napkins before, here are some tutorials to get you started. I think you’ll quickly see that they are simple and there’s no one way to make them.

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Reusable Grocery Bags

I’ve got a 50% off coupon for the fabric store, and I’ve decided today’s the day I’m going to use it to buy a bunch of canvas and make myself the reusable grocery bags I’ve been thinking about for months. I save all the plastic bags I bring home from the grocery store and reuse them at least once, but I know that’s still not good enough, and I would rather not bring them home in the first place.

G2BGreen.com has an excellent article about plastic and reusable bags that includes some eye-opening statistics. Statistics that make me think I need to stop putting it off and get my reusable bags made. I did not know that it could take 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose, and with the number of plastic bags most of us are using, that amounts to a massive pile of plastic bags. I wonder where that pile is? Perhaps part of the pile is in that garbage vortex in the Pacific ocean.

A lot of grocery stores have started to sell their own reusable bags, which I think is wonderful. And if I understand correctly, some of them will even credit your bill when you use those reusable bags so that they ultimately pay for themselves. I think this is wonderful. If it weren’t for the fact that I like to make my own bags, I definitely would have picked up a few reusable bags at the local grocery store by now. If you are like me, and want to make your own reusable grocery bags, here are a few excellent free patterns I found:

With so many patterns, what are you waiting for? Go make a reusable grocery bag!

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Keeping Warm

It snowed and snowed yesterday until we were pretty much housebound. Weather conditions like that always make me want to snuggle under a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate and read a book. With no sewing machine today, I also had some time to think about other ways to warm up my home. Here are some free patterns that will do just that:

And if you’re like me and don’t have a sewing machine upon which to make quilts and pillows, maybe you should check Etsy for something warm and snuggly. I bet a pair of fingerless gloves from TickledPinkKnits or a beautiful, warm sweater from BDG Designs would do the job.

How do you like to warm up on a cold, snowy day?