Ole-Talk

Some of my Favorite Craft Books that would Make Great Gifts

With the holidays just around the corner (where did the year go) this month we decided to share some of our favorite craft books that wold make excellent gifts for the crafters in your life.

As my sister calls it, I am a multi-passionate crafter which in layman terms means that I have a variety of crafts in which I dabble. Below are just a few of the craft books that I love. These are some of the ones that made it through my big craft book purge last year. For as much as I do use Pinterest and the internet to find information I just could not let go of these books. Please note that book names link to Amazon for informational purposes only!

For the knitter in your life

Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume One: Knit & Purl from the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine - there are actually six of these Stitchionary books and I own four of them. I have used this one to find different stitch patterns for making dishcloths and socks but also it is a great for just practicing different stitches.

Huge & Huggable Mochimochi: 20 Supersized Patterns for Big Knitted Friends by Anna Hrachovec - I love her Mochimochi patterns and this book is perfect for making toys for those little ones in your life although I will admit that I want to make them all for myself.

Finishing School: A Master Class for Knitters by Deborah Newton - I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with Deborah Newton a few years ago and I am the proud owner of a signed copy of her book.

Socks from the Toe Up: Essential Techniques and Patterns from Wendy Knits by Wendy Johnson - my favorite sock making book. I only make toe up socks and I love the variations in this book.

For the sewing guru

 

The Complete Photo Guide to Sewing - 1100 Full-Color How-To Photos by Singer - I have had this book for very long time and I still refer to it. It has everything that you need. This edition seems to only be available used as I believe there is a newer revised edition.

Sew Liberated by Meg McElwee - Fun quirky patterns that use the art of applique. This is a fun book for that seamstress in your life who wants to break away from the ordinary. She also has a website by the same name.

Simple Bags Japanese Style: 20 Designs to Sew by Akiyo Kajiwara - Simple but beautiful bags. I made the Furoshiki bag as Christmas gifts one year and they were a big hit! I would say that I would not recommend this to a beginner as the instructions are not as detailed and you have to have some knowledge of cutting and sewing to figure some of it out. I really need to revisit this book and try some more of the patterns.

For the paper crafter

Creating Handmade Books and Unique Handmade Books by Alisa Golden - Wonderful books on how to make your own unique journals etc. The books have lots of great ideas for decorating and making them into works of art.

The Sketchbook Challenge by Sue Bleiweiss - This is based on the author's blog by the same name. Great ideas for when you just don't know what to do with that brand new, blank sketchbook. Here's a novel idea, why not make your own handmade book and then use the challenges to fill it.

And of course my list would not be complete without the oh so popular adult coloring books. This is just three of my favorites from my stash.

 

The Official Outlander Coloring Book by Diana Gabaldon - hey don't judge. It's the closest I will probably get to that kilt!

Splendid Cities: Color Your Way to Calm by Rosie Goodwin and Alice Chadwick - Real and imagined cities await you in this wonderful coloring book.

Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book by Johanna Basford - I absolutely love this coloring book. Each image has hidden creatures and objects that you have to find.

Sharing and writing about these has really reinvigorated my creative spirit. I really need to pull these out more often and play.

Now let's see what wonderful favorites Francine came up with to share!

Just call me challenged!

The month of April is going to be a busy one for my creative side.

It dawned on me this morning that I have committed to doing five daily challenges…yep you read that correctly…five!! In addition to daily handwriting and drawing I have added coloring, creative simplicity, and nourishing my creative soul/spirit with a little self love. 

Here’s what's happening this month:

#RockYourHandWriting April - This is my third month of practicing my handwriting daily. I am challenging myself to get better with writing in cursive. Last month they also added a Facebook group but I prefer to keep posting on Instagram.

30 Days of Creative Simplicity - I am a little biased on this one as it is being run by my awesome, super talented sister Francine (I want to be just like you when I grow up sis). If you haven't as yet checked out her Creative Simplicity group on Facebook I urge you do do so now...yeah I mean like right now...stop whatever you are doing and go there now, you can come back to read the rest of my post after.

April Sketch-a-Day  - Since January I have been doing the drawing challenges over on Creative Bug but this month I am changing it up a bit and following along with the prompts from the blog Recipe for Crazy. Francine told me about this one...see told you she was awesome. The fact that you also have a chance to win that awesome prize is just added incentive as far as I am concerned.

30 Coloring Pages - And speaking of Creative Bug this month the daily challenge is all about coloring. One video lesson with seven pages to color a week for a total of 30 by the end of the month. 

April Love - A Month of Love Letters - I just love Susannah Conway's classes and workshops. Last year I signed up for April Love and it was so inspirational that I just had to do it again. Where as last year's focus was on self-love and self-care, for 2016 Susannah has challenged us to "write" 30 Love Letters starting with one to Dear Love. 

You can keep track of my crazy month over on Instagram.

What fun things have you found to challenge your creative side? I would love to hear from you in the comments.

 

What I'm Currently Reading

The Tree of Yoga - exploring not only the physical aspect of yoga but the philosophy as well and also trying to live my word for the year "self-awareness

The Book of Strange New Things - this was recommended by a good friend plus it's gotten great reviews.

The Madman's Daughter - on my book club list for February's discussion and pairs with this month's book The Island of Dr. Moreau

 

 

Sunday Sayings

Hope you have a wondeful week!

My Word for 2015...

Source: Susannah Conway Unravelling The Year Ahead 2015 Workbook

Doing Susannah Conway's five day workshop Find Your Word really helped me to decide on what my word for 2015 will be.

self-a·ware·ness

noun

1. conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires.

   "the process can be painful but it leads to greater self-awareness"

And after finding this article online I was 110% sure that this was the word for me. You can follow my Pinterest Self-Awareness board here.  My plan is to keep adding to it throughout the year. I will also be blogging periodically about how my word is being integrated throughout my everyday life.

Have you found your one little word for the year?

 

December Reflections Photo a Day

December is just around the corner and that means so is Christmas. With all the hustle and bustle that happens around this time each year I was happy to see that Susannah Conway is doing a no obligation photo challenge for December called December Reflections.  A fun, no stress way to just pause for a bit each day and just live in the moment.  She had done some thing similar in August which was a lot of fun.

Susannah provides a list of prompts (click on image above) but it is entirely up to you if you want to use these or just photograph whatever tickles your fancy in that moment on that day. Easy, peasy!

This is a great way to document some of your activities for December and to actually stop and enjoy the moment! Why not join in the fun?

 

Motivation from a Book Club

Source

Those of you who have know me for a long time know about my love for books and reading. However, of late I had noticed that my reading was sadly lacking.  I was surrounded by all these wonderful books begging to be read but I had just lost my motivation, or maybe it was just my inability to turn of from social media that was my problem...humm!  So this summer when I came across the Literary Parings Book Club that my local library was starting in September I decided to give it a try to see if it would give me the motivation I so desperately needed.

I am happy to report that it has! Book club started in September and since then my reading has really ramped up.  In ten weeks I have read the same amount of books that I had read from January through September. I think part of this has been the lively and very educational and interesting discussions that we have during book club. What's even better is that I am now more inclined to pick up a book before wasting hours on-line or in front of the television. The only downside to this is the inability to put the book down at night and go to sleep at a decent hour. Oh well!

I am also doing Francine's Slow Reading Challenge so I find myself sometimes reading both a book on my Kindle and a paper book.

Source

Here are the last five books that I read in the last three weeks:

1. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - have a box of tissues handy if you read this one

2. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell - I was giggling to myself in public while reading this

3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - an American classic read for my book club

4. The Girl you Left Behind by Jojo Moyes - gripping story, I want to read everything by her

5. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - quick, fun, very interesting story by a master story teller

I just started Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult (my paper back for Francine's November reading challenge), and will be picking up Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston for my book club in a few days.  I haven't decide on my next Kindle book as yet but need to do that soon.

What helps motivate you to read? What are you currently read? Paper or ebooks?

My Latest Obsession

It all started when I linked to this from Pinterest!

Source: The Purl Bee

I have found so many that I like and want to make that I had to create a separate board for them on Pinterest!

Snapshot of my blanket board

Well if you haven't guessed by now, yes, my latest obsession is crochet blankets.

I can imagine myself all cuddled up with my colorful, warm blanket on a cold winter's night while reading a good book! It's actually making me look forward to winter!!!  Of course if I want this dream to come through I had better get cracking on actually making one of these.  Time to dig through the yarn stash to see what I have.

Have you ever made a blanket?

Still Loving PinterestI

I still remember the day that my sister instant messaged me "check this out" and included a link to Pinterest with a giggle emoticon.  I was instantly hooked! A visual idea list and electronic bulletin board...yes please!  It has been about two years and I am still hooked and still loving it.  I have way more things pinned than I will every be able to get to in a life time but, hey you just never know when you will need to find a pattern for a cute crochet or knit toy, or make a chocolate zucchini cupcake, or when you will need to make your own nail polish!  All kidding aside, Pinterest has come to my rescue quite a few times.

Here are some of my latest pins!

You can find me here and follow all or some of my boards! I look forward to a long partnership with this site!

Thanks for stopping by!

Daily To Dos

I have been doing Photo a Day for a few months now with some months beeing more consistent than others, but I seem to be losing the zest for it.  I think I will take a break this month and focus more on taking photos of just things that appeal to me.

However, I am a glutton for punishment so I had to find another daily to do...I mean come on what else am I supposed to do with all this free time on my hands.  I found this Doodle-a-day on Ello Lovey's Facebook page and I am hoping that she continues for May.  If not I will just do the April prompts.

I am sure that my doodles will not be anything close to the talent that Rhi has but hey it is a doodle not a Picasso masterpiece and I think it will be fun!

For May I will also be picking back up The Happy Book by Rachel Kempster and Meg Leder.

I failed miserably the last time I tried to doing something with this book (see here) but after all the tragedy in Boston this book sorta jumped out at me from my bookshelf.  After all we all need a lot of happy in our life.

So looks like May will be filled with a lot of sketching, knitting, and happiness!!  I am looking forward to it and I hope you are too.