Daily Craft - Myth & Magic

I think I'm finally coming close to finishing my first proper cross-stitch project and seem to be building a little collection of cross-stitch books/leaflets.  I've done pretty well finding cross-stitch books at the thrift store and found another on my lunch break trip on Friday. This time I picked up a copy of Cross Stitch: Myth & Magic for a couple of dollars. I'm working on an Asian themed project right now, which is likely to go in our guest bathrom. I'm very excited that this book has a really nice dragon pattern that I think will be my next project and hopefully the two will look great hung up together!

Daily Art - A Pacific sunset

The last 6 weeks have been pretty crazy between the holidays and my parents visiting from England. My parents were dropped off at the airport yesterday to return home and I'm once again faced with a long time between visits.

On Sunday, my parents and I took a little drive to Santa Monica, where we were lucky enough to make it in time for the most beautiful sunset. So, as the sun set on their trip, the sun also set across the ocean, and I was happy to realize that I had my little point and shoot in my purse to capture this.  Amazing how so much beauty and color can fill just a few minutes every day.  It's like a paint brush was swept across the sky.

Daily Craft - Shiny things

Where have I been you ask?  I was well and truly hit by my first cold of 2011.  Urgh!  It never really settled in my face (which I appreciate because there's nothing less attractive than looking like a puffy sniveling mess for days on end) but decided to inhabit my chest instead (as if coughing like a walrus is much better).  With it being husband's birthday this week, my primary goal was to not get him sick, seeing as that would have been a horrible birthday gift.

What I did manage to do, while recuperating in the house, is a bunch of crafty business!  I borrowed a couple of quilting books from the library last week, one of which was Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts.  I decided to give the coasters from the book a shot with some random fabric laying about from one of my thrift store hauls.  These are so quick and easy to do and a perfect way to stash bust / make quick and easy gifts.  I think I'll be making many more of these.

Yesterday, in an attempt to get out of the house for a little bit, I went off to investigate a local Indian Grocery store ( for which a Daily Dish feature may well appear shortly...)  On the way back, I decided to check out the Michael's sale and snatched up a ton of jewelry supplies on sale and clearance.  I am now a fan of a couple of newly discovered component lines - Blue Moon "Orient Express", and Plaid's "Forged".  I just love some of the things that these lines offer and will definitely be buying more.  I'm a total earring addict so that's always my first thought when deciding to make jewelry.  Here are my efforts from last night with my new purchases.

Have you tried either of those component brands?  Would love to hear your opinions.  Also, which of the earrings are you favorite?

Daily Craft - A rainbow of thread

A while back, I entered a contest on the Recycle, Reuse, Refashion blog.  The blog author, Josée, was kind enough to be offering up some sewing notions that she'd scored at a thrift shop.  I'm rather partial to thrift shop hauls myself, so was thrilled to find out that I was the lucky winner!  My package arrived today, all the way from Canada, and I'm now happy to be in possession of a many spools of thread in a myriad of different colors, as well as some bias tape, and ribbon.

Deuce photobombed my picture (no surprises there) and tried several times to steal ribbons, while attempting to distract me by batting away spools of thread.

I'm also happy to be participating in a destash swap on Craftster.org, which involves filling a small flat rate box with supplies I'm no longer using.  I'll be receiving a package of supplies from somebody else in return.  I know that destashing is on my list of things to do for the year, and I'm hoping this will be a good start, even if I'm getting things back.  Seeing as I have to start going through my craft supplies for the swap, hopefully that'll steer me in the right direction for organizing and unloading in general.  Besides, I figure it counts if I'm exchanging things that are just laying about for things that I will [hopefully] use, right?