Origami Reduced To Size

 
Origami Reduced To Size \Origami Reduced To Size
Origami Reduced To Size
I am working on decor for our school auction and as you can see, it will involve many cranes (more than a thousand!).
I will not openly admit to exactly how long it finally took for the folds of that first crane to click for me (let’s just say mine looked more like an inchworm and I was truly worried I’d bitten off more than I could chew), but I’m happy to say I finally got it and have been buzzing along. Emma decided she wanted to try. I said “of course”, but made the whole idea sound challenging enough to be discouraging for an 11 year old, hoping she would anticipate the frustration she might feel with that first one. Explaining she just may struggle with it, but don’t give up.
But, really, I forget who I’m dealing with here. This girl has always had amazing fine motor skills. (And an added benefit, she gives better back rubs than just about anyone I know.) By the time I’d given her the “don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t click right away” talk, she was folding her 3rd crane and reading a book at the same time. I was eating crow crane.
OK then? Fine. But! Can you fold tiny ones? Super tiny? Like the ones we saw from Japan? The ones you could barely even see?
This girl doesn’t pass up a challenge-
Origami Reduced To Size
I introduce to you- the tiniest origami cranes ever folded in the wise craft house. Done with a needle.
Origami Reduced To Size
And kept in a origami box.
With origami dividers.
Origami Reduced To Size
 
I feel these are the hands of possibly a future surgeon, or maybe a fine jeweler. I know I will be putting any surgeon I’m checking out through the ol’ fold an origami crane with a needle technique.
Yep.
 

Back To Basics Knitting

Back To Basics KnittingBack To Basics Knitting
In my continued effort to use up the many craft materials I have, and finish some unfinished craft business, I am rediscovering knitting. For those who may not have read far back enough on this blog to know, there was a time in my life when I was quite an obsessive knitter. My grandmother taught me simple garter stitches when I was 4 or 5 (I had not yet started school). I managed a few stitches here and there, but it never really caught on in my head.READ MORE

Sunshine Quilt

 

 
The quilt for our school’s auction is done. It turned out really pretty I think. Hopefully it will feel very Spring-like displayed at the auction next month. READ MORE

Clean Sheet Day

 
 
 
Clean Sheet Day
 
On Sundays at the wise craft house (if people play their cards right), by bedtime we all have clean sheets. Once in a while, like today, I’ll even go so far as to wash our bed quilts and do a complete strip, wash, and re-fluff (mattress covers, blankets, everything). (Disclaimer- I will also admit to many Sundays when I merely smooth the covers, throw on a fresh pillowcase, and call it good, promising I’ll get to it tomorrow- which doesn’t always happen.) But today, everything was washed. Another reason I love quilts. A handmade quilt can be washed with no worries. It doesn’t have to be dry cleaned. It comes out clean, fresh smelling, wonderfully rumply, as close to perfect as I can imagine.
READ MORE

Semi-Hibernation

Lavender Sachets
Apparently I am. There’s really no better way to describe it. It was a really busy fall/early winter season for us, and apparently I’m on the other end of it. Whenever I can, I’m cocooning myself in quilts, with a cat on my lap and a crossword puzzle or a stack of design books to keep my busy. I feel a bit lazy but I think I needed it. I’m thinking a lot about what I want to make next. (Because, around here, quilt making and big projects like that tend to get thought about in the middle of winter, and made in the middle of summer for some crazy reason.)READ MORE

Tiny Felt Friends

 
Tiny Felt Friends
 
Tiny Felt Friends
For Emma’s 11th birthday this past November, I gave her a stack of felt in every color I could find, an assortment of beads, sequins, embroidery thread, and this book.
I think it was a hit!

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Chocolate Chip Shortbread
Years ago, when I started the job that brought me out here to Seattle, my new coworkers and I had a cookie exchange for the holidays. The cookies I had that day, like these Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies, are still some of my favorites, I still make several of them. READ MORE

Possibly Nailed

beaded snowflakes
It’s a familiar story, one you may have heard before…
Blog writer (me) has a busy week and doesn’t update blog.
Mom of blog writer mentions on the phone, in a rather accusing tone, that she’s noticed that said blog writer hasn’t updated her blog.
Suddenly, blog writer feels 12 all over again, runs to the computer, quickly pulling up typepad and frantically searching her brain for what she’s meant to write about all week but hasn’t.READ MORE

Woodland Centerpieces for Thanksgiving

Woodland Centerpieces

I won’t be spending Thanksgiving with my friend C and her family this year, and I will miss her and well, truth be told, I’ll also miss her flowers. I have shown you her amazing floral arrangements before. Always gorgeous and modern. So, as I’m prepping for Thanksgiving here at our house with friends this year, I’m remember a few little tricks that C has taught me (and that I’ve just kind of picked up along the way). I thought it would be fun to share.

 

READ MORE

Vintage Book, The Cookie Book


Vintage book

 
Vintage book
Found my very faded, dog-eared copy of one of my all time favorite childhood books, The Cookie Book. I guess you could call it a vintage book now. It contains 12 recipes, a cookie for every month of the year. I ordered it from the Scholastic brochures that come home from school (and I smile at the idea of how little the whole Scholastic thing has changed over ht years). I loved the hand drawn illustrations. And I love that I marked my favorite cookies.
Ian has asked to make Mississippi Mud Pie from this book for Thanksgiving. It made me think of this little one, which is still in with my cookbooks.

Follow Wise Craft Handmade