Crafting with legos

Check out this amazing "Relativity" by MC Escher-Lego sculpture created by "professional nerd" Andrew Lipton.

If you like that, his site has other lego creations including Rodin's "The Thinker," Escher's "Waterfall" and Dlibert of course.

I'm a big fan of Legos myself...


via the Craftster blog and their random spotting on the galactic interweb...

Crafters shop local

Fabricshoppersunite.com has launched a new database (in Beta) aimed to help cratfy guys and gals make more of their materials purchases from independent quilt and fabric stores.

Says Project 95, "Did you know that 95 percent of fabric shoppers make their purchases at chain stores? That’s right, only 5 percent shop independents. Let’s change that." I think everyone knows that shopping inide and local helps communties flourish, but it's not always easy (I heart Target...).

The site lets you search by area and locate shops on a handy Google map. I quickly located my favorite indie shop in Seattle - Stitches. I wanted to see if could find some in Paris too. Imagine visiting an indie fabric store on you next vacation! You'll need to know a zip code to get the map going, but I still wasn't able to find any places in Paris - yet. The project has just released in Beta and I'm excited to watch it evolve.


via Craft:

Quilted ABCs

Do you feel like there is a baby boom happening right now? I've been looking around for some great baby gifts and then Craftzine shared a great tutorial by Happy Together for these colorful Rag Quilt Letters.

If giving as a gift, try whipping up a little drawstring bag to keep the letters together.


Image courtesy of Happy Together.

Get Do Good for iPhone

Have an iPhone? Get DoGood. It's an incredibly simple (and free) application that lists a new activity to "do good" each day and shows you how many other people have done good. And once you do the good deed for the day, you can post your good deed story or read a few from other users. Yes, it's connected to Facebook and Twitter of course!

Regularly scheduled crafting - The Bright Quilt

I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as a bright and cheery person, but somehow this quilt really makes me happy and brings me to the verge of singing cheesy 70s TV theme songs.

I used a patchwork technique, which I've tried before, but made the quilt about twice as large and the squares much, much smaller - aka this quilt is the most challenging one I've made so far!

I completed the quilt just in time for little Karis Hope to be born! Happy Birthday Karis!

Best of travels: Versailles

Sure it's touristy, but if anywhere near Paris, I highly recommend stopping by Versailles. It's not as crowded as you might think. The opulent palace with sprawling manicured lawns make it easy to understand why the people started the French Revolution here by trying to burn it to the grand. But after you get over how over-the-top everything is, you can eat ice cream, row boats, ride bikes and pretend you are a member of the court. You can even see Marie-Antoinette's palace - she had her own of course. And yes it has pink marble.

Best of travels: Checking off my life list

I did it! I did it! When I was in high school, we had to write a life list or "bucket list" of things we wanted to do after graduation, but before we...died. I wish I still had a copy, but there are a few I distinctly remember. And I checked one off while in Barcelona: I swam in the Mediterranean Sea! And I swam in the Mediterranean Sea when no one else was going in the water (I guess 72 degrees isn't hot enough for most people to go swimming - just sunbathe naked). Everyone was staring at the crazy tourist, but I didn't care!

The water felt cool and clean and everything was sparkling. I really felt on vacation riding our bikes along the boardwalk to find the perfect spot on the beach. We laid out our 1Euro beach mat and ate ice cream, watched sailboats and just let the breeze flow around us with the sound of the waves in the background and Cotton Jones on the iPod. Ahhhhhh....

Best of travels: Flamenco

I have seen Flamenco in Seattle before and it was beautiful. But I have never seen Flamenco like I have in Seville. The power of the musicians, singers and dancers was exploding right in front of me. And even though they sell cheesy, polka-dot fake Flamenco-dancing dresses all over Spain, I did not see anything close to that on stage. It was art. A daring, passionate expression of emotions.