The Pocket Mod

I am forwarding this link for the PocketMod. It is a little personalized notebook that you can make online with a single piece of paper. You can customize each page with a variety of templates in different categories such as calendars, to do lists, reference guides, games, etc. They even have sudoku puzzles that you can include. I just made David his very own Pocket Mod. I think he was impressed - especially with the conversion reference page that included things like the speed of light in a vacuum. -something you might need to know on any given day. Also, did you know that 1 cubic foot of water weighs 62.32 lbs? I had no idea.

The tricky part of this little book is in the folding. I have actually folded paper exactly like this for several kid projects at the Arts Center. It's great for making blank books and you can even add a separate cover to make it a bit fancier. In one case, we made Valentine Books and included "Things We Love" on each page. Another time, we hiked the Botany Trail and made leaf prints on the pages.

Let me know which template on PocketMod is your favorite.

Thai Recipe - Chicken with Coconut curry Sauce

I made this recipe last night and it was enjoyed by all - even jamie ate some of the chicken. I mentioned it on my facebook page and thought I would share it with everyone. I had cut out the recipe from some magazine, but made a number of changes last night (it looks like a Bon Appetit recipe), so I'll give you my version.

Chicken with Coconut Curry Sauce
Serves 4

2 lbs boneless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
2 tblsp. vegetable oil
1 bunch scallions, cut into 1" pieces
5 teasp. Thai Green Curry Paste
2/3 cup chicken broth
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 tblsp. lime juice

In large saucepan, heat 1 T oil and cook scallions. Once cooked, remove scallions and set aside.
In same pan, heat up remaining 1 T oil and cook chicken, stirring. - about 5 minutes. Once cooked, remove chicken and set aside.
Add curry paste and chicken broth to pan, stir and reduce to glaze - about 3 minutes.
Add coconut milk; cook until sauce coats spoon, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes.
Add lime juice, chicken and scallions.
Reduce heat to med-low and simmer until chicken is fully cooked and it is heated.

We served this with jasmine rice.

Funny Online art activity for Kids

I have no idea where this blog is going. Is for personal reflections, is it to share things that I have made (my flickr page is better for that), is it to share about what I do at work, or is it to inspire others to get out there and create. While I'd like it to be about all of the above, it becomes a bit too cumbersome.

Well, in any case, today's post is going to be about cool online art activities for parents to share with their kids. I'll try to add on to this list every once in a while.

1) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has this first "I Spy" type activity. You are supposed to find four things in six different paintings. The cool thing is as you move the mouse, it magnifies the portion of the painting the cursor is over. After you find an object, it provides you with a fun fact. There are plenty of additional links to learn about the art in more detail and to visit other areas of the museum. This is probably best suited for older children.

2) The National Gallery of Art has a fantastic site for online art activities, NGA Kids. There are a number of educational activities that focus on specific paintings or artists. In addition, there is the NGA Kids Art Zone. Here you'll find a variety of interactive art activities to try.
I didn't try them all, but I did especially like the Orbital Jam activity and Pixelface.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Accessories from Recycled Zippers

In the past year, I have become much more interested in making things from recycled items. I started by making crocheted totebags from plarn - yarn made from strips of plastic grocery bags. More recently, I fused layers of the plastic bags to make some really cute makup bags. I finally got around to felting the large boxes of wool sweaters that I've had for several years in the basement and I had lots of fun making softies, puppets, barrettes and ornaments from them. I took an old bright green raincoat apart and used the fabric to make two reusable grocery bags (using the raincoat belt for straps, saved all the buttons and kept the really long zipper that connected the lining. I've also started using alot more recycled materials in my kids classes, both here and at the Arts Center. Too bad I didn't take pictures of most of these and they have either been sold or given as gifts. One item that has taken off has been my zipper accessories.

You can read about the basics of making them from a 4-H project here. I actually use polymer clay as a base for my items so that I am totally free to do any size or shape that I'd like. You can find these items for sale at my Etsy Store.

Polymer Clay Technique Experiments

As I learn about polymer clay, it's fun to try different techniques. The first two pictures are of items I made using my extruder....

We gave the mirror to friends in Hawaii when we stayed in their home for vacation last year. The color scheme reminded me of the ocean and their home was right on it!! Beautiful!! The whole mirror is made of clay. I even made a little clay hanger on the back for hanging on the wall.

We gave the baby and serving spoon set to Todd and Keegan for Christmas last year- just before Rhys was born. (It amazingly matched in color and design his car seat fabric that was in his birth announcement picture).

I made the polymer clay pendant in a class with Ellen Marshall. I'm not quite sure why, but this necklace is David's favorite thing I've ever made (so he says). I do like it, but I don't think it's even on my top 10.

The watch was made early on in my experiementation and I made this as a present for my dear friend, Stacy. (the other Stacy).

Polymer Clay Projects

I've become more interested in playing with polymer clay over the past few years. I love trying all the different techniques and am amazed by the color combinations, textures and designs that one can create - it really is incredibly versatile.

I am involved with an Empty Bowls event here every year. This past year I made polymer clay brooches for all the people on the committee and I made a polmer clay bowl that was auctioned off at the Swanky Bowls event. Here are pics of those.

More Pictures - A few Chain Maille Pieces

I don't have too many good pictures of my chain maille and sterling jewelry, but here are a couple of designs. I start with sterling wire. The wire is wrapped around a mandrel into a long coil and then each ring is cut from that. The individual rings are then woven into these elaborate and beautiful patterns. You have to see and feel the bracelets to believe them.

Some Pictures of Beaded Items

I love doing off loom bead weaving and bead embroidery. Thank goodness that my close up vision is still good because I definitely like the really small beads!.

This bracelet is my "Garden Club" bracelet. I always joke that this is as close as I'll ever get to the real garden club. This bracelet has always been one of my favorite to make and one of my best sellers.

This bracelet won first place at the Hildene Needlework Show. It has a peyote base with lots of embellishment on top. The bracelet closes with hidden snaps.

I do have quite a bit of my bead embroidery on other blog posts. I especially like some of the barrettes that I've done. All of these are definitely labors of love. They all take many hours of work but I really enjoy doing it.

Time to Update my Blog With Pictures

I'm taking a four day workshop at the end of the month on color with the expert, Maggie Maggie. She sent out an email for us to complete a pre-workshop survey. One of the questions was whether we had a website or somewhere online that she could see our work. Since this and facebook are my only online venues, I thought I would update this with lots of pictures of some of the many many things I've made in the past few years.

I also noticed on the pre-workshop survey a question about what medium we work in. As you will see, I haven't yet made up my mind... I'll try to upload the pictures in some sort of order, but you will notice that there is variety as my interest and enthusiasm ebbs and flows.

We'll do sewing and quilting things first because that is where alot of it began. This is the first real quilt I ever finished. It won prizes both at the Hildene Needlework Show and at the Vermont Quilt Festival. I have always had a fascination with optical illusions and3D designs on a 2 dimensional format- It's my love of math and puzzles.

The next two pictures are of two small art quilts that I did at a Melody Johnson quilt workshop. It also started my love of hand dying and painting fabric. The second one was my attempt at working with neutral colors - it was way hard!!

The final fabric pictures will be of two fabric postcards that I did in a 2007 postcard swap. These are two of my favorites.