Quilt Squares

On Monday I took advantage of the Holiday/time off work and got to work on one of my resolutions, my denim quilt! It's not much progress, but there are some actual squares instead of just a pile of jeans! I have a lot more squares to cut, but it's progress!

Craft Book Club

Craft Book Club is back! Totally forgot about making a reading list and we are two months into the year... The first book we will be reading this year for Craft Book Club is How to Read Nature: Awaken Your Senses to the Outdoors You've Never Noticed by Tristan Gooley.

I'm not very far into the book and have no idea what sort of craft it will inspire.

I'm a Potter

I've got a good start on my resolutions this year! The new craft I'm learning this year is pottery! I signed up for a four week pottery class with Chelsea. We have taken two classes and know how to throw a thing and now trim the thing. Here are the things I have made (before trimming):

Two of these things were made during our first class, the other was made during some 'studio time'. Most of my things end up in the recycle bin, but I'll only be able to keep 10 things so these three 'keepers' may end up the recycle bin too. My 'studio time' after our first class really filled the recycle bin, but I did well during our second class. I'm pretty good at trimming and I made a great vase shape during the second class that I'm really proud of (no photo yet).

Red Bracelet

Last week was the start of the Lunar New Year! I was excited because it is the year of the pig, my zodiac, but it turns out your birth year zodiac is unlucky unless you wear red everyday. I found out about this superstition the day before the start of the new year, and decided I'm going all in for this superstition. I wore red pants on the first day then realized red isn't a common color in my wardrobe so decided to make a bracelet.

I ended up knitting a very long I cord with leftover red wool yarn from Scotland! Since the wool would eventually felt (because I'm not careful with hot water and my knits), I made sure the I cord was extra long and felted it. It is long enough to be worn as a necklace or headband and can be wrapped around two or more times to be worn as a bracelet or anklet. Very versatile, and very lucky.

Mercury Glass Lampshade

This is the the other plant light/lampshade; Tuesday I shared this macrame lampshade. Today's lampshade is a remake of a previous project fail where I made a faux mercury glass lampshade from an upcycled soda bottle. The fail happened because I had a standard incandescent plant bulb inside that obviously heats up; it melted the plastic soda bottle and the project/fire hazard ended up in the trash. Since I now use LED grow lights I decided I could try this again without risking burning down the house.

Knowing how poorly spray paint clung to the plastic soda bottle, I only did one and a half coats (the half coat was spot spraying for "texture") of the mirror spray paint. I was less worried about bare spots this time around. The black acrylic paint on the top outside went well again; I did add some hole punches in the top to allow for some air venting. It turned out great until I tried to put the LED light bulb in...

Another Fail! My light bulb is too big; I should have probably checked that before starting the project, but I didn't so now I'm looking for a smaller LED grow light that will fit inside.