Plus, I’ve been sewing like a mad woman making an enormous amount of crafty goodness for the Medina County Baby Fair, which is on March 20th, where I’ll be vending with Jenn and Mary under the name “the Lollipop Guild.” These little bunny friends are made from cashmere and wool sweaters. Their soft and silkie ears are made with some crinkly polyester curtain samples I picked up at Zero Landfill. I’m also making baby shoes by the dozen from fabric sample books. Some are giraffe print and I want to keep them all, but then I’d have nothing to sell to all the new mommies at the Baby Fair. I need to share the wealth.

So if everything goes according to plan, there will be a tutorial tomorrow. If it rains (because this is a gardening tutorial) then you’ll have to wait until the next sunny day. And there is a pretty good chance for rain…

Our Mission: to build a local food system that improves the health and economy of our community. Our approach is to use the valuable resources and productive traditions within our community by engaging youth and families to improve the conditions of our neighborhoods.

Our Goals: Focus on sustainable agriculture, nutrition education, entrepreneurship, and youth development to create change in our community. With that in mind, our five primary goals are to:

1. Educate residents about food systems, sustainable agriculture and healthy cooking. 

2. Provide access to appropriate and affordable locally-grown, healthy, nutritional and culturally-focused food.

3. Engage and train youth as leaders in the food system and their community.

4. Build self-reliance through employment, training and local business development.

5. Building the capacity to produce food locally through sustainable agriculture. 

How exciting! Find out more, if you are interested in helping out. I don’t know how helpful I can be to them this year with my little kiddos under foot, but next year I would love to put in some man hours in a community garden!  For more information you can follow this link to subscribe to their newsletter.

The other problem I have is wanting to use the Nike + iPod gizmo to track and share my runs. But since I am not using the Nike + shoes, how I needed a hack to keep my sensor on my shoe. I took some commercial vinyl fabric I got from Zero Landfill that matches my shoes and made a pouch for the sensor. There is an overlap for the in the opening flap so I don’t lose the sensor on a run, and there is a strap to loop over the velcro shoe closure on my shoe.  This sensor pouch could also slide over shoelaces if you plan to run with the Nike + thing but have a pair of trainers you really love, so it’s not just for us crazy Barefooters.

Here’s how I made it:  I put the coral bead & flower bead cap on a head pin and made a wrapped wire loop at the top.  I strung it on the string, then attached the clasp with crimp beads.

It’s encouraging to me that there are so many people interested in handmade items right now that there is a greater outlet for displaying/selling them. It’s not just craft fairs and etsy, although I LOVE those venues, but even brick and mortar stores are interested in carrying one-of-a-kind handmade items in their shops.

In other news, Colleen and I have talked about slowing down on the tutorial frequency. Once a week  is a lot of crafting. And though we have a ton of ideas for how to repurpose things, we are running out of time to actually do them. Just today I spent two hours ( yikes! ) cleaning out my craft room because I only have time to work in there, and never have any time to clean up after myself. I still haven’t put everything away yet! So, look forward to 2 monthly tutorials from Clever Nesting in the future. We still love you, we just also love our sanity.

In this class, I’ll help you fix your broken jewelry & get it wearable again.  I’m teaching Thursday at Craft Akron.  Here are the details:

Fix your Broken Jewelry Class

$15 plus supplies fee of $5

Bring your broken jewelry stash to class & learn how to restring or resize beaded necklaces and bracelets, reattach missing clasps, or even reconfigure earrings that have lost pieces. Basic supplies included (such as beading wire, thread, ear wires, eye & head pins), but if you have a special clasp you want to use or must have sterling silver ear wires, bring them with you.

Also, if you have a jewelry project you’re stumped on, you’re welcome to bring it to class as well.

Please preregister by at least 24 hours before class at 330-865-1100 or info@craftakron.com.

Within 12 hours of using the Salve with every diaper change we have had amazing improvements and no pain for my little Sweetie.

Ohio Valley Herbal Products are an Ohio company, and the herbs are actually collected from the Ohio wild. You can read about the company here, and if you are lucky enough to run into them at a fair, be prepared to talk to knowledgeable people who will diagnose you on the spot. You can bet that I will be purchasing from them again.

Hense, the crockpot cozy. I had seen a casserole cozy on the interwebs somewhere (if anyone can remember, or was the maker of this please let me know because I didn’t bookmark it) and it came to mind as the perfect solution to the conundrum I was in.  It was also the perfect excuse to use my new serger because I needed to make it fast.

Essentially this is just a 22″ by 22″ un-quilted quilt, no binding, with over-locked edges. To make it all transportable I made some straps from upholstery weight fabric (over-locked again) and stitched them to the middle of the bottom of the cozy in an X. Then I folded up the corners of the cozy over my crockpot stoneware insert and tied the straps.

It’s machine washable, quick to make, very gift-able, and it kept my soup warm and unspilled all the way to the potluck!

If you need a beginner’s lesson on necklace making, you can read my tutorial on how to restring a necklace.  It teaches what tools/supplies you need, how to layout your design on a bead board, and how to attach the clasp & use crimp beads.  Or if you live in the Akron area, I teach classes & give private lessons and would be happy to work with you on your project.

Supplies: double broiler (I used a pan & glass jar, but a tin can would be great as well), water for the double broiler, a mold for the crayons (I used a brownie pan with dividers, but you can use candy molds, soap molds, candle molds, or other make-shift molds), broken crayons, knife, cutting board, & a stove top.    Other useful optional items: towel (for drying the glass jar), spoon or popsicle stick (for mixing wax), and oven mitt.

Instructions:

1.  Begin heating water in the double broiler.  You’ll want to melt the wax at the lowest temperature that it’ll melt, so it’s best to start with lower heat & increase it slowly as necessary (if it gets too hot it may melt your colored wax into a pool of ugly brown!).  For my stove, I turned the knob up to 3.  Choose a crayon color to use as the most prominent color.  I chose blue because I had the most blue crayons.  Place this color in the glass jar double broiler so it can begin melting.

2.  Cut the remaining crayons with a knife on the cutting board.  Chop some of the crayons small & medium sized and the rest very fine.

3.  Now you’ll begin placing crayon wax in the mold.  First, put in some fine pieces.  When your wax in the double broiler is melted, remove it from the pan (with an oven mitt if necessary) and dry off the outside of the container with a towel (you don’t want water drops getting into your crayon mold).  Pour a layer of melted wax over the finely chopped wax pieces, then continue alternating with the chopped & fine waxes and melted wax.  Finish by putting in some fine pieces and gently pressing them into the previous layer of melted wax.

4.  When the wax has cooled, remove it from the mold.  This can usually be done by turning the mold upside down and gently tapping it.  Sometimes a minute in the freezer will help if it’s really stuck.

5.  Now for a few finishing touches.  Gently brush off any loose pieces of crayon that didn’t melt into the wax (you don’t want them tracking through the house!)  I cut my rectangle in 2 to make two smaller crayons.  It was very easy to cut with my knife.  And finally, an optional step, color all over a sheet of paper to make all the edges nice & consistent.  I did this because my cut line looked a little different than my original molded sides.