We had our regular mid-Spring escape to Ocean City again last weekend. The kids have come to refer to these annual outings as if they were seasons of a TV show. Ocean City, season 7 premiered on a beautifully warm Thursday evening, and ran for five episodes, ending its run on a wet and cool Monday afternoon.

We’ve come to expect rain and cold on these trips. (Remember season 3? Brrrr.) Last year we were spoiled with the most amazing weather, so I guess we  shouldn’t have been surprised to see things return to normal: the loveliest days of the week were the afternoon before we arrived, and the day after we left. We had just one good beach day out of the three full days and two half days were were there. There was a lot of fog and drizzle on this trip, but it wasn’t as cold as it could have been, so that is something.

And we had some late-night fun sneaking up and down the boardwalk in our pajamas under the cover of that fog one night. (Sometimes it’s really cool to say YES to those crazy requests from your kids, even if you think you’d prefer to stay cozy indoors watching PBS with a cup of herbal tea. It ended up being a real hoot!)

This time around, we ate a lot less boardwalk food and had two out of three meals in our room with ingredients we brought from home. And we walked for miles up and down the boardwalk, and into town and back. All of that exercise and good-eating, and I came back home two pounds heavier than when I left. Can you imagine what I would have gained if I’d eaten whatever I wanted and laid around for four days? Yikes.

There was a major beach replenishment project happening while we were there, and it was interesting to watch the equipment do its thing. They appeared to be working round the clock. Hurricane Sandy had washed away a lot of beach, and the dunes were having to be rebuilt.

Additionally, the hotel itself was working on replacing the outdoor carpeting in time for Memorial Day weekend. Usually they have that kind of thing completed by the time of our little vacation, but this year it had been too chilly to get it done.

It doesn’t seem to matter how bad the weather is, I always feel like our time in Ocean City is so special and so fleeting. Maybe someday we can take a whole week there. How cool would that be?

© Lisa Clarke

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On Flickr

Have you seen the new Flickr look? I like it. And somehow, even though I did not spend that much extra time there this week, my favorites mosaic is rather large! I guess there was just a lot of inspiring stuff to be seen.

The mosaic below represents other people’s pictures that spoke to me this week. Be sure to click on the titles below the mosaic, if you want to know more about the image or the photographer behind it.

(follow me on flickr)

1. …They’re purse handles., 2. Bohemian Flowers, Flower Collage, Mixed Media Flower Painting by Sascalia, 3. Pyrex Wall, 4. Wonder wheel, 5. today’s colours, 6. mothers day picnic, 7. Building friendship on a flower, 8. Nellie, 9. Landscapes, 10. WIP, 11. Rainbow Bands quilted, 12. boy bunny with a piebald patch, 13. CMYK cushion front, 14. spin me, 15. ferris wheel, 16. The Tivoli Cushion, 17. Ahhh. I’m so in love. Can’t wait to list these in etsy tomorrow. #handmade #kindle, 18. DSC_5087.jpg, 19. I’m going to call this photo “Malodorous Cargo.”, 20. Copperfield, 21. Spools, 22. New Look 6674, 23. Vodka Lemonade, 24. Day 26, 25. Chicopee Hexagon Quilt Top

Around the Web

I spend an hour or so every morning, Monday through Thursday, sharing my favorite crafty links on Sulia (although this week I crammed them all in Wednesday and Thursday nights). And then I repeat them here on Fridays.

(follow me on sulia)

Yarn

• File under: Things I Won’t Be Wearing To The Beach. Ever.
• Crochet your own pattern weights using pocket change. From The Zen of Making
• Salt and Pepper Cowl knitting pattern from The Purl Bee
• WEBS recommends, knit your sleeves using the two-at-a-time method you usually use for socks.

Fabric

• Very cool, inexpensive, no-sew beach bag from A Little Glass Box
• Got two tees? Turn them into a nifty beach cover up. From WobiSobi

Feathering Your Nest

• Simple beachy decor from Charmingly Shabby Designs
• Beach photo jar from Fiskars Craft
• DIY weathered beach signs from Crafts by Amanda
• How cool is this? DIY Concrete Pendant Lamps from Ben Uyeda via Brit+Co.
• How to display artwork on the cheap with maximum impact, a tutorial from Wee Design Group

Other stuff

• Make a travel candle to bring to the beach, from Kate Pruitt via Design*Sponge
• Whoa. A functional LEGO® Stargate! by Kelly McKiernan
• Funky shoe round-up: 20 ways to Mod-Podge your kicks via Mod Podge Rocks.
• So, you want to survey your blog readers. First check out this advice from CraftyPod.
• It’s a Stargate kind of night, I guess. Here’s a tutorial for making your own SG glyph foam stamp from Geek Crafts

I hope you’ll be enjoying a nice three-day weekend along with me. I love Memorial Day weekend so much. Have a good one! XOXO

© Lisa Clarke

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Wednesday, I turned 42. And it was a fabulous day.

Far too often, I find myself feeling a smidge disappointed at the end of a birthday. I know some adults like to be low-key about the whole thing, but I’m really still a little kid when it comes to my birthday, and how much of a Big Deal I believe it should be.

In my house, I am the Birthday Fairy, for the most part. I make the cakes, I plan the parties, and I hang the festive bunting in the kitchen. And when my own birthday comes around? No cake. No party. No festive bunting in the kitchen. Just a vague feeling that maybe the men in my life could have shown a tiny bit more enthusiasm.

Don’t get me wrong! Neil does a lovely job with the gift-giving (he has completely nailed it the last couple of years for me, I must say), and he always takes me out to dinner. But it doesn’t occur to him to pepper the house with celebratory decorations and smells. In the past, this has bothered me, some years more than others.

This year, I decided recently, would be different. I thought about the whole thing objectively, and it comes down to this: if I am the fanfare provider in this house, and only I really know just how much fanfare I require to be happy, then maybe it’s time I take control of my own celebration. I can make myself a cake, I don’t particularly care about having a party, and I can hang my own festive bunting in the kitchen.

What a simple, simple idea, and yet such a revelation to me!

So yesterday, I took myself out to O Bagel for lunch and had my very favorite sandwich (a rare midweek treat for me). In the afternoon, I tied on an apron, played my Pandora shuffle really loudly, twirled around the kitchen, and baked myself some cherry cupcakes. Then I stepped up on the stool and hung my banner over the kitchen table. I spent most of the day alone, and yet it was full of simple pleasures.

Later, Neil and the boys took me out to the Stirling Hotel for supper, and they gave me a super cool birthday present: a 35mm f/2 lens for my camera (I totally love it – it is great in low light, I can get nice and close to my subject if I want to, and the background blur is dreamy. *swoon*).

There is no doubt in my mind now, that there are just some parts of the birthday celebration that I am better taking charge of myself. I live with a man who would be perfectly content with nothing more than a wave and a “Happy Birthday” when his turn comes around. His requirements for a successful birthday are simple, and mine are anything but. It’s not that I want a lot. It’s just that I want things that don’t even occur to him. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t wake up thinking about bunting and cherry cupcakes. But I do. (And, maybe next year I will wake up thinking of balloons and brownies – who knows? I don’t yet, and Neil certainly doesn’t either.)

My new recipe for birthday happiness: let the guys stick with the parts that they are good at (picking out gifts and taking me to a favorite spot for supper) and I’ll take care of anything else I may require, whatever that looks like from year to year.

P.S. Those cherry cupcakes were pretty good, if a little dry. I adapted them from here. The dryness was probably my fault, not the original recipe’s. But I’ll have to make another batch just to be sure…

© Lisa Clarke

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We left for Ocean City, NJ on Thursday night, and returned home yesterday (Monday) evening. In between, we had the usual great time, which I would love to share with you, except I haven’t processed my photos yet. These are the ones I Instaflicked* this weekend, and if you follow me on any social media, you may have already seen them. I’ll be back later this week with a proper “What I Did on my Spring Vacation” essay. Suffice it to say, four days is never enough!

In other news:

I thought I’d point you to Wee Design Group. Wanda and I were in high school together (although, in true 21st century fashion, I think we’ve probably communicated more on Facebook than we ever did in person). When I saw her lovely Etsy shop, and the bird print she made in colors that were perfect (perfect, I tell you!) for my family room, I bought one on the spot. As you may remember, I’ve been paying some more attention (read: any attention at all)  to that room lately and handmade touches are a big part of that. I want the artwork to be personal in some way, whether it be posters from Neil’s magazine, photos I took, or prints from old high school acquaintances.

Wanda has just started a blog series where she features room makeovers from her readers, and my family room got to be Reader Space #1! Cool, eh? Check it out. And while you’re there, have a look around. Wanda has some other cool weekly features. I especially like the style boards she makes based on products in her Etsy shop.

* Instaflick = an instagram-esque way I’ve devised to share my square-format photos, using flickr as a base of operations instead of (or sometimes in addition to) instagram.

© Lisa Clarke

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On Flickr

The mosaic below represents other people’s pictures that spoke to me this week. Be sure to click on the titles below the mosaic, if you want to know more about the image or the photographer behind it.

(follow me on flickr)

1. Pillow Stack, 2. One of these pictures because it’s this time of year., 3. 20121109_quilts, 4. quilt, 5. Beach quilt on chair, 6. summer beach quilt, 7. orange crush revisited, 8. {HBM} Fox in Sox, 9. reading in bed

Around the Web

I spend an hour or so every morning, Monday through Thursday, sharing my favorite crafty links on Sulia. And then I repeat them here on Fridays.

(follow me on sulia)

Yarn

• Whimsylove shows you how to upcycle old cans into knitted vases.
• Granny squares of a million different sizes come together in a lovely way on this blanket by Buscando Comienzos
• Guy-friendly crochet blanket from Facil y Sencillo
• I love the name of this blanket from Crochet Today: The Man ‘Ghan
• Is it a tea towel or a blanket? (hint: it’s a blanket), from The Purl Bee
• Check out this great sweater recycle from LiveJournal’s _anemone_.

Fabric

• I’m slightly tea towel obsessed at the moment, so this project from The Purl Bee really grabs me.
• Analog Me shows you how to fix that too-big t-shirt.
• DIY mason jar sewing kits from Wait ’til your Father gets Home
• Loving this idea for a DIY shower curtain from Brett Bara via Design Sponge
• How to add a cuff to a pants or shorts pattern, from Me Sew Crazy via Craftaholics Anonymous
• Lovely little zipper pouches from Spotted Stones

Other materials

• Turn toilet paper rolls into festive party decorations, from Just Crafty Enough
• Mod Podge clip art coasters from Inspired Ideas
• Painting on rocks from Magsiesss Seaview Hideout
• Make this simple abstract botanical pendant from Mod Podge Rocks

Crafty business

• 5 things Brandi Girl Blog has learned about blogging so far
• 5 more things Brandi Girl Blog has learned about blogging
• 31 Days to a Better Photo from My 3 Boybarians

That ought to keep you busy for a little while. Stay out of trouble this weekend!

© Lisa Clarke

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My van is 10 years old, it’s most exciting audio technology it has being the CD player. It doesn’t play MP3 CDs, it couldn’t play satellite radio (were I a subscriber), and it has no input jack to allow a smartphone (which I don’t actually have) to play Pandora. [Also, if that image is any indication, it also needs a good vacuuming.]

So, if I want to listen to interesting* music, I have two choices: bounce around the FM dial on a song-by-song basis, or burn a CD mix.

* interesting = popular (or not) alternative-ish, indie-ish songs I like and recognize, peppered with a few new tunes to keep me entertained

Each of the main NYC popular commercial radio stations (and a few of the public radio stations, too) plays maybe 40% music I enjoy. If I could make a custom combination of, say, WPLJ and WFUV, I would be one happy camper. I’d remove the dance club element from one and the twangy element from the other, and be left with something I’d consider pretty listenable.

In the house, it’s no problem. I like Pandora a lot. My Pandora shuffle makes me super happy. The mix includes a selection of my Pandora stations that I switch around depending on my mood. For example, sometimes it’s heavy on the Innocence Mission, Crowded House, and 90′s alternative, while other times there’s a healthy dose of oldies in there (please, nobody tell me ’90′s music is technically “oldies.” I might cry.)

My Pandora quick mix is public. Listen for yourself, if you like!

But back to my car woes. I listen to a lot of mix CDs. Most of them I made myself, and sometimes Penny sends me something super cool. But inevitably, I get tired of what I have, and get the urge for a new mix.

Making a mix is a fun but labor-intensive prospect for me. I follow a few strict rules when it comes time to put one of these together:

• The styles of the songs must flow nicely from one to the next.
• The volume among the tracks must be consistent (I use mp3gain for this).
• There mustn’t be extra silence at the beginning and ending of tracks (I use mptrim for this).
• There must be a cool cover image involved (I used to use google images to find something suitable, but now I just use my own photos).
• There must be a track list that includes artist and song title (at least).
• The CD must always start and end with strong songs that make me happy.
• Sometimes there’s a theme, but usually it’s just newish-to-me music that I want to hear more of (over, and over, and over, and over again in the car).

This is sometimes a process that takes several hours: choosing the right tracks, putting them in the best possible order, adjusting track volume, making the cover… It’s a labor of love, really.

So last night, five months after Put on a Sweater, I birthed my newest CD: Having a Wonderful Time…

These are the tracks I would pick if someone asked me to do an hour-and-20-minute radio show right this very minute. Now and then, I hear a few of these tunes on my current car radio presets, but not to the degree that I’d like. (I’m guessing your own exposure to some of this stuff may vary, depending on where you live, and your car music options.)

I’ve added the playlist to my last.fm account, so you can have a listen (to the tracks where they allow that), if you like.

The image is one I took last year around this time when we were in Ocean City. I aged it with one of the apps I had on my tablet at the time (I forget which, now), but I think it looks a bit like an old postcard, if you can forgive the square shape of it. Plus it has all of that delicious whitespace, just begging for text.

How do you discover new music? And do you have a better way to share playlists than last.fm? (I would love to be able to share through Google Music, since I use that almost as often as Pandora, but it doesn’t appear to be an option.)

© Lisa Clarke

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Well, here we are 10-ish months later, and I finally dug into that stack. Three Sorbetto tanks, just for me:

This pattern gets easier to make with each one I do. I’m getting much better at darts and bias tape, that’s for sure.

The first top has some neckline issues, as does the third, but neither problem is a deal-breaker. I don’t even intend to fix the blue one. The gold one, though, I think I can improve upon, if I take a few minutes to re-sew that part.

I used custom bias tape where I had enough fabric, and store-bought where I didn’t. I like both looks.

And, bonus! The small pieces I had left of each sheet remnant were perfect for these:

These are for my 4-month-old niece. I made them all using the same pattern I have used before: the Made By Petchy Baby Dress. Aren’t they adorable? They’re so quick to whip up, and a great way to use those small pieces of fabric.  I made each one just a tiny bit different from each other, either in the way the ties are threaded through the casing, or at the hemline (one of them is zig-zag stitched).

I wasn’t planning on using all of these swapped sheets for shirt-making, but the cotton lawns I ordered still aren’t here after nearly two weeks, and I just couldn’t wait any longer!  I’ll just have to sew a few more shirts when the fabric finally arrives. You can never have too many handmade summer tops, I say!

© Lisa Clarke

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Here are some photos and links for you…

On Flickr

The mosaic below represents other people’s pictures that spoke to me this week. Be sure to click on the titles below the mosaic, if you want to know more about the image or the photographer behind it.

(follow me on flickr)

1. Manta colorín 4 esquinas, 2. Blue sky clock, 3. Untitled, 4. Planted and ready to share!, 5. May Day, 6. Gargantilla turquesa-rojo, 7. Kananook Creek, 8. faux ceramic :”cosmic ceramic” tutorial, 9. pink binding!

Around the Web

I spend an hour or so every morning, Monday through Thursday, sharing my favorite crafty links on Sulia. And then I repeat them here on Fridays.

(follow me on sulia)

Yarn and Fabric

• Dirty Water Dyeworks will donate all proceeds from their new Boston Strong yarn
• Something you don’t see every day: a plastic canvas blog hop, hosted by CraftyPod
• Learn how to make your own t-shirt yarn from Craft passion
• knot•sew•cute design shop talks about yarn bowls and shares one alternative idea
• The Everyday Tote from The Purl Bee

Polymer Clay

• Maria Petkova’s Lazy Contour technique in polymer clay is fascinating. via Polymer Clay Daily
• Faux batik in polymer clay from Pavla Cepelikova
• You can make polymer clay look like ceramic clay, from Iris Mishly and Hilla Bushari

Other materials

• Image transfer tiles from The Pickled Herring
• Can you imagine walking down the aisle in a dress made of bread tags? Stephanie Watson did. via GeekCrafts.
• Been meaning to share this cabinet re-do from Attic24.
• A Boy And His Atom: The World’s Smallest Movie from IBM
• At Angry Chicken, they made a t-shirt for Dad with the kids’ drawings.
• This moment of quietude is sponsored by Beauty That Moves
• Don’t let your lunch packaging go to waste, from The Meta Picture

Crafty business

• If you sell your crafts, do you need a business plan? Handmadeology says yes.
• How Much Do Your Blog, Facebook, and Twitter Numbers Really Matter? from CraftyPod

That’s it for me. I hope you have a great weekend, especially all of you moms out there!

© Lisa Clarke

Please support the following Polka Dot Cottage Sponsors:

It’s not like my hair doesn’t grow super fast anyway. If I didn’t like it, I could probably just wear a hat for two months.

I do like it, though. So, yay!

See a little peek of my shirt there? That’s one of two more Sorbetto‘s. Yep, I’ve found my sewing mojo at last. (Sadly, when I find my sewing mojo, I simultaneously lose my dining room table and (often) parts of the floor. Not a pretty sight in there at the moment.)

Rather than peck away at you all week with “look at this shirt” and “look at this other shirt” and, of course, “look at yet one more shirt” kind of posts, I’m saving it all for one bigger post next week. I figure I still have a few more Sorbetto’s and a Simplicity 3835 in me before I retire the machine for a while. I may even whip up another a-line skirt, like those I was once famous-ish for. I don’t find myself wearing skirts much anymore, though. I prefer not having to sit in a ladylike manner if I can help it. Ha!

So, it’s Thursday, and it’s been a productive week. Aside from the sewing, I’ve also been working on a few shop orders for crochet hooks and loom picks, and I’ve been slowly chipping away at my new crochet blanket in the evenings. I think I could safely call the blanket 1/5th of the way done. I’m trying not to rush it or to put any pressure on myself to finish it quickly – that’s a surefire way to be miserable working on it. I know I haven’t shown you that blanket yet, but if you look up at the flowers on my blog header and imagine them surrounded with a creamy white background, you’ll get the idea.

Well, it’s been nice chit-chatting on this Thursday afternoon, but my short haircut and I need to run. We have some hooks and picks to sand and buff this afternoon, if we want to get them in Friday’s mail. Have a happy day!

© Lisa Clarke

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• an open window in the kitchen with The Proclaimers on Pandora and half a glass of wine while I chopped vegetables for a supper salad
• strawberries and cream on angel food cake with the family around the kitchen table before bed
• a good night’s sleep.

And this morning, I woke up ready to try again. I decided I really did want to get that Sorbetto right after all, and so I pulled out my patterns, my tracing paper, and some instructions, and went to town on that FBA. I had made a size 14 before, but this time I cut out a 10, made a 1.5-ish-inch adjustment, tapered the waist back in about an inch, and added 2 inches of length.

I did a test run on this vintage sheet, eliminating the pleat in the front, and I must say, it’s pretty perfect.

Imagine that.

This bodes very well for the four cotton lawn prints I ordered on the internet last week.

If I’m being completely honest here, I do have a couple of issues with the way I look in this shirt, but I suspect they are more of a body-image problem than anything else. After all, this shirt really does fit this body pretty well. The next tops I make will use a less stiff fabric, which will probably make me love them more. That’s the plan, anyway.

I appreciate all of your comments on my whiny post yesterday! The moral of the story, of course, is one that I never seem to learn: take the time to tweak the pattern up front (aka do the darn FBA aready) and it will save you a lot of frustration (and wasted fabric) in the long run.

So, anyway, Mission: Expose Shoulders, accomplished! This pattern is definitely going to be my go-to pattern for sleevelessness. Yay!

© Lisa Clarke

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*sigh*

It was not a successful sewing day for me on Sunday. But, hey, before we get to that, let me show you something that I sewed a few weeks ago that is not a miserable disaster! I’ve been meaning to post about these, but I kept forgetting to photograph them while I had some daylight.

Ok, so these are the newest Built By Wendy Simplicity 3835 shirts in my closet. They join about a million others, but I keep making this pattern because I know I will be happy with the results.

These are both cotton lawns in gingham. I couldn’t decide between red or navy, and then I couldn’t decide between tiny checks or big, so I just finally got two: one in each color, in two different sizes. This was pretty inexpensive fabric, so why not?

I also made two different sleeve lengths. I wanted one that was longer so I could wear it with my Milady vest, and another that was shorter and would be good for the summer with shorts and beachy pants and such. I am pleased with both of these. So, yay!

Now on to my not-so-happy sewing…

I wanted some sleeveless Summer tops. I like to have my shoulders out when I’m in the sun, so I can avoid weird mid-arm tan (oh, ok, burn) lines, and I’m thinking ahead to our annual end-of-May beach trip. Sooooo excited for that!

I saw that Beki has been making some sleeveless tops using the free Sorbetto pattern from Colette. You may have noticed a bunch of Sorbetto images in my Flickr favorites this weekend. I was doing my research. My research suggested that I might want to consider a full bust adjustment. My first mistake? ignoring my research.

My Sorbetto looks terrible on me. I actually didn’t bother finishing it – the sleeves are still unhemmed. It’s far too wide, and far too short. And the stitching around the neckline? Oh, just awful. If I want to try this pattern again, I probably need to cut out a size much smaller, do a FBA, and add a few inches to the length. I’m not sure it’s worth it, though. I can’t decide if I have the potential to love this pattern on me or not.

Hot on the heels of that failure, I dug through my patterns and looked for one I remembered tracing from a dress I liked. A long time ago, I had made modifications to it to improve it, but I guess I wasn’t quite finished with my editing, because I ended up with another awful, awful finished object.

First? Too wide. Again. Second? I had wanted to take advantage of the built-in hem on the vintage sheet I was using, but apparently I lined the patterns up poorly, and the back hangs over an inch lower than the front. This was really really long anyway, so I can easily cut the bottom off and re-hem it, but I doubt it’s worth it. Even if I can make it more narrow in the waist, the neckline annoys me.

Here’s the thing: every time I try to make a sleeveless shirt, I end up with something too wide, too short, and with a collar that doesn’t lay flat. Is this because I’m busty? Or is it because I’m lazy? Or maybe a little bit of both? It seriously doesn’t matter what pattern I use. Always too wide, too short.

I think one of the reasons I love the Built By Wendy design so much is that elastic in the neckline is super forgiving, and the pattern itself is super easy. I am considering forgetting about the other patterns, and spending some time modifying the BBW pattern to be sleeveless. I am not sure it can be done in an attractive way, but I’m about ready to admit defeat on all of the other patterns I’m trying.

It’s funny – in just about every craft I do, I enjoy fiddling and making changes, but sewing? Not so much. I want it to be perfect right out of the gate, and I hate having to make multiple versions in order to get it right.

I don’t suppose you can suggest a super easy (read: foolproof, and in plain english) pattern that would require minimal fussing to fit “the girls” properly, but not look like a tent in the process? In the meantime, I’ll just be hacking at my BBW pattern and seeing what I can come up with…

© Lisa Clarke

Please support the following Polka Dot Cottage Sponsors:

On Flickr

The mosaic below represents other people’s pictures that spoke to me this week. Be sure to click on the titles below the mosaic, if you want to know more about the image or the photographer behind it.

You may notice a lot of shirts here. I’m doing “research” – I feel some Summer blouse sewing coming on!

(follow me on flickr)

1. Sorbetto/Ginger dress, 2. Yellow Rose Sorbetto, 3. Sorbetto top, 4. Sorbetto 2, 5. 28 april 2013, 6. Untitled, 7. sorbetto with cardi, 8. Gargantilla nuevas murrinas, 9. making ‘em less floofy

On Sulia

I spend an hour or so every morning, Monday through Thursday, sharing my favorite crafty links on Sulia. And then I repeat them here on Fridays.

(follow me on sulia)

Yarn

• Check out these cool legwarmers made from a repurposed sweater. from Mountain Girl Clothing via Etsy
• Make your own yarn bowl on the cheap, with items you have around the house. from Pocket Pause
• Attic24′s cozy new crochet neckwarmer involves an intriguing stitch pattern.
• If you’ve ever had a project slip off the needles, you’ll like this tip from WEBS

Polymer Clay

• Here’s a very simple jewelry project: a neon polymer clay ring from Henry Happened
• There’s a lot to admire about this faux knit necklace from Maria Belkomor.
• Check out this fabulous millefiori polymer clay robin cane by Tooaquarius

Fabric

• Bandanas are so much more classy when they’re made from Liberty Tana Lawn. from The Purl Bee
• This lovely beginner-level tank top pattern is downloadable and free from Colette Patterns (hint: this is the one I was researching on Flickr)

Stuff with T-Shirts

• Upcycle old t-shirts into cozy pillows from LoLoVie.
• Here’s another nifty idea for repurposing those t-shirts you’re not wearing. from Crafts ‘n Coffee
• I seem to be on a t-shirt kick this week. Here’s a project from Six Sisters’ Stuff for shirts you’ll want to wear.

Other Interestingness

• This couple from Alaska turned an old pickup truck into a nostalgic little red wagon! via KTUU.com (and Uncle Bob)
• This is a cool side table makeover from Keeping it Simple
• Listen up, crafty business peeps: Tara Swiger reminds you how to be awesome in the way that only you can.
• I love this take on Project 365 by James Bernal. via Photojojo
• Check out this impressive Star Trek Borg costume shared by Geek Crafts

And there you have it. It’ll be the weekend in a matter of hours. Got anything fun planned? I’d like to drag my sewing machine out of storage and try my hand at some shirt-making. (Which reminds me, I sewed two new shirts last month and still haven’t shown them to you! That’s very unlike me. Gotta get my camera out and get cracking on that…)

Happy Friday!

© Lisa Clarke

Please support the following Polka Dot Cottage Sponsors:

Even if you have not signed up for all of the popular social media channels out there, chances are your readers have.  Today we will focus on giving your readers the chance to spread the word across social media on your behalf. Or, as it’s referred to in blogger-speak: sharing.

Have you ever noticed when you are reading someone else’s blog, that there are often a series of colorful buttons at the end of the posts? These are sharing buttons. They each correspond to a different popular social network, and they are there to encourage you to tell your friends about what you just read.

[As an aside, notice I said up there, "when you are reading someone else's blog." I think it's crucially important to be a blog reader, if you want to be a good blog writer. Spending time visiting successful blogs helps you to define what it is you want to accomplish in your own space. Maybe you love the graphic design of their site, or the particular way they arrange their images and their words in each post. Maybe you like that they post on a predictable schedule or that they have special theme days. Or maybe it's their laid-back, spontaneous style that is so appealing. Make a note of what grabs you, and one-by-one, see if you can make those things work for you in your own way.]

So, how do you add share buttons to your blog?

A quick note about sharing on social networks

It’s worth mentioning, you do not need to belong to any of these social networks in order to include the buttons on your blog. If you don’t tweet, and Facebook leaves you cold, that’s fine. The buttons are meant for your readers to use. As long as you include buttons for their favorite social sites, you can be as much of an online hermit as you like.

Be prepared, however, to come out of that cave at some point. In the near future, we’ll be talking about how you can take a more active role in promoting your blog content on the social sites. For now, though, while you’re getting comfortable with all of this, it’s fine to let your readers do the work.

If you are on Blogger

Remember my Blogger test blog? Here it is before today’s changes (you can click on all of the screen captures in this post to see them up close):

Blogger has a built-in set of share buttons, and if you’ll notice, in my current layout, they were enabled by default.

If you are not picky about which social networks you want to include, your work is easy. Visit your dashboard and click Layout on the left side menu. Look at your blog layout, and on the big box that represents a blog post, click Edit. Scroll through the options and make sure Show Share Buttons has a check-mark in the box. Save your options and you’re done!

If you are on Blogger, but want more control

Blogger’s built-in set of share buttons is easy and all, but they’re fairly limited to the big three: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. While it’s certainly a good idea to include these three, those of us writing to a crafty audience might also want to include other sites that cater to visually-minded people. (Pinterest, anyone?)

If you want to go beyond the basics, you need to use a service that has a lot of options – options that they are constantly updating and changing to reflect the popular social networking trends. I have used ShareThis for some time, and I am happy with them, so that’s what I’ll show you.

First, visit sharethis.com via this link (it brings you directly to the Share Button settings page). Select “Blogger” as your platflorm and click Next.

Now choose your button style. This comes down to personal preference. Do you like the simplicity of square buttons? Or do you like to see the numbers? Those numbers refer to how many people have shared your post on the particular network, so if you are a statistics junkie, you might like to use one of the last two options.

For our purposes today, I went with the simple square buttons.

Click on your choice, and then click Next.

Now is your chance to tell ShareThis which social networks you want to highlight.

Here’s the cool thing about ShareThis: it has about a million (slight exaggeration) social networks available, many of which are probably new to you. You will have to select your own favorites to display, but even the networks that you do not choose will still be available to your readers, if they want to use them. That’s important, because unless you have your finger on the pulse of your readers’ preferences, you will never really know where they like to hang out online when they’re not visiting you.

When you choose the share buttons to display on your blog, you will be making an educated guess about what is most popular with your readers.

Those readers who don’t see their favorite networks listed can click on the green button. That’s the ShareThis button, and behind it lives a widget that includes all of the other networks you haven’t listed. Your readers are bound to find what they are looking for there.

That said, it’s still a good idea to try and anticipate what share buttons your readers will want. A Twitter button will be more attention-getting to a Twitter user than a ShareThis button will. The green button is a great backup, but try not to rely on it for everything. Include at least four other options to catch your readers’ eyes.

Scroll down, and you will see a place to change around your button configuration. You can hover over items in the Selected Services box to remove them from your button list (click on the X that appears). You can drag services around within the Selected Services box in order to re-arrange the order of your buttons. You can drag new services from the Sharing Buttons box into the Selected Services box. (You can play with the items in the Other Social Plugins box, if you want to, but I’m not going to talk about them at this point.)

For my test blog, I removed the LinkedIn button, because generally speaking, my posts are not the usual LinkedIn kind of fodder. (Still, if someone wants to share one of my posts there, they can get to LinkedIn through the ShareThis button, remember?)

I like Google+ and want to encourage my readers to use it, too, so I dragged over the Google+ button.

I could have added others, but this seemed fine for now. And in the future, there would be nothing stopping me from repeating this process to add or remove social networks as I got to know my audience better.

Click Finish to begin installing the buttons into your blog.

ShareThis will encourage you to create an account. This is a good option if you like numbers, and want to really delve into the (anonymously-saved) sharing behavior of your readers.

If you don’t care about statistics, feel free not to bother creating an account. Click No Thanks in the top right corner.

You have one more choice to make, and it refers to the behavior of the green ShareThis button: multi-post or direct post. Here’s the difference:

If you use multi-post, then when your reader clicks the green button, she can enter the little description she wants to share with her friends, and then choose to send it to as many social networks as she likes, all at one time. All of this is done with an overlay on top of your blog, so she never actually leaves your site when she shares your post.

If you use direct-post, then when your reader clicks the green button, she chooses a single social network to post to, and then leaves your blog to go directly to that social site to share your post.

Generally-speaking, it’s a good idea to keep your readers on your site as long as possible, so I would choose multi-post. It really just comes down to personal preference here, though, so feel free to choose whichever option you like.

Press Go. (This generates a pop-up screen, so if you have pop-ups disabled, you will need to allow this particular one through. That’s usually controlled somewhere near the top of your browser, where you’ll see a warning that a pop-up was blocked.)

ShareThis communicates with Blogger on your behalf to let it know you want to include ShareThis buttons on your blog posts. Now Blogger has to ask you, “is this ok?”

Click Add Widget to finish the job.

This is what my Blogger test blog looks like with ShareThis added. Cool, no? I think that these ShareThis buttons, besides being more versatile than the built-in option, are just more aesthetically-pleasing than the default.

If you are on WordPress.com

WordPress.com users, you have it easier. Here is my WP test blog before today’s changes:

Like Blogger, WP has built-in sharing buttons. Unlike Blogger, WP actually lets you switch up the options and the included networks. Also? This is pretty much your only choice if you want the share buttons to appear within each post, so you’re kind of stuck with it. Good thing it’s actually pretty useful.

Go to your dashboard, hover over Settings, and click on Sharing.

Look at Enabled Services. By default, Press This, Twitter, and Facebook are enabled. You can verify this by looking at the Live Preview. The Live Preview shows what the buttons will look like when they display on your blog posts.

I prefer different sharing options, so I dragged Press This into the gray discard box to the right. Then, I dragged Email, Google+ and Pinterest out of Available Services and into Enabled Services, and re-arranged them into my preferred order.

Scroll down a bit, and you can see even more options:

These are all personal preferences, again, but I chose to show only the icons, to open links in a new window (remember what I mentioned earlier about keeping people on your blog as long as possible? by opening a new window for their sharing link, they will still have your blog window open when they are finished sharing), and to show sharing buttons everywhere other than media.

I also enabled WordPress Likes, because, hey, it couldn’t hurt!

Feel free to experiment and play around with the settings until you get a look and function that you find pleasing. You really can’t break anything on this page, so play to your hearts’ content!

This is what my test WordPress.com blog looks like now, with sharing buttons enabled.

If you are on WordPress.org

As usual, I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail here, but I will tell you about two options you have that are nearly identical to the ones we discussed for Blogger and WordPress.com.

ShareThis

Yes, you can use ShareThis, too. It’s just a bit more complicated than the Blogger version. You start at the same place, but then you choose WordPress as your platform. ShareThis will tell you that you will need to install the ShareThis plugin on your site, and that you have two options for this: automatic and manual.

Do yourself a favor and go with automatic. Scroll down the page you are on, and you’ll see step-by-step directions for installing and setting up ShareThis on your site.

Jetpack

If you already installed Jetpack after our discussion about email notifications, then this will be super easy for you. Jetpack is a plugin that brings some of the special features of WordPress.com together for use by WordPress.org blogs. One of these features is social sharing.

Visit the Jetpack section of your dashboard and click on the Sharing box. The setup should be very similar to what I described for WordPress.com.

By the way, don’t confuse Sharing with Publicize. Publicize is for automatic sharing of your blog posts on the social networks that you belong to. Sharing, on the other hand, is for your readers to use when they feel moved to do so, and that is the one we are focusing on today.

What I do

You should know this about me: I am extremely picky about the aesthetics of my blog, and I never do anything the easy way.

Since I know my way around PHP, CSS, and HTML fairly well, I was able to create my own custom sharing box. (And if that sentence just gave you a headache, you may want to skip to the next section and forget about the rest of what I have to say about this.)

Essentially, my “share the love” section is powered by ShareThis, but I have added some of my own tweaks. The ShareThis, email, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook buttons are actually part of the ShareThis widget generated by the plugin. Flattr, Pinterest, and the print button are all things that I added myself.

Actually, I made my own Pinterest button last year sometime, when I was dissatisfied with the behavior of the Pinterest button provided by ShareThis. It’s probably time for me to have another look, and see if I can retire my custom version in favor of the current ShareThis version. I always prefer to use one single service over a variety of different services (i.e. ShareThis vs. ShareThis + separate Pinterest) whenever I can. It keeps the aesthetics cohesive, and I think it makes the blog’s engine work less hard, too.

Share The Love, like most other areas of my blog, is under constant threat of being tweaked by me. I am always looking to improve the way things look, function, and load around here, so don’t be surprised if this screen shot is soon out of date!

In conclusion

Adding share buttons is an essential step to spreading the news about your blog. When you have something good to say, your readers will want to share it. By taking these steps today, you’ve given them valuable tools and potentially increased your blog’s reach tremendously.

Now go pour yourself a glass of wine and wait for your adoring fans to spread your blog posts across the land*

(*Sorry, it’s actually not that simple. Sometimes people don’t want to share. Nonetheless, it’s important that you give them the option, and for having done that, I still think you deserve that glass of wine. Bottoms up!)

© Lisa Clarke

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If you’ve been here any length of time, you know how I get at this time of year. The warm breeze starts blowing, the trees begin to green, and I start looking forward to the opening of the farmers markets.  My favorite markets don’t actually open until late June, but it doesn’t stop me thinking about food and about being better at supper-making.

April and May are big “drag myself out of the cooking rut I landed in over the winter” kind of months for me, and I like to take the opportunity to be smart about any dietary changes I am making. If I’m going to find some new recipes to try, it would make sense to hone in on recipes that use good, fresh, whole food ingredients. That’s the theory, anyway.

Inevitably, I kind of slide on these things during the winter. Every year. And every spring, I start thinking about ways to reduce our intake of processed foods. It’s tricky because we are all kind of picky in our own ways. For my part, I most definitely love the idea of a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, more than the actual practice of it. But I try, nonetheless.

So, I’ve been flipping through cookbooks, marking down some promising ideas, making a shopping list, etc. and it’s brought back to mind something that kind of bugged me last summer, although I never wrote about it at the time: the butter dilemma.

When Neil had his heart attack, we were sent home with a pile of literature on what constitutes a “heart-healthy” diet. The most important commandment? Avoid Saturated Fats, aka replace butter with margarine, aka replace a natural food with a highly-processed one.

Wait, what?  I just spent the last five years learning how icky margarine is and how much better butter is for you, and now I have to go back to margarine? No way. Not going to happen.

And butter is not the only thing that must go. Forget the current thinking that un-tinkered-with full-fat versions of foods such as milk and cheese are better for you than their processed low-fat or fat-free counterparts. If it’s got saturated fat, it’s bad.

You wouldn’t think reconciling a heart-healthy diet with a whole-foods diet, both of which are supposed to nurture your body and keep you well, would be at odds with each other, but as far as fats are concerned, they are.

We’ve been on heart-healthy food journey for nine months, and in that time I have dutifully avoided butter, but I refuse to replace it with margarine. I’ve switched to various oils. And while I have tried to use the best possible oils for our health (and less of them in general), I am still pretty fuzzy on what constitutes best practices for cooking with oils. It’s not surprising, really, that I would be confused, since the Internet can’t seem to come to a consensus either.

I am starting to think that it is impossible to live a whole foods lifestyle and follow an American Heart Association-approved diet at the same time. 

I don’t love cooking in the first place, but it sucks even more joy out of it when my gut is at odds with the dietary guidelines I’m supposed to be following.

I tend to think, when one of you has a medical condition and has been told by his doctor what he should and should not eat, those instructions need to trump whatever current conventional wisdom may be telling you. It’s not up to me (a self-educated lay-person when to comes to all of this) to decide that I prefer the explanation that inflammation is more to blame for heart disease than saturated fats are. Although, I kind of wish it were up to me, because that would make my time in the kitchen a lot easier.

We really need to learn to like vegetables more.

© Lisa Clarke

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Aidan has been a big help until now, sanding hooks, unloading the dishwasher, stuff like that. Now we are reaching that end-of-the-day punchy phase, and the boy will. not. stop. talking. I will have to keep this brief, as I really cannot concentrate one iota.

All in all, it’s been nice to have company today, and it’s been a productive day to boot. I will have a lot of little goodies shipping out tomorrow – yay!

On Flickr

The mosaic below represents other people’s pictures that spoke to me this week. Be sure to click on the titles below the mosaic, if you want to know more about the image or the photographer behind it.

(follow me on flickr)

1. 和芳安一起看見的小故事, 2. Chicken fingerless gloves, 3. In the pink, 4. Untitled, 5. Yes…, 6. Briken Ring Mini Quilt Full View, 7. Untitled, 8. Make-up purses, 9. Untitled

On Sulia

I spend an hour or so every morning, Monday through Thursday, sharing my favorite crafty links on Sulia. And then I repeat them here on Fridays.

(follow me on sulia)

Yarn

• Make your own miniature They Might be Giants! Finger puppets from @geekcrafts
• Recycled sweater vases from By Stephanie Lynn
• Beautiful Spring scarf (and yes, more neon) from The Purl Bee

Polymer Clay

• Step-by-step how to make an owl millefiori cane from polymer clay from Danielle Hof.
• Easy peasy neon necklace in polymer clay from The Style Dossier

Fabric

• The Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who) gets the pixel quilt treatment by St. Louis Folk Victorian and it is amazing!
• Make a pretty tablecloth out of coordinating tea towels from Beach Vintage
• Make a cozy blanket from repurposed receiving blankets from Simple Homemade

Other materials

• Not just for preschoolers: DIY lava lamp science experiment from Hands on as we Grow
• Make a rustic twig vase from a tin can and sticks from Delightful Home via Simple Homemade
• Spring wreath from Happy-Go-Lucky

Crafty business

• Is your social media on autopilot? BlogHer suggests switching back to manual during times of national crisis.
• Money and guilt: the first post in a new series for creative business owners by Kim Werker
• The conversation continues over at CraftyPod. The topic this time: making emotional connections w/your readers.

Aidan’s finds

• Minecraft Enderman softie by Bleeptrack
• Angry Birds motorcycle helmet by Clever Girl
• Crafty link from Boring Office Guy #3: Legend of Zelda baby Link outfit from Happy Seamstress
• Legend of Zelda “Lil Geek” crib quilt by Geek Unique
• Official music video for the zon Katachi” featuring amazing paper craft

That will do it for me this week. Now I think it’s time to show Aidan one of the perks of working from home (one in which I rarely indulge, but really should experience more often): the afternoon nap. Zzzzzzzzz.

© Lisa Clarke

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This photo has nothing to do with what I’m talking about. I’m just currently indulging and thought it should be documented.

Oh, you ladies are just so darn smart, telling me to knock on wood after I declared this would be a “normal week.” I am kind of wishing I had!

Tuesday morning, I got out of bed, bent over to pick something up, and wrenched something in my back. So, while I’ve still been making good on portions of my to-do list, anything that involves lifting or bending in any way has posed a bit of a problem.

So, no, not very normal. Good grief.

And then Eamonn came home today and asked me if he was going to work with Neil for Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. We’ve never done it before, so I didn’t even know it was that time of year, but his teacher had mentioned it and he was excited about the prospect.

After discussing the pros and cons of the whole thing with Neil, including the BIG con of potentially having the Bicker Brothers show up for duty in his small cubicle, Neil said this was fine with him, but only one kid was invited. Eamonn, being the first to have asked, got the honor, and will be spending the day watching Neil do things with SQL. (*yawn*)

Hey, I think programming with SQL can be fun, but watching it? not so much.

And that leaves Aidan.  Aidan is going to be going to work with me. Except I usually don’t leave the house for my job. I don’t want this to just turn into an aimless day off from school for dear Boring Office Guy, so I’m putting the boy to work. Finding and posting the day’s crafty links on Sulia? His job. I plan to teach him how to properly sand crochet hook handles, too. Maybe he’ll love it and I can outsource to him permanently. Wouldn’t that be great?

And then, not to ignore the home management aspect of my job, I’ll probably have him do a load of laundry and unload the dishwasher, since I have been having a hard time with those things due to my back.

I was kind of skeptical about Put Your Kid to Work Day at first, but I have to admit, I’m coming around…

© Lisa Clarke

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It’s been a clayful couple of days around here. Well not, strictly-speaking, around here, per se, since I was actually in Philadelphia for some of it, but you know what I mean.

Last week I built a new Afghan Cane in the Rainbow colorway. I don’t often repeat canes that I already have made. Once they’re gone, I usually move on and make something else. But this time was different. For one thing, I really liked my original Rainbow Afghan pattern, and for another thing, I had an order to fill. My customer specifically requested that pattern on her pendant and I hated to let her down.

But perhaps the most compelling reason to forge ahead and make a new one of these was that the Afghan Cane is a perfect example of the concept I was planning to demonstrate to the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild on Sunday.

This is one of those canes that is a bit on the tedious side to assemble. It’s not hard, it’s just time-consuming. It took me roughly an hour to get to the stage you see in the last photo up there. Imagine having to do that exact same step sixteen times in order to make a 4×4 polymer clay afghan with 16 differently-colored squares inside of it? My head hurts just thinking about it.

And that, precisely, is why I designed that cane to be a self-color-changing cane. In other words, when you cut into the middle of it, you no longer have a navyblue-red-yellow square in the face of it. You have a chartreuse-skyblue-pink square. And elsewhere, you can slice off a brown-yellow-purple square. And so on. And through the magic of well-placed Skinner blends, you get all of these colors in a single cane – in other words, you only have to build one square, but it looks like you built a whole bunch of them.

I was visiting the PAPCG this past weekend as their guest artist, and the topic of my demonstration was this alternative use of Skinner blends. I prepared enough clay to show them simple ways to make gingham and plaid, and I showed them the cane that got me started on this path more than six years ago: the Triangle cane. I hadn’t planned to show them an Afghan cane, because of how involved the process can be, but then the serendipitous need to build a new one popped up. Perfect! I did the most uninteresting parts at home and saved the Big Reveal for Sunday.

If you’ve ever made a complicated cane, you know that the most exciting part is cutting into it and seeing how it came out in the middle. That excitement is multiplied exponentially when you are working with a cane that you know will be significantly different on the inside than it is on the outer edges. I tell you, it was killing me not to cut into this Afghan cane for two days! Still, I managed to survive, and together my Philadelphia friends and I cut into the cane and re-assembled it. I lacked the presence of mind to photograph that step, but someone in the guild was on the ball, and they took the image above.

I reduced and re-assembled one more time to get the 16-square version you see on my Philly worktable there. Not much of a glamour shot, I know, but it’s pretty much the same as the cane on the cover of the eBook, with perhaps a teensy bit more intensity in the bluish parts.

So, the weekend went well, I had fun, I enjoyed seeing everybody again, but I am still a teeny bit relieved to be done with it. Public speaking is not exactly my forte. (Oh! and along those lines? There will soon be a YouTube video on the PAPCG channel – an interview with me. Ack. I’ll probably share it with you when it’s up. Maybe. Depends on how my hair looks, and whether I said anything stupid. Heh.)

I am also relieved to be nearly back to normal in regards to Neil’s eye. He’s healing well, and was allowed to take the weekend off from doctor visits. As I write, it is 5:30 on Monday, and we have 7pm appointment to see how things have developed over the last few days. Fingers crossed there are no signs of fungus!

This may be the first normal week I have had in ages. Maybe now I can finish my taxes (thank goodness for extensions!)…

© Lisa Clarke

Please support the following Polka Dot Cottage Sponsors:

On Flickr

The mosaic below represents other people’s pictures that spoke to me this week. Be sure to click on the titles below the mosaic, if you want to know more about the image or the photographer behind it.

(follow me on flickr)

1. Untitled, 2. Sunburst blanket, 3. q, fig, 4. studio details : a temporary relocation, while I redecorate, 5. Spring salad with croutons, 6. מנדלה-מתנות ליום האישה, 7. 17 April 2013, 8. عزف الصباح .. ♥, 9. Untitled

Around the Web

I spend an hour or so every morning, Monday through Thursday, sharing my favorite crafty links on Sulia. And then I repeat them here on Fridays.

(follow me on sulia)

Yarn

• Tunisian crochet washcloth tutorial from The Purl Bee
• Knitting tip from WEBS: Start with the sleeves
• In the wake of Firefly “Jayne hat” controversy, GeekCrafts shares this fun variation by Tinypurrs.
• Crochet eyeglasses case tutorial from Dream a Little Bigger

Polymer Clay

• How about some happy this morning? Joojooland’s marshmallow monsters may make you smile.
• Make your own “vintage” buttons from polymer clay.
• Making something pretty out of scrap polymer clay: a shawl pin by 2 Good Claymates
• Flower prints in Sculpey and play dough from The Artful Parent

Fabric

• The Sew, Mama, Sew! shop is closing, but they’re not going away
• Embroidery floss travel box tutorial from The Zen of Making
• Cloth napkins go Godzilla thanks to Floresita
• Unpaper towels from Fresh Stitches

Other materials

• A collaborative work of art from Hilary Berseth and some bees via New York Magazine
• LEGO brick spice rack idea by Dave’s Geeky Ideas, tutorialized by SHIFT! via Instructables
• Somebody stop me before all of my gifts are wrapped in granny square paper! (aka Spoonflower has wrapping paper)
• For those of us born without green thumbs: seed balls, from Curious and Catcat
• Binder clips look less boring with washi tape, from Creative Green Living

Crafty business

• 5 things to do now that Google Reader is leaving us, from The Blueprint Social
• The Introvert’s Guide to Building Community by Project Based Homeschooling
• The Problem of Problem-Solving, and how that relates to monetizing a blog, from CraftyPod

Now go forth and have a lovely weekend!

© Lisa Clarke

Please support the following Polka Dot Cottage Sponsors:

This is Neil. You may remember him from last July’s heart attack or the kidney stone two weeks later. Perhaps you know him from the broken wisdom tooth I probably never told you about in October, or the defibrillator surgery in January. Well, for those keeping track, we’d like to add “thwacked in the face with a thorned wineberry bush” to the list.

We drove all over northern New Jersey yesterday in search of an eye specialist who wouldn’t flinch at the idea of removing five tiny thorns from Neil’s eye, and we found one (yay!). That was an all-day affair, pretty much, and for the rest of the week we can expect more travel as we need to keep an eye on the eye (so to speak). When dealing with plant matter, there is a risk of fungal infection so they want to stay well on top of it.

All of this driving around comes at the expense of the items on my work table, I’m afraid, so if you are waiting for something from me, I do apologize, but it might be a week longer than expected. I’m doing my best to work later into the evening than usual, though, so I hope not to get too far behind.

This coming weekend I have a gig as Guest Artist with the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild. I was counting on this time to get my act together before then, so you can imagine I am a smidge stressed-out about the intrusion into my best-laid plans. I’m sure it will all work out, as it always does, but it would be nice if I felt confident in my preparedness! I’ve got a few more days to think about it, so hopefully I will be able to get my comfort level where I would like it to be.

I’m knocking this post out in the half hour between dropping one kid off at school, and the other kid off at the other school, and then I’ll pretty much have to ignore the ol’ blog for a few days. I’m looking forward to things getting back to normal. (As is, I’d imagine, poor Neil!)

© Lisa Clarke

Please support the following Polka Dot Cottage Sponsors:

If I lived at the beach in the summer, I would want to live in a little house in the middle of town. It would be close enough to the beach that I could hear the waves crashing and smell the ocean through my open window at night.

And it would be within walking distance of a sweet little bakery that wouldn’t mind me showing up in my flowery hand sewn lounge pants every morning for a cup of coffee and a crumb bun.

The house would have a little front porch with rocking chairs on it, and I would sip my coffee, read my morning blogs, and look up every few minutes to wave at the neighbors walking by.

Maybe someday. But for now, there are day trips, and the occasional overnighter.

These pictures were taken in Ocean Grove this weekend. We bought a Groupon for a two-night stay at The Majestic Hotel, which is a lovely place. Being April and all, it was too cold to open a window and listen to the ocean at night, and there was really no need to visit the bakery, as the hotel had a free breakfast, complete with coffee and quite delicious crumb buns. (Although that didn’t stop us from popping in later for a cookie.)

We did a lot of walking, as we often do when we are there. This was our first visit since Hurricane Sandy blew through, and it was somewhat eye-opening. I had known that the fishing pier was in a shambles, the little house on the end of it having been carried out to sea, but I hadn’t realized the boardwalk had taken such a beating. Most of it was gone, in fact.

Because of the fact that the boardwalk is actually owned by a private nonprofit organization, FEMA has denied the funding to replace it. On Saturday, though, the area was crawling with volunteers, there to put things back together. We watched some of the work, and even had our picture taken for inclusion in the local blog.

In addition to the volunteer effort, the local shops are all selling t-shirts to help fund the repairs. I happily forked over a few dollars to outfit the boys and myself. I also donated a little bit directly to their fund. If you’re interested in helping out, the official website is here. I found it a bit clunky to navigate, but I eventually found my way to the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s donation page, which is the best way to go, if you’re doing it online.

There is only one commercial building on the Ocean Grove boardwalk and it is right before the entrance to Asbury Park. I don’t think we’ll be buying sunglasses or other cheap sundries here this summer… The entire back of the building got blown off. Crazy.

Back in town, all of the businesses are open. I was able to visit some of my favorites, and I finally splurged on a pair of earrings I have had my eye on since last March. I’m wearing them in this picture (not that you can see them all that well). I think they are made out of wood. They’re mini paintings of grass and sky, which are sealed by some kind of glossy coating.  I chatted with Christine Rotolo, the artist (she also works at the gallery where I bought the earrings) and discovered we share a love for greens. Yellow-greens, blue-greens, yellow-greens and blue-greens together… mmmm.

I’m looking forward to our Summer day trips back to Ocean Grove. It’s close enough that we can even head down there after supper for an ice cream cone and fireworks, if we really want to. We did that once.

Someday maybe we’ll be able to afford to own a humble little cottage down the shore. Wouldn’t that be sweet?

© Lisa Clarke

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