Pumpkin To Color

I hope you enjoy this simple coloring page!

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I had planned to do a fancier version, with patterns in each section as well but just couldn't focus well enough, so hopefully that will be in the next few days. I have an awful cold! 

Book Review: Craft-A-Day by Sarah Goldschadt

Quick note from me: I post my reviews from this site and the bead site to Amazon, as well as reviewing a lot of other things there. The last week I've been at 898 reviews, then today reviewed a set knitting needles to bring it up to 899 so this could be my 900th review. Simply because for that personal milestone, I wanted to review something truly special. This was it.

Craft-A-Day: 365 Simple Handmade Projects by Sarah Goldschadt lives up to it's title. The projects are simple. They don't take a big investment in time or materials. They fit into busy lives well, and are ideal for craft parties or crafting with young people.

It's a lovely book, the projects are very well photographed, not crammed all together on the pages, at 426 full color pages, each project gets it's own page with well written instructions. They are charming and put me in mind of zakka type crafts from Japan, which makes sense. A lot of the zakka craft movement is inspired by Scandinavian crafts and the author of this volume draws a lot of her inspiration from the same background. Simple shapes, bright folk colors and easy techniques done well make simple projects. The style is a clean, bright appealing look. Or if I can stop being a grown up for a minute-It's so cute! I lovelovelovelove the projects in this book.

She breaks down the year into weeks, and each week has a theme. Some of the themes are shapes, and she does clever things with just circles or squares. But a lot more of them are things. Animals, flowers, rainbows, mustaches, ghosts and trees for example. 52 weeks to the year, so 52 different themes. The projects come with complete instructions and templates you can trace or copy for patterns. For the sake of simplicity, the projects use similar construction methods which make it easy, you could work through this whole book in an hour or less a day every day for a year.

The projects are very simple, and great for all level of crafters. Like I said above, it would be a great book to pick a project for a craft themed party with friends, or an evening with a young person. It's also got great quick projects that make fast gifts. Hand stitched felt stuffies, lots of cupcake toppers, card making projects, wall decor projects and jewelry projects. I didn't see a single project in the book that would cost more than 5 dollars to make, and since most of the projects use small amounts of materials, that 5 dollars would cover making a few of each. The projects are really cute, handmade looking, and charming. It's very current and DIY trendy.

I have a friend who was telling me recently that she can't craft. I'm personally going to recommend this book to her. I'm also recommending this to a friend with a crafty daughter, I think they would enjoy this a lot together.

Published by Quirk Books.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Halloween Printables- Dots and Stripes

I'm wild for Halloween. My whole family is really, hot cider, costumes, as Buffy Summers put it "Come as you aren't". My daughter starts planning her costume in about May. My son on the other hand usually waits for October 27 to think "Oh.. that's this week!". My husband wears his superhero costume teeshirts with masks that week, and I pull out all my favorite Halloween jewelry and stripey socks for the month. And I start singing it's the most spookiest time of the year to the annoyance of my whole family. So! I hope you love Halloween too, and enjoy today's printables. One is a printable sign for Halloween lovers, and the other is a 2x2x2 inch cube box to match.
Click on the images for larger versions, print and have fun! The above image is shareable on Facebook either from the main Shala's Beadwork and Printables Page, or from the Don't Eat the Paste Quotes page.

First Snowfall 2012

Yesterday morning was the first snow in Anchorage, AK.

SNOW. In September.

While on our way to the last Spenard Farmer Market and the Alaska Women's Show, we spotted some geese who were taking it in stride.

Look at those cold feet. BRR.

It was just a light dusting, it last through the day in the shade, but when the sun came out, and it did! It melted and made puddles.

So that's the earliest first snow in quite a few years. I grumbled a bit at this sign fall was ending quickly. Dad just said with his 50 years of experience in Anchorage "I knew it would snow. It was cold enough, and raining, Plus you could smell the snow on the air."
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The Alaska Women's Show is a typical sort of big show with a theme. Local businesses and other businesses with a strong focus on women's products and services were there. My daughter loves these shows, we pick up ball point pens for the whole year, pads of paper, she likes spinning all the prize wheels she can. We sample products and just have fun! It takes place at the Sullivan Arena, and my husband usually finds a seat on the mezzanine and just waits listening to music on his iPod. He abhors the crowds at these things. TG spun one wheel and won a coffee cup which made her day. Her favorite part was stopping at the Superstar Pastry Booth for a cup cake. They use a European cake recipe and an Italian butter cream frosting. You can choose your cake, filling, frosting and toppings. My favorite is a super vanilla concoction of  vanilla cupcake, Bavarian cream filling and vanilla butter cream. She gets creative, and it's always chocolate.

 We also picked up some reindeer sausage from a local company I've always liked.

After that, we went to the last day of the Spenard Market. We have a lot of summer farmers markets, and a few winter ones that sell mostly root veggies, meats and eggs through out the year. The Spenard Market is my favorite though, it has this strong indie community vibe. We went mostly because it was the last day, but also in hopes a local soapmaker I like was there. They sell very inexpensive soap ends and we use soap ends for most of our day to day soap needs. They were, and we bought the last bag of soap ends they have, a couple bars of soap, and some "Manly Man Elbow Grease", it's an all natural salve with a woodsy scent. I got it both for the psoriasis my husband has and more for my ankles. A lot of the time that I'm online or reading a book, I tuck my feet up under me, and my ankles have rough patches of skin because of it. They get better if I use the right kinds of salves on them and I have high hopes for this one. We also got some of their shampoo bars to try and found out where we can buy their soap ends through the winter. Then TG who wasn't sweeted out yet tried some gourmet marshmallows and got herself a package of Key Lime marshmallows to have later. Yum! Fresh marshmallows without the time it takes to make them!

Then we came home, and I worked on some beading for awhile. It was a very nice, very busy day with a lot of walking. And there was SNOW!