Crafts and Craftie Ladies

Hi everyone!

Rhonda Gibson here.

I was thinking... yes a dangerous task I know anyway ... I was thinking, what do my sister Craftie ladies do for fun when they aren't writing? Then I got a little more specific, what kinds of crafts do they do?

You see, Winter time is when I craft the most. My favorite craft to do is beading. I make beaded jewelry. I'm not real fancy but I do have fun with it and it relaxes me. Just this last week, I made a pair of earrings and a bracelet for a friend for a birthday present. She loves lighthouses and the color blue. I was going to post a picture but it doesn't look like it will let me here... so if you want to see it go to Rhonda's Ramblings and have a look.

Now on to what some of my Craftie Ladie friends are crafting!

Debra Ullrick reported that she enjoys drawing. She does Western Art with charcoal.

Christina Rich says my youngest dd and I love making scarves. See their creations here.

Jo Ann Ferguson enjoys knitting, lately she's been making personalized Christmas stockings for each new member of the family (baby or bride/groom).

Cheryl St. John makes jewelry and Valentine's once a year.

Allie Pleiter says "Most of you know how passionate I am about knitting.  I've written a knitting and travel blog for three years: destiKNITions.blogspot.com. I'm NEVER without yarn and needles!"

Deborah Hale here: "I used to do cross-stitch. The last projects I did were individual stockings for my four children. I would love to get back to it and scrap booking if I had more time. About the only crafts I do these days are sometimes at Christmas when I make an ornament or two for my tree. This year I made half-a-dozen new decoupage egg ornaments which turned out really nice. Here's a link to a picture from Cheryl's Christmas tree tour"

So now it's your turn! Tell us what crafts you enjoy doing!!

Allie Pleiter on Keeping Track

With the release of YUKON WEDDING today, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about treasures.  I’ve been pondering what makes them, why we hide them, what happens when we lose them or when we grab the wrong ones.  There’s a lot to ponder.

Some of the best treasures are tokens, or milestones. Wedding rings, my first valentine from my husband, the signed bat White Sox baseball star AJ Pierzynski gave my son this past summer--objects that call up a host of happy or significant memories.  We are a tactile species; things around us can spur memories when we interact with them.

In my book, Lana has a brooch she wears every day to remind her of the woman she believed she could have been (and still is, somewhere inside).  Her life changes when the brooch is damaged, and it spurs her to take drastic new steps.  I have something close to that:  I have a bracelet--two of them, in fact, that I wear everyday.  Each bead represents something specific and positive in my life.  It is a celebration of sorts--our generation’s version of the charm bracelet.  Pandora and Trollbeads were the first to market these, but there have been many versions in recent years.  I buy a bead to celebrate an achievement or a milestone, and I deliberately never buy them to memorialize sad occasions. It’s like wearing a timeline of optimism around my wrist, my life’s blessings in baubles.

How to you collect your blessings?  Do you mark them at all?  Would you like to?