TreasuresInTerraCotta

The book selections in our house seem to run the gamete.  We are now a household of board books, picture books, "readers," chapter books and comic books; arts and crafts books, historical fiction, non-fiction in many genera, devotionals and Bible studies.  It's no surprise that we've been getting a lot of inspiration from our books. I've had this post half-written for months, so it's about time to push Publish.  I suspect many more posts in the future will fall into the category of Books are Inspiration.  Of course, the craft books have been giving me lots of inspiration.  One of my new favorite authors and bloggers is Amanda Blake Soule.  She provided the inspiration and instructions for the Mama's bag  sewing project a few months ago.      She has a son named Calvin so we had to make "Calvin's Paper-Mache Bowls" We used up some of our junk mail.   And I ...

I had a little project in mind and headed to the craft store for some new fabric!  It's been a long time since I've purchased new fabric because I always seem to be using  left over scraps or repurposed clothes .  There are so many new patterns and prints.  By "new" I mean retro, everything-old-is-new-again prints!  I was really surprised at all the 70's-style large florals, gold and avocodo colors, large paisleys and polka-dots.  I was also shocked at the prices!  It has literally been years since I bought new fabric, but I can promise you that plain ol' cotton prints were  not  $9.99 ten years ago!  Good thing I had a coupon.  I found a pattern for a "Mama's Bag" and decided to attempt it.  I needed two coordinating prints and I wanted one to be large and somewhat whimsical.  Even without my favorite crafty friend Michelle to help, I finally decided on... I washed my fabric and af...