Crafty Carolinagirl

Adopt a Shelter Cat Month

Summer is the season when shelters see an influx of cats come into their facilities. This is why June has been declared "Adopt a Shelter Cat Month". Many shelters offer discounts and free food/toys/litter when a cat is adopted during the month of June. This is a great incentive for adoption, but should not be the sole reason for adding a cat to your family.

Unfortunately, there are some cats that are very hard to adopt even during the month of June - black cats. I don't know if it is because people are superstitious or just afraid of a black cat, but whatever the reason many black cats are euthanized every year for the simple reason of their color.

ShimmerGreen from the "Black Cat Lovers" group on Ravelry has decided to try and change this. She has come up with a black cat pattern to be crocheted and embroidered on Snuggle Mats. These beds will be given to black cats and will travel with them to their new homes. Her hope is that each bed, "helps the potential pet owner to make the connection to the potential pet a little easier".

So, if you have some spare time and some left over yarn, stitch up a few of these. If you don't crochet, there are knitting and sewing instructions for Snuggle Beds as well. I know I'll be making some of these for my local shelters, and of course one for my own black shelter cat, Drusilla!

A Very Special Project

I first read about the Mother's Day Project on Happy Zombie's blog. I knew this was definitely something I had to do, so I signed up right away.

What is the Mother's Day Project?

"Participants in the project are helping to embroider the names of female Coalition members who have lost their lives in Iraq. A swatch of muslin fabric with the woman’s name heat-stamped on it, is sent to volunteer stitchers who then embroider over the letters of her name with embroidery floss or thread. The completed names are then returned to become part of a fabric collage and embroidered tote bag."

I received my name two days before I was to go home for Christmas. My heart broke when I opened up the letter and saw the stamped name. I just knew that the family of this fallen soldier's heart must be breaking every day.

The soldier's name I received was Tatjana Reed of Kentucky, who at the age of 34 was killed in Iraq on July 22, 2004. According to her memorial page, she loved the Army and was awarded both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

I decided to stitch her name in blue since the University of Kentucky's color is blue.

No matter what anybody thinks about the war in Iraq, we all need to remember all of the brave men and women in foreign lands risking their lives every day while fighting for our freedom.

Thank you, Tatjana, and God Bless America!!!

Japanese Craft Books

I don't know if you noticed my new page, Japanese Craft Resources, I created under Resources. I have really started to get into Japanese crafts, so I thought it would be fun to keep an up to date list of resources for Japanese items. If you know of any that aren't listed, please shoot me an email and I'll add them to the list.

I have especially fallen in love with Japanese felt and Amigurumi (single crocheted items) projects. There are dozens of craft books I want to get, but they tend to be a little pricey, probably because they come from Japan.

Here is my wish list of some Japanese books I want to get right away (in no particular order)!

1. Small Zakka of Crochet
2. Cute Komono Goods of Crochet
3. Handmade House Cute Felt Animal Mascots
4. Japanese Felt Desserts
5. My Favorite Felt Sweets
6. Amigurumi Crochet Collection Vol. 5

But this one is #1 on my list (ISBN 4140311312):

The houses are just too cute!

Another fun gift done

I couldn't resist making a couple of these gift card holders to hold my Christmas gift cards.

Aren't they cute? My Little Mochi came up with this adorable pattern. I thought these holders would be so much better to stick my gift cards in than those paper ones the stores hand out.

Quick and Easy Gift

I was struggling with what to give my co-workers for Christmas, until I saw Bella Dia's dove tutorial. It is such a quick and easy project, yet it looks like you spent hours on it.

Here are the ones I made for my three co-workers:

They really turned out bigger and nicer than I expected. I added the year to make it a little more special.

I hope they enjoy them!

Softies for Mirabel on Craftzine.com

I just headed over to the Craftzine blog and noticed a post about the Softies for Mirabel project. Yeah!!!

If you look really hard you can see a few of my little owls. I am working on some more of them to be available in my new Etsy store (more on that later).

Pip, the lovely lady from Meet Me At Mikes who put this whole project together, is setting up a silent auction in the spring where all of the proceeds will be donated to the Mirabel Project. She has asked for volunteers to send in softies to be auctioned off. I have volunteered again. Come to think of it, I have quite a bit of crafting to do. I'd better get started on mine now :)

1st Annual Softie Thanksgiving Day Parade

I have entered a "balloon" in Q.D. Patooties 1st Annual Softie Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I thought this was such a cute idea I just had to join in. We were all instructed to make a softie of something we might see in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

 

I always remember seeing an M&M balloon, so that is what I made. You can check it out here.

There are also cool prizes to be won. Mine is no winner, but if you feel inclined to cast a vote my way I would be much appreciative! The voting started yesterday and runs through Friday. Click here to vote for your favorite.

Check out the entire parade at Q.D. Patooties blog. Everyone did such a great job :) I can't wait for the Easter parade!

Bookmark Swap

I love Crafty Daisies. They do the coolest stuff over there on their blog, like teaching me how to crochet!

A few weeks ago they held sign ups for a bookmark swap. I have always wanted to do a swap but have never mustered up the courage to actually sign up. This one sounded fun (and easy) so I signed up.

After going through pages and pages of embroidered and crocheted bookmark patterns I decided to go old school, at least for me, and cross-stitch my bookmark. I have been cross-stitching for over 20 years, so I figured I wouldn't have to sweat over struggling to finish my bookmark. And, unknown to me, I actually had a cross-stitch bookmark book.

So, here it is. . .

I think it turned out cute. I like using the plastic crochet instead of fabric, since the fabric tends to fray.

I can't wait to see what my swap partner has crafted for me. It is coming all the way from England. Yeah!!!

Softies Central - Holiday Softie Awards

Lulu Xmas Lovey by astulabee

If you haven't done so yet, head over to Softies Central and vote for the 2007 Holiday Softie Awards. The deadline is November 13 at noon.

There are some really cute finalists, but there were many other cute ones that were not picked like: Pretty Kitty, Pumpkin Witch, Christmas Nativity Flat Dolls, and Let it Snow.

In a weird bit of coincidence, I was searching through some of the old posts and noticed that one of my softies had been featured on the Children's story book characters post. (It looks so elementary and puny next to everyone else's.)

I guess I should look around more often!

Just a Crafting Fool

I have just been a crafting fool lately!

I've had a lot of fun trying out different patterns and techniques, but I love working with felt :)

I thought I'd share with you some of the felt projects I have finished or are in the process of finishing. . .

A little felt elephant from one of my Japanese craft books. I think it turned out really cute, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to make!

I have big plans for this spicy little girl and her friends. I keep getting sidetracked on finishing her up though.

I made this pincushion for the Sept/Oct pincushion challenge. The topic was to make something that reminded us of fall. Of course, I think of Steelers football.

I think I need to make some more footballs, one for each of their wins. I get to add another thanks to that awesome win last night! That is the way to beat the Ravens :)