Such lovely papers!  Somehow I've never made the tea/paper connection, even though I usually have a dozen different types of herbal tea in the house.  Definitely going to have to try this!

Yeah....that's the ticket! 

A large part of my problem seems to be unfinished projects.  I found some ornaments I stitched when I was pregnant with my daughter (who is now 12) and never backed or stuffed.  Those were in the same box as the partially painted plaster casts.  Then there's the makume-stitched snake T-shirt experiment that ground to a halt when I pulled a bit too hard and yanked out about 2 feet of stitching.  And the pole-wrapped shirts that have not been dyed yet....  Not to mention all the unfinished projects that have been partially cannibalized for other projects and the ones that I have no clue what they were going to be anymore.

I feel your pain - except with me it is paper.  I just can't resist a new pattern or texture.

Glad you like my crow.  The face is polymer clay - I made several faces by just playing with lumps of clay until a face appeared.  Jack was the first one to come together, but some of the others have been talking to me and I'm sure he'll soon have companions.  I'll definitely be joining a dotee swap as soon as I've been on a month.  I have such an odd selection of craft stuff that dotees seem like a perfect way to destash a good part of it.  I'm making something for the tiny challenge too, but that won't use up much LOL

Love the gardening book idea!  It's almost time to start this year's seedling - think I'll make one of these myself.

Speaking of making things, I was looking for inspiration and came across a dotee swap.  I fell in love with the idea, and this is the result:

His name is Jack Daw, and I made him as a Valentine gift for my husband.  Hubby is a bit of a corbie himself - loud, mischevious, and VERY fond of shiny things!

Talk about making lemons into lemonade!  Love the set!  I can almost see how the pieces would feel in my hand (if that makes any sense).  It practically begs to be touched.  The rustic style works really well with the material, too.  My Dad would be green - he plays speed chess and would love a set that is nice and solid like this, especially since it has a drawer.  The set he has now is wooden, and sometimes the pieces go skittering off the board when the play really gets going.

I like it a lot Maria.  It's an interesting contrast with the more Pop Art style of the one you use as your avatar.  I actually wondered more about what inspired the change in style than "why the bicycle?" (why not the bicycle?) although your answer to that was fascinating.  Isn't it funny how things like that stick with us?

This is a GREAT idea!  I'm making this for my daughter - maybe they won't short out in two weeks from being tangked while slept on for a change!

Of course!  Your friend has way too much self-discipline.  No way I can pass up freebies.  I tend to lie to myself and tell myself they are for someone else

Have I mentioned how bad working at an art materials company is for de-stashing?  Well, I entered a logo contest at work and I was just handed a bag of stuff and a gift certificate as a consolation prize.  I now have more watercolor paint, 3 tubes of oil paint, more pastels, more markers, another spiral bound sketch pad, more brushes, and $10.00 to spend on more artsy/craftsy stuff.  I'm thinking most of this will be used by my daughter for her 4H visual arts projects and her Manga obsession, but since our stash is mostly shared it still qualifies as adding to my stash.  Oh well, at least I didn't buy it!

My ferret likes to hide anything lighter than she is under the couch.  This includes my ribbon, embroidery thread, small scissors, rulers.....

Since I tend to spread out in the living room or kitchen (the only two rooms she is allowed to roam freely) when I am crafting, she frequently takes pieces of my crafts.  This wouldn't be so bad, except that anything that is made of paper looks like it has been attacked by a mad stapler - lots of little bitty teeth marks!  The worst was when I made the mistake of setting a pop-up card I had just finished making for a birthday on the coffee table, thinking she couldn't reach it.  She actually chewed off a corner in her efforts to get it off the table, then dragged it under the couch open, so that several sections were torn loose as they wer dragged across the carpet.