I got the cool devil duckie pencil caps from www.archiemcphee.co m and glued them on some hairsticks I made from sanded dowel rods. I posted a tutorial on those last year sometime, should be around!

Hope you like 'em,

Rach

Vertical displays are so much more eye-catching than laying your stuff on the table. They bring people over to look at your stuff and also give a professional appearence. Several people asked if I had a store of my own, which I do not (maybe some day!). Anyway if you are like me you'd rather keep your profits or buy more crafting stuff than spend a ton on elaborate, overpriced premade displays.

I made this for a craft fair I participated in recently. It cost me about 3-4 bucks in supplies, which can easily be acquired from your local craft store. It's perfect for displaying things like handbags or headbands or tons of other stuff. On the top, you can place a folded card with info or prices on it.



Tools you need: a drill (best to have one but if you don't you can still make it), screws, a screwdriver, wood glue

Ingredients:

* 1- oval wood base (or any shape you like)
* 1- 1" diameter dowel rod
* several 12" long 1/2" diameter dowel rods (they come precut or you can do it yourself to customize)
* dowel caps (there are lots of fun shapes of these as well)
* 1- small circle for the top of your stand

*GENERAL TIP* use a drill to make holes before you put screws in to prevent the dowels from splitting. If you don't you can still do it, but it might be a pain in the @ss.

First, attach the 1" dowel to the base by putting a screw through the bottom of the base and through the dowel. Use a dab of wood glue to help hold it tight.

Then, mark off where you want the arms to be. I placed mine to allow for purses to be hung (i.e. lots of dangling space) but you can do it however you want. Put a screw though as in the pic below and then screw the dowel piece onto it.



You could also make the dowels removeable for easier transport and storage when you're not using it.

Finish with caps. You can of course paint or finish it however you want.

___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ __________

This next one is a solution I came up with for displaying barettes and pins. All it is: willow branches from the floral section and some river rocks in a vase. Cost? 5-6 bucks.





Well, hope those tips help! Thanks to you all for providing your advice to me, thought I'd try to give back :-)

-Rach

I am out of town visiting my brother, who is in the military. He loves steak, so I brought my mini grill to use outside in the hotel parking lot. I had everything ready to go: steaks, marinade, veggies... but no bamboo skewers for the kabobs.

It is the day after Thanksgiving, biggest retail day of course. No way in hell am I going anywhere near a store today. So instead, I decided to use my double-ended needles as kabob skewers.

They worked really well, and my family has gained a new appreciation for my knitting! 

Hey guys-

I thought y'all might appreciate the tshirt designs I came up with for our local SnB (the school makes us call it Stitch n Snitch, b/c Bitch is a bad word.... ooooo.... lol) We are voting to see which one makes it as our design:

Well, here they are:

This is our mascot, Bruce. He is a hardass. He beats up anyone that disses knitting. My friend Genna and I collaborated on this one.




This is the tattoo one: (if we pick Bruce it'll go on the back)



This is one of my more favorite brainchildren: (I can so see it on a 70s ringer or jersey sleeve!)



I am going to post the last one on www.threadless.com, I think! It might not be our club tshirt but I want one anyway!

PS Mad props to Kate for finding the perfect fonts!

Hey everyone,

I feel in love when I went to China this past summer... with the food, namely the breakfast food! Steamed buns, congee, noodles, dumplings, rice... mmm...

I have been searching high and low for simple recipes, ecpecially realting to the infinate varieties of steamed buns (meat, veggie, soup, red bean, etc.) I ate in Shanghai. I bought a steamer, now I just need some recipes. Can anyone share some recipes/resources/advice?

(I have tried the frozen ones from the asian food mart, they can't compare!)

Hey guys,

I am looking to add a couple more cookbooks to the handful I have. I went shopping and was overwhelmed by the choices. I thought (nay, I know!) you guys might have some insight/reccomendations.

I have the standard old-school 70s Betty Crocker. It is great for a lot of things but at the same time the food is sometimes a bit too... hearty? Heavy? Also, it is not very adventurous.

I have gotten into Chinese cuisine (northern/coastal).  Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients is a great guide, I have that already. It doesn't have too many recipes in it, but it gives a great context for using other recipes.

I also have other recipe books that I never use. Not worth mentioning.

www.epicurious.com is a great site for recipes. And it's free yay!

So, what I am looking for is to expand my horizons. I want to try different kinds of recipes, especially ones with an emphasis on fresh produce and exotic overtones but without totally impractical ingredients lists.

Mostly I just want a cookbook that you have found to actually contain a high percent of useable recipes. You know how a lot of cookbooks have like 3 recipes that you actually use, and the other ones are either too werid or elaborate to use? yeah I don't want that :-P

Any thoughts?

My friend Evan totally loves american cars, so I made him this blanket with some mustang-themed fleece. the stripes are to echo the mustang logo. the front pieces were sorta quilted together, and the reverse is black anti-pill fleece.



it is very soft and fuzzy!

My boss asked me to help her make an outdoorsy halloween costume (we work at an outdoor ed center). She wanted to be a luna moth and asked my help in making the costume. This is a pic of a luna moth, if you've never seen one:

http://www.forestryimages.org/images/768x512/1274065.jpg

I made wireframe wings and stretched sheer mint-green fabric between the wires and painted the details on. The top part of the wings is fuzzy brown fur-esque fleece stuff:





I don;t have a pic of this yet but for antennae I made a headband with antennae made with white pipe cleaners. I'll post pics after she gives me them of her in costume.

This is a chalk drawing I did for a cool festival they have every year here in Columbus. It is inspired by fall leaves: I really think ginko leaves look like fish tails! So I made a fish out of maple, ginko, and aspen leaves. It has a real buckeye for an eye.

Well, they are what you see!

I love how Japanese obi sashes are so colorful, so I decided to play dress-up with my phone.