St. Patrick's Day Wake and the Scraps of Life

Last night's craft gathering turned into an Irish style wake for dear sweet Noah. We sat around and told stories, laughed, ate chocolate cake, drank hot toddies and Irish beer and celebrated the long life and gentle soul of this good dog. Jean brought a hand-made star garlard from 10,000 Villages to donate for craft materials, but it turned into the perfect hanging piece for the window above Noah's corner, creating a little shrine of light, color and remembrance. I didn't get a photo of that, but here is an old photo I found of Noah enjoying life and the scraps left on Theo's high chair tray.



No crafting got done last night, but we did get to paw through fabric scraps. Charlene (aka Mimi) recently gave our group 3 bagfuls of great fabrics leftover from her quilting and sewing projects. Thank you Charlene!



I also brought Mimi's "click-it bags" for show-and tell and we made copies of the instructions so maybe that will be a future GGM activity. Everyone loved these bags, and Jean wants to make one to hold make-up.



Thanks also to Jean for the fun clothing scraps and remnants. With all of these great materials we now have no excuse not to get crafting!

Cuddling with the cuttlefish

Just a quick follow-up to show the cuttlefish in action. Angus loves it, and his mama is super proud of the no-pattern project. (Special thanks to Jean and Kristin for the idea and Lynn for turning all 8 arms inside out!)

A Productive Craft Night

The GGM crew saw a lot of each other in November and December--but not for crafting. We had a Thanksgiving potluck, a clothing exchange, and we celebrated Birthdays (mine, Lynn's, and little Theo's). We even got to reconnect with our friends Rob and Eleni who have been living on the east coast for a few years now.

Finally, we sat down to actually make things--and we made up for lost time!

I don't know which project to show first; I love them all! When Sadie's son outgrew his favorite comfy pants, she turned them into his favorite crustacean: A cuttlefish. Only her version is a cuddlefish! Angus is going to love it.

The original pants

A cuttlefish

A cuddlefish!

One more look at the cuddlefish

Lynn turned a funny logo'd T-shirt into a useful post-St. Patrick's Day eye pillow and headrest. If it's still available, I recommend clicking over to her Etsy shop and buying it this very minute!

Hangover helper

K models the pillow set--she's a natural!

I led a mini DIY jewelry-making tutorial for Kabriela and Rachel. Here's K's pair of circle-drop earrings. I have to track down Rachel's, which admittedly look the same (a good thing--it means they both followed my instructions).

K's earrings (nice display!)

Finally, I made a cocktail ring out of a piece of a chandelier. Lynn painstakingly took apart the crystals on a chandelier that was on it's way to the trash. I glued a scrap of green fabric to a pre-made ring form and added the glass on top. There's a lot of potential in those glass beads. From rings to key chains, we'll make sure the lamp lives on.

Chandelier ring