Category Archives: Inspiration

What has been great about having to swap turns with Sal during Skyrim playtime is that I’m able to sit, re-watch episodes of Glee (Netflix streaming) and look through crafty blogs and gawks.

Lots of inspiration, no risk taking. Just the way I like it.

This week is less on the Craftgawker and more on the Etsy blogs. For one, I’m having difficulty with my webbrowser accessing my gawky-favorites, for another, Etsy and other sites have a wealth of information that’s really great and deserves reposting.

1. I find myself incredible interested in The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. There’s an Etsy Blog post on it. I don’t care for the differentiation of women as a rule; yet it does resonate that women, and particularly mothers are drawn to crafting/crafty businesses. I think I’ll be “Kindling” (or downloading on my kindle) and sitting down with a cup of hot-cocoa for this one.
2. This article on creating a hat inspired by a garmet or fabric accessory from Etsy is seriously inspiring! Look at those vintage fabrics, colors and lace!
3. Last but not least, I find myself continuing to ponder what I’ve read on Etsy about Art CSAs. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is very popular in Western MA. When I took my Molecular Bootcamp course, quite a few people from the area who attended were involved in the local CSA. I’m not sure if a CSA format in it’s typical form would completely work for the arts community, but it’s something to consider. Perhaps a creative twist on a CSA involving shares and actively “investing” in a cultural shift is something that communities would like. There must be some reason why artist communities and cities exist. People like art! Just something to consider.

Lately I’ve been considering a few different types of growing a small business. At a recent renaissance faire, Sal and I sampled Honey Wine and it was delightful! Ever since, I’ve wanted to purchase a bottle (or several) for enjoyment and found myself dissapointed with “accessibility.” Which of course instantly sent me to the internet to research homebrewing and it’s a really interesting topic! As a biologist, I think there’s a part of my soul (and the soul of other biologists) to fiddle with and at least attempt homebrewing. Except my colleagues typically head for beer! I dislike beer, and am generally turned off by wine (even a nice Riesling) because of the sulfites that are added to wines. I’ve recently learned that I have a mild-sulfite allergy and it makes it difficult to enjoy wines when one cannot breathe. Homebrewing honey mead may be a solution to this issue.

So, I guess there’s not much Halloween about it but as it’s the night before, it’s super special.

First up, a new/old trend. I’m not sure if I can rock these or not, but I’d love to make a pair of peacock feather earrings; long, dramatic, super cool. Of course I should’ve jumped on the feather trend on the initial e-mail, ah well. I’ll wait.

Feathers

1. I’ve been wanting to brush up on more advanced braiding techniques, this bracelet looks like a fun way to practice! Also, reminds me of DNA…
2. All I can say about this is yum. What a fancy way to spruce up an apple!
3. Re-purposing is super cool and some of my favorite blogs recently have been devoted to re-purposing items my mind hadn’t even begun to consider!

So, now we’re recovering from the super random pre-Halloween snow-storm-paloosa. I hope I can grab some shut-eye tonight since with all the trees cracking I didn’t get to sleep very much. Consider this one of those sleepy days.

So I’ve read some favorite books, started some new books (I’m on book three of Mistborn) and I’ll be starting “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss once I’m done with Mistborn. I’ve also watched some inspiring TED talks and now it’s time to look through the Etsy blogs for the week.

Does anyone else completely love the “Quit Your Day Job,” column? It’s positive schadenfreude. And yes, I spelled that correctly the first go! Yay German lessons! Also, I’m sure there’s a much better way of saying “viewing other people’s lives and feeling inspired and happy for them.”