SuperSized Saturday TastyLinks!

 Image from 133 Authentic Art Deco Patterns in Full Color Dover Books

Ah, Saturday.  Here we are again. 

I'm not feeling terribly chatty, I've been oversharing all week on both of my blogs and today is a more introspective sort of day.  I think people would be surprised to know how much time I spend in total silence.  I don't play music when I'm working because it distracts me, I don't listen to the radio or watch videos or chat on the phone.  The only noises are the sounds of trucks and motorcycles passing through our quiet little valley throughout the day, my rooster crowing and the occasional glass shattering barking of my snarky but lovable terrier Mrs. Fellerbee.  I like quiet.  It's easiest for me to dive into my work when I can give it my full attention.  I'm trying to be more mindful of being in the moment and that includes focusing on things with a little more singularity.  Multi-tasking isn't actually very good for your brain, though it's a useful skill when you do as much as I do every day.

But wait...here I am chatting on and on about not chatting.  What the what?!

The folks at ReadyMade magazine have a new travelcentric blog called Escape Hatch and the lovely Helen Jupiter interviewed me recently.  The post is up and it's a lot of fun.  Go see!

My gal pal Brini Maxwell has been blogging up a storm as of late and this week she shares a recipe for rum punch, a needlework retrospective and some of her lovely flower pins from her vintage jewelry collection.

The delightful Andrew Thornton is having a big sale and sharing a one year Beadwork magazine subscription to one lucky shopper!  You can  read all about it here!

Here's what the creative dervishes of the Crafty Blogger's Gang have for your entertainment and edification:

The Crochet Dude
Drew's crochet purse designs are super cute, and now he's got a crocheted Purse Pattern of the Month program? You've gotta check it out!!!

The Artful Crafter
This week Eileen is offering some free striking vintage photos from the 30s and a chance to win the eBook “Altered Ancestors: 50 Techniques for Using Vintage Photos in Art”. 

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
How to make recycled sweater tags inspired buy the one in: Hand-Me-Ups By Lorine Mason

Mixed Media Artist
When dumpster diving fails you, here are some great online sources for cool stuff! 

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
A hot topic Facebook thread leads to a post about valuing your work. Madge ponders the problems of discounts and freebies.

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Linda's finally going to intentionally make a quilt for herself! She's picked the pattern and is using fabrics she collected years ago. 

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie made an oops with a stitching project when she laundered an item that wasn't colorfast. Have you ever had an oops like that? Vote in the poll and let us know.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy has added another charm discovery to her sterling silver charms and pendants sale page, 2 gorgeous mermaids. 

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a sneak peek into the new book Mixed-Media Dollhouses, how to draw a Zombie Voodoo Doll, make 2 types of paper flowers from recycled book pages, and how to use white glue and tape as resists in fabric altering.

Aileen's Musings
Aileen has a wonderful Mother's Day project to help make it a banner day for mom! Find out what Canvasette paper is while you check out her easy background technique. 

About Family Crafts
If you are looking for a special, home-made gift for Mother's Day, check out Sherri's collection of 100 gifts to make for mom.

Monday Morning Musings with Madge

No rest for the wicked!  I spent the weekend cleaning house (with a LOT of help from my hubby) and working on my website.  I had a gorgeous website once upon a time, but it was totally static.  Every little change that had to be made meant waiting for someone else to do it.  I loved the way it looked, but I didn't love the lack of dynamics.  Have I mentioned that I'm impatient?  So I decided to ditch that lovely website and forge my own.

This weekend I changed the website banner to match this blog template, reworked the layout of all of the pages, added some fresh content and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I got a quick Photoshop layers lesson from my uber talented mom and played with a couple of pics for the main page and the 411 page, they turned out pretty cute, but I'm just stumbling around in the dark really.  The swirls on the picture above are layers of letters in various opacities in the King and Queen font.  I am dying to learn more about layers, it's  fascinating.  If only there was more time!

We don't have the money to pay someone to build a new website from scratch right now.  I'm using SquareSpace and I like the platform but it has some limitations in terms of layout capability, fonts and colors unless you really understand HTML code.  It would be nice to be able to add a pretty frame for the site pages and I hope I can figure that out soon, but for now it's clean, easy to navigate and dynamic.  I can add new information anytime I like and that's the way I like it!  Check it out and let me know what you think! The banner is from the fine folks from The Cutest Blog on the Block.  Love their templates! 

I had lunch with my dear friend Robin Beam last week.  She crocheted two gorgeous flowers for me and added a bonus felted flower to the bunch!  How sweet was that?  Robin can do anything.  She's like a crafty super hero.  Plus anything she does, she does meticulously.  She is not an impatient crafter at all.  Robin is the director of education for AC Moore stores and I can't think of a better person for the job.  She's endlessly creative and smart and funny.

Speaking of friends, the one and only Andrew Thornton was in town for WireFest and we invited him out for a visit.  We had a delightful evening that was capped off by some divine cheesecake Andrew brought.  Andrew is a fine artist and a jewelry maker, his work is nuanced, subtle and layered.  He's thoughtful and smart and has a wonderful calm nature that is diametrically opposed to my frenetic personality.  Spending time with him forces you to slow down, breathe, dive in a little deeper.  We're going to hang out a little bit this morning and then he's heading home.  It's nice to see my friends 3-D every once and a while.

Avalon came up with the cutest project for tomorrow's teen crafts blog, wait until you see it!  I love that kid!

xoxo
Madge

Extra Linky Love Shower!

I’m throwing in an extra Linky Love Shower this week. Grab your slickers and your Wellies, unless you live in the Southeast because you’ve probably already got them on. I’ve got some errands to run this morning so this is a quick post. Here’s hoping you have a craftacular day!

My friend Christopher Nejman made even more fab videos for me you can see at his website http://www.christophernejmantv.com/ Thanks Christopher, you are awesome! If you live in the Tampa area Christopher is auditioning people to appear on his website in filmed dynamic craft segments produced and edited with the same flair he used for mine. Whatever your crafty focus, he wants to see if you’ve got the skills to be on Christopher Nejman TV! Here is the contact info at the hair salon where Chrisopher works to set up an appointment, call between Wednesday and Saturday. The number is 813-818-1088. The website is http://www.hairmatrixtampa.com/

Amy of Mod Podge Rocks blog is having a big giveaway. It’s already garnered a ton of interest, but go ahead and throw your name in the hat. If you love Mod Podge like I do, you’ll want to check it out!

My friend Ana Araujo and her daughter Megan have a great crafty website called When Creativity Knocks. If you haven’t already, you may want to go see their huge library of crafty videos.

Big shout out to the fab Tammy Powley of The Crafty Princess Diaries for posting our new The Impatient Crafter™ video. If you want to post our video too, let me know when you do and I’ll post a link back to you here.

If you crochet and you're looking for some inspiration my friend Drew Emborsky has some really wonderful new pattern books out with Leisure Arts. He's got a knack for making crochet look fresh. Also if you want more crochet fun, Vickie Howell's book Pop Goes Crochet is super clever and the projects are amazing!

The folks from Friendly Plastic are having a design contest! Go here to read all about it!

My pal Andrew Thornton of the Green Girl Studios gang is destashing. He's got impeccable taste, so don't miss out on this opportunity!