Craftsy classes are just $20 this weekend, which is a pretty incredible deal. Every class involves hours of video instruction, downloads, and teachers who answer your questions. (My crochet classes are included in the sale, of course!)
The sale ends Sunday, so now’s a great chance to stock up for the chilly months!
I had a few minutes to pop into a bookstore yesterday, just for fun. I always read as many staff-recommendation cards as I can when I’m in a bookstore – do you?
This one grabbed my eye, and I did indeed flip to page 50. Which made me laugh out loud. Thus convinced that Lydia Davis and I belong together, I bought a copy of the book.
I’m so glad I stopped into that shop! I do, indeed, think that Lydia Davis and I belong together, yet I’m confident I’d not have picked up her work had it not been for this card.
Join me this Friday when I appear as the first guest on Michelle Ward’s new free monthly series Women of the World!
It’ll be webinar format, and if you aren’t able to make it during the live broadcast at 1:30pm Pacific / 4:30pm Eastern, no worries because you’ll be sent the recording within about an hour of us finishing up.
If you aren’t familiar with Michelle’s work, she’s a career coach who helps women achieve their dreams in business. She’s a fellow New Yorker and adoptive mom, and though those things have nothing to do with what we’ll discuss, they sure do make me love even more than I already would for her kindness, good smarts, and sparkling disposition.
We’ll be discussing fun in creativity, both at work and in our personal time. I’m sure there will be some good Mighty Ugly in there, too.
Because this is a new series, I love the thrill of not knowing exactly what to expect. If you love some serious spontaneity, I think you’ll be happy! And here’s what I know: We’re going to go deep, and we’re going to be specific. We will not wave our arms around for a while and chat about fluffy bullshit and expect you to think you learned something. Oh no. We’re going to talk about specific things you can do to explore the role of fun in your creative and business experiences, and we’re going to help you up the fun factor without sacrificing the good work you do.
Go on over to the Women of the World page to sign up! It’s free, you guys. Totally free.
This summer has been bananas! My to-do list is so long and varied that I have no idea where to start, so I’m kind of just shooting blindly in all directions, hoping random bits of progress allow me to get things under control.
One huge category of to-dos: blog posts. I have so much to write about! So I’m gonna bootstrap into it by sharing a bunch of panoramic photos I took on our two-week camping trip last month. That’s a start, right?
We started out at French Beach, on Vancouver Island, with a bunch of families we camp with every summer. Then we continued on with two other families to explore the Olympic Peninsula for ten days. It was the perfect combination of exploration, adventure, and relaxation. So very much fun!
Hobuck Beach
Cape Flattery
Ruby Beach
Lake Quinault
Hood Canal, near Dosewallips State Park
View from Mt. Walker
View from Mt. Walker
Port Townsend, Washington
Soon I’ll share more about the trip, including the new obsession I developed with learning how to carve spoons!
Stockholm-based street artist Julia Riordan.
Source: Guerrilla Crocheting Adds a Splash of Color to the Streets of Stockholm
Love this!
Secret Pleasure Art print by boyounkim on Etsy
I feel like maybe we could all use a bit of this today?
[via]
I had so much fun talking with Sandi for her Crafty Planner podcast!
Sandi is a quilter, and we first met when she took my Mighty Ugly workshop at Craftcation last year. During the interview, we talked about that workshop, and also about what I wanted to be when I grew up (at various times when I was a kid), how I finally came to think of myself as a creative person after denying it for most of my life, why I’m focusing so much on the fun of creativity after going deep into the feelings of it through Mighty Ugly, the trajectory of my crochet career, and more.
Our chat is really fun, and I love how we managed to go all over the place while pretty much staying on topic. Have a listen!
Read more“But, it’s not even how much you achieve, it’s what you achieve. Does it matter that we spend all day finishing tasks if those tasks do not significantly contribute to the realization of our company’s goals, or our personal vision? Is having a hand in every little thing more valuable than making sure that a couple of key projects are done in time and thoroughly? I would say no.”
I brought Mighty Ugly to UBC Maker Camp for the second year in a row, and it was a blast! The weeklong camp, associated with Make Media’s Maker Camp and supported in part by the Vancouver Maker Foundation, is for girls entering grades 7 or 8, and it’s the only exception I make to my adults-only rule for Mighty Ugly.
It was such a great group of kids, and I had almost nothing to do while they made their creatures. No prodding or prompting needed! Within a few minutes, they’d even invented a whole society for their creatures to belong to, complete with a supreme ruler, royal children, and a hierarchy of dignitaries and servants.
I love that there’s a girls-only Maker Camp in town, and that the organizer, UBC prof Dave Ng, includes crafty pursuits alongside the mechanical and coding projects.
Camp, man! So much fun!
I help people start to do things they've never done before and have more fun making stuff. Kinda like a camp counselor for grown-ups. My latest book, Make It Mighty Ugly: Exercises And Advice For Getting Creative Even When It Ain't Pretty, is in bookstores and libraries everywhere. It's a handbook for vanquishing creative demons so you can go ahead and make stuff – art, craft, whatever! Here's a handy list of other things about me.
