I have been taking part in a crafting initiative that my cousin, Kelli Sweet, started. Her challenge to all of her acquaintance was to do at least 15 minutes of crafting and post on it every day for the month of January. While I have not quite managed to keep up with the daily nature of the challenge, I have been getting into the craftshop consistently, and I have started and completed several projects.

One of my favorites was a stool that I made out of corrugated cardboard.

It is 14" tall; I designed it for the younger children in the Learning Center at the Boys and Girls Club where I work. I started with the carton that my daughter's Christmas present came in. It was a double layer of corrugated cardboard--about as sturdy as a box can get.

I used a broken old self-healing mat for my template.

It took a few hours to cut out the legs of the stool. I started with a craft knife, and I managed to tear the skin on my finger before Chip discovered me trying to cut double-thick cardboard with it. He immediately went and got a box cutter for me. I love my husband!

Once I had them cut, I glued the pieces together to make two laminated legs.

The pieces that I had cut out of the center of each square made excellent supports and spacers for the center of the stool. Next comes the seat.

I glued multiple strips of cardboard together to make a laminated block. The center piece that I installed the day before held everything in place with the glue dried.

The only thing left to do was try it out! Here is Anna, age 17, trying out the stool. It is rock-solid and much more comfortable than it looks.

I took it to the Club the day after I finished it. The children there have been vying for an opportunity to use it, and I have several requests to make more of them.

January 11, 2016

I have been a fitful blogger, partly because I wanted to include pictures. I was extremely frustrated, as I was having a hard time arranging the pages with both pictures and text. The other day, Jim asked me why I wasn't blogging much, since I had been so interested in it when I posted my first few entries. When I explained my frustration to him, he suggested using a different web browser, so here I am, trying this out in Chrome instead of Firefox. Here goes nothin'!

It has been a very satisfying year in the craft studio. I have done everything from fiber arts to paper crafts and upcycled miscellany. Many of my projects have been of a practical nature, as I love combining the aesthetic and the useful. I particularly like containers and receptacles. It has also been a year full of big changes for our family. Without further ado, here is some of what I and my family have done in the last year:

Anna and I did a lot of gardening.

Junior prom, May 25.

I have been trying to become more self-reliant for the last decade or so--providing more and more of my family's needs myself, instead of going out and buying them. We did buy veggies this year, but not nearly as many as we used to.

A tree fell on our house just before our two big party days.

Our son, Jim, spearheaded the building of a shed for the Cider Knoll Community Garden over the summer of 2014 as the centerpiece of his Eagle project. On June 6, Troop 2 held an Eagle Court of Honor for him at our church.

This shed was Jim's Eagle project.

Eagle Court of Honor at our church

On June 7th, Jim graduated high school. He was beyond relieved to be finished, and he is much happier in college.

James Read, Marlborough High School class of 2015

Band concert, June 2015

 Several years ago, Jim joined Chip in the community band. Here, you can see Jimmy in the back with his trumpet (second from the left). Chip is directly in front of him. Now that Jim is at college, he can't make it to rehearsal, so he has given up the band for now, and he is exploring other possibilities for the moment.

All the cousins down the shore

I have been doing more crafting now that winter has come again. Below are a few projects I have done for my cousin Kelli's "hibernate and create" group crafting activity. The idea is to do some crafting for at least 15 minutes every day during the month of January. I have made a lot of stuff this month, but I don't foresee buying many supplies at the moment. I still have about 20 years worth of built-up crafting supplies, so I won't buy anything until I need something specific. Letting my materials guide my crafting choices worked well for me in 2015. I plan to continue until I run out of both ideas and supplies. Here's to a new year. Cheers!

A banner I made as an example for my kids at the Boys and Girls Club, where I work

Drawstring bags made with leftover yarn

I'm making a stool out of corrugated cardboard.