Word on the Street, July 26th edition

Sam was dedicated to getting some catnip mice done to sell on consignment. The goal was 50. She lost count of how many she's done, but a few days ago it was this many: 

After a few more days of mice mice mice, the need suddenly arose for an afghan, as such needs do. A quick Ravelry search pattern produced this pattern (can we take a minute to love on Ravelry? Ravelry, you are the coolest and we love you) which is exactly what she needed: something cozy, pretty, and will knit up fast. The weather even cooperated: it's been cool enough in the evening to knit an afghan in the summer without wanting to rip your skin off from the heat. 

Harper photobomber!

Exactly as the pattern promised, it's going quickly! Although Sam did run out of the first color of yarn she bought, which left only one option: ombre stripes. Oh yeah.

Ombre not pictured, thanks to poor picture taking skills.

Sam can't wait to share pictures when it's done, which will hopefully be by Monday (if her hands don't fall off.

Liz has been so socially active lately with birthdays, showers, and wedding planning that the only crafts she's been doing have been for the wedding - and, for shame, she hasn't been taking pictures.



Luckily, here's some evidence of social engagements - Rachael's bridal shower!  Rachael is getting married 4 weeks after Liz and they are both bridesmaids in each other's weddings. 

Erica is finally settled in her new place--the cats are loving it, and she has started working on a baby blanket for a friend's little one who is scheduled to make an appearance next month.

A sneak peak: Chevrons are so in right now!

The cats are loving the new place as well--lots of room to run around, the litter box in a quieter location, and lots of nature outside to look out the windows (which we like to call "cat TV").

Creeping on Her Royal Highness, the Beezy

Oh... and she also tried something new: ROLLER DERBY! Erica practiced with Mountain Town Mayhem last Thursday and had a blast. She decided that the best way to end her 20's was with a huge bruise on her butt.

What are your plans for the weekend? Baking? Creeping on cats? Wedding festivities? Derby? Crafting? We want to know! Enjoy it, whatever you do!

(Editor's note (from Sam): Soooo..... if you read our blog through a reader, you might have noticed a weirdo post earlier this week. Yeah, I have too many blogs and accidentally put a draft in this blog that should have gone in my personal blog  . I deleted it, but it still came through my feedly, and Liz's, so maybe yours too. Anyway, so sorry for the confusion!)

Word on the Street, July 8th edition

Liz has been busying herself these days with wedding crafts - flowers for now, mostly.  She has a whole bin of felt flowers and has all the pieces cut to make ombre tissue paper flowers.  Check it:

There are close to 150 handmade flowers in there!

Liz would like to report that Lola has been no help in the flower-making process.  She stole a strand of raffia then ran behind the couch to try and eat it, but Liz managed to get it from Lola before that could happen.

Sam got that i-cord edge and handle done!

Hooray! With that project done, Samantha has been cleaning out various knitting bags and organizing her stash. There was a tough moment last night where she realized her stash space is officially full so be looking for some stash busting projects! She might even make herself a bag like this for beach purposes. And for modeling purposes.

SMILE with your EYES

Erica has not been crafting a lot--besides working on the same dish cloth, a row here and there, for the past couple of weeks. She finally finished that, and she and her husband got the house 99% organized and unpacked! And her trusty computer desk (which is currently computer-less) became her craft corner!!! And she would show you a picture of that if her computer would cooperate and let her rotate the picture...

Instead she will post a picture of some long lost friends of Kevin's. 

Gotta love a man in uniform.

She also finally got around to paining the Bob Ross Paint-By-Number kit that Liz got her last year. It turned out awesome, and Erica can't wait to hang it up in her craft corner!

Happy little trees. 

That's what we've been up to this week! What have you been crafting?

Word on the Street - June 21, 2013

Guess what?  Liz isn't the only crafty girl in her family, her sister Amy is pretty creative too!  Check out this card box Amy made for Liz and Eric's wedding shower:

How fancy!  Liz especially loves how shiny it is, and the heart inside the door.

Amy also saved the ribbons and bows from presents that the happy couple received, to make a practice bouquet for Liz:

Liz loves being part of a crafty family, and felt lots of love at the shower recently.  Only 7 weeks until the wedding!  Needless to say, Liz hasn't been crafting much herself except for wedding decorations - pictures to come.

Erica has been neglecting crafting, and instead has been packing and moving. When did she get so much stuff??? And when did her husband get even more stuff????? And why are there never enough boxes?

An artists interpretation of the great Smithnarski migration across town.

Luckily, in her free time, she's been able to knit a couple of simple dish rags, which have come in handy for cleaning during the transition from the itty bitty apartment to the much bigger duplex.

Sam has been working on a bag that a lovely LSC supporter custom ordered. She thought she was almost done, thinking the i-chord border and handle would be quick going. They are not.

Looks great, takes FOREVER

So Sam is going to dedicate her weekend to that whole thing. In her spare time, she makes fun of helpless animals. This is how her parents' dog Sgt. Pepper looks at Sam's mom whenever she's speaking.

Two can play at this game, dog!

 And that is what we've been up to, along with surviving the summer heat and humidity. What have you been doing?

Word on the Street- June 7 edition

JUNE?! Who said it could be June?! It's June!

Sam has been working on this (soon to be) bag for a person who commissioned it at the Flint Handmade sale.

She's also been making any number of headbands, mice, and cotton puffs to sell on consignment. Additionally, this cute little (big) guy has been lighting up craft night now that he learned how to smile and laugh.

Also, because you missed Sam last week, you will be happy to know she has, in fact, had some LaCroix in her life.

The LaCroix is bigger than me! Eeek!

Liz has been a busy bee with wedding crafts.  She's almost done making felt flowers but has moved on to wrist corsages and boutonnieres.  Here are the corsages:

Alike, yet unique.

Liz is also trying new techniques in rug-making, which she'll share in the future.

Erica has been working on crafts for Liz's wedding as well: boxes for said corsages. She also discovered Vine, a social media app that lets you post 6 second videos. This app makes it really easy to make short stop-animation style videos, which is exactly what Erica did. Check it out!

Having planned a wedding just last year, Erica was happy to help Liz out and make boxes. Wedding planning is stressful, guys!

And that's what we've been up to! What crafty adventures have you been up to in the new month?

Word on the Street - mid-April, 2013

WORD.  ON THE STREET.

Liz has another plant!  Oh joy!  Her jade plant has been growing well in the plant hanger that she made for it, so she decided to make another one for the new plant - but this time, with a little more color and a little different style.  The plant came with a little tag saying what kind of plant it is, but Liz couldn't pronounce it so let's just call it Happy Yellow Plant.  She really just decided to wing it and see what happened:

Strands of white, brown, orange, and turquoise yarn.



The Jade plant is doing well and growing new leaves!

Both plants together, each on their own side of the bay windows in Liz's apartment.  Home sweet home.

Sam has been toying with some new patterns to great success! It's been one of her personal goals to decrease the amount of waste she creates and money she spends on disposable things. To that end, she started making little puffs to use in place of cotton balls. The first prototype did not come out as expected:

Coffee for scale and for energy.

Puffy, yes. Little? No. Good for dishes but not for cotton ball replacement. Designing crafts giveth (a new product! Dish scrubbers!) and it taketh away (this will not work for it's original purpose). But with just a little pattern know how and determination, Sam made this:

Awww!

Both little and puffy! Success! Now make a squillion more!

At this point the coffee kicked in and logic kicked out. Sam took a picture of them together for comparison and then wanted to give you a preview of the two tone one she started this morning:

Then she added a little more...

All the things!

She looked around for a cat but Harper and Henry had both made themselves scarce (smart kitties).

Erica was very excited about finishing her spiral baby blanket. She's pretty pleased with the results. Since gray is her friend Erin's favorite color, and all baby girls need a little purple to balance out all the pink, Erica thinks that wee little Claire will love it!

Mesmerizing...

She's also been pinning like a crazy woman! The quilt is starting to look more quilt-like every time she gets to sit down and work on it. She's really excited to see the final product, but has loved working on this project so far.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP!

In addition to knitting and sewing, Erica has also been paper crafting (well, as much paper crafting as she can handle), making some adorable cards with yarn. Here's just one example:

Mmmm, coffee

Obviously a much busier B than last week, she and the other ladies have been cracking down and getting ready for the Flint Handmade Spring Craft Market on May 4th. Oh, what's that, you didn't know? You forgot? Well, here is the information again, because we don't want you to miss it!

Locust Street Crafts will be at the Flint Handmade Spring Craft Market on Saturday, May 4 from 10-4, in the beautiful Masonic Temple in downtown Flint. Come check it out and say hi to us!  Admission is only $1.

We hope to see you there!

Word on the Street - April 5

Hey hey! It's Friday! And Friday means an LSC update! What a great day!

Liz decided to try her hand this week at crocheting a rug using a big crochet needle and a big chunk of fabric cut into a continuous strip - a familiar process, the basic chain, but new material.  Here is the result:

Not bad!  Liz was pretty happy with the result.

Now, the only was to really describe this color of this fabric is "dusty rose" (or Maeve Binchy, as us LSC girls like to say).  Liz wasn't too happy about that, so she bought some fabric dye - also a new craft experience for her - to see if she could make the rug a more attractive hue.

Fuchsia, not so different from the original color of the fabric that it would be a disaster is the dye didn't work properly.

Stay tuned to future blog posts to see the update on the magical dusty rose/fuchsia fabric crochet rug experiment.

Sam has been working on prototypes for this year's craft season. Here's the beginning of her pedi-socks:

Eventually this will be a sock you can put on to keep your feet warm while you paint your toenails! How, you say?! Black magic? No, just some knitting trickery. Stay tuned to see the final product.

This is the other product Sam is really excited about: face puffs! It's been a goal of Sam's to replace disposable items with reusable ones. Easier on the environment and the pocketbook! These are hopefully going to replace cotton balls. The idea is you use them, wash them, and then use them again. The only problem is that Sam crocheted this one and then...can't seem to make another one. Hmmm...Crocheting might just not be meant to be, so she's going to try to create a knitted pattern instead.

Erica has been one busy B this week and has no crafts to report at this time. While we'd love for crafting to be our whole lives and only priority, sometimes other things come up. It's a fact of life we hate. And have to accept. And hate to accept.

That's it for your favorite crafty girls this week. What are you working on?!

Word on the Street - March 29

Oh boy.  It's a busy time for all of us at Locust Street Crafts these days.

But hey, check it out!  After last weekend's display planning, one of Liz's friends tipped her off to a reasonably priced vinyl sign making company, and Liz started communication with them on getting a sign made for LSC.  In record time, it all came together!  Thanks to 24hbanner, Locust Street Crafts now has a fabulous sign with our updated logo, in one of our signature colors:

Liz is also trying out a couple new craft prototypes, hopefully to have a few new products ready in time for the first LSC sale of the year coming up in May.

WAIT A MINUTE.  WHAT DID THAT SAY?!?!

Oh hey, Locust Street Crafts will be at the Flint Handmade Spring Craft Market on Saturday, May 4 from 10-4, in the beautiful Masonic Temple in downtown Flint.  Come check it out and say hi to us!  Admission is only $1.

Erica got the short end of the stick this week, getting hit with laryngitis, allergies, and a plethora of other illnesses that include tissues and chicken soup. She figured that now was as good a time as any to get started on the quilt she has been meaning to make. You heard right, Erica is attempting quilting. 
 Like any good project craft project, math was involved. 

Triangles. Equations. Frustration.

 Then ironing, organizing, and cutting. There's an element of danger to these tasks... Okay, maybe not the organizing. But irons are hot! And rotary cutters are dangerous--just ask Samantha!

This picture is too hot to handle!

So smooth

Lookin' sharp!

What Erica didn't realize is that when she started cutting on Saturday around 4, she would be cutting squares until midnight. Cutting fabric is the preparation step for quilting, and as many of our crafty friends know, the preparation is often the most time-consuming step in a project.

Luckily, Xena was nice enough to keep Erica company.

After many hours of cutting and many attempts to lure nosy cats away from the cutting action, she ended up with a pile of squares that do not match, but will eventually be sewn together.

Aside from quilting, Erica was also featured in All Things Target, a blog dedicated to informing its readers about coupon match-ups and deals going on at Target. All that time clipping coupons is starting to pay off!

Sam legitimately does not know where her time has gone. You know where it hasn't gone? To crafting. And what crafting she has done, she hasn't taken a single picture of. To make it up to you, here's a picture of Henry yelling at her:

Hey lady! Stop taking pictures of your cats and go craft something! You've got a craft sale in May, dummy!

Did you guys know we'll be at a craft sale in May? The Flint Handmade Spring Craft Market on Saturday, May 4 from 10-4, in the beautiful Masonic Temple in downtown Flint. And admission is only $1.


Because we might be a little excited about it.

Word on the Street: Craft display weekend!

Wondering what your favorite crafty ladies were up to this weekend? Well wonder no more! Liz, Samantha, and Erica painted, cut, ate, napped, sewed, and did too much math, all in preparation for the upcoming craft sale season.

The first step of any crafty undertaking is to gather your supplies.

Not pictured: excessive amounts of LaCroix

 The next step is obvious: take a nap!

Sam, all tuckered out

No, actually, the next step is to use all those math skills you haven't used in years to figure out what you need and how much of it when you go to your local craft store.

Erica is normally really good at math. Today was not a normal day.

After all this hard work, it's time for lunch and some fuel.

Dharma Mojo: the aftermath

Coffee: breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions.

Now, time for serious stuff: painting! Kids, always use spray paint in a well-ventilated area. Unless you live in Michigan and it snows all the time, then go ahead and start painting in your basement. 

Small basement, very little fresh air. This might be a bad idea...

 To keep busy between coats of paint (and to make sure your brain doesn't fry from the paint fumes), start working on your sewing projects! And remember, it's always good to wash, dry, and iron all fabric before cutting and sewing. 

Action shot! Look at those moves!

This fabric is so beautiful, it would be a sin not to sew it into our new tablecloth!

If you've been sitting in one place too long, try to sneak in some quick cardio to get the blood pumping.

Lifting!

Push ups!

Cat Scratching!

 Now, it's time for sewing. When you deal with 13 foot strips of fabric, pinning is very important!

Pinning, sewing, and hemming like a boss.

Erica and Liz working on the Locust Street Crafts Bridal Collection--coming to a craft fair near you!

Since that's done, maybe time for another coat of paint?

Too much paint, not enough fresh air.

Then test drive the table cloth. Is it up to your exact specifications? 

Is it an inexpensive Halloween costume?

... or a people eating monster?

Curious as to what all this effort was for, and how our display will look this season? Visit our blog later in the week for part two!