Farm Girl Studio

Wearing nothing new on TED talk I found this link on one of the blogs I read , While Tangerine Dreams , I seriously can not wait to read her posts. In my mind Kathy and I are sisters, even though she has no clue who I am lol. In this post she talks about not buying anything new, now this is something close to my heart. I love to thrift store, recycling and refashioning bring me great joy. Check out both links be sure to listen to the life lessons Jessie Arrington has and give second hand a try. I am making beads today, I know twice in one month lol. Have a great day everyone!

With gas prices the way they are we are trying very hard not to drive unnecessarily. You know not making "little" runs here and there, so when we do run errands it can be a marathon. Willow has moved from a car seat to a booster seat, and taking a nap in one of those is hard on the neck. I had been looking for a travel pillow I could keep in the truck. I didn't want to pay a ton for one either. I looked online to see what I could make. I not only found something I could made but I could also recycle. This is so cute and it works great too. My model is taking a bath right now or I would have shown you this in action. Betz White has a great blog with lots of refashioning and recycling tutorials. If you remember my felted flower pins,, thats where I got the idea from. Here is the tutorial for the neck roll. This came in very handy on our recent trip to Chicago!

I have to admit I spend a good potion of my internet time reading other peoples blogs. As of late I have be obsessed with sewing and refashioning sites. I just love how creative people are with clothing, I have so many ideas I can't wait to work on them. Don't worry I still love my glass and jewelry and will be posting more jewelry very soon. I am working on a new line, so check back. This is going to be just a small listing of some of my favorite sites for refashioning. Made by Lex Sew Much Ado Sew Liberated White Tangerine Dreams Is is a new one I just found Adventures in dressmaking

I think these are going to be soooooo cute for the farmers market http://blog.betzwhite.com/2007/07/by-seat-of-my-pants.html

It is very cold but I really don't mind since I love to stay home and create things. I am done with shows for the year and need to get my sales taxes mailed in. I am thinking of spring and what I can bring to the farmers market that is new and unique. This is something I have wanted to work on for a while and now I finally have the time. Refashioning is so fun give it a try yourself, this site has some wonderful tutorials, I haven't even looked at her links :) This is a t-shirt to a ruffle shirt tutorial

These are my newest creations with felted wool. I love them! Perfect pins for your coat, scarf or hat. I should have more coming soon in my Etsy store but if you want to buy these they are $10 each $3 shipping.

I really think every single day is "Earth" day. We all need to think of how we treat the earth and try to make it a better place. I am a crazy recycler and reuser. There is so much waste, our culture has a very disposible mind set. Think before you throw something away. Can I recycle this? Reuse it? Just to give you a couple of ideas you can use old yogurt containers to start seeds in. Old dishsoap containers can be used to spray you plants with soap water for bugs. That way you don't use hard chemicals either. My jewelry is very earth friendly, I alway look for ways to use what I have on hand in a new way. Here is a link for my ideas for Earth Day

This is a great way to combine two of my favorite things, recycling and beads lol. Most of use have or have seen old spice racks at garage sales. These are wonderful for storing beads and findings. The little jars are just the right size for most bead stands. Soak the empty jars in hot water or put them in the dishwasher and let them completly dry. Then fill with beads. You will be amazed what you find when you start going through your bead stash!. I found beads I purchased years ago and forgot I had lol. I collect little jars also, these are good for really small beads. Seed beads and crystals look so pretty in them. One of the great things about storing your beads this way is you can always see what you have. If you can't find any spice racks you can use old baby food jars or condiment jars. Be creative :)

I love to make things out of "junk" I think taking something that is useless and turning it into a treasure is a wonderful thing. I have use old wool sweaters to make mittens and hats,purses and ponchos. Here you can find out how to make mittens out of a wool sweater. Old belts make wonderful bracelets. Here see how it's done. Keys and metal tags can be made into earrings and pendants. This site has ideas I have been making earring and pendants out of empty bullet casing. Take a look at these for other ideas And don't forget you can recycle much more into jewelry with rivets. Let your imagination run wild.

I am always on the look out for found items to recycle into jewelry. Right now I am working with bullet casings and I have an idea using old silverware. I love the idea of taking something "useless" and giving it a new life. Coming up with something "new" can be the biggest problem. I use books, magazines and the internet to get inspiration, always putting my own twist on pieces. Since I am a glass artist try to incorporate lampwork or fused glass whenever I can. Here are two books that look interesting, I am adding them to my wish list. Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet: Making Designer Metal Jewelry Making Connections: A Handbook of Cold Joins for Jewelers and Mixed-Media Artists

I love making these poncho's Check out my shop they are all for sale right now :)

I had a couple of goals for going green that I started at the beginning of Summer. 1, to only use reuseable bags when shopping. 2, to not use the dryer and wash in cold water. 3, to recycle as much as possible. 4, to install the wind turbine. This is how it went, I did use the reuseable bags most of the time. A couple of times I forgot them in the car and had to use the plastic bags. I did recycle them though :P I found when I first started using my own bags the cashiers where taken a bit back. I usually pack them myself since they packed them too light. It also seems like more people are using reuseable bags so they are getting use to them. I have washed in only cold water and see no difference in my the cleaness of my clothes. I tryed to only dry the clothes outside but the weather was not on my side. I did limit the washing to days that were suppose to be clear but more than a couple of times it rained :( For the winter I am going to set up a line in the basement. I set u...