Grocery Bag Rug

I've finished it! After months and months - and I lost track of how many grocery bags - I've finished the rug! It was a good project to do while watching movies on those cold winter nights. The crocheting was the fun part; but cutting the bags into strips was tedious! I'd get a pile of bags, cut only a couple at a time into strips, because I couldn't wait to get to the crocheting part. I wasn't too neat about cutting the strips - the first few I tried to be neat, but I liked the way the different widths of the strips looked; and I could cut more strips faster if I wasn't too careful. I used no tape or wire - just plastic grocery bags, and a little bit of Bernese Mountain dog fur, which was unintentional and unavoidable in my house!

Isn't it cool?! I love it! I'm going to use it in front of my kitchen sink! The rug is about 30" in diameter. It's not huge, but it took a lot more bags and a lot more time than I thought it would. It was a fun project, but I don't think I'll be doing it again, but... Now I'm saving plastic bread bags - same concept; different project!

Shabby Chic-less

I guess I truly don't have what it takes to be "shabby-chic". I love the look of all white. I drool over those magazine spreads and web sites that are all neutral. Making up a room or a home in different shades of ecru and cream - ahh, so calm, so relaxing. I love it; but when I plan to do the all white thing, well... I'm not even trying for a whole room, just a piece of furniture; it never fails - I decide to add a "splash" of color! Next thing I know that splash takes over and it's bright red or neon green. I'm striving for that creamy confection; a cloud of colorless calm, but I keep gravitating to the whirling, swirling patchwork of color and chaos. I'm redoing an old chair of my grandmother's - I've painted it white and I was planning on recovering the cushions in white on white or a soft muted pink, but I found this fabulous multicolored, multi floral fabric. It's such a happy fabric! Another case in point; check out this cute white table - I decoupaged it with vacation postcards. There is no rest for the eye here, but there are happy vacation memories. So...maybe that's a good thing. I'm living with my souvenirs instead of putting them in a box or an album. I'm creating happy-chic! I'm surrounding myself in busy & colorful happiness!

A good friend of mine, MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson, is creating beautiful art from - for lack of a better word - garbage! She is making these fabulous collages from food packaging. Candy wrappers, fast food wrappers, cereal boxes and Chinese food packaging and more. She is layering tiny bits of colorful paper and foil to make interesting art with a message. Right now she is fascinated by the simplicity and obviousness of the instructions on the packaging. All her collages have a theme.

MaryAlice and I are both concentrating on finding useful ways to repurpose "trash". She is going the collage route and I'm going the utilitarian route. But both routes are very satisfying and, of course, fun!