Ann Wood's paper boats.

Ann Wood is magical. Looking at her work makes me want to learn to make boats. Which she facilitates! Just head to her blog where she has several projects such as making little boats.

Just another find on etsy. It makes me want to decorate children's rooms, or mine.

Happiness

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote these rules to help people live happier more productive lives. They seem like a lot of common sense to me, which is nice to see from a century ago.

1. Make up your mind to be happy - learn to find pleasure in simple things.
2. Make the most of circumstances. No one has everything and everyone has something of sorrow.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
4. Don’t let criticism worry you - you can’t please everyone.
5. Don’t let your neighbors set your standards - be yourself.
6. Do things you enjoy doing, but stay out of debt.
7. Don’t borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than actual ones.
8. Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities and grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.
9. Have many interests. If you can’t travel, read about places.
10. Don’t hold postmortems or spend time brooding over sorrows and mistakes.
11. Don’t be the one who never gets over things.
12. Keep busy at something. A busy person never has time to be unhappy

I realize that the pursuit of happiness is a rather shallow goal compared to searching after peace and hope and joy, but it's nice too.

http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/how-tuesday-hand-painted-teacup-and-saucer-with-louchelab-7274/

I am finding as this semester comes to a close there is nothing I want more than to be doing crafts all the time.

I think I will have to make a pair of teacups for people I know who are getting married. :)

All you need is a word.

Here is a site which is just fodder for the creative mind.

http://ideas.bighugelabs.com/

Enjoy.

Amazing things from Spring Break!

Dear Everyone,-or the half a dozen people who may ever read this poorly updated blog-

I have just returned from a wonderful, wonderful break full of wonderful, wonderful things like being introduced to Mumford and Sons! Learning to knit! Getting books at a library booksale! Roadtripping with two of my favorite people in the world! And getting inspired into goosebumps by the books at the

But here are some amazing sites you should check out:

http://www.ragandbone.com/blog/?p=1609

This guy makes a variety of arts and crafts out of old books. I LOVE HIS WORK. Glamour dress out of an old phone book, all sorts of plays on medium and it is just wonderful.



Another creative individual doing totally different sorts of things, mostly about inspiration and delight is Keri Smith.

http://www.kerismith.com/blog

The book I saw of hers was called "Wreck this journal" and it was totally charming. I wanted to buy it and wreck it, and I wanted to just do unexpected and creative things. All the time.



That's all for now! I'm off to go conquer the world!

The Fun Theory.

So there's a group of people trying to make the world a better place and changing people's behavior using: fun.

http://www.thefuntheory.com/

WATCH A SET OF STAIRS BECOME A PIANO!

That. is. wonderful.

It appears that I am unable to keep a blog while in school. I am not sure if this should surprise me or not, but because a very dear friend of mine just started blogging, I thought I would post again.

So I am posting about bread. Normally I make oatmeal bread from the more with less cookbook.

1 c. quick oats 2 c boiling water
1/2 c whole wheat flour 1 pkg. (I scant Tablespoon) yeast
1/2 c brown sugar 1/2 c. warm water
1 T. salt 5 c. white flour

Combine oats, whole wheat flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl, and
pour the boiling water over it. Stir to combine.
Meanwhile, dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
When the oat mixture is lukewarm, add the yeast. Stir in the white
flour, cup by cup.
When dough is stiff enough to handle, turn onto floured board and knead
5-10 minutes. Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled.
Punch down and let rise again. Shape into 2 loaves and place in greased
9x5x3" pans. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes. Cool on rack.

I like this recipe because it is dense and soft and just a little bit sweet and delicious. It is also the kind of bread some of my friends make, and so it is very comforting and familiar.

But I've recently learned about a cookbook for "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day" which is very basic, but very easy and delicious. Follow the link for the whole recipe, but I'll post a picture here.




http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1616