Participating from a distance

One of my blog friends, Udandi, loved the idea of the Crafting Cacophony (turns out she used to do something similar and called it a Crafternoon, which I love) and was bummed that she couldn't come. She lives somewhere in the midwest, so... you know, she was a bit unavailable.

Anyway, she participated from afar, and had a crafting afternoon on Saturday to celebrate the beginning of the Crafting Cacophony. How cool is that?!?! You can read about it here.

She is working on making a scrapbook from a chunky cardboard book - this looks really cute.



I love that we had a long distance participant. Udandi - you are awesome!

How did it go?

Well, the first Crafting Cacophony had a modest, quiet beginning, but I thoroughly enjoyed the day. I spent the afternoon crafting with Leah and Stephanie. It was a great beginning!

So what did we do?

Leah was busy updating her scrapbook with vacation pictures from this year. Her book is way more up to date than mine, so I think she's doing great. It's so fun to sort through vacation pictures - and remember what sunshine felt like!




Stephanie came straight from her cake decorating class, and blessed us with wedding cake to eat. Yummy! I was in awe of her cake-making/decorating talent! It was beautiful!



Even though she brought a craft to eat, she had more to do. Stephanie had a class scrapbook to work on for her daughter's preschool.


And for me... I worked on my sewing machine's very first project. I'm making a baby blanket/wrap for my friend's new baby. This has taken me WAY longer to make than it should because I'm not a direction-follower. I didn't buy the recommended fabric, but I didn't buy the recommended amount. Unfortunately, mine shrank when I washed it, so I didn't have enough. Nice. So, I used all my scrap fabric and made a patchwork piece big enough for the part I needed. This took me so long (compared to what it would have to cut out two pieces of flannel, since this is patchwork on the front and back). I wasn't planning on making a quilt for this baby! I'm still not done - I have yet to do the bias tape part.

I just realized that there not any pictures of me, so I went and took one:

It sure was a fun afternoon!
See you all the next Crafting Cacophony!

IT is tomorrow!

It seems that the first ever Crafting Cacophony shall commence tomorrow, with a very private, intimate gathering. ;-) I shall be one of the lucky three. More snacks for us!

I can't wait to see any and all who can make it tomorrow. If any of your plans change, feel free to stop by anytime in the afternoon. You have an open invitation.

Photos and review to come.

Cheers!

Need a personal invitation?

I've just sent out evite invitations to the Crafting Cacophony on Saturday. I mentioned it to several friends. Some could come, some not, and I was having trouble keeping track. I'd like have a rough idea of who can come, so I can plan for enough seating and food.

Also...I want you to put it on your calendar and remember to come!

You wouldn't want to miss out on history in the making, right? Reply YES head on over this Saturday! =) I'll post later with a list of who all will be coming.

So what crafts are you guys working on?

I'm working on a baby blanket, paper covered notebooks, and scrapbooks...when I ever get around to them.

Welcome to the Crafting Cacophony!

I was thinking to myself the other day about how I love getting together with my girlfriends. We are such social creatures, aren't we? Only...we're so darn busy. We're SO busy, that in order to justify spending an afternoon with girlfriends and socializing, we often schedule parties to buy stuff. Really, I think we just want an excuse to hang out for a couple hours, talk, and eat cookies. ;-) We're just too busy to hang out together for the sake of friendship. Then I was thinking about how I'm on a budget, trying to be more frugal, and I have enough tupperware (although, I could always use more candles).

I was also thinking about how I love doing various crafts, and how many of my girlfriends do too. Then Steve was coughing all night and I couldn't sleep, and I was suddenly hit with a genius idea! (Ok, well, at 1am, I think all my ideas are genius ideas.)

So, here's the genius idea: I think it would be fun if every couple months, my girlfriends came over for a Crafting Cacophony (a craft time filled with lots of talking and laughter...and cookies...or carrot sticks). Everyone could just bring whatever project they happened to be working on, I'd provide table space, music, and food, and we could just spend an afternoon hanging out, getting to know each other better (maybe even making some new friends?), and getting to craft together. Oh, and eating cookies (or carrot sticks...I don't want to exclude the dieters).

You are OFFICIALLY invited. And, if you've got a friend that you think would like to come, bring her! If you are too exhausted to be working on a craft project, feel free to just come hang out for some girl-time.

The bringing of kids is up to you...and how much time you want to spend focused on your project, or watching your child. It will be as child-friendly as a bunch of women doing various crafts can be. Really, this probably depends on you and your kids, and how bored you think they might be. If they want to craft, they are welcome to. Or watch a DVD (that you bring), or play with their toys. Whatever you like!

My thought is that generally we would have set dates you can plan on; I'm currently thinking of trying every other month (odd numbers), on the 2nd Saturday of the month. However, I want to start sooner than March, so the first one will be January 27th.

So...whether you scrapbook, knit, make jewelry (is there a verb for that? Jewelerate?), sew, cross-stitch, paint, make cards (again, carderate?), draw, crochet, or something all your own...pack up your stuff into a tote or a bag on the 27th and head over to my place for an afternoon with the girls!

I'll use this blog for announcements of upcoming Crafting Cacophony events, post pictures afterwards, and general discussion. I'd love to hear what you think of this, and what craft you are currently working on!

Happy crafting - and cacophonating!