Starting The Year With Love

First donation of the year: 20 discontinued prints leave for New Jersey tomorrow, for the Raíces Cultural Center, to be sold at their online store.

The Raíces Cultural Center is a nonprofit cultural center dedicated to preserving cultural roots through the arts, education and history. Their programming explores the cultures and traditions of the Caribbean and beyond, providing a venue for cultural and artistic exploration, expression and preservation in their community.

Please visit their website and consider donating if you can!

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Wildharvesting

We didn’t have any appointments today, so we decided to go wildharvesting. We prefer to do it during work days so we are less watched by curious eyes :), as wildharvesting is a concept that clearly has not reached Canarians. The first impression we got today is that we are going to have to stretch the areas we forage at, because the island is dryer than we’ve ever seen. We are already really frugal in our harvesting, but this year we’ll have to do it even with more care to assure next year’s foraging.



We brought home fennel, canarian ivy, fig tree leaves, milk thistle, almond tree cuttings and leaves, and common vetch and poppy seed pods. Everything “re-plantable” will be tried, as we want to have them for our own garden and for replanting around, guerrilla gardening style.

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Home Crafts

I noticed I have not posted any of the crafts we make for the home in a while, so here’s a bit of what we made this weekend. An old straw handbag was removed of handles and lining and turned into a basket to carry my crochet/knitting/embroidery around the house – the new lining (made from a scarf) and the beaded trim were gifts from friends; I love to use the crafty bits our friends send us (“because I’m sure you will make something out of this”) on items that are useful and beautify our home, so they remind us constantly of the many blessings we have in our lives.

In front of the basket, you can see the squares I’ve been (very slowly) making for our charity crochet project, this time for SIBOL. When I make more or less twice that amount I’ll make my first shipment – and then I’ll just start again, as these are great practises for new stitches and an excellent way to eat the yarn leftover stash.

The jewelry sale will suffer a little delay because local customers raided the new pieces during the weekend, and this week I have to duplicate a few of them, but we’re almost there! The packaging has been finished, and already tested with the local buyers, from whom we had wonderful feedback. I’m going to the studio right now to start some polymer clay pieces – wish me luck, because we’re in the middle of a Saharan heat wave, and I don’t know how I’m going to keep the clay from turning into a polymeric goo…

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First Collaboration With Essence Holistic

As of today, I am a new contributor at Essence Holistic, where I will be posting monthly. Still awaiting for confirmation from the web mistress that I didn’t do anything wrong as this is my first post on a multi-author blog, but you can read the first post already! another good reason to visit this site is that the amazing Kallista Silverheart writes there too!

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Doll Auction Reminder – Last 24 Hours!

Just a quick post to remind you that today is the last day to bid for the Salvia doll – please click HERE to read all details. We are sad to say that there have been no bids yet, so if no-one bids during the next 24 hours, we will put the doll for sale at our shop and donate half of the sale.

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First Doll Auction!

To celebrate the starting of our doll website and blog we wanted to make something special, so we decided to auction the first doll that was finished and donate half of the winning bid to a charity.

This is Salvia (Sage), and 11 inch customized OOAK doll. Please click HERE to go to the website page where you will find all details about the auction, and about the doll’s customizing process. And remember, if you can’t bid, you can always help us by sharing the auction page on your social networks!

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Another Donation For Our Charity Project – Thanks So Much Peeps!

Peeps from the blog Pagan Peeps contacted us last week, offering to donate yarms for our Charity Project. We got the yarns today, so this post is dedicated to thank her for her generosity! Thanks so much Peeps, the yarns are gorgeous! Lots of really lovely items are going to be crocheted from these yarns :D – now, if I could only clone myself to make all I want to make!

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Back To Much Needed Normal

Life going back to normal means, among other delightful things, time to tend our little roof garden.

Rue, flowering beautifully. This plant has taken a really long time to grow, and hopefully soon it will be giving seed, as there were several bees making love to her :).

The vines we brought last summer from our wildharvesting, and that have been sleeping all winter, are sprouting back and growing by the day. We could have grapes by the end of spring.

The wild lettuce is loving the chilly but sunny weather – we will be getting a great harvest this year.

Time to send our first shipment of crocheted baby items to Algerian Action, a small charity that provides help for families in need in Algeria. The first of many to come, as I’m already working on items for a second box – but right now, my next charity goal is crocheting a good amount of squares for Sibol. Elders need help as much as kids!

There was also time to try a new crochet piece – my first baby girl dress, and definitely not the last.

And start an improvised doilly blanket with scraps, that will be growing with time. Details of both on my Ravelry page.

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Another Donation For Our Charity – Thanks So Much Sara!

Thanks SO MUCH to Sara of Sara’s Texture Crafts, who sent us a bag of commercial + hand spun samples for our crochet charity project! Sara is our one-stop online shop for anything fiber-related, and I can only have the highest compliments for her work and her products, specially for her absolutely amazing wool rovings, which have the best carding I have ever seen!

We are preparing the first box of items to be sent, so there will be news on the charity front very soon.

Our friends went back to Madrid yesterday, and as much as we will miss them, we are really excited with having the house all to ourselves again. I am working on a new customized doll – the first time I make completely removable clothing, which is a great challenge for my dollmaking path. Before the clothing was started, the doll got a very thorough cleaning, her hair was repaired and a complete face repaint was made, as it was in really poor shape.

She has already claimed the name Freya, so a viking-inspired (loosely inspired) set of clothes will be the first set. The doll is a Kerry from Ideal, around 40 years old, purchased second-hand to a collector. I will not sell this doll, but I may sell the clothing in the future. At this point, I only want to enjoy the work.

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