Hello there! I'm Sister Diane and I have two grand passions: making crafts and making media. That's what I write about here, and sometimes, I get all thoughtful about internet culture and creative small businesses. Thanks for stopping by! Would you like some tea?

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TGI Market Day

TGI Market Day

I do love the weekly ritual of market season. It was a quick trip today, because I’m teaching a library class this afternoon. But there were so many pretties, including these near-to-bursting peony buds. Carrots and sweet Walla Walla onions were all over the place this week. I got some carrots to roast, which is …

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CRAFT Party on Sunday: The Lineup Looks Great!

CRAFT Party on Sunday: The Lineup Looks Great!

Things are really coming together for this Sunday’s CRAFT 07 Release Party at Twisted! Locals, we’d love to see you between 12 and 3, to partake of all these fun things: – A free project table: make your own Cute as a Button Bracelet! This project is from Bead Simple, and excerpted in the new …

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Deck Makeover Part 2: Planties

Deck Makeover Part 2: Planties

Progress on our deck makeover has been slow, mostly because it rains every single freakin’ day right now in Portland. But we have made some small upgrades. That’s our lettuce box, almost ready to start harvesting. Don’t you love those two mushroom stakes? They’re a gift from my mom. Some bits of color in their …

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A Fascinating Fail

A Fascinating Fail

My 10 year-old nephew is coming to visit in a couple weeks, so I’ve been looking for good kid-projects to do with him. Something tells me he won’t want to learn to spool-knit. Anyway, Rosie’s book got me thinking about making a salt crystal garden, but then I wanted to go that one better. …

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Market Day

Market Day

This is the Hillsboro Farmer’s Market, where K. and I tried to score local produce again today. Still no luck there – oh, except for these: . . . Which are just about my favorite thing in the world today. I hate cooked peas, but I could eat them raw, pods and all, all the …

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Insert beady-eyed pun here…

Insert beady-eyed pun here…

I’m such a fan of hybrid crafts – combining one kind of making with another to get something new. So I was excited to see this bead quilling on the cover of the June Bead & Button. Are you familiar with quilling? It’s an old craft where you twirl thin strips of paper around a …

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Waxing Enthusiastic (ACK, what a bad headline!)

Waxing Enthusiastic (ACK, what a bad headline!)

Here’s another favorite from my vintage stash. Whatever you may think of the decorative value of these candles, you gotta respect the sheer technical skill of author Beverly Ferguson. (This one’s Copyright 1966 by Craft Course Publishers, Inc. ACK! It’s as old as me!) So, check this out: first, you melt a thin sheet of …

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Portland’s CRAFT 07 Release Party – Coming Soon!

Portland’s CRAFT 07 Release Party – Coming Soon!

That’s right, locals! P-Town is hosting another fabulous release party for CRAFT’s latest issue. We’ll be gathering at Twisted on Sunday, June 1st, from 12-3. If you missed the last one, well, you missed a good time. We’d love to see you at this one. We’ll have an awesome hands-on craft table, where you can …

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How to Make a Cool Button Pendant

How to Make a Cool Button Pendant

Here’s what we made at Church of Craft yesterday: Button Pendants. They use good old plastic canvas as their base, which means they can easily be converted to pins. Speaking of which, Susan has two great button projects in Bead Simple that using those plastic canvas rounds. (That’s Page 147 and 213, for you …

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Ribbon Craft! Smashing, Baby!

Ribbon Craft! Smashing, Baby!

A little nonserious crafty fun for your Sunday. This little beauty is Copyright 1973 by Harold Mangelson and Sons. The author is Jo Gilroy, who owned a craft shop in East Peoria, IL. Just to give you a little scope here. . . this ribbon crafting involves cutting short sections from wide acetate ribbon, …

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