More On Pod Casts

When I wrote podcast reviews, or just in everyday life listening to them, I've had people tell me they don't listen to or understand podcasts, so I thought I'd explain a little more about why I love podcasts, and hopefully encourage more folks to try them!
First of all, I think some folks that don't think they are computer savvy think the name 'podcast' is another daunting computer thing that they don't understand, like html or L33T. But it's not. A 'podcast' is basically just a radio show. The 'radio' is just your computer in this case. The other thing I think people tend to think about podcasts, is that you have to have a 'pod' to listen to them. Well, you don't. A lot of podcasts, if not most, can be listened to right from the website they are on. The podcaster will have a nice site, often with some extra information and links of things they talked about, and a "Listen Here" button. If you are on the site, and you click their button, you can listen right on your computer. Even if they have less of a website, and no "Listen Here" button, you could listen to them through iTunes or another music player on your computer. Another way to think of a podcast is that they are one long song, and anywhere that you could listen to a song, you could listen to a podcast show.
Listening to a podcast from your computer would be great for times you are 'surfing the net' or playing a game. Or turn up the speakers, and listen while you're doing other things. If your computer is close to your crafting area, just get to work while you're listening.
And if you do have any sort of a 'pod' by which I mean an MP3 player, you can take your podcasts with you anywhere. I fell in love with audio books and podcasts when I drove a car with no radio, and I would listen to spoken word on my headphones, rather than music, as I believe music on headphones (like a cell phone!!) is too distracting, and dangerous while driving. So now, I still love listening to podcasts in the car, and for a long trip, my guy will put some music and podcasts on his iPod and use the car plug in to put the iPod output onto the car stereo system. There are many radio tuner things out there in many price ranges to make your MP3 player play through your car stereo, if you do have or get an MP3 player, I highly suggest you add the car stereo radio tuner thingy to your collection of accessories.
I listen to my crafty podcasts in the car on the way to work, on the walk from the parking lot to my job, all the way to my desk, and sometimes I can't bear to shut it off until it's time to clock in. I listen on my breaks, while I work on crafty things at my desk, or take a walk, and sometimes when I'm doing things I don't need too much brain power for, like filing. Then I listen on the walk back to the parking lot and all the way home. I also listen while I'm in the grocery store, that's one of my favorites. It helps me two ways, I get the enjoyment of listening, and I do a better job shopping. I have to make a good list, if I'm going to be listening while I'm shopping, and it's tons easier to stick to my list, because my brain is actually paying attention to the podcast, and not getting distracted with impulse purchases!! ;p
There are so many awesome podcasts out there, crafty and otherwise. One of my favorite podcasts, that was an hour a day Monday-Friday retired a while back, so I had a void of five more hours a week to fill! I serched around for some more crafty podcasts, because I really love being inspired!! I'll share some more specific reviews in future posts, but for now, here's a link to a whole list of crafty podcasts for you to puruse.

And Then There Were Two

This is Triangle. So I guess the first one must be Heart.
I'm really groovin' on Making things with felt. Sure, I've still only tried out the one stitch, the blanket stitch. But I'm perfecting it. After finger puppets, then what? And what should I do with the felted flowers? Hmmm...

Felt Finger Puppet

In my new love of felt and bead embroidery, I decided to make something useful. Finger Puppets! I'm really loving putting different colors together, the felt itself, the embroidery thread, the beads. And again, I was able to start something without buying more stuff! "Finishing things" is a theme I'm trying to keep up, and now "using what I have" is also a theme. I had a bunch of felt from a puppet set I bought the kids a long time ago at a thrift store. It was an awesome puppet set, two or three blank puppets, with parts you could put on with velcro. Whoever had the set origionally, bought a bunch of felt, and made several more spare parts, so the leftover felt was in the box, too. At the time, I didn't see any use for the felt, but kept it just in case. The embroidery thread is left over from my counted cross stitch days. And the beads are some cheapo ones someone gave me once, that I thought I'd never use because they were so cheapo. But they work perfectly for the randomness of the felting.
On the "using what I have" theme, I will want to add more colors of thread and/or felt at some point. Since the thread is from when I actually did counted cross stitch, they are specific colors that were purchased for specific patterns. And they are not all colors I would use a lot of. For example, I have about 13 different shades of brown. ;p Well, I'm going to see if I can make some trades with some of my crafty family members. Browns would go well in scrapbooking or altered books, wouldn't they Auntie A??

Googly Eye Jar

This is my tongue-in-cheek tribute to two of my favorite crafty gals: Amy Sedaris, and CraftyChica Kathy Cano Murillo.
If you've read Amy's book, or seen her promoting it, you'll know that she loves googly eyes. She puts them on everything! When my guy gave me her book back in December, I had to go get some self-stick eyes. There are a few things around the house that have eyes now, like the lamp between our computers. Not too long ago, I found a bag of mixed sizes of eyes at a dollar store, so I decided I needed more, but I needed something to put them in.
I love mustard. (what does that have to do with anything, you ask? keep reading...) And occasionally, I'll buy some fancy little mustards in fancy little jars, partly so I can have the little jars. So I have a few of these little jars in a drawer, and decided this one was for the googly eyes!
Then of course, I needed to decorate it! I've been working on some collaging at work, mostly just the cutting out so far, so I collaged the lid. What I've learned from the CraftyChica is that glitter ROCKS! But I'm not ready for actual glitter, so I've fallen in love with glitter glue. I found some also at a dollar store, but as you probably know, not everything is as good in it's cheap fashion. I thought the dollar store glitter glue was fine, until one day at the regular craft store, I noticed that some glitter glue was on sale, really, really cheap, so I bought it. It is so tons way better than the dollar store kind! Oh, well, live and learn. The craft store glitter glue even has two colors of glitter! I'm going to be playing with glitter glue a lot more.

Earrings

One of the things I love about making jewelry is making things that match. Well, I guess I'd have to say that about most crafty things, sewing too. I'll have to post a photo of my mom and I in matching outfits when I was little, that's probably where I got started with the matching stuff!
Anyway, I got this new skirt, see the small photo, it's mostly brown, with a sage green stripe and a dark turquoise stripe at the bottom. I actually purchased three shirts to go with it (two in the green, one in the turquoise), because the colors were so perfect, because I have other things to wear with those colors, because the prices were very reasonable, because people have told me I look good in that color green, and because that color blue is one of my favorites, and I'll wear it even if no one ever tells me it looks good on me! ;p Plus, I hate when I decide later that I should have bought a shirt in more than one color, or that I don't have anything to match something which has happened too often, because I'm trying to limit my clothing budget too much.
All that being said, I'm going to wear these clothes for a while. So I decided I needed a pair of earrings to go with the whole set. I knew I had a few turquoise chips left from a long time ago, and I knew I had some cool wooden beads, and some rice beads in that color green, so I didn't have to purchase anything to make these earrings, that's a bonus, too.