Carol Duvall and iCraftNetwork? Only with YOUR help!

Carol and Tim Holtz

As a teenager I didn’t know anybody that crafted. My mother taught me to sew the basics – you know clothing and such. And it’s not like the internet was around to fill in the gap. We are talking the late eighties here. Enter the Home show.

Home, hosted by Gary Collins during the time I watched it, ran from 1988 to 1994. I watched it while getting ready for school (high school) and as a young wife and mother. My favorite segments were the craft and decorating ones by Kitty Bartholomew, Carol Duvall, and Dian Thomas. I can’t tell you how many things in my home were either projects from the show or directly influenced by them.

When the Home show ended in 1994 Carol started her own show on HGTV. It was extremely popular during its 12 year run. It showed a multitude of projects from paper to polymer to jewelrymaking. While simple enough for the beginning crafter to complete, most also had options for embellishing or other techniques to challenge the more advanced crafter. Each of her guests also brought examples of different colorways and embellishments. My personal favorite segments were when she visited artists and craftsmen in their studios. Nothing gets your creative juices flowing like seeing someone working in their own environment.

When it was canceled in 2006 no one was more confused as to why than her thousands of fans. The public outcry was enough for the Scripps Company (parent of both networks) to continue broadcasting it on their DIY Network where it has enjoyed a cozy berth up until now. HGTV recently announced that they have decided to cancel the show (again). There seemed to be nothing to be done this time.

However, Carol’s producer Kelly Ehrlich may have a solution, the iCraftNetwork. This new network would show archived episodes of the Carol Duvall show as well as new shows by hip craft stars of tomorrow – the best of both worlds.

A new network needs capital naturally but any investor worth his salt won’t touch it without an outpouring of interest and support. And isn’t that what the craft community does best – take care of our own?

It will just take a minute to jot a line or two. Don’t know what to write? Say something about a favorite project or one that inspired something else that you did. If Carol inspired you to craft, tell ‘em so! If, like me, you grew up on Carol, that’s good, too. If nothing else just tell them how much we need all crafting all the time on iCraftNetwork. Oh, you might mention features you think the website should include. It can’t hurt, right? ;)

Send your emails to icraftwithcarol@yahoo.com

And please… pass this information on. If you have a Twitter account it’s as easy as hitting “Retweet” on the bottom right under the article. Presto! You’re done!

Website: Google Books has Art/Craft books?!?

Blogger is currently having issues so I'm having trouble posting much. (I also lost also the linking I did in this post. I apologize.) Hopefully, that will be resolved soon. I'm doing what I can on this end. In the meantime...

Are you guys familiar with Google Books?!? The last time I looked at the site was when they first started it and most of the books were public domain. Well, a lot has changed since then. I found books dated anywhere from 1964 to 2009 even! Not just those old musty fussy books that we really only look at to copy the old illustrations from. ;)

There were at least a dozen books about bookbinding, tons on knitting, crochet and quilting, silkscreen and printmaking, and just general crafts. This was in the crafts and hobbies category - 394 books. In the art category there are 6,357 books! Oh, the graphic design and typography books are awesome... to a newbie, that is. I'm not sure just how up to date the graphic design is but I love the typography. And I finally had to stop looking because I was getting lost in the fiction and cooking and comics & graphic novels and...

Do be sure to check whether a book is the full version or is just a preview. Most of the newer books are just a limited preview but it's quite a preview. The preview for Creating Handmade Books by Alisa J. Golden was 17 pages and wasn't just the glossary and such that doesn't really tell you anything about the book. (like some websites we know. *coughcoughAmazoncough*)

I suggest taking a look at Google Books even if you looked at it in the beginning. Even if you just use it to get an idea whether you want to buy one of the books they have listed, it's worth it.

Freebie: Bird w/Love Letter Embroidery Pattern from Urban Threads

Is this not the cutest embroidery pattern? And Urban Threads is giving it away! Now through Valentine's Day you can download it free. It's available in two sizes for machine embroidery, hand embroidery, and digital stock art. It's as easy as adding the version you want to your cart, checking out ($0 total), and downloading it. Then stitch it up for the one you love! Wouldn't it be sweet on a pillowcase edge?

Post-op Update

I had my post-op appointment today. They biopsied my uterus, cervix and ovaries when they took them out. Those all came back negative. My colon screening was also negative. Woot!

After removing the uterus they were able to examine it and determine that my pain was caused by adenomyosis: "This condition results from the lining cells of the uterus growing directly into the muscle wall of the uterus. When the lining cells of the uterus bleed at the time of the menstrual period, these misplaced cells in the muscle bleed as well. And bleeding directly into the muscle causes pain. As the blood accumulates, the surrounding muscle swells and forms fibrous tissue in response to the irritation." Source

Since the hysterectomy I have noticed that I no longer have the abdominal or back pain that I had before. I have the normal pain you would expect after such a surgery but on a scale of 1 to 10 I wouldn't rate it any high than a 4. This is excellent since I haven't had a day below 6 in the past 6-9 months. I couldn't be more pleased.

I'm feeling so much better as evidenced by my shopping after my appointment. :P And I *will* create something this weekend even if it's only a page in my journal. And tackle the 534 emails in my inbox. *cringe*

I am so incredibly blessed. Not only because of the results of my tests and the success of my surgery, but because of the support and prayers of my friends and family. Every one of you made me feel loved, supported, uplifted. Thank you so much.

My doctor calls me The Unsinkable Molly Brown because I'm the fastest recovering patient she's ever had. :) And my husband calls me "the shoppin'est damn woman I've ever met"!

New album from OK Go = new love!

Maybe you remember OK Go from the the treadmill video for "Here It Goes Again" that got passed around a few years back? They won a Grammy for Short-Form Music Video for that particular number and it is one of the most watched music videos on YouTube. They also had several other great songs on that album, their sophomore effort, Oh no.

Today is the release of the third album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. I've been listening to it for a couple days now and I have to tell you, I love love love it. It's less bouncy, more soulful maybe. It's definitely in heavy rotation in my iTunes right now. My favorite song so far I think is Skyscrapers or White Knuckles. You can definitely hear the Prince influence in the latter one.

Here's a bit about it from their bio page at Lala.com:

"The band previewed their third album, titled Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, on a short sling of dates on the Eastern Coast of the U.S. this March, starting in Philadelphia on March 6, 2009 at the TLA Theatre. They have stated that these songs are the "danciest, most anthemic, most heartbroken, and honest songs", of their career, and the album itself takes a much more funky, dancy, yet melancholy sound to it, drawing influence from Prince. On May 7, 2009, a song from the album, titled "Skyscrapers", was released for streaming online."

Give it a listen.

The Friendship Stone Power of 2 Giveaway (Closed)

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. - Aristotle

The Friendship Stone is one of those things that you see and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” They recently sent me their Power of 2 (PO2) gift set and both my husband and I loved it. I like that I can keep the stone in the bag on my desk or toss just the stone in my pocket so that every time I reach in my pocket it’s there as a tangible reminder of the other person. It can also serve as a sort of worrystone.

The PO2 comes with two stones, two bags, two blank gift cards and a brochure explaining the meaning and origins of the stones.


All Friendship Stone purchases are “giveback gifts” meaning that 10% of profits go back to Western South African communities where the stones originate as part of Project South Africa. The PO2 also gives back in another way through Big Brothers Big Sisters. Twenty percent of profits go towards BBBS with fifteen percent of that going toward a local agency based on the purchaser’s zip code. These purchases must be made through the Big Brothers Big Sisters-The Friendship Stone site to be eligible.


Cathy Raff is the owner/founder of My Stone Company. This is her story as given to me.

“Cathy Raff was born in Ocala, Florida. She was one of five ‘Cathys’ in her high school and was given the nickname ‘Rafi which has managed to stick still today. A graduate of the University of Texas, with a BA with honors in Journalism with the emphasis in Photojournalism she now owns her own studio in Israel. It is from here that she runs My Stone Company with her best friend and sister, Jill, in New York. The Friendship Stone keepsakes and jewelry that her company produces and sells are more than just giftware, they stand as a symbol of the power of positive thinking and the ability to change your situation.

In her first year of college, Cathy was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitus and on her 21st birthday, had a total colectomy (total removal of the large intestine). Of the ordeal Cathy says ‘I knew this was really my birthday, as I felt re-born on the day after I awoke from surgery.’ Then when she was 31, she met the man of her dreams and married. It took them four years and twelve unsuccessful in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments to start a family. In the end they realized how lucky they were to have an alternative; surrogacy. The following years Cathy and her husband worked with three amazing women who were each incredible and responsible for helping bring the couple three healthy children.

Because she had been medically challenged so many times, Cathy realized the disease she dealt with on a daily basis was actually a gift. Cathy spent quite a lot of time thinking about life and what was important to her. Before her surgery, she had forgotten what life was without pain. She could not imagine what it was like to have energy or even the desire to get up in the morning. Several months after the surgery, all of a sudden, Cathy realized she had not thought about her stomach for over an hour! She started crying tears of disbelief. From that moment on, there has not been a day that she is not aware of the feeling of being pain free.

And in 2004, so began her journey with the friendship stone on a business trip with her husband to South Africa.

There’s much more to Cathy’s story that I am sure she would love to share with you. And the stones themselves have quite a story, too."

Be sure to take a look around the website and read the different stories and see the different ways you can get a friendship stone – as a necklace, as an engraved traveling stone, as a Power of 2 set, and others.

Right now the Friendship Stone would like to give one of my lucky readers a PO2 set. To win:

1. Comment on this post before Thursday, December 31st, midnight central time, and tell me a little about the friend to whom you would give the second stone.

2. You get one additional entry for each social networking site (your blog, Twitter, MySpace, etc.) you post this giveaway on. For Twitter it's as easy as hitting the "Tweet this" button at the bottom right of this post. Come back here and tell me where you posted it.

I will post the winner as we ring in the new year. Good luck!

Dedicated to my sister. I'm still Miss Priss and she still does a darn good imitation of a frog.


This Giveaway is now closed!

I wrote this twice last night and then hit back and lost it. Arrrggghh!

When there are 20-50 comments on a giveaway post it's much easier to choose a winner. But when there are only a few I just want to send one to each of you. :) This time the Magic eightball chose Theresa Rhakov. Send me your mailing address and I'll pass it on to Cathy at The Friendship Stone. Congrats!

Handmade Holidays: IS*LY Christmas Candy Box Printable

Looking for a cute way to package up those handmade treats? Or maybe a gift card with a few little candies? Melissa at IS*LY, I Still Love You, has designed and released her third annual Christmas candy box and it's a definite keeper. Don't forget to grab the previous two as well.

She also has several other freebies and a TON of tutorials so check out the links over in the sidebar. Make sure you hae plenty of time, though, because you *will* be inspired. I guarantee it.

Oh, and if there is ever an award for coolest blog name ever, she has my vote. *grin*