Thinking inside out of the Box!

November 15, 2012 / Penny L Howe / 27 Comments

The Cereal Box Doll Bed™

So once upon a time there was a person (me) who noticed that all little girls everywhere had fashion type dolls of a certain size ( a very famous fashion doll), a little bit less than a foot in length (.305 meters). There were/are all sorts of plastic accessories that a person could buy for these dolls but this person (me) noticed that mostly the dolls ended up in the toy box.

Being imaginative this person (okay so you know who it is now lol) decided to come up with an idea for a doll bed that any child with the help of a parent could make (from throw away things found around the house) and then have fun using the bed to play with her fashion dolls.

It took quite awhile for this person to figure out what materials to use and then write directions and create both patterns and a template for the bed, but she did. The frame for the bed takes about an hour to construct.

The Cereal Box Doll Bed™

It is made from 2 cereal boxes, cut and folded in a certain way and then secured with tape and covered with cloth. All the items used to make the Cereal Box Doll Bed™ can be found around most houses everywhere.

The bedding can be leftover cloth material or cut from recycled clothing. The bedspread in the first photo was made using yarn, for most women this is also found around the house. Then came simple and quick ways to make some other pieces of furniture from throw away empty containers (the chair is from a 2 liter bottle – takes about 30 minutes to make).

So what happened to these ideas? As what seems to happen to many of her ideas, life intruded so she put the idea, the template and the instructions away for another time. Perhaps someday…

Thanks for stopping by, remember creativity is always at hand to brighten your day,

~ Penny

Copyright © 2012 by Penny l Howe

The “Left” of Things and Spirals!

October 19, 2012 / Penny L Howe / 54 Comments

Spiraling Leaves

Have you ever noticed that (many) spirals in nature, spiral out from left to right. I do!

Galaxy Spiral

Have you noticed that this is also true in the universe! I notice this too. I am fascinated by spirals and …

I am left-handed! Ambidextrous (either hand) in some cases, but mostly left-handed.

And a little sensitive about the fact that I live in a world where more than 90% of the population is right-handed and sees things from that reference point.

I created the craft of Loopweaving (a method of using yarn where you spiral out to create containers of all sizes).

Loopweaving

I didn’t think about the fact that I Loopweave in a left handed way. My first attempts at showing other people how to loopweave was, let’s just say it did not go well.

Everything I did was reversed from how right-handed people would do the same things. I did try for awhile to teach other people this new craft but sadly it came to naught.

The video of my writing/drawing from a previous post is a mirror image. And because most everyone thinks a person is right handed it was assumed I was writing backwards.

I can in fact write backwards, although not as quickly as the regular way. However I am in very good company (re: historical individuals). Rome erected a sculpture of lefty Leonardo Da Vinci waving his left hand to welcome guests to the city!

Left-hander Elias Howe (no relation to me), who invented the sewing machine; put the needle on the left side of the machine where it remains today!

Lefty musician Jimi Hendrix taught himself how to play the guitar by flipping the right-handed guitar upside down rather than trying to re-string it left-handed.

So I’m comfortable being in good (historical) company: A few more lefties you may have heard of are:

Albert Einstein, Julius Caesar, Aristotle, Neil Armstrong, Henry Ford, Marie Curie, Joan of Arc, Helen Keller, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Peter Paul Rubens, Lewis Carrol, Uhland Ludwig, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Charlie Chaplin, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Chewbacca the Wookie, Celine Dion, Bob Geldof, Annie Lennox, Babe Ruth, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama, Nicole d’Oresme, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Uri Geller, Euell Gibbons, Jean Plantureux, Peter Benchley, Viktoria Stefanov, H.G. Wells, Bruce Jenner, Larry Bird, Randy Johnson (southpaw – big time lol) I saw him pitch, wow!

This is but a handful! Notice there are mathematicians, philosophers, inventors, athletes, writers, heroes, leaders, astronauts, actors/actresses, musicians and so on. Interesting group, huh? My final words on this subject … Vive la différence!

And yes I do love spirals!

Thank you for visiting me today, have a most excellent weekend!

~ Penny

Loopweaving

July 25, 2012February 25, 2014 / Penny L Howe / 57 Comments

Hi everyone, just when you think you’re beginning to figure me out I introduce something else new into the mix. But that’s me.

Colors fascinate me. All colors. Shapes of things fascinate me also. And then you have the patterns within the shapes. I’m guessing the reason nature is so infinitely beautiful to me is that it is such a myriad of colors, shapes and patterns all blended in a seemingly never-ending variety of things that become beautiful in their appearing simplicity.

Now there’s a thought, complex simplicity. Nature at it’s finest. Every outdoor photographer understands this. Every artist that’s every put paint to a canvas, pencil to a paper, digital imagery to a screen and so forth. We get it. It really is about all those, colors and shapes that fascinate.

One day I picked up yarn and without really knowing what I was doing I began to play around. Using one or more strands of yarn of varying colors and texture using only the hook that is normally used for crocheting I began to (for want of a better word) weave, single loops inside of other single loops, something simple but lovely. The first pattern was simple swirls.

And then I discovered I could actually weave different patterns with the loops depending on were I pulled the yarn through the next loop.

Okay, So now I’m really beginning to have fun here. After I realized by lessening the number of loops I could create sides I was really excited. From then on my creative nature really took over.

On and off in my spare time I crafted a variety of containers. One thing led to another and after a few years of crafting in my spare time mostly, I came up with something I call loopweaving. The photo’s you are viewing are a few of my creations. I hope you enjoy them.