I was thrilled to be invited to take part in an art doll round robin with eight other doll artists, Coolaberration 2009. It is just beginning. My doll start and journal head off tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest. I'm planning on including at least one recycled element in my work on each project. For my doll start I used a selection of vintage fabrics and remnants to make a patchwork base for embellishment. In addition to using recycled paper in my printers, I used recycled cereal boxes and other grocery food packaging for the foundation of the journal.

Spent the day working with Jayn and her friends on a fun kid's craft project making miniature village buildings from recycled cereal box cardstock. How to's will be on the Natural Life Magazine website in Fall, with downloads available when the template designs are tweaked a bit more. But we had a lot of fun with the prototypes today. In the mean time the latest July/August issue out shortly will have an article by me about plarn.

Whipped up some crochet friendship bracelets out of beads and leather thonging for Jayn's dance class friends. Tomorrow is the annual recital, then we break for the summer.

I've become fanatical about finding crafty uses for odd packaging, particularly when it's made of plastic that doesn't have a recycling symbol on it. Jayn and I are building a space ship, out of all kinds of things. I'm working on an article about how I reuse every single bit of the package that becomes foundation of these garlands. The rings are about 2 inches diameter...stay tuned.