Have you checked out LensHero yet? If not you should. I ran across it by accident killing time the other afternoon and was pretty impressed. It's a fairly straight forward system to help you choose a lens (or several) that fit your budget and your camera system. You can filter them by style of lens (macro/zoom/etc) or have the system suggest something for you. The results are nicely done and include photos of the lenses, your typical specs (aperature/stops), and weight/size information. The page for an individual lens has linked reviews and more technical information. The only thing they don't seem to offer is telling them what you have and suggesting lenses that would fill in the holes in your system, or a space to share photographs taken with a particular lens to get an idea of what's possible. Overall? I think my wallet may get a little lighter now that I've discovered more lenses than I knew existed for my camera. LensHero has the foundations of what looks like it's going to be a great site. They're also giving away some nice lenses and toys to kick off the launch of the site- but be quick. The contest ends on the 23rd though, so be quick.

For those of you that have been following me for a while- I spent some time writing tutorials for Instructables.com and really enjoyed it. I received an email a few weeks ago from one of the editors, wondering if she could use two of my older projects (fusible binding and color picking 101) for a potential ebook project.

And it's available now as an epub through the itunes store. (If you have a reader but epubs don't work for you- think about trying calibre, a free ebook organizer and converter.) You can also see the other projects in the book by vising this page at instructables. Thanks for including me with some other great projects, there are definitely some I want to try!

I need to start writing more- I've been neglecting this space a lot, and in truth I just don't have the same time I used to for making things. My dissertation and research have been taking up the largest portion of time, but as some of you know I stopped eating both gluten and most dairy a few years ago and my life has changed drastically when I no longer have access to convenience type foods. I'm now making and cooking almost everything I put in my mouth, and while it's a wonderful way to live it cuts hugely into my available time. I had originally started this writing to try and document my crafting and making, and at the time I was actively selling things on Etsy. That too has unfortunately fallen short.

I'm planning on re-purposing this space a bit, and starting to talk about some of the other adventures in "making" I've been working on. I've got several posts I'm working on about projects I've been involved in and some cool photography stuff. If you're still reading, I hope you'll stick with me.

I know it's still cold in many other parts of the country, but here in southern Louisiana it feels like it's almost summer already. I'm getting a late start due to lots to do at work, but I've been spending evenings in the garden to try and get some vegetables started. I started seeds last week with little peat pots, but the place where I've bought them before was out this weekend when I went to buy more. My neighbor helped me and we made tons of newspaper seed pots (I didn't write a tutorial but you can find one here). I used a $1 bud vase from walmart instead of a toilet paper tube, but it's the same principle.



I'm excited- having someone co-garden this year has energized me to really get going. We started 29 different things and still have a handful of seed packets to get to, but it's going to be grand (and a whole pantry full of canned food for the winter). My fig tree I was given last year has a whole 3 figs on it as well!

So I've been far far away mentally and had mostly stopped blogging. I had started this site as a way to keep up with my crafty projects, and in the past two years I haven't been crafting very much. Life's been busy and graduate school has moved from time consuming to life consuming- but blogger has been calling to me...

I keep meaning to update and write, but then I have to decide whether it's crafty enough. And I just haven't had the time to write when I've actually made something. I'm hoping in the next few weeks and months to try and write more about what's going on around me in life. There have been several life changes that have eaten into my crafting time, and I'm going to start trying to incorporate those into this writing. I found out I needed to eat gluten free several years ago, and time that previously went to crafty pursuits was consumed by learning about new flours, new ingredients, and making almost everything that goes into my mouth. About that same time I moved into a new house, by myself, and now have a yard and house to take care of!

I've been inspired by Mallory over at Miss Malaprop and Becky at Artsy-Crafty Babe who are both fellow Louisiana girls I've met in person that seem to always find time to share, even though their lives are as crazy as mine!

Expect to see some changes, and I can't wait to hear what you think.