three bags full

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Loved Elizabeth Alexander’s poem, didn’t love the delivery. I realize that it is a rhetorical style quite common to recited poetry, but I always feel that it is alienating, and takes away from the work.

Anyway, you can listen to her talk about “how the Derek Walcott-toting, June Jordan-quoting president will affect poets and poetry” on the Poetry Foundation website.

» Help Jennifer Marsh make a tree!

If you craft with any sort of fibers, or can imagine crafting with any sort of fibers, consider making a 5x7 inch leaf for the tree Jennifer Marsh is constructing in Hunstville, AL. I’ll put up a picture when I make one!

See?! Office Supplies really ARE magical…

I have an ideal writing routine that I’ve never experienced, which is to have, say, nine uninterrupted days when I wouldn’t have to leave the house or take phone calls. And to have the space—a space where I have huge tables. I end up with this much space [she indicates a small square spot on her desk] everywhere I am, and I can’t beat my way out of it.

— Daily Routines: Toni Morrison

Our Family Sticker

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

sewing kit pic via craftystylish.com by oldsian, on Flickr

Craftystylish has interesting craft tutorials, often incorporating recycled materials. I would have effin’ flipped a shit over this as a kid — I loved small tins and boxes that had been emptied of their originally intended contents, and I loved sewing kits. I probably would’ve painted the whole exterior of the tin with nailpolish in swirly designs.

Who am I kidding? I would effin’ flip a shit to have this thing now. Ohhhh, wait…

- via Cast On

Watching Rachel John of Extreme Textiles knit this piece is the most fascinating and frustrating part of the video. Watch how physical it is!

Up early with sinus congestion and a sore throat. I was thinking last night that I want to weave myself a big-ass throw-sized scarf. This is the latest Threadbangers video, which shows you the most basic way to weave without fancy equipment.

"Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor"

On Sept. 29, a day the stock market plunged sharply, Etsy, the leading Web marketplace for handmade goods, had record sales. In November and December, the site has continued to break records. Last month, artists sold $10.8 million of goods on Etsy, up from $4.2 million in November 2007. Some 135,000 people signed up for Etsy memberships and sellers listed 1.1 million new items, both figures more than double the same month last year.

— For Craft Sales, The Recession is a Help