Catherine M. OBrien

Please help find Dakota!

May 18, 2012 By Catherine Leave a Comment

5/18/2012: MISSING TEEN ALERT: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania -- Dakota Tegtmeier (16) has been missing from the Penn Manor area since 5/14/2012. He is 5'7" and weighs 135 pounds. His hair is long and black and his eyes are brown. He has an eyebrow ring. He may have been wearing a black hoodie and a black cap. If you see Dakota, please call Manor Township Police Department at (717) 299-5231 or dial 911. SOURCE: Posted by request of Dakota's family

PLEASE help us find this kid. I know him personally. His mother is a dear friend of mine and she is living through hell not knowing where her kid is! Repost, pass it on!

He WILL be found! So Mote It Be!

Filed Under: News

How to Succeed in Business (With Trying, but Not Too Hard)

February 29, 2012 By Catherine

I received another “reverse cold call” today — a call from a potential client who got my name from someone and is interested in working with me. Someone asked how do I do it. Positive attitude has something to do with it, but these are the things I’ve noticed that seem to help me manifest work…sometimes more than I can handle.

Step one: get a reputation.

No, not like the one I had in High School, although that certainly does get you calls. Just not ones that make you money. Reputation means keeping the right people happy, making sure you are reachable and responsive, and that you know your shit.

Step two: specialize.

If you can’t fit everything you do on a readable business card, you’re doin’ it wrong. Specializing in two or three specific skills also makes it easier to know your shit, which helps with your reputation. Stay on top of these things.

Step three: network.

Don’t drink more than one at networking events. Be memorable for the right reasons. You don’t have to chatter on about your work, but you want people to remember your name. Be friendly, don’t make a goal of getting a business card in every hand there, focus on making key connections with a few people who can be really useful.

Step Four: share the wealth.

Since you specialize in two or three things, when you get a call for something you *don’t* do, pass it on to a networking buddy who *does* do it right away. This helps to build goodwill among your peers and with any luck they will do the same for you. It also helps with reputation if you point people to good resources when you cannot help directly!

Step Five: get an awesome assistant.

There are some things you’ll have to get done that you just plain suck at. Find someone to help who doesn’t suck. This will help immensely with reputation, and free you up to do what you do best.

Filed Under: Business

Crochet Skills

January 29, 2012 By Catherine

Kind of simple and boring, so I put a flower clip on it. Because I didn't have a bird.

Since I’ve been doing s a few projects requiring crochet skills, I decided to brush up on them with a couple of simple projects using yarn I had “laying around”. I made this simple cap with mostly double and triple stitches, in the round, and some decreasing. I forgot the you should really start a cap at the top, so I kind of worked backwards, but it worked.

I’ve also discovered that Kitteh is very much a “ball of yarn” kind of kitteh. I will have to get photos of that as it is quite amusing. I know not to let her around the yarn unattended, though, and keep my projects in a box when I’m not around. I know too many people who have spent thousands getting yarn cut out of cat bellies.

Bridal Tulle (the fine gauge stuff) makes a good everyday scrubbie. For a tough scrubber, you'll want to use the coarser netting.

I also made another set of scrubbies from a roll of that bridal tulle I had laying around. This time, I got the “in the round” right and they are all a nice, flat circle about 4″ in diameter. It seems like one roll of bridal tulle, cut in half (that’s the PITA part) makes 5 of these almost exactly. Now I just need to learn to work the saw so I can cut the roll in half quickly!

Filed Under: Crafts & Sewing, Upcycle

The bag o’ bags

January 25, 2012 By Catherine

Oh my crochet skills are weak!

is complete! Towards the end of the project I was literally scrounging around the house looking for two more plastic bags! Something I was swimming in when I started.

If you are looking to upcycle a huge stash of bags in a somewhat useful way, this is a great project. All you need is:

A bunch of plastic “t-shirt” bags
Scissors (or cut with a straightedge and a rotary cutter, like I did)
A large crochet needle
Patience

You can find the basic directions for turning bags into “yarn” here. Here are a few project patterns. I kind of winged it.

My crochet skills were somewhat lacking when I started; aside from the scrubbies I made the other day I hadn’t crocheted in years. Nonetheless, I think it turned out ok. I would like to make another, so I’m putting out a call for plastic bags!

Egyptian Grocery Bags

While I was hunting down bags, I found these two from my trip to Egypt. I held them out because I really want to keep the printing on them. Maybe these are good for a fused project?

Filed Under: Upcycle

Too much tulle!

January 20, 2012 By Catherine

For some odd reason, I have a great deal of tulle laying around. Some is the kind that comes on bolts like fabric, buhave also have several spools of the 6″ wide bridal ribbon kind. I’m not entirely sure where these came from; they aren’t from my wedding. Anyway, I’m trying to use supplies I have in the house before Irun to the store, so I started hunting for tulle crafts.

I found this pattern for crocheted tulle scrubbies. I had one of these from a craft show, and it was great! Sadly, my crochet skills pretty much end at granny squares, so I ended up going in a slightly different direction. Here’s my new scrubby:

Filed Under: Crafts & Sewing

Begin the Kombucha experiments!

January 19, 2012 By Catherine

About a week ago I found myself absolutely craving a Garbanzo Grill burger and Jon’s amazing home brewed kombucha tea. Unfortunately, this little gem of a food stop is on the other side of the country from me.

Jon is in the process of preparing to ship his burgers, which will be a start. (Although it’ll never be quite the same as nibbling on one under that big old oak(?) tree.) But I can get kombucha down at the health food store and….

Nah, still not the same. So I decided to try my hand at it. With a little help from my friends, I found several online how-tos, went to Cliftonatty and got myself a nice big bottle of live culture tea, and am starting a SCOBY. Here’s a photo of what it looks like after 5 days, with a little added sweet tea.

Filed Under: Food

Take that, Her$hey’s!

January 12, 2012 By Catherine

Last night I made the Chocolate Sauce recipe I found here. I love to make syrups, flavored and otherwise, and thought this would be a wonderful replacement for the HFCS loaded stuff that comes in a plastic squeeze bottle.

½ cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Mix the cocoa powder and the water in a saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve the cocoa. Add the sugar, and stir to dissolve. Boil for 3 minutes over medium heat. Be careful not to let it get too hot and boil over! Add the salt and the vanilla. Let cool. Pour into a clean glass jar, and store in the refrigerator. Keeps for several months, but trust me it will be gone before then. Yields two cups.

From: Amy Dacyczyn’s The Complete Tightwad Gazette

Tried it today, drizzled over my favorite additive free coffee ice cream. As George Takei would say, “Ohhhh Myyyyy!”

Filed Under: Food

Nifty Knickers

January 11, 2012 By Catherine

Lace Knickers

A few months ago I bought some wide (6″) stretch lace “trim” from Sew Sassy Fabrics. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but I found that it does make some very easy panties! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crafts & Sewing, Quick project

Fleece Socks

January 9, 2012 By Catherine

Fleece Socks!

This has got to be my favorite and most repeated project in a long long time. I made everyone on my list these warm, cozy socks for holiday gifts. Here are some of the reasons why this is an awesome project:

You can make it with a standard sewing machine; no serger needed! You could probably even hand-stitch pretty easily if you are adept at whipstitch. I did make these once with a serger and found the seams invasive. A medium to large zig-zag stitch makes a much more comfortable seam.
This is definitely a remnant project. You need about 1/2 yard length of polar fleece for 2-3 pairs of socks, and that’s only for the long front portion. Since fleece remnants at JoAnns are usually 50% off whatever the current fleece price is, you can get these really cheap when fleece is on sale!
It’s also a great way to use those weird pieces left over after making pants and dolman-sleeve tops.
This is a sew in one hour project once you’ve drafted the pattern pieces. I’ve made so many that I usually whip a pair out in 30 minutes now.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Crafts & Sewing, Quick project, Remnant Projects

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