The Nettle Knitter

A few from my first ever batch of home-made soaps, made with butter, jojoba oil and almond oil. They work great as shampoo, too - no need for conditioner. The oils have simply regenerated my hair, all torn after exposed to the dry indoors air during the winter. They work great as a make-up remover, too.  I guess these are a 5-in-1  product. I remilled some of them with rosemary powder and essential rose oil.

I made this necklace using some of the buttons from Lisa, on a velvet ribbon to which I have attached the buckle of the leather strap of a watch I had in elementary school. The biggest button with rhinestones, though, was mine, from my grandma's stash.

Markers on gessoed muslin stitched to crocheted pendant. Available for commissioning. Just name the bird (or any other animal, drawing, portrait) and the color of the yarn.

Lately I have been following a few wonderful crafting blogs. Most of them are, of course, nature-inspired. One of them belongs to Lisa Jordan at Lil' Fish Studios. I share her passion for natural materials, especially wood and wood products. And buttons! One day she hosted a giveaway of thrifted buttons, sold by the pound on one of her Etsy shops (they're gone now!). I didn't win the giveaway but I helped her destash her button supply anyway. She sent me a pound ofunsearched buttons in a nice linen bag, along with a lovely buttons-and-felt brooch.

I managed to put together a few pairs and sets and even quite a big mother-of-pearl set, much to my joy. But the whimsical mismatched ones too put a big smile on my face.

Here are my oohs and aahs:

The colorful ones:

The big and plain ones:

The flowery ones:

The bejeweled ones:

The beady ones:

The alien family:

The porcelain and glass ones:

The bezels:

The peaky ones:

The antique/antiquated ones:

The geometric ones:

The coat-of-arms, stamped ones, anchors, cars and shells:

The fabric-covered ones:

The omnipresent fake leather knots:

The "motley crew":

Bone and tortoise:

Mother-of-pearl:

The beads and rhinestones I found:

The sets:

They sparked quite a few ideas on how to use them, not to mention the cheer of discovery. Thank you, Lisa!