Sarahracha rhymes with "Frère Jacques"

Monday, December 21, 2009

Painting the hall

About a month ago I got the idea to re paint my hallway. A friend had just done a remodel and she had a heck of a time deciding on paint colors. She asked me where she could dispose of all these paint samples and I said GIVE IT TO ME! I had all these tiny pots of paint in shades of green and blue and I decided that I could do some sort of mural in my hallway with it. I guess it was about 10 years ago when I last painted my hall. I had done a fantastic natural paint technique in my dinning room where I mixed cinnamon and curry powder with a left over white paint and painted my walls. It smelled so good ! They came out to be what was later called a Tuscan color and texture. I sponged it on, used a dry brush, and also used rags..I made a cute stencil of leaves and olives. This was way before everyone on earth was making and selling olive motifs . I still like my dinning room stencil. It is just one row of olive branches below the green chair rail on the Tuscan yellow walls. I used the same stencil to create cherries and cherry tree leaves all along my hall way. it was cute and I love the colors but it was time for a change.

oct 052
this is the before.

I painted the wall and ceiling a nice blue. I used my friends paint samples and painted circles in a very random pattern all over the walls.
here is the after.
dec 382

i also covered my switch plates with pages from magazines and packaging tape
dec 384

Sunday, October 18, 2009

new item


I am working on some recycled Jewelery. I love making my baskets out of recycled plastic bags but feel like no one is ever going to buy a basket. They make a great subject in a gallery or art show and I have no trouble using them but I don't see them being something anyone ever would search out and buy on etsy. I do want to have some sort of income from my creativity. I have been working the same basket weaving techniques into some simple jewelery. Here is a photo of some bangles I made using PLASTIC. the core is made out of three different sized pieces of plastic needle point canvas arranged to make a pleasing shape. The outer layer is made from strips of plastic cut from last years Disney store Christmas bags. I think they look fantastic. I will work and rework this idea until I perfect this idea and come up with something that looks sleek and elegant. My idea is to make treasure out of garbage, not more garbage out of garbage.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

yeah someone likes me!

I listed my last two swirly boa scarves today. I tend to do one type of project for several weeks and then move on. I am either going to start working on some of my recycled plastic baskets or maybe I will sort through the materials I have gathered in the garden and start weaving baskets out of natural materials. I can make a basket out of natural materials much faster than the plastic recycled ones but then again my plastic stash is ridiculous and really should be tended too. I was surprised to see a contact on twitter mentioned they were going to talk about my baskets on their blog. Awesome! I really needed a lift. I did a search on etsy this morning for boa scarf and found many other people making what I thought was a unique scarf...lol although each of mine are made with several different yarns not just one. Still it sort of blew my idea of only listing things that I am unique in making. So when I saw the tweet from http://twitter.com/MyFreshPicks it really picked me up. Thanks so much for the shout out!
http://freshpickedshopping.blogspot.com/2009/10/recycled-plastic-baskets-by-sarahracha.html#more

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

cool colors scarf


cool colors scarf
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

Autumn Scarf


Autumn Scarf
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

Yarn balls

Over the years I have acquired a giant storage box full of yarn. I spin my own wool , I knit, crochet and weave so anytime I see yarn at a rummage sale or a garage sale I grab it. I was looking through my box of yarn and started matching up colors. Fun to take four or five different yarns and crochet them together into a pleasing scarf that feels and looks like a feather boa. Everyone who sees them loves them so I figured why not add a few to my etsy shop and see if that generates any interest.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

plastic basket


plastic basket
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

plastic basket


plastic basket
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

plastic bag basket


plastic bag basket
Originally uploaded by sarahracha
this one is my biggest yet. it measures 4 inches deep and 12 inches wide. the core used over 100 plastic grocery bags and the otter wrap was made up of one plastic dog food bag cut into strips.

plastic bag basket


plastic bag basket
Originally uploaded by sarahracha
finished another recycled bag basket. this one took me over a month

Friday, April 24, 2009

necklace


sarahracha.etsy.com i have some new jewelry up on my etsy. I have been toying around with stringing beads as a necklace and then going back over the already strung beads with crochet. It looks amazing, is very strong and much more interesting than most just plainly strung necklaces. I think the thing I love the most is they are long enough to wrap around my neck several times and NO CLASP!!!!

Spring is always so busy


I have been busy this spring, I spent a week in San Diego and a long weekend in Seattle. I have been busting my butt in the garden, seems like a real good year for the weeds. I am just getting to put my seedlings into the garden, crafting tons. Working on a basket and have been fooling around with crocheting necklaces. I just love the way they look.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

green sea turtle flying in the palms

just back from 10 dayS in Hawaii. saw this wonderful flying turtle

Saturday, January 31, 2009

jan09 260


jan09 260
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

jan09 264


jan09 264
Originally uploaded by sarahracha
beautiful rescued accidentally felted wool yarn

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

OBAMA

. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers.

finally non believers have been included!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Editing

Life is all about editing.... every day I run a list of things to do through my head, it is a long list. I edit it down to the basics for survival. food, shelter,water. I add in things I want to do,reading, playing, learning, and things that need to be done, cleaning, gardening,gathering, organizing. It is all about editing. We have had several beautiful rare sunny January days which draws me outside where I see so many tasks begging my attention. January is rose pruning month in Northern California. This is not something that I can wait on. It needs to be done NOW. I edit my list, move prune roses to the top. After getting all 33 bushes trimmed. I notice Bermuda grass sitting around in my garden under the freshly trimmed rose bushes. It is trying to blend. I move that towards the top of my list. I sit in the sun, reading the seeds of change catalog. that is the top of my list for this moment. garden porn they should call it.....each page as another new to me photo of some beautifully exotic plant I must have.........I edit. My list for seeds gets longer and longer. I edit it down to what I know we eat,what I have grown successfully and what we buy at the grocery store. I have a small garden. I cant grow everything we eat. Vegetables and flowers have to earn a spot in my well edited garden.........editing...I edit my words, make it simple, make it true. I have thrown words onto my screen and gone back to edit, pruning and sniping until only a few words are left. does it make sense? did I leave in all the important words? did I remove all the misleading ones.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

inaugural invite.....I KNOW!


wine foil garland


wine foil garland
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

wine foil garland hanging on chandelier


jan09 029
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

wine foil garland


wine foil garland
Originally uploaded by sarahracha
we have been saving the tops of wine foils for a few years. this year I decided to make a garland out of them. i spaced them with red wooden beads. I used gold thread. I love the look and the colors