Color Me Cool

Today was an interesting day.  The DC area was hit with a tremendous storm yesterday that knocked power out for 1.5 million people.  Our house was affected, though we were pretty lucky that much of the surrounding area was not, so we were able to hit the library and some restaurants.  We were also lucky that our power came back on tonight after only 17 hours.  Many will not be so lucky.  Adding to the misery are the current temps near 100 degrees.  And it's only June.  Sigh.

While I was spending my low-tech day catching up on some magazine reading I came across an interesting ad which I had to wait for power to check out.  Sherwin Williams has a new feature called Chip It! which allows you to create a customized paint chip card based on any image.   Here's how it works.

First, you have to install the Chip It! button on your tool bar (drag and drop, simple).  Then, when you come across an image on the internet that you like (or on your own computer) you click on the Chip It! button and roll over the image.  A chip card will be generated based on the colors in the picture.  Here are some examples on some of my previous blog pictures.

Couple this with the internet's current sweetheart Pinterest and you could really have some fun.  Last week my monthly sewing guild's program was all about color, and I think this might be a great way of creating a color scheme for sewing projects based on images that are pleasing to one's eye.  Try this one out for yourself.  It's easy and free.

I hope wherever you are that you are cool and comfortable (or warm and cozy).  Tonight I have much to be grateful for.  An extra special thanks to all of the hard-working storm crews who are getting my city back on the grid.  And the fire fighters in this country who are working overtime to combat all of the natural disasters.  I wish all of them an extra dose of cool and comfort tonight.

Color Play

Today I share a spot of bright color.  The projects I have been working on recently are not blog-worthy (or picture worthy).  They mostly involve cleaning out closets and entire rooms in my house.  When I moved into my house four years ago I designated one of the basement rooms as a craft room but it has been nothing more than a storage room for all of that time.  Recently I have reached “critical mass”, so to speak.  I am frustrated at my inability to find things I know I own and often resort to buying more since that is easier than unearthing the missing items.  So I have been trying to unpack boxes, create storage and generally whip things into shape in that room.  But like any project, to clean one room usually means to clutter another (I always think of that tile game I played as a kid with one empty space to move tiles to) so this project will take some time to complete.  I’ll post a picture when I am finished.

The colorful bits above, though, are one project I have finished amidst all of the chaos.  Next Wednesday, September 15, I will be teaching the program at my local American Sewing Guild Neighborhood Group meeting.  We will be making kanzashi flowers (you can see some examples by clicking on the Kanzashi tab in my Category listing) and I have been prepping all of the necessary materials.  So this is also a little sneak peek for those of you who are coming to the meeting – these are the fabrics and buttons we will be working with.  I love how these fabrics work together.  They are from Sandy Gervais’ Frolic collection by Moda.

I hope to see lots of you at the meeting next week and look forward to seeing what you create with bits of colored fabric.