So much good stuff coming up this week!

Do you know about Maya*Made? Maya Donenfeld is the purveyor of this wonderful blog of crafting, cooking, DIY, and general creativity. Her blog dates back to March of 2008, where she wrote of helping redesign the Mama Goose retail shop and entering two reinvention competitions, one with the local Sew Green, and the other with Design*Sponge, an internationally recognized design blog. She soon found herself to be one of the rockstars of the green crafting world, with a book to write (Reinvention - still in print!), kids to raise, a home to orchestrate. Through all that and then some, she continues to live a fruitful creative life, constantly updating her blog with projects and process, becoming a popular craft instigator and a teacher in demand at some of the most prestigious craft and fiber retreats. Her blog continues to be widely read and inspiring.

Knowing all of this about Maya, I was a little intimidated to reach out to her about teaching at Craftstitute. Which was silly, as I should know having followed her blog for years. She is one of the kindest, most generous souls I've had the pleasure to meet, and she was keenly interested in what we've got going on since her life doesn't allow her as much time for traveling to teach.

I am super thrilled that she has offered to teach two classes for us. Next week, she'll be walking us through the process of sewing rope baskets. If you've been following her blog or on Instagram, you know she's been a little preoccupied with this material and it's possibilities. It's been a lot of fun to watch her work evolve, and she'll have a lot of tips to share for creating pleasing shapes and working with this unwieldy material. Come try it out! She'll also be teaching a class reinventing those old t-shirts you have shoved into the back of the drawer into a super summer skirt in June. This is a skill well worth learning, otherwise they'll just wind up as paint rags, like at my house.

However, rags are not so bad if you can turn them into paper, which is what book artist Laura Rowley will be doing on Sunday. Bring your 100% cotton tees, jeans, anything you don't mind cutting up to become paper. It's sure to be a fantastic class, learning the process!

Don't forget about learning to make natural home cleaning products on Saturday morning with Hannah Wortman and painted floorcloths with Mary Beth Ihnken next Tuesday!! Here's a time warp moment: Mary Beth featured on Maya's blog painting the Mama Goose logo outside the building.

Papermaking, Rope Baskets, Natural Cleaning Products and More