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Beach lovers can celebrate the official beginning of summer at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, where families and friends come together each year to celebrate Memorial Day.

Sandestin is hosting a great line up of Memorial Day free events. Join the fun at The Village of Baytowne Wharf beginning Friday, May 23 through Memorial Day, Monday May 26.

    -   On Saturday and Sunday, children can cool off on the Roaring River
        Slide in the Village from 10 am to 8 p.m.
    -   At 6 p.m. each evening, bring the kids for crafts and sandcastle
        building until 9.

    -   On Friday, bring a blanket and come out and watch the movie "Hannah
        Montana" under the stars, where 3-D glasses will be provided.
    -   Additional events include live music on Friday and Saturday from
        Coconut Radio, a three piece acoustic group.
    -   On Saturday, listen to a Pops concert 8 p.m. in cooperation with the
        Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra Guild.
    -   On Sunday, don't miss the annual Memorial Day Weekend Fireworks
        extravaganza at 9:15 p.m.
    -   The extended weekend concludes on Monday at 2:30 p.m. with a 30-
        minute program to salute veterans.

Admission to all events are free. Sandestin also offers a terrific value on overnight accommodations including a 25 percent discount on selected room types, plus other free offers like two free zipline passes or even free breakfast for two with overnight accommodations at the Bayside Inn. Call 1-866-91-BEACH or book online for additional savings at www.sandestin.com. Please mention codes 2292ET or 2292EU.

There are many benefits of staying at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort including many free amenities including bike rental, complementary tennis, kayaks, canoes, boogie boards, fitness center for adults, and resort tram transportation. Beautifully appointed accommodations range from studios hotel rooms with a mini fridge and microwave to condos, villas and houses will full kitchens and dining rooms.

Sandestin is a 2,400-acre destination resort for all seasons and for all ages on Northwest Florida's Gulf Coast. Sandestin invites guests to a world of 30 charming neighborhoods featuring 1,600 condominiums, villas, town homes and a wide variety of hotel accommodations like no other Destin vacation rentals. A member of the Beaches of South Walton, the resort has more than seven miles of sugar white sand beaches and pristine bay front, four championship golf courses, 15 world-class tennis courts, 19 swimming pools, a 98-slip marina, a fitness center and spa, and 65,000 square feet of meeting space. Also at Sandestin is the Village of Baytowne Wharf, the pedestrian village featuring boutique shops, casual and fine dining restaurants and nightlife venues. Sandestin is part of Intrawest, a world leader destination resorts.

SOURCE Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort

Chinese New Year is coming right up, and round the world, celebrations will include colorful dragons.This class made their own, and you can do it too.

Fabric from plastic bottles? Imagine that!

In one of the most constructive recycling ventures, used soda and water bottles are now being used to create a fantastic hemp blend in 5 luscious colors. Have a look.

This one's for the hip cafe lovers - a stylish holder designed by Drew Emborsky. Watch what he has to say about his crochet journeys.

Make sure all your creations earn credit for you with your own specially created fabric labels. This way of making tags is so easy, I'm off to print up mine.

Recycling plastic always gets a thumbs up in my book. This delightful mirror frame is made up of bits and pieces of old plastic.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Quilting teachers Judy Sisneros and Susie Ernst will be following this maxim when they travel to Cambodia as part of the 2009 Stitches of Hope Cambodia initiative. Judy and Susie will teach hand quilting to young girls who have been rescued from the slave trade.

    If you are interested in helping with this effort, Judy is looking for assistance in providing the girls with sewing kits, fabrics and sewing machines. Any money raised for the trip will be used to purchase supplies, fabrics, batting, and pay for translation expenses. All donations are fully tax deductible.

With fancy cables and tricky lace being all the rage, stitch markers are crucial tools in knitting. Get some of these cute ones for a sweetie who knits, or better still, get some for yourself to use on your needles as you knit those intricate socks for a loved one.

The first whole week of the New Year! We all definitely want to start this Monday off on the right foot.

One of my primary goals this year is to get my rather disorganized stash straightened out and pared down. I would like to point all you fellow stashaholics out there to this brilliant primer on how to get started.

The New Year is a good time to make resolutions, to chart out the year ahead. I usually have a list of projects I would like to work on during the year, and a list of personal challenges. Between these two, I end up acquiring some new skills or polishing a few old ones.

For the embroiderers amongst us -  Pfaff has announced an Art Embroidery Challenge 2009 with a deadline of May 15.

The Challenge is open worldwide and will be judged by an international jury. The works are  to be created on a home sewing machine using either freehand embroidery or/and embroidery software, with the theme "Let us travel".

The results of this biennial competition will first be exhibited at THE KNITTING & STITCHING SHOW 2009 in London and will then travel to be presented in other places around the world.

The grand prize is a PFAFF® CREATIVE VISION™, sewing and embroidery machine and the PFAFF® creative 4D™ Embroidery System, valued at about US $11,000.

Get the details and sign up here.

Knitting has now entered the big leagues, and how! Check out the knitted furniture they have come up with.

The Melbourne Craft Cartel suggests we all get crafty to help patch up economic woes. The cartel has come out with an alternative gift buying guide, with plenty of ideas for holiday gifts that don't cost the planet or our communities.

Can this make a difference? See for yourself -

- For every $100 spent at a locally owned business $45 goes back into the community and our tax base. For every $100 spent at a chain store only $14 comes back.

- Small local businesses are the largest employer in Australia. Every $1million spent locally equals 14 jobs!

- Non-profit organizations receive 250% more support from small local businesses than from large businesses. So if you support local business you support local causes too!

- Local business are more likely to purchase goods and services from other local businesses which dramatically reduces transport costs, one of the biggest causes of climate change.

- Handmade goods are more likely to include recycled materials which reduces the need for landfills

- Handmade goods are unique, high quality and set trends rather than following them!

Spaghetti isn't just for eating. Take a look at what people have been doing with it.

No it's not an alien. This is one of the entries in the Puppet Contest 2008: A Space Odyssey.
Take a peek at all the other wonderful entrants and the winners.

Actual used soccer balls can make spiffy bags for the jock - turned inside-out, lined with pockets, they can be handy too.

The brave can venture forth to make their own.

These little gems do credit to that king of kitsch, Andy Warhol himself. See how they are made, and you will soon start buying stuff for the tags :).

Whether you are a crafter or not, recycling yarn makes sense in more ways than one. It is not just frugal, it is also "green".

Learn how to identify the best sweaters for frogging, and check out different ideas for using the recycled yarn. If you are not very crafty, get a friend or member of the family to do it for you.

Sweater Surgery by Stephanie Girard is packed with lots of creative ideas for cutting up and recycling sweaters into clothing and home decor items. 


You can also  use this great tutorial in how to 'deconstruct' a sweater to recycle the yarn. 

Browse through thrift stores for sweaters or accessories with yarn you can unravel, or motifs you can use to make garlands or bags. 

Most of us have a favorite art and craft resource book, and some of us may have thought of sharing our work and techniques in one.

Crafty Pod's Dianne talks to two enterprising crafters, Christina Loff of Chronicle Books and literary agent Kate McKean, to find out what it takes to publish a craft book.

Many informative links, and some inspiring interviews you can listen to as you work.

No more spray paint cans - enter yarn and knitting needles. The very latest in chic urban graffiti.

Mark Lauckner, artist in glass, has created these delightful slugs that would look great among your plants or just sitting around.

Take a look at how he makes them.

Gasp! What an accusation! and leveled at one of the greatest artist's of all time!

Wait, it's not quite what you think it is.

Original Composition is a subject that has created much angst for artists over time - innovation is held to be the primary element of creativity.

Three Paris Museums have collaborated on "Picasso and the Masters",  showcasing the artist's predilection to rework themes, compositions, techniques and color schemes from other artists.

Read Picasso: The Fine Art of Theft, for more on this. And learn how to learn from the Masters from a Master himself.

Crafting is not just for grannies any more. In the last decade, young girls and (gasp!) guys have started playing too.

Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood writes about stuntman and expert embroiderer Rocky Hardcore. Don't miss the video clip where Rocky talks about his art.

Here's a chance to have a brand new one of a kind quilt on your bed. Click over to Simplify and have a shot at winning one made up by Camille Roskelley. Be sure to enter before November 24.

In today's frenetic pace of life, the holiday season is when most of us pause to share our blessings.

Take a look at Mama to Mama, a new site started by Amanda Blake Soule devoted to crafting for charity. 

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and so is the traditional Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Take an inside look at what goes into designing a float for the parade.

The Washington Post Food Section just crowned  Georgetown Cupcake the best of all cupcake shops. With each delicious offering an artistic creation, it's no wonder they won. 

I am a few hours late checking in today, because, like a great many other people, I was glued to my TV watching history being made - Barack Obama has just been elected President of the United States. This moment is being heralded as epoch-making, the arbiter of change and a new tomorrow.

Change, the one constant. And this change is elemental to art. From the beginnings of time, humans have resorted to artistic expression to document change - to preserve the old and envision the new. Societies and cultures who have traveled a volatile roller coaster of change have been more nurturing of original thought and art. There is something abandoned about uncertainty and anticipation that gets the creative juices flowing.

Here's hoping that this change reaches out to all the World, and ushers in an era of artistic sumptuousness.

Ahaa! So most of you may have noticed that Craft's Cool looks different today, That's because we are now using a new blogging system.

Ever since computers entered the field of design, it has become stunningly easy to change the look of things. Innumerable tools and options can be used to create complete makeovers, with the convenience to preview it all before decision time. And you can repeat the process any number of times.

I know several artists who get all this technology to work for them in their "real world" makes. Color, texture, and profile options can be worked out and compared easily with no commitment of materials. Once a satisfactory arrangement is arrived at, it can be executed with aplomb.

Hmmm, I would say we have indeed come a long way, baby!

Becky Nealis is a quilter who make purses and bags out of old fabric sample books. She gets the books from a local re-upholstery shop. Most of these stores just throw out their old or out-dated  swatch books. What a wonderfully creative way to reuse this wonderful fabric and make something that people can use.

Zippers are So-oOO utilitarian, but who would have thought they would make up into such pretty corsages?

Apples, Blackberries, and now the mighty Pomegranate... creative design often falls back to Nature for inspiration.

For all the design freaks and gadget geeks out there.

Dress up your little pumpkin for trick-or-treating.

Here is a neat little drawing robot that kids could put together themselves. A great design to help design.

Snap is a sculpted, cast, molded puppet. Find out how he is made.

Learn how to use your embroidery hoops effectively with your sewing machine.  Sign up for September's Pfaff chat.

Somemono is the ancient Japanese craft of dyeing cloth, silk, linen and other materials.

In the traditional method, dyes from local plants are used. The distinctive indigo dye is prepared by stewing clippings from locally grown ao, or indigo, in a large ceramic urn, placed in a covered area and buried to the brim in the earth, and maintained at a constant and proper environment.

Have you recently created a work of art that you would like to share with others? You can do so at the Craftown community.

Do you collect antique toys? You mave have a few that are missing some parts. This Board can help you locate them, and also provide valuable information on your collection.

Manga and Anime are recently popular artforms emerging from Japan. Manga are Japanese comics, and Anime is the Japanese version of animation. Anime is usually, but not always, the animated version of popular manga

Japan has had a long history of line drawings and cartoon art, with humorous ink drawings of animals and caricatured people from hundreds of years ago.  The simple lines and stylized features are still evident in modern day Manga, although there is also a Chinese and later Western influence. Osamu Tezuka, the "father" of modern manga, was influenced by Disney and Max Fleisher.

Japanese Manga and Anime cover a gamut of topics catering to all sorts of people. The realities of life, emphasis on a work ethic, and positive attitude to technology are all explored in detail. Manga are usually the vision of a single writer.
The unique Japanese Manga and Anime visual style is distinctive and fairly easy to recognize. Within a broad common stylistic ground, each Manga artist's technique is distinct and unique. The stereotype is of characters with huge hair and large eyes, but there are many, many variations, from L. Matsumoto's seemingly unevenly drawn squash-shaped "ugly" protagonists, to the soft-edged figures in Miyazaki's work. Gender stereotypes are uncommon, and characters tend to have unique and aesthetic tastes in fashion.

The best Manga and Anime are truly creative works of Art.

A walk through the making of a Grandfather's clock.

The winners of the Butternut Challenge have been announced and here they are!

Newbie 1st place winner is Mimo Wiseman
N10   http://butternut1.homestead.com/Newbie6.html

Newbie 2nd place winner is Lee Barker
N9     http://butternut1.homestead.com/Newbie5.html


Advanced 1st place winner is Joyce Shehi
A12   http://butternut1.homestead.com/advanced12.html

Advanced 2nd place winner is Cindi Goodwin
A7     http://butternut1.homestead.com/advanced7.html


Professional 1st place winner is Brenda Arnold
P1     http://butternut1.homestead.com/professional.html

Professional 2nd place winner is Sandy Bruggink
P2     http://butternut1.homestead.com/professional2.html

The Knutsford tapestry is an amazing effort by the good citizens of Knutsford to preserve their community's heritage. Take a closer look at this special work of art.

Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. A sheet of paper, generally square, is folded and creased in a specified manner to achieve a given result.

Traditional Japanese origami originated several hundred years ago, and was a less stringent art where papers of different shapes were used, and even cut if desired. During the last century, the practice of origami was given new shape and direction, mainly by Japanese artist Akira Yoshizawa. Various forms of the art emerged, including the modular, kirikomi, purist and pureland forms. Wet-folding techniques were further developed to allow shaping of curves.

Today a variety of papers and other materials are used in origami, depending upon the techniques to be used and the desired effects. Normal copy paper is used for simple folds, and heavier weight paper for wet-folding. Special origami paper called "kami”, which is usually colored on one side and white on the other, is also used. Two colored and patterned versions are used for certain models. Origami paper weighs slightly less than copy paper, making it suitable for a wider range of models. Foil-backed paper and tissue foil are suitable for complex models. Artisan papers such as unryu, lokta, hanji, gampi, kozo, saa have long fibres and are often extremely strong and allow intricate modelling.

Techniques of origami find also place in mathematical and scientific models, as in the deployment of large solar panel arrays for space satellites. 

Dollmakers love to play. And when there is a challenge going, they outdo themselves.

The members of  the group Clothdollmaking have been celebrating summer with their latest challenge, Butternut.

The pattern for the Butternut Challenge is one that has been generously shared by
Shashi Nayagam from the UK. Shashi is this year’s big winner at Houston, where her exotic and ethereal Apsara captivated all!

Butternut is a simple but eye-catching doll inspired by the common garden squash! But then Shashi has always been one to look to her garden for inspiration. Check out her Fuchsia and Citronella.

A great many ladies from the group have surpassed themselves in this challenge, a few of them inspired enough to come up with several entries and advanced modifications.

Harvest hour for the Butternuts. Take a look at the pretty squashes and pick your favorite. I will bring you an update as soon as the group moderator, Phyllis Robinson, announces the winners.

Art and design play a fundamental role in almost every aspect of our lives today. Even articles we use in our day-to-day routines, from the mundane milk carton to the marvellous, mean machines of Formula One racing, are specially designed to achieve aesthetic and functional efficiency.

Grafitti Art.

And some of us like to leave our stamp on this earth!