Right now, I'm in the midst of a full-blown knitting addiction. It's bad. To the tune of about $150 in less than a week bad. I've made three trips to stores between Orlando and Cincinnati on my way home from vacation just to buy instructional books, needles and some yarn to play with. You could say I was bit by the bug so to speak. BAD...

Now, I'm on the hunt for the best way to store all of my new goodies. Google has not been my friend in terms of finding knitting totes and/or bags because all sorts of things come up. I remember loving the designs of a tote bag company at TNNA while I was there, but forgot their name. If you know of a cool tote place for knitting goods, please let me know!

Meanwhile, I did notice that we now have this handy dandy Craft Directory at the bottom of every page. If you're looking for a store in a new location or searching for a specific product, it might just have the information you need. I've been browsing it this afternoon and have found a local store that I did not even know existed. I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

If you haven't had a chance, yet, check out the Craft Directory. If you have a store, I'm sure you can contact them to have your information added. It's just one more way to connect all of us crafters!

Ginger

Google has joined with YouTube to bring video interviews and talks with newsmakers, politicians and authors through its Talks@Google program. Fellow Inspiration &Creativity blogger, Jessica, pointed out that Living the Creative Life author, Ricë Freeman Zachary, is a featured speaker. Ricë waxes poetic on what living the creative life means to her and what it can mean to you.

After enjoying the video, pick up your copy of Living the Creative Life in the My Craftivity shop.

–Robin

Real Simple, a favorite magazine of mine, recently released free desktop wallpaper downloads of styled images from the publicaton combined with "Daily Thoughts." Why not log on to a bit of inspiration each day? Choose from 19 and download your favorite, or let them motivate you to make your own with a favorite photo and quote.

What inspires your time at your computer?

Happy Thursday,

Jessica

Tired of your oldie-but-goodie craft books and ready to learn some new techniques? Bored with your iPod playlist and looking for new tunes to create by? Any place where you can swap books and music for free is a place full of endless inspiration ripe for the picking, in my book—and all it costs you is a little bit of time. I recently discovered Swaptree, one such site. With gas at $4/gallon, don’t we all deserve some guilt-free inspiration to fuel our creativity?

Happy Wednesday,
Jessica

I know I normally discuss inspirational pieces, etc., because well...that is what I do. I'm a moderator on the inspiration and creativity board. However, I'm also a coupon clipper and a mom and one of those "frugal" people that you see that takes up 5 minutes in the aisle at Kroger to make sure that I have a double-coupon for that bottle of ketchup that is on sale. Therefore, I have to mention the 40% off discount in the MyCraftivityShop.

Why is that so cool? Well, for lots of reasons and I'll explain my rationale. I was searching through the store today and realized that a lot of upcoming titles have been uploaded with their availability date. Trust me - there are some really smokin' books coming out. What I didn't realize and had confirmed is that the 40% discount ALSO APPLIES to upcoming titles. So - you can PREORDER books like The Naughty Secretary Club, Taking Flight (HELLO! Kelly Rae Roberts people!) and Glam Knits for 40% off the retail price.

Here is the link with the code already built in:

http://www.mycraftivityshop.com/?r=mcweb0608&p=MYCS68

I'm able to provide that because I'm in with the in crowd. :) Any other time I find out about good deals, I will pass them on.

Hope that makes your Friday and happy shopping!

Ginger