Here’s how it goes:

You bring yourself and some crafty/artsy/handmade thing (which is also reasonably portable) to my house and work on it in the company of others who share a love of making stuff themselves.  Ya dig?

Oh, you’re not working on anything right at this moment?  Come anyway.  I have a room full of craft supplies that I need help using.

Some snacks and beverages will be provided (what kind of hostess do you think I am?) but go ahead and bring something if you’d really like to because that would be really nice.

Thursday, February 24, 6-9 PM.

(Show up around 6ish or later, but not too late because I have to kick everybody out around 9 to put my kid to bed.)

3248 W. Potomac, 2nd floor (top buzzer).

Questions or complaints…malissa.winkowski@gmail.com

Bring your friends.

How ‘bout this weather, hey?  Melt, baby, melt!

Be well, Malissa

Wednesday, February 9, 6 PM til 9 PM.

Craft night.  See previous post for address and contact email.

Mother nature kicked our butts this week.  By this time next week the roads should be drive-able and bike-able, and maybe the sidewalks a little more walk-able.  (I hope.)

Stay warm, 

Malissa

Hi.  Just wanted to let you know that I’ll be crafting it up Wednesday night, snow or no, and you fellow crafty-types are still welcome to join me.  

Wednesday, February 2.

Be at my doorstep 6 PM or after.

3248 W. Potomac, 2nd floor (top buzzer)

Hugs,

Malissa

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

3248 W. Potomac, 2nd floor…top buzzer

(near Kedzie and Division)

Bring whatever crafty craft you’re working on at the moment.  Knit?  Paper arts?Needlepoint?  Circuit-bending?  Bring it and your sweet self for a night of hanging out and making stuff.  

Don’t have a crafty item in the works?  Come over anyway!  I have more yarn than anyone could possibly need, paper, glitter, glue, and a soldering iron that doesn’t get used enough.

Bring a snack to share if you wanna.  Tea, soda, and vegan cookies will be here waiting just for you.

Email me if you have any questions…..malissa.winkowski@gmail.com

Love, Malissa

Class dates and more details to come, but these are some ideas being tossed around.  (Disclaimer: I said they’re “ideas being tossed around” so don’t get all huffy if you get stoked about a class and it doesn’t materialize for a little while.)

Vegan Baking (for those who do or don’t care if it’s got animals in it or not, but just want to learn how to make some delicious sweet snacks).

Finish-in-a-Day Crochet Project Series (a series of three classes)…involving quick projects anybody at any skill level of crochet (even a skill level of zero) can start and actually finish.

Beer Brewing for Beginners.  (Yes, that’s what I said.)

How-to-Make-Something-Amazing Series: Project 1 - Lamp made from industrial materials.

Just to give anybody who gives a hoot an update on what’s cookin’.  Schedule of events and lists of materials needed to participate will be posted soon.  For real.

So here’s the idea.

A bunch of people get together and teach each other how to do stuff.

What kind of stuff?  Well, jeez, that’s where you all come in.

Think big with me here. 

Here’s a thought (the very first thought I had, which sparked this whole thing) :

Kitchen Skillz Nite…gather up a few people who have some kind of culinary specialty to share (bread baking, vegan dessert know-how, grilling techniques, soup making, weekly menu construction…it could be anything) and put the word out, collecting folks who want to learn this or that skill…meet in my kitchen…and we get it done. 

Or how ‘bout this one :

Mister/Miss Fix-it Nite…maybe you know the secret to fixing flat bike tires in a jiffy and wouldn’t mind sharing.  Maybe you know how to re-upholster furniture found in the alley behind your house.  Maybe you know how to change the oil in your car (and where to dispose the old oil, too).  Or maybe you want to learn about this stuff.

Ooh, or maybe :

Better Apartments and Patches of Grass Nite…(okay, that was a lame attempt at a version of “Better Homes and Gardens”…humor is not my forte).  It would be totally sweet if someone could show me how to make a worm compost bin.  Really.  I know the information is out there all over the internet and in real books, but I’d love it if someone could show me how easy it is.  For real.  Or container gardening.  I can do herbs, but vegetables in pots on my front steps just don’t seem to like me.  If someone could explain the mystery of city container gardening, that would be totally rad. 

See where I’m going with this?

It’s a loose framework.  (I like to play things by ear, and I do so love to let things happen organically.)

Tell me what you have to share, tell me what you want to learn.  I’ll set up a schedule of events, you can tell your friends all about it.  We can meet at my house and you can use my space.  People teach stuff, people learn stuff, no pretense, just a buncha people sharing knowledge and maybe even getting to know each other along the way.

In the “ABOUT” section, I wrote out a little thing that mentioned this little endeavor being “Gospel-centered”…let me explain a little.  I was thinking about all the sweet people I know at Missio Dei and how we’re all so talented and gifted in ways that we might not even bother to share with people.  Maybe we could use a platform for sharing these kinds of things.  Maybe we need an outlet to help broadcast what sort of useful skill we have that someone else might want to know more about.  Maybe, right?  This isn’t a bible study group or a big fancy ministry that intends to save the entire city of Chicago through teaching each other how to knit.  This is about community.  It’s about blessing each other with the gifts we got.  And who knows where it can go from there?  We’ll see when we get there.  Calling it “Gospel-centered” helps keep the focus off the individual teacher as the one who possesses knowledge and is set on a pedestal because of it.  We are not meant to gather and hoard anything for the sake of being the only one who knows how to do this or that.  This being a Gospel-centered activity means we have everything in common, even the stuff we know how to do with our hands through the knowledge we have in our brains.   

Contact me if you want in.  Whether you want to share something or simply want to learn, contact me.

Much love,

malissa

malissa.winkowski@gmail.com