The Alchemist Diaries

ABOUT

Welcome to my cozy blog. My name is Christie, and I journal about cozy crafts and art inspired by folk traditions, nature, and the whimsical.

Alchemy is a word that stays with me because it has evolved to also mean (according to American-Webster): a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way.

This philosophy can apply to anything in the art of crafts. How many times have we watched a family member transform meager vegetables and meat scraps into the most spectacular stew? Or watch a grandmother crochet her heart out to create the most impressive blanket? Perhaps you have seen a blacksmith mold scarlet iron into a spoon or knife. Perchance you witnessed glass being blown into the form of a wine bottle.

In my experience, I’ve seen all of these occur, inspiring me to be highly appreciative of the work, expertise, and care that is put into anything humans create.

Transformation—Alchemy—is incredible, especially when fulfilled through our own two hands. I cherish the skills of crafters and artists everywhere who have maintained humanity through their crafts. Our skills as humans are invaluable, despite what technology and artificial intelligence might say. Sure tech can optimize for efficiency. However when technology malfunctions, it is human minds and hands that take up the slack, and infuse the world with souls.

LATEST STORIES

  • Daily Art Musings: Admiring Folk Art

    Daily Art Musings: Admiring Folk Art

    “He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina It occurred to…

  • Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: A Recipe for Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate

    Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: A Recipe for Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate

    “I don’t see how a pumpkin patch could be more sincere than this one.” ― It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown I thought I should share yet more pumpkin spice this season. I am…

  • Yarn Weights for Regular People

    Yarn Weights for Regular People

    “There’s great value to knitting or digging up your garden or chopping up vegetables for soup, because you’re taking some time away from turning the pages, answering your emails, talking to people on the…

  • Daily Art Musings: I Really Needed to See This

    Daily Art Musings: I Really Needed to See This

    “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” ― Frida Kahlo Other than the brutal ice of the December cold, my own mind has been chilled, often wishing I existed in an alternate timeline.…

  • How to Make an Elegant Fabric Bookmark

    How to Make an Elegant Fabric Bookmark

    “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are” ― Mason Cooley Although admittedly I never get through as many books as I wish annually, I love to read. It began…

  • Alchemy

    Alchemy

    Happy Halloween! Alchemy is one of my favorite words. I distinctly remember the first time I saw it. I was in middle school playing a stunning fantasy video game on my Game Boy Advance…

  • Soup is Witchcraft: A Recipe for Pumpkin Chicken Noodle Soup

    Soup is Witchcraft: A Recipe for Pumpkin Chicken Noodle Soup

    “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” ― from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery This is the ultimate season… for colds! I adore October, but for…

  • Pattern: Knit Hogwarts House Scarf

    Pattern: Knit Hogwarts House Scarf

    “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” ― Harry Potter I am one of many millennial Harry Potter fans that was mesmerized by the book’s mysterious and otherworldly setting, memorable characters, and themes of…

  • Fall Knitting Plans: Autumn Colors and Memento Mori

    Fall Knitting Plans: Autumn Colors and Memento Mori

    “The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” — Edgar Allan Poe I always feel giddy at…

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The World Inside My Mind