kdmade

This you need to know about.

2010-08-19T07:38:00.002-04:00

This is a post about marzipan. I love marzipan. I love it plain, covered in dark chocolate, and on cake (I make a kick-ass lemon cake that I cover with marzipan, if I do say so myself). There are many regrets I have about my former marriage, but perhaps one of the worst is that I let my caterer convince me that I couldn't have marzipan on my wedding cake because it was August. A decade later and I'm still bummed I didn't get that marzipan wedding cake (never mind the failed marriage, it's the lost opportunity of cake and marzipan that I'm really mourning now.)

This summer we visited my parents' old stomping grounds, Astoria NY. Hidden there, in its tiny, original storefront that's been in operation for longer than my Dad's been alive is La Guli's Bakery. They make marzipan. It looks like this: And this: The peaches have little chocolate pits. The figs look like figs. There was also a pear, an apple, and a cherry but I ate them so quickly I didn't get to photograph them. Oh, and they have the best spumoni water ice in the whole, wide world. And they still use baker's twine, pulled from those overhanging metal thingees, to wrap their boxes.

Here's to food as art, businesses that last because they are so damn good, and holding fast to beautiful traditions like bakery boxes strung together with red and white cotton twine.

I've finally knit for Bean.

2010-07-25T15:37:00.003-04:00

Elsie Cardi
Originally uploaded by kdmade

You'd think I would have at least knit her a hat, but no. I'm a bad knitting mama. But I finally found a pattern I love, that knit up in only a few days (hello?! Knitting baby sweaters makes me feel like a knitting superhero), and will be perfect for when we all start school in the Fall. Also, I'm a sucker for raglan sleeves. And patterns with no seams to bind.

I used Knitpick's organic worsted cotton and it knit up like. a. dream. Such a fantastic drape, much softer than I thought it would be. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

I chose not to do the crochet trim even though I was planning on doing it in a contrasting color. I just finished knitting and felt it was perfectly sweet the way it was.

These are some faboo vintage buttons I scored somewhere.
I put it on her this afternoon and she smiled and smiled. I think she understands "handmade".

Does this make me a hacker?

2010-07-18T15:12:00.002-04:00

Altoid tin ipod speakers
Originally uploaded by kdmade

I think I might have pulled off my first hack.

We have half of our belongings in storage since our house is on the market, including our CD collection. It's not such a big deal because I have almost everything on my ipod, but the speakers for the ipod live in the bedroom. It's not a huge speaker set and could totally be moved, but when you are living in a house that is on the market, moving anything is not advisable since, at any moment, you may have to move it back for a showing. Also, we are headed for our annual trip to Maine in a few weeks and I wanted to try to find a way to play some music in the car.

Enter the altoid tin ipod speakers. I found this tutorial and thought that little old techno-idiot me could pull of a stunt that was advertised as a "10 minute" project that was so simple a "monkey could do it". Well, 4 hours and a few choice words later, and I'm happy to say that this monkey has herself some portable ipod speakers.

Dear Andrew was quick to point out that I made the project more complicated than it was originally intended to be which must, of course, account for the extra 3 hours and 50 minutes I took to complete it. Well, that and my level of expertise with electronics is best summed up by the fact that installing one of those little snake thingees to wrap around and control all of the cords for my computer makes me feel like I've accomplished a huge technological feat. I didn't use earbud style earphones so getting the speakers out was a little more tricky than it needed to be. I used one big saffron tin instead of two altoid tins because I thought it would be cool to be able to store my ipod in there as well. Also, there was a wire connecting the two speakers and I didn't want to have to cut through any more wires that absolutely necessary. Let's just say I was a bit shaky on the whole putting-the-wires-back-together part of the project. I mounted the speakers onto a piece of really thick cardboard that was a pain in the freaking arse to cut through and then found a cool picture from an old calendar (yes, there is a reason why I save all of my cool, old calendars!) to cover the masonite/speaker mess.The speakers were hot-glued to the masonite, the masonite was hot-glued into the tin, the card covering was stuck into place with glue dots and Bob's your uncle, we have speakers!

I did have to cut the wire that runs into the ipod so that I could get it through the back of the tin . Splicing it back was no biggie, except I had no idea what they meant by using a lighter to melt the plastic after twisting the wires back together. The only plastic I could think of was the casing for the wire and I couldn't think of any reason why I would want to melt that. Just wrapping the wires wasn't reliably working though. At one point I actually got it to work, glued it all together, and then found it wasn't working anymore. In the end, I realized that there was a plastic fibery part in each the wires (along with the metal parts of the wire) and I took a lighter to that. That did the trick and I had sound!

I don't know if these are going to be loud enough for a car ride, but we'll test that out shortly. In the meantime, they are totally great for around the house and I now have a pretty place to store my ipod!

Quilt Along Progress!

2010-07-17T21:19:00.001-04:00

Quilt Along!
Originally uploaded by kdmade

OK, technically I'm a week behind here. I blame it on the heat. I've decided that, in the new house, I'm going to put the craft room on the second floor and our guests can roast their bippies off on the third floor while I happily work in the relative cool of the second floor. But in this house, I'm stuck and dear lord it's hot up there...only an idiot would add to that heat by turning on an iron. Ahem.

I actually have two more of the patchwork sides done for this quilt so I need to do two more and then sew on the next round of white strips to be caught up. Despite the fact that the heat is showing no signs of letting up, I think I might be able to crank it out tomorrow and then be up up to speed. Good thing, because I hate being behind (yes I was THAT kid who turned everything in on time)!

I'm trying to keep with the random nature of the quilt by pulling my pieces from the basket, but I'm not sure it's a perfect solution. A lot of the squares stuck together after I'd cut and stacked them because I'm not sure I mixed them all up well enough. I'm getting scared that I'm going to end up with 25 peices in the same pattern at the very end, but we'll see.

If I don't melt finishing up this week's work, maybe more pictures tomorrow!

Gathering Moss

2010-07-07T18:36:00.002-04:00

Gathering Moss
Originally uploaded by kdmade

After waking up at 5 am this morning (house-selling stress) I decided to a) make myself a caramel latte*, and
b) pack up my moss in preparation for our move.

OK, maybe I'm a little crazy but how do I know if the new owners will love the moss or if they, like the previous owner before us would take drastic measures to destroy it ("I just spray it with bleach!" he said, generously handing over the pesticide sprayer he regularly filled with bleach to get the job done). That said, there are no new owners yet, just potential buyers who are snooping through our house and the fact of the matter is that some folks just don't get that moss-covered brick is a good thing, not a neglected shade garden. So our realtor (who is also our friend) gently suggested we do a little yard work this weekend since we have, in this insane heat, recently given up many of our plants for dead. She said nothing of the mossy walkway, but I decided that that's exactly what she was referring to. I mean, I was going to take the moss anyway!

So that is how I ended up at 5:30 in the morning, in my nightshirt and leggings with a caramel latte in hand, gently scraping up the moss with a spackling knife. In this picture you can see part of the walkway that I've de-mossed. I left some in some places (I mean, for pete's sake, I couldn't take all the woodsy-gnomey charm out of the garden) and the walkway actually curves around at the top so there was a lot of moss to be harvested.

In my moss class I was told that I should lay the moss out on some sort of screen or something with a fan blowing up underneath it to try to dry it out and allow it to go dormant (that's how they ship it all over), but we have a showing tomorrow night and I can't see a realtor trying to explain away a basement full of moss and fans. It was pretty dry anyway, thanks to the insaneinthemembrane heat that is killing everything green right now, so I put it into a box, stacked moss-side to moss-side (I gathered enough moss to fill a copy paper box!) and put it in the basement. We'll see what the movers think when I hand them a box that says "moss! live plants!" all over it.

*my caramel latte involves this stuff. I'm not trying to be overly dramatic or anything, but it's kind-of given me reason to live when the house selling stress really gets to me.

and, p.s., I finally figured out how to post to my blog from Flickr. I'm not sure what else to say about that, except that I'm feeling quite techno-savvy right now (it doesn't take much).

I'm a Moss Maven.

2010-06-24T10:24:00.006-04:00

No one ever told me what Date Night would turn into when you had a kid. Come to think of it, I never considered asking because every night is Date Night when you are childless; it's only when you are suddenly responsible for a little person's life that you look up one day, see your partner scraping poo off a diaper into the toilet and think "oh, hey. I remember you...you're kind of cute, want to go out?" only to fall asleep 10 minutes later just because the baby finally went down. A year into our new roles as parents and we're finally realizing that baby-free time is OK. It helps that we have two eager grandparents who want nothing more than to stare at Bean all night so really, I don't know what took us so long.

Enter: the Moss Date.

I like moss. A lot. In our current house we have a fantastic shade garden with a lovely brick path that is covered in moss. When we bought the house, the previous owner told us that it got slippery and so every once in a while he (sit down for this one) sprayed bleach on the moss to kill it. He was generous enough to leave us his bleach-spraying device, even. After promptly throwing the sprayer out, we sat back and watched the moss take over, carpeting the walk and making the space feel positively enchanted. I had no idea how to cultivate moss, but any time I'd be digging around in the shade garden, I'd toss any dislodged mossy bits onto new ground, stomp on it a few times and leave it be. Turns out, this plus a little water is about all you have to do to grow moss.

So when Moss Acres hosted a moss workshop in nearby Radnor, I said to Andrew: I'd like to go to that and can we drop off Bean at her grandparents and have dinner and call it a date? And that is how we ended up getting a coffee, learning about moss, and having grilled cheese at a diner on our (I think) second official date since Bean arrived.

And here is what I am thinking about now...

- There are 22,000 species of moss. I'd like to know about at least 10...seems like a good start.

- I need to gather some of the moss from this house and move it with us to our next house. I also need to start sourcing old bricks so that I can recreate our little path. And I need to take the rock that I moved into the garden which is now covered with moss with me to the new house. Sorry new homeowners, you can't have my mossy rock.

- I need to put a moss green roof on the chicken coop in the new house. I don't know how I'm going to accomplish this, but I really, really need to do it.

- I need to spread the word that sphagnum moss / peat moss is bad bad bad because it is being overharvested and is destroying ecosystems.

That is all. Go moss!

Stray dogs and center squares.

2010-06-20T15:35:00.005-04:00

We found a little beagle on the side of the road very near to our house on Thursday night. It had a collar with a rabies tag, but nothing else. It took a long time to track down the owner...we called the vet from the tag who didn't want to give us the address but called the owner on our behalf. They reached the wife who was out of town who couldn't get a hold of her husband who was with the kids at the park. Arg. The dog (Celie) was very sweet but very eager to explore her surroundings and without a leash, I spent a good half-hour hunched over, keeping her held back by her collar. We got her back to our house and borrowed a leash from a neighbor and waited outside, but not before Celie got a little freaked, strained against the leash and succeeded in pulling my back out of whack. You may remember that I threw my back out a few months ago while needlepointing. Well, at least this time I was being slightly more athletic, but the result is just as crappy: I'm OK lying down or standing up, but sitting really hurts.

Nevermind, I have a quilt along to keep up with! I've been going at it in short bursts since I can't sit for too long, but so far I have all of my strips sewn, a little less than half of them ironed, and the center of my quilt all made up. Pretty, pretty!And in the interim, when I have to be lying down, I am happily involved in the fourth book of the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I'd started the series a while back, put it down and then picked it back up again when I heard they'd done an HBO series based on the book. I think these are just about the sweetest stories ever (perfect summer reads) and although I think Jill Scott and the woman playing Mma Makutsi are doing a wonderful job, there is a lot lost in translation. I also cannot figure out why new characters have been made and plots changed significantly (like, entire mysteries are solved to be something completely different) but I'm trying to be open minded about it. I think that's what Mma Ramotswe would want at least! Anyway, I have lots to do while laying down, even if I can't figure out how to rig my sewing machine so that I can operate it whilst horizontal.

Simple tools, scary tools.

2010-06-19T18:26:00.007-04:00

Here's the latest progress on my JJ blouse...
I covered some buttons which was very fun and a little addicting. You get a little kit that comes with a simple tool to make the covered buttons. It's kind of like the potato chip phenomenon, you can't make just one. I don't think this project calls for seven buttons, but I couldn't help myself! Extras will be dealt with in an appropriately crafty fashion.

I also secured my ruffle (I'm using only the one ruffle on the princess seams) to my shirt. More importantly, I USED MY SERGER! That's right, that wonderful machine that I have owned for (dare I admit it) over two years now and haven't used yet. Well, I did try to use it once. I'm a big believer in the no-first-project-is-too-big-too-attempt and therefore I decided to break my serger in making a t-shirt. Out of knit fabric. Had I ever worked with knits before? Did it really matter because could anyone have convinced me not to try knits for my first serging project? Long story short: major failure; serger gathered dust (and the occasional pissy sideways glance from moi) while covered in knit t-shirt fabric for a few years. But I bought a book, mustered up some confidence and found the rolled edge stitch on my cotton fabric to be very easy. Yay!

I'm continuing with my french seams, though it seemed a little odd to make them over the ruffle. May be a little too bulky in the end, but we'll see. For now, I'm still loving the project, though the impending sleeve and collar instructions are scaring me. Never mind, I still have my quilt along project to distract me...

A blouse.

2010-06-16T08:39:00.005-04:00

We are full of buying and selling house stress over here. I don't want to bore the blogosphere with my story of our real estate adventure, but let's just say that our weekend involved open house preparations and an overflowing toilet. Thankfully we survived and celebrated on Saturday with lunch at one of our favorite little spots in a quaint little shopping district nearby. As luck would have it, Andrew parked the car right in front of the quaint little fabric shoppe (it's quaint, you need that extra "pe") and I decided that since I was still smarting from our plumbing and vacuuming extravaganza, I needed a pretty piece of fabric to make it all better...his fault for parking in front of the fabric store!

Here's what I got and I decided to try my hand at my first Burda Style pattern, the JJ Blouse. It has a lot of ruffles, which I might pare down to just one. I like this interpretation.

This is the second downloaded pattern I've used (the pinafore was the first) and I rather like the cutting and pasting of the pattern pieces. I figure I'm going to have to trace the pieces anyway if I'm using an already-printed pattern...and frankly, without a light board, I find tracing to be a pain.

So I've started sewing but need to wait for a nap before I get photos in progress. Let's just say it involves french seams, because that is my new favorite skill.

WIPs

2010-06-10T15:19:00.009-04:00

Finding a matching handle to the originals on my jewelry box is proving to be insanely difficult. I've looked through door hardware (too big), cabinet hardware (getting warmer), and miniature supplies (too tiny). I started searching for cabinet "hardware" or "knobs", but I do believe that I end up more in the size range I'm looking for (3") in the category "finger pulls". On a different note, who the heck names these things?!

OK, so here is the WIP that is the jewelry box. I'm really happy with the paint colors (just stuff in the basement that I've had from other projects) and how well the grey goes with the yellow interior. I think this may be my new favorite color combination.

I did a very wee little bit of distressing. Such a very tiny amount that maybe it just looks sloppy rather than intentional, but I figure there's going to be plenty of wear and tear going on with a soon-to-be-toddler in the house so sooner or later it'll look weathered.

And here's my week's work for the quilt along. This is my first jelly roll project and oh. my. god. When I bought the thing I felt a little bad like I was cheating or something. Now that I'm using it, I definitely feel like I'm cheating and I HEART IT. The only downside that I can so far see is that there was an abundance of little fuzzies that flew everywhere when I opened the roll. Next time, I'll bat it around outside a little before opening it up indoors. Otherwise? I did lots of ironing and cutting for my background fabric and then happily got to the jelly roll and lazily unwound it and chose my fabrics. Done and done. I should also note that I gave myself a three-inch burn along the back of my arm from my iron. I know, I know. What the frick was I doing with my iron to burn the back of my arm? The iron was behind me and when I yanked the plug out of the wall, my arm backed into it. We were leaving for a party as I did this (of course) and our host had to use hairbands to hold an ice pack on there for me. I don't want to get a scar, but if I do, I'm going to enjoy calling it my quilting battle scar.

And because I have quilts on the brain lately, here is a hand-quilted number that is making me crazy happy.

A pinafore.

2010-06-07T21:22:00.007-04:00

Man, I want to make this in me-size.

I made up this little pinafore for Bean last night from a Heidi and Finn pattern. I'd seen a bunch of these pinafores at the Art Star Craft Bazaar a few weekends ago and wanted to make them up with my own fabric choices. I found a few patterns but liked this one because of the cute little pocket.

I used the same fabric as I did for the Easter bonnet. I made the pocket out of the contrasting lining fabric and I sewed the back flaps on in reverse so that the you get to see the pretty blue from behind. OK, that's not really why I did it...I just messed up because the wee one and her Dad left me alone in the house and I was feeling frenzied about finishing this before they got home. I didn't pay attention to the directions at that point and by the time I realized it, I was not feeling the seam-ripping vibes. I still think it's cute!

I did everything as instructed, except for the fact that I topstitched the entire piece at the end. This was super duper fun because once you have the whole thing sewn together, you basically have a moebius strip. I just started at the back and worked my way 'round until I came back to the starting point. Yay for the magic of moebius!

This pattern is going to get a lot of use. It's quick and easy (for last-minute gifts) and is simple enough to be personalized. I'm thinking of putting some appliques on future pinafores rather than a pocket. Also, I think the pinafore is nice enough on the inside to be considered reversible, so there's some creative potential in that.

Now I just need to rework this pattern to be grown-up size...somehow I think I'm going to encounter the same issue with all of the Heidi and Finn patterns I sew...

A jewelry box.

2010-06-06T15:43:00.016-04:00

Here's my latest project: redoing a childhood jewelry box. I say childhood not because I remember this particular box while growing up (neither can my Mother, for that matter), but because of what I found inside of it. These are the treasures of my childhood self...

A ribbon fish.This was made by a woman who owned Waverly gardens with her husband years and years ago. Local peeps will know that this is YEARS ago because the greenhouses are still standing, but the shop has been closed forever. My Dad was way into gardening when I was a kid and we spent many a weekend in the local nurseries. I'd wander around, picking up fallen flowers that I found all around. At Waverly gardens, the woman would use ribbons to make decorations like fish and flowers and they'd be stuck randomly into the plants. I loved that about Waverly gardens. One day I remember watching her for a while as she put this fish together. I don't think we spoke (possibly a language barrier because I don't ever remember speaking with her) but when she was finished the fish, she just gave it to me. I remember feeling very lucky to have one of those fish and especially lucky having seen this one go together. It's always been safely stowed away somewhere in my life.

A bag of my orthodontic rubber bands.

Sigh. Why were these things all named for kids doing karate? Who knows. All I remember is that I couldn't relate to karate and I hated those rubber bands...but the collecter in me DID like it when I moved onto the next stage and could get a different bag...

Various and sundry game pieces. Childhood gambling problem?

Little plastic figurines. I liked tiny things and I still do.

One of my charm bracelets. Just one. I have two necklaces full of charms somewhere. These are such an incredibly important part of my life in the 1980s. Why can't they bring these back? So much better than silly bandz.

A bunch of random jewelry, most of which doesn't bring back any memories. These three are very memorable. The green k always reminded me of an m&m and I liked anything with my initials on it. Also, it's a substantial weight and I remember wearing it and running it back and forth along the chain. The monkey was loved for his moveable appendages and the dancer was well loved because I was big into ballet...

...and...bras...(what the?)...I do remember cutting the fuzzy fabric to fit into that little heart-shaped trinket box.

A miniature music stand. I love this because it's handmade and unfinished. Someday I'll finish it when I start putting together Bean's dollhouse.

So the jewelry box looked pretty plain. The yellow drawer lining was in excellent shape so I decided to keep that. I chose this as my inspiration because I knew I had a bunch of no-voc paint in similar colors in the basement.

It's been sanded, primed, painted and scuffed a little to make it look slightly weathered. I'm not ready to show the finished product yet because I still need to find a replacement for a missing door handle (see first pic) and spray paint the ones I have...but I'll reveal soon.

Gutless. And a Quilt-a-long!

2010-06-02T12:38:00.009-04:00

I am slowly putting together my first knit frog dissection (!) I had the pattern for a while, so long in fact that I think there is now a pattern for a dissected fetal pig and a lab rat (can we get a dissected worm? Please??). After storing my downloaded pattern for a good year or so, I finally knit the frog up, and then puttered around waiting to find a dissection pan to put him in. I think I thought I'd find one at a yard sale or something. But then I thought I'd check out the supply companies that I get stuff for school from and, sure enough, they have dissection pans that don't cost and arm and a leg. I put dark cork in there for the backing because I had some lying around. I'd love to have something that is the color of the blue wax that you usually see in those pans, but I want to get this done in this lifetime, and I think the dark brown is a good background anyway. I need to snag some pins from the lab at school and then needle felt some guts. Of course I will need to do some research because we need to have anatomically correct frog guts. I don't do dissections in my classes so I'm no expert at this. The male and female human reproductive systems? That I could render in felt. Frog innards? Not so much.

I have gotten together the fabrics to have the baby quilt I made OVER A YEAR AGO finally quilted. I'm just going to have it sent out because I don't want my first quilting project to be a quilt top that is really special to me. Quilting is a funny craft because there's this large part of it that I don't feel I can do on my own. Sucking it up and handing it over to someone else to have quilted is proving to be a challenge. But babies grow up fast, I'm now realizing, and I need to get this done quick before she's too big. That, and the last bunch of fabric I had for the backing and the binding turned into her Easter bonnet before I realized what I was cutting into, so I can't have the stuff lying around for too long. It may turn into a sundress.

Getting all of this ready to go has me thinking about quilting again and so I am thinking of joining a quilt-a-long. I wasn't even going to entertain the idea because I work on so very little sleep these days and time in the craft room requires some planning to make sure that Bean is looked after. I'm much more of a spontaneous creator, so planning time to be in the craft room doesn't always work. I just might not be wanting to make something at that time that was set a few days ago. But the fact that this project is jelly-roll friendly AND that I happen to have a jelly-roll lying around means that I'm going to try to give it a shot. If I do it, it'll be the first twin-sized quilt I've made! Stay tuned. Or better yet, join the fun over here!

Summer knits look like this.

2010-06-01T15:08:00.006-04:00

Tiny. Lightweight. Sky blue. And portable. This is a pattern Geisha from Knitted Socks East and West. Lots of lovely pattern choices in that one, I tell you.

Why don't I knit socks more often?

A bean turns one.

2010-05-30T19:57:00.016-04:00

Well, we did it. Despite three nights of really bad sleep (thank you, baby), we rallied and celebrated Stella's first birthday. The weather was perfect, the dress fit the baby, the buttercream was a hit...yep, big success all around.

I spent some time leading up to the party getting everything ready. The dress was finished way in advance. I made some vintage sheet bunting and got my freezer paper stencil on. The banner says "Stella is" and then there is space for two more flags. I made numbers so that I can just pin them on each year as she grows. I also made a little star for the next nine years...a space saver until she reaches double digits. I made a ton of the number flags because I got a little superstitious-y and needed to make enough so that she can live past 100 if she so chooses. So there are two of every number (waaaaay past 100 if she so chooses). I also made two more strands of bunting because I kept ending up with leftover fabric and so I just cut smaller and smaller triangles. I don't have a picture of the tiniest sized flags (which are only about 1.5 inches long), but here are the mediums. So sweet and fun to have different sizes to hang around the house. If the party ends up in a few different spaces, it's nice to have some simple decorations to tie it all together.

I also made some tissue paper blooms with the piles and piles of tissue paper that I hoard. It was fantastic to use up a bunch of the paper and a bit scary that I had enough to make 7 of these big boys. I checked out Martha's instructions, but used even more layers. Yes, I had that much tissue paper on hand. I used those trash bag wire twisty thingees (another random thing that doesn't often get thrown out in this house) instead of floral wire and just a little thread for hanging. Easy-peasy. And I was all ready to take my big girl pill and toss them after the party, but I discovered that they are actually very easy to refold. So we'll see these decorations again next year, which is a good thing because they were really very cheerful.

The party favors were a big hit. Lovely star wands from a lovely seller on etsy.

And speaking of non-toxic toys made by actual real people I can email, what is the deal with that evil CPSIA thing? I hope it's died a horrible death because I have found some of the most lovely, safe handmade toys on etsy.

Because not everyone wanted to go home with a magic star wand, I also made sugar cookies and decorated them with royal icing. Except for the fact that I got a little ambitious with my piping and may have sent my right hand into early arthritis, decorating with royal icing is the most. fun. ever. I made a star, an s, and a 1 cookie for each bag and tied it off with some plantable tags from here.I got a lot of compliments on the cake I made. It was the chocolate cake recipe from epicurious that came with that buttercream recipe. I had a mini-freak out moment this morning when the buttercream started behaving oddly. I'd made it a few days in advance and it looked lovely. This morning I took it out of the fridge to warm up a bit but when I whipped it up, it started separating and looking blotchy and ugly. I was nervous to overbeat it, and I thought I might have just messed something up and (I'll admit it) briefly lost hope. With my Dad's nudging, I took a deep breath and whipped the frick out of it in the stand mixer and before long it went back to being fluffy and lovely. Despite the fact that buttercream might look like a little bit of a pain to make, I must say it was worth the effort (it wasn't really that hard), it was so great to be able to make it way ahead, and in the end it was easy to kick around a bit. I say it's the best use of a pound of butter that I've seen in a long time.

The cake was a really nice chocolate cake -- very moist and lovely and I just followed the recipe exactly. I did use slightly smaller pans so I made three layers instead of two, and I filled the layers with raspberry preserves rather than buttercream. I used some leftover royal icing from the cookies for decoration (oh, and I stuck the cookies on mostly because I thought it was a good solution to use one of the stars that had lost a point).

So that's about it. Good food, good friends, and enough pre-planning to make the party day easy and fun. It took me a long time to decide to have a kid and there have been so many steps along the way this year that have made me so thankful that we took the leap and had Bean. As I was putting together this party and having fun with all of the little details I realized that this is probably the most excited I've been for a party I've planned and that as she gets older and actually understands what it's all about, it's going to be even more fun. I can't wait for her to be able to pick a theme and then run with it. I hope that, just once, she lets me get away with doing the farm theme. Hello?! We've got the chicken part down! But truthfully, as long as we can stay away from any kind of a Disney theme, I'll be happy...

Why they call it 'buttercream' frosting

2010-05-26T15:31:00.007-04:00

Now that the first birthday festivities are less than a week away, I've turned my attention to edible crafting. The cookie dough is in the fridge and will baked off tonight and I made my first buttercream yesterday.

Dear lord, do you know how much butter goes into buttercream frosting? Well, a crapload, to be exact. But, whatever, the first ingredient you start with is egg whites, so how fattening can it really be?? I found a good recipe at epicurious (there are other sites out there with recipes, but this is the one I turn to again and again) and it involved a candy thermometer. Score! I needed a reason to buy one of those (up next, homemade caramels...) and man, was it fun to use. There is something about making candy that really brings my inner dork out. Cooking is always about chemistry, but something about candy-making just makes me feel like I'm in a lab concocting magic potions. I needed to heat the sugar solution to about 140 F which is some stage in candy-making that I haven't memorized yet, but at one point a little bit fell of the spoon I was working with and hardened immediately and I instantly thought (with all of the possible energy and emotion of a complete dweeb): I just made candy! Then I ate it. Yum.So: whipped up egg whites, boiled sugar solution, and 4 (count 'em, 4) sticks of butter later and we have buttercream! That's right, buttercream...which, I believe, is named for its final resting place upon ingestion.

A Whole Year.

2010-05-24T16:17:00.012-04:00

Somehow a year of my life just raced by me. Everyone said not to blink when Bean was born because it goes by so fast. Blah blah blah, I thought. I might have even written it here some where: she's never going to grow up. And here we are, getting ready to celebrate her first birthday this week. Sigh.

It's been a while since I've updated this blog here because, as if having an infant wasn't insane enough, we decided we needed to buy a new house...and put ours on the market. Trying to make your house look like you aren't living in it with an 11-month-old may seem laughable to anyone who has had an 11-month-old, and let me assure you, it is. But somehow we have managed to keep the sink basins wiped clean, the toys corralled in bins, and the diaper pail empty so that complete strangers can poke through our house. However, this has required that we remove a lot of stuff from the house that we didn't immediately need which included, I'm sad to say, much of my craft room (What? Not every potential buyer is going to want to use one of the bedrooms to store ribbon and glitter?!)

Of course, Bean's first birthday couldn't be store-bought so I have soldiered on. Actually, decisions such as which fabric to use for the birthday dress have been simpler now that most of my stash is in storage and I've found myself really using what I have rather than going out to buy more or different supplies. This seems oddly counter-intuitive, but there you have it.Her birthday dress is entirely from stash materials, a fantastic matryoshka print that I think I bought as a remnant with some striped shirting that I got at a 4-H festival fabric rummage sale. The fact that I bought not a thing for this dress has me pretty proud, but I must also toot my own horn for a moment because this represents my first Ottobre project. Me! The fake sewer who makes it all up as I go along! Who doesn't really know how to read patterns! Yup, I sewed this Ottobre project. Which has, of course, justified my purchasing another subscription...

Now, there are certain things that I didn't know how to do at all. It took me a while to figure out what a placket was, for instance. But I get that now. There were a few other steps that were just plain mysterious to me so I decided to skip them. Uh, huh...that's how I roll when I'm at the helm of my sewing machine. I figure, if it looks like a dress, hangs on her like a dress, and will last through at least one party, I've done my job. Happily, I think it's going to stay together quite nicely through a few wearings (at least until she outgrows it next week), even with the omitted details. Also, even though I have no business changing a pattern since I'm such a newbie, I decided to make the underskirt all one piece rather than using the cotton batiste and sewing on a panel. I didn't have any batiste and I didn't want to buy anything new. Plus, I had plenty of that shirting fabric so I didn't care about using a whole bunch of it...which, of course, is all relative considering this is a dress built for a person who is about 2 feet tall.

Some accomplishments (besides the fact that I actually sewed an Ottobre project...did I mention that?) include my very first attempt at french seams (poking out on the underskirt here).

I swear, you stick the term french on something and it makes it seem like it's going to be super complicated, but french seems are quite easy and they look sweet. My first pintucks...also super-simple and very pretty for the extra effort. Oh! And I am quite fond of my top stitching which is a step I usually get bored with and muck up. And not really note-worthy, but here's a shot of the back with some lovely vintage buttons to seal the deal.I wanted to make matching bloomers, but I need to bake cookies and a cake (all while making it look like I don't use my kitchen to do things like bake cookies and cakes) so I might let myself off the hook with that one. I made some bunting from vintage sheets which I'll photograph at the party and blog about later because they are so much fun they deserve their own post. And I finally used a bunch of the tissue paper I've hoarded for the past decade to make some of these fantastic poufs. Photos after the party!

Easter goodness

2010-04-04T21:16:00.008-04:00

Our Easter involved bonnets: bunny finger puppets:

and eggs that turned to birds:

Hope yours was as sweet as ours!

What To Do With Silver Baby Cups

2010-04-03T21:21:00.006-04:00

We all took the train into our fair city this week. Our first train trip way back when involved a car seat, but now we just toss Bean in a sling and carry her around everywhere (insert eyeroll from my chiropractor). It's amazing how different she is now after just 10 months has passed. A trip into the city is a lively thing with lots to notice and new people to babble at. The flower show at Macy's proved to be particularly colorful for adults and kids alike. This guy wasn't so impressed with the butterflies alighting on him, though:

On my end, the difference from the passage of time is in what's missing...as in, less of the baby fat (read: my arse) and more of the me that I remember before I gave my body over to a parasite for 10 months. So a trip into the city meant a visit to a favorite place of mine which I hadn't seen in over a year: the Anthropologie sale rack. OK, the entire Anthropologie store is always a thrill to wander even if you aren't looking at clothing, but knowing that I couldn't reasonably fit into anything and didn't know when I'd ever be able to do so again (there is an important and frustrating point in pregnancy where you cannot ever imagine not being pregnant again) made me want to not even step foot in the store. I know...sad, right?

Well this week I fit into a pre-preggers pair of jeans that had even been known to be less than forgiving before I got knocked up, so a celebration was in order. To the Anthropologie sale rack! Although I didn't find anything this time around, just being in the changing rooms with potential wardrobe additions was enough for me and in the long run, who cares about not going away with a new fun article of clothing when there are plenty of bits and bobs for the home for me to drop my cash on?

Fade to the housewares section of the store: I am a bit of a freak about fun hooks (much of my jewelry is hung on my bedroom wall from a series of mis-matched hooks) and I'd been thinking about going through my stash of vintage hooks to create a display for our silver baby cups. When we had just our two baby cups, they didn't seem all that special. But now we have three and that, in my mind, calls for a fun display. Anthropologie to the rescue! I bought our initials, bunged them onto a piece of old floor molding from our basement, and there you have it: a twenty minute project completed in my (old) skinny jeans. Nice.

Full Participation.

2010-03-26T18:36:00.008-04:00

I don't know if it's ever happened since we've had our current coop of chickens, but today all four of our girls laid eggs. They've been in various stages of broodiness and molting so for the past few months there's always been at least one chicken laying, but not all of them. They were all laid in the same nesting box and the silver polish Anastasia was standing guard.
The girl who held out the longest is our silkie, Pudding.She went broody a while ago and stayed that way for over a month, then didn't lay for a few more. Many people get bothered by a chicken that's gone broody because they aren't being productive (since I'm the only egg-eater in the house, this doesn't bother me) or because they look quite pathetic while sitting on the nest and rarely eating or drinking. So lots of folks have remedies for making a chicken unbroody, but I'm kind of hoping that one of my girls goes broody soon because I think I have a resource for fertilized bantam eggs...how fun would Easter be if we had an egg getting ready to hatch?? The fact that Anastasia was hovering over those eggs makes me think she might be ready to go...!

In craftier news, there's LOTS of sewing going on over here. I'm sewing many, many skirts for the play that I'm in in a few weeks. In between circle skirts I'm trying to fit my own projects. So far: mother and daughter Easter bonnets. No pictures yet because, interestingly, bonnets don't photograph well if they are not on a head. I tried to explain this to Bean, but she couldn't be coerced into photographic cooperation today. Maybe later. Or not.

Oh, and also, I finally submitted an entry into a Spoonflower contest! See it here and remember to vote for your faves!

It all started with science

2010-03-11T11:12:00.005-05:00

So the whole reason I got my digital drawing pad was because of the weekly themed design contest over at Spoonflower. A few rounds ago it was science and, ooo, I had a good idea. It involved the periodic table ('nuff said). But alas, I didn't have the ability to create what I wanted. Of course, with my new BFF the drawing pad, I now do. It totally feels like I'm writing on paper, which I'd read about in the reviews but didn't really believe. It takes a steadier hand than normal to draw a really straight line, but it's so easy to delete what you've messed up that it's OK to take a while to get the hang of it.

So here is my first Spoonflower entry for the theme of daffodils:

Pretty straight-forward. I made a sketch using a light pencil,

then I drew out the design in a thicker pen outline. Then I painted the flowers (the pressure-sensitive pen is key for this) and the leaves, drew in the stems and deleted the pen outline (you know how it is always so satisfying to trace over a pencil outline in pen, then erase the pencil to be left with a super-clean design. I can do that but with the click of a button. Love love love.) It's a simple design, but I like the way it looks when I use the mirror image option in Spoonflower (I can't seem to get my grab app to be working right now, so no picture...you'll have to trust me.)

The best part of this whole thing is that it's got me creating pretty regularly again even with the demands of Bean. If she is in a quiet mood and will play with her toys on her own for 15 minutes, I can tool around with the drawing pad and not worry about art supplies everywhere that she'll want to stick in her gob. I haven't explored the Corel program enough to see if it will let me get my digital glitter on, or gold leaf, or (be still my heart) flocking, but for right now I'm satisfied.

2010-03-10T16:39:00.003-05:00

Wow. Just, wow. I didn't mean to be away for such a long time. It just kind of, well, happened. I think I needed a break...and it's not like I have oodles of free time with a 9-month-old crawling all over the place! I think my problem lies in the fact that I really like to take photos of what I'm making or thinking about and I really like for those photos to be relatively good. Also, I download all of my photos onto the desktop which I never sit at anymore since a laptop is easier to juggle with the babe.

So, I've made a lot and have photographed only a bit of it. I've downloaded even less of what I've photographed. Sad, I know. I photographed the Christmas gifts again for this year, but don't feel like putting them all together in one post because it's all last year's news now. I've been knitting toys for Stella, a sweater for me, and mittens for Andrew. I also recently got my grubby little hands on this book and I'm itching to get started on some socks (yay for super portable knitting projects!). The point is, craftiness has been happening, I just haven't been shouting about it.

But today is a new day! I finally entered the world of Big Girl computer usage and asked for a digital drawing pad for my birthday. I went with the Bamboo Fun, Wacom's simpler version of their more sophisticated pads. Andrew, the dearheart, tried to convince me to get the fancier model, but I decided to start simple figuring that when I outgrow this one, there will be new tools out there that I will then be ready for. Also, I am a total sucker for technology that looks simple and is packaged well, and the Bamboo line is definitely that. I mean for Pete's sake, they've named a model the Bamboo Craft. Yeah, I think we see who their target audience is.

Anyhoo, the little gadget comes with a software bundle that includes Corel Painter and that's what I used to create this image:

Actually, you are kind of getting a two-for-one deal here. This is my first digital image but it also happens to be a drawing inspired by the bunny that I recently knit for Stella. I've uploaded it over at Spoonflower and am eagerly awaiting a swatch to see if I can actually finally make a fabric design. Then I might make my own font. Or just sign my name over and over and over like I did when I was in middle school...either way, being able to create digital images on my laptop just might get me back into this blogging thing.

The Finish Line.

2009-12-24T16:01:00.008-05:00

I made it. I finished Stella's stocking just now, as in, the day before Christmas. It needed to be done in time because I have this thing about having the one stocking, the right stocking, for life. Mine is a crocheted stocking with my name embroidered on it. And it's the right one for me. I looked a lot of stocking patterns before settling on this one. I considered cutting it out of felt and appliqueing it, knitting it, crocheting it, and (in a moment of weakness) buying it. But when I stumbled upon this pattern, I knew it was the one and set about gathering fat quarters. Don't ask me why I waited until this past Monday to start cutting when I knew full well that the stocking had to be done in time for her first Christmas, but I did and so this week was a little, um, crazy. Thankfully, Andrew is on winter break and he happens to be the most sane person I know so my insanity was nicely counter-balanced and I don't think our daughter will suffer any ill effects. At least she can't feel completely neglected by a parent who holes herself up in the craft room for hours on end when there is another parent (albeit, without breasts) who is willing and able to spend quality time raising her, right? Well, whatever, she has a kick ass stocking.

I had to do things a little differently (of course, why make anything simple?) and I cut as many of the strips as I could cut from the striped fabric I made. This meant that I had more patchwork than the pattern called for, so I changed the shape of my stocking to be taller and narrower. I think it's a little too narrow now that the binding is on, but it'll work. Of course my squares aren't lined up perfectly, but that's the kind of quilter I am. Whimsical: that's the look I'm going for (*eyeroll*). I loved doing the simple quilting, and on one side I used white thread while on the other I used a sort of hot pinkish orange. I was originally thinking of bedazzling her name on it with a letter in each square with my faboo kandi thingee, but the squares are really small (1") and I don't want to mess with the simple charm of it. I used white fabric with some silver sparkle to it, so it's definitely got some holiday bling going on. So for now there is no name on it, but that's something I'm willing to figure out for a future Christmas.

I bunged up the binding by putting the loop on the wrong side (insert expletive here), so I just tucked a little loop of some narrower seam binding of the correct side and stitched across the top. It works fine and looks OK.

The real joy of leaving this very important task to the absolute last minute is that I also had to juggle making my other Christmas presents (which I also conveniently left until the last minute) into the schedule. I am not kidding when I say that my planner for this week has entries such as: Piece stocking, cut batting and backing, pediatrician appointment, burn holiday cd. You know it's bad when you have to write the steps in your planner. Anyhoo, I am just about done with the crafting (Andrew is getting a gift that is still on the needles, but he's taking it a lot better than I am) and am now, finally, beginning to get seriously excited about introducing Bean to her first Christmas.

And here is the ornament I made her, which will be going into her stocking:

♥

Finger Puppet Pals

2009-12-16T13:54:00.006-05:00

Here is a little set of finger puppets that I made for the Bean. The design is from this book here and it's a wonderful example of the super-sweet and simple projects you'll find in it. It took me a while to get started on this project, because I was having trouble biting the bullet and spending a small fortune on felt. I am big on fabric texture, so I generally gravitate towards the 100% wool (read: expensive) stuff and have lots of disparaging things to say about the plastic stuff. So I had all but written off this project when I found myself in Joann's and decided to see what they were trying to pass of as felt these days. I actually found some fabric that was 30% wool, 70% rayon which I must say was quite nice. It was thick, there were good colors, and I came really close to buying it. But my eye was caught by a sale sign for this felt. Or, I should say "felt". 100% plastic! You don't think I even considered buying that, do you? Or maybe I bought 4 or 5 yards worth....Here's what sold me: it is made out of 100% recycled plastic bottles. Hello?! Recycled plastic bottles! I will admit that the fabric has a bit of a plasticky feel to it, but not anywhere near as bad as those craft felt sheets you get at the craft store. Honestly! In addition, the colors were nice and varied and some even had a heathered tone, which I think makes it look all the more like the real deal. For children's items which will see some wear and tear and may not make it to family heirloom status, I think this material rocks. And so does this little guy:For now, these are going to be toys that mama uses to entertain Stella (I'm kind of psycho about keeping plastic out of her mouth), and she's way too young to manipulate finger puppets anyway, so that was always the intention. We've been playing Really Rosie a lot around here lately, so I might try to make sets of characters from those stories so that I can act it out for her while listening to the CD.

Winning.

2009-12-11T18:19:00.003-05:00

Despite the fact that this might be one of the most under-planned holiday seasons for me yet (don't even ask about where I am in the gift-making department), I am working my tail off to keep up and I keep telling myself that I can do it. And I just might be winning. The Christmas cards are done and in the mail, projects for three people have been knocked off my to-do list, and I received my little prize from Waldeck Dry Goods! These sweet little coasters were in my mailbox today and they are currently being put to good use under some mugs of mulled cider (which I can't get enough of these days). Thank you, Addie ♥

Now, back to trying to locate a real-bearded Santa for Bean's first Santa photo. It pleases me to no end that there is an association of real-bearded Santas (!), however I'd like a link to a site that lists what malls these guys end up at. They need to get an elf on that. Just sayin'.

For Nancy

2009-11-30T10:15:00.006-05:00

I knew I couldn't get away with mentioning Lancaster without photographing the fabric. I was lazy and didn't want to set it all up, but how did I think Nancy would be satisfied with just reading about my purchases?! My bad.

Here's what I picked up, all fat quarters:

I went to Old Country Store because that's where I always go. I try to be quick because I'm always there with other companions who don't necessarily derive the same joy that I do from sitting on the floor and staring at bolts and bolts of fabric. So, I haven't really ventured out beyond this store, but it doesn't matter because I love it there. They have incredible quilts for inspiration (and purchase) and a nice supply of reproduction prints. Last year they had really incredible hand-dyed felt, but I couldn't find any this time around. No matter, because I just grabbed a bunch of FQs to get my fabric fix: quick and easy. They have a ton of assembled FQ packs there, too...so it's super-easy for me to stock up without wearing anyone else out. Someday I'll spend a whole day there and visit all of the fabric stores and the knitting store across the street from OCS. I think it's best that that day be next year when I am actually working again:) Of course, I could manage to do some cyber-damage to my credit card as OCS is now selling online. I highly recommend checking it out but truly, if you live anywhere near the area, go to the b&m. It's very cozy and you are in Lancaster, which is a very good place to be.

Hot Off the Gocco Presses...

2009-11-29T16:48:00.014-05:00

Preparations are underway for a craft show next weekend. I wish I could say that I had more new stuff to show for it, but the crafting here is happening at a snail's pace. So, with slooooooow on my brain lately, I made up a new stationery set featuring our friend, l'escargot. I used the same vintage record book paper as I did for the poultry paper stationery, but made a much smaller run or only four sets (as was determined by my envelope supply). This time I also printed on the envelopes: and I tried to keep with the retro postal theme by using red, blue, and gold ink. I know that Gocco is expensive to run and I know that the screens are hard to reuse, but man oh man, do I love using it. It is quite satisfying to produce a quantity of exactly the same thing.

I was originally intending to make this a much more elaborate project by creating felt pouches (inspired by Kata Golda) to hold the stationery, stamps, and pens, but I just didn't have enough of the right kind of felt. And felt's expensive! Felt will be on the list of things to get when I am again working and rolling in the dough (relatively). So, for now they all got wrapped up nice and neat with some simple stamping.These will go to the craft fair this weekend and then up in the shop if they aren't sold!

I Got My Martha On.

2009-11-27T15:56:00.007-05:00

This Thanksgiving, I set out to make pumpkin pie from scratch. Like, starting with a real pumpkin kind of scratch. We bought pumpkins before Halloween to spruce up the front steps, and I also purchased two sugar pumpkins. I left them on the stoop through Halloween (a big thank you to the squirrels for choosing the non-pie pumpkins to devour) and then found this method of preparing pumpkin puree and cooked them up the day before Thanksgiving. It turned out to be a total pain in the arse to cut these open so never, ever try to carve one of these suckers. With Andrew's help, triumph was ours and into the oven they went. I was met with a happy surprise when, after cooling, scooping out the cooked flesh revealed that the pumpkin shells had hardened into fantastic little bowls with lids. I washed the insides to get the last of the flesh off, let them dry overnight, and then stuffed them with flowers as the Thanksgiving centerpiece. I wasted no part of the pumpkins: the seeds were toasted and the strings that were scooped out where given to our very grateful chickens. Martha (and her chickens) would be proud. I used that green floral foam stuff, moistened it with water, and stuck some purchased flowers along with greens and dried flowers from the garden into it. Since table space is prime real estate during Thanksgiving, I would also consider putting the stuffing or mashed potatoes into the pumpkin bowls as they didn't leak or get soggy throughout the dinner. And the other moral of the story is that making pumpkin pie from scratch is really quite easy. You just need time to let the puree drain, so plan ahead...but this will probably be the last time I ever buy a store-bought pumpkin pie.

In other news, we luckily have a friend of the family who luckily lives in Lancaster who luckily needed to be driven home today. It was a beautiful drive and I got to fondle some lovely fabric. I bought a few fat quarters and re-fell in love with vintage reproduction fabrics. Also, seeing so many farms and horses and buggies moving around on them (rather than tractors and trucks) did my little heart good.

To Upcycle or Not To Upcycle.

2009-11-18T15:07:00.007-05:00

Dang, that's a hard question. Here is a sweet vintage christening gown that Meg gave me a long, long time ago with the directive: just make something out of it, OK? Or maybe not - - it was a long, long time ago. She could have said: I have foreseen that you would have a lovely daughter one day and you should save this for her dolls. Or maybe: here, could you hold this for me while I organize my vintage christening gown collection and safeguard it with your life as it is my great, great, great grandmother's? This is one of the many problems that can arise when, like me, you hoard stuff in your crafty stash, only to be struck with inspiration to use it months or years later.

OK, I'm pretty sure she wanted me to do something with it (but then again, I thought I was supposed to cut up the corduroy backpack, but really I said I was going to try to make a pattern off of it) and I've found some inspiration here. But I can't bring myself to do it.

I think it's The Bean's fault. Before I had a baby I was way less sentimental. I mean, I was pretty sentimental, but now it's off the charts. Thank goodness I know someone who is pregnant now because I'm just trying to give away as much as I can before I get too attached to every sock she ever wore and then have to buy a bigger house to house Stella's baby hosiery. But when I look at this gown, I wonder who made it? Meg, do you know? It doesn't matter really because I love whoever it was for putting their baby in red polka dots for her christening. And for using the sweet, sweet buttons. And for sewing little puff sleeves. Sigh.

So, for now, it's hanging around the house and I'm waiting for it to whisper the answer to me. Hey, little sweet christening gown, do you want a new life or do you want to hang around like you are for a while longer? The fact that I talk to inanimate objects is also The Bean's fault. That's where eleven weeks of bedrest will get you.

Of course, this indecision is only prolonged by the fact that I've reached one of those do-or-die points where I have to clean the craft room up. Most work (except for some knitting) has stopped up there until I can get everything under control, which better happen soon because I have a craft fair coming up and I need to get some things done. Today Stella and I relocated the sewing and knitting books to their own shelves (thank you, Baby Bjorn). I have enough sewing and knitting books to fill an IKEA bookshelf. And there are still more titles in my wish list. Hello, my name is Kristina and I have a craft book problem.

And since any good organization project must be thwarted with equally satisfying procrastination, here is what I've found recently that is making me happy:

- I think I'm starting to understand the meaning of Twitter. As soon as I can sum it up in one hundred and forty characters or less, I'll share it with you.

- There is a website here that helps you source local farms, restaurants, and markets that have pastured meats. Restaurants! Yay!! I can be an omnivore in public again! I found this site through Twitter (see above).

- Haba toys rock my world and I wish I had a hundred million dollars to buy everything they make. Our most recent purchases are this and this. Love.

Coloring Inside the Lines.

2009-11-14T11:01:00.007-05:00

Here is a quickie project (which these days means I get it done in one week) that involved my New Favorite Craft: gold leafing.

I had a print from Art Ghost which I received in a Sampler a million years ago. As soon as I got it, I knew that I wanted to color it, but it got shuffled under papers in the craft room and I didn't see it for months and months. The real issue for this blog post should be that my craft room is such a disaster I can hardly get anything done in there, but I'll try to keep it positive (!)

Here is the print before coloring. I think it's a perfect image to hang in my daughter's room but of course I needed it to be extra-special, so I used gold(en) leaf on the horn and the scales. I must say, I doubted myself for a moment as I was dabbing the sizing adhesive for the leaf on. I have gilded a bunch of our chicken eggs and didn't have any full sized leaf sheets left, just little bits and pieces that I've saved. I thought about how I was going to have to wait a while for the sizing to dry/Stella to take a nap again, how I'd have to delicately pick through little shreds of leaf to get it onto the image, and how I didn't really know how it would all turn out in the end. I haven't sprung for the real deal gold leaf yet, so maybe this fake stuff just wouldn't look right. And maybe it would prove to be too much of a pain to deal with the little shreds and it wouldn't look even and smooth in the end. I had a what-would-Martha-do moment where I mentally kicked myself for not having just gone the glitter route, but once I started the actual leafing process, it all went quickly and smoothly and I'm quite pleased with the results.

All of this serves as a reminder that: a) even though I am a grown up, it is still fun to spend time coloring, and b) buying and hoarding those disposable foam brushes whenever they go on sale is a terrible, terrible thing to do for the environment, but they are so dang handy. In this case, I used one to brush off the excess leaf and it was muy effective, and c) that ex-boyfriend I had in high school who remarked that I liked anything as long as it was shiny was right on the money (though I remember really being surprised by that revelation...I thought I was more of a muted/matte, down to Earth kind of girl). One of these days I am going to drop the dough and buy a pack of real gold leaf and then look out...I shall turn everything golden.

It's Electric!...or not...

2009-11-11T21:08:00.010-05:00

Much of today was spent watching my Dad rewire this fantastic salvaged chandelier for me. I love, love, love it. It was a little tricky to rewire as it used a small gauge that is difficult to find (my Dad ended up using some bell wire for one part) and it also was apparently protesting being hooked up again as it blew a few fuses and there were definitely some sparks flying once or twice. Luckily, my Dad is a trained electrician, so nobody died or burned a house down. Thanks Dad (for the chandelier and the non-burned-down-house!) I now need to throw a dinner party in honor of our new dining room lighting.

In other news, I finished up the bead board for the bean (that's a mouthful). They are totally wonky and handmade, but it makes me love them more. There are un-centered holds, shapes that go a little askew, and a dye job that is less than perfect. I used these veggie dyes from Whole Foods (thank you WF for stocking more and more decorating supplies that aren't filled with creepy chemicals) and just diluted them a bit (maybe 50/50, but I totally didn't measure). I rolled the shapes around in the dyes and let them dry for a few days. The yellow, red, and blue are straight from the bottle. The orange was made with yellow and red in a ratio of 10:1. I left the final set natural, but only after trying to get a good green or purple from the set, to no avail. Truthfully, I didn't spend too much time tinkering, so it probably can be done...or maybe the colors just didn't look right on the wood but they'd come out fine in a white frosting.

After the dye dried, I sanded it a bit which was an important step because it evened out the color a lot. It also pulled some extra color off of the edges of each piece which gave a sweet vintage feel to them. I applied two coats of shallac (sanded lightly in between each coat) and then glued the thin shapes down to the board.

Oh, and before all of the shallac-ing, I used my wood burner to write a message to the Bean. I used some of the dyes to color it in a little bit, too. This is my second try with the woodburner and this time I had better control because I went sloooooowly. In addition, a light sanding helped to make the burned lines more sharp.

Making these took me a while because I am a total newbie woodworker. If I were more proficient with power tools, these could be easily done in a weekend; though finishing takes a little time with drying, so it's not a completely immediate craft. Making these made me wonder why we (as a society) are currently so far removed from making things for our children. I'm kind of tweaky about plastic, so maybe it's just me, but it seems odd to consider going to the store to purchase a toy (which will most certainly be chewed on but was made with toxic materials and will not biodegrade) when creating these was simple and fun. I think it's somehow connected to this pressure I feel as a new parent to have something entertaining at the tips of my baby's fingers at all times...on the stroller, in the car seat, in the bathtub, in the crib...when it seems to me that looking at the world going by from the stroller, or in the car seat, or just playing with the water in the tub will help a child learn to be engaged by simple things and to use his or her imagination to stay entertained. I don't know, maybe it's just an only-child thing but I remember lots of time spent staring out the window on long car trips and thinking up all kinds of stories and adventures, none of which involved stuffed animals dangling within inches of my face. So I feel that parents are getting these messages to buy all of this stuff when really, a good set of blocks can take the place of probably 10 toys with electronic bips and boops because of the imaginary play they will spark. And plus, we won't have to poo all over the environment in order to keep our kids entertained. Alright! End rant. Make more toys!!

Hats for Wee Heads.

2009-11-10T13:51:00.007-05:00

I finished the trio of baby hats I was embroidering. A few visits the chiropractor, a fair dose of Tylenol, some icing and my back was in good enough shape to continue with this highly athletic craft. Sheesh. They feature a little snippet of Heather Ross fabric (oh, how I love) and some grass and leaves and french-knotted flowers. I kept it simple, but carried the embroidery around to the back (I think pieces never look complete unless you make the back look just as intentional as the front) and then used a simple running stitch to deal with the seam on the side of the hat. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't figure out a way to avoid having that seam show when the brim is turned up so I figured drawing a little embroidered attention to it couldn't hurt.These are a ton of fun to make because they go quickly and I think the sky's the limit in terms of embellishing them. You could print on them, or sew them out of funky fabrics, or bedazzle them (in a non-choking-hazard sort of way). Or, as I mentioned before, just leave them as-is. My poor child is still wandering around with the un-embroidered/seam sticking out prototype and she still gets compliments (got one today!) on the little hat.

The Dangers of Needlepoint

2009-11-05T11:40:00.003-05:00

Dear reader, what would you think would be common injuries for your average needle pointer? A prick of the finger, perhaps. Even the prick of a toe, if a needle was dropped and accidentally stepped on. Maybe a little mini rug-burn type injury from pulling threads too quickly? Well, in what certainly must be the most bizarre crafting accident ever, I seem to have thrown my back out while needle pointing. That's right. I was sitting up in bed, happily french-knotting it up, when I felt a slight shifting or settling in my lower back. I hadn't moved, coughed, sneezed, or hiccuped. I'd just pulled a needle in and out of a piece of fabric, when suddenly I was in pain. I thought that it was just a little thing, it would pass, blah blah, but today I am unable to bend forward or back more than a millimeter without some serious pain. Who knew that needlepoint was such an aggressive sport? I have an appointment with the chiropractor tomorrow in what might be his first-ever hand sewing accident. Oy.Backache aside, this is what I was working on. It is the brim of a little baby hat, like the one I made for the Halloween bee costume. I'm making up a few of these because they are so fun to make. I took the pipe cleaner antenna off of Stella's hat and she's been wearing it out (sans any embroidery or applique) and she gets all kinds of compliments on it. Really, a simple little black hat with cutie-patootie ears and every Grandma in the area is swooning. Hence, I imagine the spiffed up version will be well received.

And with that, my sitting-up at the computer time must come to a close as my back is not cooperating. I will be working on my needle-pointing-whilst-reclined skills for the rest of the day!

Sometimes I Am Mistaken for Someone Who Knows How to Sew.

2009-10-27T10:46:00.014-04:00

It's the Bean's first Halloween! Although it might seem logical to have her go as, um, a bean, I decided a while ago that she'd be a honey bee and I'd wear my bee keeper suit. Of course I needed to make her bee costume and since I am totally self-taught when it comes to sewing, searching for a pattern was my first order of business. You'd think that more babies would be going as bees for Halloween given the timeliness of Colony Collapse Disorder and all (!), but I didn't find much in the way of patterns. In my least confident moment, I'll admit to even searching for a bee suit to purchase, but I couldn't find anything worthy. So I took a deep breath, headed to the fabric store, and did my best to pretend that I knew what I was doing and therefore could figure out what to buy. My plan of attack was pretty simple: I wanted to make her a bee suit in the form of one of those zippy sleep sack things. I found this site here that gave me the confidence to just use another sleep sack as a template and not stress to much about the whole thing. I knew I wanted a fabric that was simple and relatively warm. Fur fabrics were out since I figured they'd shed like the dickens (that's right, I said 'like the dickens') and there was a bunch of fleece on sale so I got a yard of black and a 1/2 yard of yellow. I knew I wanted to make wings but I didn't want them to have any stiff parts or a frame of any kind since she'd be on her back in the costume at some point. I figured I could find a tulle in a heavier weight that could stand up enough on its own and just get tacked to the back of the costume. I found just the thing and as a bonus, the tulle had little globs of some kind of plasticky stuff that looked like shiny gems. Perfect. I also wanted to have her wearing a hat that I could stick antennae on, so I bought 1/3 yard of a black knit for that.

In the end, I used a sleep sack that had little raglan sleeves and cut out a front and back panel (adding seam allowances and extending the bottom and making a little stinger shape) and two sleeves. When I say that I added seam allowances, I mean that I just cut the fabric a little outside the edge of the template...like, I did absolutely no measuring and it was lovely. For the yellow stripes, I just laid one of the body pieces on some yellow fleece and cut out a piece of yellow in the shape of the middle (tummy) part of the template. Then I cut the yellow piece into stripes and sewed down every other stripe.

I sewed the stripes on to the body pieces first. If I was going to do anything differently, it would be to sew the stripes onto the black fabric before cutting the body pieces out. The fleece stretched a bit when sewing and it took some time getting used to, so the stripes were not perfectly straight. This meant that when I sewed the two body pieces together, the stripes didn't completely match up. As I was sewing the side seams, I worried that this would look terrible, but in the end it is totally not a big deal (and I am usually way crazy about details like that). I slapped (literally, note that my seams are not sewn straight at all) seam binding on the wrists and the neckline, which was a joy since I now actually know how to sew the stuff on correctly thanks to this tutorial. The zipper was just stuck on after cutting the front body piece down the middle. Fleece doesn't fray, so I just cut and sewed and didn't fuss at all.

I also made a little hat with the help of this tutorial and then I wrapped pipe cleaners around the little ears. There is no photo because Bean woke up from her nap before I could set it all up, but trust me, it's cute. The pipe cleaners are very temporary, which is important because if I feel like Stella's grabbing at them, I'm just going to yank them off.

This came out way way better than I expected it to. There were really no bumps along the way and this is why I get myself into trouble. I proclaim that I cannot sew and then I stumble my way through a project and it looks half-decent and no one believes me. In truth, knowing that this was a project that would be worn once and that its sole purpose was to simply read as bee, I was really able to relax and omit stupid things like sewing little insect legs (yes, I considered this at one point) and not care if the shape wasn't perfect or the zipper wasn't straight or whatever. It reminded me of my metals class when my teacher encouraged me to just make something quickly for the sake of finishing it, rather than in an attempt to make the perfect piece. I think I stared at her blankly for a while and then got back to filing all of the edges of each of my handmade jump rings for the necklace chain I was making from scratch. But now I see the beauty in making something quickly and without the need for it to be perfect. Sometimes what you end up with will get the job done! Stella will be a bee! And pssst! I think it all cost under $10!

Don't Blink.

2009-10-21T20:09:00.015-04:00

People tell me that a lot these days. Don't blink or you'll miss everything! This is in regards to, of course, my infant daughter. I think that we have been doing a good job of taking things slow and appreciating each moment. Even the hard ones. I am not blinking much these days. But there is this funny little part of me that thinks "nope, she'll be like this forever." It's very weird because I'm normally a pretty practical person and I also have empirical evidence that she's growing every day, and quite rapidly I might add. But still, every once in a while someone will say the usual "My babies used to be that size! Don't blink because she's going to grow up in an instant!" and that tiny little irrational voice in my head quietly whispers "No she won't."

Well, it's a fact that it's going to happen. One day I'll be going back to work and she'll be off to school and this wonderful year of being together will be over. But for now we are together and are having new adventures every day. I am very lucky to be a teacher at a school with lots going on. I am still doing the choreography for the play, so we go to rehearsal a few times a week and Stella has been patiently watching the progression of the production. Some days she Baby Bjorns it with her father and they watch some soccer or tennis. Today, the art class went across the street to the art center and did some raku firing outside. It was an insanely beautiful day, made all the more beautiful by the fact that we just came out of an extended cold/crappy/rainy period and Stella and I walked over to the art center and watched the dramatic process unfold. Luckily there were two firings so I photographed one and then just watched the other. Like raising Stella, raku is a process that is immediate and intense and you definitely don't want to blink or you'll miss something cool. I didn't blink much and I don't think the Bean did either. Here is some of what we saw:

Out of the kiln and into the fire:

Waiting for the magic to happen:

Out of the fire and into the bath:A finished piece:

Surveying some casualties:

And on our walk back across the school campus, I passed by my favorite tree. It's not the biggest or the grandest tree on campus, but it puts on a dazzling show for approximately one week each Fall. It is on the path to the Meeting House so, once a week, we all walk over for Meeting for Worship and pass by this tree. People often pick up leaves from this tree and I've seen both students and adults playing with a bright red leaf once or twice in a Meeting. It's even inspired some messages in Meetings. Each year when the tree turns, I make sure to focus on it as much as possible on that walk over, because I know that the following week the show will most likely have ended. I've missed it once or twice over the years. I just about missed it this year, but today found it in transition with just enough red on the tree and the ground around it to make me stop and stare. I'm glad Stella got to see it, too. I hope she didn't blink.

Then and Now.

2009-10-18T13:08:00.005-04:00

My Mom and I finally went through the old box of family photos. Well, actually we went through one of the old boxes of family photos. Considering this is something we have been meaning to do for a hundred million years, organizing one box is a start. Part of the expedition was, for me, a hunt for baby photos that I could use to compare to Stella. Here we both are in the red and white stroller that my Mom saved. It was my stroller, then a stroller for my stuffed animals, and maybe will be the same for Stella when she outgrows it.

Then:

And now:

There is something eerie and wonderful about peering into the past with these photos. All of those babies are now starting families of our own and I look at us today, getting older by the minute. But then I look at these family photos and I see how young my parents, relatives, and their friends were. Looking at the photos was like having all of my family members, alive and deceased, in my living room all at once as I remember them from my childhood. Skinny, lots of hair, and the same bliss on their faces that I imagine I will see on our faces when we look back at our family photos 30 years from now. I posted a few of these old photos on my Facebook page and someone suggested that I take away the age with some simple photo editing trickery. But I like them just the way they are, imperfect and no longer crisp, but totally worth safeguarding with all my might.

Finished Blocks

2009-10-14T17:09:00.008-04:00

Here are Bean's toy blocks! I am showing mostly one side of each block here, for obvious reasons, but the rest of the blocks are a riot of patterns and colors. It all somehow works in an it's-all-from-my-stash-so-it-should-work-out kind of way.
The pattern was very easy to follow, including the directions on how to sew the actual cubes together. I read and reread the directions before starting (yes there is a little halo over my crafty head) but it didn't make sense until I actually did it. I still can't figure out exactly how it all happened to work out, but I think that's mostly because of the limited brain cell reserves I have from not having had a full night's sleep in 4.5 months. The only steps I added to the instructions was to measure and mark in 1/2 inch on each side that I sewed up so that I knew where to start and end my stitching. This meant that on each of the four sides that I sewed together I just marked one side of each piece. When I sewed up the top and bottom ends of each cube, I marked in 1/2 inch on each side of the end pieces (since I was sewing all the way round and needed to know where I was going). It all worked out quite well and I'm currently working on sewing up the bag that goes along with the project (just waiting on an order for fusible interfacing to come in...I had to actually purchase something!). I have the pieces cut and I've made a big freezer paper stencil "S" on one piece so that there is never a question of exactly whose blocks these are!

In other news, I'm on such a freezer paper stencil kick that I think I'm going to stencil up some of the plain onesies that Stella has outgrown for a craft fair I'm doing in December. I think I want to create some scherenschnitte-inspired designs, mostly because I think they would be really fun to cut out. Also because scherenschnitte is such a crazy fun word. Something like this or this (greatly reduced in complexity). And I just discovered the work of Helen Musselwhite, not that it could be translated in 2-D but just because it's so dang amazing, check her out here.

Stuff for Stella

2009-10-07T16:44:00.007-04:00

I'm just about done making my first project out of Amy Butler's Little Stitches. I have had high hopes to make lots of Amy Butler projects, but often my urge to sew comes in short little bursts and all of the piecing and cutting that makes her work so lovely seems like it won't give me the instant gratification that I expect from sewing (what can I say? I'm a knitter at heart.) But there are just so many sweet things in Little Stitches and now I have a daughter to make them for, so I set out to make the blocks.

I combined this project with my need to jump on the freezer paper stencil bandwagon (which, as you all know, left the station about 2 and a half years ago). Amy Karol (this was a project brought to you by Amy's) wrote about the process, and many others, in her new book in such a clear and simple way, giving me the motivation that I finally needed. If you haven't checked out her book, do! My favorite part is the fact that she states the aspects of the techniques that you will love and hate at the end of each explanation. It's good to know what will make you raise your fists to the sky in frustration before you get started, I think.

Anyway, these blocks were lovely to put together. Everything came from my current stash of stuff, which makes me very happy. It took a while to choose fabrics and I had to fight the urge to purchase something that was really perfect rather than settle for things that went together from my stash and were sort of perfect. But the truth of the matter is that all of my choices totally ended up being perfect and have worked out in their thrown-together kind of way. Here is the fabric, all cut up (minus one print that didn't make it into the photo shoot for some odd reason). There is a very soft, deep rose colored corduroy in there that came from Megan. She had this little backpack made out of the fabric and one day was done with it and left it on my porch to be turned into something new. Actually, she left it on my porch so long ago that I may be forgetting what she meant for me to do with it...hopefully cutting it up and sewing it into something else was the intention. Hm. Anyhoo, it has been softened so beautifully with all of the wear and tear it got and the addition of a few bits of corduroy gives the blocks some beautiful variation in texture, which I know Stella's little hands will love.

Of course, there needed to be some star-themed fabric in there (I've actually accumulated a bunch of star-themed things over the years, so perhaps it was already written that Stella would be here one day...) and this is the fabric that I chose to stencil Stella's name onto. I followed Amy's directions exactly, and got very clean and crisp results. I recommend using the technique if for no other reason then to get to experience the thrill of peeling off the stencils. Yee haw! I think the trick was ironing paper onto the back of the fabric, because I could swear that it seemed like some little edges of the letters didn't get perfectly ironed down. I was convinced that there were would be some blobs and I'd just have to live with it, but no! It all worked out. I am now going to be freezer paper stenciling everything in my path because it's so dang easy.

I am almost done sewing the squares, the longest part of the process which has come in fits and starts because I need to be Stella-free in order to get it done. I didn't have 4 inch foam, so I used a double layer of 2 inch foam cut into 4 inch squares. It's a little lumpier in some places than I'm sure it would be if I'd had the correct foam width, but it really isn't that noticeable. I asked Stella what she thought and she said "boooeeeaaaaapthththththt" which translates roughly to: Lumps? What lumps? So I think we're in the clear.

I plan on making the bag, but lord knows when. It will involve a freezer paper stencil, I can tell you that much! Thanks Amy and Amy!

I cut the cheese.

2009-09-30T20:51:00.010-04:00

No, really!

When I first got chickens, I realized just how many of those chicken sayings are true (pecking orders, home to roost, shake your tail feathers) and now that I've made cheese for the first time, I've learned that you really do cut it. Who knew?

Dad came back from a weekend workshop on cheese making (yes, handmade dorkiness runs in our family) all excited to try his hand at it. We took a quick trip to Hendrick's to get some raw milk and made a batch this afternoon.

It involved some stirring, some temperature measuring, some cutting of the cheese (the cheese below has just been cut into little cubes), straining, and stretching. I made my Dad use the hot water method rather than nuking the cheese (you do this to get it to the proper temperature to stretch it). I'm trying to imagine life without a microwave because I think I want to ditch it since it's such a creepy way to cook. He cursed the decision a bit, but I didn't think it was too difficult to reheat the whey and use that. Also, cheesecloth would definitely be better than the colander which got little bits of cheese stuck in it. In the end, we had a lovely blob of fresh mozzarella which we ate straightaway. We cooked up some Hendrick's bacon and ate that along with it (sounds a little weird, but was very good on toast), though I will not tell you how much the two of us polished off. Just imagine an insane amount of bacon for two people to consume in one sitting and then double it.

I'm still not sure where I fall on the raw/pasteurized milk debate because I think that there are good arguments on either side, but for cheese making raw milk is kind of important. My Mom came back from the cheese workshop all in a tizzy about store-bought milk because she learned that they put bleach in it. Apparently, natural milk has color variations and US consumers can't deal with that. I'm telling you, people, we need to take back our food supply and we need to do it yesterday. Maybe I really will consider getting that cow...

Feathering the Nest

2009-09-24T19:35:00.006-04:00

Literally.I've rainbowized the bookshelves and now I'm hanging all of the stuff that we've never hung up. Well, some of it has been hung up, but I've changed the paint enough that everything has come back down and needs to be rethought. My goal is to try to create little moments around the house that are more than just a picture thrown up on the wall. For me this is a long, slow process that involves lots of hang-able stuff laying around the house for many months while I "think" about where to put it. I wish I was a more effective interior decorator, but my good ideas are few and far between. I will probably, therefore, never live in a house that is entirely put together. But I am finally happy with this tiny part of a wall in the entryway. I found this little shelves at a yard sale last summer and finally got around to painting it (them, actually, but now the second painted one will have to lie around for another few months while I figure out where to put it). I decided that the fistful of feathers that I've been collecting from our chickens needed to be displayed more prominently as did this lovely little bird sculpture which I did have hanging up, but in a really wrong spot. I like.

Oh! And I'm a winner ! I know I've already mentioned it, but if you don't already know about The Bright Side Project, check it out. I won this! It made my day and I'm getting a necklace with our (me, my man, and my babe's) three initials on it: ask. Yes, we spell word. Or, rearranged, a music genre. We are very versatile.

Elfkin Endeavors

2009-09-20T15:04:00.005-04:00

I spent the afternoon on Saturday in my Dad's workshop, pretending I was one of Santa's elves. You know, the kind that make the toys for the Montessori school kids? In my ongoing quest to keep anything from China out of Stella's mouth, I purchased this book on making toys to develop a brainiac child. So great. Except that I don't know how to build stuff with wood. So, with the help of my Dad (which involved a little frustration...Dad's shouldn't teach their kids to drive or use power tools, it seems), I got started on these wooden beads and bead board. I'm still not very familiar with the ins and outs of using wood (my Dad was quick to correct me because I apparently sand all wrong), but I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out so far. It's definitely not perfect, but I'm learning as I go. So far my favorite tool is the drill press. There's something very satisfying about being able to drill a nice, even hole straight through the middle of something. And although it is definitely a little odd working with machines that could sever a limb, I'm getting used to it. I mean, I guess I could poke my eye out with a knitting needle if I really wasn't paying attention, but needle crafts just don't seem to keep my on my toes as much as woodworking does.

I'm going to use vegetable food dyes to color these beads and then seal them with linseed and beeswax and I am seriously excited for that part of the project. I'm trying to remember to KeepItSimpleStupid, but I want to avoid using just primary colors so some mixing will have to happen. I'll admit that I've considered getting out the woodburner, but I am going to avoid making some complex matching game out of these beads and just let them be basic and fun. I still have a few more beads to make though, so anything could happen...

Disorganized Organization

2009-09-18T19:05:00.006-04:00

I needed my bookshelves to be organized by color. I just did. I'd seen it as a design element in a few places and poo pooed it at first, but it just looked so darn pretty. And I had a whole new set of built in bookshelves to really decorate. We used to have some dinky IKEA shelves on either side of the window in our living room. With the help of my Dad, we built full-sized built-ins on either side of the window (probably doubling our book capacity) and built a storage chest/window seat in the middle. I love love love it. But when the shelves were finally finished...after a few months of work during my pregnancy and bed rest...Bean arrived and we just threw all of the books onto the shelves and left them there.

But aha! I am now home alone with a baby all day. A baby who, in a recent turn of events, has learned how to nap in the early afternoon. Brilliant baby. And so I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and create a librarian's total nightmare: two full shelves organized only by color. I briefly entertained the idea of removing the dust jackets to kick it up a notch, but I'm really into simplifying my crap these days, not adding to it by trying to find storage for dust jackets which I know, once removed, will never make it back onto the books (even though I'd go on storing them indefinitely which was the same problem I had with those CD binders from the early 1990s which I filled but then couldn't bring myself to throw the jewel cases away...big mess). Andrew was skeptical at first, but saw the writing on the wall (I'm home all day, you have to be at work, nya nya) and in his consistent gentle way observed the process, but didn't say much. Until, after I'd basically finished the first top row (red) and I found him over by the line of orange/yellow I was creating and he said, with trepidation, "Wait, so all of the philosophy books won't be together?" Dear, sweet man. As luck would have it, most of the philosophy books were either black or neutral on the spine so it worked out pretty well in the end. I can't say the same for fiction, but (perhaps not surprisingly) science is mostly in the blues and greens. See? Change your perspective on something and a whole new way of looking at things opens up.

So, we have red/orange going across the top rows, yellow across the second, greeny blue on the third, bluish purplish on the fourth and then below that (out of the picture frame) there is a beigy row and then the whites and blacks on the very bottom.

Organizing the shelves like this also enabled me to cannibalize knick knacks from other places in the house which now, because of the rainbow of books, have their own colors highlighted in new and unique ways. And teaching Stella the colors of the rainbow will be so much more literary. AND Andrew (dear, sweet man) has stated that he thinks that he'll be able to recall the colors of most of his favorite books so that it won't be so frustrating to find them after all. Sorry folks, he's already taken.

More Stuff I Didn't Make

2009-09-17T16:28:00.007-04:00

Stella has been very blessed to receive handmade gifts. It seems there are a lot of crafty folk in her village. Having a baby has introduced me to the excessive amount of crap that today's babies apparently need to survive. Lots of plastic. Lots of mass-produced stuff. Lots and lots of unnecessary stuff and, amazingly, there are lots of and lots of people buying this stuff. It's not just that we've forgotten that we can make a lot of this baby gear (blankets, diaper pads, diaper bags) but we seem to think that babies can't survive without little doodads dangling off of every surface within a 5 mile radius. Don't get me wrong...someone gave us a mobile that spins, has things that slide around, and plays high falootin' classical music and I love it. It is the reason I get to shower every day, and I appreciate not having to be a stinky mom. However, I also think it's important to put away the mobiles and jangly things and let the baby look at the world! Anyway, Stella's world is so much prettier with the handmade things she's been given, and here is Megan's quilt:A few things which must be mentioned are that this quilt features chickens, Megan did the quilting herself (first timer), and the back is equally as fantastic as the front. As for the chickens, Megan is the latest victim in my plot to convince everyone in the world to keep poultry in their yard. Clearly, Stella needs to be recruited early to this worthy cause, so yay for chickens on a quilt! I truly have trouble deciding which end is up with this quilt, because of the sweet stripe down what I think one would technically consider the back. And the best part is that Megan did fancy machine quilting all by herself, even though every time she sees it she mentions something else she could have done better. Silly Megan, I think that it's perfect the way it is. I have it on good authority that Stella agrees, because she spit up all over it the other day and she only does that with the people and objects she loves the very best.

And just to keep a running tab on the cool things that Stella is doing lately, today it seems she noticed her foot. Just her left one, the right is still a bit of a mystery. Beautiful baby.

On Staying Home

2009-09-15T19:35:00.004-04:00

So, I'm taking a big leap and staying home with The Bean this year. Financially, this makes no sense. Suze Orman would kick my ass if she ever found out (shhh). But in terms of what I know is the right thing to do and for what is in my heart, I know that we will make it work. I look at this baby who is now 15 weeks old and I know that I am nowhere near ready to leave her. She's just started smiling and laughing is not far behind. There is a personality starting to peek out, and I'm not going to miss a minute of it. The thought that I would have had to leave her 10 weeks ago if I wasn't in academia takes my breath away. I feel so sorry that there are so many families in our country that can't afford to have a parent at home during this time, and I wish we would get it together and realize that 6 weeks is not enough time.

But I am lucky that we can make this happen. And so I've been channeling my inner 1950's cooking/cleaning/child-rearing self and loving every minute of it. Stella has basically no idea what's going on, but I love doing things with her and explaining what's around her. For instance, she's already been to two zoos. It's never too early to introduce a child to a bearded dragon, I say.

So this will be a year of simplifying. It will be a time for me to really use the fabric stash, yarn stash, paper stash, and general hoard-o-rama I have going on up in that craft room. Really. I'm going to buy materials that I must have to finish a project, but otherwise use what I've got (OK, I've already totally broken this rule with the purchase of a jelly roll and book of patterns, but I'm going to try to be better I swear). I am going to clean out my fridge and cabinets and not let so much food go to waste (I am really terrible about this). And you know what? Although I have only been home alone for a week or so, I'm finding that I have more time to think about how to be more mindful of using what we have as creatively as possible - - whereas when I'm working, I'm often so frazzled that I don't have any time to plan accordingly. Veggies go bad, I purchase doubles of craft items I already had but forgot about. I swear, living in a house with both people working is like being on a ship with no one at the helm. I mean no disrespect to all of the women who paved the way for me to be able to have a career and a vote and all that, but man, I am really OK with being home. So again, lucky lucky me. I'm going to squeeze everything I can out of this year.

So here is a snapshot of a good stay-at-home moment that The Bean and I shared with Grandpa last week: driving out to the farm where we get our pastured meats and dairy, we passed a farmer setting up a stand of corn on the side of the road. We made a note and were sure to stop on the way home. I love the fact that I live close enough to places where farmers leave their veggies on the side of the road with a box for money. Three cheers for the honor system! We got our ridiculously sweet corn for a ridiculously low price and I'm still adding it to every meal we eat.

A Slightly Different Pace

2009-09-02T14:45:00.006-04:00

Things have been progressing around here rather...slowly. It's called Stella Time and it's what we've been on since this little baby landed in our laps. I'm generally a pretty fast-paced person, and I thought that I'd be driven mad by the lack of time I'd have to complete anything, but I'm actually finding some beauty in the madness.

For instance, here is a photo of the only project I've been able to start and complete since The Bean has arrived:

A few things to note:

- this is a blurry photo

- this is a skirt that I did not make, I just added to it

- adding to this skirt consisted of quickly stitching some thrifted trim with some contrasting thread.

OK, it was a little more involved that that. I had the trim, but it was too white and so I tea-stained it (though I have bags and bags of fleece and some chemical dyes that I'm itching to mix up, it won't be happening until this baby decides she doesn't want boobies anymore). Choosing the trim out of the yards and yards of odds and ends I have occurred in one nap cycle. Tea-staining approximately 2 yards of trim took two cycles, a nap and a feeding, and I forgot about it cooking on the stove and all of the liquid evaporated and it started to burn (yes, I almost burned cotton trim on my stove top, though the color turned out quite lovely). Sewing the trim on took three nap cycles, the first line of stitching had to be aborted mid-stitch at one point. Photographing the project had to wait for another nap, at this point three days after the project was begun.

The beauty of all of this is how much I've been able to let go of because of the limited time I have. I can be so incredibly fussy about the details of what I make, that sometimes it's hard for me to even get a project off the ground. I could have spent days just trying to figure out trim, maybe thinking about sewing a little flower or a button on there, but the truth of the matter that I had a hem that was unravelling and I needed to spruce up this skirt that I love and I needed to do it now. The project got whittled down to the essentials, and a lot of the background noise that I normally feel buzzing around me when I'm in the craft room was gone.

As for larger projects, such as the 6 cups of chopped peaches I have in my fridge which must be turned into jam asap or the baby quilt I made for Stella that still isn't quilted, I'm not quite sure how I'll go about accomplishing those!

No Promises

2009-08-27T19:52:00.007-04:00

While on our vacation in Maine, we went blueberry picking the day before the drive back home. We figured we'd stick them in the fridge that night, and put them in our cooler for the drive back. The woman who ran the u-pick farm thought we were nuts (or maybe she was just over-protective of her blueberries), but it ended up working out just fine. We picked over 6 pounds of blueberries, paying the scandalous price of $1.75 per pound, and brought them home for my first foray into jam making.

I did this at my parents' house because they have a big kitchen with a fancy stove and miles of granite counter top that I can put hot pots on. I don't know why I get such a thrill out of being able to take something off the stove and put it directly onto the counter top; apparently I am easily amused. Anyway, jam-making involves some seriously hot liquids, all kinds of boiling water (for the canning), and the need for a bit of counter space and for my first experiment, I wanted some elbow room. I found a few recipes and canning directions on the internet, and along with the package insert that came with the jar lids I bought, I came up with the following recipe. The information on the Bell insert clearly says that if you try to double the recipe the world will end, but I ended up doubling it and lived to tell the story. Which is:

8 cups mashed blueberries (This started out as 12 cups of whole blueberries which probably was a little under 6 pounds. I ended up smashing these with my hands after I lost patience with the potato masher. I gave them a pretty good mashing, but there were definitely still whole blueberries in there).

7 cups of sugar

2 boxes of pectin (make sure to get the regular kind if you are using sugar, not the no-sugar kind).

The juice of 2 lemons

I cooked the mashed blueberries and lemon juice and sprinkled in the pectin and stirred it all up. Stirring constantly, I brought the entire mixture to a boil, added the sugar, then stirred until it came back to a boil. Once it reached a boil, I let it go for another minute, then I canned it according to the directions I found here and here and on the Bell jar package insert. I ended up filling 7 8-ounce jars and 3 12-ounce jars (all of which I recycled because I can't ever throw a bell jar away, despite the fact that I've never canned before now). I thought the canning process would be much more complicated and scary, but it really was no big deal. I guess I felt OK about it because I know that jam making doesn't involve all of the scary botulism potential that tomato or other canning does, so if you are new to the process, it's a good stress-free way to dive in.

As this entire process required the cooperation of one sleeping three month old, I quickly whipped up some labels (which was crazy easy in Word) and didn't have time to trick them out with little pictures of blueberries. Next time. I also must admit that I was trying to not get too attached to the jam since I had no idea how it would come out (hence the "no promises" disclaimer in the title), but my mom tried the jam this morning and said it was excellent. Yes, yes, my reviewer is my mom so of course she liked it...but to my knowledge she hasn't fallen ill, so at least I'm confident that the canning process went smoothly.

Next up: I'm going to try making my own jam recipes using the lemon balm that is growing in our new raised beds. The potential of making jams with herbs has me all a-twitter.

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Place...

2009-08-02T14:43:00.006-04:00

...because I need a cow.

I made mint chocolate chip ice cream today.

This involved a lot of mint from our crazy potted mint plant that comes up every year and is huge and beautiful through no effort on our part. Seriously, this plant likes to be neglected. I don't think I've watered it once this season. OK, we've had an incredibly wet summer, but still. I hardly ever think of this plant.

So we're starting with really fantastic mint.

I used this recipe from epicurious, which involved 6 egg yolks. And as luck would have it, I had 6 eggs in the fridge, given to me by the only chicken we currently have that is laying (Kateski). I saved the whites because I'll try to make these meringues, but I need to wait for this crazy humidity to break first. But I digress...

Fantastic mint, super-fresh eggs. If only I had my own lactating cow.

Regardless of whether you have your own mint plant, chickens, cows, or cocoa beans, make this ice cream. I omitted the nasty green food coloring (why the heck to people need their mint chocolate chip ice cream to be fake green?) but otherwise followed the recipe exactly, despite the fact that some people suggested using only 4 egg yolks or futzing with the cream/milk ratio to make it less rich (what the?). And it is good. I'm talking standing-at-the-kitchen-sink -licking-the-freezing-bowl-clean-with-a-spatula good. How long can you blame your chub on the new baby?

2009-06-24T20:35:00.008-04:00

We do a lot of laying around these days. Mostly out of sheer exhaustion, and the fact that watching a newborn sleep never gets old. In the rare moments when Stella is awake and not fussing, she's becoming more and more aware of her surroundings each day. Luckily, we've been given lots of great stuff for her to fix her eyes on, such as this mobile thingee from my most favorite toy company, ever. I predict a few bonks on the head for Stella as almost all of her toys are wooden (and little works of art, if you ask me).

But wait, did you notice what Stella is resting on? Didn't I say we've been given all sorts of wonderful gifts? As if Stella wasn't enough of a prize, we are now the proud parents of a Nancy Quilt in the most beautiful shades of green and purple.

Look at the sweet quilting......it's a good thing baby quilts are small so when they are outgrown they can end up on a wall. Although we kept the sex of our baby a surprise and managed to keep the gender colors at bay, now that the secret's out our house is rapidly being inundated with pink. I tried to fight the battle, but I'm clearly losing. In any event, purple and green is making me especially happy these days, so thank you Nancy!!

What I've Been Up To Lately...

2009-06-14T15:53:00.005-04:00

The poor blog has taken a back seat to all of the goings-on around our house lately. I'd love to be able to post scads of crafty projects that I've been working on during this time, but the truth is there has been no glitter, no yarn, no glue, paper, or fabric doing much of anything lately...besides gathering dust in the craft room. But I DO have the most perfect thing that I've ever made to show for all of this time:Our baby Stella was born a little over two weeks ago! She is a whole baby, but this little foot gets me every time. Although, at the end, 9 months seemed like an eternity, the fact that a little person came out with all of her fingers and toes and fingernails and hair and ears and nose just amazes me. I'm a crafter who is never truly satisfied with what I've made because there are always flaws and foibles that occur along the way. However, looking at Stella, it is impossible to see anything other than perfection. Her one little nostril comes to a point in a way that the other one doesn't...and that's perfect. She has a little notch at the top of her right ear that she doesn't have on the left...and that's perfect. OK, she's not perfect about sleeping through the night, but I have it on good authority that that skill will come.

I have a whole bunch of things that I want to make for her but I'm not so good with the get-things-done-between-feedings schedule that she has us on. Suffice it to say, there's been a lot of napping going on around here. As the weeks go by, hopefully I'll be able to find the time to take photos and post more often, though finished projects might not be the main topic over the summer. The new adventure that is unfolding before us will surely keep me plenty busy, though, so we'll see what comes of it all:)

Shoes To Fill

2009-04-13T07:42:00.008-04:00

Right-0, so the knitting project is going terribly. Despite having knitted a gauge swatch (I am so virtuous), I felt like the fabric was a bit too loose as I was knitting, The measurement for the cuff was over an inch under what the pattern called for, which seemed about right to me since the hem and cuffs needed to be blocked anyway. But then, as I finished the decreases and measured the bicep circumference, it came out an inch too big. Huh? Then I checked the gauge of the piece and found that I was knitting 5 more sts to the inch than it called for. So much for my swatch-making abilities. Still, I'm perplexed by the cuff too small/bicep too big dichotomy. I frogged it and will leave it alone for a little while because I have baby shower craftiness to get to. Oh, and as a mental note to myself: buy a ball winder. I never understood why people couldn't just wind a ball of yarn themselves (this is relaxing to me, and sometimes involves Andrew holding the skein - bonus bonding time), until I tried to wind 1200 yards of lace-weight yarn. Oh, now I get it.

Since I don't have anything to show for the last few days of knitting, here are the house slippers I made a little while back. My shoes came out a little small, which might be that I just wasn't being super-duper particular about maintaining perfect seam allowances, or because I put a few extra layers of felt batting in between the sole pieces to give a little cushioning. I am going to make a bunch more of these in different sizes, so my friends can wander around my house without the embarrassment of showing their holey socks (which is nothing to be ashamed about, I have my fair share of holey socks too).
And this is my first pair of baby booties. I have to admit the whole idea of there being a baby in the house in a few months still seems quite abstract. True, I go to the birth center every week for appointments and they hook me up to a machine that confirms that the being inside me that visibly makes my belly move around does indeed have a heartbeat, and true, my naval is almost gone and I can't reach the plates in the the cupboards because my belly can't clear the counter...but still, a real, live BABY? It's all a bit weird.

I ordered a bunch of really cute baby bootie patterns over here and then bought craploads of fusible felt interfacing that will last me for approximately eighty thousand more baby booties. Needless to say, this will probably be the baby shower handmade gift of choice for me for a while. Anyway, they were pretty easy to make, except for some tight turns which required a little finesse. I've already cut out some fabric for a few more pairs, and this time I've cut the fabric for the inserts a little smaller. The inserts I made for this first pair fit in, but they are a teeny bit bulky so I'll see if scaling them down a bit makes them fit better. Andrew picked out the fabric for these, which was a nice way to involve him in the process. I think I'll have him pick out fabrics for my projects more often, it adds a level of surprise and it's one less thing for me to obsess about...

It wasn't until I flipped these shoes right-side out and saw them as little booties that the reality of tiny little feet coming into the house seemed more grasp-able. What is about shoes that gives us such a strong image of a human being occupying them. If the news shoes the wreck of some disaster and I see a glove or a jacket strewn about I can generally handle it...if they show an empty shoe, I can't deal...what's that about?

Yarn, finally!

2009-04-06T16:00:00.004-04:00

I ordered some yarn for this project from IK knits a while back. I found the substitute and colorway that I wanted, but had some trouble finding a source that still had it in stock. In the end, I ordered it and it got backordered and I sat around moping for a while. I didn't start any other knitting project, just moped. My recent adventures in frogging every single UFO I had laying around (the rewound yarn filled an entire large-ish tote bag) have made me wary (for now) of starting a project that I don't really love. Of course, I already have a great pair of socks that I was working on that I don't have enough yarn for and I don't yet have the heart to rip out (UFO #1), a brown cardi that I was working on a while back which I didn't frog because it felt too soon, but it's already too far in the past that I don't really remember where I left off (UFO #2), and something in a green linen tape yarn that I found the other day that escaped my frogging whirlwind (UFO #3), but who's counting?

Anyhoo, tired of moping about my lack of a pretty laceweight yarn, I went searching on etsy and found this lovely lavender skein from PennyRose Yarns. It was in stock, came quickly, and is a whopping 1200 yards, so I'm good to go. I'm not usually a lavender-wearing person, but being on bedrest has made me long for some pretty colors around me - - which explains why poor Andrew is perpetually asked to bring me a new bunch of tulips when the old ones peter out, even though there are 50 million other more important things he could be doing with his time. Anyway, I'm going back to bed, this time with yarn and needles, and I'm casting on. Look out!

How Much Bed is Too Much Bed?

2009-03-30T16:23:00.006-04:00

Well, with two months of baby-growing to go, I've been grounded. As of two weeks ago, that is. Yuppers, bedrest. It's taken me some time to wrap my head around this crazy turn of events. I had imagined that I'd be working right up until the first contractions, a sort of living laboratory for my students (and as a bonus, a really good reminder of why it's OK to wait on the whole sex thing, kids). But alas, I won't be getting much more mileage out of my cute maternity shirts (or the blank ones that I'd ordered with plans to freezer paper stencil them). Instead, I've finally caved on the years-long debate we've had running in our home over whether or not to get cable, and I've discovered that there IS such a thing as Too Much Bed.

So, while I can't go to work and my social interactions have been limited to Andrew, my cat (the master of how to do bedrest), the occasional visitor who doesn't mind hanging out in my bedroom, and the entire cast of designers of HGTV, I've been trying to keep moderately crafty. The problem is that I have almost no patience for putting together nice photographs. This has made blogging seem like no fun. What a dilemma - - much in the way of crafty goodness to show, yet no drive to actually get the camera out and show it. I'll try to find a way to take good looking photos from bed, and then maybe I'll post some of the handmade goodness.

For now, here's a fantastic shot of the silver polish, doing her punk rock thing. We are acclimating Kateski to the new girls, and things are going smoothly. Kateski isn't pecking much, instead, she shows her authority by insisting on pushing the chicks out of the way and pecking the ground that they were working on...even when we've thrown food all around the coop. It's sort of like siblings fighting over toy turf or something like that (never having had a sibling, I can only imagine that there is some parallel between humans and chickens in this respect).

And with that, back to bed and the land of 30 minute room renovations (man, do I have big plans for our kitchen now...)

Busy Busy

2009-03-07T15:41:00.009-05:00

There has been lots going on in our house lately! I've been growing a baby, we've been raising new baby chicks (in what will be the nursery...yes, I currently have livestock in our future nursery...), there has been crafting and baby shower planning and a new gym membership so that I can get my bloated self into a swimming pool. Yuppers, lots going on. With all of the activity, I haven't found the energy to photograph much. However, today is the first real beautiful Spring day on a weekend and we took the new chicks out to get their first taste of outdoor life.

You may remember that our white crested black polish, Kateski, had a severe injury a while back that required local anesthesia and stitches (which, like idiots, we agreed to go ahead and pay for on a chicken). Kateski's absence from the coop caused the other two non-crested chickens to forget about her and then peck her relentlessly upon her return. So those two were relocated to my mom and dad's coop where they are happily integrated. Poor Kateski has been by herself and being the wee chicken that she is, we've had to bring her inside each and every night during the cold, cold winter we've had (I already mentioned that we're idiots, right?) We needed more chickens and they needed to be of the crested variety so here we have the newbies:

Anastasia on the right, the silkie on the left (it's impossible to get a single shot of the silkie because she's constantly glued to the hip of one of the other chicks...that sounds like hen behavior, right?!)
Amelia (foreground) and K2. Little punks.
The mohawk money shot.

Anastasia is the only one who is currently named and she's the black and white one with the fantastic black mohawk. She's a silver polish. There is another white crested black polish (we've been calling her K2 for Kateski the second, so maybe that'll stick), and a black silkie. The silkie isn't crested, but we got her and K2 because three of the four crested chicks we ordered died right after delivery (and we couldn't get to them fast enough to get them hundreds of dollars worth of general anesthesia and stitches). So, technically two of the three chicks we have right now aren't sexed and could be roosters. Oh my. We are sending some serious XX chromosome vibes to these chicks every day, so hopefully it'll all work out...we spend a lot of time trying to analyze chicken behavior ("hey, K2 is wandering off on her own, do you think that's because she's a rooster?" or "that chirp didn't sound very dainty...do you think it's a rooster chirp?").

So those are the new girls. That's right, I said girls.

In baby craft news, I've finished the quilt top for the baby quilt (no photo yet, coming soon) so I'm deciding whether I want to try to do the quilting myself or send it out. In either case, I'm trying an eco-friendly bamboo batting which I'm excited about. I've also got some blank maternity shirts ordered and I plan to try out freezer paper stencils on them.

Stay tuned (or not, I know I can be slow about this blog thing...)!

Knitting Fever

2009-02-04T16:13:00.007-05:00

Perhaps it's because I have a quilt day coming up this weekend, perhaps it's because I joined this knitting race (for some insanely odd reason, considering I didn't even have the time to check the site and realized today that the pattern had actually been posted yesterday), perhaps it's because it's still snowing here despite the fact that I am ready for spring, or perhaps it's because I'm still working my way through the fourth season of Lost (yes, I am always a season behind), but for whatever reason, I've been into knitting lately. A lot.

I like many of the patterns in the book Knitted Toys, but needed a small project when a little family emergency had us sitting in a hospital waiting room for a while a few weekends ago, so these mice fit the bill. They are cute, though I didn't pay attention to gauge at all and so they are more rat-sized and I didn't take the time to go to the store to get the perfect color of floss to match the ears. However, if baby spaghetti squash notices anything, I'll be surprised.

And of course, I'll be doing nothing but knitting the project for the contest, the Hemlock Ring Doily Throw, which I've been oohing and aahing over on Brooklyn Tweed for a while. Technically, I should be racing to the yarn and needles right now so that I can cast on, but I'm just going to take it slow and be happy about the fact that I'm really psyched about this pattern. This is why I was never good at competitive sports. I'm not much of a must-win person. That, and I'd rather be sitting on the sidelines knitting rather than chasing a ball around. Oh, who am I kidding, I'd rather be sitting on the sidelines poking knitting needles into my eyes than chasing a ball around. Yeah. I don't really like competitive sports.

I do have a third knitted project on the line, but I'm not going to share much about since it's currently driving me insane and it's technically a gift, but I just wanted you to know that I really mean it when I say there's a lot of knitting going on around here!

As I reread this post, I can't help but notice that it's pretty bland. I'm going to chalk it up to these flippin' pregnancy hormones which have me completely nutso today. I haven't been able to do anything right since breakfast where I burned the bacon, tried to butter the toast IN the toaster oven to keep it warm since I had to make more bacon and dropped butter into the toaster oven which I could then not get out, then burned the bacon again, THEN burst into tears and needed to be rescued by the only sane person living in this household right now (hint: he isn't the pregnant one). It's been a banner day.

Baby Quilt in the Works...

2009-01-27T17:44:00.008-05:00

I can't find my favorite book for knitting baby blankets (did I lend it to anyone?), so I think I'm going to try to make a little quilt. The semi-annual quilting day that I like to attend is coming up in the beginning of February, so I'm working on gathering everything together.

I'm planning on making a variation of this lovely quilt from Chickpea Sewing Studio. I'm going to make some of the colored squares out of embroidered muslin. I used mostly Wee Wonderfuls patterns, but there is at least one from Sublime Stitching (this pattern set) in there as well. Here are a few samples:

I'm a huge fan of making lots of french knots, hence the textured sheep. I actually have a punch needle, but do I use it? No. French knots are so much more...obsessive.
I still need to figure out what fabric I'm going to use for the rest of the colored squares, but I took the pattern suggestion and ordered some Kona Cotton Fabric. As for those colored squares, I promise I'm going to root around in my voluminous stash rather than order new material. Really. I am not going to buy any of this insanely great fabric. I promise...

Shoes off!

2009-01-22T15:26:00.002-05:00

Here I am, sitting at my computer in my lovely red slippers, blogging away. In the past year, we've adopted a noshoesinthehouse policy, spurred on in part by becoming chicken owners (let's not wear the shoes we just mucked around in in the coop when we get inside, m'kay?) and in part by my ever-increasing obsession with gross stuff not being in my house. Now listen, folks. I realize we live in a society where shoesinthehouse is the norm...but sit back and think about it for sec. That's right, really think about it. Those shoes that you trek all over the sidewalk in (which, for some reason that is completely beyond me, is a place that many people deem appropriate for their spittle), the shoes that you wore into the bathroom in the mall, the shoes that maybe, just maybe came into contact with bird poo/chewing gum/the pee of some animal when you walked to the post office (because I know you walk to the post office rather than driving there in your car). I realize that I'm not the best barometer of ick-factors (as Andrew will often remind me after I'm done freaking out about the 10 crumbs left on the kitchen counter), but for the love of scrapple, can we please all just agree that shoes do not belong on feet when those feet are inside the house?!

OK, I should mention that when I say that "we" have adopted a noshoesinthehouse policy, I really mean that "I" went nutso about it one day and because I live with The Most Patient Man in the world, he dutifully wears his slippers (at least when I'm looking). While love trumps most crazy quirks, friendship is a different story and I've been finding it difficult to look my guests in the eye while saying: "Hi! I'm so happy you are here...come in...after taking off your shoes....uh-huh, really...you can put them here...(awkward silence)...sorry I don't have an extra pair of slippers..." And I'm pretty sure that asking people to take their shoes off at the door is where Andrew will draw the limit. He'll take his own shoes off and not complain, but I think when it comes to our guests, the ball's in my court.

What to do?

Enter: Amy Karol of Angry Chicken fame to solve my problems in one clever mail order. Hello?! A pattern for house slippers so that I can actually give something to my guests so their holey socks don't have to show AND two signs to hang on the door explaining, quite politely, that a neurotic woman and her tolerant boyfriend live here and please leave your germy shoes at the door thankyouverymuch?!?!

If there are just two things I can impress upon you today, please adopt a noshoesinthehouse policy NOW (like right this second!) and go here and make up some house slippers!!

'Tis a Fine Day.

2009-01-20T08:19:00.004-05:00

In honor of Obama's inauguration today, I decided to make some cupcakes. Although there was a surprise two hour delay today due to icy weather, the plan is to turn my classroom into a viewing center for faculty to enjoy the festivities. Cupcakes, of course, will be a must. I'm not sure what will happen now that my exam officially ends at 12:30 rather than 10 (it may involve rushing kids through exams and pushing them out the door...), but I do know one thing: there will be cupcakes. And (OK, two things) they will be fancy.

Andrew and I ran out to get a cast iron skillet yesterday so that we could cook up an insanely expensive cut of grass-fed beef that we stole from my father's fridge (thanks, Dad). Luckily, while in the (dreaded) mall, I remembered that I've been in the market for a cupcake pan. Do you know how hard it is to find a non non-stick cupcake pan these days? Harder than finding a cast iron skillet, let me tell you. I'm trying to steer clear of the non-stick stuff since it seems very creepy to me, and so we searched high and low for what Andrew refers to as a "stick" pan. We finally found it...at Williams Sonoma. I always feel like a bit of a kitchen sell-out when I shop there, but darn it all, they had what I needed. But the best part is that I finally got myself a pastry bag and tips and OH MAN am I going to be baking up a lot of pretty things with this little device.

I used Amy Sedaris's recipe from I Like You. You can find the recipe on epicurious, too. This was the first recipe I've made from that book, and I'll be making more. You have to love cooking directions that involve "Beat(ing) until it looks like it is supposed to," and that call for an entire box of confectioner's sugar (about 7.5 cups, according to my research). In addition, there are lots of fun stories about things like caring for rabbits and how to host a proper wake, and the food photos have been made gloriously ugly with lighting that can only be described as "What Were They Thinking in the 1970s?" I halved the recipe and got 12 perfect cupcakes, but I did need to keep adding milk to the butter cream frosting to get it to the right consistency (maybe my 7.5 C estimation wasn't from the same box that Amy uses...hmm...) Anyhoo, I tossed that goop into my pastry bag and lookee here! Instant pretty!!

Just the right amount of fancy for what I know will be a good, good day.

Because what else would you do

2009-01-15T16:12:00.004-05:00

with your chicken's first eggs but gild them?

I bought the materials to gild some drawings in my China journal (which I still haven't put up on the blog, have I?) but then lost track of the project when school started. Thank goodness I had it on hand because I REALLY needed to blow out the first eggs and make them pretty. And, oh my, is gilding fun. It's that same satisfying process as taking a shiny chocolate wrapper and smoothing it obsessively until it all the wrinkles come out. The egg shape was a little tough because you have to have some of the gold leaf overlap itself and then it gets a little messy, but the smoothing process is sooooooooo worth it. I still need to smooth these guys a little more (!) and then apply a sealant, otherwise the leaf is pretty flaky.

I blew the eggs out without any tools which involved a lot of huffing and puffing and Baby Banana (week 20!) was probably wondering what the heck was going on. I went ahead and ordered an egg blower today because I foresee not being able to crack many of Kateski's eggs and/or the need to continue on this gilding path (if I stick with eggs, that should keep me from gilding everything else in the house).

Up next: I think I might play with some Wee Wonderfuls embroidery patterns because I'm starting to think baby blankets...

Something I didn't make.

2009-01-10T13:39:00.007-05:00

Today is an incredible day.

After having raised her for 8 months, spending an ungodly amount of money on her when she needed stitches from the vet, removing her feathered roommates when they rejected her after she returned from recuperating, then keeping her as an only-child (who has needed to be brought indoors every night because she's too small to be left alone overnight in the cold), our chicken Kateski finally laid an EGG!

Two, actually.

It's been an insane saga with this chicken and I believe we may be the very last members of our coop group to actually get an egg. Our other two chickens (the ones who ganged up on Kateski when she returned from her surgery) never laid an egg for us, but promptly started doing so a few days after being relocated to my parents' coop. She really does spend her evenings indoors in the computer room, roosting on the edge of her plastic carrier tub or, if she really wants relax, on the massage office chair. Andrew had given up hope that she would ever lay an egg. I was skeptical, but was afraid to admit it. We both agreed that she was probably aware that we'd spent a small fortune to keep her alive so that her chances of going to the soup pot were slim...so why bother with the annoying task of actually giving us eggs??

We are expecting more chicks of her kind (docile, mostly blind because of the feathers in their face) in February who we are hoping will grow to be good coop-mates and bona fide egg layers, but I'm happy to say that, in the meantime, I can go out to my coop in the morning and get myself an egg to soft boil.

Bunny, meet Bell Pepper.

2009-01-04T09:43:00.009-05:00

I ordered the fourth hand sewing project from Wee Wonderfuls last week and couldn't wait to dive into the project as soon as it hit my doorstep. I made the snail, turtle, and butterfly for the nieces and nephew last year and so, logically, the bunny had to be for The Bell Pepper (that's where we're at, vegetably speaking). I love these little hand sewing projects because they don't take a lot of material, so I can happily hunt through my scraps and see what goes together. While I haven't done any major sock-monkey projects (yet), I have been saving my holey socks and, lo and behold, found two pairs of cashmere socks that I had retired to the craft room a while back. Hello! Baby needs a cashmere bunny!

The body is a beige cashmere sock (note the ribbed loveliness) and the tail is from a black cashmere sock. I thought about using some felt for the tail, but then figured it would probably be an enticing thing for Bell Pepper to grab onto, so why not make it soft and shnuggly. The ear helmet part is made from some vintage wool I scored at a 4H fair a few summers back. I attached the goggles only at the back so they can be worn above the eyes or on them, which will be useful depending on the adventures the bunny gets himself into.

I'm not dead.

2008-12-28T11:47:00.006-05:00

Despite the neglect that my blog has seen for the past several months, I'm still very much alive. I haven't been in a terrible accident that had me in a body cast or been abducted by aliens, either. But I have a really good excuse for not being around. And for not posting (or even officially finishing) my 29 days of giving. And for not having picked up my knitting since October. Oh, and also for not fitting into my favorite pair of jeans anymore. Yep, I'm knocked up.

This is a first for us and after the experiencing the first trimester, let me say that it might be very well be the last. However, I'm out of the "I'm going to puke 24 hours a day" phase (whoever named it 'morning sickness' was clearly a man...) and into pants with insane elasticity (why, oh why had I not discovered maternity clothes earlier?!) and I am happily crafting again (after having the rugs in the craft room removed since my cats thought that the fact that I was never in there meant they could use it as a litter box). That was a lot of parentheticals, but that's basically been my life for the past few months: I would have done this or gone to that (but there's this whole baby growing thing that's taking a good bit of my energy right now)...

As for the 29 gifts, I continued to give during my 29 days randomly to folks and most notably to The Turnip (so named this week since that's its current size according to this website); to whom I gave such precious things as my omega-3 fatty acids (thus beginning the shrinkage of my brain), 12 hours of sleep a day, and the health and well being of my teeth and gums, of all things. So I think, when you add it all up, I completed the task.

Now that I'm feeling better and the reality of all of this craziness has actually set in, I'm starting to craft for The Turnip more. OK, mostly I've been buying handmade crafts, but here's my first official made-by-me baby craft: the mobile.

I've loved mobiles for ages and ages. Partly it's due to my love for Alexander Calder, but mostly it's because of the fact that mobiles are a pretty perfect object. They can be made with just about anything, can be simple or complex, they fit in with my (currently nonexistent, thank you Turnip) yoga practice as they are all about balance, and maybe it's because I'm an only child but I can spend a pretty long time looking at one without getting bored. Making mobiles has been in the back of my mind for a while, but I never had the right inspiration until I realized that a baby was coming and I didn't really want it looking at a plain ceiling for the first year of its life. Also, I'm planning on birthing a baby without the ecological footprint of Sasquatch (I figure this will be better for everyone involved), so I'm trying really hard to not buy lots of machine made, toxic plastic crap. Oh, and also I really wanted to make some felt balls.My original intention was to use the wire from clothes hangers, but I found it very hard to manipulate, so I bought some wire that was malleable, but not too much so, at the hardware store (minus 10 points for having to buy new materials). However, I did restrain myself from buying a bunch more wool roving when I felt that the 28 different colors I had in my stash just wasn't enough (plus 10 points for using what I've got). I found some inspiration from a bunch of websites including this one and discovered the rule that you make mobiles from the bottom up from this site here; and in the end, I'm pretty happy with the product. When you look up close, you can see that there is a pretty big learning curve illustrated by the difference in balance and proportion on each side of the mobile, but I don't think The Turnip will mind. In the meantime, I think I've found a new project to make for future baby showers...

Day 4, 5, 6, and 7 (hello. procrastinator over here!)

2008-10-10T13:59:00.006-04:00

Here's the latest giftie update. I must admit that I took last weekend off as I was laid up with a pretty bad cold (I decided that my goal that weekend was to NOT give anything away...ie, my germs) but I picked back up again with the following:

Day 4. I gave a smooth, round stone I found on the beach in Maine this summer to one of my students. She and I are working on helping her through some tough social times and I decided to give her something that I cared about (it was one of my favorites from this summer - - all black, smooth, but not too smooth so that you can feel it when you rub it, and nice and round) and something that would remind her about what we were working on and that I was in the room with her when things got tough. Not sure how it's working out yet for her, but it's one of my favorite gives so far.

Day 5. I brought some really cool seed pods with super-pretty seeds in to my metals teacher. She is as fond of the amazing things that Nature can do, so it's fun to give her earthy stuff. It was a ton of fun watching her unwrap the dried and shriveled seed pods and then opening them up to find these amazing black seeds with white stripes down the middle.

Day 6. I tried to give our friends on the other side of the country a call to end our horribly long game of phone tag, but ended up talking to their daughter who, I'm sad to say, is old enough to be less excited about a phone call from me and more excited about finishing the episode of Full House that she's watching. So I guess in the end, I made the conversation quick since I knew what she really wanted to be doing (even though I had a million questions about school and life that I wanted to ask!) and therefore gave her the gift of, um, the Olsen twins.

Day 7. I gave my mom a call. She's on vacation but I still should have been calling her more this week as there is important family stuff going on. It was super-good to touch base with her.

♥

Day 5

2008-10-04T15:58:00.002-04:00

Brought a little giftie in the form of some cookies to my voice teacher. I need to think of something different than sugar, but it makes people so darn happy.

Day 4

2008-10-04T15:56:00.001-04:00

Made some brownies for my metals class. Not much brings a group of women together like a plateful of warm chocolate goodness.

Day 3

2008-10-02T08:47:00.002-04:00

A little late in posting!! Day three was a little bit of a blur.

Today I gave a good friend my ear when she needed to vent. It didn't feel like a real give, though...because I would have done it for her anyway. But maybe the lesson to learn is that there are lots of times when I'm giving that I don't always give myself credit for. I know I spend time beating myself up over stupid stuff more than I should, and so I probably should spend more time focusing on the little things that I do well throughout the day...like trying to be a good friend.

Day 2

2008-09-30T21:48:00.002-04:00

Today's give may have been slightly cheating. I had my metals class tonight and a friend of mine had been talking about wanting sea glass to play around with. I believe I've waxed philosophical about my love of sea glass/ sea glass hunting on this blog more than once, so I told her that I had plenty of it and would be willing to give her some. This was a few weeks ago, so I decided to make good on the offer. I picked out two rare colors for her (green and blue) and then brought a bunch of brown and white since I have a lot of that and just let her pick some. I have to say, it was a hard give. While I have tons of sea glass, I can get quite hoardy about it. I think it's partly about the fact that hunting for it is something that I do with Andrew; but in all honesty the other part is that I'm an only child and I have issues with the concept of sharing. There, I said it.

I DID give a little less self-consciously today as well. I visited my dad after school and he had collected a bunch of guinea hen feathers in a cool wicker box for me. He had gone to take the chickens from the farm to be processed and there were also guinea hens meeting their maker, so he grabbed a bunch of really cool feathers. If you've never seen a guinea hen, I kid you not when I say that their feathers are polka dotted. It's the nuttiest, coolest thing. So I brought the box to class to show my teacher (she loves cool nature stuff maybe even more than I do) and spontaneously gave her a feather. Again, something that I definitely could have gotten hoardy about, but I knew she'd appreciate it.

So today was about tamping down my only-child impulses and beating the hoarding habit. I'd say it was a success:)

Day 1

2008-09-29T17:05:00.002-04:00

Bear with me. I'm going to post each day to record my gives for the 29 day gift challenge and so there may not always be a photo involved (my apologies to all you visual learners out there).

Today's gift was probably one of the louder ones I'll make because I was trying to drum up support from the kids in my school. Since the goal is to have 2000 people signed up here by today and they were only 200 and something away from that goal last night, I figured I could tell the kids I work with each day to go sign up! So I announced at morning assembly today that for anyone who gives me a high five, handshake, or hug throughout the day, I'll donate 50 cents to the annual fund of our school.

Some nice things happened - kids I don't usually interact with sought me out to give me a high five, I posted the sign that you can print out from the 29 gifts website with those little rip off thingees that people can take - - and people took them, and in one class, a few kids actually gave me a few extra bucks to throw in. Plus, as an added bonus, I got lots of hugs today:)

Donation to the annual fund: $38.50

36, 29

2008-09-28T14:26:00.005-04:00

We are about 36 days away from election day, and the suspense is killing me. Really. I'm having more and more trouble talking about it without losing my cool, and I've had at least two nightmares about it. Even typing these few sentences has me a little keyed up. While flipping the channel between the two candidates on the talk shows this morning, I said to Andrew that I wasn't quite sure I was going to survive the next month or so.

Do you ever get the feeling sometimes that the universe is "watching", ready to smack you upside the head when you really need it. Well, this afternoon I stumbled upon 29 gifts and I've taken the pledge: to give 29 things away in 29 days. While deciding to sign on to this, I found myself focusing on the concept, not the length of time...but shortly after signing up, I realized that this may be the perfect way to keep my mind otherwise occupied for the next month. Rather than focusing on the impending doom that will befall us if we make the wrong choice on November 4th (See? I told you I get worked up), I'm going to try to turn my attention instead to what I can give. Maybe it'll be money to a favorite charity, maybe it'll be a hug to someone who really needs it, maybe it'll even be some time volunteered at the local campaign headquarters...but for the next 29 days I'm thinkin' good thoughts.

Om.

Oh, and P.S. - the photos are of my first ever attempt at a sock! Boy, it's hard to photograph your own foot in a way that artfully displays the sock!! In any event, it's a bajillion times easier than I thought it would be and I'm loving the self-striping...and the serendipity that leads to a little heel that's entirely yellow.

Visit 29-Day Giving Challenge

Choose Your Color Wisely

2008-09-21T08:43:00.006-04:00

I picked up some fantastic raw Bombyx mori silk cocoons at the fiber festival a few weekends ago. I had some visions of putting them together with metals in my jewelry class. I knew that I wanted to dye them and that I wanted to leave them stiff (which you do by skipping a step in processing silk called degumming).

And so, one night last week I experimented with some Kool Aid and my microwave and dyed one cocoon. Aside from some messy boiling over that occurred in the second phase of zapping (note to self: WATCH the microwave whilst dying with nasty stainy type stuff), the cocoon kept its shape nicely and I accomplished the deep red I was going for when I mixed up some red Kool Aid with a dash of purple. Of course, upon stepping back from my finished creation I suddenly realized that my color choice, paired with the natural shape of the cocoon looked an awful lot like, well, let's just say a certain feminine product. Used. Needless to say, some fruitful ideas for what to make with this dyed cocoon came out in my subsequent metals class. Ahem.

Never mind, though. I had it in my head that I was cutting the thing in half anyway, so we'll see what it becomes. In the meantime, I had some beets that I kinda sorta forgot about in the fridge (which is a shame, because I do make a good Borscht, if I do say so myself) so I made some dye from them. I cut them in half, brought them to a boil, and simmered them for about an hour. Then I let them cool, chopped them up into little pieces, and simmered for another good while longer. I think the dye I have is pretty concentrated and could even be thinned. I've poked around on the web and found that beet dye is actually not the best natural dye. Mostly because it apparently dyes a golden color, not that beautiful intense pinky red you would expect. I read pages where people complained of ugly beiges and tans and such. I'm not sure why these colors get such a bad rap, frankly. I took an incredible painting class in college (a hundred million years ago) with a teacher who just taught us about color. In fact, we never picked up a brush once in the whole semester - just a palette knife. The point was to dissect the colors that went into everything we saw, and I quickly learned that browns, beiges, and tans were my most favorite to figure out. This was the only period in my life that I think I've truly seen in color. To wit, I had an argument with my then-boyfriend one day when I remarked on how much purple there was in the clouds one day. He could only see white and grey (poor man), and I should have known then that it would never work out between us.

The point is (there was a point, I promise) that I don't care if my beet dye turns out to be a browny gold color. But I do care that I figure out how to make it colorfast. So I'll try to dye a few cocoons just straight into the beet juice, and then I'll talk with the Chemistry of Art teacher at my school and see if we can't mix up a mordant and test that out (although the whole natural dye thing pretty much gets shot to hell when you use a mordant, doesn't it?) In the meantime, I need to doodle out some ideas for this lovely deep red cocoon that I've Kool Aided...

Oh, and as a complete aside (and shameless self promotion), I was lucky enough to have a piece of mine featured here!

projects for credit

2008-09-10T16:17:00.006-04:00

After two years of hemming and hawing about continuing education and making a portfolio and thinking the stuff I make isn't worthwhile, I've finally enrolled in a metals course at a local university. It's a breath of fresh crafting air and each class I find myself doing an internal dance of joy when I realize that I have access to good dremels with all kind of bits! Enamels and a kiln! A tumbler! I think I freaked a fellow student out the other night when I came out of the back room and quietly expressed my sheer joy over the fact that we have those little letter stamps (she looked at me, slightly askance, when I lovingly held out the piece of scrap metal that I'd imprinted with the letter 'k'.) It's fantastic to be a student again and just about the funniest thing (not in a ha ha way, maybe more of a sob sob over a Campari and OJ way) to feel like I am a completely alien generation from the 20 somethings in the class. I can feel my inner grandma bubbling to the surface when I hear them singing along to a Beastie Boys song...that's MY generation's music, darnitalltoheck...and when I was in high school, we all worked in nothing but silver because it cost $3 an ounce (cue the wide eyed, gaping stares from wrinkle-less students).

I've been given the OK from my professor to just play (!) since I haven't taken a metals class since high school (and in case anyone was wondering, no, the technology hasn't changed and soldering is still a pain in the ass) and so I'm experimenting with putting fibers and metal together. I'm currently playing with singed polyester (thanks to this fantastic tutorial from Foundling), and this stone. I'm going to wait to show you until I actually have a finished piece, but let's just say it involves the fabric, the stone, a handmade bezel that will be the death of me, and perhaps the loss of the majority of my right arm hair as I learn the nuances of the classroom torches.

Next fiber up (maybe): silkworm cocoons I got at the Fiber Festival last weekend.

Endless Mountain Fiber Festival

2008-09-07T15:51:00.006-04:00

I drove up to beautiful NE PA today to go to a fiber festival which was small, but satisfying and involved:

Alpacas with big, brown eyes,

Skeins and skeins of fiber,

And angora rabbits.

Truth be told, I took the trip to check out rabbits because I'm interested in getting an angora. I think I'm leaning towards an English angora only because they have extra tufts of hair on their ears so they look extra ridiculous (normal looking animals need not apply in this household) but the French angoras were pretty cute too (the picture above is a French). Too bad for Andrew, but it looks like rabbits are pretty simple to care for;)

Off to look for some hutch designs...

Completed / Begun

2008-09-01T18:25:00.012-04:00

With the completion of summer comes the beginning of the school year (yep, I'm still on that subject) and here are some projects, finished and un, for the pivotal moment that is called The Night Before the First Day of School:A leaf scarflette (from here) that I made for Laurel a while back when she was going through a hard time. I stuck lots of little pearls on with my kandi kane thingee (I can't get on the official website right now, but here's a link to show you what I'm talking about) because I'm a big fan of sparkle. I'm thinking a lot of Laurel lately as she usually helps me to herald in the start of a new school year ~~but she's out of commission for a little while.~~ She's back!!
My angora neck warmer which ended up being a pattern all my own and a showcase for this knockout vintage button I had stashed away. There's nothing like knitting up a fuzzy lovely to get me excited about the cooler weather.And new* on the needles (*sort of, I just picked up this UFO from the spring...much frogging and I'm back on track with a project I never thought I'd pick back up again), my Wallis Cardigan.

And with that, here we go!........

For the love of knitting...

2008-08-29T11:28:00.005-04:00

I have a love/hate relationship with the fall. I love the cooler weather after a sticky, hot August but I know that the end to my summer freedom is just around the corner. I love to have to bring a cardigan with me wherever I go and, most importantly, I love that the knitting bug comes back. Each summer, I wonder if my disinterest in wool means my love affair with knitting is finally over, but when fall rolls around again, I am immediately drawn to my stash. On the other hand, with school starting up again, I've let the garden go and my cats look at me like I'm killing them a little each time I leave the house in the morning. The long list of home projects I'd planned to accomplish this summer snickers at me each time I walk past, knowing that all of the repainting/building/and organizing I didn't get to will have to wait for 10 more months.

But, there is the knitting.

The school year starts with faculty meetings. There are ups and downs to these meetings, and with the feisty bunch of colleagues I work with, there are usually some difficult and frustrating moments.

But, there is the knitting.

Megan always asks in late August: so, what are you bringing to knit? And I'm thankful for that reminder, because I'm not ever in the middle of a project in late August (Megan is one of those knitters who keeps working right through the summer, how does she do it?), so I need to plan ahead to be prepared for the first faculty meetings. I can't have a complicated pattern or any UFOs since they would bring frustration (more of which I don't need while sitting in a meeting) and I do have to be able to pay attention and be involved in discussions.

This spring, I purchased a skein of angora wool at the Kutztown festival. This little ball of wool (only 58 yards!) now has had me pondering the idea of getting an angora rabbit ever since (I'll be at the Endless Mountains Fiber Festival in a few weekends to scout out some information) because it is so darn perfect. It's a neutral brown (not dyed) and as soft as anything. Therefore, I knew that the project I used for this wool needed to be simple to allow the yarn to be the star, and small since I only have a bit of it. Immediately upon purchasing this skein, I knew that it would have to find a home wrapped around my neck, so when Megan's inquiry came, I started searching for a neckwarmer pattern.

And here I am in late August, knitting up a neckwarmer. I found this pattern, but have really improvised to the point that it's completely different (mostly because it calls for way more yardage than I have). I'll keep the idea of a bunch of interesting buttons, though. I actually knit it on the first faculty day, then frogged it and reknit it again on the second (I've had to keep making it thinner and thinner so that I'll have enough yarn to get it to wrap around my neck!), but it was the perfect project. It was good to not have a pattern so that a little bit of my imagination could run wild; and anyway, when you work with really fantastic wool who cares if you need to frog it? As I ripped it out, I got some silent nods of apology and regret from others in the meeting, "oh, too bad....and you'd been working so hard on it" they seemed to be saying. Little did they all know that I was really thinking: I get to knit this wool up again!

So, on one of my last days off before the kids come, I'm poking around in my button stash (thank goodness for giant button stashes), and thanking my lucky stars that yet another knitting project has helped me to maintain my sanity as another crazy school year begins. And to chronicle my knitting endeavors this year, I've finally joined Ravelry (get on the stick, Megan) and am having fun poking around on a new site.

Happy almost-fall, fellow knitters!

An Old-Fashioned Chicken Coop Raising or When Fences Come Down

2008-08-24T17:47:00.020-04:00

We had our first chicken fright last night. In the early evening, we ran out to the coop in response to the loudest racket we've ever heard the girls make. Andrew made it outside first and came nearly face to face with a raccoon (which, I've just learned, can be spelled with one 'c' or two) on the lower deck where the girls hang out (but not where their coop is). The raccoon bolted under our deck and we found Amelia and Flora squawking up a storm by their coop. Kateski (the polish with the feathers in her face who can't see hardly anything and is often left behind by Ameila and Flora because she can't tell when they've left...you see where I'm going) was nowhere to be found. We looked all over the chicken run and couldn't find her anywhere. We grabbed a flashlight and looked under the deck, half expecting to see her being devoured by the raccoon. We were in searching-for-feathers-and-blood stage when Andrew though to look over the tall fence to the neighbor's yard, to find Kateski looking safely clueless. And so we called on our faithful coop members to help us construct the larger pen around the coop that we'd been wanting to build. We've had a very dry summer here and digging post holes in the dirt has been quite like what I imagine digging post holes into concrete might be like; and since digging post holes even into plain old dirt isn't the most spectacular task in the world, we were waiting for some long, heavy rains to do half of the work for us. But the rains never came and raccoon did...and so we spent the entire day today digging post holes into concrete.

Well, not really into concrete, but certainly around it. We started by removing a part of a fence that runs between the upper portion of our yard and our neighbor's yard. One of the fence posts was stabilized in concrete. It was a joy to remove, and even more fun to hurl insults at once we really did have it out.

I generally have an uneasiness about anything we do around the house for fear of ticking off the neighbors. This probably stems from the fact that I'm ticked off by them very often (as they must be about me), but am too afraid of having an ongoing subtle war with my neighbors, and so I rarely talk to them about what my concerns are. My two current pet peeves are smoking outside the house which funnels right into our house and feeding the feral cats in the neighborhood who are now taking advantage of my frequently swept front porch by pooing on it. But I figure I'm the weirdo with the chickens in the back yard and I don't want to ruffle any...well, you know...so I've never been brave enough to raise my concerns.

So as the fence between our yard comes down today (I say "fence" but really it was just a sadly aged suggestion of a fence which, to wit, was pulled apart by our bare hands) and I see my neighbor approaching (the only neighbor on the street who I haven't officially told about the chickens for fear that she'd freak out) comes over, plops herself down on the little wall that is now accessible due to the missing fence and proceeds to tell me that she's worried about the cat food on her porch because it may be attracting the raccoon and she hopes our chickens are OK. She points out a few more places on her evergreen that I could cut...the evergreen that I'd been tentatively trimming back so that we could build our coop, because I'd been so concerned she'd be mad about us cutting anything. I'd also been worried that she would flip when I started trying to trap the feral cat colony so that we can get them fixed and vaccinated, but she was thrilled and offered her porch for a good cat trap location. And all of this misunderstanding (which was really just careful avoidance) disappeared because a rickety fence came down.

And because our friends and family deserve to see what we couldn't have accomplished by ourselves, here's the coop-raising progression:

The coop gets a fenced bottom to keep out the raccoon.

Post hole digging is fun!

Mom feeds the troops.

The first fencepost gets leveled.

The girls help by making sure all of the worms around the felled fence are taken care of.

And they make sure to stay hydrated.

Working around a temporary door to nowhere.

Chicken wire saves the day!

Almost there.

Finished coop (still missing netting on top and beams across the top, but it'll do for now!)

The girls are happy in their new digs (with evergreen roost).Whew!

Chicken Scratches

2008-08-17T14:23:00.005-04:00

I found a fantastic set of cookie cutters at a yard sale yesterday. They cost a dollar and included the all-important chicken, so they needed to come home with me. Here are the girls sizing up the new chick in town.

Flora always needs to be the first to know what's up and Kateski has no idea what's going on because she can't see anything anymore, poor thing.Amelia is all about recycling.

Home At Last.

2008-08-13T17:16:00.004-04:00

Here I am! In my home!! And I'm NOT planning on leaving any time soon. I guess I'll have to make my way out the door once school starts in a few short weeks, but I can tell you that I'm done with airplanes and long car rides and anything having to do with packing clothes or a toiletry bag. While I don't have much that's crafty to show for it, we had a great time in Maine. The weather was pretty grim, but it kept people off the beach and competing for my sea glass, so I wasn't complaining. While walking along the beach searching for said sea glass, I pondered the many reasons I love sea glass searching. These include, but are not limited to:

♥ ♥ ♥

It's free.

When you pick something up on the beach, no one looks at you funny (try that on the street. I dare you).

You are on the beach.

It requires some patience.

Sea glass is trash turned into a treasure.

While you can find lots of glass on the beach, it's not all worthy of being called sea glass - - and if you get too greedy, you'll end up with a lot of unfinished pieces (and in my opinion, you'll anger the sea glass gods, so you'd better just put that rough-edged piece of glass back where you found it, buster.)

It's a barefoot activity.

That elusive dark blue piece is out there somewhere.

Sea glass is one of the only reasons I can think to let my guard down about recycling...maybe if we just threw all of that glass into the ocean...

My dear AB will spend a good, long while finding sea glass with me.

♥ ♥ ♥

I know I promised that I'd get some photos up of my craftiness in China, but I still have to get those photos taken. In the meantime, I'm a little worked up over this pattern here for knitted postcards and may need to make a few hundred of them.

Early Morning Posting

2008-08-05T03:34:00.011-04:00

Like, really early. I'm having a beast of a time recovering from my jet lag, which has been enhanced by the fact that:

a. I'm on summer vacation, so there's no real schedule to actually get back to, and

b. I had a reaction to the malaria meds I was on and have had to take benadryl since I got back which knocks me entirely on my arse.

I do have to say that today is the latest I've woken up since I've been home and I feel like a bit of a slob for having slept in 'till 2:30 am.

Anyway, I'm doing a hit and run post because we are heading to Maine soon. That's right, my favorite vacation of the year is upon us. I shall be eating my body weight in lobster and searching for sea glass for hours on end. I may be doing this all at 4 am of course, but whatever.

So to say hello/goodbye, I thought I'd share a few pictures from China. We had a wonderful time and made it into Tibet, which was important since it's the main reason that I made the trip. I have lots of opinions about the government, the people, and the Olympics, but this is a crafty blog not a political one so I'll just leave it at this: it's complicated. Now here are some photos:

Olympics countdown, Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Smoke signals used to be the best way to send messages from the Great Wall. Today, texting works just fine. Badaling Wild Great Wall.

Gah! Look at those colors! Cloisonne Factory, Beijing.

Game time. Huxian Farmer's Village (in the old village).

Fiber fix at the silk carpet factory, Beijing.
Laser light show, Hong Kong.

I have about 996 more photos where these came from, so every once in a while, I'll toss some up. And, once the sun comes up, I'll take some photos of my personal crafty endeavor in China. I didn't bring knitting because I was taking a lot of internal Chinese flights and I heard that they could be strict (indeed, every day they chose to confiscate something different - - one day it was the toothpaste in our check-in baggage) and decided that I'd draw my journal rather than write it. Sort of inspired by this book, which I've only just begun to read and am already so impressed with, I decided to bring some pens and watercolors. I'll explain more and show the pictures in a future post!

Oh, and lastly, a thank you to my dear AB who took over the blog while I was away. Despite the fact that I had to turn sideways to view the photos and that there were a few days when our toilet was on the front page of the blog, seeing updates of my home when I was halfway around the world for three weeks made me very, very happy. ♥

hot hot hot

2008-07-22T18:15:00.005-04:00

we are in the middle of a seven day heat wave, which is defined by a three day stretch where the temp. is above 90 degrees. A seven day heat wave well that is pretty self-explanatory.

To combat heat I have done several things.

1) swimming! note even the sharks are hot and just laying around.

2) low energy and heat output chicken watching!

3) eating lavender ice cream!

4) more low energy and heat output cat stalking!

5) and following Candide advice, cultivating my garden, where this lovely rose bloomed!

I have also played tennis and golf but that seemed to have the effect of not keeping me cool. On Saturday, I played in a tennis final when I lost about 6 pounds of sweat.

stay tuned for more cooling activities as the heat wave goes for eight days.

events around town

2008-07-14T09:52:00.004-04:00

More pictures not rotated! The excitement continues while KD is in China.

Best news is our computer is updated, de-trojan horsized and RAM fortified. It is running like the well oiled machine it always could be. Thanks DL.

This week I changed toilet seat (wow!) It involved an exciting trip to Home Depot where no one was willing to help me, and any questions were met with contemptuous stares.

Our trap did not catch a ground hog but it did yield us this. Raccoons are pretty dignified almost cat-like. The city is coming to take this one away.

Finally, I got the thanks for showing up but you still lost plaque. I can add it to my collection of other sports memorabilia.

We got some much needed rain; garden is looking good (pictures in next post.)
Off to school for more summer work (picture censored by SCC.)

Pennypack

2008-07-11T15:30:00.002-04:00

Well KD and dad have been gone for three days. It is hot here again but not so, so humid. Today was our share pick up. A lot of good food, but the taters and cukes are the highlight of the day. We have visitors for the chickens, and they are getting their exercise running around. I will be offline a couple of days while to computer gets fixed, which is okay because I hope to be in a tennis tournament both days. I hope China is great, and the time change is not horrible.

Eat your vegetables!

2008-07-10T16:45:00.002-04:00

And they are off!

Well Kristina and her dad are off to and in China. Here they are at 5:44 in the morning getting ready for there plane ride of many hours. Notice the tiny amount of luggage they have.

I have taken over blogging responsibilities for Kristina and am charging with showing her that all is well while she is gone.

Here is the photographic evidence taken with our new digital camera

Chickens are good and happy!

Flowers are in bloom and happy after a bunch of rain last night!

Sock tan is still strong and distinct

Posting skills at an all time low. It is not clear how to rotate this image, but I will figure it out later. I am off to play tennis, while Kristina might just be waking up at 5am China time?

Kutztown Festival

2008-07-08T09:03:00.021-04:00

I'm not feeling terribly creative right now...strategically packing for a three-week trip to China has got my brain a little fried. But we recently went to the Kutztown Festival and there are some things worth remembering. Such as:

The fact that I need to buy a home in the country so that I can get some of these:

And the beauty of this peacock who, for all his radiance and shimmying, couldn't get the darn peahen to notice him.Being surrounded by crafts, and men who cross stitch.

Pickles on a stick.

Followed by pierogies on a stick. French fries on a stick.
And the momentary (and alas, not captured on film) ice cream on a stick.

Sheep shearing and the purchase of the softest ball of angora yarn (followed by a visit with angora rabbits and the knowledge that I must have one).

A quilt auction (this one fetched $7,800). And the following day, searching for antiques...perfect diner, perfect food.
And so, with a few more tweaks to the packing technique and a day full of distinctly American food (diner food was a good start), I am ready for China!

Getting Ready for a Craft Show, Getting Ready for China

2008-07-01T21:09:00.006-04:00

OK, two big things on the horizon:

First, I'm doing a craft show tomorrow night in Philly. I was pretty happy with the outcome from this show last year and out of all the craft shows that I've done, it's one of the best venues for my work. So I'm slowly working my way through organizing inventory and getting everything together on my handy-dandy luggage cart (yard sale find: $3) so that I can wheel kdmade around Broad Street. Despite the fact that I have lots to do to get ready, I find myself futzing on the computer or in the craft room.

I didn't really need to make two more necklaces, but this is what happens when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

The really delicious part of all of this is that procrastinating for the craft show is just a way to procrastinate on all of the packing that I need to do for my rapidly approaching trip to China. That's right, China. In a whirlwind of planning, I managed to hook up with a cultural/environmental trip to China, find some funding at school to pay for a part of it, and convince my Dad to come along with me. We'll be away for three weeks and the giant bite that that it's going to take out of my chicken-watching summer is only just now starting to dawn on me. Andrew tells me to relax, promising that he'll take the blog reigns for the time that I'm gone to keep me (and you) updated on the goings-on around home. I anticipate many, many golf pictures.

In any event, not that I post with any great regularity, but things are going to wind down around here for a little while. But when I come back, I hope to have lots of great photos and a not-too-severe addiction to NyQuil (13 hour plane ride - hoo, boy) so that blogging can continue in earnest.

Bovine Backrubs and Chicken Coops

2008-06-24T16:16:00.005-04:00

When I first read Omnivore's Dilemma, I know that I was ready to hear about the problems with the US food industry and our eating habits. I was ready to make changes in how I thought about the food that I ate, but I had no idea what I'd discover along the way. Eating grass-fed meats is not so difficult in my area, and the resources for finding good, local products seem to be growing each day. What I didn't know is that I would be saying goodbye to non-pastured meats entirely. Once I'd wrapped my head around where meat comes from, I couldn't look at a restaurant burger in the same way again. The more I think about it all, the less I'm able to eat out, which is a bummer. But the upside is that I have all of this energy that I now focus on how and where to get good food...from animals that were treated well.

My grass-fed obsession has been passed onto my Mom and Dad (thank you, Mr. Pollan) and earlier this week, I took a ride out with my Dad and friend Debbie to visit Hendrick's farm. This is where a lot of my meat comes from during the winter when I do Farm to City, but in the summer we go to the farm to pick it up. Joel Salatin says that you should never trust a farm where you aren't allowed to just walk everywhere and interact with the animals and people. Indeed, on the way to Hendrick's, we passed a large meat facility with high walls and windowless buildings. They clearly don't want the average consumer to know what's going on in there. But at Hendricks, we pet the dairy cows, checked out the pigs and piglets, and peeked into the chicken pens. The best part of the day was watching the diary cows queue up at the automatic back scratcher attached to the wall. They'd bump into it and a roller brush would rotate and they'd walk under it to get a back rub. Those are some happy cows, I tell ya.

Recently, I've stopped eating eggs when I dine out. I just have no idea where they came from or how those chickens were raised. My parents have had their chickens for about a year now so that's where my eggs come from. They are infinitely better than store bought eggs, and if you can manage to get your hands on a fresh, pastured egg, I highly recommend it. I'd wanted chickens prior to reading Omnivore's Dilemma, and now that I finally have three I'm pretty darn happy about it. Like: sit and watch the chickens peck around for worms for hours on end happy about it. And so, as soon as we brought the coop that my Dad built to our house in pieces, I put it together. The next day, I intended to chip away at all of the tasks that needed to be done: prime and paint the coop, seal the unpainted wood, measure, cut and install wire around the base, and apply flashing to the top seam (which didn't work out - we caulked it instead). What ended up happening is that I obsessed about that coop for 12 hours until it was done. Andrew left in the middle to play a tennis match which, of course, ended up being lengthy and with no one to tell me to stop, I finished the whole damn thing by 6 pm. Andrew came back as I was wrapping up and helped me install the final screws and to clean up. He also insisted on taking a photograph, I think mostly to commemorate how insane I can get about things when I obsess. So here I am, 12 hours later, unwashed, sore from head to foot, with not quite enough energy to get all of my smile muscles into gear. But, man. Look at that coop!

Coop Scoop

2008-06-21T19:51:00.010-04:00

Here's the chicken coop! My Dad built it, loosely based on the Poulet Chalet from this book. Andrew and I assembled it this afternoon, and managed to do so with only one extra piece left over (a mystery which was solved by a quick phone call to Dad). It's so great. Now we have to decide how to paint it. We're thinking of matching it to our house which has happy, crazy colors. Anyway, I'm so glad to have chickens out of the house and outside where they are about a billion times happier. Whenever one of them gets a worm, they run around with it held high, chirping all over the place. I've been trying to tell them to just shut about it, since it attracts the other chickens who then try to steal it, but so far no one is listening.

I haven't been doing much crafting lately, which is silly since I have a show coming up in a week or so. But I have been cooking a lot, since our CSA is in full swing. We've been picking amazing strawberries, and have already made one batch of fantastic sorbet. But the thing I love the most about being a part of a CSA is finding vegetables that I wouldn't otherwise know what to do with. Take, for instance, the garlic scape.

A beautiful, unruly part of the garlic plant that I never new was edible...or even that it existed, for that matter. But we picked some of these up and so I had to figure out what to do with them.
You'll be shocked to know that this wacky looking thing that you've probably never heard of is sort of a new veggie that people are just getting into. I couldn't even find anything on them at epicurious. I did do some research and found some pesto recipes, frittata recipes, and ways to saute the scapes the looked good. I like this pesto recipe because it uses walnuts. We made a batch with toasted pine nuts since we were out of walnuts and lemon juice. I'll spare you the green goo picture, but suffice it to say, it's yummy and can be spread on lots of things. Here's an interesting frittata recipe (which I'll have to eat all by myself since Andrew won't do the egg thing), and I might try this soup (scroll all the way down) someday - - which was actually the first thing I thought of doing with the scapes when I was trying to figure out what the heck to do with them. Or maybe I'll just keep them in the fridge, because they are so darn cool to look at.

Almost There...

2008-06-16T17:28:00.010-04:00

These past two weeks have been a flurry of activity - most of which has left me feeling a bit schizophrenic. There was the wrapping up of the school year (I finished my last comment today and could literally feel the burden lifted from my shoulders), and graduating the senior class (my advisees!). I managed to miss the Renegade Craft Fair (total and complete bummer!), but enjoyed another fantastic COOP meeting (that group is getting bigger and better by the month). I finished teaching the son of the lovely folks that own this shop, and they gave me such a fantabulous gift of this fabric: So amazingly fantastic, did I mention that? There's some sort of very fine cotton gauzy fabric in there (the white and pink print), an eyelet fabric that will be the cutest flippin' skirt someday, a crinkly-striped rayony fabric that is my Dad's favorite and has me intimidated (but will be a good challenge), and a great yellow knit.

Being given the knit made me finally take this book off of my Amazon wish list and into my greedy paws. It's such a serendipitous event - girl gets knit fabric that she doesn't know how to sew, girl buys sewing with knits book she's been coveting but could really justify buying, girl doesn't realize it, but said sewing with knits book is also a major tutorial in using a serger. I was lucky lucky lucky and got a serger for Christmas and it's been staring me down in my craft room ever since. I even got it a special table to perch on, and still it sneers at me with its crazy 4-spool arrogance. I never thought about how sewing with knits means you want a stretch seam, so either it's the zig-zag on a regular machine or....drumroll, please...a serger. I'd been looking for a good, basic how-to-figure-out-the-monster-that-is-called-the-serger book, but hadn't stumbled upon anything I love. I already have the first Built By Wendy book and love it, so when I realized that the knits book was going to help me get started on the serger, well...let's just say I've had my nose in that book for the past few days now.

So, to recap: I now have a fantastic knit to play with, a book full of patterns for the knit, and a reason to finally introduce myself to my serger. Hello serger, my name is Kristina.

Somewhere in there, I did manage to make something. I think it was last weekend when I still had a stack of exams to grade and I was a little panicky about all of the work that lay before me (which always gets done, but part of my process is getting panicky about it), and so I whipped out these little needle novellas. Bookish felty goodness to keep your sewing needles tidy.I took a good, long while deciding whether to call them needle novels or novellas, and I opted for the latter because I feel that I might one day make slightly larger books that have a mechanism for holding darning needles as well. In any event, I had a lot of fun up in the craft room saying "needle novella" over and over.

Lastly, I need to make a note of the fact that I am really, truly going to miss Tim Russert. I know, major gear shift here, but it actually has to do with crafting. I like to get up on Sunday mornings and play hooky from yoga class (so not om), then go up to my craft room and hang out with Charles Osgood for an hour and a half (I ♥ Sunday Morning). Then I change to Meet the Press and keep crafting. I really can't imagine my Sunday mornings without either of these boys. Sigh.

OK, OK. I'll leave on a more positive note. There's a new baby in the family! Her name is Natasha, and she's just about as lovely as it gets.

Uncle Andrew says hello:

♥

Adapting

2008-06-07T20:28:00.007-04:00

Ooo, I hate that word....or at least our misuse of it. For the past 11 years I've been telling kids that individuals can't adapt in their lifetime- you're born with what you're born with and that's that. But at the moment, I'm trying to adapt. In the most perfect mishandling of the concept.

It's really, really hot here right now. And I really, really hate the heat. Really. Truthfully, I really hate the cold as well. Ask Andrew and he'll tell you that the only time I'm not complaining about the weather is when it's 72 degrees outside. But alas, it is so far from 72 degrees in Philadelphia right now and it's going to be that way for a few days. Which will be perfect when I give final exams in my classroom with no AC, but I digress.

The point of all of this complaining is to say that I'm going on a fantastic trip this summer. My Dad and I are going to China for three whole weeks. In the summer. When it's really, really hot i in China. So my plan of attack now is to survive the heat waves at home as they come so that by the time I'm in China, I've adapted to it. See? Individuals can adapt...or at least, that's what I'm banking on. I made it the whole day without using AC in the car and I haven't pestered Andrew about lugging the AC unit into the bedroom. It's only the first day of the heatwave, but still.

Anyway, I didn't do much today except lie around and read. All I really have to show for myself in the way of photographs are these latest Kateski portraits and a video. She was furiously picking at her new feathers and her pouf was wobbling like mad...it's almost like it has a life of it's own. I made a short, sometimes focused video...Francis Ford Coppola I am not, but you'll get the idea.

T Shirt Challenge

2008-06-04T21:17:00.007-04:00

Believe it or not, there are some annoying things about working with teenagers. Yuppers, I could name a few. There are times when I want to run screaming from my job and everything adolescent. But then there are times when I'm hanging out with kids and it feels like the most natural thing in the world and I wonder why on Earth someone pays me to do this job. In those moments, it doesn't take long until I remember how much I get in my paycheck and, well....the point is that there are definitely days when I love my job, even when kids are being total poo-heads.

One thing that I love about where I work is that we're a small school, so everyone knows everyone's business. Kids know what teachers like to do just as much as teachers understand what makes their kids tick. So my kids know that I knit, make some of my own clothes, sing (some even come to see me in shows), and have a very real life outside of the biology classroom. One day, I came into class wearing something I'd made and one of the girls (who totally is into designing her own fashions and can always peg when I'm wearing something that I've made) made a big deal about whatever it was I was wearing. Quite matter-of-factly, one of my male students challenged me to make him a t-shirt. It was funny....like this half-dare/half-demand that I design and make a shirt that he'd wear. If he'd just asked me to, I probably would have declined, but the fact that he made it into a bit of game had me hooked. So I told him to bring me a shirt and I'd do it.

Now, if there's one thing I've learned in 11 years of teaching, it's that the best way to get a kid to forget about something is to ask them to remember to do it. I left class that day knowing that I hadn't lost face - - hell, yeah I'd make a kick ass shirt! - - and that I'd never have to prove myself because he never would actually bring a shirt.

The next day, he came in with a plain, white shirt.

This was maybe at the midpoint of the year. I've hung out with this shirt quite a bit since then. Or I should say, it's sat on my dresser and mocked me. Why don't you take me up to the craft room, it's said. Are you afraid I'll get up there and you won't know what the frick to do with me??

The challenge for me was that I'm not so good at designing stuff for boys. I've made Andrew sweaters from patterns, but only on the rare occasions that I come across a really good boy pattern. I've made him ties and a bracelet once. He has some specific ideas for a necklace, though, and I don't want to touch that with a 10 foot pole. Andrew will wear just about anything, but I'd hate to make something really lame looking and then he'd wear it because, well, Andrew will wear just about anything, especially if I've made it for him. So I was worried that not only would I be making a shirt for a boy, but this boy would be a finicky teenager. The kind of boy who wears lots of intentionally-faded graphic tees. My one saving grace is that this is also a kid who has a tattoo artist for a father, so he's got to have more of a sense of art and design then most kids his age. Right?

Well, after much deliberation (ie, moving the shirt from here to there on my dresser whenever I put laundry away), here's the shirt:

The main images were gocco-printed, and the lines connecting the pencils with the central design were embroidered. I broke the embroidered lines up a bit so that they captured the faded look a bit, and then had them run into the design, as if the pencil had been coloring it.

I chose to stick some Decemberist's art on there, hoping that I'd get him to like the shirt because it's a band that he loves. Maybe I'm cheating, but whatever...I really want him to wear this shirt and not think it's totally idiotic, after all. And I was NOT going to be wasting a gocco screen to print something like "A & F". I used my old screen of my hand drawing with a pencil, but took out the doodles that the pencil is usually scribbling. It took a while to futz with that screen because it didn't want to print clearly, but I did know all along that I wanted to go for the old faded look, since I know that's what this student wears every day. So in it's own imperfect way, an old gocco screen worked out for me.

So I'm not sure what my student will think of this shirt. He's been asking a lot about it (mostly saying that he didn't ever think he'd get his shirt back). I'll give it to him tomorrow during his exam time and we'll see. Whether he likes it or not, I'm going to reburn a screen of the hand and find other things to put in the middle design because I really love the embroidered part of the shirt...maybe eventually they will pop up in the shop:) That is, if this one passes the teenage boy test!

You're older than you ever were, and now you're even older...

2008-06-02T17:57:00.014-04:00

A few things in this frenzied, end-of-the school year whirlwind during which I should do nothing but grading, yet I currently find myself lurking on the computer (sigh).

I'm trying not to be one of those people who is worried about her age. Really, I am. I don't want to fritter my 30s away stressing about how I'll turn around one day and be in my 40s, or that even sooner, I'll be dating a 40-year old (dear god). I try to forgive my body for not being able to deal with more than 2 drinks at a party, or for hoarding fat cells like it's nobody's business, or for protesting when I try to be as graceful as I once was when I danced regularly. But, for the first time since graduating from college, I've received a donation request - not for my spare change, or an annual donation - but for the money I'll leave when I die. Is there some computer model somewhere that has shot out the statistic that schools better get this request out after X years of graduation because that's when many graduates start dropping dead?? What are they trying to tell me? And when is my first AARP magazine coming?? OK, going back to not thinking about ageing.

In more youthful news, I finished the little trio of stuffies to give to the new baby and his/her siblings. The last to be made was the snail. The original design calls for braiding strips of fabric, which I tried but ended up with something too bulky and with lots of frayed ends that didn't want to cooperate. So I yanked out my knitting machine and some lavender yarn that I picked up at a yard sale (the same one that gave me the loom!) and made a tube that I coiled into the shell. I love the process of making something...the problem-solving when it's not working out, the diving into a new way to accomplish the goal, the worry that all of the energy you are putting in won't yield an acceptable result, and then the satisfaction when it all comes together. Whew. I also made up some cutie-pie (thank you gocco) buddha belly onesies, two of which I think will go to etsy (as soon as I can get some better photos going) and the other to new baby.And one last thing - in chicken news, whenever I open up the netting on the top of their brooder, they automatically fly up to roost on the edge. They've even gotten good at flying from one edge to the next. It's clumsy, but they make it work. They are too, too funny.

New Digs

2008-05-26T18:21:00.013-04:00

Wow. Chickens get big, fast. My dad has put his into their outdoor coop already and since my coop isn't completely built yet, I needed a bigger brooder. We dismantled my dad's old brooder (built out of a cardboard box) and reassembled it for our chirping trio. They are pretty psyched about the added square footage, but seemed most happy to just roost on the edge. We've fashioned a lid out of netting so don't worry, they won't be going for any midnight romps around the computer room.

And I couldn't get a good shot of Kateski because she insisted on climbing up my right arm...so these are left handed shots while balancing a chick on my arm. Still, you can get a pretty good idea of how insane her hairdo is getting.

In craftier news, I've finished the turtle and the butterfly from the Wee Wonderfuls pattern. I have the escargot all cut out and will start sewing it up tonight. Besides the fact that the patterns are pretty delightful, thinking up a fun sewing project that can replace my knitting-in-front-of-the-TV habit = genius. I'm happy with how the turtle came out. After much hemming and hawing, I decided to ditch the crown because, although Andrew and I both agreed that the crown made him super-cute, we knew that if it wasn't sewn on it would be lost in a heartbeat and sewing it would just look messy. I also changed the eyes up so that they aren't in mask form anymore (I needed the turtle to have eyes on the sides of his head since he's prey not predator and because these are the things I need to dork out about), and I needle felted the black part of the eyes on (since a new baby will be around, I wanted to avoid buttons). I'm feeling like the butterfly eyes are walkin' a fine line between cute and creepy, so we'll she if she passes muster with the 3 year old who's getting her.Oh, and I also included the wing cutouts on the back because I thought that part of the design was so sweet and I wanted the back to look fancy too:) In retrospect, I didn't need to do the cutouts on the back of the smaller part of the wing since those are hidden, but the wings are moveable so I guess with some peeking the detail will be seen.

Yard Sale Bliss

2008-05-25T11:05:00.005-04:00

Despite the fact that I'm still not feeling well, I knew that I'd be getting up early yesterday to go yard saleing. My mother had collated the weekend's yard sale adverts and nestled in there was a location offering a "four harness table loom". OK, now...so maybe for the past two years the idea of getting a loom has been in the back of my mind. And maybe I've done a little research and found only expensive options. So I ask you: should illness keep me from rising at an ungodly hour on the weekend to obtain a loom at a yard sale?

Behold: my greatest yard sale find yet. A four harness table-top loom, bought for a song (haggled a bit, no less!), and totally worth the fact that I feel like total poo today (even after 12 hours of sleep). It had one broken leg, which my dad is remaking for me, and I'll have to learn how to use it...but these are all just details:)

After the glorious yard sale victory, I was feeling very crafty but needed to be in bed. So I finally got out my Wee Wonderfuls hand sewing projects. There's a new baby coming to the family in a short while and I needed to get cracking on a baby gift. I also feel the need to make something for the siblings, so I'm going to make the turtle, snail, and butterfly. Here's the current turtle I'm working on (one-legged and blind, at the moment):

OK, back to bed!

Crunch Addicts

2008-05-22T18:29:00.009-04:00

Apparently, Andrew and I only like crunchy food. This was my discovery today after taking a sick day for a sore throat that kept me up most of the night. Why do we not have a tub of ice cream in the fridge like every other American household? Why do I have to insist on making my own soups from my own chicken stock so that I can't just open up a can when I don't have any fresh soup made? There's only so far that cottage cheese can take you, I'll tell you that much.

So I spent the day mostly in bed, with the occasional walk up to the craft room to get supplies. I had some 3 x 5.5 inch scraps of that wonderful grade-book paper left from the stationery sets I created and I decided to make little books out of them. I brought some cardstock and my water colors into bed (my trusty breakfast-in-bed tray table - which has never seen a plate of food due to the mountain of beads and fabrics that it's usually under - made watercolors + bed a doable equation) and had fun painting rainbows.

Here are the pre-assembly shots:

And after binding:I used the Japanese stab technique, but just tied the cord off at the bottom because getting it to pull through to the middle of the book was a pain. And because I don't bind enough and I always forget how to start, I looked here to get the technique into my head.

I originally made these with the intent to put little drawings in the corners so that there was a bonus flip-book aspect to them. I'm going to put them in the shop ultimately, but I need to decide whether they must be decorated further. I've never really been good at knowing when a craft is done.

I also photographed the poultry paper stationery sets and will get some up in the shop, pronto. And if I'm in work tomorrow, Nancy...I'll bring some by ♥

Portraits of the Ladies

2008-05-19T19:01:00.005-04:00

Now, look: how could you not love this face?Kateski's pouf just keeps getting bigger and more unruly and every time I look at her I think of a really bad case of bedhead and it cracks me up.

I tried to do a little photo session with waning light, dwindling batteries, and subjects that were, well, chickens and here is the result.

Flora, the austrolorpe:

And Amelia (she was the first in flight and the most daring and practiced of the bunch), the wyandotte:

Printing Press

2008-05-18T11:28:00.006-04:00

I've spent a leisurely morning "watching" my favorite weekend TV show (Sunday Morning) and printing up a gocco storm. With chickens on my brain lately (sorry, can't stop thinking about them), my doodles have often been poultry-related. I burned a screen of a few of my chicken doodles a week or so ago, knowing that I wanted to turn them into stationery. And this morning, I awoke with the memory that I had just the vintage paper to turn into note paper. This lovely bunch of grade-book sheets was found last year at a yard sale. The woman who sold it to me told me that she'd kept it around, trying to sell it each year (with her husband requesting that she just chuck it, already) knowing that someone would want it. It was as if I was adopting her family pet, she was really happy it had found an owner who would turn it into something new. I was thinking about binding some more books at the time, so I thought these would make great pages...but this morning it struck me that I could just cut them up and make stationery sets out of them.So some precise cutting (perfectly soothing activity early on a Sunday....making neat little stacks of paper), a little gocco magic, a latte, and Charles Osgood; and here they are! Poultry Paper Stationery Sets:)

Oh, and I don't know why it's taken me so long, but I just finally realized the beauty of epicurious yesterday. I needed a potato salad recipe that Andrew would eat (no mayo - - it's a wonder I stay with this man) and used ingredients that I already had. Well, when you have 15 pages of potato salad recipes to choose from, you're bound to find what you're looking for. And the fact that someone has developed the technology so that I have the option of printing recipes out on 3x5 or 4x6 cards makes my heart flutter.

Grounded

2008-05-17T13:21:00.008-04:00

Lately it seems that I've been surrounding myself with flightless creatures. I'm not sure what this signifies, but the connection between my chicks and an art exhibit that I went to see today was quickly apparent.

First, the exhibit. As silkworms have been bred in captivity for hundreds of years, they have lost their ability to fly. It comes down to a bad body-to-wing size ratio, but the results are extremely tame moths that can't, well, get it up. The artists Tera Galanti has been breeding them in captivity to try to reverse this evolution and her exhibit was part sculpture, part textile project, and part science experiment all in one.

She has created hutches for the hatched moths to go in. The females go to the top platforms and the males go in the bottom. The males smell the female pheromones and go into a wing-flapping frenzy, but alas, they can't fly up. Some climb up the sides and manage to get to the females, but the hope is that males will be born with the ability to fly so that they can get up to the females and then pass on those flying genes. As a biology and art major, I always like to bring art into my bio classroom and since we're just getting into genetics, it'll be fun to talk about rates of mutation and whether we can expect to see this evolution occur in our lifetimes. In any event, the exhibit itself was lovely, slightly magical and airy. I knew I'd never be a researcher because I couldn't stand the idea of being cooped up in a lab my whole life, but this kind of research I could do.

And for those who haven't accepted the fact that homosexuality exists in nature: here are some male moths getting it on.

So what does this have to do with the chicks? Well, as it turns out, they actually can fly a bit. I'd argue that it's pretty inefficient (again, that body-to-wing ratio), but my chicks are managing to get some air time lately. Sometimes I hear a commotion and look over into the cage thinking that they're pecking each other to death, when in fact they are getting little running starts and practicing their flying skills. Who knew? Chickens can fly.