Moonbeam

sketching the cat

2011-02-18T11:52:00.003-05:00

I have recently fallen in love with sketching Pipsqueak - he is such a great model when he's sleepy, which is quite often :) I plan to work him into some paintings soon, and definitely more sketching...

no knead bread

2011-02-13T12:00:00.003-05:00

Behold, the greatest revolution in bread since the beginning of time. Well perhaps I'm over-stating it, but I can't emphasize enough how much in love I am with this recipe, this process, and the incredible result.

I give you (or rather, I show you while I eat) no knead bread. Thanks to Jim Lahey and the New York Times, this wonderfully simple process produces a satiating, crusty artisan bread with a chewy, substantial crumb. I'd like to see you try to squash this bread.

This was my first successful loaf. I had one dud before this because I totally botched the timing, and because I thought I would be lazy and use active dry yeast (oh the irony - once I got off my tail and bought the instant, I never have to proof again). To bake this bread successfully at home using a 1982 oven (or other less-than-professional variety), one needs a cast iron or ceramic dutch oven that can take up to 500 degrees. One also should invest in instant yeast. I love instant yeast. I ordered mine from amazon and keep it in one of those rubber sealed jars in the freezer.

If you want to see Jim Lahey in action, check out the video of him on Martha Stewart's show here. If you compare recipes, you might notice the variable amounts of water, timing, etc. The water is only slightly different, so no biggie there, and the timing of cooking really just depends on the oven it seems. I do 20 minutes covered and up to 20 minutes uncovered (checking at 15 minutes) which turns out a perfectly cooked loaf. I tried the 30 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered and it resulted in some burning. I think this process is subject to a little experimentation, and is somewhat forgiving.

What is not quite as forgiving is the resting and rising. Once you get this timing down, the rest is a cake walk. I am still positively giddy that I can do this at home so cheaply - and with practically no clean up. The bread doesn't stick to the pot, and all you do is wipe out the excess wheat bran and call it a day.

To make a whole wheat version, you use 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I recommend King Arthur if you can't get a good organic brand), 1/2 tsp instant yeast, and the same amount of water. Keep all the rest the same and the result is even better than the white bread. This recipe is located in an old issue of MS Living and for some reason is not on her website. Go figure.

On and off, I bake this about once every two weeks. Ellybeth's post got me all inspired so I baked the whole wheat yesterday (yum) and I've got the white bread in the oven right now. Oh my lord the smell is wonderful. *update* I just pulled the bread out of the oven and remembered to tell you about my favorite part (other than the eating of course) - the crackling of the crust just after it comes out. For me it is a magical as rice krispies were at age 4.

So try it! Let me know how it turns out :)

pi shawl - my first lace knitting project!

2011-01-18T15:44:00.005-05:00

Amazingly, I decided to do this at Thanksgiving and had it done a week before Christmas. Yes! This is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl from the Knitter's Almanac. I have wanted to try this for years now, and I was prompted to finally do it when I found a cone of 100% virgin wool at a local thrift store - for fifty cents!!!

With lace I don't know how much the needle size matters. I did not use her recommendation (which is always loose anyway), I just used what I had on hand - number 5 (?) circular needles. The following picture was taken just after a great deal of cursing and perhaps a couple of tears.

I dropped a stitch and kept going without knowing it (curse you lace!!) only to discover the error when the diamonds were not lining up. Yes. I had to examine every stitch in a 200+ stitch area to discover this issue. I really really thought about trying to cover it up. But taking the high and painful road I decided the frogging was the best course. And Pipsqueak was there to comfort me. And to try and play with my fragile frogged lace.

This is when I finally started on the lace edging - that was exciting! Incidentally the rest of the project was error free. Wowzers.

And juuuuust as soon as it was off the needles...

Boy does he love wool. My next big project has got to be a Pipsqueak blanket. Here is the unblocked shawl sans Pipsqueak:

I really liked it all ruffly and unblocked. I was almost tempted to leave it like that :( I am glad I blocked it though since it was a super special gift for my mum-in-law. And holy schmanoly did I have to use a bunch of pins. I literally had to use every pin I owned - even had to take some out of projects I was working on.

See how preeeetty? I was so pleased with how this came out. The wool was a bit rough and scratchy, plus I'm sure it had a germ or two from the thrift store (the store WAS called the litter box). I googled how to soften wool and found a neat tip - right after washing it with woolite, soak it in hair conditioner dissolved in water! I would not have thought this up on my own, but it actually does make sense - and it works! I used a lot of conditioner though - I could definitely tell a difference, but it doesn't turn it into merino wool or anything.

I would totally do this project again...with a tad bit more caution knowing how invisible dropped stitches are in lace. And here is the happy recipient modeling it at Christmas!

We were at the Bilmore House and it was freezing. This certainly came in handy, and someone even commented how nice it was! Next I need to show you the other last minute knitted gift I made for Craig - I whipped up a hat that I had wanted to knit for a long time...turns out it was just the right gift because he had forgotten his normal hat and was panicking. It really was freezing! That is a beautiful house though - if you have a chance to see it I do recommend it.

reverse applique purse

2011-01-01T12:44:00.005-05:00

Ok - knuckle pop - I have been wanting to show this for a long time now! I made this back in, um, August I think? Sometime a while ago anyway. As I have said before, I love Alabama Chanin. This project came about after seeing the Alabama Chanin tote bag over at the purl bee. I had been scheming a way to make my own while at the same time scheming a new purse. The two ideas collided in a burst of inspiration and so this purse was born. I love it. I use it every day.

This is made from freebie T-shirts from Craig's law conferences and scraps leftover from other projects. I posted some progress shots to show the start of the technique. Basically I decided how big I wanted the bag to be, then drafted out the dimensions on graph paper. It's really a bunch of rectangles, so it's quite simple.

I used gray fabric paint over my homemade stencil with Alabama Chanin's flower design. Then I put the same size rectangle of white fabric underneath and embroidered around the edges of each design motif. Once all the embroidery was in place, I cut the shapes out of the flowers (the reverse applique). Then I followed the instructions from the purl bee to put the bag together using scraps from my dress as the piping. Oh how I love the piping. It really makes the whole thing pop.

I fiddled with the strap some before finally making it gradually narrow at the shoulder and widen near the zipper. I used a herringbone stitch to finish the strap so it would have plenty of stretch.

I harvested a zipper from an old make-up bag, which fortunately had two zipper pulls so I can open it from either side :)

My favorite part of this project was hand sewing everything. You really gain a great deal of control when you sew by hand - no machine running away with you tears flowing and ripping out seams. All was peaceful and quiet with this project. With this technique, you also get the wonderful raw edges of the knit fabric.

As you can see, I used the instructions from the purl bee to make some pockets - I made a really big one and sewed a couple of seams to split it into three pockets.

This was a very satisfying process from start to finish. It has already gone through the wash, and only got better for the wear. The edges are fluffier and the whole thing got a more settled look. I was a bit concerned about using white for a purse. I am not the world's most careful person, especially with purses, but I decided to risk it. So far I have only gotten one big spot on it which came out in the wash. Otherwise it is doing brilliantly :)

Here are a couple of progress shots when I was putting together the zipper:

That is back before the strap was sewn together. For that I just gauged the distance I wanted it from my shoulder, factoring in the stretch. I am so pleased with how it came out. The neutral colors go with everything, and it is pleasant to reach into a soft bag instead of stiff leather. Perhaps one day I can try something like this with some soft leather? I wonder if the same technique would work....hey why not?!?

By the way, Happy New Year!

wish list

2010-12-15T17:24:00.004-05:00

I am so in love with these light houses from my house party. Aren't they magical? I also want everything else in that shop...

While browsing Uncommon Goods, I stumbled across this Aebelskiver kit - oh my lord. I must get this thing. Anyone else not know what aebelskivers were? Am I the only one?

And how freakin cool is this bottle and jar cutter kit?!? Arghh. No bottle or jar would be safe. I could even cut off the damaged part of my mixing bowl that chipped. This would make me feel invencible - seriously how many people can cut glass?!

Sigh. I will dream on :)

Inspiration Overload

2010-12-08T13:09:00.005-05:00

Lately I have been ridiculously inspired - it really gets to an obsessive point that interupts routine business. Sink and counter covered with dirty dishes? That can wait a week or two while I sew five dresses two blouses and make necklaces and ornaments and garlands and cookies and bread and sauce. heh. Poor Craig.

As of today, the latest craze is making froebel star ornaments, thanks to Ellybeth's beautiful photos of her decorations. I have tons of wallpaper which might just come in handy here. In my brief research I have found that they look best when the paper has designs on both sides (ie not wallpaper) so I think I'll just cut double the width and fold the strips in half. Fingers crossed...

One reason I've been less inclined to blog over the last few months is the inconvenience of uploading photos. It seems whenever I have time and feel like blogging I don't have my camera and pictures on whatever computer I'm using. I'm thinking I'll start a flickr account to solve that problem. I hear you can get a free account with limited storage.

And since I can't stand to put up a post without a picture, here are some in progress shots of the purse I made recently.

The flower pattern is from Alabama Chanin, as is the technique. I am madly in love with this woman's designs. I can't wait to show the finished result - I think my current pictures suck so I'll probably redo the photo shoot.

goats milk soap & organic cotton cloths

2010-12-06T11:26:00.001-05:00

I have no idea why I've taken such a long break from my blog - I have had fun though! The best Thanksgiving ever (despite losing my granddad), tons of crafting, sewing and knitting, tons of cooking, and Christmas tree decorating and hanging out with Craig and Pipsqueak :) I am way behind in sharing my creations, so here goes!

My eldest sister got married this year (happy dances!), so for their wedding present I decided to knit up some organic cotton washcloths and pair them with homemade goats milk soap.

The cloths were very relaxing to knit - easy and elegant. Blocking is the real trick to get them to look neat and tidy.

I wrapped the soap in tissue paper and topped them with some stickers I had been saving since I was a teenager (yes I save stickers).

I also wanted to give her a little something sexy and special for her bridal shower, so I whipped up a lacy thong from some wonderfully soft and washable green merino wool from Knit Picks. I definitely want to try knitting that pattern with silk to see what a difference it makes.

I tucked the knitted goodies, and a few other good smelling goodies, into a patchwork drawstring lingerie bag. Note about this - use thin fabric! While the patchwork looks nice, the fabric is a bit too thick to gather nicely for this size bag. Next time I'll use some very thin cotton or silk.

More to come soon! This past weekend was so very fun - I made monster cookies (several dozen!), baked bread (awsome recipe here - more on this soon), cooked up some bolognese sauce (13 cups worth - my freezer is stocked with cookies and sauce!), and worked on a very special knitting project for my mum-in-law. Altogether relaxing and wonderful. This holiday season is shaping up nicely!

despite appearances, I am not dead

2010-06-09T10:57:00.004-04:00

Good golly, April 16 was my last post?! I have all sorts of finished projects and things to show you, but I have not got the pictures on this computer :( Lately I've been making goodies for my sister's upcoming wedding (woohoo!). I can't wait to share all of those...

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this video of Pinky the cat as much as I have. I literally cry laughing every time I see it. Freaking hilarious.

call of the small

2010-04-16T10:06:00.006-04:00

I've just stumbled across a new blog through a ny times article - the call of the small (which begs to be written in small caps). She collects mini modern furniture (how cool!) and decorates these chic modern doll houses. Oh how I want one. I am thoroughly in love with this room - I can't even tell you how much I wish I could live in this room.

I'm already plotting how I can make that awesome square shelf - and that mushroom - gah! It's almost too much for me. I might even go gather sticks and put them in a vase in a corner. And how much do you love that art on the wall? This is the coolest doll house ever.

I am feeling a distinct urge to go through all my old doll things. I must acquire a shelf like this white one. Then I must acquire all the goodies. This kind of shelf could just go anywhere - shoved in a closet, out in the middle of a living room, anywhere. I feel very inspired. Thank you call of the small!

work in progress

2010-04-07T12:49:00.003-04:00

I am head over heals in love with Alabama Chanin. I have not been this inspired to sew in years. It is incredibly liberating to sew without a machine! After combing through her website and blog over and over just swimming in the possibilities, I decided to try my hand at some of her techniques. I've leafed through her books at my local B&N, and took a few basic notes. I figure if my first couple of projects turn out well, I'll bite the bullet and buy both books.

I saw this skirt on her site and thought about a red dress I have but never wear. It's a sporty knit mini-dress. I'm really not sure why I bought it years ago. I wasn't exactly into sports, and I can't imagine wearing a dress for it if I was.

Here's a shot of it (with horribly bright, color altering light) of the dress after I applied the bloomers pattern from Ms. Chanin:

I read a tip in her book about using contact paper for homemade stencils, and it works really well. I have this thing lately about only using what I have on hand or can get for free for my projects. Fortunately, I had some contact paper, fabric paint and old unworn clothes to play with. yay!

So the concept here is to use two layers of knit fabric, then cut away the top layer in a pattern to reveal the layer underneath - reverse applique. In order to have a pattern to follow, you stencil it on with fabric paint. That way you have a little color at the cut edges when you've finished stitching and cutting. I plan to use this old Abercrombie shirt for the backing fabric. I'm glad I bought this XL!

I cut off that awful top and have made it lower. I plan to add spaghetti straps using the darker burgundy material (which is delightfully thick and soft - gotta love vintage A&F), and perhaps beading it to make it fancy. I'm thinking this will be a cool date dress.

I was MOST excited about cutting this blasted logo off the dress:

I hated this so much, it was usually the reason I didn't wear it. And now it's gone!

I realized as I was making this that it would be reversible - when you turn it inside out you see the Abercrombie logo and the writing from the back of the shirt all covered with the stitches from the bloomers pattern. I think this is going to be a really cool dress.

I'm afraid you will have to put up with much more I-love-Alabama-Chanin posts. I'm already working on another project which I will share soon...

soup, gardening, etc.

2010-03-30T10:32:00.007-04:00

After months of trying to find and order the right ingredients, I finally got around to making the first recipe from my Williams Sonoma Asian cook book that H gave me years ago. Yes years. I tell you though, the wait was worth it - this udon noodle soup is to die for. One of the things we miss most about NYC is our local Japanese restaurant where we always got udon noodle soup. This involves boiling konbu (seaweed), then adding bonito flakes (fish flakes), then straining, then adding a bunch of flavors like rice vinegar and soy sauce, then pouring over scallions and noodles. Yum!

A couple of weeks ago, H and I planted a rain garden with his leadership group, which was so much fun!!! I can't believe how much I miss gardening. What thrilled me most was how much H enjoyed it. We have lots gardening in our future...

You can read our little local article about it here. This is really the first time I had ever heard of rain gardens, so I'm just now learning all about them. I'm excited to learn more and someday plant my own :)

This is another gorgeous quilt from H's grandmother. She made it using free fabric samples from Sherwin Williams way back in the day. To me it looks like something from anthropologie - I love it! It's also very light, making it the perfect blanket for the coming summer months.

In other news, I'm still working on that painting for my mom...as you can see in the picture above I've put strips of fabric in and around the crevices of broken glass - genius! Mom actually thought of it which was just a stroke of brilliance. I plan to use this technique again in future paintings. It is so much more interesting a solution than grout or modeling paste.

And take a look at this mess:

What a cutie! I had this purring monster waking me up all morning today. I've got to remember to play with him more before bed...

wire hanger

2010-03-11T11:33:00.002-05:00

I was looking through my stuff from Italy a while ago (I did a foreign study there in 2001), I found a stack of beautiful postcards that I couldn't believe I didn't have hanging up. The trouble was how to hang them. I didn't want to tape them up, and I didn't want to just lean them against something. After looking at several wire wall card holders in places like Pottery Barn, I decided I would make my own (story of my life).

It took about 5 hangers, bascially all twisted by hand except the spirals which were twisted using pliers. 10 very sore fingers later, instant gratification without shelling out dollars for wire. Yay!

I think it's wonky shape is anthropologie-esque. I hope I'm not the only one :) Here it is holding some of my postcards:

It really does brighten up our bedroom too. I should take a picture once I have the room cleaned up a bit.

Just for fun, here's a cute pic of our little Pipsqueak asleep in his chair - adorable!

whole lotta bakin goin on

2010-03-01T14:33:00.005-05:00

I baked two loaves of whole wheat bread for the first time! I used outdated yeast which did proof (albeit not heartily), but it didn't rise a ton. I was sweating it, but it turned out wonderfully - nice and dense. As H put it, you don't feel like you're being cheated :)

It really has been a delicious treat. I've been craving toast for a long time, and I never could find a consistent source of organic bread. So I did what I tend to do - made my own. How satisfying! I used Martha Stewart's multigrain bread recipe and altered it a bit. I left out the rye flour (since I don't particularly love rye) and used more whole wheat flour instead. I also left out the sunflower seeds since I forgot to buy them - heh. I'm telling you, it really is good bread. Even with old yeast :)

Craving satisfied.

Next, H and I got on a blueberry muffin craze. I was trying to use up some fresh blueberries before they went to mush, and they turned out to be a tasty and healthy dessert. It's been nice to reach for a muffin instead of, say, cake (which *cough* we actually baked yesterday - organic, yummy, and yet...evil). For the muffins, I used this recipe from Williams Sonoma. The cinnamon is great in these.

As you can see in the picture above, I used wax paper liners - I just cut squares from a roll of paper. Cheap, handy and fancy.

This is before I tried that trick, and it was H-E-double-hockey-sticks to get them out of the friggin tin, even though I greased it with butter. Sigh. For my aforementioned evil cake, I tried using wax paper to line the pan, and it was glorious to simply lift the cake out. No sticking, no mess. I used this brand of organic mix, and a separate box of icing mix from the same company. Very good. Very evil.

Next I plan to try apple wheat bran muffins. I must get back to healthy desserts.

Sold!

2010-02-22T12:34:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I made my first sale on Etsy! Yay! I sold three potholders :) I've definitely got to stock my shop soon, so stay tuned!

Painting Again

2010-02-12T17:10:00.002-05:00

This painting was fun from first inspiration to final glaze. I got sudden inspiration to sew a funnel in a canvas and tack it to the back of the frame - this way I would get a mysterious receding hole. Then somehow I felt like I had to have something funky growing out of this orifice. Then I thought about how I needed a Christmas gift for my brother and his wife - bingo!

I knew based on their tastes that the colors had to be dark and rich, plus I had gotten my SIL to give me her defective pottery to smash up for paintings - enter the lovely shards you see in the painting.

They are glued down, which was not my first pick on how to attach them. I had first tried "sewing" them down with some nylon thread, but it kept snapping against the sharp edges. I do want to try sewing chunky things to paintings in the future, but I have to make sure they're not sharp. I've been thinking about doing something like this since 2001 when I saw the huge chunks of colored glass (grapefruit sized) wrapped up in wire to form the garden gate at Peggy Guggenheim's museum in Venice. I really must figure out a way to wrap up cool treasures in ropes to form a loose painting surface...

I made the frame for this little painting out of the top bar of the bead curtain my sister gave me in college (I love having power tools handy). It gives a funky shape to the edges which adds to the assemblage feel.

I even signed this one. I usually don't like signing for some reason. I know a lot of artists have a problem viewing their work as a commodity to be sold, and that somehow money is unwelcome in the true creative process. I feel somewhat this way about signing my paintings. In a way, I feel like they are independent creations that transcend the need to be claimed. It seems to me that it would detract from thet piece - tie it down somehow to slap my name on them. What do you think? Does it lessen a work of contemporary art to have a signature? I get a self conscious feeling when I imagine people in museums looking at my painting and noticing my signature on the piece. I would MUCH rather have my name on a little white card next to it on the wall. Perhaps I'm still flenching after seeing so many cathedrals in Italy plastered names of the sponsors and artists. Doesn't the greatest art go beyond all that? But I digress.

The reason I signed this one is because it felt right and special when giving to my brother and SIL. I might feel more like signing my work generally if I can come up with a really cool way to do it. Albrecht Durer's signature is very cool - same initials as me...mmm....

The tree in this painting was really fun to sketch out and paint. I really allowed myself not to care so much about how this painting came together. When I allow myself to incorporate chance as part of the process, and to not worry so much that I overly control the work as it progresses, I find that the result is more satisfying and usually more visually stimulating. I like being surprised as I go - for example, I first painted in the tree with raw sienna because it was the first tube of paint I reached. Once I did the over painting with a dark mixture of blues and reds, I left a few slivers of the sienna to show giving an interesting detail when you look closely. I have some progress shots somewhere that I might post soon so you can see how it looked at various stages.

As much as I love oil paint, it is difficult to beat the instant gratification of acrylic. This is painted entirely with acrylic. It's fun to play with thinned down layers of color over texture. It was especially important to use in this piece because I had to travel with it very soon after I finished it :)

I like to think of this as a collaboration of sorts with my SIL. The pottery is so integral that it would be hard to imagine without it. I never thought of a title for this painting - that's another weakness of mine. I always feel REALLY self conscious about my titles. They either sound way too corny or they don't actually communicate anything important. I hope I can improve on this.

More to come soon!

Teacup Potholder Set

2010-01-25T17:52:00.004-05:00

I am so thrilled to share this fun project. I made this set of potholders for my eldest sister for Christmas. I have a similar set I bought ages ago and still use all the time. The little teacups are especially useful for getting hot bowls of soup out of the microwave.

All the fabric is recycled from old clothes, and the flowers were embroidered using this wonderful embroidery blog for guidance. The multicolor yarn was a Christmas gift from my SIL, and the leaves are from recycled yarn from an old scarf.

Isn't it just so fun? I think I might make a few more of these to put in the shop.

I have more to share still, so stay tuned!

Two Knitted Hats

2010-01-20T10:36:00.004-05:00

I bought this brown wool/mohair yarn in 2004 when I first moved to NYC. I was thinking of knitting a hat for my sister. FIVE years later I finally get around to it! I really kinda made up this pattern - I call it the February Beret.

I cast on (long tail) and ribbed for a few rounds. I used EZ's gull pattern from the February baby sweater pattern (Knitter's Almanac) to knit the next 10 rounds or so until I needed to start decreasing. At this point, I began stockinette - the decreases left a lovely star pattern on the top.

It looks awfully dramatic in front of the painting doesn't it? I look like an "artist" - hehe.

This next hat is for my sister's husband. I remembered that he liked the fishtrap pattern from my mom's sweater, so I figured I'd try a fishtrap hat. This is made from my freebie yarn, which honestly I value more than paid for yarn. Go figure. This yarn is so soft and lovely - I do need to add an inch or two as a border since that hat falls a little short. Gotta keep them ears toasty!

I worked on this hat in the car all day long in Columbia when H was doing his mediation training.

It was alternately cozy/nice and cramped/frustrating. Anyway, I hope I won't be doing it again anytime soon. At least I had EZ's fishtrap pattern to keep me alive and entertained :)

More to come!

New Kitty

2010-01-11T15:45:00.005-05:00

Say hello to Pipsqueak, our new cat! He has been hanging around our apartment building for over a year now, and we finally got permission to bring him inside :) He's already been neutered and declawed, so all we had to do was get his shots and flea/heart worm treatment. It has been quite an adjustment having a new member of the family, but it keeps getting better. Here's a video of him attacking a pom pom:

Christmas Place Mats

2010-01-07T13:44:00.008-05:00

I finally get to share the Christmas presents I made! My mother is crazy about place mats, so it seemed like great fun to sew her a patchwork set. These are made using the salvaged fabric from wallpaper sample books and other hand-me-down fabric from family members. The whole idea started with a way to make the most of that beautiful cardinal

I started with the patch above - I was so thrilled to work with festive, Christmasy patterns. It was ridiculously fun. It was also much harder than I anticipated picking out fabrics from such a limited supply, and working around very limited sizes. It made me realize what quilters in the 30's were going through - the origins of patchwork coming out a scarcity of materials. When that is actually the case, it really makes each patch so much more valuable (and mistakes that much worse!!!) The place mat below, you can see some squares of fabric with a log cabin and bears - that was from the extra special wrapping around a bar of soap! Mom gave me that a few years ago and thankfully I hung on to it :)

This squirrel place mat changes up the overall patchwork pattern because I was running out of stuff to make my stars. This way though, I was able to use the scraps from the other mats and have two odd mats in the group of six - helps to keep it exciting :) This bird was the other odd mat:

For the backs, I decided to use a beautiful green woven fabric from Belgium my mother has had for years and years. She recently gave it to me to do something with - and here it is:

With lovely fabric on both sides, these are reversible. Here's a shot of the place mats in their natural habitat - they match her Christmas table theme so well!

I also made some place mats for H's mom - pictures of those plus other gifts coming soon :) It's like Christmas all over again!

two color mittens

2009-12-24T15:53:00.005-05:00

Believe it or not, I knitted these mittens about two years ago and never managed to get pictures until now. I'm brilliantly organized you see. This was a Christmas gift for my mother which was finished at the last minute, then quickly wrapped and stuffed under the tree. I knitted these while sitting in a New York laundromat. Ha! Those days are far behind me now, thank goodness.

I used Elizabeth Zimmermann's instructions and pattern from Knitting Around. You can see I staid true to her color choices as well - these pretty well match the ones on the cover of the book.

I used the leftover yarn from my first knitted hat, which H happened to lose. Ahem.

The green i-cord cuff trimming is possibly my favorite detail - this was leftover from my first baby sweater. Incidentally, I'm just realizing I haven't posted any pictures of those projects. brilliantly organized I say.

I am particularly proud of these mittens. I love the scandinavian style, the soft flowing pattern, and the gentle colors. If I ever move back north, I definitely need some of these to stay alive.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to share pictures of the Christmas presents I prepared for this year (and actually took pictures of).

In the meantime...Merry Christmas :)

commissioned purses

2009-12-16T11:01:00.003-05:00

H's aunt commissioned me to make two purses for her granddaughters, and so here they are! Amazingly I have not gone completely insane making Christmas presents yet, even with commissions. I have to admit, being paid to make presents is really cool :)

These are made from Angry Chicken's book Bend-the-Rules Sewing (the charming handbag). The one above is made from a thick, velvet fabric and cotton/linen lining. All of the fabric for both purses is reclaimed/recycled. Instead of the bow on the purse above, I tried a yo-yo flower with a cool metal button.

This one is brighter and lighter. I think the outer lining is thin wool, but one can never tell with reclaimed fabric unless there is a tag involved. I love the ribbon on this thing - oh so fun to play with. Also, the lining goes almost too well with the ribbon. I would totally carry this purse.

I wish so badly I could share pictures of the other presents I'm working on, but I have the sneaking suspicion their recipients would be spying on the blog.

More to come!

Lost and Found Yarn

2009-12-14T16:10:00.003-05:00

I was thrilled to find this collection of yarn mixed in with my college books in my mom's storage. This dates back to my lap loom days. Most of this is from Hearth Song kits, but a few came from random early crochet projects (most of which did not end well).

Imagine my surprise to find this motley knitting sampler - unless my memory fails me, this is my very first effort at knitting (along with my two older sisters). My mom began the sampler with nice neat garter stitch - you can see it on the right side of the picture below. Then you can see sections where my sisters tried stockinette, ribbing, and moss stitches. Then on the far left you can see what I believe was my first attempt at knitting.

I have always been more ambitious than patient. 'nuff said.

That is really funny though! I laughed out loud when I saw it. I think I would have trouble recreating those mistakes! I'm glad I took some photos of this piece of crafting history - I plan to unravel it and use the yarn for something else. Perhaps something with a moss stitch - isn't that part pretty?

As a Christmas update, I have just completed my parents' present (if they are not completely stoked I will be sorely disappointed). I've also finished a couple of purses for H's cousins. Still work to be done on two sisters' presents, brother and his wife's present, and mom-in-law's. Gettin' there!

Halls are Decked!

2009-12-11T16:42:00.005-05:00

Earlier this week, mom-in-law and I finally got the tree decorated. Fun! We have been enjoying it thoroughly every evening. H comments every night how good it looks all lit up. Christmas is in the air and I'm drinking it in :) I could really use some magic this year.

Are you tired of looking at it yet?

Last week I visited my parents and dragged a ton of junk out of Mom's storage (you're welcome Mom), and I've been sorting through it bits at a time. TONS of art supplies, which is really exciting. I found the first thing I ever knitted, paint brushes I used as a toddler, beads, beads, and more beads. Lots of work, but oodles of potential. More to come...

Poised...

2009-12-08T17:09:00.002-05:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. My mom-in-law is visiting with us until we travel home again for Christmas with my folks. Family time is good :) We have a very naked tree to decorate, hopefully today. I do have lights on it, so we've been enjoying it at night.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures of decked halls to share soon :)

Merry Christmas!

Grand Opening!

2009-12-02T10:13:00.005-05:00

I am pleased to announce the grand opening of my new Etsy shop - BusyBunny Handmade!

I've already loaded five goodies into the shop, so stop by and check it out! This is the perfect time of year to grab a special handmade gift for your loved one. Below I've posted some pictures of the items in the shop now. I plan to announce when I add new goodies, so stay tuned! I'm already working on the next batch (Christmas ornaments, purses, potholders, place mats, etc.) I hope you'll stop by :)

yarn harvest

2009-11-20T15:27:00.003-05:00

I harvested yarn for the first time! I had an old red cotton sweater just begging to be taken apart and made into something new and wonderful :) It was a surprisingly rewarding experience - I am definitely excited to go thrifting to find more sweaters to recycle. Yarn for cheaps!

And embroidery thread for cheaps - this was from the sweater's seams. I already have some projects in mind for this.

While this was fun, I had a not-so-fun unraveling to do. This was a beaded beret (pascale hat from Rowan 37). Sadly, the gauge didn't turn out perfectly, the beads were slightly too big and too heavy (curses to Michaels and Walmart - neigther place carries size 8 beads!), and I didn't love how the clear glass beads looked against the dark brown wool.

:(

I must try this project again under better circumstances. Oh well - I'll recycle this yarn too :)

i see pumpkin pie in my future...

2009-11-13T10:53:00.003-05:00

Just roasted my first pumpkin :) I tried to get a photo of the pumpkin right as it came out of the oven - it was one of the most beautiful colors I've ever seen, deep orange and glistening - but right as I was focusing the camera my batteries died. yup. Oh well, at least I have three jars of pumpkin puree! And the seeds there have been roasted and spiced up.

This pumpkin puree is destined to become a pie, chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie waffles, and anything else I can make with it :) Gotta love fall!

student work

2009-11-09T15:51:00.005-05:00

While I was at home last I took some pictures of some of my student paintings, and I thought it would be fun to share them with you! Needless to say, all the images in this post (and all posts for that matter) are copyright.

Fortunately for me, my parents have the necessary space to store and display my massive paintings (one of them is 10 feet long!), and they grab up as many of my paintings as they can. There is no way I could keep them all if they didn't store and display them for me! The one above was super fun - and it is one of my favorites. Few of these paintings have titles, and they're not really "about" anything specific. I think most major artists are less concerned with what a painting means as they are with how it is painted. I get high off of examining how the very best paintings are constructed, and wondering what inclined the artist to use a certain color/shape/element.

This green one took a great deal of effort - every ounce of which was fun. Even back then, before I was heavy into sewing and knitting, how interested I was in fibers. For this painting, I went to a scrap metal yard near my school and dug through piles of wet, dirty metal to find those studs you see in the bottom left corner. I also salvaged some copper wire, which I fashioned into a wide weave and glued down near the top right.

I have always been interested in the construction of fibers, and obviously in floral patterns.

Those studs were a labor of love - it took me hours to scrub the rust and mud from them with a wire brush. Yowch. I glued them down on burlap, which is such an amazing fabric.

This is a pretty special painting - during my senior year, I became increasingly interested in painting trees (as you can see in the blue painting at the top of this post). This particular tree is a weeping beech in Boston's Public Garden. My sweetie proposed to me underneath it, and we have cherished that spot and the tree ever since. I love how it became a kind of monstrous skeleton in this painting.

I constructed this painting by building a box frame of wide boards, then stretching strips of fabric and handmade ropes across it. When I can take a less blurry and better lighted picture, you can see the details much better.

This is a drawing I did in one of my earlier classes. We called it the "marks" drawing, which entailed creating a squiggle of some kind, then repeating it thousands of times to make an image. Very cool concept! I have since done a marks drawing for my sister as a wedding gift. I plan to do another for another friend's wedding gift soon.

In my third painting class, we learned a great deal about portraiture. My oldest sister offered to be a model, which is fantastic - now my parents have a portrait of her! Her nose is more like mine in that painting - my professor told me it is common for artists to accidentally paint themselves in portraits because we all spend so much time looking at our own faces.

My dad keeps a good number of my paintings in his office, which is where this yellow one, and the red one below are displayed. This yellow piece was a blast to make - I used nine layers of plywood to make a receding hole. As you can imagine, this thing was too heavy for me to lift with nine layers of plywood! To make it lighter, I cut as much of the plywood out as I could, filling the void with foam core. It is still very heavy, but as you can see, it's hanging! I spent so much time on the construction of it, I ran out of time to play with the paint - I must work on a recreation of this some time and spend longer working on the actual painting. One aspect that really worked about this was the ceramic pieces crawling out of the hole. To me, it just makes the whole painting.

I painted this red one just before the yellow - you can see how similar my construction was, and how I advanced it quite a bit with the yellow. I got mixed reactions from people on this one - when I painted it, I was feeling cathartic. And yes, I admit it, I was thinking about blood. I think I have a healthy fixation with blood - none of my paintings are particularly violent, but rather literally introspective. Ha! That's kinda funny. What can I say? My dad's a doctor (and until I took my first art class, I was on track to be a doctor too) so I've always been interested in the inner workings of the human body.

These last two are particularly special to me. The top one is a timultuous painting I did just after school when I lived in Boston (technically not a student painting, but what the heck). I was depressed about not being able to paint full time, and this painting was frustrating from start to finish. I was disatisfied with it even when it was finished until I saw it a few years later. Now I can see several passages of painting that are quite nice, and it has a dramatic sadness to it that appeals to me. I like to think of painting as an exploratory process through which you gain insight into your own psyche. Looking at it this way, you can imagine how strange it would seem for someone to ask me what a painting means. I have no idea! But it is extremely rewarding to critique it afterward and analyze the decisions made while it was created.

The white and black tree in the bottom of the picture is quite possibly my favorite painting I've ever done. It's called "The Marriage." It seems that I can remember every moment while I worked on it. I had the most fun, and the result is surprisingly sophisticated and simple. I wish I had a better photo of both the last two, but for the life of me I couldn't get a good shot. They are hung in such a way that I have to be on a stairway or balcony to get the picture, and the lighting is not particularly bright. One day I will have a better camera and vantage point.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my student work. Soon, I hope I can share even more (yes there are tons more). Ciao!

special quilts

2009-11-04T16:59:00.005-05:00

I was at my parents' house over the weekend, and I managed to get some pictures of some very special stuff. Here is my sister's first quilt - a perfect doll quilt. This formed my image of what all doll quilts should be. I love it so much.

It was a kit, I believe, which came with the patches. I absolutely love the combination of patterns and colors.

This is my pitiful recreation from my own kit. I can't remember how old I was when I sewed this - 8 perhaps? This is officially my first quilt. I do hold a special place in my heart for it, but it just didn't compare with my sister's, and so I have always been disappointed in it.

Fortunately, my mother cherishes both without being concerned with quality :) These next few pictures are of the mother of all quilts. This is the quilt. Literally - in my house when someone refers to "the quilt," this is what they mean.

The coolest part is that my mother let us play with it like wild things. As I was growing up (this was sewn before I was born!) it was my butterfly wings, a sale to my pirate ship, a giant treasure map, and most of all, the ultimate source of motherly warmth and comfort while traveling, sick or just cuddling. I really couldn't say enough of how much this means to me!

Before it was popular to be eco-friendly, this was an eco-friendly quilt. Mom used shirting fabric scraps from a shirt factory. I marveled at this when I was little - I thought it was so amazing to use shirt scraps, and I used to pick out the patches that looked the most like a shirt! As you can see, the backing is a rainbow sheet - no need to tell you how cool that is to a little girl.

The ties are yellow yarn, and the edging fabric is the most perfect calico. Don't you just love the little mending that occurred over time?

It is also interesting to see how the colors fade into soft pastels over time. I think I need to use this as inspiration in painting - and in quilting! I hope you all have something special and warm to snuggle up in :)

patchwork potholders

2009-10-02T17:10:00.009-04:00

I am planning to open an Etsy shop soon (yay!) so I am preparing a list of items to make and sell. I have been wanting to make myself some patchwork potholders for a while now, so I figured if I was reaching for them, someone else must be too. Plus, I haven't seen any quite like this out there. I got the idea after reading this post from the purl bee. I fell in love with the quilt squares as individual pieces, and began to imagine them as potholders.

I also took this opportunity to learn how to hand piece and machine piece patchwork together. In the picture above, you can see the wobbly results of my impatient first attempt at machine piecing (the red star). Next I tried hand piecing , which resulted in the perfect blue star. sigh.

everything is lined up perfectly. it seems particularly special having been labored over by hand. the red one, not so much. when i machine stitched it, i thought pshaw! i don't need to use pins. i'm only sewing a few inches at a time. how very wrong i was.

the one problem with the hand piecing is the time commitment. I figured out a way to machine piece carefully, which seems to work well. i machine stitch from one corner of the design shape to the next, and back stitch each end. that way i don't have to sew across the seam allowance too. this requires precision, but it also allows the shapes to come together more smoothly. i also figured out that pins are necessary, even though the seam is only an inch or so. heh.

here is the result of machine piecing without sewing across the seam allowances (and, uh, using pins - ahee).

fast and perfect - yay! here it is all sewn up as a finished potholder:

the red one made a pretty potholder too despite the wonkiness.

i forgot to take a picture of the finished blue star potholder on its own, so those will be forthcoming with the next batch. And so you see what i plan to do with so many of those lovely free patches! that and other stuff like place mats, purses, and anything else I can think of.

more to come...

happy october!

2009-10-01T15:16:00.005-04:00

Exciting things are happening around here... As you can see, I have gotten a beautiful pumpkin to celebrate fall - and not just any pumpkin, it's a organic pie pumpkin :) Right around Halloween I plan to bake it, puree it and make a yummy pie. It's sitting on a stack pure goodness - free, 100% cotton patches. Yes, you heard right - free! I shall reveal my secret:

Wallpaper books. If you call your local wallpaper store, they will very likely have discontinued books that they would otherwise throw away! A lot of wallpaper books have fabric samples too, which is where I got that beautiful stack. I swear it's like gold to me.

There you can see a fabric patch that perfectly matches the wallpaper sample. I haven't even begun to sing the praises of the actual wallpaper - it can be used for wrapping paper, book-binding, decoupage, note cards, etc. Anything you can use fancy paper for, you got it.

Gold baby, pure gold.

This is how many patches came from seven wallpaper books.

I was positively hopping with glee. Take a look at some of these beauties:

That round of books and fabric was particularly wonderful - I doubt I'll be that lucky again. I did go to another local wallpaper store and managed to get another 10 books (!) and 15 fabric books (!!!). Not quite as fantasmagorical as the last bunch, but beautiful in their own right. I have to sort the fakey fabrics from the cotton and silk ones. Lots of projects are looming on the horizon!

Once I deconstruct the fabric books and sort the fabrics by fiber, I'll start the washing, drying and ironing phase like with the last bunch. Gotta love eco-friendly free crafts, even if they do involve some work.

Soon I will post photos of two finished sewing projects (hint: they are wearable). I hope you all have a wonderful start to fall - and lots of pumpkin :)

labor day weekend labor part 3

2009-09-14T10:27:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures of the grey dress modeled. It is a very versatile dress, and could probably even be worn as a tunic with leggings and flats.

It has wonderful drape - I believe it's made of rayon.

H thinks it looks best bunched up with lots of drape around the middle (also very forgiving this way!)

It looks almost Grecian - it would be great with gladiator sandals.

Here it is with a bit more flash - it's amazing what different shoes can do to the look of the dress.

Definitely a new favorite in my wardrobe - shamefully easy to sew, and extremely comfortable to wear.

Here is the puff skirt with the white ruffle shirt - not bad together.

This skirt is very light and floaty, making it susceptible to Marilyn Monroe moments - must remember to wear something nice underneath - ha!

FYI - Poppy Boutonniere Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-09-11T08:38:00.000-04:00

Poppy Boutonniere Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!!!!

labor day weekend labor part 2

2009-09-10T11:36:00.011-04:00

As promised, here is the white flower tee modeled. It looks quite different on a body than on a bed. I'm very pleased with how this came out - I definitely plan to make more (I have lots of H's old undershirts to play with). I'm considering adding a few more ruffly flowers to the neckline to thicken it up a bit.

Among other things, I got necklace happy this past weekend. There are some hits and misses, but all fun :) This red one is my favorite, and really the reason I started messing about with beads. I had this in my head for a few days, begging to be made. The beads are super cheap glass which I had for some reason or other, but they do look rather nice and modern done up this way.

This next one is what I'm wearing right now - it's super simple and (I think) chic. Just a champagne-clear glass bead on a gold chain. I paired it the other day with freshwater pearls.

For this one, I painted little wooden beads with red nail polish and strung them on the same gold chain. Fantastically light weight, and reminds me of cranberries and Christmas!

This next one is clear glass beads on a blue ribbon. Probably the least versatile, but I still like it. It was inspired by the jewelry on this wiksten post.

Following the same simple modern idea, I tried a few large wooden beads on my gold chain - I've already worn this to work, and I like it so far.

It is rdiculously late to show this, but here is the "after" photo of the jacket refashion I began in June of 2008 (here's the "before" picture) - good heavens, that took a while to get posted.

Here you can see the original idea I found online on the left, and the final result of my refashion on the right. Not too far off the mark.

Anyway, I love it and wear it a ton.

I had to rig a diamond shaped patch on the back to cover up where I took in the back - I am no expert after all :)

More pictures to come soon...

labor day weekend labor

2009-09-09T16:27:00.006-04:00

For some reason, I got the sewing bug over the weekend and managed to refashion and sew three garments! Here is the first one - a shirt modeled after one of my favorites from anthropologie:

I made it out of one of H's old undershirts - cool huh? This next one is a dress modeled after this one from american apparel:

It is very soft, and very versatile. I made it from one of those old nineties skirts with slits up both sides. And finally this puff skirt was very simple to make. I just took a loop of fabric from a dress my sister threw out and sewed a tunnel for an elastic band (from the nineties skirt which is now a dress), then hemmed the bottom edge. Easy peasy :)

I have a ton of pictures of me modeling these to post soon. It's hard to get an idea of how it's supposed to look on a hanger or laying on a bed.

I also got into framing and hanging. The picture below shows a spectacular watercolor from my painting teacher that he gave me as a wedding gift. I have finally gotten on the wall!

I used a frame which used to have a strange portrait of H and I which neither of us loved a ton, and I cut the mat using my dad's old mat-cutter. I have since moved it to hang right over our bed. It is simple and magical - I absolutely love it.

I painted these three canvases while I was studying art in Italy. They are quite unlike any of my other student work - I had to keep them small and mobile for traveling back to the U.S., and two of them were painted outside in plein air. There is a certain lightness and carelessness about them which is refreshing. My other stuff can be a bit heavy and dramatic.

This was the first time I had ever worked from a nude model. Tons of fun and thrilling! I went to a very conservative christian school that didn't allow nude models (they had to wear swimsuits - ha!)

This was a passage way I used to get to class every day. It was secluded and peaceful - perfect for setting up an easel.

And this was a closeup of that garden wall. Some of those leaves are just shameful - I ran out of steam on this one. It was a very valuable exercise though.

More pictures to come of my surprisingly productive weekend!

handmade goodness

2009-08-26T10:06:00.004-04:00

This beauty is a handmade quilt, created by H's grandmother. We've had this stuffed in the tops of tiny closets in Boston and New York, and lately stored in a cedar chest. A few weeks ago, we finally got it out to use for the first time in seven years! What fools to wait so long.

Because we generally guarded it carefully from the elements, we only ever got a look at it when we were moving, and that was usually cursory at best. I only ever got a real appreciation for it when I brought it out to wash it after our mold scare. When I was folding it to store again, I started noticing how bright and artsy it is.

And how modern - there are quilts of this ilk all over the internet these days. Wild, unexpected combinations of patterns - fresh and exciting colors.

I love the discreet size of the patches, and the matter-of-fact construction. H's grandmother meant business and didn't mess around.

It's hard for me to pick my favorite section of patches. The backing is a hefty canvas, which I love, and it is just the right weight for summer.

We've just put it back in the cedar chest after using it for a good while. I was sad to store it, but I plan to bring it out periodically to enjoy the brilliant colors and facinating fabric pairings.

all right, explain yourself.

2009-08-20T14:53:00.002-04:00

I recently discovered my vacuum's dirty secret. I kept wondering why I didn't see the swirl of dirt and dust in the little bucket, so I eventually unhooked the hose to discover a rat's nest that had been building for weeks. yuck! I had to use a long knitting needle to extract this mess.

This pile of shtuff came out of that tiny section of hose you see in the picture above. !!! Oh, the joys of housework.

Sunshine and Jellyfish

2009-08-14T11:47:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, H and I finally made it into the ocean for the first time this summer! It was lovely for a while until we heard a little boy screaming...shark we thought? No, his parents weren't screaming. After a little while longer, H decided to head back to the shore while I played around a little longer. When I started toward shore I saw H waving me in - apparently he found out why the little boy was screaming - he had been stung by a jellyfish too!

It was still a good day, despite the jellyfish. I did find a little place to continue swimming with no jellyfish...

It was great while it lasted, but now all we've got are thunderstorms every day. Lightening even knocked out my internet yesterday. Come back sunshine!

say hello to my little friend

2009-07-30T16:40:00.004-04:00

H called for me to look out the window at the beautiful light streaming through the trees the other day, and guess who I saw looking right back at me...

We have several black cats who hang out in our backyard pretending they're wild panthers.

And the panther is off - in search of a nap no doubt.

Lemons into Lemonade, aka Ripped Sleaves into Puffed Sleaves

2009-07-28T10:46:00.003-04:00

There is nothing quite so heartbreaking and downright frustrating as pulling a favorite shirt out of the wash with a big rip in it. Such was the case with my non-iron Brooks Brothers shirt. Such is likely the case when using a New York City laundromat.

As H could tell you, I am not in the habit of throwing things away. This being no exception, I hung on to it in the hopes I would be able to make it wearable again. Enter burdastyle.com, a fantastic website full of free or nearly free patterns. I had already used the JJ Blouse pattern to refashion my khaki jacket into puff sleaves, which worked wonderfully (and I STILL haven't posted the after pictures over a year later. sad). So I figured I had enough unripped fabric left to get the same result with this shirt.

This is halfway between before and after:

And this is the wretched rip:

That non-iron shirt is looking awfully wrinkled in these pictures. Mmm.

Here is the puff sleave in progress - you can see the little bit of green bias trim I used - I got this from my windfall stash of craft supplies.

Here is the sleave all neatly finished with a pearl button. Cute huh?

It is now one of my favorite summer work shirts! Yay! Unfortunately/fortunately I have yet another Brooks Brothers non-iron shirt with a big rip in the arm - here we go again.

Cord Scrunchie

2009-07-16T16:10:00.003-04:00

This past weekend, my parents stayed with H and I for the first time ever. I absolutely LOVED it. I was a bit of a nervous wreck preparing though. H could tell I was getting obsessed with details when I announced that the black lamp cord in their guestroom was unacceptable. Well it was.

I decided the night before they came (while I still had fundamental things to do...like scrubbing toilets) was a perfect time to sew what I call a cord scrunchie. H had never heard of or seen this before, so he thought I was dangerously off the rocker. These do exist however, but most of the commercial options are uglier than the cord. I remembered seeing adorable ones at anthropologie years ago in Atlanta. The basic idea is to sew a long tube to cover the cord and look like a soft scrunchie.

Tada! I made the tube half again longer than the cord (roughly) so it would have some nice bunching. The most annoying and time-consuming part of this very quick project was turning it inside out. I used a large wooden knitting needle to help (all the while H was pondering my sanity). Then I just tucked the raw fabric edges under at each end and wahla! Seriously one of the easiest projects ever. Done in about 20 minutes.

H was not extremely impressed, but admitted it was better than he thought it would be. I thought it made a big difference. What do you think, am I nuts or what? Well I am, but this is still a cool project.

Benjamin Bear

2009-07-13T15:52:00.006-04:00

May I introduce Benjamin Bear, a soon-to-be baby gift, commissioned by my mom. Benjamin is a very distinguished fellow, as you can see by his proper nose and mouth, and no-nonsense eyes. He is the contemplative sort - a bit of an amateur philosopher, really.

Pattern: Knitted Toys from Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Yarn: Sublime 100% merino wool, DK weight

Needles: US5 Circulars (16" and 24" - helpful to have the two different lengths to distinguish the beginning of the round without a marker)

Modifications: I used DK weight yarn instead of sport weight, so I didn't hold the yarn double. Also, I noticed an error in the pattern when you get to the shoulder reductions - if you follow the instructions, the bear would have a shoulder sticking out the back and front. I must have read it 50 times and I declare it doesn't make sense the way it's written. I also totally winged it on the ears. The placement of the markers (and lack of extremely clear instructions for how to run the yarn inside the bear), left me eyeballing where the ears should be and how to weave the yarn so it would cinch up properly. Lastly, as you see he is wearing the kerchief rather than the recommended scarf. I simply didn't have yarn thin enough to make a nicely draping scarf. The kerchief pattern was also more exciting and fun :)

I used regular cotton thread for the eyes and nose/mouth, which I think finished him off nicely. The polyfil (fakey fake - but actually quite soft and spongey) turned out well, but does show through a bit.

I think Benjamin is excited to gaze out of new windows soon :) I sent him off with my parents yesterday after their first ever stay with H and I. We had a thrilling, sweet and wonderful weekend celebrating my dad's birthday. Great times. I want more!

Oh, and our local windowsill frog would like to say "hullo!"

Sneak Peak

2009-07-01T17:22:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty happy about this yarn. This beautiful stuff is Sublime 100% merino wool, DK weight. Supple and soft - perfect for a teddy bear baby gift!

I looked for a lighter brown, but on short notice, this dark chocolate brown is the best I could find. It might have a wonderful effect when it's all done - I can't wait to embellish the face :) I snagged a great deal on this stuff - $5 a skein at my local yarn store. The lady there is so nice - she gave me the sale price even though it wasn't on sale. She also was kind enough to give me a big bag of stuffing for free! She was using it for a small project and had a bunch left over. Perfect.

I think since this gift is for a little boy, I will knit up a little scarf using the bit of leftover yarn from my g'ma's blue hat. I've done most of the knitting on the bear's body, now I'm just trying to figure out the directions for the ears. Then I've got to get stuffing and weaving in ends.

Seven Year Pouch

2009-06-29T10:17:00.005-04:00

This past month, H and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary!

We always use the chalice we used in our wedding ceremony, a Japanese tablecloth from my grandfather, and a couple of brass candlesticks from my sister that go very well with our chalice. We always give each other "traditional" gifts - this year it was wool. H decided to form an association called PAW (people against wool). He has had one too many scratchy sweaters in his life, and generally despises winter. I'm slowly introducing him to this luscious blend of cashmere, silk and merino wool however...

Pattern: Soft Drawstring Pouch from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (smallest of the three sizes)

Yarn: Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK, leftover from these baby booties (I used every last inch of the leftover yarn!)

Needles: US 1 double pointed

He was terrified that his present was a pair of socks. Ha! This pouch was perfect - he doesn't have to wear it, and it will be useful for lots of things. In particular, as a travel pouch for his rolled up ties.

H gave me a beautiful creme wool beret which came in the mail a day or two after our celebration. In the meantime, he gave me the card you see in the second picture - incredibly sweet and meaningful to us. Soon I'll post pictures of my latest knitting project. Stay tuned...

Las Vegas

2009-06-11T10:02:00.007-04:00

My sweetie and I just got back from fabulous Las Vegas - mostly a business trip, but we also squeezed in some fun!

These were the coolest freakin umbrellas I've ever seen. Look at those ruffles! Must figure out how to make these.

Serendipity 3 at Ceasars Palace - yummers!

Isn't this a beautiful awning? I love the white/gold/yellow and the fringe.

I would describe Las Vegas as more sumptuous than naughty. H and I figured that even if you win big, you are so surrounded by stuff to spend your money on that the house still wins.

This is the Fashion Show Mall, where I went to have my complimentary facial - there were a few perks to the conference we attended :)

Quite possibly my favorite part of the whole trip - the free lunch that came with my facial! It was fabulous except for the tea - I really didn't know what to make of it. It was some sort of herbal tea. I hate to admit it, but I'm not a tea connoisseur just yet. It is one of my foodie ambitions to appreciate good tea. As of now I like black tea with cream and sugar or plain green tea. Not too exciting...

Here is the Eiffel Tower's evil twin in Vegas. Thrilling to see it all lit up at night :)

This was one of the most spectacular things we saw - fantastic glass flowers on the ceiling of the Bellagio. Wow. That took a while.

These beauties are the crystal pillars in the lobby of Trump's Vegas hotel. Classy!

I can't wait to show you pictures of my latest knitting project - my anniversary gift to H. H and I just celebrated 7 years last night. Rather stunning - I still feel like a rather newly wed couple, very strange indeed. And fortunately I'm no itchier now than I was when we got married. Take THAT seven year itch!

Silly but Refreshing

2009-05-26T17:04:00.005-04:00

Ridiculous to share pictures of bedding? Perhaps, but I was ridiculously excited to get these new-to-me sheets from my mom. I love them - they remind me a bit of anthropologie, and they are wonderfully crisp, especially for hand-me-down sheets. But then, my mother takes exceptionally good care of everything, so there you go.

I was trying to "make do" with whatever I had that would match this set of sheets when I realized I have a plain cotton sateen duvet cover I bought for nearly nothing in Boston years ago. I was delighted to see the effect this cream, semi-transparent duvet cover had when I slipped it over my blue duvet. It made this pale, minty-green that is hard to discern in the photos, but compliments the sheet pattern beautifully.

So yes, this is probably silly. But I figured anything I jumped around grinning about is worth sharing :)

Game Over

2009-05-22T11:39:00.002-04:00

This is such a clever video by PES. I love the idea of battling with cupcakes and muffins with birthday candles!

Bird Totes

2009-05-18T18:20:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd show you the totes I made my sisters and mother for Christmas a couple of years back. Please forgive my strange photo-shoot background...this was in my NYC apartment with zero space and weird lighting. I got the pattern from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, and slightly modified it by accident for each one I made :) The one above is for my mommy dearest. The top is the same fabric I used for my sister's purse, and the plaid is from my mother-in-law. Mom loves peach, bluebirds, and peonies, which formed the inspiration for this bag. I got the idea for the bird applique from Laura Gunn, who got the design from an Anthropologie dish towel. Cool huh?

This one, above, was for my eldest sister who is funky, sweet, and dreamy. Both top and bottom fabrics are from my MIL, and the cool spirals are from an April Cornell skirt I never wore. H is still upset that I cut it up - ahee. But isn't it a cool bird?

This bag was for my second eldest sister. She is warm, artsy, and bold. If I were to pick any of the bags for myself, this one would be it. We're the sisters with back-to-back birthdays, and oddly enough our tastes are very similar. The top is window curtain I scored at a thrifts store, the bottom matches mom's bag, and the bird is a rather bohemian scrap from my wedding quilt. Oh how I love that bird! It was the first one I tried, and my personal favorite.

This last tote was for my sister-in-law. She is hip, artsy, and loves jewel tones. The bottom fabric matches my eldest sister's, and the top fabric is a paisley that came from my MIL as well. The green bird is made from one of H's favorite fabrics, with light blue embroidery. She added a really cool button with her initial to the top and it really makes the bag super special.

What is thrilling is that they have been using their bags! That's always the most fun part of any project - to see it being used in the real world.

busy busy busy!

2009-05-06T14:30:00.011-04:00

My fingers (and most of the rest of me) have been busy busy busy for the last few weeks. I was thrilled to finally find my missing knitting needles, which enabled me to finish my Grandmother's hats she requested. Yay! Both pink and blue hats are complete and safely in her hands. Just in time for summer - hmm.

Pattern: Modified Official Kitty62 Hat
Yarn: blast! I don't remember the brand. I know it's worsted weight merino wool.
Needles: US7 circulars and double pointed needles
Modifications: I added a few rows after the sead stitching and before the reduction rows, and left the ears off.

Here it is on my head (it looks soooo cute on my g'ma). Also my sister gave me that shirt - it's organic cotton and so pretty! I love it.

Here is a shot of the blue hat underway. I finished it in the car on the way home for my sister's and my birthday weekend, and attached the pompoms right there in her kitchen. The birthday weekend was tons of fun! Lots of eating out, visiting galleries, picture taking, cake eating, and general togetherness with family. My idea of a great time.

This here is my second try at homemade ice cream - strawberry! I've been wanting to try it ever since I read domesticat's post back in 2005. I go the recipe from Williams Sonoma (as usual). Very popular with yours truly, but not nearly as popular with H. He's partial to the chocolate batch. All the more for me :)

It was actually extremely hard not to eat the entire bowl of custard and strawberries in this stage. De-lishus.

Most recently of all I sorted through a huge stash of sewing supplies I got from my mother's gardening helper. Her mother died and left her with an enormous amount of crafting supplies. A lot of it was very costumey, but my mom and sisters and I managed to grab up some good stuff. My sister has been storing 5 trash bags full under her bed for months now. I finally got it over the birthday weekend. I think I still have to get some antique sewing patterns out of my mom's mini warehouse.

These beautiful lacy tablecloths and doilies are from my mother. They're old and stained, but I'm not sure I have it in me to cut them up, so we'll see what they become. Perhaps just tablecloths :) Can you believe how pretty that embroidery is?

I'm very excited about these particular fabrics too...and check out my pink and red ribbon! I have been dreaming about what I can do with that pink velvet ribbon. I see being busy in the future for sure...

I scream, you scream...

2009-04-15T20:05:00.002-04:00

Behold, my very first foray into ice cream making! Incidentally, the archaic definition of foray is to ravage in search of spoils : to pillage. How appropriate :) H was certainly pillaging in the kitchen while this was hardening in the freezer. It took much longer than we expected. We'd both pull it out and poke at it hopefully, then when the spoon sank right in our faces would fall. Hehe. This didn't last very long once it was hard :)

Here it is in my state-of-the-art double boiler. Yummers! I got the recipe here, and I highly recommend it. I want to try it next time with fancier chocolate (I used ghirardelli, but who are we kidding, wouldn't valrhona be way better?) Speaking of which I am dancing up and down to try this "perfect" chocolate chip cookie recipe. Those valrhona disks look so amazingly decadent - and no need to chop this fancy chocolate. How cool is that?

Feeling Wooly

2009-04-14T11:49:00.003-04:00

It was very hard work to get these two balls of pretty, soft green yarn. It all started with a trip to my local consignment shop where they had a giant ball of soft green yarn on display with beautiful wooden knitting needles sticking out. I was petting the yarn lovingly when the sales lady walked by. I asked her if it was for sale or just display - turns out it was display, but she had a buy-one-get-one-free skein behind the counter that she wasn't going to use and said I could have for FREE!! Yipeee!!

I was not sure what to do with just one skein of this yarn, being such a massive gauge. You might think it's easy to unravel those two strings and turn it into two balls of worsted weight yarn. And you'd be wrong. I tried a bunch of really stupid stuff before finally sticking my own wooden knitting needle through the yarn and twirling it until the two strands separated and I could wind each ball a few feet at a time. If this makes no since, have no worries. I don't even understand it in writing. Just trust me, it was brilliant (or totally insane, however you want to look at it). The point is, I now have two highly useful balls of worsted weight free yarn. hehe!

These beauties were not free. These shall become a cute ear flap hat with pompoms, commissioned by my g'ma. I must show pictures of the one I gave my sister - we call it a snoopy hat :)

These will be the second hat - she needs one pink and one blue. She is so cute! I've already started the pink one. All it needs are ear flaps, strings and pompoms now. Pictures coming soon....

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T17:45:00.003-04:00

Check out this adorable 1930's cartoon from Disney. This is an all time favorite of mine, and highly suited to this past weekend. Enjoy!

my snags

2009-04-09T11:05:00.005-04:00

I had to request my dental xrays from New York to get a cap put on my implant here in SC (very long and painful story). Here are the pictures they sent...

Weird huh?!? I thought my earrings looked especially strange at that angle. That implant kinda makes me look like a pirate. ARRRR!

Happy Birthday!!!

2009-04-01T12:00:00.001-04:00

my inner gamer

2009-03-25T17:06:00.003-04:00

i could hardly get to sleep the other night because i was SOOOOOOO excited about my new tricked out wii - my brother is a computer and gaming wiz, so he hooked me up with all of my favorite classic video games as an early birthday present!!!!!! eeeeee!!!!! oddly enough, we used to play these games on my family's old 1986 tv, which i've recently inherited :) i'm reliving my gaming childhood and it's great :) no more blowing the dust out of old game catridges or switching between consoles. thanks to my hip, modern, sexy wii all of my favorite games are in one place. the universe is at peace :)

i got a big kick out of this tee shirt from athenamat. very cool :)

yo-yo barrettes

2009-03-17T17:49:00.003-04:00

i don't think i've shared these little barrettes with you yet. i was inspired by angry chicken's tutorial to cover some of my plain metal barrettes with felt and give to my sisters as stocking stuffers. i modified angry chicken's directions a bit because the felt "sleeping bag" kept slipping off the barrette. grrr. so i basically cut out two barrette shapes from the felt and sewed them together, then made a little slit on the back and squeezed the barrette inside. it was much trickier this way, but resulted in a very snug and secure fit.

i experimented with buttons and felt shapes, but was frustrated by my lack of cute buttons, and how fiddly the felt was. instead i added tiny yo-yo's (see heather bailey's tutorial) with a single bead center. cute! fun! albeit a bit fiddly.

my favorite part of the whole project was putting them on card stock as the "packaging." it made them seem half-way professional and very festive!

get er done giveaway

2009-03-12T13:18:00.005-04:00

this exciting pile of goodies is going to be given away at random to a lucky winner, and you have to enter by march 16! go to the toronto craft alert website to find out how to drop your name in the pot 9 times. you can increase your chances by participating in their "get er done" contest - you load a "before" picture of an abandoned project, then you finish it by march 16 and load the "after" picture. good motivation to get er done! i never win these, but i feel it's always worth a shot :)

missing new york

2009-02-25T10:46:00.004-05:00

H and i have been missing new york lately. our cramped apartment, endless walking day and night (as woody allen says in annie hall, "The country makes me nervous. There's ... You got crickets and it-it's quiet ... there's no place to walk after dinner"), and excellent sushi and thai food.

honestly it took me a while to miss new york because i was so eager to get out of there. by the time we moved, i was completely exhausted with my daily routine and ready for the beach. i'm still glad we moved, but there are some haunting moments that come up and remind me how much fun it was to walk in central park, no matter what time of year, to walk from the east side to the west side of the city, to stumble across a great restaurant then eat there until we were sick of it, and to see random subway and street performances every day.

or to pile our bookshelves to the hilt... i miss those bookshelves. they were super cheap and fake wood, and you can see the shelves bending under the weight, but it was really my favorite nook in our apartment. when i took these pictures i was toying with the b&w and sienna features in my camera. who knew i would look back on them with so much fondness and nostalgia?

this was the sum total of my painting space in nyc - those little white crates held most of my paint and brushes (and collection of "mysteries" - i have a fondness for found objects - another thing i miss about nyc). i will always remember the look of panic on H's face when i reached to pick something up off the street. then he'd start a strange mixture of grumbling and ranting about dog pee and who-knows-what-else being on whatever took my interest. fortunately for my health i listened most of the time :)

here are our shadows and H's foot on a gorgeous day when we walked from our favorite hamburger place (the shake shack!) all the way past the empire state building, through central park, up 5th avenue, and back to our apartment on the upper east side. you might not realize it, but that's about 5 miles of walking! and certainly not the first time we did it :) lots of fun that walk.

if you are ever in new york, you MUST go to this place in madison square park - the hamburgers are incredibly good, and they have this insanely thick and rich frozen custard. D-lishus! my little heartstrings are being pulled! oh the pain! i must figure out a way for us to have a long working vacation in ny. and boston. my grand scheme in life with H is to live for several months at a time in lots of different cities. that way i can rest easy knowing it's temporary, and he can have lots of city time. plus we would get to enjoy lots of different cities in a non-committal type way. awesome says i! now if we could both find creative careers that would allow for that sort of city-hopping we'd be set. any ideas?

happy valentine's day <3

2009-02-13T17:14:00.004-05:00

i hope everyone has a wonderful, love-filled day tomorrow! i'm headed to visit my parents, then H's parents for the next few days - lots of love!!

ps - here are some great vintage valentines.

pps - now i'm really in the mood for popcorn!

wedding quilt

2009-02-11T10:17:00.010-05:00

here is the first and only quilt i've made so far. this was my wedding present to H, which i forgot to give him on our actual wedding day - ahee. i didn't remember until after the honeymoon!

this is modeled after a quilt my mother made. the quilt. i judge all quilts against hers. it is everything a quilt should be - comfy, warm, colorful, sentimental, and falling apart with years of loving use. it was a tied quilt, so i made mine that way too. she really let us run wild with it when we were little, which was so much fun! it was even eco-friendly - she used recycled fabrics from an old shirt factory - how cool is that?

my original vision for this wedding quilt was a bit "out there." i wanted a burning heart image at the center (like from romeo + juliet), and radiating beams of fabric extending out - each a radically different weight and texture. H is very happy i went with the more traditional patchwork quilt. i collected random fabrics from my local store, used scraps of tapestry-weight fabric i found in a thrift store in italy, and any unclaimed fabric in my mother's sewing cabinet.

it still didn't seem colorful enough, so i ripped upholstery samples out of a few wallpaper books, which ended up being some of the most vibrant patches in the quilt! i was SOOO happy to have found that resource - i highly recommend it. it was free, and eco-friendly.

aren't they preeeeety? i had to use a few sentimental scraps of fabric, and the oldest by far is the tiny patch of pale lavender terry cloth on the bottom corner:

it is a scrap i saved from my all-time favorite childhood shorts. i used to call them my "popsicle" shorts since they reminded me of my favorite treat, grape popsicles. i would wear them on the first of june every single year for as long as i could fit into them. june first was the official start of summer for me, and summer has always been my favorite time of year.

as i mentioned before, the sheet i used as a backing had a big hole in it, so i patched it with a big paisley heart and embroidered "i love you" in brown. my mom's raggedy ann dolls always had a little heart on their chests with "i love you" embroidered, which was such a sweet detail :)

H and i have been using this quilt for the past few months, and it has kept us toasty warm. i just recently switched to a more springlike bedspread however in an effort to rush the season along... summer can't come soon enough!!!

things i want - doe san francisco

2009-02-06T16:40:00.008-05:00

i thought i would share my wish list from one of my favorite websites, doe san francisco. it's a boutique in sf with gorgeous clothes and nick-knacks. they seem geared for artful comfort - i am in love with half of their store!

wouldn't these look fantastic with some skinny dark jeans and sandals?

and i love the lacy sleeve on this one:

inevitably, i'm always drawn to the children's department of any store or any website i visit. i suppose i enjoyed my childhood so much that i cannot stand to grow out of toys.

i laughed out loud when i saw that cat flashlight - how perfect! they also had a series of adorable stamps, like the little red riding hood one on the top left. they also have little teapots for one, and a sweet little pepper grinder that reminds me of a matryoshka doll. they also have a great selection of jewelry and some men's and baby's clothes. very cool site :)

short and stout

2009-02-03T14:54:00.005-05:00

here are the other christmas goodies which i've only now gotten around to posting. incidentally i've decided to channel e. e. cummings and see how writing in all lowercase feels. my "square" self is having paroxysms. my "hippie" self feels rather cool...

this little beauty was created by my multi-talented sister. she is MUCH better and more inventive than me at hand-building ceramics. i find myself at home on the potter's wheel, but i just haven't gotten into a groove with hand-building. at least not yet - it seems too much like a chore. if i hang out long enough with pooky brains (aforementioned artistic hand-building ceramicist sister), her enthusiasm just might rub off!

look at the little curly-q handle! it's just so cute!!! every time i see it, i am transported to a proper woodland tea party outdoors. i've just got to come up with a use for this thing - soy sauce dispenser? no?

it has found quite a happy home on our little cafe dining table. it's the perfect simple decoration between holidays.

when i was at summer camp in my very first ceramics class, i was determined, determined i say, to make a teapot. it is one my biggest creative failures that i have not been able to make a teapot yet. it is the whale to my ahab.

lastly i want to show off the gorgeous magnets she made! don't you just love the seashells? the tree? the artsy heart? the sweet little leaves? these have raised the artistic value of my refrigerator considerably.

soon i want to show you some sewing i've done and haven't posted about. most of it is pretty old, but it's still fun to share :)

Week of Giveaways at Simplemom

2009-01-27T14:37:00.004-05:00

That's right - giveaways! Leave a comment on each of her posts this week to win cool prizes :) I'm especially interested in this one about Choffy. Brewed chocolate to be exact!

Handmade Goodies

2009-01-14T10:20:00.004-05:00

Allow me to introduce some beautiful gifts from my siblings. My brother-in-law made two gorgious pens on a lathe, one for me and one for H.

The blue one is mine, and is made from a material I don't recall which was apparently very difficult to work with (sounds like me). The wooden one is H's, and is made from discarded wooden trim my BIL found in New York when they were helping us move. That means so much to H that he nearly killed me when I dropped it. Ahee. He has it hanging on one of our little entry way hooks so he can see it as he comes and goes everyday.

This gift is super special - it's not handmade, but it means ever so much. I used to have one of these when I was little, and I of course broke it to bits and cried a river. It's a seashell coin purse, which is ideal considering I've just moved to the beach.

I seriously considered putting it in my new purse, but I remembered crying over the last one, so this one is sitting safely on my bookshelf. I haven't decided yet what I should put in it...any ideas?

This wonderful stuff is handmade facial cleanser from my SIL. It is wonderful stuff. She has rosemary mixed in which is one of my favorite smells. This is just gritty enough for exfoliation, while still being gentle - it leaves the skin soft as a flower petal. Cheers!

This is also from my SIL, though you can see it's not handmade. I just aboslutely love the design of the tube - it makes me happy everytime I see it :) It also smells heavenly and is shea butter!

In my next post I need to show off pictures of my most intricate handmade gift from my sister. I'll give you a hint - it's short and stout :)

Winging It

2009-01-09T18:39:00.003-05:00

I am very proud to present my very first sewing project made without a pattern! I kept seeing all these beautiful purses all over the internet, all the while mentally tweaking the shapes and colors to fit my needs. This is by no means perfect, I am thrilled with the results of my first flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sewing adventure :)

I used my wonderful canvas weight fabric obtained from a discarded futon cushion cover in New York (I had to wash it twice to feel comfortable using it - heh). H likes the rose pattern so much he has decided to make peace with the fabric's seedy past. Hehe. The black strap and end pieces are suede - so soft! - which were harvested from a very old, oversized 90's style leather jacket. My sisters and I all wore it when we were teenagers, and while I did try to give it a happy home in my closet, it was just sooooooo worn and out of style.

I think it likes its new stylish life as a purse.

The zipper is from a make-up bag I acquired somewhere...not sure exactly. At my old job I frequently got leftover goodies from my bosses' travels. I have a small collection of cosmetics bags from various airlines and corporate party favors. The lining of this purse is the black canvas side of a black pastic-y travel bag. This gives it some heft without using interfacing.

I had way too much fun loading the new purse with my goodies. Note my super special change purse from my sisters, and H's old cell phone. Why is his old cell phone in my purse you ask? Welp, my phone decided to commit suicide out of my bike basket on the beach over Christmas break. My dad found it half-drowned in a tidepool. It does still work, but it has some very odd ticks now. Ahem. I liked H and my old phones much better anyhow, so I'm back to cuter ringtones and the pretty silver exterior. The battery doesn't hold up as well as a new phone, but it lasts all day and that's all I could ask for, or need really. I have an upgrade coming up in September, so let's hope I can keep everything zipped and dry until then :)

Paint it Black

2009-01-08T10:38:00.008-05:00

I have been hunting a pair of black flats for years. After getting repeatedly frustrated at not finding the right fit, style, etc, I gave up and said, "if you want something done, you've got to do it yourself!" Enter these lovely Kenneth Cole Reaction flats I got at TJ Max years ago. They are comfortable, suede, and adorable. I have another pair I like better in gray with a silver bow, and these were getting mighty grungy, being beige and all. I thought to myself, I wonder if I just tried some black shoe polish...

I did think about this considerably before doing something so permanent to cute shoes, and I am so glad I took the plunge :)

These are like Cinderella's little black slippers in the Disney cartoon. It sounds so silly to write that, but I think my mom would understand my love for those shoes - it's actually because of her that I wanted black flats so badly. She has worn black ballets around the house (and pink and white) for as long as I can remember, and only recently she said it was because she loved Cinderella's shoes so much as a child. If you could see me now, I have a goofy sentimental grin :)

I love ballet flats, and real ballets. My mom and I both wore white ballets at our weddings. I wore pink ballets as a bridesmaid in my sisters wedding, plus all of us were ballerinas growing up. I really want to take classes again as an adult - it's wonderful exercise and it develops such grace and poise.

I'm sure you can tell from the red marks on my foot that I was sitting for quite a while on the kitchen floor smothering these shoes with black shoe polish. Quite fun actually.

I was very surprised to find how difficult it is to take pictures of your own feet. I'm actually wearing these shoes now, and I love them. Next best thing to bare feet :)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T15:12:00.010-05:00

Man I am exhausted. Christmas had a hefty dose of sadness this year, but there were still sweet moments that I have tucked into my memory. I have such high hopes for 2009!!!!!!!

This was the first breakfast H and I had in 2009. My mom brought me the waffle-maker which came from my Grandmother - very sentimental and fun to use! She also brought a couple of other waffle makers for different shapes :)

Next time I think I'll make pumpkin pie waffles - best waffles known to humankind! Or at least the percentage of humankind that loves pumpkin as much as I do.

I promised to show pictures of my new digs as soon as it was nice and clean, so here it is in all it's clean glory (this has not lasted). Note the absence of a couch - I hope to remedy this in 2009.

And here is the fully decorated tree! Which has not come down yet, I am thrilled to say. My mom was so disciplined and neat that our family tree always came down the day after Christmas. Now that I am free to be a slob (at least part-time) I am enjoying leaving it up :) Plus I think they leave trees up in Sweden until January 13, don't they? I'm sure I have Swedish in my blood somewhere.

I handmade about half of my ornaments - knitted stars, pinecones, paper globes, cranberry strands, foil and straw stars, etc. The other half was lovingly donated by H's mom. So much fun to decorate with brand-new-to-me sparklies! The cranberry strands were my favorite part of the tree, with the locally found pinecones in a close second. It's amazing what a little white paint, ribbon and a glue gun and do to a humble pinecone. Even though this year was a no presents year, I still made out like a bandit with hand-me-downs from my mom and mom-in-law. I got the aforementioned waffle makers, a giant crockpot, tons of dishes, and even did a little discount shopping. If you are ever in the Hilton Head area, you can get fantastic deals at consignment shops like My Sister's Closet (such a cute name!) - I mean I'm talkin' $3.50 for a mint condition lavendar button-down from Express. Ack! Plus it's eco-friendly. What's not to like?

Coming soon...photos of some sweet handmade gifts that my sister, her H and my SIL snuck in. Happy 2009!!!

Picture Post - because I'm tiredzzzzzzzzzz

2008-12-19T19:09:00.002-05:00

White Christmas

2008-12-15T20:06:00.003-05:00

A couple of years ago, my mother showed me this hilarious e-card. Thanks to the greatest website of all time, youtube, I can share it with you for the holidays! Take it away Santa...

99 Problems

2008-12-13T16:39:00.001-05:00

Hahahahahahahaha! I have got to turn this into something...

Bring On the Cranberries

2008-12-05T16:40:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas! I'm in the spirit of the season, and it is so very sustaining in these hard times. The biggest project I've had for Christmas so far are my cranberry strands. I showed you all a picture of my mother's cranberries, and here is my best imitation:

I took apart my bead curtain my sister gave me for college, sorted out the little from the big, then spraypainted the big beads.

Here they are all lined up on our balcony to be sprayed...

You would think by looking at the picture that my drop cloth caught all of the spray, right? Wrongooooo. I didn't notice the fine red mist on either side of the drop cloth until the wind blew up a corner of the cloth. heh. Several hours of scrubbing with mineral spirits insued, and my poor little knees were shot. I love the result so much though that it was worth it :)

A veritable waterfall of craberries!

I strung up the little beads in their natural colors. Pretty with the red, huh? I'm so tickled I could burst. POW! Last night I made my tree-topper. My husband was wanting a gold star of some kind, so I used some gold foil I had from a Christmas craft set, glued it to a file folder and cut it out following a 3D paper star pattern. It's freakin awesome. I need to take pictures...

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

2008-11-28T16:38:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving :) I am a day late with my wishes, and I wish I were only one dollar short! Here is our comically small table decorated for the most festive eating holiday there is.

I love an excuse to break out the crystal fancy stuff. I have yet to acquire a fancy dish for turkey however, so this turkey breast is on a sushi plate :) Faaaaancy stuff people. This year my hubby and I ate as a twosome, which was surprisingly nice. We made french press coffee, listened to Christmas music, stuffed ourselves, watched the Sopranos (we only have two episodes left. mphf), then watched the Visitor - an awesome movie, I highly recommend it.

My shutter-happy hubby took some shots of my dishing out the goods. The meal was a particularly good one, even if I DO say so myself (hubby said so too).

I think he captured the quiet mood of the evening quite well.

And I leave you with some pictures of chocolate chip pumpkin bread and banana bread I made during the week. I definitely plan to make the pumpkin stuff again...I have a serious weakness for pumpkin - is it adictive? Hubby and I are also adicted to peppermint bark - our yearly dose is sitting unopened (amazingly) for us to enjoy around Christmas.

Happy holidays to everyone! I hope you are all surrounded by people you love, and that safety and security find their way to you in spite of all the bad news this year.

Haaaaang on Snoopy, Snoopy Hang On!

2008-11-24T12:27:00.005-05:00

Have you ever heard that song by the McCoys? I love that song - and when I was little, I always thought they were saying "Snoopy" instead of "Sloopy" :) I just have to keep singing that to myself so I can make it to Christmas...

Here is the giant Snoopy balloon at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York last year. My eldest sister came to spend the long weekend with us then, and we had so much fun. I have to admit the parade itself was a pain in the patoot, but I really loved the rest of the weekend.

It has been nearly a month since I posted last! Life is stressful beyond my wildest dreams these days, as I tend to keep saying. We're still working on placing my father-in-law in a good assisted living facility, and my mother-in-law is coping with sickness and blood clots. All a barrel of laughs. On the plus side, we're all alive and we love each other, and the holidays are upon us! This year my husband and I are doing Thanksgiving as a twosome since everyone is tired of traveling. I've done more driving this year than I have in my entire life.

I have Christmas on the brain to keep my sane, and I've been working on some basic ornaments and decorations for a while. I recently took apart the wooden bead curtain my older sister gave me when I was in college. Being a wannabe bohemian, I had always wanted one and never got a chance to hang it up. My husband is a definitelynot bohemian, so hanging it in our apartment is not really an option. heh. So I decided to use it for Christmas! I'm taking all the bigger, round beads and spray painting them red. The rest are smaller, and I've leaving them their natural wooden colors of cream and brown and stringing them up alternating each other. Basically I'm trying to achieve my mother's cranberry strands which I associate so closely with Christmas since my childhood.

Aren't they pretty? For kicks and grins, here are some other shots of last year's decorations at my mother's house. You can thank my gifted sister for such cool pictures!

This is my hand and my grandmother's hand - those peach ballet slippers are my special ornament my mother gave me a long time ago. My eldest sister has blue ones, and my other sister has rosy pink ones.

That metal bear ornament is possibly my favorite ornament of all time. The red ribbon is actually metal too, and the green center are tiny jingle bells. So sentimental!

All Hallows Eve....MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

2008-10-31T10:42:00.005-04:00

Happy Halloween everyone! I've bedecked our still messy abode with a few haunting decorations I made last year. On our table we are representing lindt chocolate with our little pumpkin tin and godiva chocolate with the ADORABLE little black cat box. Yum!

Hubby and I are going to the Wild Wing Halloween party tonight - I'm dressing as a batty witch, and he's dressing as a Chicago gangster. The bats in the picture below have been hanging on our door for the last month, but last night they ended up on my witch hat :) Hence, I'm batty. I'll also be sporting moon earrings, a little black dress, long black gloves, and some spooktacular makeup.

Hubby dearest will be sporting some awesome white spats I made for him last night, as well as a black fedora, a dark grey suit and a mustache. We're also going to try getting a cheapo clip-on tie for him and rig it with wire to look like the wind is blowing it - Chicago is a windy city after all :)

I will hopefully have some really cool costume pictures to share soon. Have fun eating tons of candy! The only candy I'm counting on is the sale candy tomorrow :)

Christmas Plans!

2008-10-22T11:10:00.005-04:00

I am so very excited about Christmas this year - my family is planning to come to Hilton Head this year for a week, and thanks to my mother-in-law's timeshare, we have a super cheap and super nice condo for overflow. Yay! My mom and I are about to burst with excitement - this year is all about quality time and food. We're skipping gift-giving and sticking to making ornaments, baking cookies and cooking. My mom is planning to bring her brand new sewing machine so we have two machines making cute ornaments. Here are some of the ornaments I made for her last year...

This one was actually done while I was at work in NYC (hehe). During my more quiet and secluded moments, I would cut out circles from old Christmas cards and glue them into this awesome shape. I got the pattern here from Martha Stewart (Heather Bailey did something very similar for Valentine's Day here). These are gorgious when they're finished and light as a feather - perfect for those delicate branches that can't hold much weight.

Here's another lightweight ornament - I got this knitted tree pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Christmas Fiddle Faddle in the Wilds" chapter of the Knitter's Almanac. I also knitted up some stars, and definitely plan to do it again this year. It's a great way to use up yarn scraps.

This one is a soft tree pattern I got from sewmamasew. This was so much fun! I basically just cut out tiny circles of fabric scraps and sewed a curvy line through each of them, then sewed on some sparkly beads, and wrapped it with some candy-cane string from my local NY bakery. It's like a little sugar plum tree :)

Of course I had to make some bird ornaments one of my all time favorite books, Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. They take way longer than I had thought, but I definitely wanna make more this year.

After looking at the beautiful embroidery over at Wee Wonderfuls, I just had to try some of my own. The house ornament below is a portrait of my parent's log home. It was a very sentimental ornament to make, and I was so pleased it was recognizable :) The front is canvas and the back is a piece of Laura Ashley fabric from a thrifted dress.

For the other stuffed, embroidered ornament, I did a bear in red. I drew inspiration for this from a woman's printed fabric I found online, but I totally can't find it again. Oh well.

I'm also gonna use up my straw supply to make more straw stars. I got the materials from a Christmas craft kit when I was a kid, and the pattern from this book. This year I'm also gonna make some 3d geometric ornaments from that book. I have some gold and silver paper of some kind for that purpose - you can't beat free, handmade ornaments!

My lovely sisters decided to hang this in my hair last year - not a bad hair accessory. I love love love LOVE straw star ornaments. They are traditional in the most Christmassy parts of the world, like Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and the Ukraine. Plus, they remind me of something from a Jan Brett book. My other big ornament plan is to use the wooden bead curtain my sister gave me in college as cranberry garlands. You can see my mom's canberry strands in some of the pictures above, and they are some of the most sentimental Christmas decorations of all time for me. I'll just spray paint my beads red and string 'em up. I can't wait!!!

Gone Fishin'

2008-10-20T14:15:00.004-04:00

Hello there! I have great news - my mother-in-law's brain tumor is shrinking! The doctors at Duke still don't know what it is, but while it shrinking, they're not going to touch it. She'll go back for another MRI in a month to make sure it continues to shrink. I'm so happy and hopeful!

Hubby and I live at a marina, so we have access to a great fishing spot which is just a short walk away. We went fishing yesterday, and man was it COLD! It was in the sixties and the wind was blowing pretty hard. Nonetheless, we had fun - hubby caught two little fish, and I caught one. I also "caught" a blue crab which was hanging on to my bait for dear life :) I tried to grab my camera in time, but he finally gave up and fell back into the water. I wonder if these fish and crabs go back to their families swearing they were just abducted by aliens.

This little guy is a black sea bass - unintentionally I took this picture from an angle that makes it look way bigger than it is :) None of the fish we caught were big enough to be legal, but we got really lucky when some elderly fishermen gave us two big redfish for free! Gotta love free food.

So we cleaned the fish, for me it was the first time. It would have been easier with a filet knife, but we got most of the meat off with a steak knife. I dredged the filets in egg then flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, then pan-fried them in extra virgin olive oil. MAN they were good. I hope we can catch some of these on our own so we get this meal more often!

Fishing is an activity I would probably not do on my own, but I am coming to enjoy it more and more through my hubby's enthusiasm. It's acutally quite relaxing, you find yourself thinking of nothing other than the water ripples and the odd passing fancy. Plus, I absolutely LOVE the idea of self-subsistance wherever possible, so walking a short way to catch extremely fresh salt-water fish seems too good to be true, especially with the economy crashing all around. Free, healthy food is hard to beat.

Over the past month, I have found myself desperate for Christmas. I think I really need my family all around me after all the changes and crises I've been through lately. This year my family is coming to Hilton Head for Christmas, which is going to be SO MUCH FUN! I am trying to plan out what ornaments I can gather and make, and what food to cook for Christmas dinner. Already I have been gathering beautiful pinecones and sewing patterns for ornament making. Soon I'll post some pictures of ornaments I made for my mother last year - I'm getting into full-on Christmas mode early this year :) I can't wait!

Our New Home

2008-10-07T10:20:00.004-04:00

I wanted to share a few pictures of our new home - at least the outside of it :) Once we get some furniture in place and throw out all the moving boxes I'll be showing you the inside. Hubby and I are still hopping around in circles over the view. I'm not sure that you can see it in this picture, but there are all kinds of yachts and boats coming and going and docking in the marina. So much cooler than cars!

We also have several neighborhood cats who are domesticated and think they are wild jungle cats who wander around in this jungly back yard and drape themselves over tree limbs like panthers. They also brutally murdered a squirrel which I'm not very happy about.

Oh yes, updates on the cockroach battlefront - I haven't seen a single monster sized cockroach since my last post! Woohoo! We had pest control come in and nuke the place, which made me nervous for our health....but then I did see a little roach type bug and thought, well if he made it through the poison, surely I can survive it. I did have to kill a big spider last night. A harrowing experience I tell you - it's extremely difficult to squash things on carpet. Ew.

Walking on the beach is wonderful therapy. All of your worries seem to drift away in the roar of the waves. All that openness is like taking the deepest breath possible and letting it out nice and slowly. AHHHHH... It's also fun to watch these new surfing dudes - they hook themselves to a parachute style device and catch some amazing air. I'm still not sure what physics are involved in keeping them from flying away. In the picture above you can see a guy doing it, but the parachute thingy is too high up to fit in the picture.

Here he is catching some air while us lesser beach crawlers gawk. How cool is that?!?

Now I leave you with a picture of some stained glass creations from my uber-talented G'ma. She is the coolest grandmother in the world - she is from New Zealand, eats marmite (yuck yuck yuck, but cool!), gardens like nobody's business, is a hula dancer, has an un-be-liev-able koi pond complete with fountain which is on a pond tour (yes, a pond tour), and is the craftiest lady I know. She knits, paints, crochets, quilts, sews, cuts stained glass, cooks, and generally anything else you can think of. She even used to be a jewelry model when she was younger, and she is a published poet! I'm sure I will be sharing more of her life story and artistic accomplishments in future posts. She is giving me her old quilting frame, so I can't wait to get started!

Stupid in Charleston

2008-10-01T17:35:00.006-04:00

Hubby and I went adventuring in Charleston yesterday, and man is it a unique place! He had a doctor's appointment there that morning (which I believe we will rethink in the future considering its a two hour drive), so we went tripping around the downtown for a few hours before heading home. This is where "stupid" comes in - we realized while walking all over everywhere that we had parked our car in a random parking garage and had NO IDEA how to get back to it. All we remembered was that we walked through a bunch of winding back streets when we left it! Trying very hard not to panic we asked around and checked every parking garage we could find. BAHAHA! Just had to have a laugh at myself. Fortunately our good spirits stayed intact, found the car, and had a good chuckle on the way home. Charleston reminded me of Mexico because it was so open and quiet, and also of Europe because it is so extremely old for us young whipper snapper Americans. I always imagined it was very much like Boston, but it has a totally different feel. I didn't fall head over heels, but I really enjoyed visiting! I found this awesome tin sign in the downtown market that reminded SO much of my mother I had to call her (she has coffee running through her veins). We both laughed so much about it she just had to have it, so I will always remember our silly day-trip when I visit Mom's kitchen :)

New York Retrospective and Cockroaches

2008-09-24T11:59:00.006-04:00

Hello again! My husband and I have been nearly going nuts with stress these days. He's on the phone right now asking about assisted living for a family member, and we STILL don't know whether my mother-in-law has cancer or not - her biopsy came back inconclusive at Duke, so we're waiting a month then going back to try again. Apparently her steroids she takes for her muscular disease masked the results of the biopsy. Argh! We are getting to know the Duke area very well.

When we're not sorting through family drama, we're working overtime at our new office. My hubby is an immigration lawyer and we're doing our darndest to get a solid business in place as quickly as possible. Might I add at this point that I despise insurance companies.

In the middle of all of this, I've been thinking back on my daily grind in New York. We miss walking at night in the city because everything is all lit up and crowded, so any old time we wanted to stretch our legs we could do it. Now when we go out for a night-time stroll, it's DARK with plenty of rustling bushes. I feel like we're little kids going out on an adventure with a flashlight. Before leaving NYC, I took some pictures of my morning commute. Here is a morning-in-the-life-of-moi while living in NYC:

This was my street...(if you kept walking several blocks on that street you'd run into the Guggenheim Museum!)

Here is the bus I used to get to the subway (I was lazy, yes it's true).

I had to get on the 4/5 train then transfer to the shuttle train at Grand Central. I was scared I would be arrested as a terrorist for taking pictures on the subway. I seem to have gotten away with it though...

Then magically pop-up in Times Square! Tourists love to go there and stand and stare at the signs. It was a pain in the behonkus to get around them to get into my building, which fortunately was just around the corner from the subway.

Once at my desk, I would dig into my highly therapeutic breakfast of honey bunches of oats with my anthropologie cup and hello kitty spoon. Breakfast of champions!

I hope soon I will have a routine here at our new home. It seems everything is still either in boxes or piles on the floor, so pictures of the actual apartment will have to wait. I am extremely freaked out about giant water bugs, e.i. COCKROACHES that keep wandering into our home. My husband often marvels that I am not scared of anything, so he finds this hilarious. I just feel so guilty killing them, like I'm some big powerful freak who demands that no other living thing can share space with me. Then reality sets in and I see that I'm sharing space with a cockroach. I tried bashing one to death with a small trashcan, and boy do those things have armor! They are like little marching tanks coming in to look for provisions. The aforementioned unfortunate cockroach that met with the business end of my trashcan managed to stay alive and crawl pitifully to the wall. It was like watching a wounded soldier in battle. Do they make have-a-heart traps for roaches? I don't think my neighbors would take kindly to me establishing a catch-and-release policy for roaches though.

As my husband said last night, we're in the jungle now! Then he questioned my sanity when I started quoting Axel Rose. I shall keep you updated on the roach battlefront. Mind you, I didn't even mention the spiders and smaller bugs. HELP!

Sadness and Stress

2008-09-01T12:48:00.003-04:00

I have been AWOL since August 18! I wish it was because I've been at Disney World, but unfortunately I've been wading through some nearly unbearable sadness and stress. My husband and I had to drop everything and move one week earlier than planned because my dear mother-in-law has brain cancer. Oddly enough, she found out because she lost the ability to write. We're now waiting at their house for a call from Duke University telling us to come on up for the surgery. Apparently she will have the same surgeon as Kennedy, so I am hopeful that she will have more than just a year to live (which is what one doctor thought). I wish at times like this that she were a typical dreaded mother-in-law, but she is one of my very best friends. My hubby and I have both talked to her daily for years. She has been through so many surgeries and even breast cancer already - I just wish she didn't have to go through all of this again. I'm still hoping for the best - another big chunk of healthy years and another trip to Disney World.

In the middle of all of this, we have the guest bedroom here packed full of boxes and bags, and we're still waiting for a precise delivery date on all our other stuff to be delivered to our new apartment. All of this, the deliveries, picking up new car, insurance, and surgery are all supposed to happen this week!! I think we'll be able to handle anything if we can just get through this. My fingers are firmly crossed!

Here is a picture of the New York apartment we just left behind. Believe it or not, this is BEFORE we were in the moving mess :)

Cute Purse Giveaway

2008-08-18T09:59:00.003-04:00

Check it out here!

Merciful Heavens

2008-08-12T08:54:00.007-04:00

I'm so tired! I know, I know, whine whine whine. Through any and all stress with moving and setting up a new office, I have been having a blast anticipating living at the beach. Last week my hubby and I got a TON of work done setting up our new life in Hilton Head. We bought a car...

Signed a lease for a condo...

We even bought a mattress :) Never say we don't think ahead!

We also took our first look at our new office and it looks great - we have a window!!! In case I haven't mentioned it, I'm quitting the giant corporate life and working with my hubby at his law office. I have a really good feeling about it...I can't wait for my last day in this sky-scraper.

Being on the 30th floor was really cool for a while, but the novelty has long worn off. Yesterday I sold our kitchen island for $200 - woohoo! Let me know if anyone is interested in buying furniture - anyone? anyone? Now all we have to do is donate what we can't sell, then load up our rental SUV with as much crap as we can fit for the final trip down on labor day. In the mean time I'm stuck at work :( But only for 11 more days!!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-07-31T08:45:00.002-04:00

Today is my sister's wedding anniversary - 4 years! I am so thrilled that she and her husband are sharing their day with us in NYC. While my hubby and I work today, they're going to see the sights, then we're all going to eat at a fancy french place for NYC restaurant week. I can't wait!

Moving is Stressful!

2008-07-29T09:53:00.003-04:00

It doesn't matter how far in advance you start, how paced you are, how few things you own, MOVING IS STRESSFUL! I am extremely excited to be moving, but the actual process leaves something to be desired. I keep hoping I have a shred of energy left one of these days to take pictures of my puff-sleeved jacket - maybe my sister can take pictures when she gets here TOMORROW! That's one thing I'm very very excited about - my sister and her husband are helping us move this week. They're driving about 850 miles to do it too - that is love :)

Giveaway at Penny's Place!

2008-07-22T10:03:00.004-04:00

Head on over to sewtakeahike for a fab giveaway! Penny is offering up some free fabric, a gorgious hand-stitched apron, a catch-all she made her self, and a copy of cook's country. She's also filling the catch-all with a suprise! I've got my fingers tightly crossed hoping I'll win :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!

2008-07-20T13:56:00.002-04:00

To my darling husband - happy, happy birthday!!!!

Birthday Season...

2008-07-15T10:23:00.007-04:00

Another Happy Birthday shout-out to my SIL! Here is the card I sent a few days ago. This was a lot of fun to make - I got the pattern from the princess of pop-ups, and it turned out great :)

This here is my new favorite cookbook. I got it from my boss who went to a fund-raiser and got a bag full of goodies. She is not exactly the cooking type. Ahem. All the better for me :)

I've already tried several recipes and they've all turned out tasty :) Pictured below is fettuccine with prosciutto and peas in creamy cheese sauce. Yummers!

And here we have fettuccine with asparagus and pine nuts in a goat cheese sauce. Seriously unique - quite tasty, but a little weirder than the prosciutto stuff.

Now this picture has just decided to sneak in here even though it's not from aforementioned new awesome cookbook. This here is an awful picture of a wonderful thing - blueberry buckle! It's extremely sentimental...my mom gave me the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook when I got married because her mother had given it to her as a wedding present as well. The first thing my mom made out of it was blueberry buckle - so I did the same. My mom cried a river when she gave me my cookbook (I was a wee bit early out of the nest), so this has very special meaning for me.

Plus it is delicious and healthy! I substituted butter for shortening because I have less than zero % interest in partially hydrogenated crap. Cooking is so fun for me - I really love it because it's such a practical art form, and it's a lot of fun to play with food :) Last night I made a mixed grain casserole out of the BHG cookbook, and it was awesome! If I think of it, I'll take some pictures of it too when we eat the leftovers tonight. Believe it or not, last night was my first time cooking with fresh mushrooms! They are SO fun to cut. I definitely wanna cook with them some more. How healthy are they anyhow? I'm guessing they're at least very good filler. And tasty too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

2008-07-10T09:14:00.004-04:00

I hope you have a wonderful day, getting to do all the things that make you happy and relaxed. I love you!

Feeling a Bit Dialated...

2008-07-09T14:24:00.004-04:00

Mercy! This has been a rough week. A fun rough week for the most part though (my hubby and I are newly hooked on the Sopranos). This morning I had an eye exam, which left my poor eyes dialated for several hours afterward - they still feel tired and I'm slightly headachy. I did show up to work afterward like a trooper though :) So I have 20/30 in my left eye, 20/20 and a freckle in my right eye. That's right, a freckle. Who knew?!? Later today I have to have an implant in my jaw to replace my weak, broken tooth which gave up on me a few months back. I hate doctor's offices. Hate hate hate. My appointment this morning was at 8:30, and the stupid doctor didn't even see me until 10:05!!! Well I hope he isn't a stupid doctor, I hope he's brilliant so my eyes don't shrivel up and fall out. When he did finally show his silly face, he only saw me for 5 minutes. Sheesh. Anyhoo, I hope this afternoon goes well. I will be a sight to see - HUGE pupils and a slack jaw, drooling on the subway. HA! That's what the tourists come to see in New York.

I WILL show pictures of my puff-sleaved jacket soon. I have worn it twice and I LOVE it! My hubby and I are moving in September, so we are going bazonkers with arrangements. There is always something to forget, then five other things jump into the forget pot when you finally remember the one thing you forgot. argh!

Alright all you with hungry eyes, here's some eye candy! These are some of the bestest most delishusest cookies known to man. These are actually dangerous - I'm normally not a binge eater, but for these I make an exception. Oh man are they good, and they have been known to cause more than one tummy ache for yours truly. I can't stop I tell you! They might only be available in NYC for all I know, but seek them out if you dare:

Amazing Commercial

2008-06-30T13:36:00.003-04:00

I wanted to share this amazing commercial I found on youtube with music from Stina Nordenstam. I absolutely LOVE how realistically the clothing imitates sea life!

S'more Marshmallows Please!

2008-06-28T18:14:00.004-04:00

Finally I have marshmallow-making pictures for you! I'm so excited to share these because the process was so much fun. I can't recommend trying these enough - I got the recipe from Martha Stewart, and it was a surprisingly simple process. The most difficult part is making sure you get the sugar and syrup to the correct temperature (basically entails watching the thermometer - not exactly brain surgery), and pouring all that hot sugary goodness into the gelatin without spilling. A wee bit scary! Once you get that done, you start whipping it into a beautiful white, billowy cloud.

I made that big bowl in my senior year ceramics class at school. I've only used it one other time to make monster cookies (more on those later), because it already feels like an heirloom bowl that I REALLY don't want to break. I wanted to use it on this though because the marshmallows are an anniversary gift, and I like to use my most special stuff for anniversaries :)

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

It was SO much fun to pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan - so magical how soft and white it was! I let it sit in the fridge overnight, then my plan was to cut it up before going to work the next morning. It was slightly LESS fun trying to get it out. heh. I was nearly panicked when it refused to come out, but I finally coaxed it out, got it cut up and coated in powdered sugar. The cutting was more time consuming that I thought, but still fun. Had I not been trying to get to work, it would have been great :)

The finished result is the stuff of angels!

And here was the official anniversary s'more! It was enough sugar to kill a person (not that I was aiming for that, mind you). The verdict was to leave the chocolate out altogether, and substitute a thin layer of peanut butter. I have to admit, the peanut butter tastes wonderful with the marshmallow - you should definitely try it! If you must have chocolate though, try dark chocolate that is less sweet that milk chocolate. The marshmallows more than make up for any lost sweetness from the chocolate.

Coming soon...photos of the completed puff-sleave jacket!

Penny Playlist - I love you!

2008-06-21T17:19:00.003-04:00

I am absolutely psyched! A couple of days ago I received my penny playlist from Blaze with the most amazing mix of music, and it's all I've been listening to. I can't tell you how much I love this music - it's so COOL! I can only dream of being so cool :) Thank you Blaze for such an awesome compilation! Perhaps I have a cool mix cd in me somewhere...

In other news, here is a pathetic "before" picture of my jacket I'm ripping apart (mentioned in the previous post). I, uh, forgot to take a proper before picture so you could appreciate the boxiness of the fit. This is after I've ripped the seams of the arms, but I've placed it so you can have an idea of the sleave shape. My favorite part of this jacket is the turquoise piping on the lining - I'm going to do my best to preserve that in all the adjusting.

And now the best for last! Here is the delectible candy my dear sweet hubby gave me on Tuesday. Most of this sugar is now coursing it's way through me, creating a delightful buzz I haven't experienced in a long time. It's nice to have a good candy binge once in a while :)

Gummy sharks, how I love thee! But I'm tellin' ya, the giant sweetarts were the show-stealer this time. Omigosh they are SO good. And if you try them, don't bother smacking them on a counter to break it up as the wrapper suggests (horrors!). The are best enjoyed in a giant tablet of delicious sugar totally filling up your mouth. I have only one left - the holy grail of flavors - grape!

Butt Needing to be in Gear

2008-06-20T10:28:00.002-04:00

Ok. I am ashamed of self. I've been lazy about blogging my latest projects and adventures. My pictures are at home, but every time I go home I start watching What Not to Wear and eating from the massive bag of candy my sweet hubby gave me for our 6th anniversary :) Every year we give each other the traditional anniversary gifts - this year was either iron or candy. I made him a batch of homemade marshmallows (pictures coming!), and he got me a big ole bag of my favorite candy from Dylan's Candy Bar (Ralph Lauren's daughter runs this cool place). YUMMERS!

So while I get the old fanny in gear, I want to share with you a mighty goal which I will soon aim for. Alrighty now - this little number above is the result I would like to get after refashioning a J Crew jacket I have and hardly ever wear. I tried to find a picture of it online, but sadly it is out of fashion already - boxy, 3/4 length sleeves with a single button closure. My plan is to adjust the fit of the body so it's cute and tailored (me being the tailor, I don't know if that's a good thing or not), then completely remove the sleeves, cut them into puff sleeves, and sew back on. Mmmm. This is a hefty project, but I think I'll be able to do it. I can feel the obsession starting....t'won't be long now before I'm lost in the furvor that is (dum-dum-duuuum...) the puff-sleeve jacket!

Papercutting and Decoupage Unite!

2008-06-14T12:12:00.004-04:00

I have lately been head over heels in love with papercutting. I first saw Angry Chicken's gorgeous designs, then came across Elsa Mora's phenomenal work. After googling it and finding more and more beautiful designs, I just HAD to try it. Not only that, but I had the uncontrollable urge to decoupage it onto a box. My sisters and I have always been very close, so I wanted to include the three of us holding hands - this was particularly inspired by one of Amy's three sister's papercut. I also wanted to include things that reminded me of my eldest sister. We always used to suck the nectar from honeysuckles (that's what those weird flower thingies are if you didn't know), and of course I had to include Icelandic horses since my dear sister makes her livelihood with them.

This image is made up of very sentimental stuff. My favorite thing about it is the sense of calm. It makes me imagine a little world where it's just the three of us out on an adventure.

I also decided to add some honeysuckles to the sides to break up all that green.

Honestly, I have no idea what this box is for. Someone at work was throwing it out because they didn't need it, but it was in perfect working order. I guess it's an index card sorter? Maybe? Anyway it locks, and I have always had a big thing for lock boxes - just ask my sisters :) I thought this would be particularly useful for miss horsey sister since she is always around her little students who might mess with her office stuff. This way if she has something really important and confidential, she can lock it up in a super cute container.

So what do you think of combining papercutting and decoupage? So far I really love it. It seems like such a logical extension of the craft, though I haven't seen anything quite like it online yet. If you want to try it, I recommend getting something more substantial than copy paper. First of all, copy paper is NOT the best thing to cut with an xacto knife, and secondly it is NOT the best thing to withstand coats of mod podge. I went with a slightly off-white stationary paper. Not too much heavier than copy paper, but a great deal more durable and pretty. I just used tissue paper on the background. I wish I had used something a bit more exciting for the background now - maybe dark purple or blue. But green works. It's very earthy, and the image has a lot of grass, flowers and mushrooms - and heck there are even horses grazing.

What Not to Wear (with exceptions)

2008-06-12T12:26:00.003-04:00

I've been completely obsessed with that show on TLC, What Not to Wear. I love that show! It's truly amazing how big a difference clothes can make (and hair/makeup). I'm starting to consider looking for new & different things once I get money enough to do some shopping. It's difficult for me to admit that outward appearance matters enough to at least partially control how you feel. It certainly affects how others interact with you, even those who know you best. My worse fear with style and fashion is to become shallow and overly concerned with how I look - not to mention hyper-critical of how others look. I guess the best way to look at it would be presenting yourself nicely as a favor to everyone who sees you. Like making sure your home looks nice on the outside is a favor to anyone walking by. I like that attitude - I think I will try to remember that, especially on those lazy days when I'm tempted to go out looking like a bum :)

The main rule I completely disagree with on that show is that anyone over 35 shouldn't wear a mini-skirt. ABSURD! If you look hot, wear a mini-skirt. Look at Tina Turner for crying out loud. Look at my MOM for crying out loud. I fully intend to wear mini-skirts well into old age as long as my legs hold out. Wish 'em luck!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO POOKY!

2008-06-10T16:15:00.003-04:00

It is my dear sister's birthday today, and I wanted to give her a shout out. YO!

Note to pooky: I think you're NUTS for not eating cake today, but whatever floats your boat. Perhaps you could help yourself to some corn like this here horse. Golden and deelishus. I hope a ton of fun stuff happens today - and go see Iron Man!! It's freakin' awesome. I love you!

2 Skirts and a Shirt

2008-05-31T17:06:00.003-04:00

As promised, here are some pictures of my foray into garment making. This first shirt is not my creation, before you get excited. I bought this at a wonderful consignment shop I've been shopping at since I was little called "Mom's Hand-me-downs." The selection there can be fantastic on certain days, and the last time I visited I grabbed this little beauty:

My sister and husband were not digging the rick-rack, though I was of two minds about it. I finally decided to take it off and use it for something else later. The white floral fabric certainly holds it's own without the extra trim. My hubby actually put together this outfit:

The puff skirt is a super cute and super easy pattern I got from childhood flames - that girl has some serious style! Lastly, here is the first shirt I've ever made (paired with a cut-off skirt I made out of my husband's old jeans he wore in high school):

The fabric is very slinky and hard to work with - it was the only knit fabric I had in my stash, which came from my mum-in-law. The finished result is light, fits rather well, and is wearable in public. Not a bad start! I got the pattern from burdastyle, which was a fun process from start to finish. I'm very impressed with the quality of the patterns from that site. I highly recommend them. Next time I will choose a fabric that doesn't show off my little rounded tummy quite so well :)

Wedding Fun

2008-05-25T12:37:00.005-04:00

I just got back (at 2:00am this morning!) from a great Hispanic wedding. The bride is a co-worker who really put together an awesome party! The ceremony was in Spanish, which I've never witnessed before - such a cool experience. Even the reception, which was the most luxuriously festive I've ever seen, was almost entirely Spanish language music and all of the toasts were in Spanish. Luckily I had a private translator since my husband is fluent. I couldn't get enough of the music - I was even dancing in my chair while eating dinner :)

Just LOOK at this beautiful table setting! Have you ever seen anything so fabulous?!? The waiters even wore white gloves. The whole thing was so much fun.

All I could think of is throwing a bash like this for my wedding anniversary, or my hubby's and my birthdays. I can't wait for that opportunity - such fun! And I totally plan to use my co-worker's DJ.

Bags Galore

2008-05-18T11:26:00.002-04:00

Howdy! I finally have gotten the old butt in gear enough to show you two bags I made over the last couple of months. This first one was for my grandma (g'ma) to carry her Bible to church. I used the tote pattern from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, and just sized it down a bit. I kinda sorta expected the embroidered flowers on the bottom half to go, er, the other way. heh. But I think it still looks good.

G'ma loves pink, so I had to figure out how to incorporate some pink in the midst of all the brown, black and white. Enter the embroidered flowers. I got this vintage embroidery pattern from Thimble. I'm pretty new to embroidery, but I think I'm getting the knack of it.

Here is the other bag I made recently. It's the pretty pleated tote from Angry Chicken's book, Bend the Rules Sewing. I liked this pattern, but not as much as the little ribbon purse from the same book. This turned out much bigger than I thought. I also thought the fabrics I picked would "pop" a little more than they did. I am proud to say this is made of entirely pre-loved materials! The pink satin is from a pair of pajamas I got for Christmas which looked terrible on. They have come in handy on several projects, however :) The brown floral is from a thrifted pillow case, and the floral appliques I added to make the whole thing more interesting (I hope it worked) are also from a thrifted pillow case. I used some leftover canvas from my painting supplies for the interior. I think I'll try this project again some time, only size it down considerably, and perhaps had some kind of closure at the top. I do like that I figured out how to do pleats. Definitely worth it.

My next entry will be all about handmade clothes - I have a skirt and a shirt to show you. Oh yeah, and I never got that pattern I ordered :( It got lost in the mail. How sad. I'll have to keep looking for something that cool.

Hip Sisters

2008-05-15T10:18:00.005-04:00

I wanted to share this awesome video of the Andrews Sisters from youtube with you. And I also wanted to figure out how to post videos. I think I am now tech savvy in this department :)

They had the most amazing level of performance - true razamataz showmanship! Just check out how they're in nearly perfect sync when they dance, and they make it look so easy. Wow. I really am a huge fan of polished performance like this. When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be in showbiz like this - broadway style, big smiles, sequins and tap dancing. My mom used to call me Bojangles when I tap danced :) I really was interested to do it all professionally until I realized all of this showmanship is pretty much in the past. There seems to be a bit of a showbiz revival with movies like Chicago and Moulin Rouge...I hope that means there is more to come! No one could replace the Andrews Sisters though. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!