This Week in Crafts

Week of May 16, 2011

I joined

A neat new social networking site that allows users to create digital inspiration boards. You create an account and "pin" images that you like to one of your boards. You can create lots of boards and pin just about anything. You can even repin other Pinterest users' pins, announce your activity on Facebook or Twitter, and follow other users. Pretty neat. I spent a couple of nights going through all my bookmarks and pinning projects, sweet design, recipes, art, flowers, oddities, and vintage goodies. Check me out.

***

Went to Maker Faire (Bay Area) 2011

I'm not quite finished with the photos yet, so here's a taste.

***

Learned how to needle felt.

I saw lots of interesting people, wandered through a bunch of tents, and watched some neat demos at Maker Faire on Saturday. Needle Felting with Moxie was one of my favorites, especially because I was able to snag the last slot for the hands-on demo. Moxie gave us a crash course in needle felting safety (basically don't poke yourself) and let us experiment. Plus, she sent us home with a starter kit: a foam block, a needle, and a handful of wool roving. Hopefully, someday soon, this pink blob will become a mushroom.

This Week in Crafts

Week of May 9, 2011

Not much crafting this week. My plans to continue the bolero and start on this week's Iron Craft Challenge were thwarted by an unforeseen change in circumstances that has led to us looking for a new place to live. We've been apartment hunting and filling out rental applications all week.

The only upside: this whole apartment business motivated me to take a close look at my art supplies. I got rid of some supplies and sorted through my stash of collage materials.

flowers and fabric

And I finally got around to photographing my most recent additions to my yarn stash.

My dear friend Christina hauled this mound of yarn all the way back to the States from her epic trek through Nepal. There's four big skein of brilliant blue yak yarn and three skeins of yarn made from recycled saris. They still smell like the international open air markets from which they came...and it's glorious.

This Week in Crafts

Week of May 2, 2011

A fair amount of crafting this week:

Mother's Day goodies for the mothers (biological and otherwise) in my life.


Sachets stuffed with lavender and handsewn together with embroidery thread.


Soothing bath mix of oatmeal, lavender, rose, and chamomile--purchased from an Etsy seller but packaged by me.


I added some fabric to the lids (to cover up the Starbucks logo) and included a tag with instructions.

I also worked on the bolero, but not enough to report on. Except that I think I've reached an impasse...

This Week in Crafts

Week of April 25, 2011

Magic mystery box.

What could be inside?


Crafty Goodies! Passed on to me by my grandmother. Shall we take a closer look?


A neat flashy applique.


Pins and 2 sweet (now vintage) flower brooches.


And thread! Lots and lots of thread. Plus buttons and a mighty sturdy thimble.




I also worked on my summer bolero. I'm making progress. It's slow going at the moment but I made it through the first part.

This Week in Crafts

Week of April 18, 2011

This week I picked up my crochet hook and started making something from my crafting to-do list--a snazzy lacey bolero from Happy Hooker. And I did it the proper way, to boot: I made a gauge swatch of the pattern. This was a great, albeit painstakingly slow exercise. The good news is that my gauge is spot on. The bad news is that I discovered that the pattern was a bit more complicated that I had thought. I've never hooked front and back post double crochet stitches before, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.


Today tried out my vision of a whoopie pie version of the Strawberry Cream Cake that I made last weekend. I used the vanilla cake recipe from Whoopie Pies, the frosting recipe from America's Test Kitchen, and farm fresh strawberries. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. A post of its own later this week.

This Week in Crafts

Week of April 11, 2011

More crocheted things!


This week I made coasters. I used the small version of this pattern.


And today I assembled the very special dessert for which I bought all those strawberries. Yesterday was my dad's birthday and today I went home to help celebrate. I wanted to make something special, sweet, and fruity. Strawberries and whipped cream were a no-brainer choice. So I got out my cookbooks and decided on America's Test Kitchen's Strawberry Cream Cake:

A sturdy yellow cake cut into thirds that sandwich layers of cream cheese-whipping cream frosting, fresh strawberries, and a kirsch infused strawberry puree. The mint leaves were my idea. (I'm very proud of that.)




Despite my slight mishap in cake cutting skills I think it turned out pretty good in the looks department. And even better in the taste department as evidenced by the "after" picture.

I'm definitely making this again. And I'm even scheming on a whoopie pie version.

This Week in Crafts

Week of March 28, 2011

It's a been a while since I've had the energy (or completed photographs) to do this post. But now I do, so let's get to it:

This week I:


made Darla for Iron Craft Challenge...


baked red velvet whoopie pies for a friend...


photographed all the potholders (and one granny square) that I made over the last 2 weeks.

Pattern from Mandy.


This one is Mandy's, too; though I had to improvise a bit on the border.


I had to use my crochet code-reading skills for this one: the pattern is in Japanese. Thankfully, the author includes a diagram.


Mandy's as well. I love this yarn!


Ditto.


No pattern in particular. Just a regular granny square, nothin' fancy.

I'm using a couple as decorative pieces and the others as place holders for my heavy duty cookery. You'll see...

finally put the finishing touches on my Spring cleaning project in the kitchen. Here are some before and after pictures:

Before:

We were using this icky bookshelf for miscellaneous crockery: our rice cooker, dutch ovens, baking pans. And the blue table for produce and my vintage Pyrex bowls. Both pieces first belonged to Evan and followed us with the move nearly two years ago. The set up was cumbersome and looked terrible. An update was desperately needed. (I'm pleased to say that we're getting rid of the shelf.)

The cupboards needed re-organizing, too. Ingredients and pantry items were scattered and the paper towels that I had laid down to catch any leaks needed to be replaced.

After

Ta-da! New bookshelf, with space for the dutch ovens, Pyrex collection, produce bowls, pannini press, and wine. So pretty.

I'm using the potholders to add some color and protect the shelves. Initially I wanted to make one to protect my cast iron skillet, but once I made one I couldn't stop.

Then I re-imagined the pantry: cleaned the shelves, added contact paper, and moved things around. This isn't all of it, but I'm sure you get the idea. There's also more to Spring cleaning to be done in other parts of the apartment, but that'll have to wait.

This Week in Crafts (kinda)

Week of February 27, 2011

I stayed true to my word and took a break from crafting and blogging this week. And it wasn't too bad. Sure, I felt really unproductive and I did watch way too much television, but I also accomplished a lot of other things as well. Like:

Got rid of that funky tingly sensation in my left arm (knock on wood).

Finished reading Boy: Tales of Childhood.
This is the second time that I've read this book and I liked it just as much as the first time around. I had forgotten that Roald Dahl was born and raised in the UK, but of Norwegian origin. And I, of course, enjoyed re-reading his recounting of his crazy British boarding school teachers--especially Mr. Corkers who supposedly taught mathematics but instead employed the boys to air out the class room by opening all the windows and violently swinging the door open and closed every time he thought he smelled a fart. If you haven't read this book that I suggest that you do: it is engaging, endearing, a quick read, and gives incredible insight into Dahl's work. Plus, it will make you appreciate the American K-12 public education system.

Started my spring cleaning. We picked up a new bookshelf for the kitchen because the metal one we had been using was in terrible shape. Actually, it was in terrible shape when we first moved in nearly 2 years ago; I just finally got sick of it. While I was replacing the shelving units I decided to give the kitchen a proper cleaning. I couldn't very well move things around and install a brand new bookshelf without cleaning the floors. So I mopped and scrubbed the cupboards. Then I put in the bookshelf and filled with my Pyrex, crockery, and produce bowls...which got me thinking about reorganizing the contents of the cupboards. I wasn't able to finish everything in one go, but I've been documenting my progress (future post!).

Supported some Etsy sellers:

Tags (necessity) and buttons (impulse buy) from dmksupply. The tags are needed for my spring cleaning project and the buttons: well, I just really like buttons.


An assortment of Divine Twine from ScrapPantry. Also for my spring cleaning project.

You'll see what the tags and twine are for soon enough.

I also went to a clothing/craft supplies/oddities swap on Saturday with my friend Christina. We each brought a sizable bag of items to a local bicycle shop and joined in on a communal rummage. I picked a couple of sweet finds: a light grey cardigan, a red Pashmina-type scarf, a dress, and a neat 70s-style doily (for a friend). I also got rid of a ton of stuff (horray!). Sorry, no pictures of the finds...yet.

And lastly I caught of with a dear friend this afternoon. We met up and had chocolate cake for lunch and talked all afternoon. It was delicious.

Image sources: Boy.