« August 2011 | Main | October 2011 »
The calendar says it is now fall. The weather outside says it is still summer. So here's a fresh "wishing it were fall, but in reality it's still summer" lunch...
Peel and cut 1 jicama into matchsticks. Make a batch of Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette and pour over jicama. I left out the honey cause I wanted it tangy. You'll have plenty of dressing leftover for tonight's dinner salad.
| |
|
Pinterest. Store and organize all those ideas/images that inspire you on a virtual pinboard and keep track of where you saw it - brilliant! Only why do you HAVE to have a facebook/twitter account to sign up? I know! I'm in the dark ages with that, but really! I got my invitation to join pinterest MONTHS ago and it's still sitting in my inbox. The email that I sent them about this has never been answered. So, I just keep bookmarking.
Looking back through the last few posts, you probably think this blog 'o mine is turning into a watercolor blog. I am having a lot of fun sketching and painting, but don't worry - I'm still crafting and sewing. It's mostly been Christmas stuff which must stay under lock and key for the time being.
I can't wait for the cooler weather to get here. I'm really wanting to make some of my favorite pumpkin bread, but it almost feels sacrilegious to make it until there's a bit of coolness in the air. Speaking of baking, Noah and I made some chocolate chip cookies from this book. Best ever - REALLY!Random? Sure, but sometimes random is good. It helps you get all the little things off your mind so that you can focus on bigger and better things.
| |
|
The design of this little painting was inspired by taper weights (torn from Martha Stewart Living) and the colors from drinking iced coffee while the A/C's been on the fritz. I love the little iced coffee VIA packs from Starbucks. So handy! One packet makes enough for two of us to have a good size treat after adding a bit more sugar and lots of milk.
Only one little problem... All of sudden, while outlining, the caffeine kicked in. Compared with McDonald's iced coffee, these have WAY more caffeine! (Duh, it's Starbucks.) Shaking hands and permanent pens don't go well together. I thought about waiting for awhile to finish it up, but decided that I'd just plow through quickly. Any squiggly lines would just give it more character, right? Sounded good, only I made myself nervous trying to draw like that. Next time I'll wait until after I finish a painting before partaking of an iced coffee.
| |
|
I don't know about your side of town, but on mine it's been hard to find good strawberries this year. I finally got a good batch. I used them to make a version of this cake for Craft Night with the girls on Friday. I substituted a chocolate cake mix for the strawberry and chocolate pudding for the vanilla. Chocolate strawberry "poke cake". Joel's not a cake man (except for cake balls that don't taste like cake - long story) but he even liked this cake!
And they modeled for me as well...
Good company, good strawberries, and a relaxing evening of crafting... Aaahhhh, that's the ticket!
| |
|
On July 2, 2011, a tragic car accident in West Texas changed one family forever. Robin and Joshua Berry were killed in a head-on collision when an automobile veered into their lane as they traveled home to Houston from a family vacation in Colorado. Two of their children, 9-year-old Peter and 8-year-old Aaron, suffered spinal injuries in the accident and are paralyzed from the waist down. Willa, the Berry’s 6-year old daughter is recovering from a broken arm and leg.
News of this accident quickly traveled through the community, across the nation, and around the world! There have been countless fundraisers and outreach to support this family, as the cost to provide physical and emotional rehabilitation for these three children is unfathomable.
Those of you in the Houston/Clear Lake/Bay Area are invited to the Piggy Bank Bash 4 the Berry Kids. Two of my necklaces will be auctioned at the event, along with lots of other great items. There will be music, food, fun, and best of all 100% of the proceeds will benefit the Berry children.
I've learned that the blogging community is such a generous and caring group of people. If this has touched your heart, you can read more about the event, sponsorship, and donations at the Piggy Bank Bash website!
| |
|
The tutorial as promised!
Six lunch sacks, a bit of scrap fabric, some of those white circle stickers that are use to enforce the holes of notebook paper, and a little elbow grease... that's all you need to make a beautiful gift presentation. Actually any kind of double sided paper could be used to make these, but for all practical purposes we'll use lunch bags since that's what I have on hand.
Ready?
Cut the bottom off of six brown paper lunch bags.
Cut off both folded sides of each bag. This will give you twelve rectangular sheets of brown paper.
Fold each sheet in half making the short ends meet.
Fold the top down to meet the bottom.
With the folded corner on the top left, fold the left edge up to meet the top edge. This will give you a sort of triangular shape.
Fold the top layer of the triangle back to meet the bottom edge. All twelve pieces of paper will be folded this way.
Now, we'll cut the petals for four large flowers: I drew the shape of half my petal as close to the edge of the top layer as possible. Do this on four of the folded papers. Cut the shape stopping at the fold of the top layer.
Unfold the top layer and finish cutting the petal by following the cut edge.
Make a small snip to cut off the tip.
Unfold. This is what your large flower shape will look like. You should have four of them.
Medium flowers: On four pieces of the folded paper, draw the petal shape 1/2 inch below the edge of the top layer and follow the steps above to complete the four medium flowers.
Small flowers: On four pieces of the folded paper, draw the petal shape 1 inch below the edge of the top layer and follow the steps above to complete the four small flowers.
At this point you should have four of each size flower.
Now take the reinforcement circle stickers and place them around the hole in the middle of each flower.
Stack your flowers according to size.
Cut (or tear for a frayed edge) your fabric into 1/2 inch strips. You'll want one strip that is long enough to wrap around a gift box plus a few inches. The other strips should each be at least three inches long. You'll need about 6 to 8 of the smaller strips.
Using the long strip of fabric, thread it through all four large flowers.
Continue threading through the medium flowers and last of all through the small flowers.
Leaving a loop in front of the topmost flower, begin threading back through all layers of flowers.
Insert the small strips into the loop and pull the strings in the back to tighten loop.
Give the smaller strips a haircut.
Fluff the layers.
Tie onto a package and you're done!
| |
|
Several months ago while the boys were perusing the sports shelves of the library, I took some time to look through the crafting shelves. Usually it's filled with "older" craft books. Don't get me wrong, the older books have some great stuff, but sometimes I just want to look at modern photography and new ideas. Well, this time I found a gem - Amy Butler's Style Stitches: 12 Easy Ways to 26 Wonderful Bags. Love Amy Butler. Love bags. Love modern craft books. So what a bummer when I took it to the checkout station and discovered the shelving person had messed up. It was being help for someone else, and I couldn't check it out. Well!
I went directly home and requested from the library. I was pretty far down the list and had to wait all summer, but I finally got my hands on it. Truth be told, there are only a few of the bags that I would make. A lot of them are gargantuan huge, and that's just not me. However I did find one bag that I totally embraced...
The origami bag.
No, it's not a purse type bag, but rather a storage type bag. The directions included several size variations. You could store anything in these: cosmetics, toys, craft stuff, school supplies, hair bows (if only any of my nieces wore them), etc. That gave me the idea to use this as a springboard for Christmas presents for the nieces/nephews.
I made size small which are about 12 x 4 x 3 inches. These only take a small amount of fabric, so I didn't have to buy anything except the zippers. Very cost effective! The directions were easy to follow including the zipper installation which went without a hitch.
I now have six origami bags ready and waiting to be filled with goodies for the kids. I guess you could say that the Christmas crafting is well under way seeing as half of it is done already, and it's just barely September!!!
*****
Just a quick shout out to those of you popping in from Kojodesigns and Craft Gossip. Glad you stopped by!
| |
|
Yep, gonna have a tutorial for this really soon! In the meantime, I liked it so much I'm using it for my fall banner. If you're reading this in a reader, click on over to see the new banner image. Made using picnik.
Enjoy the long weekend!
| |
|
One of the school supplies that I always buy but my kids never use is erasers. As I was cleaning out the school supply drawer this year, I found tons of them. I think I've learned my lesson for next year. How about use up some of the extras for our project for this month...
carved eraser stamps.
Approximate cost: Under $10
Supplies:
paper
pencil
lino cutter (You could use an exacto knife, but they are a little harder to work with and a little more dangerous. Hobby Lobby has a lino cutter set for $5.)
erasers (I buy the white polymer ones at Target.)
colored stamp pads
Directions:
Basic instructions (includes a video) for carving can be found here.
The boys and I used this for our art for the week, even though Noah said it was more of a craft. Ok, a crafty art lesson. We were studying about Zimbabwe, so they carved geometrical shapes into their erasers and did some block printing.
Suggestions:
As always, if you make some of these with the kids, add your photos to our Kid's Craft Along Flickr group. Wishing you and yours a wonderful school year!
| |
|
