i've been making felt pillows – with some embroidery or wool felt images. i was so excited to drop them off yesterday at the wyly arts center for the holiday art mart. i love how sooo many ideas start floating around my head once i'm making things. the ideas just aren't there if i'm not actively working on a project. and the more things i'm creating the more ideas that are popping into my head. it's funny i have to learn that lesson over and over again.
After not making anything (except in webland) for quite sometime I’ve go’t full tilt and signed up for the Wyly Holiday Art Mart. I waited until the last minute to decide so now it’s make make make (which is a great way to spend a day) until I have to deliver my wares. At least I have the dog for moral support (xo, birdy!).
so our CSA is still delivering…which is amazing…but also means that we are still looking for ways to eat more greens then we've ever eaten in our lives (and we were vegetarians for 20 years). so yesterday i finally made kale chips. thank you pat for reminding me to do something i should have been making all summer and thank you smitten kitchen for the recipe.
they are so good that even my child – who's favorite food is bacon – couldn't stop eating the kale chips and even ate them as her video game, junk food snack as she played harry potter lego on the wii.
so i've got the desire to make things…and for a jewish girl from the suburbs of chicago – i have the strong desire to make christmas things..so i'm sewing up some christmas stockings! (channukah is early this year – december 1 – so maybe that's why i'm ready)
i think as a kid who didn't grow up with stockings they have a certain charm like no other holiday item. they can contain all the little surprise treats you never expected!
via www.etsy.com
even though winter is just beginning, when i look at this shop on etsy i know spring exists…somewhere
So I’m knitting – maybe for the first time since we moved – which has been forever. I love having a project waiting for me when i sit down. Its still amazing to me to create fabric out of a piece of yarn. And it’s nice to enjoy thinking about the holidays – not to be frantic or in a rush.
we spent the day making art – cyanotypes for the boy with baby girls help so she got to make her own sun prints. We’ve had so many beautiful fall days. And im enjoying thinking ahead to the holidays and all the possibilities to make stuff with so much time still in front of us. (i love the extra hour today gives us!)
The mess of a family craft day – we didnt finish anything, but i love my new book and i thank wildolive for the printable bobbins. A little organization goes a long way.
So I made the tomato sauce..and I was so proud. I didn't can it but I was going to store it in canning jars in the fridge. I started with 6 lbs. of tomatoes. It seemed like a lot – to someone who almost never cooks. Funny – it only turned into a jar and a half of sauce
And then after I cleaned the kitchen I realized I had ten more tomatoes hiding under the plethora of cherry tomatoes in the big bowl…I could've had another jar!
I can't imagine how many tomatoes come out of big midwestern gardens that people can them. The peeling of the tomatoes alone was an epic adventure.
My first try at homemade tomato sauce with tomatoes and basil from my garden.
I used our 'best cookbook for everything cookbook' – The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook. It's about to come out in a new edition. It's great for when you've never made something before in your life – and when it comes to cooking that's most of the time for me…
We made some halloween cupcakes for a small event yesterday – it’s october so it’s time. I was happy to get back to writing with chocolate. Almost any white chocolate seems to work well. Otherwise I’ve had the best luck with Guittard Dark for regular choclate.
i send tilly a note in her box once a week, with a japanese eraser in a cute little envelope from paper source. i love these lunch box note printables though for a little something new on another day. i know she loves the surprise of finding something in her lunchbox.
Tilly and I have been waiting for the pie pumpkins to come in. Finally, in Telluride last weekend we bought our first of the fall. The smell of that roasting pumpkin makes the house just right. xo
More hot chocolate, more muffins, please…
this week i stitched together a book – a bingo book like i always do – but i bet i haven't made a book in 2 or 3 years. i thought i would forget and that it would take me forever. or that i would have to look up how to do the stitch i like. but it's funny, our muscles don't forget. once i was stitching the folios together it all came right back to me. i remembered the variation on the stitch i preferred and the snags to watch out for. really – thank goodness for muscle memory – if our bodies couldn't pull that off i certainly wouldn't be able to snowboard every winter…that first run always amazes me…
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my hands have been shaking with the need to get many things done at once so i've been getting some crafting done. i was really happy with how this pillow turned out for a birthday present. i love my new fabric and i love some of the old fabric i found in my stash.
i had a small piece of a smithsonian repro fabric that i just love. i think it was from a series called the 'gentleman's quilt'. i'd like to buy more, but i think they stopped selling fabric…
i forget when i started knitting for christmas but it was many months ahead of time. in the end i finished one project – but it was a cute one!
i made a pair of coordinated bunnies for my sister-in-laws twin boys. they are just ten months old so i kept them small and soft with matching blankets.
this pattern comes from kate gilbert and is truly amazing. the bunnies are knitted in one piece and then stitched up in different parts. it makes a great pattern to work on as you move around because there are no loos pieces and the bunnies are cute as can be.
(I realized today through blogland and emails that two posts are missing – my back-tack package and my christmas bunnies… so here is a much needed post…)
Way back on December 11 I received the most fabulous back-tack package from Leah in Australia. I was so excited but I was given clear instructions by my helpful assistant to wait until she got from from school to open the box.
We were very excited to find a beautifully wrapped set of packages including fabulous decorations from Leah's cute kids.
There was so much in my box! ( Let 's hope I get this right and remember everything)
For Gold – there was a fabulous pompom sparklygarland which we promptly hung up on the child,
then the house and eventually on the tree.
For the Frankincense – there was an amazing hand knitted candy cane washcloth with a cranberry scented sparkle soap from the body shop.
And there was also a coconut Christmas pudding which I had to do everything I could to keep my helpful assistant from tearing open the box.
For Myrrh – there were two truly fabulous amazing gifts.
First there was the sexiest handmade Christmas apron. It actually looks like I have boobs! (When the child isn't displaying it)
And then Leah included a kit for making a christmas stocking with the cutest retro christmas fabrics. We actually don't have stockings so the kit was a life-saver – we flew on Christmas morning to family so my lovely assistant was able to take the now full stocking with her and open presents on the plane as we flew cross country.
A truly generous and thoughtful package. Thank you Leah! (and nicole and allison!)
See you all next year!
The midwest
