angry chicken

very important business

Very important business has been happening around here. These are all the items you can get with your mailorder funny money. . .I realize that the coupon needed to purchase all these goodies is only available with mailorder issue #3. So, if you have funny money from issue #1 or #2 that you want to spend, let me know and/or mail it in to me and I can happily choose an item to send back. These are the Stick Puppets (sticks not included)

the Paper Food. . .

and 2 Very Good Recipes and the Mailorder Stickers. I also have Bad Poetry ($1.10) which it's my favorite item so far. It's titled, The Unicorn of Pain, and there is a very short play, which I think is $2.25, but the price-list isn't in front of me. .

Receiving the mailorder funny money carefully cut out (with a S.A.S.E.) with the coupon has been thrilling. I think I really must be a 12 year old. This has been my surprise favorite activity in this whole mailorder craziness. . .

okay-I am taking a break this summer and then mailorder will be available again, subscription only,4 issues a year, in early fall, so we can all rest for a bit this summer. I will, no doubt, yack about it more, so you won't miss any details-but just know it will all start up again after August (and again, signing up on the mail list over on kingpod is the best way to get all the details when they come out of my brain)

On an even more important note, we are berry picking tomorrow and I hope for another raspberry buckle!

gettin' all sticky

I can't remember when I didn't have these sticks in all sizes lying around. I think maybe even before I had the girls. I never really did anything with them, but in the last few months they have become the focus of a lot of projects around here. The favorite being dumping. The other day we were all playing with them and I remembered that wonderful MS kids issue (July/August 2004) that had all the cool stick projects. We ended up just mostly doing our own thing, but there were some very cool ideas in there. That amazing bird tack is from Hillary, so I have no clue where to get them. It's one of my prized possessions. . .

Here are the stick frames. Sadie hung them here. I didn't notice for hours and I think the placement is brilliant. It's just scotch tape and stickers on these, and you can see these were at the bottom of the crayon tub. I love that crayon patina.

And a boat with a small goat. I used the paperclay to make the stick stand up for the sail. I love the sticks projects, but realize they require a bit of forethought-so we switched to lots of tape, string and this paper clay stuff to make spontaneous connectors when we realized that we just had a bunch of platforms.

On an unrelated note, Tie One On for June has been extended, officially, through July (enjoy the break!!) so the aprons will post August 1st.

the new room

I got some very exciting goodies yesterday from a great little online shop, Atelier Jade, that sells these amazing fabrics and decole, which is a habit I am trying to keep in check. This decole flickr group isn't helping me. The dark ducky fabric is a bit thick, perfect for a bag, and the pink little red riding hood fabric is a lovely lightweight cotton. I realize anything related to little red riding hood is huge with me (I always seem the last to know) and the girls love acting out the story but our version doesn't involve gutting the wolf with an ax. . .

and this is a small corner of my new craft room! It's not all done yet but the shelves are up and I have enough storage space to tuck away the glue, tapes, knives and other not so attractive items and just display storage baskets that are nice to look at. I have had so much more fun decorating than organizing-hence the paper trim paper edging on the shelves and yet, I still have most everything in plastic bags on the floor. . I these photos because it won't look like this for long.

and here is the not to tidy corner with a WIP quilt in the wall, my green and white quilt, to go with my new banner. Feels so good to have a door! Hooray for doors!!

I feel all grown up. . .

I am now the owner of my very own custom letterpressed notecards. This is one of those amazing "I heart the blog world" episodes, thanks to Eireann. She really felt my pain when I was all whiny about wanting custom letterpress cards a bit back and graciously set me up with printmaker and artist extraordinaire, Brian Aldrich, who does beautiful and thoughtful small run custom letterpress work. (You can contact him here at his company, BA Editions.) I am thrilled, like jumping up and down thrilled, with how these turned out!

Brian prints on lovely Rives BFK rag paper, so the cards are soft and lush. This is the grey stock with my name in a shell pink. I'm not sure what was going on with me when I worked with Eireann and Brian on the design of these. I was having a pink attack, which is very unlike me, but I am so happy I spontaneously went with the pink and grey because it is perfect. I got the pink envelopes and girlie stickers from paper source, which incidentally, also does custom letterpress notecards and when I priced the same job Brian did for me with paper source they charged more than double for half the quantity of cards, no kidding.

here are some shots that Brian sent me of the run being printed. . .

and here they are drying. This was such a fun experience, seeing the actual metal type via jpegs, picking the font, and seeing the proofs-it's a sheer luxury to have such beautiful letterpress cards and it was made so much more special by personally working with such awesome artists. . . oh the good vibes abound!. . .okay, now I need to write some notes on these girls and not just stare at them, they are almost too pretty to write on. And I must now find the "perfect" pen. . .I have a sickness, I tell you.

happy it's friday

We are having Alicia and Andy over for dinner tonight and after seeing her post today I realize we have much to discuss tonight, like always, my dad actually made dollhouses for a living for a few years and I had 3 growing up. Dollhouses and all things small, are an obsession of mine. And I think we will be getting a lot of zucchini this year.

The weather is perfect so grilling will ensue. I am so thrilled because it is 2:00ish and I have already made everything. The girls are happy as clams in the backyard and I just can't believe my luck that I was able to get so much done today. There will be jerk shrimp kabobs, an asparagus pasta salad, and rhubarb pie fresh baked (not frozen) with ice cream or whipped cream, or both.

And the pie will be traveling from the kitchen to the outdoor table in this new (but vintage) pie tin, also fresh from eBay. I love it. You can use it for cake or pies, the cake goes below and then the orange lid comes off, and there is a tray above, so you can put a pie on top. So you could, if you dare, carry a cake AND a pie at the same time. ha! It will have a very short journey tonight I know, but I don't have anywhere else to go and I know the company will appreciate it. I still am looking at these pie carriers, but this tin one caught my eye, especially for Pete, if he takes a pie to work. He's not really the pie basket type of guy, more the metal tin orange stripe type of guy. Like there are certain pie carriers to go with different guys? I guess in my world there is.

Okay, now I need to not nibble on the food for the rest of the day. We are going to the zoo tomorrow in celebration of Grammie's birthday and then our nephew's 1st birthday party on Sunday, that has a underwater theme, which I think is brilliant. Big weekend ahead and LOTS of sugar! Oh, I also am extending the theme for Tie One On through July. I have yet to make a musical themed apron and I think we all need a break and I can't rush this theme, so there you go.

built by me!

This Built by Wendy blouse was started and finished over the last two nights and I couldn't be happier. This is me in the natural position on drinking coffee up against a suspiciously blank wall, something I do often.

So, the pattern is great. The directions are the typical sewing pattern language and although I have said in the past that I don't sew blouses, I did enjoy making this. I get a bit jiggy about details. Skirts are so easy and quick, so blouses can get me a bit bunched up. There is so much more to fit-boobs, shoulders, all that, but this is really nice and moves well.This naughty secretary look is a favorite of mine,and I love blouses that tie, but it looks cute with the ties hanging untied too.

This is from this pattern here, 4112, and here's some details:

-I used the long sleeve version but shortened the sleeves a whole ton and then added the bias trim which I did attach the real way, sewn on one side and then hand stitched on the inside. I didn't use the short sleeve pattern because I wanted the tie and the sleeves looked more fluttery on that one (could be wrong, it was getting late)
-I contemplated doing this blouse sleeveless because the fit is so good under the arm, it would look swell without sleeves with no alterations needed.
-the quilting cotton I used (a repro civil war print) is just slightly thicker than I would recommend, but it's fine. It's what I had on hand, so there you go. I think dotted swiss would be so cool I can't stand it, so maybe I will try that next.
-this is not what I call a beginner project. There are several small steps that can involve swearing and there are other tops in her line (or others) that would be better to start with.
-on the pattern, the typical seam allowance is 5/8" but on most of the blouse you actually use a 3/8" and if I didn't accidentally notice that I would have really screwed this up.
-buttons. sigh. I was actually in the mood to do these, but snap tape would be extra cool and I'd try that for sure as an option.

Okay, now I really am going back to working on my quilt. After I clean my new craft room! It finally dawned on us that I could move into Pete's office now that he is downtown. woo-hoo!

excitment!

In my grubby little mitts are 4 new patterns by none other than miss thing herself, Wendy Mullin, of Built by Wendy and I am dropping all projects to try some of them out. They are from Simplicity and should be available really, soon, if not already. (see more styles at the link) They are looking swell and Wendy writes very sweet words of encouragement and altering ideas in the beginning of the pattern which is really nice and so unlike normal sewing patterns, I was touched! I think I may have a emotional condition, but I really think Wendy wants us to look cool and do our own thing with her patterns. . .

pants here, which I may save for last. . .

and her new book, sew u, which is only in the pre-order stage (dang-it!!) but looks so good. It's a full on "learn to sew and make cool clothes" (my quote, not hers) book and includes 3 patterns that won't be available in the Simplicity line. I got all this insider information in the last 2 days and am SO excited that someone has taken this garment home-sewing thing for a new spin. Long over due. . .okay, I need to make a blouse now. I am thinking jersey, but that would involve buying fabric and I should work from the stash I have so maybe the first blouse minus sleeves??

a buckle and a dress

We found the raspberries at the farmers market. They are still a bit tart but dang it all, in this buckle they were nothing short of sheer bliss. This is that one from the new everyday food (July) and I added lemon rind, grated ginger and a pinch of cinnamon. Good lord, it was amazing. Here's a shot of the inside, you can see it's cake-y loveliness. I cooked it about 7min longer because Pete isn't into pudding texture with cakes, so it was really firm. And it's all gone now.

And here is another dress in that same pattern. I seemed to have lost one of my arms but hope to find it soon. The belt is striped on one side, if I am feeling crazy, and then the brown on the other. I really like to wear the same thing for days in a row (gross? boring?) and that last dress I made gets worn a lot. Like the 4 year old neighbor said "you are wearing that again?"yup, gotta love that kid's honesty. So I made another and the switched to the invisible zipper which solved all my problems especially because I used the special invisible foot made for my machine not the lame plastic ones that you can get that never really fit. And you can't tell here because of the angle, but the hem about 2 inches lower than my knees, which seems just right.

papa day!!

We did father's day gifts this morning because we will be celebrating father's day tomorrow with pete's wonderful dad (cinnamon rolls will be attending) and the girls and I made this card and framed photo thingy yesterday. I am so happy you can get cheap cool frames ($5!!) with mats now. So happy, it saved us, cause we had nothing yesterday morning. Just a little photography, a printer, and there you go! The art on the cards was the girls contribution as well as the stamping. .and in a fit of complete unoriginality we got pete an electric razor, which is almost as funny as getting him a tie or golf tees, which is even funnier if you knew him-but he's using it now and it's pretty deluxe, it cleans itself! we all watched it this morning (yeah, not much going on around here), so there you go.

The ice cream cake was not as successful in my eyes. I was hoping for one more like this, but it's okay. We started eating it 2 nights ago because it was too huge and was freaking me out. It suffered from sever structural flaws which made the act of frosting it a bit hysterical and caused some shirking. And I would not use buttercream frosting again to frost, just whipped cream I think. It actually looks fine here, but the actual cake is really horrible looking and weights no less then 12lbs it sort of looks already eaten, so I am sparing you the photo. Of course, Pete loves it.

We are off to our little neighborhood farmer's market looking for raspberries cause that raspberry buckle in the new everyday food I got last night has my name all over it.

Happy father's day to all you papas and thanks for helping us mamas be all crafty!

do I really need a wood burner?

I am crazy because I keep thinking of new projects to start which require new supplies and time I don't have. And what about all the unstarted projects I already have piled up? I read about these at this shop here (which is also where I bought my blank ones from) and I love them so much it hurts. They are the "original" matryoshka from the late 1800s. There is more history on all this here, (and you can see the wonderful reproduction of this set there too) nesting dolls have been around way longer than than 1890, but,, not as a "Russian craft". I find this all pretty interesting.. . .anyhoo-they are made using a wood burner to trace the designs and then painted with a stain, so the wood grain shows though.

The matryoshka I painted for the girls are wildly popular with them, but please, remind me to never use the 2 same colors again for both-because the pieces don't interchange, so if one doll gets put into another and it won't close right the whole house goes into a tizzy and it's gets pretty dicey around here.

on a unrelated note, albeit it a very crafty one, I interviewed Hillary over here on whip up and I keep reading it and keep laughing, cause I just amuse myself to no end! ha!

And another reason I am crazy is the girls were up until 2:30 am last night. really. And I am not saying that and meaning midnight because I always exaggerate (I do) I mean really until 2:30 am. They both fell asleep in the car at 5 last evening until around 6:30 and we couldn't wake them up. . .then Pete finally put them back in the car at 1:00AM after many failed bed attempts and it only worked with Delia. boy howdy-it's gonna be a long day, so please ignore any typos or weird grammar, this is as good as it gets.