angry chicken

Friday!!

I am enjoying The Best American Non-required Reading, I got for my birthday so much. It looks like it might have only comics in it from the cover, but that's not the case at all. It only has about 2 and the rest is a fabulous selection of fiction and non-fiction that is just wonderful. It also has a bunch of lists and cool random stuff like "Best American Fake Headlines" from the Onion. . .I just love it.

I read today that the Portland IKEA is going to open July 25th. Wow! Okay, the freaky thing is that I actually live closer to this new IKEA than to the grocery store we shop at. If only I could eat a Tarno folding chair.

I also wanted to remind Portland people that the Lov.li fair, which is a very cool sounding craft fair, is this Sunday June 3rd, and you can click on that link there for all the details. I'm gonna try to go, we'll see if I get out of the house. . .and just a heads up, it's in a very cool bar. (21 and over.)

mailorder #7-you can get it now. . .

Hello and happy Thursday.

It's hot here and people are excited and also freaking out. Lots of guys walking around shirtless all of a sudden. I always wonder, do they actually leave the house with no shirt on? Or do they decide, mid-walk, to take it off? I never see shirtless guys carrying their shirt. . .I think they must tear it off and throw it away, maybe in the bushes, and then give a really big yell or something. That's what I would do.

You can buy mailorder #7 right here (paypal only) and it's the print overrun (as usual) so there aren't a ton of these, just so you know. Please note the the 2 prices: one for USA/Canada and one Outside the USA, and please send me an email if your address is different than what paypal has for you. Thank you!

**sold out***

Wow! Okay, you all are crazy crafters! That was awesome. It's going to be a busy weekend. I will e-mail you if I have questions or you will hear from me soon if I said I would invoice you (like if you are in Australia and couldn't make the sale) Thank you!!

even though it looks a bit gross it was good.

I made this plum cake last night to serve to some mailorder lackeys and it was good. Thanks so much for the help, you two. Please note the similarities between this photo and the recipe photo. Not too shabby, huh? Except for not having an ironstone pedestal cake plate-that and no arty-blurriness in the photo . .and this tablecloth just happened to be on the table. I didn't really try to match the photo all that much. That would be freaky.

So, with some whipped cream-it was even more delicious and I am eating it now for breakfast. I always hesitate to show plums because they are creepy looking cooked. Although it was a good cake, the plums were possibly just a tad too firm. While eating it, and serving it to my guests, I was thinking wow, it's good, but these plums sort of look like, and are the texture of, cooked human fingers! I didn't say this out loud.

Random things:

-we finally saw Art School Confidential and it was so painful to watch, and certainly was flawed, but I did really like it. I had not one but 2 art teachers in their mid-40s who also painted triangles. Seriously.

-I have been getting some e-mails that I have been slow to answer. . .I am working on a mammoth FAQ which is so long it makes me wonder a lot of things about myself.. . .it will be up soon and will provide a myriad of answers (hopefully). I also am excited about this because I realize in about 3 weeks my ability to even turn on the computer will be reduced significantly, so this project is making me feel very organized.

-It seems like every summer I read anne rice. Why? I get excited, then bored, then excited again. I'm in the bored stage now.

the next mailorder. . .

Issue #7 (the last of the year!) will be on sale over at kingpod this Thursday, May 31st at 8am (PST) as a single issue. I have been getting e-mails from some of you loyal subscribers worried that your subscription has run out-it has not! If you have received any of the issues #4-6, you will be getting this one as well, so worry not. I hope to get the subscriber issues mailed out by this Friday, so expect it sometime next week.

This #7 summer issue includes:

-The Mailorder Sewing Project: Learning to make foundation blocks with complete directions/patterns. Included are 4 designs (3 of which are shown above)
-Illustrated ideas for potential projects with these blocks
-The delightful professionally printed Mailorder Recipe Card
-The mailorder paper project: Kitchen Friend Stick Puppets
-The Mailorder Merit Badge
-And the Mailorder Secret Word (which will award you a secret prize when found and entered onto kingpod)

Sounds like a rip-roarin' good time to me! And just a heads up here; I decided to do 4 designs of blocks and included 2 copies of each block in this issue-one for practice, and one to make more copies from. So, for future projects, you will need to make more copies of these. . .I hate sending you all to the copy shop, but it was that or provide only one design with more copies, which seems not nearly as valuable.

For those of you in Australia (or other) where the time of the sale is evil and horrible, please send me an e-mail and we can work something out. And, as usual, I will be sending out a reminder e-mail to the mail list (you can sign up on kingpod) when this issue can actually be purchased.

Thank you!

thank you! (and there was no barfing.)

Thank you all for the birthday well wishes. Getting all those happy comments on my birthday made me feel wonderful, so seriously, thank you.

We ate a great dinner at the new restaurant, Country Cat. I had strawberry shortcake for dessert, very tasty, and I got some lovely gifts, including a gift certificate from Pete to buy a piece of art, which I did about an hour after I received it. I heart computers. The piece above is mine now. It's called, untitled (white bear in a blue shirt holding a bird's head) by the uber-talented Matthew Feyld, and I love it. I've been wanting a piece by Mr. Feyld for a long time now and Pete was going to surprise me and get one, but couldn't find where I had him book-marked. Apparently, I have "the entire internet book-marked." Ahem. So I got to pick one out myself.

I am putting aside the orange and white quilt for baby to try and get issue #7 mailorder together. My hope is to get the subscriber issues out some time next week (probably the end of the week) and have the sale for the single issues next Friday, June 1st. This is all loosey-goosey, because they haven't been taken to the printers yet, so more on all that soon. (And once I know for sure, I will send out an e-mail to the mail list over at kingpod.) But because of all that potentially happening quite soon, Subscribers, if you have moved in the last 3 months, or if for any reason paypal has old info for you and you have never told me, please send me an e-mail. Thank you, and have a relaxing 3 day weekend.

birthday, buddha, & some barfing.

Today is my birthday. I used to make a huge deal of my birthday, especially before having kids. I'd make cupcakes to share with everyone, have big parties, all that. I know it is very self absorbed-but hey, it's my birthday and it was always crazy fun, so there you go.

I still try to make a hoopla of my birthday, but things are a little different now. . . . but still all good. This year, my big hope is that the stomach flu/barfing/fever thing Sadie got this week doesn't spread though the whole house. Pete and I are going out for dinner tonight, and I hate throwing up an expensive dinner. That's the worst. It's like, doubly bad. You are sick and you wasted a great meal.

My b-day wish list is so immature, I seem to be regressing every year. I asked for some books about comics (Wait, that not regressing, that's just cool.) and clothes and jewelry from a catalog aimed at 15 year olds. In an alternate universe, I'm wearing Marni, but in reality, my budget and lifestyle is more Alloy. (Topshop, come to the US!) What is 35 anyway? I can't get a hold of this age. You can't really say "early 30s" anymore and I am still trying to decide, when looking at skincare products, if I am in the "mature" skin type now. I think I am. At least I've noticed that "dry/mature" get lumped together a lot.

I found out I get to be partying with Buddha today too- His ever-changing birthday lands on May 24th this year-I am so excited by this and so are the girls. He might even get his name added to the cake if he's lucky.

The cake this year is:

Orange Zest Cake with an Orange Glaze

Cake:

1 1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest from 1 orange

Pre-heat oven to 350. Mix the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla. Add all the rest, alternating the milk and the flour. Pour into a greased 8 " round pan. Bake 35-40 min or until it tests done. It will almost fill the pan completely. Let cool.

Glaze:

3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoons melted butter.

Whisk all this together until it's not lumpy. Add more liquid or powdered sugar to make it pour, as needed. Pour over the cake. When it dries, it will firm up.

When Pete and the girls made this, they split the cake in half after it cooled and used lemon curd in the middle and then poured the glaze on top. I think marmalade would be good too. Or raspberry jam, you get the idea. Enjoy!

looks fun to me.

Whenever I get this Montessori supply catalog in the mail, I remember all the stuff I have in the house I need to get out for the girls. It's such a great resource and just looking at the images gives me so many ideas about play. (I'm sure there are a billion other similar companies out there and I don't know that much about this company and all that.) Okay, water, water pitchers, and thick glass cups. How fun is that? Simple. I already have it around the house (or can find it super cheap) and can put it on a tray. Even better. They serve each other water outside and if they spill, good for them.

Cleaning supplies. They love to clean. A lot. Like it's really fun and kind of weird. So, we have been doing that for awhile now. A small  bucket, rags, little sponges - they have a bunch of small cleaning tools from their grandparents and they love them. Outside they get to clean with water, and that is even better. I heart spray bottles.

Maybe this is just me, but polishing a mirror (the polish makes a little film easy to wipe off) and then making it clean? This would have kept me entertained for hours. It still would. This kit has a ton of stuff, but the "polish" is all we really need, and maybe a little glass eye dropper. . . this is my new obsession, trying to assemble this kit with stuff around the house. Finding a box, lining it, getting out the aprons, etc.

Peelers, egg slicers, small whisks, grinders, apple cutters - all that. I try to find tools that really work and that are made of real materials. You know, sharp and breakable. Not dangerous really, just not for pretend. This is surely not new to many parents out there, especially ones familiar with Montessori programs. My girls are home all day so I am always looking for ideas and piecing together my favorite bits of activities from a wide range of resources, so catalogs and ideas like this are a wonderful way for us to fill up the day. Seeing the girls slice their own banana before they eat it (with a banana slicer!) is the coolest thing ever. I know there are tons of theories about the whys of all this, but I just like the catalogs. . . and I remember peeling carrots (I used sticks) was my favorite thing to do when I was 5. Seriously.

I am always tempted to give this kind of stuff as gifts, like a little homemade kit of little cleaning supplies, etc, or a pencil sharpener kit with a few really nice colored pencils and a nice sharpener and a little brush all tucked in a little box... I think it would be really cool. I need to do that.

I changed by banner for (early) summer-hit refresh and bring on the sun!

gifties.

This is for an almost 7-year old for her upcoming birthday. In the past, I have had to make the homemade gifts on the sly, because they are the hardest for Sadie to give away, but I finally got smart and had her help me decide what to make and out of which fabrics, and all of a sudden it was no big deal. Duh. Well, now I know. They keep you workin', them kids!

The skirt was from this pattern, again, and the bag is just a canvas one I got (in a 5-pack) and made a fabric patch for. This was one of those projects where the skirt was super easy, but the bag really sucked. I had to cut the side of it open to stitch the heart on, and then sew it back up, and I thought I was being so clever using a pre-made bag, but after fighting with it, it would have been easier/quicker to just to make a matching bag, but oh well. It's still cute!

These are my helper fabric fairies. We got a big ol' stack of the blues/browns/oranges from the new Katie Jump Rope line from the lovely Cia at her extra lovely shop online.

I haven't been leaving the house much, so I don't know where they have the new fabrics here locally-I will let my way less pregnant friends who actually brave the fabric shops with kids in tow help me sleuth that out in the comments-

new sewing book for me.

I picked up this book over at Mariko's last week, Girly Style Wardrobe, ISBN978-4-579-11132-9 and am completely in love with every single pattern. It's the perfect mix of sweet, not too cute/not too serious, folksy, happy, and just plain ol' cool. The sizes are 100-140 cm (it's for young girls), so I will get a ton of use out of these patterns. Here's the cover-last I saw they only had 3 left, but I think are getting more soon (right?) edit* they are all sold out now-

perfect peasant blouse/smock type thing-

the hoodie and skirt! and the freaky boots! too flippin' cute.

This Julie Christie look kills me. I must make a faux fur hat this fall. I have to. Sadie saw this photo and flipped her lid. The funny thing is, she already wears her coonskin davey crockett hat all the time, so this look makes perfect sense to her. .

I have no idea if this book is available on yesasia, or other japanese craftbook haunts. It looks like you can buy it here on ebay for now also, if you are new to the whole Japanese Craft Book thing, you can find places to purchase at the wonderful Japanese Craft Book reference blog, Crafting Japanese, and I do think Superbuzzy will be getting more, so you can send them an e-mail. . . . now I need to get busy.

new small outfit-folksy style

These cropped pants have been cut out for awhile now (back from when I made this pattern the first time, you can find the pattern info in this link), but needed the right fabric for the top/pockets, and just wasn't feeling it.

I found the perfect print at superbuzzy. I don't even think this is a new one, but it's new to me. And I found some books too (that are new) and other amazing goodies-good lord, it hurt my wallet, but was so worth it. I will post photos of the Japanese book innards very soon, 'cause dang.

I made the top longer this time around.Much better. The pants are in brown linen and after making this all up, I think I need to make an adult version. Too mother/daughter matchy? Yup, but I just don't care. We don't have to wear them on the same day, you know.