angry chicken

some kind of crazy evil

I found myself over at Polyvore the other day after seeing a lovely photo from Uniform Studio and oh my good lord. Hours, HOURS, can be wasted on this site. It's a drag-and-drop collage fashion-y thing. How's that for a great description? Of course you can click and buy, but I'm not even going to discuss this option. So, sorry, but your day is ruined now. My bad. I spent about 10 minutes on this outfit. The sweater makes it for me. That and the umbrella.Here's a link for each item shown. Action Hero just pointed me to shmotter which is a similar site.

An unrelated but amazing link sent to me by Miss Hayley: Uncle Envelope. This makes me happy about the world.

soup report

Many soups have been made in the last month. The recipes made from Love Soup are as follows:

• Green Soup with Ginger (very good, my favorite so far)
• Green Soup with Sweet Potato and Sage (quite good, but I like the first one better)
• Black Bean and Squash (amazing!! even better the next day.)
• Corn and Cheese Chowder (also amazing!)
• 3-Grain Bread (good. The girls think it's lame, but I love it as toast.)

Relating to food making—a bit back I posted about my favorite kitchen gadgets. One of them was a LamsonSharp Turner.  Several weeks ago the fine people over at LamsonSharp sent me this mini-masher as a thank-you and how I ever lived without it, I know not. I use this new mini-masher for making banana bread, guacamole, potatoes and sweet potatoes in soups—I even use it to partially mash beans sometimes. It's small, fits perfectly in my hand (it's shorter than a wooden spoon) and crazy strong, you can really work it. I never busted out my old masher because it was just too big and a fork, well, kind of sucks when you really need to mash something. It would have been prefect for baby food. So, I am thrilled to have this, needless to say.

From the mind of a 7 year old.

Sadie busted out with these song titles when asked about her forthcoming music project she has planned. Unbelievable. There are so many favorites here—I actually am speechless. Delia's is equally amazing. I will share it later. It's mostly the about the subject of the last song on this list.

 

pencil skirt with a sassy zipper

  

I needed a pencil skirt. A red wool one with an exposed zipper and it needed to be longer than the 1980s minis that seem to be all over the place right now. I wanted it kind of long and a bit frumpy, but actually very cool and naughty, because of the industrial exposed zipper and its tightness. So, that was the deal and I made it last week, and it worked out great. 

Here's the sassy back. There were exposed metal zippers at Anthropologie last spring and summer and was anxious to try using one, especially after being obsessed with invisible zippers for so long. I used a method very similar to this one (click on the exposed zipper link) except I included a seam below the zipper so I could make a back vent. The fabric is a lovely red wool from Mill Ends (All wool and lining is 25% off until the end of October and Bolt is having a big sale this weekend, too.) and the skirt pattern was just an altered classic a-line that I have made several times from Wendy's book. She gives dimensions and tips on making the a-line into a pencil skirt. Very simple. This one is lined and I am so happy I spent the extra $$ and used a rayon lining and not a super cheap polyester lining—which feels like plastic wrap to me. I mean, if I'm going to pay the money for really nice wool, why use icky lining against my skin?

This is the type of sewing I love. When I am making tailored clothes it's not super cheap compared to Forever 21 or Target, but I'm comparing it to high-end designer pieces I could never afford in a million years so I feel like I am saving loads of money, if that makes sense and I don't freak out about the baby and child smears that are already on this skirt. I will tell you (in anticipation of questions about it) the blouse I am wearing has that same gathering on the back that I just did that tutorial for (it's from Forever 21, actually) and the tights are from J.Crew (my favorite pair this fall) and the shoes are Miz Mooz. Just in case you are wondering.

Next up I am working a plaid wool dress, which is about 65% done and looking good. Although I realize now it matches our flannel bed sheets almost exactly. At least I am consistent.

New Prints—Folk Art Series

I've been working on these 3 hand-drawn prints for a long time now, and I finally finished them! I am quite happy. There are printed on super fancy heavy-weight archival watercolor paper—you won't be disappointed. There are three in this series. Silvija is shown here (the frame is not included.)

This one is titled Come Home.

And Crest. They are over here at my Etsy shop, which seems to be the best place for me to sell my artwork. Please take a look and my, what lovely holiday gifts they would make! 

super easy blouse alteration

 

I have been altering my purchased (and some home-sewn) blouses lately with elastic in the back. It's super easy, adds some cute ruching, and makes the fit a little bit more formal—which is nice, I think. Especially when I am not in the mood to tuck in my blouse, which is often. Here's the front of the blouse, on the left, and then the altered back, which used to just lie flat, but now has two rows of small gathers between the back darts.

I made a little tutorial on how to do this. I'm a little spacey sounding in this and seem to be forgetting words. You know how it goes.

**update: I swapped in new photos so you can actually see the blouse on. It actually looks exactly the same in front as it did pre-altering—just the back looks different. Of course, don't try this technique if your blouse is tight to begin with.

Scones and a van.

These were made last week and I thought about baking only 4, then freezing the other 4. But, I didn't. So 8 were eaten in one day. Some were taken by Pete to work, but many were not. They must be eaten the day they are baked, I think. It's a recipe I altered years ago from this little scone book, Simply Scones that I think I actually got when I was still in high school. It's not really a book anymore—but pages falling out of a cover. I think I have made every scone in this book.

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Scones (altered slightly by me)

Pre-heat oven to 400ºF

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tablespoons butter (chilled)
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients and add the butter in small chunks. Cut in the butter using your favorite method, I like a pastry cutter. Add the liquids and stir just a bit. Add the chocolate chips and the nuts and stir more. It will make a mess with little shape. Dump onto a cookie sheet and pat into 2 circles—these should be thick, about 1/2 high. Cut the circles into quarters and separate, making 8 scones. Brush with milk or an egg wash if you want to and fancy sugar if you are feeling extra special. Bake 17-19 minutes and then let them cool at least 10 minutes (this will be hard to do).

Heaven, I tell you. I love Oregon hazelnuts with a passion. Worth every penny. They are the first item I get at the farmers market.

Unrelated but extremely important:

I have a huge soft spot in my heart for Portland's own zine shop, Reading Frenzy. They have been around forever, have a great shop, support local artists and writers, and their existence just makes me happy about the world. Chloe, the owner, needs some help converting a van to make it wheelchair accessible for her son Henry and there are many things we can do to help.

1. Here's info about Wheels for Henry and a bit about Reading Frenzy.
2. There is a 2 week online craft bazaar where a percentage of proceeds will go to Wheels for Henry. You can sign up to participate as a vendor. Here's a list of participating vendors so far.
3. Please shop at this event! To shop, click on a vendor listed here, look around the sites and buy something. For convenience you can also sign up for the Wheels for Henry RSS feed. This event runs from Sunday, October 18 - Saturday, October 31.      
4. You can donate directly. There's a Paypal button at Wheels for Henry.
5. Here's the blog and facebook page.

that silly pumpkin head

These silly pumpkin heads were made by the girls a few days ago. I was drawing blank pumpkins and then different eyes and mouths and thought it would be fun to cut them out and stick them on—there's a creepy hodge-podge weirdness to these that I love. The girls just cut them out haphazardly, stuck them on with a glue stick, and then colored them in. Brilliant!

So, not like you all couldn't just draw your own, but here's a handy PDF file for you to print if you are so inclined. It was really fun having a stack of these to cut up and glue and color—I don't think we are done yet. Enjoy!

These are for personal use only, not for resale—and I know you all know that and would never be uncool, but I actually saw a free tutorial I made a bit back being sold by someone on Etsy. They also lifted several other tutorials by other bloggers, but it's all closed down now, thank God. So, I thought I'd mention it here, just in case.

screenprinting on fabric made easy (really!)

So, back when I was researching different screen printing methods for Bend the Rules with Fabric, I stumbled upon a product made by EZScreenPrint. I was looking for something that worked like a bigger, better Print Gocco, and wasn't sure anything out there existed, but then I found it. This method of screen printing on fabric requires no photo emulsion, no wooden frame, the screens are easily cleaned and very durable and the screen is burned by sunlight. That's about 100 reasons to celebrate as far as I'm concerned. The fabric here, which is also featured in my book when I describe how to use this cool product, was printed using this method.

I am not affiliated with EZScreenPrint, so was thrilled when they contacted me to offer my book readers a discount on their screens and printing supplies. It's quite affordable already—but every bit helps. This discount is for a minimum order of $50. You might want to go in on this with a friend so you can split the cost and have fun trying this together. You can get your discount code right here.

There are some examples of using this screen printing product in the Bend the Rules with Fabric flickr group, like this cute one from Hillary. Please add yours to the group if you try this!

More about my book and book type stuff-

• I have a 2nd book signing and little lecture, Q&A, what-all, coming up at Bolt,—Thursday, November 5th at 7:00. I will write about this again, but I just wanted to mention it now. Hopefully you all can come out for that.

• I am 99% sure I will also have a booksigning in Seattle in December, just finalizing some details on that one. I really hope my Seattle friends will be able to hang!

• There is a project from the book complete with directions and all that on The Storque How-Tuesday— and it's one of my favorites. Take a peek and try it if you can. It's an easy reusable lunch bag. Quite handy!

• (Unrelated) I have a new banner up (spooky!) and I saw Zombieland last night and found it very entertaining.

penmanship

The girls love tracing and practicing letters and I found this great site that allows you to write a short phrase and generate a practice worksheet instantly.

 

So we made some. A whole lot, actually.

 

They have been providing us with quite a bit of entertainment. There are several styles of handwriting to choose from and we can't seem to stop making them.

Random items:

• In the disgusting but very thrilling category—I used a tip from FOODday (in our local newspaper, The Oregonian) and made a fruit fly trap. It's mashed up fruit in a small bowl with a little apple cider vinegar on top. You cover it with plastic wrap and punch little holes on top and the fruit flies can get in, but not out. It works very well and is so gross!

• Boomerang, that cool kids podcast I mentioned a bit back, now has an entire full length episode available for FREE on their site. Very cool.

• I am loving this pincushion by SeaPinks a whole lot. All of her items are just lovely.

Autumnal Activities

We did make quite a few of the seasonal crafts for Autumnal Equinox I mentioned a few weeks ago. Here's the corn husk dolls. They were really fun and really easy. Kind of addictive, actually. Little corn husk babies in little blankets were made, too.

We are working on a bonnet for this one-

 

Here's a simple straw wreath form with items from the yard—all held together with a low-temp hot glue gun (the only kind I use because I always, always burn myself.) The grape cake I linked to has not been made yet, but I really want to try it. I might even try it this week. The most popular activity was hiding little acorn charms in the forest and then providing maps. Really—anything hidden with a map is very popular around here. Like a stapler. Or a washcloth. We do this indoors and out. And now they are getting so good at reading the maps! The best are the maps we make for baby—which is just a drawing of something lying on the floor. Then we laugh at her.

And another item of interest:

Check out these local crafty/handmade events! I got an e-mail from a crafter and these events need support—so send some local love over there. As much as I love Etsy, it's really great to meet real live people, too.

Crafty Wonderland Oct. 11, 11am-4pm
Doug Fir (basement)
830 E. Burnside St.
www.craftywonderland.com

Hip Happening Oct 17, 11am-5pm
Sellwood Masonic Lodge
7126 SE Milwaukie Ave.

that soup cookbook I was talking about—

This book hasn't left my hands in the last 48 hours. It's that cookbook I was writing about a bit back, Love Soup, by Anna Thomas—and it's better than I had even hoped for. They have a stack at Powell's, for you Portland folks. That's where I bought my copy.

It's got 160 soup recipes (almost half are vegan) and then the added bonus— there are chapters with wonderful breads and rolls, seasonal side salads, and lovely desserts in the back. It's organized by season, which I love. No photos—but really, soups aren't the most photogenic of foods. She also puts together a few sample menus (all the recipes are in the book, with the page numbers, which is so handy). Here's one that looks very tasty to me right now:

• black bean and squash soup
• oatmeal molasses bread
• red cabbage and apple salad
• greek yogurt with honey and walnuts
• roasted persimmons

Yum and yum and yum. My girls probably won't eat any of this. Well, the baby might. I don't really cook for them. I cook for Pete and I. I try to serve them what we eat first and then deal with whatever happens. I figure that's the only way they will ever try new stuff—and then I don't freak out about making grilled cheese and mac & cheese for every meal.

Unrelated:

The Tie One On apron gallery is up—Mad about Plaid! Please take a gander. And the new theme is set. It's due the beginning of December, for those of you who want to play along. I feel like I have about 100 other things to mention and link to—but they are all slipping out of my brain and I can't catch them. I am very excited to see Whip it. I know that.

Jacket for Sadie, too.

Sadie's jacket was finished for her birthday—which was this week, with time to spare. You can see the lining peeking out of the sleeve there and the matching sketchbook. This pattern was not the same as Delia's jacket. This one was made from Simplicity 2876. It's made of 100% wool melton, purchased locally at Mill Ends. It's not as soft and cozy as Delia's which is a wool/cashmere blend, but it's still pretty dreamy. It wasn't super fun to make, although it's been long enough now I don't remember what the swearing was about. I love that—when the frustration memories in a project fade. I think the collar was fussy perhaps, or there was some pleating agitation. I did love making the sleeve bands. I love that detail on jackets.

I always try to slip in buttons from Great Grandma Burchie's button tin in my clothes sewing projects, especially for the girls. It would be their Great-Great Grandmother, actually. I know my Grandmother's buttons are mixed in too—she gave the tin to me years ago, before she passed away, not to my Mom. I remember Mom telling me with a smile, when she asked Grandma why she didn't get the tin, Grandma replied "I don't recall you mending much." Sadie's jacket has 8 of these buttons, all shades of white and cream. None of them match, which I love. Now I add my buttons to the tin as well, so when the girls get the tin passed on to them, it will have four generations of buttons in it. I will admit I sometimes buy clothes with amazing buttons just to have the extras for the tin—so when the girls find them years later, I can remind them which dress it came from.

Happy birthday, sweet girl. I absolutely can't believe you are 7. But you are. And the crazy cute clogs I got you (which you don't know about yet) will look so stinkin' cute with this jacket, it's killing me.