housewarming

justin moved out of the house last year. but recently he and his girlfriend jessica got an apartment together. when girl-child moved out i made her a cookbook scrapbook of some of her favorite recipes. justin requested the same. but he said, "go ahead and put some gross stuff in it too, since it's not just for me."

so justin and jessica, here is your cookbook with gross stuff included.

i bought this paper pack a few months ago, not having a clue what i was going to do with it. i was worried it was too girlie for this project but since justin now has his own girlie, i think it's perfect!

thought handwriting each recipe was a nice touch too.

♥ mom

creativity

sometimes there's no making sense of creativity. it strikes at stranges times or worse, i sit and wait for it to come. she can be fickle, my muse.

last night at midnight, i was up creating this little gem. it's the tin my teeny gingher scissors came in, re-purposed into a random act of kindness for a fellow raveler. if you're not familar with ravelry, on the message boards, there are buttons you can click to show love(1), or if you disagree(1) with someone or think something is funny(1). i thought the love(1) was a whimsical touch. the recipient enjoys family recipes, so this tin will include some of our favorites. cute no?

paper and rubons are basic grey, font is quickutz zoey (i think).

paper teaser

darling friends of ours are having their first baby this year. i love making this little baby album.

here's a little teaser, Elizabeth!

tagged in a photo meme

tagged by Cami. tagging mom, russ, susan and nansi.
5th folder in my picture file, 5th photo:

it's a baby photo album i created for my cousin's new little baby last year. super cute. super fun.
a few more pictures are here.

seeing this makes me wonder if i ever told the mom and dad the left side of the page was designed perfectly for a portrait style 4x6 photo. hmmm. . .

love is in the air

or i've been sniffing too much adhesive. the latter is a pretty safe bet. i've been crafting again!

i was commissioned today for valentine's day cards. valentine's day. what is that? is that when st. peter drove the snakes out of ireland? no, wait, that's st. patty's day. i think i much prefer the pinching and beer holiday to valentine's day. all that sappy love shit. but the crafting? that i do like. here's a sneak peek at what i have so far. titillating, no?

boo (b)

Snagged a few Halloween pics off my cell phone. Please excuse the crappy pictures but this shit is too good not to share.

First up, evidence of convincing someone what a good bra can do for her self esteem, not to mention her cleavage. I texted this picture to her husband and I think he may have actually been speechless - a rare occurrence indeed. Cover your eyes, little ones. This isn't for tender viewers:

and my darling girl-child, discovering her love of false eyelashes. Go ahead and tell me how freakin' adorable she is. :)

And the amazing Halloween cookies my friend Trista made for a knitting get-together. I liked them so much I had her make a few dozen for Ken to haul to work today. They were a HIT! This picture doesn't even begin to show in detail the intricate work she puts in to these cookies. Every Witch has a wart, every eye is perfectly blood-shot. They ROCK! Thanks Trista!

and, as promised, a full-sized shot of a few of the Halloween cards I created. They were a hit too.

happy haunting!

happy halloweenie

I cropped this picture way down to share just a snippet of some Halloween cards I've made this year. I'll share the whole picture this weekend, after my cards have gone out in the mail. I don't usually send Halloween cards but I was looking through my paper crafting stash and thought it'd be fun to use some of the items I've had for a while - always a good challenge.

Years ago I bought a Halloween paper kit - it has to be at least 6 or 7 years old. Never used a bit of it. It had these neat vellum, Victorian looking Halloween sentiments. I had fun creating different ways to use them. And my rocking new stamp. It's been a while since I played around. I busted out the embossing powder and everything! Needless to say my desk is a mess now and I've done nothing all week toward the craft fair. But it was worth it knowing I'm going to make some folks smile this week. :)

Happy Halloweenie!

sometimes I amaze myself

I have so many projects going right now I'm actually losing sleep. I'm still trying to get my shit together for the craft fair. That's actually going quite well. I've got 70 (+/-) pincushions, 40 cards with more to come. 9 Santa's in the works and fabric for 20 or so pumpkins. I've been brainstorming (ouch, I know) about my display too and I think I've come up with something uber cute. If I can just get it to translate from my brain to something real.

I'm 4 rows away from starting my toe decreases on my TYDY socks. For you non-knitters, I'm less than a day away from being completely done. And I must say, nothing makes you feel better about your work than having your friends fight over a project. Both Cami and Noemi have claimed the pair as their own. I think one of them even licked the sock on the needles. I said, "Don't think it's yours just cause you marked it with your spit."

(hello Juno fans)

I've even been working on the Clapotis. I'm done with the main part, now to start decreasing the thing until I can cast off the last few stitches. It's getting cold here. I'd better hurry.

Today I pumped out half my Christmas cards for the craft fair:

and I created this for the backs of my paper goods:

sometimes I amaze myself. I was so happy with the way this, what should I call it, my watermark? turned out. Its a business card of sorts on the back of each hand-made card. Fucking brilliant! (sorry mom, I'm working on getting my blog rating up from PG to R. I can't have kid-friendly blog FFS!)

More cards tomorrow and then maybe some sewing with a little knitting in between.

Fun day, huh?

presents, progress and a pooch

broken blog

It doesn't look as though i'll be able to fix my blog. It'll have to stay the way it is. I can't get my header picture back, my post titles are still freakishly huge and I'm sick of the whole thing! I guess what matters is the content, right? So here's some good stuff: another notebook and some food porn.

enjoy.

Papery goodness for a new friend.

Fried Rice

2 eggs, beaten
3 T oil
3 strips bacon, cut into 1" pieces
1/2 cup cooked meat, diced (pork, chicken, shrimp or ham)
1 small onion, diced
1 c bean sprouts
3 c cooked, long-grain rice
2 - 3 T soy sauce
1 green onion, chopped

Heat 1 T oil in the wok and scramble eggs. Remove and set aside.
Fry bacon in wok until most of the fat is cooked out. Drain off excess fat and replace with 2 T oil.
Add cooked meat, onions and bean sprouts. Stir fry about 1 minute.
Add rice and soy sauce. Fry until rice is hot, turning temperature down if necessary.
Add eggs and green onions as garnish.

This is a dish we've made often and copying the recipe here I see we've tweaked it plenty. We do it by the boatload - 12 cups of rice, a pound of bacon, lots of meat, less bean sprouts and we use some of the bacon grease for extra flavor. You could add peas and carrots if you wanted. Either way, this dish is D-lish. Try it. You'll like it!

Recipe from Enjoy Chinese Cuisine by Judy Lew

maybe one is in your future

check me out, bein' all paper-crafty!

I bought a cute little notebook from a great paper products company (they even have fabric, Cami!) called iota and said to myself, "self, you can make those!" and here's what I came up with:

super simple, uber cute and handy too - it opens sortof like a matchbook, into this handy-dandy notebook:

I know it's not yet or even soon, but. . .

happy freakin' birthday, Lisa B. *mwa*

payin' it forward

Back in November I joined in on a crafty pay-it-forward type thing. I finally got around to finishing part of it. Two of my commenters got these lovely (if I don't say so myself) cards in the mail this week. I really wanted to keep them for myself. Luckily I know the gal who made them -lol- and I'm thinking I'll be making some more.

These were so unbelievably simple but I think therein lies their beauty.

I love the idea of paying it forward. And the concept is so simple - make something you love to do anyway and send it off to someone to brighten their day.

Who's next?

new cards for the old folks

more card craftiness

If you're one of the recipients of these cards, act surprised when you find them in your mailbox, 'k? :)

Copied from two peas again.

card kits

I knew with some simple written instructions anyone could help put these cards together.

So I assembled the cards a little more (less for the assistants to do) and packaged them all together like this:

I hate that I missed working with the old folks today. Even walking in to deliver the kit this morning - I saw some smiling, eager faces. Seeing the folks there reaffirmed that I want to be that someone who says, "Hello! I'm here to see YOU."

That Cami, she's a smart one. And not just cause she told me to take a shot of whiskey and go to bed. :)

my funny Valentine

I know the thought of machine stitching paper makes some of you cringe and squirm but it's ok, really! It adds such a nice textural element. I tried these cards without and they just weren't the same.

Today I worked for about six hours on the Valentine's for the old folks. They'd better rock the glue sticks on Tuesday. If they don't come out in droves, check your mailbox for a card from moi. Better late than never and all that.

I stitched, punched, stamped, glued and outlined my way through thirty-two cards. I have only one hour with the old folks. But I made sure these cards were easy to assemble and I have faith in their shaky little hands and far-sighted eyeballs. These are much better than paper plate/bean maracas, don't you think? I'll let you know how it goes.

I wish blogger would fix the spell check function. It's a pet peeve of mine to have mis-spellings all over the place. But I suppose if that's the most I can complain about . . . life ain't all bad.

Carry on, crafty ones.

one more

I'm sure I can blame this on Cami

I've been busy tonight making Valentines.

I mentioned to Cami that I wanted to volunteer at our local humane society. I'm an animal lover. It made sense to me. She said, "Why on earth would you want to do that?" (those who know her, can't you just hear it?!) So I explained how I was an animal lover and I was looking for some worthy cause to which I could donate my time. It made sense to me. Well she had other ideas. Better ideas. ;) She said, "Why not call local nursing homes and see about taking your dog in as a visitor? I think your time would be much better spent working somewhere they aren't euthanizing animals." So I got on the horn and made a few phone calls.

How do we get from dog visits to Valentines you might ask. Here's where I'm blaming Cami. I went in for a volunteer orientation. Seems all they need to allow a dog to visit is their vaccination records. Good deal. Any of my dogs would be great for the job but I'm thinking Sadie, my Golden Retriever would be the best received. Back to Valentines. The director asks if I have any other talents I might like to share. So I went down the list:

singing, cooking, reading, paper crafting . . . he interrupts with a raised brow and a wiggle in his seat (he was a little gay) - paper crafts?

Here's where the Valentines come in. I said, "Well, I suppose I could come in with some simple card designs so the folks could make some greeting cards." He pounced.

So here's what I've come up with so far. The complicated parts of the cards will be pre-assembled. He only expects eight at the most (probably more like five) so it won't be too time consuming to do. What do you think? Cute? Simple enough?

And this is what it looks like when creative juices flow all over my desk. No wonder I don't craft too often! Somebody (me) has to clean up this mess!

oh yeah, inspiration from 2Peas, like always.