Posts filed under 'Crafts'
These are the dresses from our Project Runway challenge. We each were tasked with choosing a fabric we hadn’t worked with before and making a dress without a pattern. There were five contestants and all the dresses were so cute. Mine isn’t pictured, but I’ll post a picture soon. Sarah worked with silk and I thought had the most well made and well tailored dress. It’s the burgundy one with the pretty trim. Kate’s won the cutest prize, and who wouldn’t have guessed with that baby in a matching dress! And Emily’s was the most fashion forward with the vintage-inspired top and Pucci-esque bottom. I don’t know what mine was, ladies?
The oohing and aahing was followed by dinner at my house. We had a salad, white beans with pecorino and sage, and manicotti. The girls were so kind as to bring dessert. We also had apple crisps with ice cream!
We’re going to continue with our own, personal project runway. The next project is lingerie, inspired by Angry Chicken who made the most gorgeous slips and what she calls “tap pants.” We mentioned our plan when the boys came to pick up their wives and they were all giddy with thoughts of lace and ties and frills and were very disappointed to find out that lingerie can mean PJs, slips, and boring things, too! At least one in the group has plans to make maternity flannel pajamas.
November 20th, 2008
It was my sister-in-law’s birthday last weekend so I made a big dinner and had my in-laws over. I wanted to use the pumpkin–the biggun’–that we bought at the farm and debated over stew versus risotto. The stew was sounding a little bland to me, so I made saffron risotto and stuffed the pumpkin with it. The only thing I didn’t take into account is how long it would take to make enough risotto to feed twelve–about an hour and a half! I cleaned the pumpkin and baked it for about 30 minutes before stuffing it with the risotto, after the risotto was in I cooked it for another 30 minutes at 300, based on this recipe. It was delicious! And very orange! Continuing with that theme, I made roasted carrots with thyme, a delicious salad with orange vinaigrette, and butterscotch cake from the Nigella Lawson book. I think my favorite part was the salad. It was made with mixed greens, walnuts, shaved pecorino, shredded red cabbage, and pears sauteed in butter and brown sugar. The dressing is as follows:
Orange Vinaigrette
1 small shallot, minced
2 tbsp. squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp. orange zest
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
The cake wasn’t as good as I imagined it would be. I wouldn’t make it again–it wasn’t very sweet, was too dense, and tasted a bit more like a biscuit with unsweetened caramel cream cheese frosting. I did have fun making my own caramel, a first for me. It was pretty easy and very delicious on its own!
November 11th, 2008
Ryan and I spent a few hours at the pumpkin patch on a lovely autumn Saturday two weeks ago. There were kids, a corn maze, and kettle corn popping. The weather was sunny and brisk–a perfect day for a stroll through the farm. We decided on the South 47 farm in Redmond.
I had originally wanted to get all dark green pumpkins to mimic a spread I saw in Martha that was beautiful and dark. I had white pumpkins last year, so it seemed like a good change of pace.
But, they didn’t have any quite dark enough and I really liked the “Cinderella” pumpkins, partly because of the name and mostly because of the gorgeous orange color and the creamy white stripes. So we loaded our wheel barrel with these.
The had this gorgeous wooden box full of gourds. They had stools pulled up next to it so kids could climb up and pick out the ones they liked. I always chose the half and half ones. Doesn’t it seem odd that something could be split so perfectly like that?
And then there was this spread of edible squash–you can see the mini Cinderella pumpkins in the middle there. I just love all of the coloring on squash. It’s so pretty!
We headed home with about 20 pounds of edible pumpkin and a large bag of kettle corn–that was completely emptied by the time we got home.
November 4th, 2008
I had a plan to make a kitty basket from fabric. My great grandma used to use her leftover fabrics to make braided rugs. I always loved how they looked and thought it might be nice to try the technique in basket format. I braided about 8 yards of rope, but when I started to coil it realized that a) I would still need another 16 yards, and b) that the braid was not nearly tight enough and the fabric not nearly sturdy enough/thick enough. I have no idea how this is done and now wish I’d done a little research before diving in, but that’s the nature of trying things out. I’m a little hesitant to start over with this, because I probably spent two hours mindlessly braiding. But I have no clever ideas of what else to do with the length of rope I made. Any ideas?
I have great plans to go to a pumpkin patch and do some vintage hunting tomorrow. Hopefully the weather holds up and I can get Ryan on board! Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
October 24th, 2008
I always love the color studies that I see around blogland–random colored items in the same family. It’s such a nice juxtaposition of everyday objects. These are a few yellow items that can be seen around my house–that brilliant autumn tree, an empty cream puff box, and my yellow trunk that stores all my quilts.
I have been so in awe of the fall colors this year. I can’t ever remember what makes them so bright, wetness or dryness, but they are just lovely this year. When I was walking home yesterday I so wished I had a super camera to photograph them. My camera would not have done justice the elm leaves and twigs the muted color of old book pages that were scattered so perfectly they looked painstakingly arranged; nor the piles of red maple leaves that had been swept in a wave pattern by the rain, as if molded like kelp on a sandy beach.
Ryan and I made a regular stop of Joe’s pizza in New York, which was handily right next to a Beard Papa–a store that makes cream puffs to order that are so yummy I really need to have one right now. Seattle has not had a Beard Papa, until now. It’s in Uwajimaya, in case you want to stop in. They only take cash, so you know. Hooray for Beard Papa! Don’t you just love that line drawing of the bearded papa?
And lastly, the trunk. I used to use this as a coffee table. I found it at an antique store in Tacoma and just loved it. Someone must have painted it, and the leather handles are long gone, but I still love it. My step-father was so kind as to line the inside with cedar planks, so it really is perfect for housing linens. I keep all my quilts and family heirloom needle crafts in here. It lives in my living room; often I pull them out for a show and tell, or a cuddle on the couch with the aforementioned tea and movie.
October 21st, 2008
I had no intention of taking a blogging break, but time got away from me. I have a much more difficult time with getting things done in the evening when the weather changes. I find all I want to do is curl up with a blanket, tea and a movie/book/TV show. Which leads to very productive crafting and blogging as you can tell. If this were a blog about my TV watching, it would have many more frequent updates. But that would be lame, lame, lame! (What does this say about me?)
Alas, I did spend a lovely Saturday afternoon last week at a dear friend’s new house sewing and crafting. It’s got a wood stove and is surrounded by apple trees, and she prepared a delicious brunch for us girls. I worked more on my dress, which now fits me everywhere. I just have to do all of the finishings–hemming and trimming and whatnot–now. I also spent a few good hours with my idea book. I tear out everything I see in magazines that I want to remember for some future project and organize them and keep them in this binder, which I do use several times a year. I have little folders for each holiday that holds all of the ideas for decorating, eating, and general merriment. It has come in handy on many occasion. I keep a stack of ripped pages and try to organize it twice a year, which works pretty well. This used to have “Idea Book” spelled out in beads on the cover, but got ripped to shreds and now says, “I Book.” Still fitting.
October 17th, 2008
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