Happy Year of the Dragon!

Happy Chinese New Year!

I don't know if it was because I felt the New Year creeping up on me, or I was reminded that my mom wants me to have another baby this year, so he/she will be "dragon-born", but I fell head over heels in love with some Asian inspired prints at Joann's this weekend.  I can't wait to make something FANTASTIC out of them.

Although, the projects will have to wait, at least 2 weeks.  I know I don't have a whole lot of readers, but as a public service announcement, I'm letting everyone know I will be taking a slight break from blogging, and posts will be slightly scarcer, since I finally (FINALLY, after weeks and weeks and weeks of waiting) got A Dance With Dragons from the library.  The copy is for my Kindle, so unfortunately, I have a mere 14 days to read a bazillion pages worth of pseudo-medieval fantasy drama.  This means I'll be reading (or skimming, I won't lie) until my eyeballs fall out of my head every night, stopping only for Downton Abbey on Sundays.

But never fear!  With a baby shower coming up, my very first commissioned iPad cover sale, and all these new fabrics, I have project ideas blooming out of my ears, and I hope to share them with you soon!

A Completely Uncalled for Rant While I Sit Here on Yet Another Sick Day

Alright, this spiel may alienate many of you who are reading this, but I figure, there's got to be some people out there who may agree with me.  Hopefully.  Maybe.  Please, if you're out there, let me know!

I've only been in blogging land for about 2 months, but I follow quite a number of blogs and am really trying to "get out there".  I've noticed that the blogs I follow (is it just me?) seems to be very reflective of an upper middle class lifestyle, with large homes, beautiful kitchens, elaborate craft rooms and super moms.  Of course, this no doubt is brought on by a certain jealousy of said large homes and craft rooms, but is there a certain irony in upcycling an old t-shirt on a $900 craft table to save some money?

And seriously, how do people do it?  How do you clean and decorate your house like it's an Elle Decor photo shoot?  After coming home from work each day, making/eating dinner, and juggling the post-dinner baby routine, I'm WIPED.  I look at the mess in my living room and think "tomorrow is another day".  If I really wanted to pick up every piece of Duplos and search for that missing blue stacking cup, I wouldn't be able to plop my butt into a chair until 10pm, at which point I should really be thinking about bed, because, in a whole other sense, "tomorrow is another day".  That's just the cleaning up part, and cleaning in our average sized 1920s center-hall colonial is a constant business.  Between dog toys, baby toys, dog hair, my hair, and dust (which is a fact of life when you have no central venting air flow system), there is no such thing as CLEAN.  There are only relative stages of "clean"...as in, oh look, the dust bunnies are not as big as elephants today!  And "clean" only lasts a very finite period of time, usually less than a couple of hours, and only at night.  If Josh is awake, and I put away his Duplos blocks, he stops whatever he's doing to come over and proceed to dump them right back on the floor.  Same goes for those blasted (but cute) Melissa and Doug puzzle pieces, and wooden blocks, and play food, and his bin of toy cars.  

This is about as neat as it gets, for toys.

So I ask again, how do YOU do it, supermoms?  How do you finagle a moment in your house where there is no clutter?  Where every single item is stored away, out of sight.  All books, playstation controllers, remote controls, sippy cups, random socks, blankets, cell phones,  head phones, pencils, and the odd bottle of hand sanitizer that never seems to have a permanent home.

Ok, let's suppose your house is clean, and I mean REALLY clean and devoid of clutter.  Do people really decorate like Better Homes and Gardens in real life?  Where the sofa matches the chevron carpet matches the end table matches the coffee table matches the coffee table books matches the perfectly framed professional photos on the matching stenciled wall?  My husband and I had our own lives before we got married, and that means we had our own STUFF.  When we joined our households, we obviously joined our furniture (and our clutter), so it was difficult to truly DECORATE a space when you have a bachelor's stuff mixed with the stuff of a chick who used to dream of decorating.  We have an old tv, a college style halogen lamp that tilts like the tower of Pisa, a white couch that is no longer gleaming white, and a loveseat with an off-white slipcover, also no longer gleaming off-white.  I try, I really do.  Do I just sell off everything and buy all new, matching things?  Or did I make a mistake in not registering for everything in my fantastically food-oriented wedding?

Our house is not photo-shoot ready.  I am not going to provide a house tour and show off my amazing decorating skills.  Our house is a conglomeration of everything in our lives, thrown together haphazardly.  My Pinterest "yellow and gray" guest bedroom looks nothing like my Pinterest inspirations, but it also cost me next to nothing to put together. Other than a gray re-upholstered headboard with $15 worth of Ikea fabric, it's basically a collection of EVERY yellow item in my life, in 50 different shades of yellow.  The duck stuffie I got in Taiwan.  The darker yellow throw I received as a gift from years ago.  A lemon yellow print I concocted from a Pinterest idea.  Old yellow pillowcases that are losing the vibrancy of their original color.  An old lamp spray-painted with the only yellow paint I could find at Home Depot.  Oh well.  Isn't that the meaning of upcycling?

Maybe I will show off my house, my non-matching, non Elle Decor, only use what you have already to decorate, full of clutter but well lived-in, house.   

Despite my jealous ranting, I am absolutely in awe of the blogging supermom, a peculiar species all her very own, of which a part of me aspires to be.  That she can clean her house, decorate it beautifully, get dinner on the table, spend time with her kids, spend enough time with her husband to have more kids, make money on etsy, and take gorgeous pictures of it all to share with the world is beyond amazing, and completely incomprehensible to me.  So, if you are a supermom, share your secret.  How do you do it?  DO you do it?  Or do you have an army of shoe-making Keebler elves come in at night with magic wands and homemade cookies?  Pray do tell, so I can become one of you.  

Although, if it requires a lot of time or money, then maybe I'm not as interested.  I like to sleep and I like to eat, and I'm much too in love with my cozy imperfect life to throw that much time or money into making it perfect, at the loss of good food and good sleep.

Meet Elliot

Whooo, you say?  He's the newest addition of our family's collection of stuffed animals!  By "family", I mean J's....err...mostly mine (sorry, I just can't throw them away!  sentimentality, you know).  

This post is a bit late in coming; Elliot actually joined the crew about a week ago, before the Great Flu that has since ravaged our household.

I originally saw Elliot's cousin, Simon, at Maybe Matilda, where she recommended a Craftsy workshop that teaches you how to create your own owl.  I was intrigued by the offer, especially with the promise that you can learn secret methods! and time-saving tips! and brush up on your crochet! all for the low low price of $11.99!  (Oh dear God, I watch WAY too many info-mercials.) The workshop really was wonderful, though, despite my OxyClean-man impersonation.  Stacey from FreshStitches provides step-by-step instructions and lots of photos on how to create the body, head and all the different pieces, and then how to stitch them all together.  The really neat thing is you can ask questions, and she'll write back.  You can also see what other people have asked, in case it helps you out as well.  I was a bit nervous about creating a stuffie or softie, or whatever, but the instructions were very easy to follow, and all you really need to know is a Single Crochet.  Heck, I even brushed up on my sewing terms - what's a running stitch?  A whip stitch?  Those secret methods and time-saving tips?  Got those too!

I was SOOO proud of myself for finishing it, I made this big deal out of presenting it to Josh.  "Look Josh, this is the product of mommy's blood, sweat and tears.  Won't you just love him to pieces? PLEASE?"

After about 2 minutes of curious fascination with Elliot, Josh found other things to capture his attention, like the radiator,

and the camera.

A couple of things I've learned here.

1. Josh gets jealous.  If I hug Elliot hard enough, he will come and steal Elliot away, hug him terribly and then drop him.

2. It's nearly impossible for me to capture my fast moving kid in a decent photo.

This one warms my heart though, even though I think Elliot was body-slammed onto the floor about 30 seconds later.

Has J started loving Elliot more in the week that he's been here?  Not really, but here's me hoping.

Downton Abbey!

I know I should be crafting and cooking, blogging and setting up my Etsy shop, but we've all been sick lately, and there's been a lot of cuddling...and whining and moaning and snuffling.

I'm not nearly as cute when I sleep.

So Josh is sick, and now I'm sick, but those aren't really good excuses.  However, I've discovered Downton Abbey, which is the best excuse EVER!

Haven't heard of it?  It's a new show on PBS, their new Masterpiece Classic, and it is awesome, especially if you're a fan of "British historical drama with beautiful accents and glorious costumes", like I am.  It's my comfort tv (or my crack, whichever you prefer), stuff like Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, Lost in Austen.  I saw a friend on Facebook recommend it, and I decided to finally give it a try.  I wasn't interested at all in it at first, because come on, it's Facebook, and just because people talk about it doesn't mean it's good, right?  But I saw a post with the thumbnail image, and it was of people in costume, looking very British.  So I went to pbs.org and started watching last night (They are offering full episodes until 1/17).  Was it only last night?  Good thing Josh started sleeping better last night, because I was glued to my laptop, huge headphones on my head, for 4 HOURS!  My head felt like it was going to split open, my eyeballs had turned to jelly and was oozing out of my head, but I COULDN'T STOP WATCHING! I may have looked up once... or twice...maybe.  I have no idea if Josh cried or fussed.  Does that make me a bad mother?

Now, I know you all have crafting and cooking and blogging to do, but really, get yourself to www.pbs.org and catch up on all the Downton Abbey drama.  Do I sound like a commercial yet?  They're showing all (5) of the available episodes for free, in their entirety, until Tuesday.  Season 2, episode 2 is airing tonight at 9, and I'm actually going to bar Drew from his Skyrim addiction so I can feed my British drama addition.  I may like this show more than The West Wing, and I've watched that whole series so often the DVDs are starting to skip.

Just so you know, I haven't been a complete bum sitting on my bum all weekend.  I have a craft room!  I also have more craft stuff that I thought.  Once I'm caught up with the new favorite tv show, I'm off to organize my room, and I hope to share it with you soon!

Really Really Awesome Strawberries and Cream, and Balsamic Vinegar

I had this dessert on my first date with Drew.  I feel like I should make some earth shattering conclusion from that sentence, but my head is spinning and I can't think of anything clever, so feel free to make your own conclusions.  It had originally caught my eye because who'da THUNK that Balsamic Vinegar would go well with strawberries in a DESSERT?!  I mean, ok, the strawberries and cream thing I get, but vinegar?  Turns out, balsamic vinegar can be aged, and have vintages, like wine, (Raise your hand if you knew that little tidbit) so the balsamic used in this recipe should be aged, and sweet, and thick, like molasses.  We had to find ours at the local (very) Italian deli.

Now, zabaglione is a creamy egg custard customarily made with Marsala wine.  In this case, I used Tuaca, an Italian liqueur that tastes a little of citrus and vanilla.  But I'm sure you can also make it with Chambord (mmm, Chambord zabaglione over raspberries!), or any other sweet liqueur.  If you are not into alcohol, you can substitute in a sweet fruit juice.  Can someone say Goya fruit nectars?!

This would make a great dessert for Valentine's Day, or anytime, really.

Ok, I'm going to stop chit-chatting.  On to the goodness.

For this treat (seriously, I'm getting hungry just looking at it), you'll need:

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup of sugar, plus a bit for the whipped cream

1/2 cup of marsala wine or sweet liqueur of your choice

heavy cream  (I honestly can't remember how much it was, but it was the little carton at the supermarket, as opposed to the larger carton)

2 Tbsp of powdered sugar

pound of strawberries, cut into bitsize pieces

some aged sweet balsamic vinegar

A couple of quick notes here:  The first three ingredients are for the zabaglione.  I found this particular ratio to be easy to manage.  Of course, you are welcome to add more or less liqueur to taste!  The rest of the quantities is really up to your tastes - how sweet, how light and how tangy you want it to be.  This quantity makes 4 normal people portions, less if you're like me.

1. Put a pot with about an inch of water on the stove, and bring it to a steady simmer.  This is the bottom of your double boiler.

2. Combine the egg yolks, sugar and liqueur into a large metal mixing bowl.  This is the top of your double boiler.

3. Whip the mixture while holding the mixing bowl over the simmering pot of water until the mixture thickens into a fluffy custard-like consistency.  You'll see bubbles first, then the mixture will start to thicken.  This part is a bit tricky.  Too much heat, and you will get very sweet scrambled eggs.  Too little heat and the custard won't form.  To adjust, you can take the bowl off the heat occasionally, but keep mixing!  I went hardcore and mixed by hand.  Having an electric mixer makes this job a lot easier!

4. The custard is done when it's fairly thick and can coat the back of a spoon.

5. Set the custard aside to cool.

6. Combine the heavy cream with a tablespoon of sugar and mix until the cream is thick enough to form peaks. Set aside.  This is your whipped cream.

7. Add 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar to your strawberries, and mix.  Try not to house the strawberries now.  The final result is better, I promise!

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8. Once the zabaglione is cooled, gently fold it in with the whipped cream.

9. I had drizzled the balsamic vinegar over the strawberries just before serving, but you can mix the balsamic in when you add the powdered sugar to the strawberries.  This makes the flavor of the balsamic a little more even.

10. To serve, just scoop the zabaglione over the strawberries and DIG IN!  YUM!

Bon Provecho!

Felt, and Skyrim

I have maybe 10 yards of felt sitting down in the basement right now, waiting for me to have time to get down there and produce an idea I've had floating in my head for a while now.  Going to Pinterest to look for more inspiration, I pretty much drowned in the deluge of felt flower photos and tutorials.  That's great and all, and don't get me wrong, I think the felt flowers are ADORABLE, but I have a little boy, and he's not really a fan of flowery handbands, and honestly, what am I going to do with bouquets of little felt flowers everywhere?  Ok, that was a very run-on sentence with way too many "and"s to qualify as decent grammar, but I'm sure you get my point.  I'm also sure Isabel would love little felt flowers....to CHEW on and completely break down back to its little wool shreds.  

That pile of green and white used to be a rope toy.

Aaanyways, amongst all the flowers, I found this little gem of an idea at Martha Stewart (oh, that crafty lady!)

I can't decide if I'd want to churn out a bunch of these for Chinese New Year, which is January 23rd this year (Year of the Dragon, roar!), or for Valentine's Day.  But as Drew gently reminded me last night, what am I going to do with a bunch of felt fortune cookies, other than to keep the dog busy?  Sorry, I'm not one for extraneous decorations around the house, we have enough clutter already to drive me nuts.  BUT, maybe you like it, and I hope you can do something wonderful with this super cute idea!

In other news, last night I may have had the strangest conversation with my husband, to date.  I was trying to understand his extreme interest in Skyrim, being a dutiful and supportive wifey and all.  I can only imagine what we would have sounded like to an outsider.  There was talk of dragons, and high elves, and Orcs, and prophecies and Jean Luc Picard and Nords and Blades and smithies and marrying the hottest chick in the game.  I tried to log in to the official Skyrim website today to see what the game is all about, and thought it was a bit intrusive of them to ask for my birth date before opening the website.  I made up a date in 2001, and now I'm locked out of the site...apparently, I'm too young :-)

I think I'm going to stick with my crochet and my felt and leave the killing of dragons and polishing of ebony armor up to him.

No-Slip Toddler Socks

One of the gazillion Christmas presents given to J this year was a pair of incredibly cute polar bear socks, with paw prints on the feet and a parade of polar bears around the ankles.  But with the hardwood floors in our house and the way Josh likes to just throw his body forward (hoping his feet will follow), there have been many a crash and burn due to the lack of traction on his socks.  So, I added some real "paw prints" on the bottom, with puffy paint!  

And you know what's so great about this?  It's a project I can do while he's awake, since it only takes the amount of time he's able to be distracted. (about 5 minutes)

I added some swiggles on a pair of Robeez socks as well.  I love these socks since they have these elastic bands around the ankles, preventing little hands from ripping them off little feet, but I was a little disappointed when I found out they didn't have traction dots on the bottom.  Now I no longer have that problem!

Morse Code Necklace

Thank you all so much for the sweet comments on my braid scarf!  It was featured at Flamingo Toes on Friday, and as I was checking it out, another one of Beverly's "crushes" really caught my eye - the Morse Code Necklace by Jennifer at TwoButterflies.  

I mean, how cool is that?  And nerdy?  In a totally nerdy cool way, since you can spell anything you want, and only a select few will know.  Oh, and do-able.  So much so that I might put this idea to good use, maybe a necklace or leather bracelet for a guy.  Imagine the possibilities!

Pinning now...

Learning About Knits, the Hard Way

Not all knits are created equal.  Well, of course not, but I just never actually put any time or thought into this before.  I probably should have.

This is one of my more unsuccessful projects, although it came out passable in the end, I suppose.  Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes.

In the burst of inspiration I got from all those jersey knit scarves on Pinterest, I had gone out and bought myself the gray jersey I used for the Crochet and Braid scarf, and one yard of a lovely thick soft knit, in a beautiful yellow color.  I didn't read whether it was jersey, but it felt like it could be a t-shirt!

Apparently, I got lucky with the gray fabric, because this time around, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

First, the inspiration for scarf project #2 is an infinity scarf with mini braids across it.  The website is in German, so Google translated it for me and told me it's a fabric scarf with interwoven braids.  What?  How does one interweave braids into fabric?

After puzzling over this one for a couple of days, I just moved on.  I cut 1 inch strips out of my yellow fabric to pull into yarn, and this is what I got:

I cut another strip, this time with the grain, and pulled.  NOTHING.  NO CURL.  <Insert 4 letter word here>.

So here's the lesson for today.  A knit fabric has wales and courses.  Think of wales as the knit stitch Vs in a sweater, and the courses as the horizontal looking purl stitches.  A fabric that curls at the edges (and that rolls itself into yarn) is a single knit, where the front of the fabric is different than the back, one side showing wales, and the other side showing courses, like a sweater.  MY fabric, my beautiful buttery fabric, had wales showing on both sides, and was a double knit, and had no curl.  BOO.

Ok, plan B - make the infinity scarf anyways and use yarn braids instead of fabric braids.  I had some pretty curly yarn that matched the fabric, so I braided it, and it didn't look good.  On to plan C - stitching them straight to the fabric.  Boy were those stitches UGLY.

Now this is where I REALLY didn't think my cunning plan all the way through.  I sewed the short ends together, then the long sides, leaving a hole to flip the loop inside out, which, instead of a right side out loop, left me with a tube with a lining.  Serious FAIL here.  

After cutting out the incorrect stitches, I was so frustrated I didn't even bother trying to figure out how to properly close the infinity scarf loop.  I just sewed the whole thing shut and called it done.

I went back to JoAnn's today to search for real jersey fabric, and only found 1 bolt of a strange looking gray knit and 1 bolt of a hot pink knit that I'd be afraid to sport in public.  Sometimes, I wish I lived in New York City and had the world's fabrics at my finger tips. (It's that instant vs delayed gratification thing again!)

Good luck to all of you out there making your own t-shirt scarves.  May your fabrics be beautiful and your edges curl!