I've Opened my Etsy shop!

I received an email last night from a lovely lady who asked if my Easter printable can be customized for different colors.  Why didn't I think of that?  Oh yeah, because I made the word art just to see if I could, and didn't think it'd become popular.  I'm so overwhelmed with all the wonderful comments people have made on this little project, so, even though I'm pretty much under water at work, I've added my first listing to my new Etsy shop!  (Because this is WAY more fun than work, wouldn't you say?)

I've only listed 1 item so far, since I'm totally new to this Etsy game (read as: this new time suck), so please bear with me as I figure out the system and juggle my time!

Easter Printable in Customizable Colors

So, if you're interested in a different color combination or size, email me and let me know.  I'll add more listings (or custom listings) as I get feedback!  Wish me luck!

WW: Spaghetti Night

Joy.

and

Bath.

Some More Random Things

I guess I like telling people about myself because here are another 11 questions I've answered.  Alecia over at Chicken Scratch tagged me, and I found her questions to be different and fun, so I'm gonna answer them.  I'm  not tagging anyone else, and this is just for fun, for me and for you.  Read on, and see if you're my long lost BFF!

Someday, I'll do a series on my wedding, but until then, that's me!

1. Could/would you live alone on mountain for a year (you can have a dog)?

Nope.  Couldn't do it.  I can work a power tool, but really, I'm a girly girl.  I wear gloves to garden so I don't get TOO dirty.  Silly me.  One of my favorite children's books is My Side of the Mountain, and I imagine how fun it would be to live on a mountain by myself, grubbing for fresh water mussels and making acorn pancakes, but the book doesn't talk about the DIRT.  Now, if by living on a mountain, you mean, living in a comfortable cabin with all amenities, and I'm really only concerned about loneliness...well then....nope, still couldn't do it.  I'd go crazy talking to myself, or the dog.

2. Do you still have a teddy bear/stuffed animal?

Why yes, I do.  Even better, I got it when I was 22!  Actually, I have a number of my old stuffies, including the big headed Korean doll from when I was young enough to be socially allowed to play with dolls, and the cat my grandmother gave me, and finally, my current favorite, the very large headed duck I bought in Taiwan.  It hangs out in bed with me on occasion.

3. Would you rather swim in a lake, the ocean or a pool?

I'd rather lay out and look at the beautiful lake, ocean and pool!  I guess I don't really have a preference, since all 3 are fun to play in, and yet make you feel utterly disgusting when you get out (algae, sand, and pee?).

4. How do you feel about cruise ships?

Eh.  I mean, it was awfully exciting to get on one, and to see the skyline of New York City pass you by, and to wave to all the suckers who weren't going on vacation, but it ended up a bit anticlimatic!  I felt like it was a huge money trap, since they make you walk through the casino every time you want to eat.  I also only went with my husband, so we didn't have a whole entourage of friends to play board games with.  Not that I didn't enjoy myself, but our trip to Paris was sooo much better!  So, so far, it's just eh, but I'm open to changing my mind!

5. What is your favorite vegetable and how do you like to eat it?

Yikes, I love vegetables, so this one is hard.  I like the funky vegetables - bitter melon, and gourd squash, and winter melon, and okra, and baby bok choy, and chrysanthemum leaves for hot pot dinners.  Or long beans, which I'm going to grow again this year.  But in terms of eating it - stir fried in a bit of oil, with salt and garlic.  Nothing fancy, so it really allows you to appreciate the taste and texture of the vegetable itself!

6. Do/would you let your dog sleep in your bed?

Nope and Nope.  If Isabel were in our bed, she would own the bed, and I would have lost my one dog-hair free zone to the big furry one, and I don't mean my husband.  Plus, she makes weird noises at night licking herself and dreaming of chasing neighborhood cats.  Imagine waking up in the dead of night and all you hear is a wet slurping sound, over and over and over.  She doesn't even sleep in our room, because when she does, I don't sleep.

Wasn't she a cutie?  And weren't my floors so shiny and unscratched?  She's a lot heftier now, at a chunky 72 lbs, and my floors are now dog-nail scratched and scuffed and not nearly so shiny.

7. How do you feel about spiders in the house?

I hate spiders so much I'm pretty much done talking about this question.

8. Do you still talk to people from high school/college?

Yessir, I do, and from middle school too.  Not a lot, but I keep in touch with a few of my close friends, and have found several more over Facebook.  It's amazing to see how far we've come, having families of our own, and turning into contributing members of society.  It's also amazing to think I still talk to people I first met 20 years ago.  Ooooold.

9. Are you like your SO's mother? Is he like your father?

This is quite a delicate question, as you never know who is going to read this!  I'll keep it simple and say I don't feel like I'm like my hubby's mother, but Drew is a bit like my father, in that both of them are startlingly unromantic.  Have I offended anyone?

10. In the car: windows down or AC?

AC, unless I've driving fairly slowly down beautiful country lanes.  One of my colleagues told me that his hearing in his left ear is significantly worse than in his right ear, because he had spent years driving with the windows down in his old AC-less truck.  Makes ya think.  I like having the windows open in spring and fall, when the breeze is absolutely delicious, but once I get on the main road or highway, it's AC for me.  I love my creature comforts: it's March, and we've already talked about turning on the AC in the house.

11. Do you eat seasonally?

Heck yeah!  And that's a new thing for us, ever since we joined the farm cooperative in our neighborhood.  We pay for the season up front, and then pick up fresh farm veggies every Saturday, so we are very aware of what is in season.  I still buy fruit and out-of-season vegetables for parties, but we really stick to our farm bounty in the summertime.  Basically, this means that you're craving green salad all spring, then you gorge on spinach and lettuce in June until you can't stand another salad, and then you crave tomatoes, and then you make a ton of tomato sauce and pickle a peck of peppers, and then you're back to living on squash and pumpkin, wishing for a green salad and some fresh asparagus.  We just picked a couple new spring ramps from our secret stash!  Yeah spring!

I know, I'm a little crazy, but it's so much more fun!  So, wanna be my new best friend?

Fabric or Paper Wrapped Easter Eggs

In case you missed it, here is the tutorial for my Easter Eggs that was featured on It's Overflowing last week!

I don't remember the last time I decorated Easter eggs, and the only way I've ever done it was through dyeing or using those little stickies that you buy in the Easter egg kits.  This year, I decided to do something a little different, and use up some of my fabric and papers scraps in the process!  There are lots of pictures and tutorials on decoupage eggs available online, but here is my version.

I started with a package of plaster eggs from Michaels, and some origami paper that I had laying around.  (I've gone through paper folding crazes before and had lots of random papers left over). Cut the origami paper slightly larger than the length and circumference of the egg - for the regular sized eggs in the package, my paper dimensions were ~3.5 inches x 5.75 inches.  Then fold into quarters, and cut thin strips without cutting through the paper - I left about 1/4 inch intact at the bottom (which would be about 1/2 inch after unfolding).  The folding is optional, but it does save you from making 4 times as many cuts.

Open your folds and you should have a piece of paper that is "feathered", but intact in the center, lengthwise.

Smear some ModPodge around the center of the egg, and wrap the paper around the egg.  Set it aside to dry, otherwise, the paper will be sliding around as you try to glue the strips in place.  As you can see in the picture above, I covered my eggs in batches, letting a bunch dry, then went back to the first wrapped egg and finishing it.

Take an egg with the paper dried around the middle, and fold down the strips around the end of the egg, creating sort of a sunburst pattern.  Add some ModPodge on the egg, and start gluing the strips to the egg, overlapping as you go.  Make sure you press down well so as not to create too many air bubbles.  Since paper isn't completely flexible, there will be a couple places where the coverage may warp a bit, but for the most part, the overlap should be pretty smooth.  Do this on both ends of the egg, and you're done!

Using the same technique, I also created a couple of eggs with fabric scraps.  I found the fabric to be much more flexible (of course!) when gluing down, resulting in much fewer air bubbles, but because the fabric was thicker than the origami paper, I could see the individual strips at the end.  Also, if the strips are slightly overlong, make sure to cut it down, otherwise, you get a ton of overlap on the ends and it creates a nub, of sorts.  So, some of my eggs ended up with a weird nub protrusion :-). 

One note on the glue:  I didn't have ModPodge on hand when I first started this project, but I had pinned a recipe for homemade "modpodge" which was basically a 50/50 ratio of water and Elmer's Glue All.  I don't know about you, but that really really didn't work for me.  The mix was too watery and it lead to a sticky, watery, papery mess and a lot of frustration.  I went out and bought real ModPodge the next day, and wonder of wonders, the glue was perfect and the paper went on easily and all of a sudden, this project wasn't frustrating at all!  The first night, I struggled through maybe 2 eggs.  The second night, I made 8 or 9 in a couple of hours. 

I've still got some time before Easter, and a whole slew of the small eggs left, so I will be running my little glue and paper/fabric egg-making factory for a couple of weeks yet!

Easter Egg Guest Post at It's Overflowing

Hey friends!  I'm guest posting at It's Overflowing today as part of Aimee's Easter Egg Hunt series, so take a moment to go check it out!  She's showcasing a whole ton of cute Easter egg decorating ideas inspire and motivate you, and I've enjoyed seeing all the different ideas everyone has been coming up with.  I'm glad I have some plastic eggs left from my own project so I can give some of these other techniques a try :-).

Enjoy, and Happy Hump Wednesday!  (In case you're in the dark regarding Hump Day: Wednesday is the middle of the work week for me, so getting over this "hump" means I'm getting closer to the weekend!)

House Number Door Wreath for Spring!

I think most of my girl friends have now been sucked into the black hole that is Pinterest, and inevitably, we start socializing on each other's boards.  Lara pinned this picture of a wreath with door numbers.  One of my other friends, Kristal, commented that this could be a good craft day project.  The craft day never happened - does it ever?  How does one get together with one's girl friends, without kids or husbands, for several hours during the day, to do nothing but eat, drink and make stuff?  Anywho, even though the craft day didn't happen, the wreath did!

[Update]: I'm entering my wreath in the Pinspired and Rewired challenge, hosted by a quartet of lovely ladies at Ginger Snap Crafts, The Gunny Sack, Southern Lovely and Family Ever After!  Here is my pinspiration, from Dara at Teach.Craft.Love:

The original was made with silk flowers and painted wooden numbers, but I tried to "craft it up" a bit by making felt flowers instead.  If you were my mom, you'd say something along the lines of "why make more work for yourself?!  It's so complicated!", but it enabled me to:

1. try my hand at making some of the beautiful felt flowers on Pinterest,

2. learn that my fabric scissors gives me a heck of a blister on my thumb knuckle,

and

3. realize that cutting about 60+ of these felt flowers is great lap activity to do while watching Hunt for Red October during Josh's nap!

We also used real metal door numbers from Home Depot, since Michaels was conveniently out of the number 2 and the number 0.  Of course, right?

Here's a short picture tutorial for the big floofy white and blue flowers.

I followed this tutorial for the yellow flower.

There's really not a whole lot more I can say about this. I hot glued all the flower pieces onto the twig wreath, and the numbers were just inserted into the twig tangle using the screws that came with them.  It didn't take a lot of time (other than cutting out felt pieces and blowing through a handful of bandaids for my thumb), and was super simple to make.  I think the flowers and the bright colors really make this a perfectly FUN and PRACTICAL spring project!  

What do you think?

Check here to see where I'm linked up!

He has Risen! Printable

Here's another little tidbit that will eventually become part of my Easter mantle, and I'm making it available to you too as a free printable!  He has risen!  

I had started playing around with word art in Picasa after reading about how easy it is.  Picasa, word art?  How did I not know this?  Me, who's been using Picasa ever since it was released!  I guess it's a little like me and smart phones - I only use what I need and tune out everything else.  And like smart phones and when I discovered Angry Birds, I'm loving this new (to me) feature in one of my favorite free tools!

So, in the midst of eggs and bunnies and springtime grasses and flowers, let's take a moment to remember the reason behind THIS season - that He died for us, and because of His resurrection, we will also be made alive!

You can download the PDF of the printable HERE or here at Google Docs.

[UPDATE!] - I am amazed and overwhelmed with the feedback I've gotten on this little project, so I finally "opened" my Etsy shop, and am listing this print in customizable colors and sizes!  Thank you so much for brightening my day with your lovely comments!

The Mathematical Anomalies of a 12-Sided Ball?

I'm finally starting to work on my Easter decorations, which means, I'm finally going to take down my Christmas wreath.  (Yes, it's true, it's still hanging up there on my mantel, but I've also learned an important lesson through my laziness.  I had weaved some boughs from my long-dead Christmas tree into the wreath, and they are still green!  Maybe not vibrant green, but definitely not brown and dead.)

I really want my Easter mantel to cost as little as possible, but still look interesting and fresh, so I put together a little something called a Dodecahedron.  I used to make these when I was little, and had completely forgotten about it.  And now that I'm an adult, I've learned that there is a name for my folding paper madness - modular origami.  Who knew?  Basically, it means multiple pieces of the same shape are assembled together to create a polyhedron of some sort.  Today's polyhedron is a 12-sided "sphere", with each side shaped like a pentagon.

Want one yourself?  It's a great lap project to work on while numbing your brains with Weeds (addicting show, that.  Pun intended!), and they look beautiful hung up in a nursery or a child's room.

You'll need 30 pieces of paper to build this model.  I used some cute green scrapbook paper for a "spring" feel.  

1. Each piece should be in a 3 to 4 ratio -> [3 in x 4 in], or [4.5 in x 6 in], or [6 in x 8 in], etc.  

2. Fold the paper into thirds using a z-fold.  Now you have a strip of paper that is 1 in x 4 in.

3. Fold each corner up, and make a crease from one inside corner to the other.  It sounds complicated and I know I didn't explain it well, but hopefully the pictures show what I'm talking about.

4. Repeat, 30 times.

Again, I have no idea how to explain this using words, but the end fold of one piece gets tucked into the long fold of another piece.  The third piece has its end fold tucked into the long fold of the second piece, with the first piece being tucked into the third piece.  Oy vay.  Still with me?  Well, best get yourself a fun drink at this point!

Now you just keep adding pieces by tucking the end folds into the gaps of an adjacent long fold.  I try to use 3 different patterns on each corner, but that's just aesthetics.  When you finish the 30th piece, you will have a complete dodecahedra ball!

I recommend watching some fun tv while doing this, with the fun drink on standby.  Our household has been surviving on Weeds, The League, and pina coladas :-)

Stay tuned for some more Easter fun!  I tried my hand at word art, and bought some plastic eggs to pimp out.  You can follow my craziness through GFC (still around for me), and Linky Followers, then find some more goodness on Pinterest and Facebook!

Late Night Pinteresting - Good Idea, no?

It's 11:38 pm.  The sun set a long time ago, and here I am, still working.  Can't go to bed, so what to do?  Pinterest, of course!  And because it's late, and I'm feeling sick, and slap happy, I am uncontrollably laughing at the silliest things.

Ok, so I saw this:

source

Read it silently in my head, thought it was pretty funny.  Slight chuckle.  Husband looks over, asks what I'm chuckling at, so I read it out loud.  Somehow, the act of reading it out loud renders it a bazillion times funnier, to the point where I can't finish "toast toast toast" without crying, big blobby tears running down my face.  Laughter becomes slightly hysterical, then melts back into silly giggles.

Next:

on Etsy

Again, much funnier when said out loud to a bemused husband who thinks I'm seriously ready to crack.

Well, my work has finished, the husband has left, and I've fulfilled my laugh requirement for the day!

Sesame Peanut Noodles

It's the beginning of March, and it's still cold outside, but I was craving a favorite summertime meal - cold sesame peanut noodles.  You'll see this in restaurants sometimes as Peanut Noodle Salad, or Cold Noodles with Peanut Sauce.  I'm sure there are many different, and more complicated, variations of this dish, but mine is modified to be simple and inexpensive to make, perfect for my cheap, lazy self :-)

You'll need, well, noodles.  If I have fresh egg noodles, I'll use that.  I've also used rice noodles (the stuff in Pad Thai), or glass noodles (the stuff in Japchae).  Today, I used cheapo plain spaghetti.  

Sauce: 

1/2 C peanut butter

1 1/2 Tbs soy sauce

4 Tbs sesame oil

1Tbs water or vegetable oil (optional)

Toppings:

cucumber, about a 4 inch hunk, julienned

2 medium carrots, julienned

3 cloves garlic, minced (or as much/little as you want)

2 scallions, sliced diagonally

1/2 C cilantro, chopped roughly

1 lime

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package.  Once done, drain and cool under cold running water. 

Add sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix well.  I'm a little vague on the amount of peanut butter, but accuracy doesn't really matter.  Here is a shot of 1 heaping spoonful of peanut butter.  I used 3 of these heaping spoonfuls.

It'll look really weird, having peanut butter and soy sauce and sesame oil all in the same bowl, and it'll be all sorts of gooey and clumpy, but just keep stirring with a spoon, and eventually, the mixture will smooth out into a creamy consistency.

This sauce is extremely thick, so feel free to add some water or vegetable oil or more sesame oil to thin it out a bit.  Make sure to stir any additional ingredients in to maintain the smooth creaminess.  Set the sauce aside.

Chop all the topping ingredients and set aside in small individual bowls or on a plate.  

Quick Tip: To easily julienne vegetables, cut into slices, but instead of stacking the slices and then cutting down (praying you don't slice off your fingernail, as I did once), spread the stack out a bit (like a deck of cards), and then cut into matchsticks.

Before serving, add a couple of spoonfuls of sauce to the noodles, and top with a little bit of cucumber, carrots, scallions, cilantro and minced garlic.  Squeeze a bit of fresh lime juice on top.  Serve cold.

This dish gets messy once you mix everything up, but it's worth it!  Oh, and I like adding a wallop of Sriracha or other hot sauce on top for a bit of a zing!