glittergoods

Dear July, I liked you better last year, except for the ice cream sundaes.

I have always thought of myself as someone who likes July well enough, the weather is nice & I feel pleasantly suspended in the middle of summer (vs, say, August during which I am generally too hot & have the feeling of inexorably & untidily sliding towards the end of anything lazy for the next three seasons), but BOY does two weeks of kids being sick plus another few days of me being zombiefied by headache take a big chunk out of the summertime fun.

In between being variously ill, though, we did my favorite craft of the summer so far, which was painting a rock neighborhood for my father's birthday.  It's a little hard to see in this shot, but my girl did a house, a butterfly, & a flower, my boy did a house & car, & I did a couple of houses & a tree.

I also had a good time making decorations for my dad's party -- he's our only summer birthday & this year I decided to have some fun with the summertime picnic theme.  Party flags to go around our picnic umbrella (I just threaded them along the umbrella's ribs & they stayed just fine), a huge stack of big cloth napkins (21"x21", messy picnic size), matching tablecloths for all of the different tables we hauled onto the deck.  Oh, plus, rocks with party flags painted on to hold down the tablecloths.  I love painting rocks, turns out.

I also love having an excuse to put on an elaborate ice cream sundae bar.  I made hot fudge, caramel sauce, & strawberry sauce, plus brownies to put under everything.  I would recommend any of the recipes I've linked, especially the brownies, which were delicious & the exact right chewiness for a sundae.

And, in between everything, I've been getting ready for a craft show I've got coming up at the Henry on August 9.  More details as it gets closer!

June, zoom

The last half of June:

We made a little art for Father's Day.  Tiny canvases, tissue paper, cardstock, mod podge, sharpies.  I put a little glitter on mine, later.

I baked five dozen cupcakes for a first grade graduation party. 

I pieced, marked, & basted a new quilt top.  Still working on the quilting.

He's been spending a lot of time doing this.  We love the new skate park.  Our neighbors probably love that he has somewhere else to go besides the sidewalk out front.

Meanwhile, she is an official preschool graduate.  In a Liberty print/Ottobre pattern dress, which will get its own post, but for our purposes here I would just like to note that at the graduation picnic she managed to avoid frosting, berry, & grass stains -- while still having fun -- but got marker on it within 5 minutes of arriving home post-party.  (I got it out.)

Today I tended to my sick girl, pacified my stir-crazy boy, made popsicles, ate a lot of watermelon, started planning the Great Jedi Robe Summer Project.  Bring it on, July.

Basics for Girls (except mine, who needs something a little fancier)

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, my latest Japanese book purchase inspired me to actually make something (instead of just sitting around thinking about what I COULD make), except from a book that I picked up almost a year ago, Basics for Girls (I haven't made anything from that fabric in the picture yet, but have often thought about it, see how that works?).  I feel essentially the same way about it as I did in my original post, which is to say that the patterns are, yes, basic, but compelling, also "basic" isn't a terrible quality when you are trying to make something according to instructions that you cannot actually read.

I love, love this dress. I love how smocky it is, I think the proportions are great, it's adorable over jeans & a long-sleeve tee, I love the raspberry striped seersucker I used to make it.  I love the fit of the yoke & the binding around the neck & arms.  I love the design of the pockets, though they're too small to be that useful & I was clumsy with them.  Big armholes definitely make it an overdress, but since we are, I learned today, having colder weather than SIBERIA here in Seattle, I'm not too worried about her suddenly being unable to wear an undershirt without melting.  (Last week I was in the fabric store picking up some this & that for summer clothes, the cutter made the usual small-talk comment about "boy, you'll be busy" & I said something equally small-talky about having to get the sundresses made before it gets hot, & she stopped, looked at me, & said "It's JUNE and you're wearing a DOWN JACKET.  I don't think you have to rush.")

 
My girl thinks this dress is pretty cute, though initially refused to wear it pre-embellishment, "please can you put something on it, you know, like when you do drawing with thread?"  Then she sent it back again to have the heart filled in, FINE, & in the interim I made the huge mistake of making the same dress out of a floral fabric, & so her initial refusal has been followed by a grudging acknowledgement that yes, the heart is awesome & maybe she'll wear it sometimes, but it just isn't as cute as the flower one because it doesn't have as much stuff on it.  Stripes, it turns out, do not count as stuff.  (Too basic, right?)

Here we have the right amount of stuff.  This one, she wanted to wear two days in a row, the other one she can barely stand to try on for two seconds. "Just try it on!  Let's see how it fits!" I say, cheerfully, hoping that she'll get distracted by something sparkly before she remembers to rip those boring, boring stripes off of her body. 

No luck so far.

weekend (plus 3 months) quilt

Those of you who check out my Flickr stream may have noticed this quilt top I posted back in the beginning of March:

Just a quick little lap quilt, inspired by me having very much other work to do +  some genuine curiosity about whether I could put together a quilt in a weekend.  That was day one.

This was day two, after which the entire "weekend" conceit promptly fell apart because not only do I hand-bind my quilts, on any given quilt there is a 50% chance that when I trim the binding to sew it together I will cut the angle the wrong way, so to be safe you have to add swearing, unpicking, & patching time in to the handsewing time.

Besides, I didn't really have time to be finishing another quilt in March, & then I didn't really feel much like finishing a quilt in April, & when I picked it back up in May I started carting it around as my during-ballet, waiting-for-kids project, & the going, it was slow.

Which is all to say, I don't think I got an accurate answer to my question of timing, but I finally finished it & I sure do like it.

As may be obvious, I basically floated three pillow tops on a field of my favorite cotton/linen blend.

It's backed with a red & white teeny dot, bound with solid red cotton, quilted in freehand loops with red cotton thread.

The amazing squashy texture post-wash still slays me.

And I think the folding up of the freshly-finished quilt at the end might just be the most satisfying part.

we call it "relaxing," not "boring"

Oh, I had a whole long post detailing our weekend in San Francisco, which was not actually very detailed because mostly all we did was eat good food & take long walks in the wrong direction (thanks, Google Maps, I owe you one), & thus we completely failed to hit any of the crafty hotspots except Britex.  And Kinokuniya, but that was by accident (see:  long walk, wrong direction). 

But then New Typepad ate it, & I'm not sure that we are not all better off for it being reduced to the single paragraph above.

Also, despite lugging the big camera around all weekend, in the end I took exactly two pictures, both inside the hotel:

This is the most comfortable bed ever.

This is the view from our hotel room.

Ta-da.

But, really, thanks to all of you SF suggestion-makers.  I have an extensive & interesting-looking list of cool shops & etc. for the next time we go, &, frankly, there are worse things than organizing a weekend around great vegetarian food (to wit:  Millenium, Herbivore (we had very cheerful + efficient service at the Divisadero location -- beware extremely liberal onion use), Papalote, Weird Fish).

And, also,  I got to go to Britex.

It was a little overwhelming, but since when has being slightly overwhelmed stopped me from buying fabric?  The remnant floor was my favorite, but they'd also just gotten a fresh Liberty shipment in so I stood around & ogled for a while.

I made sure our "well, we might as well, since we're HERE" trip to Kinokuniya wasn't wasted either:

I especially like that little dress.  The mother/daughter matching isn't really my scene, but there's some cute kid stuff in this book.  (I would immediately return home & proceed to make some dresses from a completely different Japanese craft book, but that's another post.)

Those pictures are from after I got home, by the way.  Seriously, two pictures.  The entire weekend.

running for the bus

There was a whole scene this morning involving me dashing out into the street to flag down the (early, but then again we were a little late) schoolbus while my son was running back down the hill to retrieve the Something-or-Other Trooper that had fallen out of his pocket (it's Sharing Day) & then me breathlessly explaining to the busdriver that her weeks-long substitute had always been late & so we must have gotten used to it, sorry, & as I was walking back home I was thinking that the bus scramble is a very apt description of my life lately, then suddenly the neighbor from around the block who also puts her kid on that bus comes flying down the street in her car, honking & frantic, trying to catch the attention of the bus which has stopped at the intersection & which may or may not have noticed her & be waiting for her child, & I think no, THAT'S my life.

Anyway due to life-as-nearly-missed-bus, I've been taking a break from all things internet lately, have you noticed?  I was flipping through my photos, looking to see what I've been doing this whole time, & apparently I have 1. not been up to all that much, & 2. taking a break from the camera, too.

Though there was that too-hot afternoon when we built a fairy porch to my girl's specifications:















(Scrap wood, twigs, white glue)















Complete with hanging lanterns.  I wanted to drape something across from the other two twigs, but she says I haven't thought of anything good enough yet.

We also had another good gocco session when it was time to make her thank you cards.



 











I try to involve my kids in their thank yous as much as possible, & this time around I drew a blank fairy for her to color in (featuring an unfinished head so she can draw whatever hairstyle she wants).  I used a dotted-line font to spell out "thank you," & her job was to trace over the letters as she finished each card.















Things to note in this picture:  she is currently favoring fairies with SERIOUS BANGS, she's got a handy reference book open in the background, & off to the right you can see that my son got in on the gocco action too (my kids LOVE that thing) & we have mighty many blank fairies around now.  For the smaller cards, I put a post-it over the "thank you" to block the ink & then let them go to town printing out a whole stack of fairies for us to add to the art box.

I have also been thinking a lot about sewing, though not to the point where I have been DOING any.  This sundress has been in heavy rotation recently, & it finally fits her perfectly (TWO YEARS LATER), so I think I might see if I still have those pattern pieces around. 

The sewing itch has to wait a minute, though, because the most exciting thing around here is that on Friday I am off for a fancy weekend in San Francisco with my husband/without my kids:  any vegetarian restaurant recommendations or shopping must-sees (including good fabric stores)?

fairy nuts, fairy bolts

As I was making plans & gathering supplies for the fairy party, people kept warning me about my girl's sure-to-increase expectations, ie, the road to Birthday Hell is paved with fairy skirts & tiny cupcakes.  Maybe, but on the other hand, this is probably the last year I'll have the opportunity to fill my house with tiny round-cheeked rowdy fairies, & soon enough she'll be nothing but lanky & sneering & demanding to be dropped off at the mall, so why not?

Also, I am not denying that I do get a little crazy when party time comes around.   But fairy skirts are actually really easy to make, if you do the kind where you tie strips of tulle around an elastic waistband.  I bought armloads of tulle at a Joann's 50% off sale, was great because 1. cheap, & 2. I was able to mix colors with financial abandon.  If not for the sale, though, I would seriously have considered getting the 6" wide spools of tulle instead (best prices I saw were at some of the big online packaging supplies stores) & made things easier on myself.

(Fake flowers were on big sale, too.)

Frankly, the girls were so busy fairying around or patiently waiting to get their faces painted that we weren't desperate for a craft activity, but they did all really like this one.  I had the fairy bodies & heads pre-assembled, & the girls picked out their fairy parts, picked & put on flower skirts, drew the faces on (or asked for help) & then helped glue. (From this Klutz book.)   For this age range (3-5), I think this project only worked because all of the really time-consuming parts were pre-made, but I can see a similar but simpler clothespin doll project being another good option.  The fairy on the left is the one I made for a cake topper, the one on the right is the one my girl made at the party.

My girl requested chocolate cake with strawberry frosting, "a big cake so it will be fancier than cupcakes."  I chose the One-Bowl Chocolate Cake from Martha Stewart, & I have to say that it was a really terrific basic chocolate birthday cake.  I baked two 7-inch layers, then used the leftover batter to make mini cupcakes.  I wanted to fill the cake with whipped cream & strawberries, but wasn't sure how well it would hold up if I made it the night before, so I compromised with a variation on this recipe:  1 c whipped cream, 1 pkg cream cheese, 1 c sugar, 1 t vanilla, 1 c chopped strawberries.  Delicious, definitely way too soft for frosting, but excellent for filling + upcycling into strawberry shortcake a couple of days later.  For frosting, I started with this recipe, but instead of butter used 1/4 c vegan margarine (Earth Balance), 1/4 c vegan shortening (also EB), & 1/4 c vegan cream cheese (Tofutti).  Excellent flavor, plus I was able to use it on my experimental vegan strawberry cupcakes, which did not make it to the party table due to being hideous, but which were very tasty.

So, I am about to talk about fondant, but first I need to point out how the cute green & white striped mini cupcake papers are FALLING OFF the chocolate cupcakes.  This sort of spontaneous paper-shedding has never happened to me before, so of course it was going to happen (1) with expensive cake store papers (2) right before a party.  I ended up stripping half the batch & piping a bit of cake filling on top, then we frosted the few that were (sort of) holding on to their papers.  There didn't seem to be anything wrong or unusual or possessed with the cake, so I'm not sure what happened, but if you try the recipe, watch out.

Ok, the fondant.  Short version:  if you're just going to roll it out 1/8" thick & cut it into shapes with tiny cookie cutters, the hardest part of the project is mixing the exact color you want, except half a shade lighter because the color will deepen as it sits around.  Also, have plenty of cornstarch on hand.  Also, I see a whole new world of tiny-cutter-purchase-rationalization unfolding before me.

I was actually pretty worried that the vegan frosting wouldn't stand up to the butterflies on the side of the cake, leading to the heartbreak of a frosting avalanche, but even though I took the cake out of the fridge about an hour before serving, there was no problem.

We completely failed to get a picture of the front of the cake, but it was quite lovely.  And quite tasty.

And, apparently, full of fairy energy.

fairy factory

Yesterday was my first visit to Home Cake.  I went in for sugar flowers, came out with a plan involving fondant butterflies.  All of the Seattle blogs that marvel at that place are not kidding.  It's like a magical baking junk shop, from back before junk shops became "antique malls."

When I got home, though, I decided to wait on the fondant & make the tiny tortillas instead.  We have a Mexican food tradition at my Cinco de Mayo baby's birthday parties (which also gives us a good excuse to stand around drinking sangria while watching the kids play), but of course this year all the food has to be miniaturized.  For fairies.

And then I had to take a few moments with the last of the light to try a shot through my second TTV camera, which arrived yesterday afternoon.  As soon as I get out from under this party, I am working on my TTV setup so that I can do something besides plant myself & awkward camera situation on the front porch in order to take pictures of the sky across the street.  I do like those wires, though.

Anyway, then I made some fairy heads.  I couldn't resist this Klutz book, but since the girls are too small to manage the fiddly bits, I am pre-assembling the bodies & heads, then we'll put them together & add faces & flower skirts at the party.  I am not even kidding myself about this part:  I hope that the girls will love the project, but it's mostly an excuse for me to set up a satisfyingly tiny & fussy assembly line.

Speaking of tiny & fussy!  Today:  fondant! 

through the viewfinder

I think it must have been about a year ago that I started following the flickr group Through The Viewfinder, where people use digital cameras to snap shots through the viewfinders of old-school twin lens reflex cameras & end up with these amazing, dusty, black-framed, square-format results. 

So, inevitably, about a week ago I decided that I needed to try it for myself.  I'm not sure why it took me so long; possibly because I'd only been paying attention to the photographic end result & so hadn't noticed how completely gorgeous these cameras are.  Photos aside, I would be very happy to have a lineup  of these little beauties on my shelf.

This is from my first bumbling attempt.  It's not hard, exactly, but it's physically awkward & a little visually disorienting.  But just look at that light.  (This is straight out of my D70, except for cropping.)

I am utterly won over. 

In a dorky, crushed-out, mix-tape making, tiny portrait painting kind of way.

a little spring cleaning

I love the Northwest, really.  I'm one of those people who doesn't mind the drizzle, someone who thinks that our endless gray days are a fair tradeoff for our other beautiful seasons, etc.  But, MAN, my mood is approximately one thousand times better the past couple days than it has been for weeks, & I'm pretty sure it's just because I've seen a little bit of sun for two days in a row (never mind that as I was leaving dinner with friends last night, we were debating whether it was rain or snow we were seeing.  Rain, I say, rain!).

Since I'm feeling like an actual person who makes actual stuff again, I thought maybe I'd poke around & see what's hanging around the studio that would be better off hanging around other people's houses, to wit:

The last two pillows from my "fall collection,"

& a whole bunch of rings.  The pillows are already up on etsy, the rings will be following a few at a time once I sort out some good photo light for them.

Of course, I have to offset the moving out of things with the moving in of other things, though I am trying hard to make sure they are smallish, & nice to look at.

Like this:

I am obligated to love this because my son made it (in "art club," no less), but I would love it anyway.  See that flying saucer up in the corner, there?  This is tissue + other paper decoupaged onto a scrap piece of wood, & guess whether this idea is going in my boring-days-of-summer toolkit?

I am not obligated to love this, but I do, so much.  It's from theantibride at etsy:  the chair is screened onto muslin, surrounded by lovely meticulous hand-stitching.

It will fit right in.