A place to share my love of making and trying new things.
01 May 2013 25 Comments
in Bento / Cute Food, Food Tags: homemade, may day, vegetarian
When I read this post by Which~Craft 2 Create?, I knew that I wanted to make a May Day basket for my neighbor. And of course I wanted it to be edible.
I used my french bread dough and a 7 oz, (200 ml) ramekin to make this basket. The handle is held on with toothpicks. The vegetable flowers are cucumber, radish, and carrot.
My neighbors were delighted to receive this May Day basket.
15 Mar 2013 16 Comments
in Crafts Tags: card, homemade, St. Patrick's day
For St. Patrick’s Day this year I made cards for my 2 nieces. Both cards are the same except for the recipients name. This one of course is Ella’s. I am not sure if the idea of a custom heritage card is unique. I refused to google it when I came up with the concept. I wanted my card to be original.
I can see many possibilities for heritage cards. This one shows emigration by ship from Ireland to the United States in 1936.
The family tree (far left of the card) shows the recipient at the bottom and each branch holds woman’s names. My card has the names of my niece’s Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Great-Great Grandmother, and Great-Great-Great Grandmother. I probably can go at least one more branch on the tree but I need to ask my relatives in Ireland and I did not have time to get an answer before I had to get this card in the mail.
Note: There is a lot of artistic freedom in the geography drawing on this card.
Update: My nieces are 8 and 10. After receiving these cards they had many questions about family history. I am glad that this card helped create a discussion about our family.
Linking to: The Creative HomeAcre Hop!
28 Jan 2013 17 Comments
in Food Tags: homemade, vegetarian
I have wanted to make my own English Muffins for a long time. Great Breads by Martha Rose Shulman has a recipe but the issue of rings prevented me from making them. I do not eat tuna fish and it would take a long time to save enough water chestnut cans. Recently I found an English Muffin recipe by Alton Brown posted by Dishing the Divine. Alton suggested the use of an electric griddle. Dishing the Divine suggested the use of canning jar rings. I had the canning jar rings but not the electric griddle. My Mom has an electric griddle. I borrowed the griddle from my Mom.
These are delicious! Although I thought that I would prefer the English Muffins fresh, I rather have them toasted. These are perfect toasted with butter and jam. I used homemade strawberry jam.
07 Jan 2013 21 Comments
in Crafts Tags: DIY, farm themed quiet book, homemade, quiet book
My 14 year old niece, my husband and I made quiet books as Christmas gifts for our 2 youngest cousins/nephews (in different families). We designed and created two identical books. One book has a blue cover, the other red. We mostly followed directions from Serving Pink Lemonade. The books are put together sightly different (tied ribbon on the outside).
The pages are made from thick non-fusible Pellon. We used stiff felt for all pieces. My niece used fabric paint for the details. We printed the text on printable fabric sheets and ironed them onto the pages.
The recipients Grandparents and Uncle manage a dairy farm. We designed six pages, two pages to represent each relative.
The making of these books was really a family affair. I am very organized and seldom lose anything but I lost my sewing machine cords. The day before the gift exchange I still could not find them. I went to my Grandma-in-law’s house to use her sewing machine. It was so helpful and fun to get her assistance to sew up the pages and covers.
My niece designed this page. The blue bag of sugar and three other different colored rectangles are in the cupboards. They are attached by Velcro and can be moved.
My husband and I designed this page.
My niece designed this page. The Grandpa loves ice cream.
My niece designed this page. The pail and bottle can be used to feed the calves. My nephews loved this!
My husband and I modified this page from Imagine Our Life. We did not use the templates provided but looked at the image and made our own. We customized the dump truck for the farm and added bales of hay. This was another popular page with the nephews.
Creating these quiet books was a fun project but a TON of work! Designing the pages and templates, gathering supplies, and cutting out the pieces took the most time. Sewing the pages and cover and then assembling the pages took less time.
Now I can check off another item from my craft bucket list.
04 Jan 2013 6 Comments
in Embroidery Tags: DIY, homemade, Valentine embroidery
It has been awhile since I shared some embroidery. TAST 2012 is done. This is a simple piece that I stitched many years ago. I made it into a paper Valentine’s Day card and mailed it to friends and relatives.
I enjoy drawing and stitching very simple lambs/sheep. Here are some other examples:
