Happy Hanukkah!

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah and of course I forgot to take a picture of my menorah before turning it off (it's electric). So I'll have to take one tonight to show you, but in the meantime...

Happy Hanukkah!!!

Superfine spinning

Recently I treated myself to a new tiny spindle from Threads thru Time on Etsy and the best way to describe it is amazing! It is a tiny Turkish Spindle that weighs in at .7 ounces and has beautiful coloring. They also sent along a little sample of BFL/silk blend fiber so that I could try out my new spindle and it spins beautifully. The yarn is so skinny right now that even if I do a 3 ply I still don't know if it will be lace weight! And for a size reference

It is 4.5 inches tall and 2.5 inches across. Seems that it will be a nice little travel spindle. I just have to make a little project bag for it. So far I have spun for about 2 hours on it and with the yarn being so thin it looks like nothing. Most of the spinning was done last night, but I did do a tiny bit on Friday.

Also on Friday I tried to 'ply-on-the-fly' with one of my other drop spindles and it was a rather successful experiment though not a technique I think I enjoy. Though it might just be because it is new. I'll have to play around with it some other time. But I did make a mini skein of the test yarn.

I spun thick and thin and love the way it looks plied up

Goodies! And the master plan for the goodies

As a treat to myself for completing the 3 Day I got myself a box full of goodies. Now what goodies are in the box you may be asking. And what are you planning to do with whatever is hiding in the box? Never fear all shall be revealed!

Have you seen the felted rugs that look like rocks? Like this one from VivaTerra

I absolutely love it, but there is no way that I can afford it. The 3' by 5' one is almost $500! As I said I love it and it would make an awesome little rug for in my kitchen area or even in the bathroom, but not as a bath mat. So why not make my own? And while I'm at it I would love for it to have a more organic shape to it. Which as I kept searching I came along some by Ronel Jordaan. You can see them by looking under the products link and then the floor link. It appear to have the more organic feel that I'm wanting! And all of this leads me to the box. And the giggles I got from opening it.

Still all squished in the box, but not for long...

And yep, I've already started this project. It is going to be a more tedious project, but I am determined to finish it. The bases of the stones are made from wool yarn from my stash wrapped in layers of wool roving from The Sheep Shed Studio. The mix I got was the black tones mill ends and I blended some of the mill ends using Tangie's cat brush to get varied shades of blacks/greys/off whites. And if anyone is ever thinking of doing something similar, you can felt the balls in the washing machine! Which is what I am planning for a majority of the rest of my felt rocks. A few of them I will hand to get the shape that I want, but doing it that way takes some time.

After taking it out of the bags it took up a good portion of the bed.

And the assortment of dyesoppers to do an easy kid friendly project with

Some of the mill ends might end up as dye experiment projects, but that will be a story for another day.

Headbands and barrettes

I just realized that I never showed you the finished hair things I wore to the walk. I ended up not wearing the striped bows, but I used some of the extra ribbon in my hair clip.

The hair clip used 7 different ribbons: 7/8" pink and white stripe, 3/8" pink, 3/8" tutti frutti, 3/8" baby pink, 3/8" old rose, 3/8"white and 7/8" white. I wore it the first and last day. I also added some little rhinestones I had in my scrapbook supplies to give it a bit of sparkle.

I had two headband and wore the flowers for part of the first day and part of the second. It was a very simple project with two fabric flowers from my stash sewn onto a pice of 1.5" ribbon. And I wore the woven headband the rest of the second day. The ribbons on it were white, tutti frutti and I think old rose

All of the ribbon (except the 1.5") came from The Ribbon Retreat.

A little peak at an upcoming project

I'M BACK!!!

Thanks to my brother for the photo at our first cheer station on Sunday!

I survived the 3 Day and enjoyed sleeping in (in a real bed!) and doing my walk laundry yesterday and taking a hot shower Sunday night night. Though the hot shower thing wasn't something I went without this past weekend. We had hot showers all weekend! And I can now say that I have showered in an 18 wheeler trailer, or at least that is what it looked like. And did you know that there are such a thing as flushable Porta Potties? And they were clean the whole weekend! I still have to get my photos developed and on a disk, but as soon as that is done I'm going to post them.

Now onto the real reason behind the weekend's event. There were 2,800+ walker and 450+ crew members (I'm pretty sure that number included medical). The Dallas/Fort Worth 3 Day for the Cure walkers/crew/medics/etc raised $7.1 million for the cause!!!! And I meet the most amazing women (and men) over the course of the 3 days, both walkers, crew members, and the amazing medical team members. They were all great and amazing. But the most most amazing were the survivors and hearing their stories. Some where just finishing rounds of treatment, some where in remission, some were battling it for the second or third time, some for the first, but none of them let it get in the way of walking. In fact one of these amazing, awe-inspiring, stupendous survivors had team members pushing her wheel chair the entire way. Every time I saw her and her team I teared up.

And let me mention the national series sponsors: Bank of America and New Balance. They were awesome. And we had sandwiches provided for lunch every day provided by Panera with chips, cookies, and fruit. Off of the top of my head I can't remember the other sponsors we had, but I will get around to mentioning them at some point when I remember them.

And I'm already thinking about next year's walk. I can't wait to do it all again!

And the adventure begins!

Today, or rather early this morning, the 3-Day for the Cure walk begins! I will see you all in 60 miles!

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow...

Ok, so this post really has absolutely nothing to do with the musical Annie other than the fact that the title of the post made me think of the song. Though it is a cute movie. 

No this post is actually about the fact that tomorrow is the first day of the 3-Day for the Cure. I know you are probably sick of hearing about it, but aside from one or two posts about the experience that will be up next week, this is it! In a way I can't believe it, but at the same time I can.  


I know that this is going to be an amazing experience from everything that I've heard, but I will admit I'm slightly nervous. About what? I have no idea.I think it is just one of those things, you know, where you have been planning it for so long and looking forward to it that it is almost unbelievable that it is here. You know? Or maybe not...anyway, I'll end it here since I'm just rambling now.

See you in four days!

To Mod Podge or not to Mod Podge

I have got some massive, not size-wise massive, but you know like massively time consuming, projects going on at the moment and a large chunk of them need Mod Podge or some sort of decoupage goop.  Ugh, Mod podge-we have a love/hate relationship. And don't get me wrong, because I really do love Mod Podge, but I just don't like the price. I was going to grudgingly go and grab some at the store the other day until I stumbled across this: Homemade Mod Podge. And the inner crafty me demanded that we had to try it right then and there!

A little sneak peak of things to come

Ok, so I didn't really try it 'right then and there' because I was hanging out at my brother's place doing laundry and making mac and cheese using almond milk (it is different) with an unsurprising lack of crafty goodies around me. Sure I had water and a container and ribbon that wouldn't help at all, but I lacked the glue aspect. But I did try it a couple of hours later. And this stuff rocks! Seriously, it does an amazing job and if I didn't know better I would think I had dumped my Mod Podge into a random container for who knows what reason (and it wouldn't surprise me at all if I did one day). Instead of the 1:1 ratio I did end up doing a 2 part glue to 1 part water ratio, to the best of my eye-balling measuring skills. Tell me if you can tell which one of these is Mod Podge and which is the Mod Podge wanna-be

Can you? Are you sure about it? Really? Did you pick the one on the right? Well, then you guessed right and I am massively impressed by your skills. The only reason I can tell the difference is because I wrote on the back Mod Podge one.


And I have to say a big thank you to Bridget over at Babblings and More for sharing the recipe!

Meet Me on Monday

Meet Me on Monday

1. My current weather is ________?

Sunny and 64 degrees at the moment

2. What is my favorite sound?

My favorite sound is rain on the roof and thunderstorms. Which reminds me of a funny story. I sleep with a white noise maker set on a thunderstorm and there have been times when I half way wake up and get really excited because it makes me think there is actually a thunderstorm. Then the rational side of my mind kicks in and reminds me that it isn't. So anyway, a few weeks ago (I think), I was watching a movie before going to be and all the sudden heard thunder. My first thought is, 'Well that was silly turning on the white noise before I started a movie' before I realized that it was an actual thunderstorm!!!! It was so exciting!

3. What is the worst flavor of ice cream?

Personally I can't stand pistachio ice cream, but worst ever would have to be watching Bizarre Foods and seeing Andrew Zimmern eat octopus flavored ice cream.

It looks so pretty, but yuck! No offense to anyone who likes it,.

4. What magazine do you look for when you are stuck in the waiting room?

People magazine if I've forgotten my book or crochet project.

5. What is your favorite condiment?

Either dijon mustard or ranch dressing.

Mad Hatter Day!

Today is Mad Hatter Day! So let us celebrate the character we have all come to know and love. So act crazy and have a Mad Hatter tea party if you would like. Or make a hat. Or just wear a crazy hat!


And just a little tidbit of trivia: The term mad hatter doesn't have a definite origin. It is thought to refer to the fact that hatters used to use mercury in the making of felt used in hats which led to nervous system problems causing hatters to tremble and appear insane. Thus mercury poisoning was also called 'Mad Hatter's Disease'.

Bows and clips

Have a few other projects in the works, but these are the two finished ones I have to share at the moment! Er, well, the bows aren't 100% done I still need to attach them to hair ties. But what can I do? Other than find my white hair ties...I'm planning on wearing them one day during the 3-Day for the Cure. I'm thinking about making some korker bows (the curly puffy ones!) in different shades of pink for one of the days. Any ideas for the third day? I have nothing against insanely crazy or ridiculous bows/hair accessories!

 The clips I am planning on giving them to my baby cousin. Of course I may wait until her first birthday and keep adding on to the collection so she has tons! I'm also working on a ruffle onesie for when she is 1 or when she hits the 12 month clothing mark. Whichever comes first.

Funny shadows next to the white/yellow ones

Have a great day!

9/11 Never Forget

My condolences to anyone who lost someone on that terrible day. And thank you so much to all of those who rushed into help and gave their lives from the firefighters to the emergency responders to the soldiers. Thank you. 

I think most of us can remember exactly where we were on that September morning ten years ago. I was sitting in my 'Math in the Arts' class watching the news like we always did during the first class of the day while working on our projects when we heard the first reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center. It was one of those things that just doesn't seem possible even when they are broadcasting the video of it. I think only one or two other classes had know for what ever reason because meeting up with friends in the hall on the way to second period, many didn't find it possible to believe. It was second period when the school final had an announcement about it. The rest of the day went by in a haze. I don't think the hallways of my junior high were ever that quite before or after that day. If the classroom you were supposed to be in didn't have a TV the teacher would take us to a room that did. 

Sneak Peek

So, as you know from my last post (or was it the one before that?) I had to leave my spinning wheel at my parents', however I do have my drop spindle with me! Here is a little peek at what is being spun up at the moment.

Any guesses as to what the fiber is?

Empanadas!

I've been wanting to make empanadas for a while and yesterday my brother and I made them together. It was so much fun! The recipe I used if you want to call it that was a mash up of three different recipes I found and the only thing I want to change the next time I make them is the dough recipe since it was a bit crumbly. But the filling was awesome! Pictures first then the recipe.

Filling:
- a little over a pound of lean turkey (you could use pork/beef or whatnot, but I only eat turkey and fish, and somehow fish didn't seem like a tasty idea)
- 1 large onion
- 1 cup of tomato sauce
- 1 heaping cup of black beans (canned, drained and rinsed off)
- 3 medium-ish cloves of garlic
- 1 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp of chili powder
- 1 1/2 slightly heaping cups of cheddar cheese


        Cook the turkey in a pan over medium-high heat until browned (beef, pork...), stirring frequently to break up the meat. Add the green onions and garlic. Cook until tender. Stir in the tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder into the pan. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese and beans. Let filling cool and snack on the extra cheese you spilt all over the counter while measuring it out.


So I had this all typed up and everything at the end of May and thought I had it scheduled. But I didn't, or rather I did, but for next year...

Green, green and more green!

Oh, so it really isn't all that much green in my post, but this won't be then end of this fiber/color I think I still have something like 6-8ish ounces left.  This is my first ever navajo plied yarn! Yay!!!! And it was also my second wheel spun fiber ever! It is the Apple Green Colonial Top from Alpaca Direct.

A certain someone decided to hop up onto my photo spot and refused to move, so she got to be my yarn model.

One of the more evenly plied sections

Wow...er, sorry!

Has it really been that long since I last posted?!?! SORRY! Sadly I was unmotivated for a long while and also had no inspiration during that time as well. But while I was home recently I was able to work on a few spinning projects. Only pictures of one, but it is a meaningful one to me. I call it "Rita's Dreams" after the family dog who we sadly had to put down yesterday. She slept most of the time in the back room with me while I spun it, hence the name.

Rita, who will be greatly missed by all.

A penny for scale and the most true to the fiber color. Though in life it is a wonderful mostly purple blend with blues/whites/maroon mixed in.

Slightly hard to see photo, but Rita in her spot while I spun. The shadows on the yarn are pretty close it color also.

And a poem I found today that touched me.

The Last Battle

If it should be that I grow frail and weak,

And pain should keep me from my sleep,

Then will you do what must be done,

For this, the last battle, can't be won.

You will be sad I understand,

But don't let grief then stay your hand,

For on this day, more than the rest,

Your love and friendship must stand the test.

We have had so many happy years,

You wouldn't want me to suffer so.

When the time comes, please, let me go.

Take me to where to my needs they'll tend,

Only, stay with me till the end

And hold me firm and speak to me,

Until my eyes no longer see.

I know in time you will agree,

It is a kindness you do to me.

Although my tail its last has waved,

From pain and suffering I have been saved.

Don't grieve that it must be you,

Who has to decide this thing to do;

We've been so close,we two, these years,

Don't let your heart hold any tears.

Author Unknown

Poem found at Pet Loss Matters

Yikes!

Sorry I haven't been around much. I haven't done much crafting in the past few weeks and the little I have done is nothing blog worthy. I also spent almost all of yesterday at the vet with my cat who was sneezing up (er out?) blood. Many tests later she either has a bad sinus infection or cat hemophilia both which they had a jump on caring for. Seriously, when I say most of the day I mean most of the day, we started this all at 4:30ish in the am and final of the three vet visits was at 5:00ish pm. Luckily she is doing much, much better (knock on wood). So in lieu of a project I leave you with Maru the cat.

Waiting for the baby

My cousin is due sometime in the next couple of weeks to have her second child, but they decided not to find out what the child's gender is. Slight problem when I wanted to make a card, so I made two.

Here is a closer view of the girl card using a button and two skeleton leaves. The pink paper is glittered cardstock that luckily doesn't seem to shed. *knock on wood*

Close up of the boy card. I was very limited on the more boy-ish accents and papers, but I think it is simple enough to not be too 'girly'. Hopefully I can get to the store in the next couple of days and get a 'Congratulations' stamp because my handwriting is not the best and I don't want to ruin the card.

I'd love to know what you think about the cards! Have a great day!

Meet Me on Monday

Questions:

1. What is your favorite kind of muffin?
Pumpkin muffins with cream cheese in the middle! It is definitely a seasonal muffin, but if it was available all year round I would be in heaven and would probably give the bakery daily business.

2. What was the first car you ever owned?

A 1994 Toyota Camry in a nice champagne color. It was my grandmother's car and when she was no longer able to drive my grandfather used the car. When I turned 16 my grandfather decided that he needed a new car and oh look! there is a car for Sarah! After he passed I got the 2004 Camry and still have the seat pillow of my grandmother's in it. Great memories with both the cars.

3. Which TV show were you sad to see end?
ER. I didn't actually watch the last few seasons, but the episodes I saw were, hmmm, how to put this, pretty bad. It was mostly sad because I've been watching it with my mom since pretty much the beginning when I was 6/7 years old.

4. What is your lucky number?
2

5. Pretzels or Potato Chips?
If I had to choose one of the two it would be chips. Salt and vinegar chips. After having baked seaweed for the first time recently, I have to say it trumps both choices. And I will admit, I absolutely can not stand pretzels.

And on a side note, I really miss being able to have the news running the background because I'm a couple hours behind on the recent AMAZING news. Only reason I found out yesterday before midnight is because I saw a post over on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle mentioning the death of a monster I had to head over to MSNBC to figure out what was going on. Otherwise I wouldn't have known until ballet this morning. So, Thanks Sugarbelle!

I think I just lost a couple years of my life...

Yesterday I was watching a movie on Netflix and had the brief thought that I hadn't seen Tangie in a while. Figuring she was under the bed or downstairs I finished my movie and went to the stairs and my stomach dropped. The door was open. And the worst case scenarios were running through my head. Luckily, after 30+ minutes of searching, one of the yard guys chased her back under the fence and I got my baby back.

I do have to say that once she was back under the fence and saw us she had this look that was like, 'Oh hey guys, what are you doing?' So cute and innocent looking...Anywho, now she attempts to get out every single time I open the door so I think that the squirt bottle is going to have to make a reappearance.

Next post I have some cards to show you!

Passover is OVER!!!

OK, so I kept passover for maybe a day or two this year and called it quits due to taking antibiotics. If I'm taking them I think that it is fair game to eat whatever I darn well want to including toast/cinnamon rolls/etc. But my brother kept it and to break it we went out on Monday night to get burgers. And fried pickles. I got a turkey burger, he got a buffalo burger and we shared the fries and pickles. The lighting wasn't the best and the pictures were taken with his iPhone.

Yum

I'll admit as a pickle lover I had never tried fried pickles until sometime last year and they are AMAZING! Though I'm pretty sure that I consumed my entire month's worth of salt intake in that meal.

If you ever have the chance to go to the Twisted Root while you are in Texas, do!

World Penguin Day!

Time to celebrate our little tuxedo wearing friends! April 25th is World Penguin Day! So enjoy a little clip from Happy Feet.

New Dies

Yikes, it has been way too long since my last post. Sorry! I actually hadn't been feeling myself for the past few weeks and started some oh so fun antibiotics last Monday to get me all better. The jury is still out on if it will work. Anywho...

I got two new dies recently for my little Cuttlebug.  Labels One and Labels Eight. Don't they look all pretty and new?

Well, I broke in the largest of Labels Eight already working on a little project. Doesn't look like much at the moment, but I'm not posting the complete project until the receiver has well, received it. I also have so many ideas for these shapes so be prepared to see a lot more of them in the coming month or two. And I have to say I am in love with the Spellbinder dies. They are amazing!

Cheesecake

Well, the title pretty much sums it all up. Cheesecake. It was fun to make, tasted amazing, and didn't last very long.

Meet Me on Monday

1.  If you had to eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Bread. I absolutely love bread and don't think I could give it  up.

2.  Do you write your blog posts in advance or the day you post them?
A combination of both. So I get written in advance and schedule, like the odd holidays, but others are done and posted day of like this one!

3.  Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?
Nope

4.  What is your favorite candle scent?
Vanilla candles. I have one right now that smells so amazing and I haven't even lit it yet. I'm not sure I want to either.

5.  Coffee or tea?
Tea! My favorite is milk tea.

Absolute Fail

I know that we have all had massive fails at attempting different crafts or recipes and here is my most recent one. Macaroons. The first time I made them they came out wonderfully and this time, well I'm going to let the photos do the talking.

No little feet, got a bit crispy on top and....

I'm not sure if it was the oven temperature, the ingredients, my mixing (beating eggs to a stiff peak by hand while incorporating gel food coloring and sugar) or the fact that I used a different recipe from last time and then had to half the recipe. Oops, notes to self don't mess with a recipe the first time you try it.

Yeah, a big fail

But I still wanted to make something. So I looked around for something to make with chocolate chips since I had them and decided on cookies. Who doesn't like cookies? I know he likes them. So here are the cookies which are amazingly good.

Super yummy cookies!

35 Little Cranes

So I'm not at 1,000 by a long shot and I'm not even all that close to 100, but the little cranes are slowly multiplying. Yes, that is 35 cranes in the photo below and I can already say that I'm beginning to get a little sick of some of the colors, but I will push through and get them all done in a year. (I hope)

Easy Lunch

Three days of lunches from a convention worked the past three days. Each one took no longer than 10 minutes to prepare.

Dip was in the small container

I also had an apple and I got a small pizza at the convention as well.

If you are looking to make lunches quickly and love rice, grilled rice balls are a great and easy thing to make. You do have to spend one day making them all and grilling them, but you can freeze them and pop them in the microwave before packing them in your lunch. I think it took me about an hour to make 18 of them and most of that was spent cooking the rice at the beginning. And they are yummy! If anyone wants the recipe just let me know.



On another note, I also went to a Get Started meeting for the 3-day and learned a lot about all of it, but what really got me was the video they showed. One man was walking in memory of his wife and at the beginning of one of the days he saw the 'My Wife' banner, picked it up and carried it for the 19 miles that day. He said that others would ask him if he needed help and his reply to them was, 'No, I'm carrying my wife.'

I have thought about doing the walk for a few years and decided that this was the year. Not only do I want to be able to say I did it, but the statistics for breast cancer make me want to do it even more. As they said tonight, 'we walk until we no longer have to walk'. Here are some of the statistics that we heard:

- 1 in 4 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer

- During the course of the 90 minute meeting we had 30 people will have been diagnosed

- The majority of women with breast cancer have no significant family history or other known risk factors

- Somewhere in the world a women dies of breast cancer every 69 seconds

Meet Me on Monday

1.  What jewelry do you wear 24/7?

None

2.  Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it?

Twirl it!

3.  How many siblings do you have?

3! One older brother and two younger half sisters.

4.  Were you named after anyone?

I think so, but I could be wrong.

5.  Coke or Pepsi?

Neither, I like Sprite. But if I had to choose it would be Coke

Vintage Beauty

How I wish this would fit me. Well, also that it was in a style I would wear, but one little wish at a time. This was an (obviously) beginning of one of my grandmother's projects if I remember correctly. And it is gorgeous! 

The work put into this amazing. It is a layer of linen fabric (or at least that is what it feels like) and a layer of fine muslin machine basted together. If I ever get around to doing a burn test on some of the extra fabric fashion and I'm wrong, I'll fix that. The designs are a combination of lace motifs and thin cording machine stitched onto both layers. The cording also continues around the collar all the way to center back. There back zipper allowances are already folded and ironed and the hook and bar tack are at the very top. I have to admit I almost didn't see the bar tack at first because the thread matches the fabric so well.

I'm hoping to turn this into something wearable in the future, but I'm not going to do anything until I'm completely positive on what to do and have it be something that doesn't mess with the cording and lace too much. 

Please pardon the color change between the first two and second two photos. The first pictures of the bodice top and center front motifs didn't come out. The color is closer to the first two.