stoned

I received in the mail a beautiful crewel embroidered stone from Pat, and it occurred to me that I have amassed quite a wonderful collection of stones.  The green ones I got a while back from Small Stump.  The grey ones were made from old recycled sweaters by Melinda.  I got the crocheted rock from Molly in a giveaway.  And Pat felted and embroidered the multicolored stone.  I really enjoy being stoned!

plop, plop, fizz, fizz

Suffering from a butter, chocolate, and sugar hangover she decides to get her hands busy doing something other than picking up sweets and shoveling them into her mouth…….

scrambling??

Need a last minute gift idea?  Make some homemade granola.  After it cools put it in a ziplock bag.  Make a quirky handmade label out of folded over cardstock and staple it to the bag.  We’ve come up with 4 different varieties. 

• Grizzly Bear Granola – with walnuts, and dried mixed berries (cranberries, cherries, and blueberries).  So called because if you get between them and their granola it will be like waking up a hibernating bear.
• Angry Monkey Granola – with banana chips, dried pineapple, coconut, and either macadamia nuts or cashews.  So called because if you get between them and their granola they will fling their poop at you.
• Rabid Squirrel Granola – with unsalted sunflower nuts or pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and white chocolate chips.  So called because if you get between them and their granola it will be as if a rabid squirrel jumped on your head and bit your nose with their big rodent teeth.
• I’m Not a Morning Person Granola – just plain granola, no added anything.  So called because if you get between them and their granola you will see why they are not a morning person.  (Don’t go there – it might be the scariest scenario of all.  Trust me because I’m Not a Morning Person!)

Here is the basic recipe:

• 3/4 C. canola oil
• 3/4 C. honey
• tsp. vanilla
• 6 C. rolled oats (not the quick cooking kind)
• whatever extras you want to add.  Adding about 1-2 cups of each extra ingredient.   (the dried fruit gets added at the end after the granola has baked)

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Mix everything (except dried fruit) together in a big bowl.  Pour onto baking sheet, spreading out into one layer.  Bake for about 25 minutes, stirring the mixture occasionally.  Let cool completely.

Make up your own mixtures and names, have fun!

sacred things

I can’t say for certain how or when my life view changed.  Maybe it happened as I started journaling life via the blog, or looking through the lens of my camera.  Maybe it even started many years ago as I rocked a sleepy child to bed, or took note of the nurturing beauty in a home cooked meal.  A slow turning over of my soul began to happen.  Suddenly the most ordinary things became sacred to me.  I started seeing beauty in the most mundane objects – a chandelier caught on film, the contrast of freshly turned earth with the bright green of new growth, the citrus scented spray as I peeled an orange.  The thing is, once I started looking at life this way I noticed that the world is overflowing with tiny miraculous things.  I’ve seen this over and over again in the pictures my flickr friends post.  Occasionally I’ve commented to one or another that they should make prints of their pictures, and give them as gifts or offer them for sale.  Usually they are of quite ordinary objects, but seen in a profound way.  I was lucky enough to receive a few prints just like this from Leslie.  See for yourself!

shashiko embroidery

I had a pair of paints that I accidently splattered with bleach.  I would venture to say that most of us understand how hard it is to find pants that fit well and comfortably.  This was a pair that fit that criteria, so I was loath to throw them out because they were stained.  Enter this book and solution found.  Cover the stains with some shashiko embroidery.  Here are some more glimpses of the fabulous projects in the shashiko book Jen sent me. 

Also, I am so excited about the Blurb photo book I made.  After you make your book you can have a preview of it online.  So what if I only ordered 5 copies.  I am officially a published author/photographer!   When you consider it took me ten plus hours to get it all put together you might understand why I have been out of action (well, that and Christmas shopping, card writing, chocolate bon bon making, and all the other things you people are caught up in this time of year as well.)  My holiday manifesto this year has been EFFING SIMPLIFY!!  (Sorry Mom for the implied cursing - my face is sporting a sheepish grin.  I’m not even going to stress you out with telling you about the tatoo I’m thinking of getting…….)  So the part of EFFING SIMPLIFY I have implemented is to only use computer time for absolutely essential things.

tiny gift bag tutorial

I’m going to try to sneak back into the swing of things with a timely tutorial for wrapping it pretty.  There is one caveat, whenever I try to explain something to anyone in my household everybody usually ends up frustrated…….so, I’ll do my best.  Really, it’s just a simple cloth bag, how can I screw up the explanation?   I’m sure we’ll find out.  If you have questions just ask in the comments and I’ll see if I can circumvent further frustration.

1. Measure and cut out two pieces of fabric for your drawstring bag.  The blue fabric below is cut to 4″ x 8″ inches.  (Alternatively if you don’t want to sew a bottom seam you could just cut one piece of fabric 4″ x 16″ and fold in half.)  I used a simple linen cord for my drawstring so my top fold, which will be the channel for the cord,  is 1/2″ inch.  If you will be using a ribbon or twill tape you will need to make the channel bigger to accomodate it.  Iron your channel fold, and the “hem” fold – mine is 1″ inch.  The folds will be on the inside of the bag so press them down towards the wrong side of the fabric.

 

     2.  Take one of your bag pieces, fold the pressed sections over.  Now, where your channel lines up is where you will mark your fabric.  This will be the open slit where your cord will come out of the side of the bag.   The top picture is folded over, the bottom picture is opened up and shows where the marks are.

     

      3.  Now open up folds and pin the two fabric pieces, right sides together.

 

     4.  Now stitch the two sides together stopping at your mark, backstitching a little, then lift your presser foot, pull a little slack, and start stitching again on the other side of the mark, backstitching here too so that the slit will not come undone.  Make sure you snip all the loose threads when you are done.  You will see what I mean in the picture below.

     5.  Snip your corners so that when you turn the bag inside out it will not be so bulky there. 

     6.  Now press all your seams open, and then fold over your top (the channel and ”hem” fold) and press.

     7.  Now stitch the channel in place.  At this point I had to hand sew because the bag was too tiny to use my sewing machine.   Once you have finished stitching turn the bag right side out.

     8.   Now thread your cord through the open slit by attaching a safety pin to it and working it all through. 

Ta Da!!  You could make these in all different sizes, it would be a cool way to wrap a bottle of wine even.  Tops, it took me 30 minutes to do this and that even includes the embroidery I did on the front of the bag.  Got the inspiration from this book.  Someone so very kindly saw it on my Greed List, and sent it my way.