Numero tres

Summer skirt number three has been completed! I used (yet again) the same basic skirt pattern from SewU by Wendy Mullin--I think I may be ready to move on to a different pattern now!

I saw this fabric in the discount room at my local quilting store and immediately knew it would be a skirt. I even pictured using some of this vintage lace that I bought a while ago at the textile center garage sale.

Once I started cutting it, I felt like it needed something else. Pockets of course! I used a vintage handkerchief, that I lined with some muslin for strength. I was really nervous about cutting it up because it's so beautiful, but I think the pockets turned out great. They definitely stand out, but I like it. Perfect timing for another skirt, as it's gonna be hot hot hot all week!

ode to ulla

Ulla is our car (aka: recurring nightmare for the last 7.5 months). Don't get me wrong, we love her (maybe even a little more that you should love a car) I'll make it short...We bought Ulla last summer in Berkeley in preparation for moving to Minnesota. She's amazing- a 1983 Mercedes diesel station wagon with a perfect California body (i.e. no rust). She was already being run on biodiesel when we got her (which had been our plan) so that was great. We loved her. We drove her through the mountains of California, through the salt flats of Utah, and spent a night with her in the Badlands in South Dakota.

filling up with biodiesel in the CA mountains

When we got to Minneapolis, we eagerly found a place to buy biodiesel (clearly not as readily available here as it was in Berkeley). We moved into our apartment in December, I started my new job, and then-a week later-some crazy lady ran a red light and slammed into her passenger side while I was driving home from a craft show. Nobody was hurt, except Ulla (and the other lady's car, but that's not the focus of this story). That was December 16, 2006.

Ulla post-accident (the insurance company's photos)

We decided to fix her, even though the insurance company deemed it a total loss and didn't give us very much money (I won't go into details, but her age and the condition of similar cars in the area-rustbuckets- didn't help). We knew it could take a couple months, what with finding parts and just the sheer amount of work that this repair would entail. To make a loooong story short, after two body shops, lots of rides and generous friends with cars, countless jokes from my coworkers about my "phantom car", and infinite "did you get your car back yet?"s, we picked her up yesterday. Yes that's right, July 26, 2007, 222 days later. Days filled with freezing walks to work, bike rides through the rain, grocery shopping on two wheels, sweltering heat, and even yard sailing on a bike.

Ulla yesterday morning, after 222 days in rehab.

So a big thanks to all those who gave us rides, lent us cars, and put up with us. And of course- to Olson's Body Shop. If you live in Minneapolis, I would highly recommend them.

Flowers for you

It's been quite a while since I made some cards. I went a little nuts over the holidays and have pretty much been riding on the leftovers since then (kinda shows that I'm not selling too much!). I realized recently that I'm actually running out of cards. And I think I'm finally over the card madness that took place here last winter. I've been thinking up some new designs for quite a while now, and I finally sat down this weekend and started putting those ideas onto paper (literally).

I'm really excited about these new designs, and I'm still working on more. On Sunday I had my first-ever "meetup" with a fellow etsy seller- Krista from paperedtogether. I was super excited to learn that she lives just blocks from me. We got together and chatted about all kinds of stuff, including different shows in the area. It's great to have someone local to share resources and other ideas with. And I came home totally inspired to get to work.

I'm posting these cards in the shop today and tomorrow, so check in there for more details.

Yum

I got some bread::


And then I made another batch, with this recipe::


I had a very crafty weekend (I swear!), but it's so cloudy here that I can't really take any photos (hence the blurry jam photos). More to come when the sun comes out...

Jammy Jam

Hmmm, I wonder if you can tell what this post is gonna be about? That's right, I made some raspberry jam! Oh it was messy, and sticky, and so hot standing over the stove while it was about 85 degrees and what felt like 80% humidity. But it was oh so good! I've never done any canning before (except for the bizarre wild Alaskan salmon canning fiasco that took place in my tiny kitchen in Berkeley a couple of years ago. And no, I don't eat salmon, so that was interesting). So I was a little nervous about the whole jar sterilization and sealing thing.


I found a bunch of books from the library about this, so that helped. Although a few of them said different things, so that wasn't so helpful. I used a recipe that jam-making expert friend Betsy gave me. It's from Martha Stewart, so I won't re-write the whole thing-here's the link. It has orange zest in it, which gives the jam a slightly unusual but really tasty flavor (I had some that she made last year and can vouch for the recipe).


For the jars, I boiled all the jars and lids (although I later read that I wasn't supposed to boil the lids-make sure to check the instructions that come with your jars or lids because I think this varies) for 15 minutes. Once the jam was cooked according to the recipe, I spooned it into the hot jars and tightened the lids as much as possible. Then, I placed all the filled jars (which came to five 8-oz jars, with the fifth one not quite full) into a large stockpot that had a canning rack in it. I covered the jars with 2 inches of water and boiled that for about 10 minutes. I then took the jars out of the water and placed them on some dishtowels to cool. The tops should be depressed (so you can't push the button in and out)- that's how you know they've sealed. This might take a while, so don't worry if they're not sealed right away.


And that's it! Sadly (how did I not think of this) I have no bread or crackers or ANYTHING to eat this jam with right now. I'll have to remedy this right away. Yummy! It feels so good to have taken part in this from start to finish. Well, I didn't plant the raspberries, but from watering them, and picking them in the backyard and then making this jam, I really feel like I MADE THIS, in every sense of that phrase. What a great feeling. And I still have some more raspberries from the backyard so I'm in search of a different recipe to try- any suggestions from out there in blogland? {Sorry about the bad photos- steamy things on the stove are pretty hard to photograph}

PS: The coasters that are leftover from the farmer's market are up in the shop now, check them out!

Sunken Treasure

Oh, it looked so yummy in the oven, the toothpick came out clean and I was sooo excited. Then I took it out of the oven and it just sank. I didn't watch it very closely and I guess I didn't realize how much it was sinking until it was way too late to put it back in the oven.


Clearly this recipe needed eggs-and not my usual substitute of ground flax seed/water mixture. Also- I think my ginormous 10" zucchini was probably quite a bit larger than what Martha Stewart was thinking when she called for "one large zucchini", so I'm sure the batter was much more liquid-y than it was supposed to be {by the way- did you all know that "ginormous" is now officially part of the English language? Sweet}.


Harumph! What a waste of a beautiful zucchini. I must admit, I was pretty grumpy about this last night. But, oh well, there will be more zukes to experiment with. And I can't wait to eat that yellow one, yummy!

Crafting Again

It's been a little while since I've actually posted about something crafty (other than my garden, which I personally consider pretty crafty). So here's some shots of my latest products.






I must give credit where credit is due- these coasters were definitely inspired by these and these, among others. This was my first foray into patchwork, batting, and "quilting" (I don't even know if this counts as quilting). And I gotta say, it was great. I'll be at the Midtown Farmers Market in South Minneapolis this Saturday, so I'm saving these four sets for that. There will be more, and they will be up in the shop (which is in dire need of an update) next week.

Small Town Thrifting

I am not a small town girl, but I gotta say I had a great weekend hanging out in one. (I'm going to get in trouble for referring to Litchfield, MN as a small town, but that's okay). We spent the weekend in Litchfield, Jared's hometown, taking part in the annual "Watercade" festival. This involved a 7:30am 4-mile run around the lake (I now remember why I don't like running), BBQ, the parade (and the uproar about the change in the parade route)-which featured marching bands, the Shriners (fat guys in go-karts=awesome!), the Miss Litchfield candidates, and all the "royalty" from the neighboring towns. Oh it was fun.

And of course, how could I pass up some serious garage sailing? Check out the loot:

These seats are from the old "Unique Theater" that was torn down when Jared's parents were kids. They were then put into the Junior High School, but taken out of there recently. They're living in our home studio now.

I'm sure I'll never use this "knitting machine"- but how cool is it? For 50cents, it was worth it. And it reminded me of this budding collection (of which I'm totally jealous).

Because who knows when you'll suddenly need to bake a cake and carry it somewhere? These are things one must be prepared for!

As if I needed a book to tell me not to throw anything away! I'm seriously loving this 1973 Charlie Brown dictionary (although it's not exactly "politically correct"!)

The life of a zucchini

I started out my July 4 this year by cutting the first real "fruits" of my garden. What better way to celebrate Independence Day than by reaping the benefits of my hard work, and taking one step closer to actually being independent from large agribusiness, petroleum, and corporations by growing my own food and supporting a local, organic, small-scale food system.





It doesn't get fresher than cutting the vegetable, walking back across the street to my house, cooking it up and eating it that very day! I didn't get a photo of the final product, which was a delicious pasta salad that Jared made, but it was amazing and I was so proud to be eating my very own zucchini! (For more inspiration, I would highly recommend Barbara Kingsolver's new book- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Also,check out Klay's recent post).

I've been on a bit of an unintended blog break due to some major family time this past week. I'll be back in full force next week with some new crafty posts. Have a great weekend!