back in the winter

hi friends! i know, it's been forever. even more forever since i shot this film (film!) last fall and winter. when it arrived back from being developed (after months of sitting around waiting to be mailed) jared asked me what was on the roll and i said "lots of baby ethan." he seems like a giant compared to the little baby in these shots. and i love them.

i've been struggling to write a long post about where we've been for the past couple of months since my last post (figuratively...literally, we've been here), but i just can't find the words (or, the time to find the words) right now. so for now. film. and soon, more polaroids. i'm making my way back, very very slowly.

more soon. promise.

adding some life to the living room

i've been making pillows lately. after a plethora of houseguests last year, i started looking around our home and thinking about what i could do to make it more cozy.  there is a long list (believe you me), but pillows seemed a good place to start. they're relatively easy, quick, and super functional.

i made this knitted one last fall...it was my first post-wedding project. i was itching to make something and i had the yarn, buttons, and pillow form in my stash. the pattern (which i modified a bit to fit my heavier weight yarn) comes from hand knits for the home. i think this is the first pattern i've made from the book, but there are some good ones (lots of pillows and throws). i think the closure is a bit skimpy, but i was running out of yarn and it still works out pretty well. in fact, even though it's supposed to be the back, i usually keep that side out front.

this wonky log cabin pillow was another post-wedding project. i had barely sewn in months and just wanted to play around. can you believe, i had never made a log cabin before? easiest thing ever. and this beautiful hand dyed linen fabric came from sara, i absolutely love it! i wasn't quite sure how to close it in the back and was feeling too lazy for a zipper (which of course now i wish i'd done). i went for a plain envelope back, but the overlap was (again!) too skimpy, so i added this button and a scrap of japanese cotton ribbon. excellent.

these two pillows are totally different styles, but they both match my couch and living room perfectly. i love the contrast and they definitely spruce up our living room.  i have a few more up my sleeve for the bedroom, so stay tuned...

morning time

i love mornings. sometimes i wish they would last longer. the light and shadows chasing around the house. the lingering coffee drinking. the second breakfasts. the after breakfast food coma. weekend morning radio shows. knitting on the couch as sunlight streams in through the windows. and walks in the park. in my dreams, my days are a collection of mornings.

what? you don't put up winter decorations after the new year?

oh.

here's the thing. we don't celebrate christmas in my home. for the past few years, and especially since we've moved into our own house, i've struggled with wanting to decorate the house for winter, without those decorations seeming "christmas-y".  whenever i settled on something that just seemed purely "winter-y", i wavered, thinking it really would be christmas-y.  and back and forth i've gone.  resulting in not decorating at all.

this year, eireann made the most beautiful and simple garlands for our last minute sale and i snagged one to bring home. [in fact, she said she salvaged most of the greenery from the dumpster at the farmer's market-i'll have to remember that for next year!) over the past few weeks, in the hustle and bustle of finishing up work and being out of town, it has lived on our coffee table and i finally got around to hanging it up [along with some twinkly lights] yesterday afternoon.  and i have to say that it is making me extraordinarily happy. even though it doesn't even feel like winter has arrived in minneapolis yet, i know it will. and on those snowy, blustery days when i'm curled up on the couch with a puppy and some knitting, i will smile looking up at this garland. 

happy weekending friends.
xo

and we're painting

This weekend my parents came to town. And for the first time in the month (!) since we moved into our house we got around to going to the paint store. Even though we chose a paint brand that doesn't have a very wide variety of colors, I was at a loss for what to do. Having my mom here to crack the whip a little and help us make some decisions...I think that was just what we needed.

It would be an understatement to say that the previous owners had, um, bad taste. We're in the process of covering up some lime green in my studio/the tv room, neon green in a bedroom, lavender in Jared's studio, turquoise and brown in our bedroom, and pastel pink and blue in the hallway. Frankly, I've been feeling a little bit like we're living in an easter egg for the past few weeks.

Jared is so busy that he barely has time to work on house projects right now (of which there are more than a few, though nothing super huge) so after we bought the paint for his studio (which was the first room to be painted) and he got motivated to paint on Saturday night after we got home from a delicious dinner that had put me in a major food coma, well, I took advantage of his motivation and we dove right in. We finished painting the room last night and I could not be more excited. Even though it's just his studio and I won't really be spending very much time in that room, having the room look how we want it to look (not to mention getting that hideous lavender off the walls), well, it just is starting to feel more and more like home. And that's always a good feeling.

in the kitchen

You may have noticed that I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. I think most people do, even if you don't love to cook and bake as much as I do. Whenever we have parties, people always end up congregating in the kitchen, does this happen to you too? We are lucky to have such a big, sunny, and inviting kitchen, though whenever I think about moving I get sad because I'm pretty sure we'll never have a kitchen as nice as this one again!

A while back Sandra Juto posted a bunch of film photos of her home and they totally inspired me to take more film photos around the house. I used to be so stingy with my film camera, but I'm really using it so much more than digital now (especially after getting all that free film recently!) and I've been taking more and more photos of just "ordinary" things with film. I can't remember who wrote this, but I recently read online that "everything is good enough for film" and that is so true.

After all that shop talk yesterday, I had a burst of inspiration around 9pm and made something new! It felt sooo good. Of course, it was grey and snowy today (seriously?) so I haven't been able to take a photo yet. Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow! I'd still love any feedback or ideas you all have about my last post.

PS: One of my favorite flickr friends (who I am so excited to get to meet next month!), Leah, has a blog, check it out! If it's anywhere as awesome as her flickrstream, it is not to be missed.

behind the music

Okay, not really. But behind the music sounds better than behind the zippy pouches. Or does it? Not sure. Anyways, a little while back Melissa posted about her workspace and I got inspired. See, Melissa's "studio" is actually in her bedroom. I know we've all seen lots of bloggers' beautiful craft studios and drooled over our keyboards at all the natural light, sewing space, large cutting tables, and shelves and shelves full of fabric. Well I have, at least. I, for one, do not have a studio (as I'm sure most of you don't). I am lucky enough to have some space to call my own, even if it's in the living room.

So I thought I'd share a little of that with you all today. I know that I'm very lucky to live in an apartment that's large enough to accommodate this much sewing space as well as a roomy living room with space for a (very) large plush couch.

So my "studio" is pretty much just set up along the wall in my living room. I also have a table and my ironing board set up in our dining room where I do all my cutting and laying out of projects. We don't have a dining room table, so I just use a plastic folding table that I bought last year to do craft fairs. It works fine and I don't worry about ruining a nice table, which I will once we get a real table.

First up is the sewing area--obviously the center of the whole operation. Until about a month ago, I was using a table that was Jared's and worked just fine but was not cute, had no drawers and was too short so I had my sewing machine propped up on a really thick book. Not a good idea--the machine definitely tipped over a few times while I was in the middle of sewing something. So this awesome desk that I just scored last month at my favorite antique store is no doubt an improvement. It's not too big (the last one was much bigger and tended to accumulate more crap), but it's still big enough that I can push the machine out of the way and do a little bit of pinning or minor cutting without getting up. To my left, there is a built in cabinet where I keep some other supplies- stamps, small paper, shipping supplies, etc. I also like that I can look out the window from my seat. Not that there's too much going on on the side of our house- but sometimes there's a funny squirrel. This is also where I have my inspiration wires hung (details on the current wire here).

Next is this awesome storage cabinet that I picked up at a yard sale last summer. It kind of smelled like cat pee for a while, but that seems to have gone away. I love the color and the countertop is this '50s sort of yellow kitchen counter deal (I have no idea how to describe it, I may need a class in interior design). Mostly I keep sewing notions, zippers, my roll of tracing paper, and other stuff in here. It's nice to have another place to pile stuff, and I try to keep it relatively organized. I have piles of fabric to be washed, upcoming projects I want to start, new books/magazines, etc.

Ahhh, the fabric. Before I got this IKEA shelf, my fabric was literally just piled all over the floor and driving me insane. Not to mention it was getting incredibly dusty, which totally defeated the purpose of prewashing everything (which I really really do my best to do- I try to not even put the fabric on the shelf until it's been washed). This shelf really saved me. I've mostly got everything color coordinated and then some random stuff on the top shelf, like wool felt pieces, large pieces of batting, and other random fabric that I couldn't figure out where to shelve. I really find that having everything organized on shelves like this makes it easy to find the fabric I want to use and helps me be more efficient. It also helps me see everything I have, so I don't lose some piece of fabric in a big pile only to find it later after I've already finished the project I wanted to use it for in the first place.

I also have about four good-sized ziploc bags (in the box in the bottom right corner there) that I keep all my scraps in. Because of all the small pieces I make, including cards (where I could honestly make use of a 1/2" piece of fabric) I never throw any scraps away unless they're absolutely too small to be useful. On the other side of the living room, we have an entire wall of built-in glass-doored cabinets, and that's where I have a shelf full of craft books as well.

And in the suitcases, I mostly keep finished products and stuff for craft fairs. The black one has interfacing and batting, and the large tub on the bottom is where I currently keep all my yarn. Is it obvious that I haven't been knitting a lot? That's something I'd like to work on getting more organized, but I just don't really have the space right now. When we move into a real house, I'd really like to have my own studio. It doesn't have to be big. But it would be nice to have a little bit more space, and something that was all my own.

So there you have it, my little "studio" tour. I know it's not that impressive, but I'm certainly glad to not be doing this in the kitchen or on the floor like I was in my last apartment.

Green

Rabbit. Rabbit. Rabbit. I know I'm a couple of days late, but we made it my friends! Happy March. Unfortunately, we've got a windchill of -8 right now, but let's not talk about it.

In order to welcome spring (ahem) Emily is hosting a green week this week. I'll be participating sporadically, especially since there's not really any (natural at least) green outside these days. Despite the cold, the sun is streaming through the windows right now, so here's my contribution for today: some sunny green around my home.

I love my plants. When I lived in Berkeley, my roommate and I had so many plants, there was hardly room for furniture in the living room and I had a friend who called our apartment the botanical gardens. What could we do? We had huge sunny windows and plants love northern California! I only brought six plants with me on the drive to MN, but I'm told that the rest are all still doing well back in CA. Many of my plants (especially the ones I've had for a long time) have names, too. I'll introduce you. From the top we have: Alfred, Delilah Jr., and Sir Hiss. The bottom one, sadly, does not yet have a name? Any suggestions? I acquired it (along with many others in our apartment right now) from our old neighbors who were moving to Portland, and couldn't take their plants along for the cross country trip.

Also, I did finish my project last week, as well as another one. I'll be back tomorrow to show them both off.

I still have not heard from Melissa or Kloth & Bolt, two of the winners of my giveaway. Please send me an email with your address, and if I do not hear from you by the end of this week, I will choose two new winners.

spend some time in the kitchen

Let's be honest here. When it's cold and yucky out, don't we all head to the kitchen? Or is that just me? At least in my house, the kitchen is always the warmest room in the apartment. Most likely because I'm constantly cooking or baking. I just realized that this is my sixth post this month about food. Wait a minute, I thought this was a crafting blog? Anyways, we all know that food is comforting, and the bottom line is that we all need some comfort this month.

I would recommend some nice bread.

Or maybe a good bowl of chili and a piece of cornbread.

Or if you need something to get you going in the morning, how about some nice warm oatmeal with some almonds and raisins, topped with brown sugar.

Since I had such great response to the last bread recipe I shared (check these out!), I'll give you another one. Don't forget: if you want to be in the running for my blogaversary giveaway, leave a comment here before midnight tomorrow. I'll announce the winner on Thursday.

Flaxseed Loaf (from The Bread Bible)

Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup pumpernickel flour (I didn't have this, so I just used whole wheat instead of this)
1/2 cup flaxseed (the recipe recommends coarsely grinding or cracking the whole flaxseeds for better digestion, but not to use pre-ground flaxseeds. This might be a good idea, but it seems fine in my experience to leave the seeds whole).
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbl honey
1 3/4 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
2 tsp salt

Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the water, honey, flaxseed, pumpernickel flour (or whole wheat), and yeast. Then stir in the salt, whole wheat flour, and all-purpose flour until mixed well. Knead the dough in the bowl for about five minutes, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for another 5 minutes. The dough will be sticky, but don't add too much more flour. Cover dough with an inverted bowl and let it rest for about 20 minutes (this will make it easier to knead). Knead for another 5 minutes (dough should be elastic and still cling to your fingers, but not be too sticky) and then place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a dishtowel and let the dough rise for about an hour (until doubled).

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press down on it to flatten it slightly. Shape the dough into a loaf and place in a lightly greased loaf pan. (I like to first spray the top of the loaf with a little water and dip it in more flaxseeds-they don't stay that well, but I like the look). It should be about 1/2 inch from the top of the pan. Cover with a large bowl or oiled plastic wrap, and allow dough to rise until center is about 1 inch about the sides of the pan. This should take about 45-60 minutes. Note: this bread will rise a lot in the oven, so don't worry if it looks like it's not big enough.

About 1 hour before you're going to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 375. Place a baking stone or extra baking sheet in the oven, and place a cast iron skilled or baking sheet on the floor of the oven. When dough is ready, slash with a serrated knife. Set the loaf pan on top of the baking stone or sheet and quickly toss about 1/2 cup of ice cubes onto the baking sheet that is on the floor of the oven. Close the oven door. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the bread is golden brown. Halfway through baking, turn the pan around for even baking. Remove the bread from the oven and place on a wire rack. Allow it to cool at least 2 hours before slicing.

warding off the february funk: part 1

required ingredients:
a good book or magazine
pajamas
a cozy spot with a blanket
nice cup of tea or hot cocoa
yummy snack. i would suggest a cookie, or maybe some chocolate, or a bowl of popcorn. the possibilities are seriously endless

directions: put on pajamas. make hot beverage of choice and snack. find good book or magazine, must have the ability to fully engross you. choose cozy spot and have blanket handy. take a deep breath. begin reading.

ps: it's okay if you fall asleep. naps are encouraged.

scenes from a friday afternoon

The heat at my office was especially broken today, so I decided to take the afternoon off for fear that I would end up filing a worker's comp claim when I came down with hypothermia. Seeing as the sun is out in full force today, getting out of the office early made me very happy. Just having a couple sunny hours to hang out quietly at home can really lift the spirits.


I finally washed and ironed a huge pile of fabric that was given to me by a random stranger, my friend Milena, and my mom. And then, I finished putting all of my fabric away onto my new shelf. Apparently my stash is way bigger than I realized. Hopefully having everything all organized and out in the open will make my crafting time a bit more productive and efficient. I'm still working on organizing the rest of my crafting space (i.e. corner of the living room).

My favorite snack. Stove popped popcorn topped with a little vegetable oil, nutritional yeast, and sea salt. In my new favorite vintage pyrex bowl.

There's a rainbow in my living room. Happy weekend everyone!

inspiration:: wire

a while ago, i discovered the inspiration boards blog. which grew out of the inspiration boards flickr group. which made me contemplate the blank white wall above my sewing machine. how inspiring is that? not very. it had remained that way for over a year primarily because i wanted to find the perfect, most inspiring piece of artwork or whatever to put there and i was just waiting for something amazing to come by and hit me on the head. i had considered (and still am, although with a different wall in mind) the embroidery hoop fabric wall hanging thing that i've seen so many beautiful examples of all over the web (can't even begin to look for all those links now, but here's the original one-i think).

in the end, i opted for the inspiration wire. two, in fact. (as an added bonus, for the wires i used old guitar strings that i had been saving for who knows what). click here for details on each item. i'm sure there will be frequent (or infrequent as the case may be) rotation of some of these, but this is what's inspiring me right now. so hopefully, with a little inspiration, i'll be back here in a few days with something to show off.

{and ps: so sorry for the dark as crap photo. will try another one in the daylight tomorrow. arrghh.}