Links for your Weekend!

I've spent a lot of time over the past six weeks sitting in place feeding the nugget and letting him nap in my arms. Most of the time, I can't stop starring at the little guy, but then there are the times when I want to connect with the world, get some craft or food inspiration, and generally see what's new out there...

Here are some new-to-me blogs that have provided that dose of inspiration lately ::

~ My Scandinavian Home

~ Hither and Thither

~ The Wednesday Chef

~ Acute Designs

~ The House that Lars Built

Links ~ This Weekend

I'm going to finish this hat! It's Seasons by the Brooklyn Tweed team.

We're using some cedarwood oil to freshen our cedar blocks in hopes of keeping the moths out of the wool! It's an endless battle around here.

Trader Joe's opens in our little town today! We'll be there this afternoon.

It's time to re-oil the cutting boards and spoons.

I really like this crochet edge scarf by Anna Maria Horner, and may have to pick up supplies this weekend.

Every once in a while I rediscover Wee Wonderful's patterns and get excited to make something... one day it's actually going to happen!

We all know who Ca$h's favorite is ~ he's jumping up and down when Calder gets out the mountain bike, but he can't even make it through a knitting photo-shoot without falling asleep/passing out in shame! Someone's not getting a knitted sweater this Christmas.

Living off my phone

This fall has definitely been a season of travel. I'm enjoying it, but finally reached the point where it was easier to reach for my phone than a camera when taking pictures... Last week started with a trip to NY in preparations for our even more exciting trip to Brazil!

What an ordeal to prep and submit visa applications for a whole family. The assembly line approach was required. My office computers, which are typically running economic models, were hijacked for the work, and, of course, our trusty side-kick Ca$h tried to get in there and "help" whenever he could.

We were in New York for just a day ~ enough time to drop off the paper work and do some shopping. The city was much drier than it is today {and we are lucky that the storm passed by our town with just 48 hours of light to medium rain and no other damage to report}. I made a concerted effort on this trip to finally stop in Purl SoHo. If you haven't found it yet, their blog is a treasure trove of ideas for knitting, sewing and crochet projects. On this visit I picked up yarn for the infant mittens {it's great to be able to pick up just enough of an accent color rather than a typical skein} and for a baby bonnet.

After that it was off to Boston for a thrilling two+ days of work. Unfortunately this trip didn't leave as much time for exploring my old favorite shops and squares, but I did sneak off one evening for dinner at Wagamama.

And now, a week at home. We're prepping for the halloween fun tonight, I've cast on for a new hat since a winter chill is officially in the air, and the pooch is so happy to have his pack back together that he'll sleep in the most uncomfortable positions just to be between us.

Link On

We're out of the mountains and back at the coast.

Our little trip is almost over, and I'm excited to get home to the pup, the garden, and the house! I'm gearing up for a few small projects, just something to spruce up a nook here or there.


 How Rad{ish} is this card? I want to frame it and add it to the little photo/art collage I'm planning.


And then I'll hang up one of these lights. But which one?


 I just ordered some new covers for the butterfly chairs.


 Have you seen this photography project? I would love his photograph of a rhino's bottom for our wall. And I can't agree more with this statement of his : "It is folly to think that we can destroy one species and ecosystem after another and not affect humanity. When we save species, we’re actually saving ourselves."

Happy weekend*

Link On

This post has me wanting a jean jacket, but my concious says no. What do you think?

Remember learning to diagram sentences? While I couldn't spell the words to save my life, diagramming was a puzzle that made sense.

 I'm loving this idea for a garden path.

 C's been calling me "tock". He comes up with all sorts of nicknames, so I was just going along with this one and didn't realize until he told me that it was because my $3 watch ticks and tocks, as if I'm the crocodile in Peter Pan.

 I made these lemon squares yesterday. They were so quick and easy {and devoured by everyone} that I think they'll enter the regular rotation of treats this summer.

 I'm so close to making my own shrub. After Nik introduced me to it a few years ago, I've been hooked. Last year, I found some locally made shrub at Tait Farm. I just used up those bottles and am thinking it's time to make my own. Here's a nice and simple recipe.

Link On

To celebrate the week's end :: a few photos from our early morning dog walks and a few fun links from my internet browsing.

A crochet project :: this simple receiving blanket

I'm waiting for this to arrive in the mail :: tree of life

A new plan for your Easter eggs :: temporary tattoos

And a new-to-me food blog with a recipe for tonight's happy hour :: grapefruit, rosemary, & gin, oh my!

Happy Friday*

The Bracelets

A few more details about our bracelets from the last post. Theys are super simple to make following the directions from Honesty WTF, and purchasing the supplies from Ornamentea.

Our color choices:
~ brown and natural leather
~ turquoise, pomegranate, and sunflower waxed linen
~ antique and nickel plated ball chain

You may want to make one using the exact measurements in the directions and then adjust accordingly for future bracelets. We found that using 12.5 inches of the ball chain {rather than the 12 inches suggested} gave us a nicer fit.

I love these and want to make more... the only probably is that after making two, they're so easy that the "making" part is a bit boring, and probably best done around a campfire with sisters or over a few drinks with friends to pass the time!

Gifts for the girls in yellow.

And we're back to the wedding. I put together little boxes of goodies for the bridesmaids. And yes, before even discussing the contents, I was ecstatic with my "wrapping". Just a plain brown box, wrapped in baker's twine with a tag attached. You'll see both the twine and tags again in a future post! I'll pause while you gag on the matchy-ness of it all.



Quick note before I dig in ~ This post is heavy in pictures and links to some of the fantastic Etsy shops I used for supplies. One of the things that really made me happy while planning the wedding was searching out the artists and local or small shops for supplies.

Inside were a combination of purchased and handmade gifts. Each girl received a different botanical necklace from Elizabeth Scott Designs. I love her shop, and she was so patient as I deliberated on my choices! Since you never know what the weather will be like, and since the dresses were sleeveless, I included a white pashmina scarf. And then... I wanted to take the time to make something special for inside the boxes.

I've always wanted to make clutches with the metal frame opening, and thought the wedding was a perfect excuse to give it a shot. I was also hoping that the little purses could come in handy the day of the wedding for storing any odds and ends that the ladies were carrying around. These were made using the pattern and hardware for 5 inch clutches from this shop.

Inspired by the bee and honeycomb touches that we were incorporating in to the invites and wedding decor, I began the process looking for some sort of modern-honeycomb fabric. I started this project in January, and at the time, I wasn't excited about any of the designs I found. That said, I did a quick google search this afternoon and found a few nice options. I thought about designing something myself and getting it printed by Spoonflower, but, as it usually happens with projects like this.... inspiration struck, and I went in yet another direction.

Using the hexagons from our save-the-dates, I embroidered a honeycomb design and each girls' initial on the front of the purses.

Here were my key supplies {minus the needle and thread}::


The following was done before sewing the pieces of the purses together::
~ Using an exacto knife I cut out hexagons in three different sizes from the card. In the end only the two larger sizes were used for this design.
~ With the magic disappearing ink pen, I traced one large hexagon and surrounded it by a hive of the medium hexagons, making the hive slightly different on each one. The pen really is magic ~ staying long enough for you to embroider but then completely disappearing in a couple of days {sometimes sooner if you really agitate the fabric}.
~ I used the backstitch to trace the honeycombs.
~ I then found a font that I liked and printed out the four initials that I needed. I used these as a guide to free-hand the letters with the magic pen and then used the stem stitch to embroider them, going back and making two lines of stem stitch where I wanted a thicker line.

PS. ::
~ This is my first embroidery project, so maybe there's a more standard method for embroidering letters? I did a few quick searches and some test runs, and then I winged it.
~ Many of these purse frames require you to glue the fabric into the frame. Everywhere I looked, people recommend Gutermann Glue. I had a hard time finding it in the typical craft shops, but was able to order some from this seller.
~ I think I drank a lot of coffee while working on this project. How I managed to get it all over the paper with the initials but not on the bags is a mystery.

Since the big design went smoothly, I wanted to add a touch of design to the back side of the purses. At first I thought it'd be fun to trace three medium hexagons, filling in one of them like so::

But my test runs looked a bit sloppy and came with the "wah wah" soundtrack of disappointment. So, back at the drawing board I came up with this:: I cut out a hexagon shape from the fabric I was going to use for the lining and using a zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine I attached it to the back of the bag. It might look a bit wonky in that picture due to the folds in the fabric.

The lining was made up of two fabrics. The top half was the flowered fabric::


And the bottom half was made from the same satin that was used to make my sash {more on that soon!}. You can see a snippet of the two fabrics in this photo::

I'm so happy with how these turned out and am a bit bummed that I didn't make more for the mothers, flower girls, and myself!

In addition to the clutches, there was another little project that I'd been wanting to make. Hairpins with little flowers:: A big thanks to my sisters for modeling/photographing these at the beach last week. I think everyone wore them the day of the wedding, and yet I can't find a bit of photographic evidence!

Of course these are unbelievably simple. Buy the flower cabochons and pins, glue one to the other and you're done! I purchased my flowers and hairpins from the Snapcrafty Etsy Shop. I used a jewelry glue that I picked up from Michaels that's meant to glue plastic to metal, and it worked really well.

Assembly tip :: Slide the pins onto a piece of card stock to hold them steady while applying the glue and flowers::


Quick confession :: I was inspired to make my own after I paid $12 to buy a set of two from a little shop in Boston. That was a few years ago before I knew where to find the flower and pin resources. Never again my friends, now you can make 10 for under $10. winning!

Burning the candle at both ends.

You'll have to pardon the interruption, there will be no music this week as the only sound I'm hearing is the purr of my computer fan. In light (haha) of this crazy week of deadlines, discussing candles is only appropriate.

Remember this post about our unsuccessful first attempt at candle-making?

The problem with our test candles was that we experienced too much pooling of the wax, enough that it suffocated our flame. A bit of research was required, and little did I know how extensive the world of wicks would be. There are wicks with zinc, paper, and cotton cores, flat braided wicks, square braided wicks, and even wooden wicks! The wick you choose should be a function of the diameter of your candle, whether it's a pillar or a container candle, and the type of wax... if you're interested, here's a great chart to get you started.

Since we were working with beeswax container candles, that's where I focused my research. I discovered that beeswax, unlike petroleum wax, is particularly viscous when melted, and it requires a thicker wick {more capillary action} to pull the wax to the flame to be burned. As a result, we needed square-braided wicks which were designed specifically for beeswax. Square-braided wicks come with their own numbering system from 6/0, "six-aught", to 1/0, and then from #1 to #10. 6/0 wicks are for the smallest candles and #10 are for the largest. Something between a 2/0 and a 3/0 was perfect for our containers, so I went with the 3/0 {it turned out to be a lucky guess}. Silly me for thinking this candle-making was going to be easy!

Here's test candle #2:: We have a winner! When I lit this candle, the glass was full of wax, and after 6 or so hours I took that picture. The candle burned cleanly and slowly ~ just perfect for our all-day wedding affair. At first I was skeptical ~ the full surface of wax was not melting, just the area around the wick. After the flame was below the level of the glass, the problem went away, and we had an even, clean melt with a nice flame. I'm chalking initial uneven burning up to a draft when the flame was exposed; to eliminate that problem, we decided to only fill the glasses half-way with wax.

In addition to pulling the wax to the flame, the square-braided wicks form a "carbon cap" at their tip which makes the wick extra hot and helps it to melt a larger area of wax. This is particularly useful in our case because with the right size wick it will melt the whole top surface and there will be no wax stuck to the sides of the glasses as the candle burns down.

On a whim I decided to fill some tall jelly jars with wax:: With a bit of wire or twine, I think these will look great hanging from the trees and under the arbors. Oh, and see that polka-dot thing in the background? It's one of our two wedding-day kickballs {the other one is green with hearts}. We still have to rent the tents and tuxes, but I can sleep a little easier knowing we have kickball checked off of our list ;-).

And a serendipitous extra ~ we cut more bottles than we needed for the candles. I picked the ones with the best edges to fill first, and only used about half of the glasses. That's when I realized that these green glasses make the cutest little vases:: When filled with a bunch of low-cut ruffled flowers like carnations, we can hide any imperfections in the cut edge. It's a fun, easy, and oh-so-cheap addition to our wedding {and house} decor!

Here's a picture with my phone for scale::

And one more because eating breakfast next to this little vase makes me smile::


As an aside ~ I never found one comprehensive source with detailed information on every type of wick, wax, and candle type. There are plenty of websites and books that give you bits and pieces of info, but was looking for the Holy Grail of wick info and never found it. If you have a great resource, please pass it along!

Some wool...

you know, to keep things real.

First ~ Pamela, asked about the pattern for these booties that I made back in October. The pattern is called Saartje's Booties. If you go back my post with the booties, and click on the name of the pattern, a pdf will be downloaded directly to your computer. Hope that helps!

Second ~ (and I'm a little late with this one) Kristi (KnitorDie on Ravelry) owns Eleganza Yarns in Frederick, MD. They offer free classes on Sundays, called Sunday Sojourns, where they pick one pattern and help the attendees work through that pattern together. How awesome is that? I know that knitting is a business for so many, but I love it when a shop offers a free class to teach new knitters, or old knitters, new tricks. I found out about the classes because they used my lamb washcloth pattern last week, double awesome! If you're in the Frederick area, check them out.

And finally, knitting shmitting. On with the crocheting!

I have bits and bobs of yarn that was starting to pile up, and I've been wanting to turn it into an afghan. I started knitting one about a year ago, but it just wasn't inspiring me. THEN I saw this, and I was in heaven.
Lucky for me, I had an old grey poncho; one of my first "real" knitting projects from a pattern... And what a pattern it was. Knit a square, add a simple seam, and bam! you have a poncho. Unfortunately (or fortunately, given your taste in fashion) I never wore it. FORTUNATELY it's so easy to take apart one seam and a rectangle of knitting! It came undone in no time flat and I had the grey I needed for these hexagons! If you're interested in doing this, I have to say, Attic 24's instructions are so simple.

This is my first foray into crocheting a whole project, and I think it's going to turn out much better than the poncho.

Preparing for the move back to the country.... or spilling the family secrets.

C likes to joke about my growing up in an "Appalachian hollow" which, isn't really a joke. We were in the Appalachians, and there was a hollow. What else? My mom owns, and makes use of the L.L. Bean Game Cookbook. There was once a dinner involving squirrel {no joke}, there were snakes in the basement, there was an outhouse {until it burned down}, .... what am I forgetting?
Anyway, once I heard about 'possum* yarn, I knew that eventually I would have to own some, particularly as we prepare for a move back into the Appalachians. There are a couple of possum blend yarns out there, I used Supreme Possum Merino {a 50% wool, 10% silk, and 40% possum blend}. I can't recommend this yarn enough! It's so soft, has a lovely halo, and is just all around awesome {more on that below}.

I didn't know of any Boston shops carrying it, so I ordered mine at Handknitting.com

I used about a skein and a half for this project. It's the the Little Arrowhead Shawl ~ a free pattern from Interweave Knits. It's in the "Sweet Somethings" document at the bottom of this page. I made a slightly bigger shawl than the pattern suggests {it's an easy pattern to just keep repeating until you're satisfied}.

Now, back to the possums. The Common Bushtail Possum is native to Australia, but invasive to New Zealand. As with many invasive species, it was originally transported to New Zealand as a resource ~ for food and pelts. Most invasive species that cause ecological damage don't have predators in their new home and many native plant and animal species are defenseless against the predation of the alien species. In New Zealand the possums feed on both the native vegetation and bird populations. They also transmit bovine TB throughout the cattle populations, causing an economic hardship to the communities. SO ~ when you buy possum yarn, you're helping, in a small way, to remove possums from New Zealand... Of course, that means your purchase also requires the killing of possums, but that's what the L.L. Bean Game Cookbook's for, right!?

*I always felt like it was very "country" to say possum, but saying "o"possum. It appears that if you're referring to the North American varieties, then opossum it is, but if you're referring to Australian relatives, possum's the word.

Some Links

I wasn't ready to post a song yesterday, because the only song rolling around in my head fits better on a Friday. You'll hear it soon.

There are other things worth sharing.

It's electric::
Along with sun flares, I've been building up a collection of power lines...


Words::
Like this poem. I mostly read, but sometimes listen to the Writer's Almanac everyday. I think it's so much better when listened to, but it's always good to practice reading a poem now and then. Anywho, today's poem was by Barbara Ras, and now I'm really liking her work.

Stitches!::
This awesome pattern was published a little while ago, and I've been meaning to mention it here. It's WinterFoliage! Of course, I wish I came up with it, but I'm going to have to settle for making some of my own... this may be the start of a whole new craft around here!

Knitting?::
Well, the pictures are questionable, but I did finish another item last week. This is a new Shalom{*cough*potato pancake*cough*} sweater, and once I have better pictures I'll tell you more about this one and my first, unsuccessful pancake.

And finally, after the news about Patrick Swazye hit, how could I not refer you to a little bit of music/dance super-star inspiration.