Italy-bound and counting down

In less than two weeks I will be with Read in Italy. I can’t believe it. The departure date snuck up on me and now I’m furiously trying to tie up loose ends before I’m outta here. Highlights of the list include:

1. Finish this baby sweater and its matching hat that my friend ordered from me.

2. Drive these two hooligans north to stay with Read's sister

3. Pack for 4 weeks of miscellaneous winter weather. Any advice? I've only done big trips in hot weather when the packing's easier.

4. Collect reading material for the plane ride. No no, I mean BEYOND the celebrity magazines that I'll buy at the airport.

5. Organize my ideas/inspirations for wedding invitations. My coworker's partner is going to help me design them!Right now I'm really liking the hand-drawn look of these from greenweddingshoes.com

6. Prepare Italy for the dynamic nerd/waiter duo that is about to take it by storm.

p.s. I couldn’t figure out how to properly link to the wedding invitations in the picture caption. So here it is. They were made by designer Erin Shang.

winter is here

poor sam

No, Sam is not doing his best impersonation of a sleeping fox. He’s cold (which makes him sad) and he will be from now until May. I need to buy him a happy lamp and a sauna.

Freehand baby quilt

My college friend Phil and his wife welcomed a new baby into the world last month. Phil’s only my second close friend to have a baby. After five or six friends have kids I might tire of planning baby presents, but for now it’s still a new and exciting venture. A coworker once suggested that blankets make good presents because the family can keep using them after babyhood (Bethany: take note of this possible future market for your circle blankets). The practicality of that suggestion stuck with me, so for Sarah I started planning a quilt.

 I explained on this blog that quilting is a little too precise for me. The right angles and straight lines, the meticulous measuring…try as I might things never matched up. And then you’re sitting there at the machine, trying to figure out how EVERY SINGLE seam on this long strip of squares could somehow not align with the seams on this other long strip of squares (insert image of a ten-year old Katie scrapping her doll quilt project in disgust). 

So I gave up on the meticulous stuff. No set pattern. No preset size. Only freehand machine quilting. The trick is getting the quilts to read “off-kilter-on-purpose” but not “novice 4-H project” (depending on the day, it’s a fine line). In the end I like them imperfect and I seem to be in good company. Craftzine advertised a class for “imperfect quilters” taught by artist Andrea Zuill. Blogger Artsy-Craftsy Babe writes about quilting and the beauty of imperfection. But my favorite quote is from Joe Cunningham at  Threads magazine, who writes that in a world of high-tech quilting tools and perfect symmetry, there’s something to be said for inexactitude: “…the appeal of freehand quilting is that it prolongs the fun part—designing and figuring out what you’re going to do next.“ 

Welcome to the world baby Sarah!

I put this quirky bird fabric at the center of each of the four crazy sqaures

Each crazy square is quilted in a freehand radial pattern

The backing is a starry-night-inspired black flannel

through the middle and along the top/bottom is some checkerboard stuff...

ta-da!

peanut butter munchies

i have been on a peanut butter cook-athon! my new favorite cookies is the peanut butter munchie – for all ohioans, this is a buckeye in cookie form. now for all of you who were like “whats a buckeye?!” this cookie is like eating a reese’s cup in cookie form. mmm mmm good!

here’s the recipe …. i don’t have any pics (because alas my old computer died along with all my photos! boo!) so if you choose to take on this adventure please post your results!

PEANUT BUTTER MUNCHIES

ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 cup butter softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

(1) set oven to 350 degrees – sift together: flour, cocoa, baking soda  (2)  beat together: butter, 1/2 c. sugar, brown sugar, 1/4 c. peanut butter — add eff, milk, vanilla and beat well. combine in dry mixture. form into 32 – 1 inch balls. set aside. (3) peanut butter filling time: combine powdered sugar and 1/2 c. peanut butter. shape into 32 – 3/4inch balls. (4) on work surface, slightly flatten chocolate dough and top with peanut butter. shape chocolate dough over filling. roll dough into a ball — continue until finished. (5) place 2inches apart on cookie sheet and slightly flatten on bottom of glass dipped into sugar. (6) bake 8 minutes.

super delicious outcomes – must be made regularly! i must admit i had a slight baking fiasco the first go around. the chocolate dough turned out all crumbly and dry! aaaah! i had to throw it all away … then spent the next couple of days having a slight freak out that i had lost all my baking abilities. so when i finally got the courage for the second go around – i giggled to myself when i realized i had forgotten the butter the first time. the giggle fest continues now — yes, i am ditsy. enjoy.

webercrafthouse on etsy!

spurred by our first art gallery debut at The Frank Duveneck Arts & Cultural Center … katherine got on the ball and set up an online shop for all of us (us being = amy, katherine, mom, me & sisters).

check it out WEBERCRAFTHOUSE !

the weber women are a force to be reckoned with — watch out etsy here we are!

view some beautiful pics of beaded photo albums and journals (thanks to katherine) to purchase as well as fabulously decorated platters (per my mother). soon to come will be screen printed wonderfullness by amy and my own arts & crafts! exciting …

sneak peak:

'wedding wishes' wedding album by katherine

DIY research

I didn’t necessarily plan on blogging about this, but I’m finding that my personal life is crossing paths with an exciting sub-sect of the DIY world that’s new to me. Not basic auto repair. Or silkscreening. Nope, not home renovations either (although someday I hope to try all those out). 

That’s right – we’re talking DIY wedding planning. About three weeks after he proposed Read left for Italy. That was smart on his part – he crosses the Atlantic but leaves me with the ultimate girl-project to occupy my evenings. I haven’t nailed down very much except that Samson will be coming to the wedding and he will most certainly be wearing one of these. There are a lot of wedding-themed blogs and a bazillion vendor websites out there. So far here are some of my favorites for idea-gathering:

Green Wedding Shoes: lots of real-wedding inspiration from folks with great taste. Like this couple’s barn wedding or couples who go all out with the DIY

Snippet & Ink: More real-wedding inspiration. This site encourages you to do follow through with those quirky ideas you had in your heart by showing you other couples who did. I love this invitation map. I can pull something like that off, right?

I’ve already decided that one thing I won’t DIY is my dress. I was absolutely impressed that my friend sewed her own for her wedding last month, but I feel like I wouldn’t make it through the effort with my sanity. Or my sewing confidence. Bethany – I’m going to be in Cincinnati around December 17th. Do you want to visit this dress store with me? 

Readers do you have any site/shop suggestions?

becoming well-versed in candlemaking should be a group effort

with quite a delay – craft night #2!

abby found a great, old candling making book that reeked of cigarettes. there were several options – (1) dipping (2) molds (3) carving …. candle molds won out.

val translating the mold pattern directions

putting some arm muscle into breaking up the wax for melting

foil lined double boiler pot ... good for melting wax

getting the pyramid molds together

craft night always needs snacks! mmm mmm good

isn't that pyramid mold precious?!

mold set up for liquid wax

pouring the liquid wax into the mold - a two person process

the initial pour into the mold resulted in a jar full of wax. after some deliberation – we decided to (a) allow the wax cool a bit and (b) reinforce the mold with some more tape to secure the seams of the mold …

the mold needed some extra reinforcement

YAY! it worked!

wax takes time to cool down

all cooling down

unmolding the first one!

all set up in a row

we had a blast with this project … as crafting goes with our little group. no one had worked with wax before so it was a lot of “oh this didn’t work … how can we make it work?” but with our powers combined we found hot wax to be enthralling. in the future there are several things that i will keep in mind: (1) read up on wax temperatures for different types of candles (2) purchase separate pots and utensils only for wax use! (3) always make candles with people … two people are a must for mold pouring!

i hope we provided some motivation to go find a candle book and get to it!

over the rainbow

i recently had dinner with my grandparents … after a relaxing meal (complete with coffee and everyone sampling my favorite new chocolate peanut butter cookies) grandma and i scurried up to the sewing room. she had been waiting for me to visit in order to bestow upon me – oh yes! – a stash of yarn. after a little confusion in the crawl space of the attic – found it! a HUGE box of multi-colored yarn plus two more bags! yay!

you know me – i was up bright and early on saturday morning frantically sorting through skeins and skeins. standing back to survey my progress, i found out that even acrylic yarn looks beautiful all color coded and bunched together.

rainbow of acrylics!

just when you thought the blanket making was over …

Regretsy

Bethany, as my former etsy.com partner I think you will appreciate this site: www.regretsy.com

I’ve just spent the last ten minutes cracking up over some of the entries. Maybe the magic will wear off after a few more visits. Then again….maybe not. My first run through was pretty awesome.

Freebie! Printable bookplates

My friend Kim asked me to design a bookplate that she could print and gift to her friend’s baby. For a couple weeks I sketched a LOT of flying books and talking bunnies in my office notebook…

I’m offering the bookplates as a free download for your own personal, non-commercial use.  Just click here: Flying Paperback Bookplate  The page is designed to be printed on Avery labels #5163 (2″ x 4″).   Enjoy!