MONSTERS! Get them here....

Currently: April 24 - April 30, 2002

VACATION!!

April 23, 2002

Lisanne ROCKS! She solve the mystery indredient....uh..mystery. It's Elderflower Cordial. Apparently it's an ingredient that is popular over in the U.K. since all of my Google searches turned up with british sites. I did find a few recipes for making Elderflower Cordial like this one and this one. Elderflowers look like an ingredient used in home wine making. Intriguing.

It's really beautiful down here in So Cal....I am wearing short sleeve shirts and flip flops, but the weather forecast for Wyoming says: "Cloudy with a chance of snow. Continued cold. Lows in the lower 20s and highs in the lower 40s." Aargghh!

After three weeks, many emails and a lot of frustration, I FINALLY got the linen I ordered from DollarFabric.com. I think that I will be buying my linen from another source from now on. I am positive that there is fabric store somewhere in my area that carries linen, but that would mean I would have to drive somewhere I am unfamiliar with and I really don't feel like dealing with that anxiety just yet. I have to say that I am very please to see the new Sew Wrong up and running! YAY!

April 22, 2002

This weekend I watched an episode of "The Naked Chef", Jamie Oliver, where he made some breakfast breads that looked amazing! What is bothering me, however, is the yogurt concoction he whipped up before that. It looked simple enough...yogurt and fruit. He added something that I didn't seem to understand. I thought that he said "Elderflower Something". I was a liquid and fizzy, like it was carbonated. I can't find the recipe on Food Network (bastards) so if anyone caught that mystery ingredient...please clue me in, I will love you forever. I also saw that he has a new series coming in may called "Oliver's Twist". Let's just hope they film more that five episodes and do not air those same five episodes over and over and over again.

So...I am going to be in Wyoming for a week starting on Wednesday! I emailed a picture of these purses to my dad so he has an idea of the type of leather tooling I want to learn. I am so excited! I haven't been home in so long....my mom got the felting supplies, we are going to make apple jelly, Dad is going to give me a lesson in leather tooling, and..I get to eat Prime Rib at my favorite restaurant. Yay!

April 18, 2002

I have quite a collection of cacti and succulents on my patio. One in particular is the Sedum morganianum or Burro's tail, or Donkey's Tail. Mine looks nothing like the one in the picture, actually, I think that there is something wrong with it...perhaps I am not watering it enough, or I do not have the right kind of soil. I had a soil mix recipe I got from Martha scribbled on a scrap of paper and of course now I cannot find it. I had a couple, and I cannot for the life of me remember where I found them. I know it's something like 1 part peat, 1 part sand...so on. Instead I have decided that I want this book: The Ultimate Book of Cacti and Succulents I see in the contents that it has a section on soil mixes. One of my fantasy lives is to move to Santa Fe and open a cacti and succulent nursery. OH! here is another one! The Complete Book Cacti and Succulents Awesome. They are definitely slow growers...I love it when, after what seems like a year of nothing, one of them will EXPLODE with activity....a new little sprout, or a flower that blooms...

April 17, 2002

There is an interesting project I found through You Grow Girl. It's designing a seed packet and it's set up through Nervousness.org . Sounds like fun! You can download the packet envelope template and use that as your guide. What a great project to do if you had a plant that you harvested seeds from.

The other day Martha was doing an organizing project for a children's room and she used a product that made paper into an instant sticker, or label. What a moment of clarity...I would have loved to have known about that stuff when I was doing my Christmas gifts. The product is called Peel Õn Stick double-sided adhesive sheets made by Therm O Web. You can probably buy it at Staples or Office Depot. I am definitely going to have to get some of that.

April 15, 2002

I love these paper clips!! I had to run out to Pier 1 to see if they had some and I bought three sets. They are only $2.50 a set and I think that is pretty reasonable. I also have to rant a little bit and say that Pier 1 has changed. I remember when they had clothes, and jewelry, and so many more kitchen and bath items. I bought the BEST Patchouli there way back in the day....They used to be more like what Cost Plus is. Maybe the store near me is small and sucks, and since I am ranting, I also have to complain about the their damn smelly candles. Gee, do you think they put enough smellem in the candles? I cannot even fathom how much fragrance oil they must put in those things. I can smell them and they are not even lit! The last time I made candles with a fragrance, I thought that I was going to die. I used a "tea" scent, and let me tell you.....I used the whole bottle for one candle the size of a cardboard milk container (1/2 gallon?). I couldn't even smell the candle when it was lit, and honesty..I was so damn sick of that damn scent that I really didn't care.

Speaking of candles. One of these days I am going to buy some flat sheets of beeswax from Alberta Beeswax and Candlemaking Supplies. Specifically the flat, unstamped sheets...no honeycomb for me. Did you ever see an episode of Martha where she made candles using sheets like these? It was years ago...ever since I saw that I have wanted to make candles with the flat sheets. To me they seem elegant and hip, not countrified and hokey. However, I recently bought some of the honeycomb flat sheets on sale for like at buck a pack and I cannot bring myself to make any candles. I just want to hoard the stuff. Anyway...back to Martha, she used one color for the bulk of the candle, then for the last layer she used a different color...or if I remember correctly, she would use one color for half of the candle and another color for the rest. Pretty snazzy.

And there is this. *SIGH*...no more Spongebob.

April 12, 2002

I finished a new picture! I tried to create a fictional science fiction movie poster. This one I am thinking of actually printing out oversize, like at Kinko's or something. I am also going to try to guild the rocket with some sort of metallic leaf. Like a faux silver. My concerns about this are using the glue size and a varnish, which are liquids on printed paper. I don't want it to buckle. Maybe I will try Rub 'N' Buff. You know what? I think I have some in my paint box. I bought it and have never used it. (5 minutes later.....) well...I tried the Rub 'N Buff that I had on a piece of scrap paper. Unfortunately it is "Antique Gold", but I think it will work. I need to do more testing I think. You apply it with a finger, and that isn't exactly a precise instrument, so they recommended thinning with paint thinner and applying with a brush. This brings up my original buckling problem coupled with the unknown interaction of printer toner and paint thinner. I know that lacquer thinner and toner are not friends, so this worries me a little. I need to print out the rocket in a manageable size and experiment before I blow 80$ on something I am going to end up ruining.

I am so jealous of all of you that have bought new homes. I want to buy a house SO BAD, but I don't want to buy one down here since it pretty much sucks and it's turning into the nightmare real estate market that Santa Cruz is. They are building new homes right buy our apartment complex and we snuck over there the other day and peeked inside the sample homes. They are tiny tiny houses, 3-4 bedrooms, are built really close together, and have no yard to speak of. Guess how much they are selling for?......They are starting at $270,000! Starting! Oh...I did forget to mention that they have a stunning view of a Costco parking lot.

April 10, 2002

I have been seeing this designing sister duo all over the place. They have been featured in a bunch of my home decorating magazines that I subscribe to and their designs rock. They are Hable Construction. There are specific items that I would like to try to emulate. The first being their hand printed canvas boxes. The second being this Christmas stocking. If I was smart I would start on anything holiday related NOW.

In the current issue of Lucky, there is a snippet about a designer that silk screens designs onto fabric and paper. Her name is Lotta Jansdotter. I really love that purse in that picture. I just wish she had more content. Lucky is my new favorite magazine. I tried to ignore it for so long, their tag line is "A Magazine About Shopping". Blech. I love it though...every issue I see something that inspires me.

Last Friday I bought a new cookbook. It's the new one from Oprah's old chef Rosie Daley and Dr. Andrew Weil called "The Healthy Kitchen:Recipes for a Better Body, Life, and Spirit" Imagine my surprise when I turned on Oprah the other day and there they were...cookin' away. We have made three items from the book and all three have turned out great. I made Spicy Baked Tofu with Mango and Corn (or something like that..I am too lazy to get up and check) and I have to say....I was a little afraid. I am not a HUGE tofu fan, and mixing fruit into savory dishes always scares me even though they always turn out to be spectacular. I think an early childhood trauma with pineapple on pizza scarred me for life. The addition of soy sauce turned everything a strange beige color. The recipe called for cellophane noodles and the corn was the white corn, not the bright yellow stuff and then you had the tofu, so everything was the same color value...I have to say it did not look like the picture at all. You would think that the bright orange of the mango would have been really pretty, but it only added to the strangeness of the color scheme. However...it tasted FABULOUS, funky color or no funky color...it was really yummy.

April 9, 2002

I had to have my eyes dilated this morning so things are fuzzy and REALLY BRIGHT! I did get a pair of those snazzy disposable wrap around sunglasses, so that was pretty cool.

I just bought some wool roving for making felt from Peece Fleece to send to my parents house for my up coming visit. I bought a one pound bag of the antarctic white and a one pound bag of mixed brights (color chart). I think that should be enough to get started...at least to play with. I am SO excited!

April 8, 2002

There is a thread on Glitter concerning the new issue of Ready Made. Obviously some people have gotten the new issue...I have not and it's making me antsy.

I went to an Aveda store on saturday and spent WAY too much money on something I could have made myself. J is the one that bought it actually, and I looked at the ingredients and thought, "I could make this myself for 1/3 of the price. But if I mention this fact to J, he will probably bring up the fact that I say that about almost everything, and make almost nothing." I decided to fork over the cash and spare the lecture. The product is "Beautifying Compostion" Very descriptive, isn't it? Anyway, it's "compostion" =jojoba oil, essential oils of the following: comfrey, arnica, lavender, rosemary, bergamot, and over course, the mysterious "fragrance oil". I could be missing an oil, and I can't seem to find the box with the ingredients listed on it.

April 4, 2002

Every so often I get on a cheese making kick. Today I happened to catch a "Home Matter's" that showed someone making mozzarella. I have a cookbook that has a cheese making section, and they talk about using something called rennet. I have no idea what this stuff is, or where to get it, but I found a source through a cheese making message board. Rennet Tablets Pretty cool..the site is called Hometown Favorites and they have some funky things. Lots of candy, Ho-Made jams...(hee hee that makes me laugh) canned bread (scroll down a bit) and drum roll please.....Aqua Velva After Shave. I am definitely bookmarking this place.

April 2 2002

I am SO very tempted to participate in the 20 Things Project. What would I make? Could I handle the pressure of making 20 things in 20 days? It sounds like a lot of fun, and perhaps I will think about it and join after I get back from my trip. You should take a look at some of the fabulous items people have created for this...it's all very inspiring.

I am trying to create my portfolio and marketing materials to send out to art directors, which I am sure you have all read here before. I have decided to break it up into more managable chunks and I have finished the first stage. A new logo. I posted it on my "home" page, but I know a lot of you only have this page bookmarked so some of you may not have seen it.

April 1 2002

Did everyone have a nice Easter? I did...since it was also my birthday I did a lot of nothing. It was good...I got a phone call from all the people that care about me, so that was nice, too. I felt very popular. This coming Saturday is when J and I are going to celebrate, and I have decided that I want to make a Red Velvet Cake. I have always wanted to make one. Should be interesting.

I am still on my embroidering craze and it's getting a little out of hand. I can never decide what to embroider out of my big book of designs and I tend to start one thing, get bored, start something else, decide I don't like it...go back to the first thing I started...on and on.

I found this crochet tote pattern and I think that I want to make it. Add it to the list.

March 2002-->