summer creations

so i have been a pretty terrible blogger this summer.  i know, i'm awful.  i really don't have any excuse.  anyway, i'm going to post a bunch of pictures to show you some of what i have been up to.  it isn't all of the creations i have created (because, i have also been a bad craft photographer).  but at least you are getting a summary.  maybe i'll be better this fall.  yeah, i doubt it, but a girl can try.  so here you go:

savory deep-dish mushroom pie - this was for the opening ceremonies of the olympic games. british themed food, of course! 

this is sue mi's birthday cake.  the girl like board games and is korean - hence the monopoly board and the korean characters for monopoly.  notice the cute little asian girl portrait - that's sue' face in butter cream.

my roommate's fiance asked me to make his son and his brother a joint b-day cake. so the 26 car  is for the brother and the 2 car is for the little boy.  this cake is also dairy free yet was surprisingly delicious.

my friend christy from back home had a baby over the summer. she has posted photos of how she decorated the baby's room.  she did a fun mural with song birds and an owl on the wall.  so i went with the theme to make this little guy.

my sister-in-law's baby shower was in august. i was put in charge of dessert. so i make four dozen mini pies (peach, strawberry, and apple/blackberry).  they took 5+ hours to make, but they were yummy!

i threw my roommate a bridal shower with a purple theme - since it is her favorite color. this is the bathroom with some of the purple poms i made (notice the purple hand towel, candle, and bunting also in the room).

and the purple bunting i made for the living room decorations - i might have to sell this on the etsy shop - it is too cute to not let someone else enjoy!

Jar project

Another Arthouse Co-op project! The jar project! Of course I figured out how to stick a flamingo in there :)

4x6 exchange

my entry for the arthouse co-op 4x6 exchange!  granted, i finished this over the weekend (and i was sick all weekend), so it isn't my finest work, but it was a fun little challenge.  and it forced me to work on my cross stitching.

i'm took congested and tired to type-out the purpose of the project.  you'll just have to click the link and check it out :)

first attempt

i saw an article in martha about cross stitching, so i decided it was about time to give it a try.  at work, we are having a postcard design contest for the museum's 40th anniversary.  technically i can't win the contest, but i decided to participate anyway (just for the fun of it).  so i cross stitched my entry.  pretty appropriate for a craft museum, but that is just my take.  anyway, for your view pleasure!

ps - one of my resolutions this year was to actually sell on my etsy site and complete more crafty projects, so expect more posts!  (i know i have been slacking, but i'm trying to make up for it now :) )

UPDATE - the museum liked my design so much that they used it to illustrate the blog.  check it!

painting class with linds!

perhaps you remember the painting class i took back in december...  well, i took another :)

here you can see my sky and river (the original it is supposed to look like is in the background)

finished painting (the low-res camera makes it look better than it is... haha)

more printing!

back in school!

whoa - ok, so i know it has been awhile, but i'm back!  let's hope i don't take another 4 month break, huh?  i had a lot going on!  the jeffster was on r&r at the end of february, before that i found us a new place to rent (yep, living with the boy!), and after his r&r i had to move into the new place.  now i am patiently awaiting his return from afghanistan, and while i do so, i am decorating our new place - a lovely little townhouse.  it makes me very happy!  and there will be many posts coming soon about my decorating endeavors (like the roman shades i just made for the bedroom!!!).

but, in addition to the house decorating, i have also signed up for a silk screen printing class!  once a week for 3 hours, i slave away in a studio with my teacher and 8 other students (ok, it really isn't slaving, but it can be hard work!).  on our first night, i was uninspired to create my first design (i didn't know we'd be printing immediately!).  so i made a funky cloud design and played around with the blue and silver paints.  you can see my tinkering below...

this is my screen after i made a pass with the the paint

here are the colors i used

and a finished print!

but it needed to dry, so it is hanging on the rack

Sketchbook Project

working on some new creative things.  learn about them here and here!

making a little holiday cheer*

*cookie images may not be suitable for some audiences.

well, it wouldn't be the holidays without a little baked goodness, a little good ol' holiday cheer straight from the oven.  am i right?  who is with me?  well, this year i went back to iowa and dusted my parents' kitchen with a lot of flour and powdered sugar.  the result?  deliciousness.  yep.  that's right.

please notice the star cut outs on the edge and two pine tree cut outs for the center - very festive, me thinks!

first on my list was a holiday pie to eat on christmas eve (which is when my immediate family celebrates christmas).  my dad loves apple pie (and had a few from his last orchard visit left in the bucket), so apple was proposed.  i, personally, am not a fan of the apple pie (gasp! i know, so un-american), but do not fret, i still make a mean apple pie.  and, i made an apple pie for christmas eve, but i put a little kick in that pie.  that's right - i added cranberries.  bet you couldn't have guessed, huh?  we all know how i feel about the cranberry, and ocean spray brought cran-apple (genius) to the world long ago - so it seemed only logical that i put a little festive flavor in the apple pie.  and - not to brag - my pie crust kicked ass.  i think it was because i incorporated the butter into the flour by hand.  lately i have been using a food processor to make my crusts, but straight-up elbow grease is so much better.  mmm, flaky and delicious!

dad working hard on his masterpieces - maggie hoping he drops one

in addition to my pie making, christmas cookies were certainly in order.  my mother baked the cookies well before i got home (she gets antsy, and frankly, couldn't wait), but she left the decorating up to me and (to my surprise) my father (who was rather eager to help).  we were decorating some to go into a care package for the jeffster and some to keep at home.  the frosting (which flavor-wise i did not love) dried hard and shiny - which was nice.  enjoy our work below!  note: dad did all the stockings, i did most of the cookies in the lower section of the photo, and if the cookie has multiple sections of different colored frosting - it was most likely dad's.  enjoy.

our work

some of my favorites i frosted

anatomically correct cookies... (dad did the 2 to the right, mine is on the left)

dad's festive star

dad did a breast cancer awareness cookie - pretty good, no?

Happy Holidays :) 

behind

oh my goodness, i have been behind in my posting.  i'm sorry to my three or four readers out there!  i promise to be better.  i taught a class this fall, and the put me behind in just about everything.  also, the jeffster and i took a trip to france for his R&R, and well, it was amazing!  and i was distracted thinking about it and preparing, so not much crafting happened.  hopefully you all can forgive me!

last night linds and i went to blush-n-brush in georgetown.  this is a place where you can bring in your own wine or beer to drink while they direct you on how to paint a painting.  i'm not a painter.  i've painted ornaments and different crafty things, but i've never painted a canvas before.  never.  hard to believe?  well, it is true.  (at least as far as i can remember.) anyway, i'm not a fan of my creation, but i suppose it is good for a first try. (it was supposed to look like this.)

in addition to my escapades in the painting realm, i made myself a new winter hat the other day.  the dc area got real cold real fast.  so i whipped up this little number when i had some spare time.  keeps my ears warm - and that's what counts.  (i am a fan of the little flowers too!)

monster love

so i forgot i had this post sitting in my drafts since october 10th!  wow, i suck.  anyway, i'm trying to catch-up.  something i recently started doing is monster making.  yep, monsters.  cute lovable, little felt monsters.

my friends jordan and britton received the first little guy for their little guy in october, so i thought i'd post a couple of pictures of my first creation (you'll have to wait to see the one i gave away - i'm hoping they send me pics of their little guy with him... we'll see).

here he is sitting on my 15" laptop - if you want scale. and that's right - he has 6 legs.  er, arms... whatever.

i gave him a little tail

just one big eye - to watch you with.  

inspired by the crochet coral reef

mine is the red and alli's is the orange. we went to a hyperbolic crochet coral reef thing at the natural history museum. i'm totally into this and plan on making something big to donate to the exhibition going on view in the fall. check it out!

work to wear

for the earth day celebration at the museum (i.e. family day), we let our work study student plan the majority of the day. she has been working with us for two years now and is awesome. sometimes i'm not sure how we'd get through without her! for this family day (with some guidance), she chose to create paper beads out of old magazines as one of the crafts. kids can make necklaces from them and recycled shoelaces. very clever. i took a couple of the sample beads home and made earrings. i think they are cute. i'll have to show my co-worker tomorrow (our family day mastermind). she seemed skeptical when i said they'd be cool. what do you think? i might wear them tomorrow...

hop, hop, hop

my roommate (dan) and his girlfriend decided we should dye easter eggs yesterday. i was skeptical at first, but overall, it was a good time :) unfortunately, i don't have images of my egg after i put the "sticker face" on it. i made a very nice monster with a cyclopes thing going on. tehe. hoppy easter all.

happy VD everyone!

i made cake-pops again! here i made hearts and flowers for valentine's day. enjoy a little eye candy ;)

flour the cutter

push it into the mound of cake

slide out of cutter

freeze

i skipped some parts with the hearts... coat with chocolate and sprinkles!

i must say, i did much better this time :)

tis the season for cookies

this year, i found myself to be quite busy in december. i think a lot of that had to do with the new class i was teaching. coming up with new stuff is hard. i have a lot of respect for teachers. a lot.

anyway, i always make some sort of christmas cookie. it just wouldn't be right not to. but this year i only made one, and it took me almost a whole week to complete them. not that they were all that hard to make; i just didn't have the time. (thought they were a little tricky...)

this year i made stained glass cookies, and i followed this recipe. they turned out really cute (i think). and i didn't actually eat one, but those who did said that they tasted good (i was worried that the melted life savers that i used would taste funky, but apparently they were tasty).

here is one of the cookies held up to the light. i thought it was a fun shot to take. looked cooler in person though.

i also took it upon myself to save all the little pieces i cut out and decorate those too. i did have a few of these, and i can testify that the recipe for the dough is a solid one (and by solid i mean good, not like too heavy). the recipe calls for some molasses, and i think that is key in getting the nice flavor they have. they don't taste like gingerbread, but they have a hint of it...

side note - don't use sanding sugar in place of the crushed hard candy. i was a moron and tried that. clearly the sanding sugar has a higher melting point than the candies. so it didn't work. at all. but, i did use sanding sugar on top of the cookies after i frosted them. the sugar stuck to the icing and the stained glass part, which made them look even more festive (in my opinion).

for the frosting, i wanted something that would dry hard. i didn't want the designs to get all mushed on the commute into work. apparently egg whites are the trick to this. so whisked (in li'l martha) one egg white, one cup of powdered sugar, and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla for this icing. it did the trick. i really had to work quick with the sugar too - it dried super fast.

anyway, happy holidays!