WHEW!!!!

As it's been some time, I might as well try to explain myself (aka make excuses) for my neglectful posting. I was preparing for the holidays which always seems to get me all flustered. Cleaning, shopping, mailing cards and making foods and gifts sure does take time!

First, there was the baking of cookies and the business of making candies. The cookies this year were scaled back a bit. I made some vegan sugar cookies, vegan chocolate chippers and these Vegan Caramel Pecan Bars which were very good and very sweet. One of these is enough to satisfy the biggest sweet tooth! They were also the easiest to make.

I tried my hand at some candies. First I made some yummy Rock Candy or Glass Candy.

It seems to go by both names. I used vegan granulated sugar and the only other ingredients are water, corn syrup, food coloring and flavoring oil. I made red cinnamon flavor and green spearmint flavor. I remember this candy fondly from my childhood; my grandmother always had it during the holidays. I thought she made it herself but my mom thinks she bought it from someone every year. Either way, it was relatively easy to make and yummy and I now have some very fresh breath.

The vegan gumdrops...not so happy an ending here. There was a recipe for gumdrops in a recent Better Homes and Gardens mag that seemed pretty close to vegan. I tried to make the coconut flavored gumdrops but my vegan fruit pectin I bought at Whole Foods came packaged a bit differently from the pectin the recipe was intended for and alas, I don't think I used enough pectin. It turned out like coconut flavored jam which really is sort of a weird thing. I ended up throwing it away but have lots of toasted coconut sugar on hand (which is what you roll the gumdrops in after they firm up and you cut them into little squares). I will let you know what I use it for...unless anyone out there has some suggestions? Seriously, I would love some.

There was some knitting. Three Interchangeable Hats (aka Poppy) for three lovely nieces.
Last year, I made one for one niece as I had her name in the big gift exchange we do for all the children in Nature Boy's family. Apparently, her sister has been stealing said hat and stretching it out. Since Nature Boy and I had the other two remaining nieces for the exchange, I went ahead and made three to cover all the nieces. Don't worry, they don't just get a knitted hat for the gift exchange, they get some cool presents too, these are just in addition to...

I also managed to knit up a sweater for a certain wee one who will be arriving in Hawaii close to the time Wee Too shows up here!
The pattern is the same as the sweater I made for Wee Too recently. I also knit up a Greenleaf hat to match.
After the baby shower, as I was driving home, it struck me a babe in Hawaii may not require sweaters and hats. I guess it's the thought, right?

Finally I made up some earrings and a ring out of some vintage buttons for my mom and one of my sisters. I also began another project but alas, it was not finished in time. I will detail more on this one another day.


Lastly, on my recent birthday, I think I got a strong message from the universe I am still trying to sort out. I was given a card with owls on it from Nature Boy in the morning. A package arrived from my sister with a birthday gift that was wrapped in owl paper she had made. At the night's end, as we were sitting on el coucho, Nature Boy tapped my hand and spoke softly to me that there was an owl outside on the pole. As I looked, I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a small Eastern Screech Owl sitting ON OUR PORCH!!! IN THE MIDDLE OF PITTSBURGH!!! Looking right in the window at us!
We watched the owl for an hour at least, then finally had to head to bed. The owl did not leave but when I awoke at 3AM as usual, I came down and looked and the owl was gone. I have heard owls outside as a girl but have never seen one outside in the wild. It was truly an amazing birthday, one I will never forget!

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday (whatever you choose to call it or however you celebrate it). Peace, love and joy to everyone out there!

Craftapalooza! Part I

Behold-the Mystery Craft revealed!


So what is it? Let's start with the inspiration. Here is one of two jewelry boxes. Looks ok, right?

WRONG! It's a tangled mess of necklaces with many many earrings jumbled in.

This is what you do with the Mystery Craft.

It lifts and separates! Ha ha...

Now, all the details you know you want so you can make one too. I used stuff I happened to have lying around the house so it cost nothing to make. Can you make one using recycled crap too? I think you can!

QUICK STATS:

Cost=Free

Time=1-3 hours. More if you are painting your frame, less if your frame is good to go.

Difficulty level=No real skills required. Can you cut, glue, nail? You got it!

Materials:

-Picture frame (did not use glass or back piece)

-Fabric, paper or some backing material (or none!)

-Acrylic paint (if you want/need to paint your frame)

-Sewing machine (if you use fabric and want to sew it)

-Thread

-Glue gun and glue

-Nails

-Picture hanger for back (if your frame does not have one)

-Beads

-Hammer

-Scissors

-Pencil

HOW TO AND OPTIONS:

The frame is a picture frame Nature Boy bought on the cheap. He used the glass inside the cheap frame to place inside a wooden frame he made himself for a picture for the nursery. So the frame was just hanging around for a while. It was red in color which I would have left as is, except it had a big chip in the paint on one side that more than likely occurred whilst hanging around Knitsburgh. Again, the crimes, they are so frequent and alarming here.

I painted the frame with some acrylic paint I had from bye-gone projects. It took two coats after Ms. Madison Penelope's close inspection (she added a smudge and then left a metallic taupe paw print on the newspaper I had spread under it on the table--what we call evidence. Had it not been for her inspection, one coat would have been enough). If you don't have paint, maybe some decoupage work about the frame (thinned glue with smaller pieces of paper)? After painting, I got out my fabric and found a piece that I liked. You might choose to pick paint and fabric together; I did this step a bit wonky and lucked out with fabric that would match.

Once my fabric was chosen, I turned it wrong-side up, traced around the outside of the frame, then cut it out. I then ironed it, turning the raw edges under and basting the hem so it would not unravel and would look tidy on the back. You could honestly skip sewing and just iron the edges under and glue them with fabric glue if you are not into the whole sewing thing. Or if you are more of a paper person and have paper and not fabric, back it with paper. Even stamping something on a brown paper bag, then wrinkling it up would be cool and rustic-looking. Maybe for your campsite? Or make a collage for the back out of magazines, catalogues, whatever. The point is to use stuff you just happen to have around.

After I hemmed it, I got out the ole' glue gun and just glued the fabric into the frame opening from the back along the innermost edge where the glass would normally rest. I glued one side first, then stretched the fabric a bit and glued the opposite side. To be honest, my first try got it on there a bit wonky but I just pulled it off, pulled off the glue from the fabric (it came right off), then redid it a second time. With thick fabric I think a staple gun could also be employed instead of gluing. I then nailed in a picture hanger (my frame didn't have one cause someone also used the back part) at the top center of the frame. After flipping it to the front, I gathered up some beads and nails. I had some larger-holed beads that fine finishing-type nails would fit through. I put each nail through a bead, then nailed them in. I used 5 nails for the top and two sides of my frame (15 total). You could use more or less; you could also add some to the bottom edge if you like. You could also use longer nails to hold more stuff or say bigger thicker things like bangle bracelets. After the beads and nails were in, the glue gun reappeared and I simultaneously glued some greenish beads to the nail head while gluing the silvery beads to the underside of the nail head (so they sandwich the nail head and will prevent your fine jewels from sliding onto the floor). Don't have beads? Maybe buttons? Macaroni shells that you painted? Old game pieces from that Monopoly game you and your inebriated friends trashed? Pine cones (for that cabin jewelry holder again...)? Stones? Bottle caps? Again whatever you have laying about the place and speaks to you.

And that's it! Oh, except for hanging it and spending your evening untangling all your fine baubles, that is....

If someone makes one for a cabin, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send me a pic!!! Or if anyone out there makes one at all, really.

Also, this was just my way of doing this; see HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE for some other ideas/inspiration.

WHEW!

Finally able to take a breather here at Knitsburgh. A quick update on the craftiness follows:
1. Nature Boy's niece liked her interchangeable hat! Others liked it too, so much that more have been requested for other little heads...I better get knitting as we will likely see them over the Russian Christmas Extravaganza...
2. Here are some sea glass pendants I made for some special folk out there: Different view which makes the colors stand out more:

They were made with some of the stock pile of sea glass found on the North Carolina shore when we lived on the Outer Banks. I made some little sachet bags to house some of them for gifting out of some fabric scraps but sadly, the pics I took cannot be located at this time. If I stumble upon such pics I will show you sometime.
3. My vegan Yule log cake.
It was really yummy and didn't come out half bad. I did not have a jelly roll pan, so I just used my largest cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I made my fave vegan chocolate cake recipe and baked it for about 15 minutes, let it cool about 5 minutes, then rolled it from short end to short end and left it cool completely all rolled up. I then iced it with my fave vegan chocolate icing and stuck a piece of the cake cut off the side before rolling it up on it for a branch, gluing it with icing and covering it too. I wish I had more time to make it and venture outside for some greenery to properly decorate it but I had to pick up Kay at the train station and time was short. Maybe next year I will only make the cake and not all the cookies too. We are still eating our way through a ton of sugar.
4. Some silly magnets for Wee One's auntie. I really went cheap and quick here, printing out pics on regular copy paper, then gluing them onto some magnets that come in the mail for free as fake "credit cards" trying to sucker you into getting a credit card...if they only knew what I did with mine! I then put some packing tape over it to help seal in the photo, trimmed around the edges and voila, some silly magnets for your abode or cubicle. Hopefully for your abode.
5. Some things (Wee One's Red Sweater among others) did not get completed. I was sad but I think it will be ok. I did not stay up all night on the Eve of Christmas to complete things this year. I chose sanity instead. I think my family appreciated this too.

We traveled from Knitsburgh to my parents' to Nature Boy's parents across the state on Christmas Day. We woke at 6AM that morning and did not reach Nature Boy's kin's homestead until after 9PM that night. We drove back yesterday and I am finally recovered from the unpacking and such. We had so much fun! This is one holiday season I won't soon forget, so many firsts. I only hope the Wee learns to love the madness as much as Nature Boy and I do. Happy Holidays to everyone out there!