Embroidered Scenes

I finally framed my first three little embroidered illustrations. They are perhaps one of the most ultimate acts of femininity I can think of. I feel like such a girl when I’m sewing. Would it be “sewing”? I’m sure it wouldn’t be “embroidering.” Or would it? No matter.

There’s something deeply satisfying about using a needle and thread to make lines. It’s a very deliberate act and requires pretty exact needlework because mistakes look really obvious. Surprisingly, Georgie and Gidget weren’t too nosey while I finished the “Love” pic last night.

On a side note, the kitties just can’t leave us alone ever since we got back from IlluxCon. It’s pretty much like they’re saying thank you for coming home. So funny.

First Time Hosting Thanksgiving

Well. It seemed a fine weekend to make my first roast turkey – a “practice turkey,” if you will. Everyone told me how easy it is and not to worry about it, but I’m really glad we tried it. It WAS easy, but there were a lot of details to iron out. Little insignificant snafus that would have had me seem a tad out of control.

Here are the lessons I (and MS) learned.

1. You sure do need a good 3, 4 days for it to defrost. No lies there. (Buy the bird early).

2. Move the refrigerator tiers around and reorganize the fridge BEFORE you attempt to load it with a turkey in a 5-gallon bucket. (Self-explanatory).

3. Um. Make sure you have a 5-gallon bucket. (Fortunately, we did).

4. It’s SUPER GROSS sticking your hand in the bird and taking out the neck. (I freaked out and had to get MS to fish for the giblets).

5. Um. They don’t just give you the neck. There ARE giblets in a bag. (They were near the neck).

5a. It is OK if you cook the bird with the giblet bag in the bird. (Haha. That’s why I didn’t fish too long for the giblets. A few friends said they had done it and no harm, no fowl. Get it? Foul. ;})

6. Keep all the fans blowing in case the place gets smoky. (It turns on the smoke detectors and scares the cats).

7. Butter will be better. (I used olive oil – canola was recommended, but I didn’t feel like buying it yet – to coat the bird, but I forgot the smoking point wasn’t high enough, hence the smoke. Or maybe it was the giblet bag?! Haha).

8. Metal things that come out of the oven are definitely hot. (The handle for the rack came off when I was putting on the metal foil tent to protect the breast. MS said he could put it back on. I said: “Careful, that was just in a 500 degree oven.” MS proceeds to pick it up with bare hands. Ouch.

9. The remote thermometer is awesome!

10. We have to purchase a carving knife. (Thought we had one. But MS did dandy with another knife.)

11. Last, but not least, Alton Brown is awesome. (From beginning to end, good tips all around. MS even watched his video on how to carve the bird).

12. Turkey is delicious. (OK. I knew that one already).

MS wanted me to post pictures of not only the beautiful bird, but the carnage that was left over after he carved it. Faint hearts beware.

So there you have it. Now our guests don’t need to worry so much. The bird will be a success!

Halloween Weekend Before Halloween

Our spoooookkky house. I tried to make it look like a demon, but I couldn’t make it work without rope lights and I’d already spent too much money. Maybe next year.

The fully dressed table, complete with placecards.

Behold the famed roast beast! The only error on my part was running out of parchment paper. It would have worked better to release the beast from the pan and onto the serving plate. It oozed some and stuck to the foil, but everyone was careful not to eat foil. The other thing was that I should have put foil on the “legs” while warming it up in the oven as the legs were a little overdone before serving. It’s a noodle-less lasagna. Basically lasagna filling inside pizza dough, much like a calzone. Olive eyes and bread stick legs. It worked out not quite as I imagined, but better than I’d hoped. Haha.

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. My absolute favorite. Those are vintage picks.

Gidget begin her normal silly self. She loves exposing her belly. She exposed it to everyone after dinner.

This is just a shot of the living room before everyone arrived.

It was great fun! Halloween is really becoming like Christmas for me. There are so many possibilities. Why, there are so many other types of roast beasts to make?!

Matt wore his usual mustache, I, of course was a witch, Jet was a Depression Era hobo complete with tequila flask and Kyle was Wolverine. Morgan wore a witch hat only because she thought it was too hot for a full costume.

For a few more pics, visit my Flickr page.

Halloween Dinner Party

I’ve been making the final preparations for my Halloween dinner party this year. I’m finding it’s a good opportunity to see other uses for some of my pre-existing designs. Cute little place cards and little party favors/centerpieces. I’m surprised the cat band didn’t sell very well this year. Although I had things that didn’t sell well last year sell great this year, so…I guess we’ll just see how it goes!

Tomorrow I do the baking and put up the party decorations. (Yes, more decorations). And I promise to take pictures of the house and post them this weekend. It’s never daytime anymore! And I don’t like using the flash. Makes everything look so flat.

Happy Halloweenin’!

Witches, Cats and Ravens

Here is Witchypoo. She is the epitome of witch in a raggedy long dress with tatters and embroidery and a fabulous pointed hat. She has a wonderful bouffant bow bustle in the back. And she is promised a good home in Arizona.

Another package has arrived today full of Halloween cheer! Some great spider candle holders, scary cat candy pails and a cool as all heck crow candle. Awesome, no? Courtesy of Pottery Barn. This is the first time I ever got anything from there.

I’ve been telling everyone how my house looks like Halloween threw up in it. (In a good way, of course). I’ll post pictures at some point. I had to put the decorations up last Friday to find out what I was “missing.” Of course, the cats won’t tolerate my cool spider lights, so I still have to figure out where to put them.

Off to work on some more Etsy orders and some treats for my Halloween dinner guests in a couple weeks.

Halloween Revisited

I’ve been quite busy! My Etsy shop has been hopping, which causes me to get to workin’ and MS to go to the post office a lot. . I even had my first sale to Australia this week. So…it’s delayed the witches a bit…BUT…one witch is almost there. A couple days and she’ll be finished. Here’s a sneak peek.

Her dress is beautifully raggedy. On the back is a long raggedy bow. I have no idea what the rest of her will look like, as I like everything to present itself to me while I’m working. I did make another witch hat that was too big. I’m wondering if I can get Gidget or Georgie to model it for me.

I’m practically falling over with excitement over being able to put up all my Halloween decorations. I got the GREATEST tablecloth! It was pricey, but well worth it. It should last a lifetime. MS keeps making fun of me for buying so many tablecloths and linens. (A new one comes in the mail almost weekly). But HEY! I sell something…I buy something. Fair trade for me!

Tune in soon for the full doll reveal.

Halloween

Here’s Cecily, my latest one-of-a-kind doll. This time the glittery shoes seemed to be appropriate. You can see more detailed photos on my Etsy page.

Good news! My previous doll, Lily, has found a nice home. And I have two witches in the works, but no photos available as of yet.

Look what I found. A fellow Etsyian made pillowcases of my fabric:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20713796
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=22588347

These look great! What fun they would be for a kid’s room!

House and Garden

At long last, our lamp has arrived and has been installed by MS not without some grumbling and a little ceiling dust. Heehee. Surprisingly, the cats haven’t been pushing it around (though there’s still time for them to figure that out to their delight and our disdain).

Above we see adult Gidget and Georgie attentively watching MS work on the lawn. If I’d had a video camera, I could have captured their synchronized back and forth head motions. Silly kitties!

Lo and behold! Our garlic! So small and delicate. A bulb so wee that it’s about the size of a medium clove. I’ve learned yet another gardening lesson. Once you find a gardening “how to” on the web, find a couple others to compare facts. They don’t always tell the whole story and there may be a better version to learn from with more tips for success. Now, I knew the bulbs wouldn’t get big because I planted them in the spring, but I wasn’t aware that I needed to trim the stalks as they were growing. It promotes growth of the plant and the bulb. So that’s why our stalks withered earlier than expected and our bulbs are baby bulbs. This eHow article and related articles are so much more helpful than the original one I found. No wonder planting in spring isn’t the best time. This article mentions they take 8 to ten months to mature. No time for sadness, though. I will push on and try again in the Fall as recommended and in the meantime harvest my wee bulbs for culinary enjoyment. Not a complete loss.

Fresh Paint and Fresh Drawings

My vision for the “cats’ room” is almost there. I finally painted the room yellow. I love it! So cheery! I tried that Behr paint with primer. It only took two coats. Hard to say, but I think I probably would have needed to use three coats otherwise? We sprang for it because we had a gift card to use up, so I figured it was the right time to splurge. MS gets worried when I say I want to paint a room. I think he secretly thinks any time I undertake painting a room that he’s going to have to get involved and he already told me he’s not painting anymore walls. It was the only room in the house that hadn’t been painted. So, now that task is finished. I think I can focus better on other things now that the room is painted. All the rooms were nice warm colors and the last one was all grayed out. This completes the indoor painting for quite a while.

I still just need to find more cool stuff. My lack of space in the apartment caused me to just never buy stuff, so now I can collect more pretty things. Fortunately, since our house is pretty small, I still can’t get too carried away with that. And I really don’t want to live in a jungle of “stuff” anyway. But…we’ll see what happens. I can rotate things like my friend Mahoney does. (Put some things away for a while).

Here’s an update to the kitchen. Yet another almost complete room. It’s good to live with things a while. I finally decided that although we at first thought maybe we’d get an electrician to install a light fixture over the table, a swag lamp would be a better idea. For simply the fact that we have an electrical outlet above the chair rail that sticks out like a sore thumb, basically begging to have something plugged into it. I think it will look nice and will make eating there much nicer. They sent me the wrong lamp and it’s taking FOREVER to get the right one in the mail. I’ll never buy from that place again. I found some great kids food advertising art to put up. Love them! Some day we will add or change them out with fun old photos of fat people eating. (That’s MS’s idea). They are really hard to find. It’s really easy to find terrible pictures of fat people.

And lastly, new designs for Halloween pieces. I’m going to use the new owl and moon for a drum noisemaker. The cat band will be stand up decorations. I hope to have all my new Halloween items in my Etsy shop in the next week or so. I love doing these Halloween characters. It’s fun because they’re supposed to be kinda weird and wonky and it’s a challenge to do that when you’ve been trained to be really accurate when you draw. Drawing wonky takes a little bit of “letting go.” I could go on about this topic forever. It will get me all riled up if I talk about it now.

I found this great website for vintage Halloween items. I heard of them first on Martha Stewart. I can’t wait to buy some of this stuff for the house. http://www.blumchen.com/index.html

Walls, Veggies and Mosquitos

I should really be studied by science. I literally have 12 new mosquito bites today. I must hold the record. I was outside for about an hour total in the garden and wham-o! Instant mosquito bait. FCOL. Thank God they don’t bite faces. Wait–do they ever bite faces? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with one on the face.

At any rate, I managed to stake up the tomato plants. Turns out I found out a month too late that tomato cages you buy at local chains aren’t big enough, so I had to supplement with stakes. Always learning. Here are the newly staked plants ready to climb as high as an elephant’s eye. Well. Maybe as high as a small elephant’s eye. I think if we have a successful crop from our humble first planting that I’ll branch out into the area to the left of the raised beds. See photo below.

See helpful diagram indicating plan for next years expanded planting.

For novice gardener’s like myself, it’s great to find a website with information about perennials that gives you all the information you could need in one place. This website helps you narrow down your choices by zone, color, care (easy, moderate, etc.), whether you want accent flowers or flowers to attract butterflies or climbers and when you want them to bloom. Really easy information to get. It’s quite daunting to look through huge books and randomly read up on things, so this is awesome. It’s great because I just don’t really want to spend an enormous amount of time figuring that stuff out. Just tell me what I should get and I’ll go get it. Like I’ve said before, I don’t want to be a slave to my garden. Number one: I’m forgetful. Number 2: I’m lazy in some respects. Number 3: I don’t want to lose too much money on this venture. We’re in zone 7. Here’s the site: http://www.perennials.com/

I am also having good luck with people giving us plants. Two friends have graciously offered to share their plants with us. It will definitely help fill in our sparse gardens.

The porch suffered a loss a couple weeks ago. I’m assuming the fat squirrel I caught sneaking around the porch one day is responsible for chewing through the wires of my lanterns. He was smart enough to chew in the one spot that killed both sets of lanterns, so I had to replace both of them. Nice job. I have since replaced them and they look like more fun now anyways. I wanted to add some white in there. They will probably convert to Fall better too. I plan on getting more Autumn-like lights for the Fall. Warmer, cozier. The plan for a sparkly sunny porch is working. I’ve been buying items with sparkle appeal. The vase I found a couple weeks ago is really pretty. On Monday I noticed around 4:30 how pretty the cast spots of light were looking on the walls. Exactly what I wanted – fairy like. I finally got a starburst mirror at Target the other day too. They are EXPENSIVE! Anything else is upwards over $100, but the Target version is a “steal” for a third of that. I’ll probably embellish it a little bit. It’s not as ornate as some of the ones I’ve seen around, but it works. The little sconces around the mirror were 99 cent thrift store finds. It gives me great delight to take care of the plants and see the porch from that point of view.

I of course put “blinders” on concerning how the outside of the porch needs a paint job and it’s a little wonky. I think I’ve decided against the mural idea for the porch. I think it might be a little weird since the wall boards have those half-inch gaps between them. I won’t rule it out, though. Just hasn’t “come” to me yet.

And finally, I have an adequate collection of mostly vintage plates on the kitchen wall. It was really difficult finding ones to work together. I think they are a good start. Now I can branch off from the base grouping at my leisure.

I decoupaged the apple plate based off a cute vintage apple design I found. The lettuce leaf (green one) was handmade by someone in 1969 from somewhere in Holland. Signed too. The one with the cherries was cute, but not quite perfect enough, so I painted it some to fit better with the collection. (For one thing, they used to be purple grapes–heehee). And the plate with the pretty flowers painted on it was vintage and faded some, so I just perked up the colors a bit.

Oh happy day!