Wise Craft

just a few announcements

I finally made it to Sarah's new shop, Fabric Crush, over in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. Such a charming place, very warm and full of all the pretty patterns and designer fabrics we're looking for. If you're local you must stop by, its really charming. (And gosh, I think these photos were probably the last time we saw the sun around town. Its been the rainiest I can remember!)

A few other random things:

*Kids Craft Weekly has two great ebooks for holiday crafting with kids that are full of good ideas, Christmas Cards and Christmas Crafts (newly updated with new stuff). So good. (Reminding me that I need to gear up for our crafting/gift making day soon).

*Kathreen posted an interview with me over on Whip Up. Thank you Kathreen! (Remember the Whip Up 2010 Calendars are available now right here.)

*I am getting a few holiday decorations out, starting with the less Christmasy. As I do every year, I will make some new ornaments for our tree, and I have my eye on a few from Crafty Tree Trimmings, another great ebook available now. (What do you guys think of ebooks. I really like the idea of them myself, but am curious what others are thinking.)

*Did you happen upon Martha's Origami wrap yet?

*I just ordered myself (for the 2nd year in a row, here's last year's) Patricia's customizable calendar. I have wall space in my studio where I hang a calendar and how fitting to have one with some of my favorite fabrics peeking out each month. Just print the pdf files onto cardstock, cut out the letter, glue the fabric of your choosing to the back of each page, and voila! Older kids can do this too, would make a great gift.

*Sew Mama Sew is doing their annual Handmade Holidays list, I've already marked several projects I want to do!

*If you have any trouble at all downloading the pdf instructions to any of the holiday projects I did on the Value Village site, please email me, I can send you a copy of the pdf with the instructions. A few of you commented that when you pulled up the pdf's over on their site, nothing showed up. I have had Value Village look into it and they are stumped. I'm thinking it might be the settings on individual computers (the pdfs did the same thing when I pulled them up on mine, but were normal when I pulled them up on Peter's computer). No worries, just let me know if you have any trouble at all.

*I still have sponsor spots available on the blog during the holiday season. If you are an indie designer, etsy seller, or crafter that would like to promote yourself, email me for rates, I'd love to have you.

*I am going to be making some changes around here over the next couple of months. I need to shake things up a little in this space.The whole world of wise craft is evolving for me and I'm very excited about it. In the meantime, if you read this blog through google reader, bloglines, or some other service, click over and take a look at some of the links I'm adding to the "inspiring me" column. I will continue to update this section and others on a regular basis. There are some great holiday ideas out there.

Thank you all for really getting me thinking about photo file storage on that last post. I am glad to say that I went so far as to move all my photos from the computer to an external hard drive after I read your advice, but now I need to burn DVD's before I'm brave enough to hit delete on my computer (hoping to do that tomorrow). Anybody who is not sure how to store their digital photos, go read the comments from the last post, there's lots of ideas.

oh snap!

(Thanks for all the kind words about Ian's quilt!)

The birthday cake that was requested for Emma's party, Angel Food. My first one. Whenever I make a classic, something like this, for the very first time, I almost always go to The Best Recipe. That cookbook is one every budding cook should have in my opinion. Its not as sexy as most of the cookbooks coming out these days (although they recently reissued this cookbook with a bit more sex appeal, but mine is the original version, with no photographs, lots of pencil drawings, very much like its magazine origin, Cooks Illustrated). But this book will make a cook out of you. If you have a piece of meat, a squash, want to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie, anything, this cookbook will tell you the basic science behind what the ingredients do (for example, I never really knew why they used ingredients like lard in biscuits when I was growing up, I just figured it was what the cook had around, or maybe just tradition).

Anyway, a dozen egg whites and a lot of whipping later, the cake came out beautifully crusty on the outside (the recipe told me I was going for an almost macaroon-like texture on the surface and I watched it like a hawk during the last bit of baking time), and light as a feather on the inside. Whew! This photo was taken just before the strawberry halves were added.

Which brings me to my next question. Its time for me to take the bazillion hundred photos currently on my computer off before I tempt fate more than I feel I already have. How do you guys catalog your photos when you take them off the computer? In the past, I move them onto disks, and store them in a box, but this feel inefficient to me. I'm hoping there's a better way to preserve them. And quicker. Last time I did this little exercise it took me the better part of a day. So please, what's the secret? Is there a secret? Can we create a secret? Help!

the one for ian

To explain why, in spite of all the scurry that fills our days right now, I would stop to obsessively finish this quilt off is to just call me a little bit of crazy. The half excitement and half crazy parts of sewing can make me really productive, and I wanted to see this finished real bad. I brought it home from The Quilting Loft last week. The quilting Holly did for me, all-over loop-d-loops (which I also did on Emma's quilt), turned out, once again, just as I'd hoped. The loops add just enough and take away nothing. I'd given her a cotton, full sized bed sheet for the back, and she chose compatible batting based on the effect I wanted. (*For the record that there are times I get a lot of satisfaction out of quilting my own quilts, like the stash value quilt as an example. But when I want an all-over pattern like this, I just can't do it on my sewing machine, it definitely needs the expertise of a long arm quilter.)

 

Thing is I've had this quilt on my to do list for years. Years. The book came out in 2005 and that's when I fell in love with this Marquee pattern. If I really liked it that much for so long, sooner or later I feel that I have to just go for it. I'm really glad I did.

When I posted about the finished quilt top, a commenter made the analogy of the stacked patchwork blocks looking like Legos and I suddenly saw it too! Why hadn't I seen that before? The patterns I used (which may be seen better here) are a combination of muted colors, a lot of Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope, and a random mix that provided color when the quilt needed it. Ian's room is orange, so I wanted some touches of orange sprinkled throughout. 

This quilt will alternate with Ian's Goodnight Moon quilt, which is still a favorite of mine. You may be asking why did I made yet another quilt for a bed around here (that's already got one)? I guess I'm just never content to keep things as they are for too long. For selfish reasons I like to look in Ian's room and see something like this, that I made for him.

Alright, off to curl up under my quilt with hulu. Night everyone!

in between

First of all, thank you all so much for the kind words on the last post, your enthusiasm makes me smile really big.

*******

When I began this blog, back in 2005, a lot of what I wrote about centered around daily life with my kids. We three spent a lot of our days together back then, and found creative ways to fill our time. I truly treasure the snippets of time that I documented on wise craft, writing about those days on this blog felt like it gave it all so much more life than just taking one photograph.

Even though they are still very much still my daily focus, I don't write about Emma and Ian so much anymore. This is in part a conscious decision and in part a natural evolution of our life together. As much as I've tried to slow it down, they are, in fact, getting older. More and more of their days are spent out and about in their own world, and I feel a strong need to let them keep their life and private. This is especially true with Emma. She is 11 years old today. That's just nuts! When I started this blog she was so little, just starting kindergarten. Feels like ages ago...

Lately, however, I feel the strong evidence of a "tweener" in our house. What does that mean? Well, there's the wiki definition, and there's our real life version, which doesn't feel so straightforward. Our real life tweener is a girl who is sweet and little and in her room playing with her tiny Calico Critter animals one minute, maybe wanting to hug and snuggle with me, then the next minute could be asking me about makeup, crying over too much homework, rolling her eyes because I won't let her stay up and read past her bedtime (ah! the eye rolling!), or have a friend over every afternoon, the one who needs a little space (or not, her call). Where did this girl come from? The other day she made her own little dressing table after reading one of those Daring Book for Girls (sorry, don't know which one) all afternoon. I just couldn't resist photographing it. She covered stacks of shoe boxes with 2 pieces of fabric, covered it with things she deems "important", and she just loves it. So cute. And so symbolic of where she's at in her life. The lipgloss and jewelry, nail polish, deodorant (suddenly a big necessity)...all mixed with bakugan cards, rubber band balls, and one of her homemade potions (weird combinations of shampoo, lotion, and whatever she can find) in a Pingu bottle.

Big Girl mixed with Little Girl.

The uncertainty of the middle.

So I enter the new challenge of parenting this new-ish Emma that's landed at our doorstep. I feel the need to give her a little space and a lot of guidance. Just do the best I can. I realize this is merely one of the thousand phases she will go through in her life. I am fascinated by all of them. The current phase, which I have dubbed the Loves Baby Soft phase, includes angel food birthday cake and jewel encrusted earbuds for her Ipod. I'm going with it...

Happy Birthday Emma, you are more awesome every year.

value village & savers holiday 09

I recently completed my newest project for the folks at Value Village and Savers. This is holiday set of projects is my favorite so far. For inspiration, I spent an evening at my local Value Village, shopping for supplies. The whole palette of grays and blues with tiny touches of red really came together within a few minutes, through a combination of things easy to find thrift any time...sweaters, plaid fabric remnants, dishes, etc. I came home and got right to work, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This series of projects are easy to do and do not require tons of sewing skills (actually, in some cases, no sewing). You could use these to decorate from now right up until New Years. I'd love to see you guys put your own spin on them with a totally different color palette (what about oranges?) and whatever you find second hand.

 

My absolute favorite project were the miniature terrarium place cards. These are glass votive holders, which I filled with some fake moss and a little tiny deer (I found a bag of them in the kid's toy section). The flag is blue paper glued around a bamboo skewer cut down to size and held in the bottom with a blob of clay. (It would be so cute to add some tiny mushrooms in there too).

 

Every single thing in these photos was bought second hand, for these projects (the transferware dish, the flatware, napkin -made from a men's dress shirt, all of it). No expensive or precious antiques here. Which proves, yet again, that you can pull together a wonderful home decor with all sorts of random things gathered secondhand.

You can find a complete list of the projects on the Value Village and Savers websites, along with downloadable pdf instructions. Go check them out! And, as last time, if you want to see projects like this each season, be sure to let them know to keep them coming! I know firsthand they love to hear from you!

(These wonderful photos were taken by Scott Pitts at Armstrong Photography.)

color your cloth

I have a confession...

I've never liked batiks. Of any kind. I couldn't really explain it except to say I saw no inspiration in them. I knew I gravitated toward clearer colors in general, so maybe that was the reason. 

But whatever the reason, I did not like them. Until I saw Malka's work that is. 

I started following her blog, A Stitch in Dye, earlier this year when I realized what beautiful, original things she was doing with color. She did batik in a way that felt totally new. She hand dyes and hand prints her fabrics using wax resist and other techniques, and each piece is a pure riot of color. Sunny, vibrant color. Batiks suddenly looked quite new and modern to me.

I played around with Malka's method of dividing fabrics for a project up by warm or cool for piecing the Tuesday morning patchwork pillow (in the Spring 09 issue of Stitch magazine). And now I'm happy to have my own copy of Malka's new book Color Your Cloth: A Quilter's Guide to Dyeing and Patterning Fabric. I often tell creative friends that I am looking for a sewing, crafting type book that will take it to the next level for me (whatever that actually is). This one definitely does. The first half of the book talks about how to add pattern and color to your fabric through a processes such as wax resist, stamping your fabric with found and homemade objects, how to use a tjanting tool (a tool used in traditional wax resist), brushes, etc. These are the types of surface effects many of us have been curious about but have never jumped in and tried. I've tried bleaching and loved the results, but knew there was a whole world of this type of thing to explore. This books breaks it down into understandable capsules of information. For beginner or more advanced.

I had ordered swatches of Malka's fabric a couple of months ago, wanted to do a project from the book with them. A manageable project for me right now is yet another pillow. The colors in the swatches I have reminded me a lot of the stack of Childcraft books we have in our family room (my kids still love these books and often read them over breakfast), so I'm now calling this the Childcraft pillow. I followed the basic layout of the Twinkle Applique Quilt pattern in the book, but changed the size of the squares slightly and created a 20" x 20" pillow. The squares and the circles all have raw edges exposed, and I really like the effect. The frayed edges add to it. I wanted the color of the batiks to stand out, so I sewed them all onto cream cotton twill and stitched everything with gray thread.

The fun, very doable projects in this book will really show off fabric you've manipulated using the processes she describes in the first part of the book. Or any fabric you choose really.

Available at amazon, and in Malka's store.

You can see pictures from the book here.

komforte chockolate winners

The random generator gave us our two winners-

Heather

Amber

I have sent you both an email. Send me your address you'll have a set of Komforte Chockolate bars heading your way.

Thanks so much for all who stopped by with combination ideas and good wishes!

thank you!

Hello! And thank you for all the chocolate (or should I say -Chockolate love?)! We are so appreciative of all the wonderful feedback, suggestions, and general good wishes we've gotten (our list of combos to try is getting longer). Feel free to keep chiming in, I'll keep the post open for comments a few more days and draw 2 names at the end of the week, who will get a bar of each of the flavors.

That photo above is of me setting up at the Holiday photo shoot we did for Value Village last week at Armstrong Studio. Those photo shoots are so fun, I really do love seeing everything I've made come together in the photos. I'm wearing my total go-to outfit of late. (You can't see it, but that's the scarf I made a few weeks ago. I've already made 2 more since this one.) I wear black every day these days (no kidding), its just so easy for me...everything matches or works together... (Mom, don't worry, some day I'll add in some color, its just a phase.) The black cotton tunic I'm wearing (the longer piece) is a favorite right now. Simplicity 2725, I made it super simple...the length is a little longer than the tunic length...sleeveless...plain round neck...zip up the back. I made it to use as a layering piece, I wear it with just a t-shirt underneath, or with a scarf and a cardigan. I'd love a couple of other versions, maybe in a muted, simple plaid, or a pretty solid gray wool.

Sad to report there has not been much happening on the crafting side of things around here. Well, except Emma, who's still making things from this book as fast as I can bake 'em.) I got the call today that Ian's quilt is now quilted and waiting for me to pick it up from The Quilting Loft and I'm dying to see it. I'll have to figure out what to bind it with next. I just got my copy of Color Your Cloth and can't wait to try some of the fabric dyeing and wax resist techniques in there. Couple of random thoughts...I recently started drinking a cup of coffee after dinner every night, like I did last year this time. I think the time change and just the general darkness is cozy but tiring in the evening, and the coffee gives me the ability to stay up past 8:30pm. And I'm suddenly wearing my reading glasses a little more than I used to (which maybe means I should get a cuter pair, the ones I have are awful). 

I got myself an Iphone and have to admit, I am amazed at not only how more organized I am, but there's a ton more room in my purse (I carried two planners before...don't ask). Its amazing you can carry that much of your life in a small little thing. Now I'm geeking out on all the apps and wallpapers. The kids love the Hangmath app, I love these wallpapers (like it matters, but they are so pretty). Jen turned me on to the Shake It app, which turns photos taken by your iphone into polaroid-like images, which is how I took the photo above. Sick fun, I fully realize that.

komforte chockolates

All summer, this house has been working on a seed of an idea that is finally ready to show its face in the big world. I am so excited to tell you about it!

(I have chills typing this!) After numerous conceptual meetings, decision making, midnight a-ha! moments, and, of course, lots of chocolate testing, I am so excited to introduce to you a line of chocolate bars designed and created by my husband Peter and his partners Frank and Robert. Komforte Chockolates.

I know! This is coming out of left field, right? Wait! A chocolate bar? What?

Komforte Chockolates (pronounced just like 'comfort chocolates') began as a casual idea among friends earlier this year. As a brand consultant, Peter has had the opportunity to create and craft brand images for many people and companies, but I think the desire has always been there to produce his own brand. Creating a brand of chocolate came about because we had access to knowledgeable folks within the chocolate industry. Peter collaborated with Seattle Chocolates, a leader in the industry, and his idea grew with their knowledge and expertise. They believed in the concept and jumped in to help develop the product.

So, what is Komforte Chockolates?

The idea is simple. Peter believes in all-American comfort food. Food that is familiar, that feels like home, that's full of flavor, and that tastes good. Komforte Chockolates does not come from an elite palate, but rather, one that finds familiarity in good food. Mixing amazing chocolate with everyday, flavorful comfort food was the goal. Sweet and savory is nothing new in chocolate (chocolate and bacon comes to mind), but Peter's idea was coming from a different. Our summer months were spent mixing recipes (both at Seattle Chocolates kitchens and here in our own kitchen). Deciding to focus on three great combinations was the easy part. Getting those combinations just right took many months, but we are so happy to be finally there.

Our first three flavors are:

 

French Toast- premium milk chocolate mixed with bits of crunchy, savory french toast. A hint of cinnamon. Just like mom used to make.

 

Tortilla with Lime & Salt- Milk chocolate mixed with lime infused tortilla chips. All of our favorite flavors in one bar...

But then, we were absolutely stumped on the third bar. Nothing was coming together quite right and we were running through the list of possibilities, having no luck.

And then, one night at dinner, we were talking to the kids about our dilemma.

Emma had a random thought...

"Dad, what about ramen noodle?"

Blank stares across the table.

Suddenly, we had our third flavor.

 

Emma's favorite food of all time, Ramen Noodle (now you know the truth about mealtime around here), became the third combination. (My favorite combination actually.) Crunchy ramen noodles mixed with rich dark chocolate. Consider it sort of the next evolution of your childhood nestle crunch bar. (Check out Emma's hidden "ERS" initials on the bar's label. She's very proud of that.) Seriously good.

 

The packaging of these bars is intentionally clean and unadorned. 

Why the weird spelling? Well, if you've ever tried to trademark a generic word like "chocolate" you'll be nodding your head right now. So, Peter got creative.

Where can you get it? Its slowly making its way out into the world. If you're in Seattle, you can find it on the amazonfresh home grocery delivery website. They are also available on the main amazon website, but as of yet only by the sleeve (12 bars per sleeve). They will soon be available at Uwajimaya (we will be doing a sampling demo there soon, I will let you know when). We are excited to now be available in Portland at The Meadow. For right now, our website is mainly for wholesale orders, but if you are interested in wholesale, please email us at sales@komfortechockolates.com. All up to date news can be found on our facebook page (there is a fan box in my upper left sidebar).

**Right now, I've got 2 sets (1 of each of the bars in a set) available to give away. Please leave us a comment on this post, check us out on our facebook page, and tell us what your ideal Komforte Chockolate flavor combination would be (we have a list, but would love to hear from you too). Thank you!

Update: The winners have been chosen, thank you to everyone!

the polymer clay cookbook

 

So, Emma, myself, and, pretty much every girl that comes into contact with it is freaking out over The Polymer Clay Cookbook. It is so crazy cute. We've had it for a couple of weeks and its been by Emma's bed for nightly reading ever since (she has a so much homework these days, that's when she gets her leisure reading in, poor girl). The allure of baking clay here at our house is strong. Emma has been playing with it since she was able to hold it in her hands, and over the years, her creations just get more elaborate and detailed. And now this book is taking it all to a whole new level.

We were looking for an easy craft activity for our Girl Scout meeting this week and I was totally inspired by this book. The girls are coming to us straight from classroom Halloween parties and will probably be pretty sugared up, but I am hoping they will love this. We'll be setting up three tables (there will be about 10 girls). At each table, there will be supplies, directions, and a parent to guide them in making a piece of jewelry. The projects I chose were the candy corn earrings (or rings), a tiny cinnamon bun (scented with cinnamon and a mixture of school glue and white paint to create the icing), and a pink cupcake, both of which can be hung from a thin cord necklace I'll have for each girl.

And because it is the responsibility of a good Girl Scout leader to be fully prepared, I felt the need to spend an afternoon testing out each craft and making samples before I let the girls try them.

chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting and a cherry

my cinnamon roll with a head pin that's ready to be twisted into a loop. And it smells like cinnamon.

Cute????!!!!!

I thought about keeping this book locked away until Emma's birthday, then giving it to her with all new clay and supplies, but I just couldn't wait. (I decided to give her this book instead, with a stack of felt and notions.)

I thought I would post more this week but it just didn't happen that way. I will see you here on Monday though. Till then, happy weekend!