another pinterest post

My last week of vacation has come and gone. This week I have finished up my summer courses. We also just found out that we are most likely getting the house we want to buy! In these last moments of freedom, I have been trying to do some craft projects. At Circle Thrift, I found a felting kit with needles and loose fibers! I knew exactly what I would do with it. I pinned this a while ago ...


I used an old sweater that I had lying around and made my own heart template. After felting both arms it turned out great. Take a look.

The project was super easy. I can't wait to felt again.

tiny obsession

I have had several conversations lately about the obsession with small or tiny things. Several friends share this obsession and I was asked, what's my latest tiny thing. I had to think hard, because my latest is actually a old one revisited...

In high school my friends and I collected Homies. You could get them from a candy vending machine for 50 cents and they came with a bio. I found one of my Homies after I moved into our new apartment.

 I put him in my last remaining terarium. 

He looks meditative, no?

Other tiny things: cat and dog creamers turned planters
with chicks & hens 

Chicks and hens crowns

What is your latest tiny obsession?

Friday morning crafting

Pintrerest has kind of changed my life, in a good way. I have been exposed to so many ideas and people. Here is my attempt at one of the crafts that I saw on this pin.

I followed the steps to break the glass with yarn, nail polish remover, and fire. I could not get the bottom half to break correctly, but one of the bottles had a cool looking top half that got my gears moving. I thought it would make a great planter. I sanded down the edge knotted some hemp rope and stuck a plant in it. It brings some life into our living room that just does not have the space for plants. 

catches the light

I have tried some others, but I am giving them as gifts. I will blog on them after the receive it.

coat rack

For years DJ and I have been using a standard coat rack. It is useful for so many things and seemed to keep things off of our floor. The problem?...we wanted to put a chair in our bedroom and didn't have the space. We were sad to get rid of the coat rack, but decided to use its parts to make a new one. I removed the hooks and mounted them directly to the wall. That was a fail. The screws were not long enough and just ripped out of the wall. So the search was on for something else. I was walking Chompsky the other day and found a dirty, discarded back of a chair and thought that it might work. I cleaned it up, mounted the hooks and presto, we got a new, up-cycled coat rack! I placed it behind the door utilize the space. Take a look...

box set

Ever wonder how your beautiful vinyl box set was assembled? No, neither did I until I volunteered to help. Yesterday and today a bunch of friends lent a helping hand to mewithoutyou et. all to get their limited addition box sets together. I  folded posters, and stuffed 7 inch vinyl into their special sleeves. If you got one of these puppies you will not be disappointed! And plus they were assembled with love! Here are some of my crappy shots of the happy helpers.

End of the line...packing the extras and boxing them up.

The guys signing posters. 

tops just waiting to be reunited with their bottoms

The assembly line was more of a U shape.

One thing I gotta say is that I am so glad we had air conditioning! The Philly heat today is over 100 degrees! If you haven't heard their new album Ten Stories order it or get a listen on spotify.

strawberry and rhubarb shortcake

I had a great day! I checked off most of the weekend tasks and also got in a trip to Greensgrow! There I bought so much fresh produce including a pint of strawberries and four stalks of rhubarb! I had to make something awesome! Exclamation points!

Now I do not really like pie crust and I like making it about as much. I looked in the vegetarian cookbook for a recipe for shortcake. I saw one make with walnuts, but I figured I would modify the recipe to what I already had. Here is what I came up with...

Shortcake:
1 cup of roasted pumpkin seeds, unsalted
1/4 cup of flax seeds
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
8 tbsp butter
1/4 cup (approx) coconut milk

Filling:
1 pint sliced strawberries
4-5 stalks of rhubarb, chopped
1/3 cup sugar

Special Tools:
Food Processor


I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I combined the pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sugar, and rosemary in the food processor and turned it on until it was ground to a cornmeal consistency. I then added the flour and baking powder and ran it again until mixed. I cut up my butter and added it to the mixture with the processor on and continued to process until the mixture started to come together. At this point I added the coconut milk while it was running until a ball started to form. I dumped the ball into a pie pan and pushed it into the sides. I tried to make the bottom thicker to hold the filling.

For the filling I slices up the super ripe strawberries and chopped the rhubarb. I combined them in a bowl with the sugar and stirred until the sugar started to dissolve.
I poured the filling into the pie pan and baked it for about 40-50 minutes. I could tell it was done by checking the rhubarb with a fork. When the fork was able to go through it without any resistance it was done! I let it rest for about 30 minutes before serving it.

And oh man was it good. I had been jonesing for a strawberry and rosemary desert for a while now (ever since I saw a desert pizza like this in Better Homes and Gardens) DJ and I ate it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I am sure my vegan friends could substitute any number of solid fats for the butter, so go crazy!

canvas love

I often see really fun paintings at Circle Thrift but don't know what to do with them. I saw a post on DesignSponge for an ipad case made from upcycled canvases and I went to the Swarm website to see more. Here are may favorites:


You could find both the plates and painting at a thrift store!



I love the blues, oranges, and browns!





cool lamp shade



So many ideas! Maybe next time I'll be inspired to make one of these.

pinch pot

At Circle of Hope, we often create things together in solidarity, in worship, and in joyful expression.  This season is Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit filled the members of the early church. Here is how one member named Luke described it in the book of Acts:

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.


We created pinch pots two weeks ago out of clay. They were fired in a kiln and this week we placed a lit candle in them to give to another person. We were passing the flame onto someone else. I'd like to think that it represented how the early church received this gift and freely passed it to others so that everyone could have the Holy Spirit.


Here is the pinch pot that I received:

Sometimes I feel like the art that we do can be cheesy, but this spoke to me. I love how the point of this art direction was not to make something to take home for ourselves. The point was to make something with our hands to give away.

siesta ware

company mark on the bottom

classic

Growing up, my family used salt and pepper shakers from siesta ware. I was given two siesta ware mugs when I was in college. I love them. I feel like I have grown up with these beautiful relics. And as our pint glasses from our single years ( and some from our wedding registry) have broken from clumsy hands and the 3 moves in the last 3 years, DJ and I have decided that we want to make this our new glass ware. Right now we have 3 but are buying them piece by piece. We just found one at a flee market for 50 cents! So if you see one for cheap with or without a hand let us know!

spring terrain

I just finished helping a friend, Jenna, with a sewing project from Terrain. I wasn't familiar with their store so I looked them up online and I found some really cute things. Here are some of my favorites.

This cuff is made of oxidized metal. It looks like a cross between turquoise and robin's eggs.

They had all the supplies to make your own terrarium. I love how this one looks like spring.

And my favorite: oyster mushrooms in a box. Its really a growing kit you can put in your kitchen and snip to add to a delicious meal.

Either way I am glad to be done with the project. We finished all of the banners before the deadline and with our sanity still intact.

so sublime

In the search for embroidery projects I have stumbled upon a great pattern company called Sublime Stitching. I have used some of their patterns before and I can't help but want to get all of them. Here a a couple of my favorites:

Lent

For Lent this year I have decided to schedule in some creative time which has always been hard for me to do. I tend to have sporadic bursts of creative energy but they fizzle out before I am able to complete anything.

I am focusing on embroidery because it is so easy to think of an idea and execute it within a day or two. Here are some of the projects I have completed so far

more projects to come!