Last Night

I have said it before, and I'll say it again, my neighborhood and my neighbors are the best around.
As longtime readers will remember, I am a member of a neighborhood crafting group.
We have sewn together, made soap together, soldered together, knit together, at Christmas one of the Mama's asked her carpenter husband to help us do some woodworking, and last night we welded.
Now, when I say "we" welded, it was actually a fantastically talented neighbor, Shelly, who did the actual welding. She has an amazing house that she and her partner have redesigned and filled with art that the both of them have made. In her workshop she has bins all over filled with scrap that she has collected and we were able to search through them and design a piece of sculpture.
Once we had all the pieces assembled Shelly welded them together.
My friends both made amazing pieces, I think I'll sneak over to their houses later to take some pictures.
I wish I would have thought to bring my camera last night, the welding was so fascinating to watch.
Honestly, when faced with the task of designing a piece of sculpture, I was stymied on what exactly to do.
It took me at least 30 minutes playing with the different pieces of metal to get inspired.
Finally, I found a piece of squared-off tubing that had a slight bend in it, and I asked Shelly to help attach it to a base piece. The upright is hollow and Shelly had a post that we attached to the square base so the whole piece can rotate.
Then I had an idea of hanging a small tight spiral from one side and a large open angular spiral from the other side, but it looked like an 8th-grader made it in shop and got a C.
Then Shelly pulled out a big pile of rings that she had left-over from building her own fence and I made this.
Shelly was such a wonderful guide in making our pieces.
She asked me if I would add anything to the top of the balance beam and I could see immediately that there needed to be some rings on the top to balance out the dangling ones.
I think I have to pull out the bush that is behind the sculpture in this picture, this place by the front stairs is out of the way of running children and I think I like it there.

Hooch

Last night the Mamas of the Craft made fruit-infused liquers.
So easy, and, if my friend's already made examples are any indication, super yummy.
The basic recipe is this-
cut up some fruit, or leave it whole, and put into a jar
dump some sugar in
pour in the cheapest vodka you can find, in a glass bottle, to cover the fruit and sugar
shake
leave in your basement for 1-12 months, shaking occasionally
I made plum, lime and pear.
Remind me, and on the first day of summer I'll break these out and see what we have.

Talk to you soon,
Jess

Merry Christmas!

I have been having a terrific day.
The Hubster and myself woke up with the sun, about 7 or so, and the kids came in about a half-hour later.
We went down and enjoyed our orgy of opening presents, Santa was particularly super to me, and after breakfast we spent some time with my family.
Not only did Santa come and bring presents, but he invited a certain President-Elect over for a visit as well!He's there in front of the big green one at the back.
I haven't been able to post pictures of the gifts I made for my mom and my sister, but they have them now so here goes.
My sister asked for grey cabled legwarmers, so I got to work.The yarn is Prime Alpaca and the pattern is one I made up using a chart from Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elsebeth Lavold.

For my Mom I got to build her a tool box.

I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but I am in the best most kick-butt crafty mom group ever. (My sister agrees, this was her card to me.)Every week we choose a craft and about a month ago, our craft was woodworking.
One of my friends is married to a fantastically talented carpenter who was very generous with his talent and time and designed and helped us all to build tool boxes.
Michael cut the dovetail joints and routed out a groove for the base and we all got to use his tools to saw and sand to do most of the rest of it.
It was the best time I have ever had at craft night.

The wood is cherry and the finish is mineral oil and beeswax.
I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

We spent some quality time with my in-laws this evening and had a lot of fun.
The greatest Christmas miracle of all was that we got to see all of the siblings on one day.
My sister and the Hub's sister both live out east, and my brother and I don't see each other too often, so this was a good day for us.

I leave you with some comforting images of the season.
Christmas isn't Christmas without sitting before the Yule Log...

I hope that your day was as full of fun and family as mine,
Jess

Excitement!

Big excitement this week!

I received a special present from Hillary at wee wonderfuls: my Chloe doll!

She is, as you can see, very beautiful and I love her! Thanks Hillary!

I also began a new knitting project, perfect for bringing to the park, as it can get kinda grubby and no one will notice. It even survived a high-spirited young boy, not my own, swinging it around by the needle before I noticed what he was doing.

The yarn is 13 mile Sport-Weight Organic Wool, I am loving it!

The yarn is vegetable-dyed and the dye is really intense.

It does come off on your fingers, but the manufacturers promise that a hot water bath will take care of that issue.

The pattern is the Candle Flame Scarf with an extra flame on either side as the pattern is written for worsted and I am using a sport-weight. Also, I would like it to be a little wider than the original.

The last totally fun thing that I did this week was fern printing.

I found out about this on Painted Fish Studio's great blog.

The Mamas of the Craft came over last night and we went out to the back sidewalk and hammered the clorophyll out of these ferns.

It was kind of cathartic as we were discussing the impending financial crisis and the election and needed to express our frustrations.

I am pretty happy with the results, the only thing is that I didn't move the gusset out of the way before I started hammering this one, so there is a crease in the print.

The bag only took me about a half-hour to make, so I can make another one pretty easily.

That is, if the fall hasn't taken the ferns away...

I must go, my husband is home after a Week in Omaha and I am excited to see him.

Off to the fall festival!

Jess.

I Promise

This is the last post about my living room.

I think I'll start off with a little crafty stuff.

First, the Mamas of the Craft did a project with Flour-Paste Batik that we started about a month ago and finally moved forward with last night.

It worked so well!

I am totally excited about the prospect of this new creative outlet.

If you don't feel like clicking over to the link, what we did was mix up some paste with flour, water and a little alum, then, using a cake decorating bag and tip, I piped the paste onto a piece of fabric (I used an old sheet) that had been secured with tacks to an old window frame.

Then you let the flour dry and spray dye on the piece.

After that is dry you pick off the flour and you're left with the relief of your design.

All that remains with this piece is to heat-set with my iron.

I don't know what I will do with this, probably make a pillow.

Now I have these ideas about tracing pattern pieces on to a plain piece of broadcloth or muslin and batiking the hems and collars.

I am pretty excited!

The Elder Hug-a-Bug is going to school on Monday, and I spent the summer under the illusion that since she is going to attend a school where the kids wear uniforms that she would also wear them.

Nope.

Apparently only the 4-year-olds do NOT wear uniforms.

Well, I can tell you, I was pretty irritated at the idea that I could have spent the summer making up a new school wardrobe for my girl.

My mom pitched in and made up a couple of jumpers for her, in record time I might add, and as I have 3 uninterrupted hours this afternoon due to the Hug-a-Bugs spending the night with their other grandparents, I plan on throwing something else together for her first day.

I had a request from my Auntie J to see a 360 view of the new lay-out of my beautiful living room, how I love it.







I went through and did a cursury pick-up and tidy before my photo shoot, but I had to have some reality at the end here-
Imagination Movers and trail mix all over the couch. lovely.

Sorry these pictures are so grainy.


I had to send my beloved Nikon to the camera doctor. It suffered a mishap.

So, for a few weeks at least, it's back to the trusty old Canon PowerShot.

So ends the Living Room worship.

See you soon with September from the Fifth Lamp,
Jess

bummer

The Mamas of the Craft received some somber news today.

We were not accepted into the Craftstravaganza Craft Show.

We had some kick-ass stuff too.

One of the Mamas is a potter and her stuff is fantastic.

As a group we made some funky tutus for the little ones, knitted bracelet cuffs, night lights, and toadstool stools that we saw on a Martha.

As for myself, I have had an obsession with aprons lately, and I have enough that I would like to sell them.

Thanks to Grace for her modelling skills.

I am a big fan of the Wee Wonderfuls dolls.

Last summer I made Olive, Archie, Spaceboy and Robot.

I was so excited about the doll making that I made up my own pattern for a rocket for Spaceboy to ride on.

It was a breeze to put together, and I love the idea of a floral rocket so I thought that my individual contribution could include some Love Rockets.

My first one was of Amy Butler fabric, and she asks that people not use her fabric for commercial endeavours, so this one here is the rocket that I made up for our entry into the Craftravaganza.

So now we regroup.

A couple of months ago, we started up an etsy site, and I guess we'll start there trying to sell some stuff.

The real function of the Mamas of the Craft for me is to get together and be creative, so it would be ok with me if we didn't sell anything again.

I won't deny that it is fun to get money for things that you make.

As a huge tangential leap- do any of you ever visit http://www.etymonline.com/?
I like words, so I visit occasionally.

I was wondering about "o.k." what does it mean?

Here is what etymonline has to say
"1839, only survivor of a slang fad in Boston and New York c.1838-9 for abbreviations of common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings (cf. K.G. for "no go," as if spelled "know go"); in this case, "oll korrect.""

Could you ever imagine that something we say every day without thinking could possibly be from a year-long slang fad from New England 170 years ago?

wierd.

I wonder if wiggity wack will be popular in 2164?

see you soon,

Jess

Mamas of the Craft

Saturday, December 1, 2007
Holiday Boutique
St. Stephen's Church
1575 Charlton St.
West Saint Paul, MN 55118





My friday crafty group is making the leap this weekend. We have a table at this craft fair.

We have been talking about it for two months and the time is finally upon us.

We got together last night to do some final pricing and packaging.

It is very exciting.

We did the final quality control last night, and everything looks saleable.

This is my first craft fair.

I have a number of friends who do them all the time, but I never had anything that I made that I felt I could mass produce or was worth the time and effort to sell before.

In a group, however, we are able to make lots of things in a relatively short time.

We made these pendants in two meetings, and we got 46 or something like that.





























And the felted soap here we made in one night.

I just cannot express how lucky I feel that I found this group of women.
I say it every time we meet, they are all so talented and full of ideas.
It is truly a joy to come to every meeting.


Hope your Thursday is full of fun.
Jess

DIYUI

I have mentioned before that we imbibe at Craft Club.
Last night we had very yummy hot chocolate with flavored liqueurs. I had raspberry.
Our project last night was appliqued t-shirts.
I was having a terrible time with one and, to be totally honest, there was a great deal of language that I would hesitate to use in front of the hug-a-bugs.
I decided to quit when my bobbin thread ran out, and I had to go home anyway.
After a good night's sleep, I did three in a half hour.
This tells me that I was guilty of DIYUI (Do It Yourself Under the Influence)
Please help prevent the spread of DIYUI.
Some signs are uneven seams, having angry words with machinery, general belligerence toward knit fabric.
Please, for the sake of the crafts, have your drink after you're finished.
Have a restful rest of Saturday,
Jess

Friday Craft Club

Just got back from Friday Craft Club.

There is a neighborhood group of ladies who meet every fri night and do fun craft stuff.

Tonight we were soldering stained-glass pendants to sell at a craft sale in December.

What fun!

I was talking it over with another friend who just joined (I joined about a month ago) and we agreed that we had until now had a narrow view of Crafting. Sewing, Knitting, Scrapbooking, these were things that we would expect, but cutting glass and soldering and making soap and building things from wood, these are pleasant surprises. The group of ladies in Craft Club are all full of talents and each brings something very special to the experience. I am really glad that I can be a part of that.



Whew, also, we always have fancy drinks, and tonight was hot buttered rum. very yummy, perhaps adding to the verbose nature of the post tonight.



I only have an update on the sweater, I have, sadly, been neglecting the quilt.

I am a little unsure of the fitness of my sewing machine to do the quilting. It gets kinda hot when I sew one long line.



The elder hug-a-bug is a little bit of a camera hog. in the next couple of pics of the sweater back (completed) she is sitting on top of it much like a cat would do.






Also, I was delighted to see that we still have blooming flowers in our severely neglected back garden.

Have a great weekend, all you out there in the web. I hear the weather here in Saint Paul should be lovely on Saturday, so go out and enjoy it.
Thanks for listening,
Punky