Runaway October » Pictures

Wherein I write about a Halloween candelabra I have affectionately dubbed Lampalier.

Katie — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:56:24 +0000

I’ve been pretty busy lately. There’s only 61 days ’til Haloween, which means about 54 until our party.

So far I’ve:

Stained our garage utility sink tea-staining cheesecloth.
Made about half a skeleton worth of paper mache bones.
Redid a giant plastic pumpkin I picked up at a yardsale. It needed paint and sanding and such.
Made PVC flicker candles
And destroyed a lamp and chandelier and put it all back together as a, what I like to call, Lampalier!

Ta da!

Not bad, eh? I had an old shiny brass light fixture we took down out of the house and an aged brass lamp base I picked up at GoodWill for like $3. I took them apart, stuck them back together, had my dad cut some metal disks for the candleholder parts and painted. Of course, I don’t have any big candles handy at the moment, but you get the idea. And it’s very big and heavy. Very dramatic. Also, no “before” pictures. I’m lazy like that.

And this is where I admit where I was wrong. Was that a collective gasp I just heard?! I know, I know. I was babbling about what color to paint it one evening and my husband suggests Matte Black. I probably gave him the stupidest look ever. Matte Black? Seriously? Men have no sense. Seriously. So I pick out this hammered black color and grab some dark grey automotive primer and start priming away. Problem is I really like the primer color, so Matte Black it shall stay. I love you honey!

It’s gonna show fingerprints like crazy, but what doesn’t in my house?

Don’t ask about the chair on the table. I was gonna drape a background cloth but my family was giving me too many crazy looks.

See those candles? Made ‘em. Yep. I’m not entirely sure open flames will be a good idea, so these “candles” will be used with flickering LED tealights in strategic locations where I really appreciate things NOT catching on fire. Here’s a tutorial, if you are so inclined. I would like to add though, to skip the expending foam step. The stuff is expensive and a pain. Just turn your tea light on, put it in, and stuff some newspaper or grocery bags underneath it. You don’t need to worry about heat or melting or anything like that.

So have you started on your Halloween stuff yet? Is it too early to start decorating?

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MCP Project — Week 1/52

Katie — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:12:59 +0000

So, my photographs are typically pretty… blah. I took photography in High School, but for some reason my brain is just not transferring those skills to digital.

One of my goals this year is too get better with my camera and coincidentally The MCP Project 52 signups happened to cross my path.

Here’s the gist:

MCP Project 52 – It’s a way to encourage creativity, make photography fun, and provide a challenge without actual pressure. Participants will [sic] sharing their art work and images weekly while inspiring each other.

The theme of the first week, which I am slightly behind on, was “Around The House” so here’s my go.

Click to embiggen

I fixed some of the overblown and added a vintage photo filter to it.

I hoping that if I keep fiddling with my camera every week that I’ll get better. Hopefully.

If you’d like to join–and we’d love to have you–the information is here. And be sure to stop by the Flickr pool of all the participating photos here. There are some outstanding photos in there!

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New Shiny Blog

Katie — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:20:52 +0000

I seem to do this every year around this time, don’t I?

How do you like it? Anything weird that you notice?

And speaking of shiny, or more appropriately, shiners, how do you like this baby? He, sadly, did it to himself when one of the stools he was balancing on slipped out from under him. Poor dude.

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Some Handmade Christmas Presents

Katie — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:44:29 +0000

I took all these pictures inside at night, so pardon the crappy quality. It was either take them NOW or know that I’d never get to it later.

Not a handmade present, but Curt the Dirt was my crafting buddy through the 3 mad days I did most of these in. I really need to stop procrastinating.

Oh god, looking over these pictures.… I really should be shot for posting some of these. :S

Complete with tramp stamp:

Seat belt covers:

Tutorial here: Seatbelt sleeves by AfricanKelli

Car trash bag:

It uses boning to keep itself open. Cool huh? Tutorial here: Trash Bag by Make it and Love it

A few belts to help keep the pants up on my super skinny boys. Tutorial here: Boy Belts by Elsie Marley

Canister sleeves for my mother in law to match her red kitchen. Time consuming but super cute, eh?

Tutorial here: Quilted Canister Sleeves by HandmadeMommy

Some freezer paper stencil shirts. Apparently I forgot to take a picture of some, but here’s a few of them.

(I was trying for a grungy look. I swear. )

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Did you make anything for Christmas presents? Let us know!

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Happy 2011!

Katie — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:55:08 +0000

We hope you had a wonderful 2010 and that 2011 only gets better from there!

Love and light from us!

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Recipe: Zuppa Toscana

Katie — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:03:37 +0000

Some of you may have had this soup before. It’s one of Olive Garden’s most popular dishes.

This Thanksgiving we had an Italian theme and we brought this soup–it turned out quite yummy. It’s also quick and fairly inexpensive. A great choice for chilly nights.

Untitled by Divine Domesticity

Zuppa Toscana (Olive Garden Copycat)

Serves: 6 to 8 people

Ingredients:

1 lb ground Italian sausage (Your choice on Sweet, Mild or Hot)
1½ tsp crushed red peppers
1 large diced white onion
4 Tbsp bacon pieces (I used regular bacon, though precooked bacon or even Real Bacon Bits would work)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
10 cups water
4 cubes of chicken bouillon *
1 cup heavy cream
1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes **
¼ of a bunch of kale

Directions:

Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.
In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 minutes or until the onions are soft.
Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.
Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
Add the heavy cream and warm just until thoroughly heated.
Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve. Delicious!

* Conversely, you can omit the bouillon and the water and just use straight chicken broth.

** If you have left over baked potatoes, you can just slice them and toss them in. Cook long enough to warm them through and move on to step 5.

Image by bookgrl

Enjoy!

Do you have any favorite soup recipes you’d like to share?

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Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Katie — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:14:28 +0000

Every year I put off mailing my Christmas Cards until it’s almost to late. I hurry down to Michael’s and hope they have something interesting left. Sometimes I’m lucky, sometimes I’m not.

So my goal this year is to get a head start on things. I’ve been looking at some of the various photo christmas card offerings. Shutterfly has always been a superb company for me and my family. We’ve had mousepads, fridge magnets and beer steins made, among other things.

Check some of these gorgeous designs out:

I love this one because you have so many picture choices and your family monogram. I’m a sucker for monograms.

Simple and classic. Again with the monogram.

How’s this lovely for bright and cheery?

Flirty and fitting for my neck of the woods, or should I say desert?

Love the vintage-y feel and colors. Very classic layout.

I’m having such a hard time deciding! There are almost 750 designs in the Christmas stationary alone. Yikes! All cards come with envelopes and Shutterfly will either mail the cards to you so you can address and stamp them as you see fit, or they will address and mail them for you. Talk about a timesaver!

Don’t forget the personalized calendars too. You can add your own special dates and pictures. What a great gift for friends and family.

Throwing a New Years Party? Don’t worry, Shutterfly does invites too!

Full Disclosure: Shutterfly is providing me with 50 free Christmas cards for highlighting their products. As with everything else I post about, the opinion is mine and not swayed by anyone else.

Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

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Before and After: Craft Room

Katie — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:19:06 +0000

Or the S.M.O.R as I like to call it — The Sewing Machines Operations Room.

Remember this sorry little 11’x11’ room?

Which was later cleaned and somewhat organized to look like this:

Well, it’s kind of finished now. It’s now a very workable space and I can actually complete projects somewhere other than the kitchen table. YAY!

I took at least 100 pictures today, and about 20 a few weeks ago. This room is very very hard to photograph.

I even tried to take a video with my fancy new Flip Video Camcorder from my Prilosec sponsorship, but it eats batteries like no other.

Of course I couldn’t find any batteries to replace them with.

Such is the life of a mom.

The project table is completely handmade by me and my dad. We used plans from Knock Off Wood. Here’s the top and the cubby sides.

I’ll go into it in a little more detail later.

I’ll have to slowly buy or make some pretty baskets on containers to go in here.

Love these stools from Overstock.com

Handmade string balls made by one of the boys.

There was two.

One of them bit the dust, or rather, the dogs water bowl.

The string ball, not the boys.

Well, okay, they usually assault the water bowl at least once a day, but they don’t melt.

Unless you count the dirt that melts off.

I should make some more. String Balls, not boys. Maybe a little girl but that’s a different subject.

Now maybe I can get these bad boys quilted and bound and in use.

And what craft room photo shoot is complete without a picture of a cat.

I used Martha Stewart Hydrangea flat paint for the walls. I also painted the ceiling and all the trim, but can’t find the names of them. They’re the same ones that were recommended on the paint chip palette. No worries about everything matching together. What a smart girl, eh?

I can’t seem to find a decent sample color online, so you’ll just have to squint and imagine you can tell the true color of everything.

I do hope to make some roman blinds or curtains for the windows. And the baskets I mentioned earlier. I definitely need some artwork and other pretties to hang up and keep me happy while I work. I would really really love a stereo or MP3 player of some sort in there too. I work so much better with music.

So, that’s the S.M.O.R.

What do you think?

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Crafty Catchup

Katie — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:22:13 +0000

I have a really bad habit of doing nothing during the summer. You might have noticed that the heat is a central part of my last couple posts.

It’s really a central part of our lives from Mayish to Augustish. Even in the house it’s just too easy to veg out and keep cool.

BUT! I have done some stuff lately. I swear. I have proof!

I made this clock for my brother a while back, for his birthday.

It’s pretty hard to photograph this, but oh well. I got lucky enough that a local BMX shop gave me the chainring, after I offered to buy one. Funny enough they had a similar clock displayed in their front window.

The tutorial is here. Mine is not nearly as cool, but hey I was working with what I had.

I also made a cover for my sewing machine. I figured that plastic one it came with wasn’t good enough for the new craft room. (More on that soon.) Also, the melted hole in it from the iron didn’t help any.

I just used the dimensions from the old cover, plus seam allowances, and threw together a rectangle with ties on it. I backed it with flannel, because it seemed like the thing to do. Isn’t that fabric gorgeous? I got it on a whim at a local mill end store. Kicking myself for not buying more.

Sewing Machine Cover tutorials:

Sparkle Power! — This is pretty much exactly what I did.
Sew Inspired
Chez Larsson

Last, but not least, a new ironing board cover. I love making these things. It makes me actually want to iron. Yuck.

This is also more fabric I picked up on a whim. This time from IKEA. Their upholstery fabric is the perfect length from regular ironing boards.

I always leave the old covers on, for padding. Sometimes I’ll throw a layer of fleece in between too if I have big enough scraps.

Here are a couple ironing board cover tutorials:

That’s it for now. I hope to have more soon. I ordered some goodies.

What are you working on lately, or do you have any interesting tutorials to share?

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How To: Grow a Jicama Vine

Katie — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 13:23:50 +0000

Step One: Find a lovely Jicama. One you fully intend on eating. Make sure it’s not irradiated — a Farmer’s Market of some sort is your best bet.

Step Two: Place Jicama on your counter and contemplate what to do with it. For a few weeks. Begin to worry what to do with it when it starts to sprout vines, kinda like potato eyes.

Step Three: Get creeped out when the vines get long enough to reach out and caress you while you’re cooking.

Step Four: Name it. Herbert is what I went with.

Step Five: Find a pot, mine still had some old soil in it. Partially fill pot with cactus soil, after reading on the Internet that Jicama needs really good drainage. Place the Jicama in pot so it’s top is a couple inches down from the rim. Put more cactus soil around the bulb. Realize you don’t have enough cactus soil and top it off with some compost mulch. Leave the bulb sticking out of a soil because you think it’s pretty.

Step Six: Put it in a sunny location and water sparingly. You don’t want the bulb to rot.

Step Seven: Worry when the vines start to dry up and die and notice that it has no real leaves yet. Decide that all the info that you read on the Internet was right and that Jicama is really hard to grow. Give up hope and leave it alone.

Step Eight: Realize that it’s starting to get really nice leaves. Feel your sense of accomplishment swell.

Step Nine: Allow your green thumb to take full credit of your awesome Jicama Vine. Decide you’ll worry about replanting it later, when it’s not so blastedly hot in AZ.

Notice: Jicama is highly toxic in most forms. The leaves and vines especially. I find mixed information on the toxicity of the pods. Apparently they’re fried and eaten in some cultures.

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