The time has come for the new blog to be seen by the masses! Come on over and check it out. All new blog posts will be there. So make sure you update your bookmarks and your rss feeds!
First, I want to give a big thanks to Crafty Wonderland, everyone who came to Crafty Wonderland and to my friends who put me up for a couple of nights and who stopped by Crafty Wonderland to support me. Thank you all soooo much. It was an awesome time. I came back with several new ideas for designs and possible products. So hopefully if I can get into the Holiday show, you’ll see me again and with some new stuff!
Second, I know I have been a bit slow in posting recently. A lot of it has to do with just being busy with work, Sunday Drive Designs and just trying to do things for me. One thing that i have been working so very hard on is a new website. One specifically for Sunday Drive Designs. It is almost done. But for now, you can check out what is up over here. When it is all set and ready, I will be continue to post, but it will be over there instead of here. I will eventually transfer everything from here to there, but for now, what’s up there is all I got. Let me know what you think of the new site. Keep in mind there’s still a few kinks to work out and few links to finish writing stuff for. But the basic look and feel is all there.
We all know how much I love to bake. And who doesn’t love a good pie. And for that matter, who wouldn’t want to make pies in France with Kate from Art of the Pie. I’m just saying… if you’re looking for an early Christmas present or a late birthday present for me, here it is, straight from the Art of the Pie newsletter.
“The really big news is that I will be teaching in France in November! Pig, Pie & Eye will take place Nov 11-13 in Gascony. We’ll be exploring farms, markets, kitchens and baking, baking baking in Gascony! Our days will begin at Kitchen at Camont, the beautiful culinary retreat of Kate Hill. For photo friends, Tim Clinch’s expert eye will be our guide. Come laugh and learn with us as we experience the French joie de vivre. Contact either Kate or me for more info.”
I’ll be sure to have my passport at the ready!
There’s so much going on right now. I’ll be at Crafty Wonderland in Portland Mother’s day Weekend – that’s next weekend folks. So get your train, plane or fill up your gas tank and come on down! Here’s their banner for more info:
I’ve also just restocked our supply of mermaid tshirts. So now we should have your size. But they go fast so don’t wait too long! And new, just in time for Crafty Wonderland – bike shirts! These are alternative apparel shirts. They’re super soft and really comfy. They do run small.
Here’s the woman’s shirt
and here’s the men’s version
And that’s all for now. I’m off to get some last minute printing done.
So after doing nothing but working and barely giving myself time to relax, I have a nasty cold. Either that, or some serious allergies that are kicking my butt. But on the upside, I can still find a minute to laugh. For example, I was doing a little internet search this evening, looking for a supplier for flour sack towels when I came across this site. This is why you have someone who speaks the language, spell check your website. Just look at the left side navigation, the next category under shirts. That made my day.
This weekend started out with a bang! I found out that I was accepted into the business groups program at WashingtonCASH. I’m so thrilled to have gotten into this program. It kinda lit a fire under my bum. I was able to get into the studio on Saturday and I got a lot printed up. I was able to get all the ties printed and I even got 2 new tea towel designs burned to screens and printed. Here’s the first new design (the pink color is not that bright).
And here’s the close up with the quote from Julia Child
And here’s one for the bacon lovers
And the close up:
And today I decided that I would cook. I haven’t really spent time to cook a whole lot recently. I am currently using the slow cooker to make some easy peasy italian turkey sausage chili. I also made 2 different types of pesto – a cilantro pesto and an italian parsley pesto. I froze the one and I used the cilantro on some chicken and pasta. And I’m currently snacking on some fresh baked kales chips that I also made today.
And with that, I’m off to take a nice relaxing bath 🙂
This weekend was the first weekend I’ve had to really do a whole lot of nothing. And by nothing I mean, do some well needed housecleaning. Unfortunately the big spring cleaning I planned was sidelined because of a broken hot water heater on Saturday and then a dead vacuum cleaner. So I did as much cleaning as I could. And spent the rest of the time unwinding. Well, unwinding as much as you can without a hot shower or bath 🙂
I finished reading the two books that I had been reading and I was even able to finally get in to see a massage therapist for my shoulder. So all in all it was a good weekend. And now I’m starting a new book – The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. I started reading the preface and she talks about Cooperstown! She was born in Cooperstown. Cooperstown is a place, that if I had endless amounts of money, I would want to live there. I love the idea of living in a house that has so much history in it. And Cooperstown and that area have a lot of history. Oooo, there’s probably even ghosts…. Perhaps all this love of history and things that have a past came from my parents taking me antiquing when I was little. Or that we never did the theme park vacations. We did more museum type vacations. That sounds kinda dull. But it never was. You learn to appreciate everything around you. Even when we would go up to Camp (Grandpa and Grandma Beauregards “summer home” up in the Adirondacks) we’d still go out and hit the antique stores and Grandpa would take us hiking to all sorts of cool and somewhat hidden places that had a history to them. I remember hiking to a blast furnace in Newcomb, I think. And then Grandpa would wait until the sunset and then he’d drive us out to the dump and we’d watch the bears. Ok, now I know that sounds crazy. But when the rest of Minerva, Olmstedville, Irishtown and any other folks within a 100 mile radius was there, it was a fun Saturday night. Especially if you were 7 or 8.
I suppose it’s all those memories that helped shaped me and my design style. Someone recently told me that the things I made for Sunday Drive Designs was more country and I got really offended. It took me a long time to figure out why. I guess it’s not so much country as my way of remembering where I came from and that, 9 times out of 10 we had way more fun without computers, cell phones and ipads. I’ll admit, a couple of times a gps would have been nice. But other than that, it’s nice to disconnect from technology and enjoy life… in the slow lane.
I know it’s been a long time since I last posted. I’ve been busy cranking out products, and loving every minute of it. I was in the studio for 7 or so hours on Sunday and time just flew by. If it hadn’t been for my stomach telling me I needed to eat something substancial, I probably would have stayed for several more hours. And just a few minutes ago I found out that we got into the Crafty Wonderland Spring Show on May 7th in Portland! I’m so excited and so nervous all in one! I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight!
Last night it snowed. This statement might not seem like a big deal but around here, it is. It rarely snows. Rain, yes. Snow, not really. Snow shuts the city down for a couple of reasons. The big reason is that we are second only to San Francisco as one of the hilly-est cities in the US. If you’ve ever driven in SF when it sunny and dry out. Now try and picture driving there when it’s rainy, freezing and snowing. It’s not pretty. When it snows it’s like we all get a snow day. Unfortunately for those of us who were hoping for that, we found out that Seattle was prepared for the snow and the commute to work was easy going. I was hoping to be able to make more cavatelli. And speaking of cavatelli, I took some photos of Sunday’s cavatelli making.
First, here’s my cavatelli maker, set up and ready to go:
And here’s a quick shot of a dough before becoming cavatelli
This time I made semolina pasta dough. I think I may try the ricotta dough and see if it goes thru the cavatelli maker or if it will stick.
And here’s the trays of finished cavatelli. They kinda look a little like worms…ewwwww. Fortunately, they don’t taste like worms. I ended up with about 2 pounds of cavatelli after all was said and done.
And since I’m talking about food at the moment here’s a shot of the Bella Donna olive mix I got at Big John’s PFI. They’re amazing good.
And one more food shot and amazing tasting food. Here’s the chicken shawarma sandwich and greek fries from Mawadda Cafe.
OK, that’s enough food talk. Today when I got home there was a package for me from my “have a cuppa swap” partner. This swap was all about yarn and coffee/tea/hot chocolate. And my swap partner did not disappoint!
It was a great way to come home and unwind!
She sent me some coffee from a local coffee shop and a coffee cup that I have been lusting after for some time now. The front of the cup says, “You must allow me to tell you,” and the back says…
It’s from Brookish and it’s Mr. Darcy’s botched proposal to Elizabeth Bennet! I am so excited that she got it for me! And to add to my excitement, there was candy, and lots of it! There were 2 packages of licorice (my favorite) and some local artisan chocolates from Chocolate Madness. I’ll admit that I broke into the chocolates well before I remembered to take a picture of everything. It was worth it. The creme brulee was inspiring!
And finally, the yarn. It’s bugga sock yarn by The Sanquine Gryphon. It’s almost like a washed demin color. I can’t wait to make some socks of out it!
And now that all that is taken care of, I’m off to do some knitting, drink some coffee and eat some candy!
Today I went down to Tacoma this morning to hit the Madrona Fiber Arts Marketplace. Thankfully I kept my spending in check. If I didn’t, it was going get ugly. I did a quick walk thru first to see what was where and who has what. Then it was time to dive in and get to it. I immediately went to Lollipop Cabin. As Ialiuxh, says her yarns are “400 yards of organic wool sock yarn. Each skein is one-of-a-kind, individually hand-dyed in a wee little cabin with collected rain water from the Pacific Northwest Cascade Mountains.” Her yarns are so yummy and the colors are so amazing. And she’s super nice. So it makes buying yarn from her worth it! Then I wandered around a little more and I stopped at Black Water Abbey Yarns. I couldn’t tear myself away from their yarns. Marilyn and her crew import their yarn from Ireland and it is incredible. I ended up walking away with 2 skeins of their fingering weight yarn. But I will admit that I almost called my parents to ask them to refinance their house so I could buy all of their yarn and patterns to go with it. So just in case you wanted to see the yarns that I bought, here’s the photo:
Toots LeBlanc & Co had the most beautiful and softest sweater I have ever seen. It was the Kelmscott pattern and I wish I had asked what yarn of theirs they used for it because then I would have had my parents refinance the house so I could buy all of that yarn. After drooling for a few minutes over the sweater, I moved on. I ended up at the Rain Shadow Yarn booths. She uses all natural dyes and the colors she gets are just amazing. I may have to try dying some muslin for the sachets with some natural dye combinations other than tea. I also went to the Habu booth. They just have too many unusual yarns that I just get overwhelmed and can’t decide. I also decided that since they are so nice if you email or call, that if I did find something of theirs that I couldn’t live without, I’d still be able to get it.
After my friend and I had had enough yarn shopping, we headed back home and grabbed lunch at Mawadda Cafe. I had never eaten there before. I’ll probably be heading there tomorrow for dinner. I’m normally not a big fan of middle eastern food, but this was hands down, one of the best lunches I’ve ever had. We got the chicken shawarma sandwiches (spicy to order) and greek fries. After we finished eating and went up to the counter to pay, the owner and chef, gave me a sample of their fresh hot chai tea. If they were open in the morning on my way to work, I would stop there grab my lunch and a chai to go. And everyone there was really friendly and nice.
And, of course I had to do a Goodwill run this past week and I hit the jackpot again! I got yet another irish aran knit sweater for $8. It’s been so cold here that I’ve worn it almost every day. It was the best $8 I ever spent. Then I decided to hit the “craft section” of Goodwill. Occasionally I find some good stuff. This was one of those times. I found, what I think is Zephyr lace weight yarn. I got 6 cakes of this for $3! Here’s the picture of 2 of the cakes before I put them all in the freezer, to get rid of possible moths.
And lastly I went to Big John’s PFI today to pick up semolina flour (75 cents a lb, so I got 3 lbs) so I can test out my cavatelli maker that I got for Christmas. I also picked up some amazing olives while I was there. In case you plan on a trip there, I got their Bella Donna mix. And check out the cheese library. And I think the next time decide to make pizza I will head down there and pick up some Molino Caputo Tipo 00 Pizza Flour. I wish they were open on Sundays so I can go back and get some more olives. Oh well. There’s alway next weekend!
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