Things are hopping in my little house studio. Today I made this:

I followed this tutorial at Creature Comforts, so easy and so cute, I think! I used a bit of silk and raided my mother-of-pearl buttons to dress it up a little. It's light and comfortable to wear. I might have to make some more for gifts. 

I have lots more to share all week. Who else is making gifts this weekend?

Do you have this problem? I'm making and shopping for Christmas, and trying to stick to a tight budget, and then I find super cute things that I want, like this pincushion/spool, from this etsy shop:

Or this hat, for which I have a single skein of yarn that might just be perfect:

I don't have time for this nonsense! 
 
 

I took a brief break from all that knitting last weekend to scrounge around in my beading supplies. I'm not much of a jewelry maker, especially since I'm not much of a jewelry wearer, but lately it seems as if I am acquiring some cute necklaces. I like the way they spice up my usual t-shirt/cardigan uniform. 

I've had this black chain for a while. I love the oblong links. I'm also a collector of vintage lace and linens, so I pulled out this bit of black lace and made a funky necklace (which was surprisingly difficult to photograph). 

It's lovely and light to wear. I like it just off center, so it feels sort of corsage-like. But I could use some advice from the jewelry makers out there. I like the multiple strands of chain, but they wrapped around themselves throughout the day and twisted into a single chain. Is there a way to keep them separated? Jump rings between the chains? Short lengths of chain running perpendicular? Any suggestions would be welcome. Thank you! 

Okay, it's back to knitting for me now! 

I really needed to do something creative that didn't involve a computer. Also, I'm dead tired, so it couldn't be too hard or take too long. So I did the quickest craft ever. I turned my grandmother's charm bracelet that I inherited, into a necklace. The pretty silver, wood-grained ribbon is from Martha Stewart's line at Michael's. I cut two pieces, looped them through the clasps on either end, and trimmed the ends. I'll just tie a square knot in the back to wear it!

I've always loved this charm bracelet, it's absolutely packed with charms. There are silhouettes of her children, and a few of grandchildren, but then she switched to a gold charm bracelet for that. With seven children and 25 grandchildren, she had enough for a pretty full bracelet of just the silhouettes. It just barely fits my wrist, but it's too jangle-y and heavy for working at a computer all day, so I've rarely worn it. This way I can wear it more often. I think the squirrel and the spinning wheel are my favorite charms.

Now I'm going to knit. I'm thinking of living on the edge and casting on for a hat. The pattern calls for 120 yards of yarn, but I have a skein that says it's 95 meters. that's a difference of just over 16 yards. Should I risk it? 
 
 

I had no intention of disappearing for three weeks, but I guess that's just what I did. I've been both busy and lazy. Well, not so much lazy, just worn out from the busy. And there was a bit of a cold somewhere in that time too. Last week I decided to enter a contest at Veer.com to win a MacBook Pro. I knew the competition was going to be tough, but I forced myself to try anyway. Veer is a stock photo/illustration/design site, so most users are professional graphic designers. So the contest was to step away from the computer and recreate their logo with real materials. Multiple entries were allowed, so I did three: a mini quilt, a papercut, and a candy mosaic. 

The winner was pretty darn cool, and the ten runners-up were also really great. I'm still happy I went without sleep and ate too much orange candy in my attempts. I do love my papercut one, although that was my first attempt at papercutting, and it was not easy. I want to try it out with different kinds of paper, because everything looked terrible when I tried to use a blade. I ended up using paper scissors in the end. I think I'll remove the letters from the quilt and turn it into a little doll quilt, I love the bright, juicy oranges. 

I've been doing a little cooking as well, and had myself a little tea party one afternoon, while watching Howard's End. You don't really notice the food in that movie unless you watch it hungry. I speak from experience. So I was prepared this time. One of my favorite scones ever are the ginger scones I would get at Teaism, when I lived in Alexandria, Virginia. So I used a cream scone recipe and added finely chopped crystallized ginger and they may not have looked like much, but they were just perfect. I recommend that you try this sometime. 

My former boss is an avid fisherman, and brought back a whole lot of yellow fin tuna from a recent trip. So I decided to use some to make fish & chips, but with a little Asian twist. I cut the chunk of tuna into fat sticks, dipped them in beaten egg, and then coated them with panko crumbs. Then I fried them in a little oil (maybe a half inch deep), turning so that all the sides got nice and brown. I made two dipping sauces instead of tarter sauce. The first was my usual wasabi cream sauce and the other with a spicy mayonnaise, which was simply mayo with some srirachi chili sauce (also known as Rooster sauce), and a little squeeze of lemon. Yum! It was delicious and really easy. 

Now I'm hungry, and we are out of bacon, so I think I'm going to get myself dressed and head over to the local diner for breakfast. 
 
 

I think I'm going to have to get over my box building frustration sooner rather than later. I seem to have filled my first box right up! I'm feeling a little greedy, and want to grow everything! I planted some seeds, but also went on a little shopping spree at my favorite nursery. They had so many varieties of tomatoes. I had space for four, but the selection was so overwhelming that I ended up with a yellow (Lemon Boy), a purple (Cherokee Purple), and two red cherry tomatoes (Sweet Million and Red Currant), but I think I really ought to have a couple more reds, oughtn't I? And maybe a green. I want to be able to can some for the Winter.

Peppers are posing the same problem, I got a jalapeno, a bell pepper, and a cherry red, but there are so many fun varieties, and those three seem rather ordinary. I'm very excited about the French Sorrel, which was a complete impulse buy, but I tasted a leaf and love the citrus-y tart taste. It's a perennial, so hopefully it will spread a little, maybe into two square feet, from the one it's now it. It can be divided, as well, so if it does like the conditions here, I'll definitely spread it around.

Here's the view from our back fence. As you can see, I have plenty of room for a lot more boxes. I'd like to grow some berries against the fence to the right, and maybe put in a few fruit trees.

Nothing has happened yet in my potato cans, no signs of green, although most of the potatoes definitely had sprouts in their eyes, so I'm expecting to see something soon. I also planted a green globe artichoke next to the potatoes. I love artichokes! For prettiness, I planted one square of my box with candy cane zinnia seeds, and another with a tiny dianthus from the sale table. I planted some basil seeds, but also brought home a flowering basil because they were filled with bees at the nursery. I can't seem to find the tag for it, but I think it's cinnamon basil. There's also a Japanese eggplant and a couple zucchini plants. Other seeds I planted include peas, two kinds of beans, two kinds of cucumber, radishes and cilantro. And yet I need more. I think it's already too hot for any sort of lettuces or greens, but I have seeds for all sorts of kales and chards and lettuces that I might start toward the end of Summer for Fall planting.

Who else is working on a vegetable garden? Share what you're growing, I want to know!

I got myself good and worn out doing all that planting on Saturday, not to mention dirty and sweaty after weeding along one side of the box. I plan to lay down weed cloth and mulch and possibly some stepping stones this week. I think I need a chair or two out there, to sit and enjoy the plants in the evening. If only this one wasn't sold out everywhere.

After all that activity I did a lot of resting today, and did a little hand sewing while watching Last Chance Harvey this evening (it was sweet, but I love Emma Thompson, so I like everything she's in). I am trying to come up with some more pincushions, and I think I'm on the right track, but it needs just a little something more. I used the same fabric I used for my headscarf, but maybe I need to stick to smaller prints? I'm going to have to think about it, but I really want to get some things in my shop, it's looking so sad and barren at the moment.

I also decided to start un-picking and re-stitching the latest quilt top from my mother-in-law. She said that her mother started it when she found out she was pregnant with her, but she wasn't much of a sewer or quilter. I love these fabrics so much, and the yellow solid is so nice, and unusual. As I was getting started and looked at the back I realized that she must have used paper to piece it, there are all these little bits.

As I'm unpicking I can feel the frustration and impatience the seamstress must have had. There are places where the sewing machine was obviously acting up, and she seems to have just plowed on through. None of the points are anywhere near meeting, and the seam allowances are 1/8" in some places and well over 1/4" in others. So she may not have had much skill for needlework, but she did at least have an eye for color, I hope she won't mind my re-doing and finishing her quilt.