Experimental Friendship Bracelet
I picked up some glass seed beads today and started experimenting with adding them to a knotted friendship bracelet. I wasn’t adding them in any particular pattern; just trying out different ways of knotting the threads around them. I ended up with so many ideas for future bracelets.
Orange T-Shirt Skirt
Sometime last year my husband went to an event for work and came home with two large orange promotional t-shirts. I knew neither of us would wear them, but I hung onto them with the idea that someday I’d make something from them. That someday turned out to be today.
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| T-shirt skirt with the yoga waistband turned up |
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| T-shirt skirt with the yoga waistband rolled down |
I turned to my trusty old pal the internet, searched “t-shirt skirt tutorial” and immediately had entirely too many search results. After checking out a few, I went with the T-shirt yoga skirt tutorial from Stay-at-Home Artist. It was a very easy to follow tutorial – if anyone decides to try it out the only thing I’d add would be to put in the gathering stitches in a contrasting color of thread to make it a bit easier to remove at the end.
Friendship Bracelets
I finally got the kids in bed after a day that felt like it would just never end, and then I had to come up with a project. I knew I wanted to do something with my hands that didn’t need too much input from my head. I started thinking about what crafting supplies I had, preferably inside the house instead of out in the shed, and suddenly into my mind popped: friendship bracelets. Remember those from back in the day? You’d get some embroidery floss from the store, tie some strands together, safety pin them to your jeans and start knotting. This is what you’d end up with:
I made two bracelets; one for each of the kids. It came right back to me, after probably 25 years – and it was actually pretty inspiring. I’ve got lots of ideas to try out for more complex bracelets, or necklaces. I’d love to try adding some beading or other objects along with different patterns.
Valentine Garland
I like to decorate for holidays but often times (especially for the more minor holidays) I think about it so close to the holiday that I don’t manage to get much done, or have time to enjoy the decorations. I think this year I’ll be more proactive, as I have to think of a project for every day!
Black Paisley Purse
I made another one of these purses today. It’s the sixth one of these I’ve made, and I’m getting better and faster at it – not to say that I didn’t make a few mistakes, but nothing fatal. I learned something new today too – I finally figured out an easy way to sew the spots where the straps connect to the body. It took me about two hours of (interrupted) time to sew this purse from start to finish.
Both of these fabrics are cotton duck from Hancock fabrics. I like the weight for these casual handbags. Its hard to see on the lighter fabric, but its a yellow toile that is quite sweet.
Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken
Sundays are cooking days. Sometimes they’re lazy days when I can spend hours on a complicated recipe, and sometimes they’re so lazy that the only thing to do is use the slow cooker, so that I can laze around all day and still have something ready to eat at dinnertime! Guess what today was?
Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken
2 chicken breasts (boneless skinless)
1 can lite coconut milk (15 oz.)
1 can small diced mild green chilies (5.5 oz.)
1 can garbanzo beans (15 oz.)
1 bag frozen carrot coins (12 oz.)
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup water
This couldn’t be easier – dump everything into the pot of a slow cooker, give it a stir and let the pot do it’s thing for 6 or 8 hours. Serve the curry over steamed rice. Some naan bread would be nice if you happen to have some (I didn’t) and we had a green salad on the side.
It was so good! I meant to add some chopped red onion at the beginning but I completely forgot that – I’ll do it next time though if I can manage to remember. Also, I shredded the chicken at the end but I think my kids would have eaten more of it if I’d left it in chunks, so I’ll try that next time too. Either way, the chicken can go into the pot whole to be chunked or shredded at the end – I put it in straight from the freezer, whole, and it was just fine.
Updated 2/19/2012 to add: I cooked this again and made a few changes – I did add 1/2 of a red onion, chopped, and also omitted the water, which made the curry less soupy.
Table Lamp Transformation
I have a lamp that I like a lot. It was handmade by a great-great-great uncle (I think that’s the number of greats, at least) in 1942. I recently had it rewired but haven’t purchased the entirely right shade for it yet. The shade I’ve been using doesn’t fit quite right, and it seemed a bit boring to me, so I decided to change it up a bit.
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| boring lampshade – before |
I had an idea to wrap the shade in garden twine (jute). It seemed like a great idea until I was attacked by a yellow jacket! In my living room! In January! The poor thing had been lying dormant inside the roll of twine, but I guess by bringing it inside, shaking it up, and sticking my finger into the center of the roll I woke him up. So, much yelling and cursing ensued, followed by a stomped flat yellow jacket. The good news is after 37 years I now know I’m not allergic to wasp stings!
So back to the project. It turned out I didn’t have very many refill sticks for the hot glue gun, so I didn’t wrap the shade as much as I wanted to. I’ll have to add more twine once I get more glue. I like how it turned out so far, although my daughter asked me why I wanted it to look more “barnyardish”.
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| not-quite-as-boring lampshade – after |
Soneto XVII
Today’s project was another pillow for our bedroom redecoration. I used the same fabric as the paella pillow and sewed a simple square cover with an opening for the pillow (I might sew the opening closed later since the pillow insert is washable). For the lettering I used an excerpt from a sonnet by Pablo Neruda that was a reading in our wedding, and traced the letters with black sharpie markers using stencils (Helvetica and Brush fonts in varying sizes). The pillow form was a recycled throw pillow we weren’t currently using. The pens were both dying by the second side of the pillow (the beginning of the quote) but I kind of like it – it looks a little more distressed.
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| beginning of the quote |
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| end of the quote |
. . . Te amo sin saber como, ni cuando, ni de donde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
asi te amo porque no se amar de otra manera,
sino asi de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mia,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueno.
and in English:
. . . I love you without knowing now, or when or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride:
so I love you because I know no other way.
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
Snowbound
Walking in snow
everything in sepia
heavy skies mute colors
The feeder is empty –
birds sit fat on icy limbs
waiting for seeds
Branches bent low
snow piled in drifts below
almost meeting
The lights are out now
did I say we never lose power?
that’s twice this winter
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