How to make paper flag pendants

Today, I hosted a baby shower for a great friend of mine. My methods of decorating were as follows: paper flag pendants, house plants, annuals (that I can now plant in my containers and enjoy for the rest of their season).

For the pendants, you will need: adorable scrap-booking paper, scissors, twine/kitchen thread, mini hot glue gun, mini hot glue sticks.
Step 1: To save on paper, I simply cut the scrap-booking sheets into halves from corner to corner, creating four triangles.

Step 2: I assembled my twine, scissors and hot glue gun and hot glued the twin to the backs of the triangles, following as straight an edge as possible.

Step 3: I hung the pendants!!!!

This was super easy, and they're really cute. My friend and guest-of-honor loved them, and one guest said, "I wouldn't take them down."

I want some for my wedding, but I think that I will sew some fabric ones in case it's damp/raining.

herbalicious; or, yogurt face

I like to run. It's not my sole exercising venture. It's not my top pick. But, running can be really good to me, like today, when I was zoning out to bouncy dance beats and later, when the beats and melodies weren't quite as enticing, when I began to process some ideas that I'd had. I'm headed to a certain festival on Thursday, and at this festival, the spirit seems to be about creative freedom without the complications of commerce or greed. Creativity for creativity's sake. And also, giving for the pure sake of giving. Not everyone who attends this festival believes this or can/does follow this credo. But many do. Many, many do. And I realized, on my run, my own creative gift. So, upon returning from my run, I cut a basket full of herbs that I'd grown in my garden, I visited my local New Seasons, and I got to work.

Here's what I now have in front of me:

Cleansing facial wash: Made from my bees' honey, pure castile soap, vegetable glycerine, and lavender. So gentle and soothing. Honey is both cleansing and healing.

Salt scrubs to exfoliate: I made scrubs from lavender and rosemary; chamomile and lavender; bee balm and lavender; hyssop, mint, thyme, and rosemary; rosemary, citrus, lavender, and cloves; and one sugar scrub with basil, cloves, and orange zest. Making these was addicting, especially since I was working with my friend Amy. I can't wait to use them on my skin and to give them out as gifts to others. If any of these entice you, let me know, and I will send some your way.

Facial masks (not exactly sitting in front of me, because that would be gross): I plan to mix together yogurt and oatmeal, adding honey for dry skin and lime for oily skin. These masks, which should help rejuvenate skin that's been exposed to the sun and elements, will be applied for 15 minutes with cucumbers on the eyes.

Toner: A rosemary and rose hips toner spray, and a chamomile and mint toner for especially oily skin.

SPF 30 moisturizer, not made by me. And SPF 25 chapstick.

So next weekend, I will be giving free mini-facials in that order: cleansing, scrub, mask, toner, and SPF moisturizer, as well as a foot bath in minty carbonated water and then a minty foot lotion. I kept having these half-assed ideas: maybe I'd make bracelets or maybe I'd make tea. But this will be so soothing and fun and meaningful for people. And the fact that so many of the ingredients come from own yard is empowering.

Alicia's Shower

In March, I co-hosted, with the indispensable help of my mom, my sister, my cousin, and her friend, a bridal shower for my baby sister. Here are some of the pics, taken by my funny and talented cousin Liz, because I literally could not fit one more item into my carry-on luggage, including a camera.

Liz make whoopy-pie cupcakes that we decorated with pansies; they turned out delicious and beautiful. She also made chocolate-covered strawberries while I was making quiche, quiche, and more quiche, including one with butternut squash, caramelized onions, and goat cheese.

As a time-saver for the bride, guests self-addressed envelopes for thank-you cards that my friends and I made when we made the invitations. Then, as a memento, guests wrote messages and notes to the bride on decorative pieces of paper that I'd cut out and then modge-podged onto the collage that is framed in the background of this pic. I should have the bride send me the after picture.

Here's the beautiful bride kissing her inflatable husband, one of her gag gifts from my always hilarious cousin Liz. And here's a great pic of my sisters and I laughing at the giant underpants that Liz also ordered for Alicia, thanks to Alicia's love of an old Pee Wee's playhouse sketch about all the things you can do with giant underpants.

frenzy

It's that time of year. The sunshine is more potent, more plentiful. The wind has less bite. The earth smells musky. Everything seems verdant. And there's a frenzy to produce, to do, to make, to get done. Suddenly, everything still needs to be done, the job, the chores, the loving, living, laughing, plus the fierce energy of spring: the planting, the sewing, the tending. Then there are the moments when one must sit, sphinx-like, in a sunny spot. And just sit. In the sunshine. Totally in repose, surrounded by warm light, totally at peace, totally happy. Rare, blessed moments indeed, until it's back to the frenzy. Life seems to be so much about trying to do to do to do; that unquenchable thirst to try and taste everything (youth?) and that desire to sit in the sunshine and rest and soak every.thing. in.

Cupcake fever

Here are some ideas in the works for my sister's shower.
{via: Allen Heberger and oh! cupcakes}
I am on the prowl for cupcake mastery and creativity for the cupcake tower!
This cupcake suits me. I like the little green ribbon and apparently simple design incorporating the edible flower. I've thought from the beginning that edible flowers would be a sweet touch. Pansies, especially, since they're one of my favorite spring flowers. My cousin is also making chocolate covered strawberries, so those might be a nice addition to the tower or may be beautifully arranged on their own.

{via Kelli Boyles at My Garden Diary}

{viaLife with Cake)

A winter in images

I'm sitting here drinking an amazing chocolate porter that tastes like coffee initially until the chocolate finish that Brian and Kris brewed a few weeks ago, reminiscing while I look at photos long overdue for my blog. So here are some highlights and summaries.

We had an amazing weekend of friendship, dancing, rain, hot-tubbing, and feasting for my birthday in mid-January at Arch Cape.

In February, we harvested our Plymouth barred rock. Rather the bully of the bunch, the alpha-hen, we decided we would live up to our word and harvest and feast on our first chicken.

Brian was really good at the slaughter, very calm and fast and sure. We did make some rookie mistakes, however. For one, we cut off the feet right away, a huge mistake as you want to tie the bird up and let it hang and rest for as long as a day. Then, even more careless, we buried the feet with the head. I would've liked to have used the feet to make broth.

I used my Riverside cookbook, and we slowly roasted the bird in white wine, water, fresh herbs, and vegetables. The book's directions were also helpful in the actual butchering of the meat. The meat tasted fresh and a bit like turkey, perhaps because it was roasted. It was more tender than I expected, and the flavor was strong, delicious. We had friends over and played music and drank delicious wines from Spain and Italy.

We also bought, on the same day, two new chicks; the one on the left is a black austrolorpe, a record layer, and the one on the right is also known for its egg-laying, a Rhode Island Red. Unlike last year, these chicks live in our basement.

In the past two days (including today), we've gotten four eggs! Which means that the Speckled Sussex and the Americauna are both now laying. The Sussex has been laying sporadically for a month or so now, but to get four eggs in two days is a lot for us! Crepes! Cookies! Scrambles! Frittatas! Quiche!

shower inspiration

As the date of my sister's bridal shower nears, I am finally finding some inspiration on the internet. Here are some of the images that are making me ooooh and ahhh.

All of these images are from The Sweetest Occasion, a blog I plan to spend much time exploring between now and March 26. Already, I have ideas for fabrics, crepe paper garlands, cupcake paper garlands, flowers in tea cups and mason jars, etc. etc. I want to create a lovely lovely little party.

friday fantastic

Clever Nettle had this posted on her blog the other day, and I thought it worth copying and sharing. It's from another blog called sighs and whispers, where vintage photographs are published. The lady is “Forest Piece at Schnaitsee,” 1972. Photo by Holger Trülzsch of Veruschka (Vera Lehndorff) from Trans-Figurations. She looks like a forest sprite, somehow eerie and whimsical at the same time.


I'm off to coast for the three-day weekend to sleep, read, grade, walk, fly kites, take pictures, eat, laugh, drink wine, sleep, soak in the hot-tub, listen to/dance in the waves, rain, and wind, and perhaps practice knitting or crocheting. What are your three-day weekend doings?

2010 restrospective

New Year's Day seems to be a rather quiet day. Perhaps because so many of us are fighting hangovers from the debauchery of the night before. But there's also a reflective quality in the day. I looked up my resolutions and goals for last year, and it's interesting to reflect on how far I've come in the past year.

For arts and crafts, I wanted to continue knitting and crocheting, which I didn't do. But I did sew: curtains, pillows, tote bags, stuffed animals, yoga mat bags. I had fun with it and I'm still enjoying it, and I'm confident that I will keep it going. I have a long list of projects, including curtains for my bedroom, new turntable curtains, tote bags for friends, and more stuffed animals. Plus, I do want to learn to knit, still, and make hats, scarves, and fingerless gloves. Plus, I became a better photographer this year. And looking back at my photos, I realized that I'm quite hard on myself, but I've done some good work this year.

I went further with my garden/homestead than I'd originally planned, but in many respects I also fell short. I have dried tomatoes, figs, and chanterelles, but nothing canned from my garden. I do have frozen kale and berries, peach jam, apple butter, and green tomato chutney. I have garlic bulbs wintering in stockings in the basement. We have drunk most of my own chamomile, and we haven't bought eggs since June or July. This year, I want to grow even more teas and herbs, more lettuce, peas, carrots, beats, leeks, tomatoes, garlic, etc. My bees need more management, so I will need to take some classes and do some work with them this year that may involve collecting wax and making some candles and finally harvesting some honey. Fingers crossed! My hens are fat and happy, and my garden sleeps under blankets of straw from their coop. My compost is lush and wonderful.

As for career goals, I got my full-time teaching job! At the school that I most wanted to be working at! That's been everything, really, having a job that I can put my heart into and apply my creativity and love of reading and writing and education. I can be organized and analytical and creative and weird. I can sing songs to my freshmen about conjunctions, and I can ask my juniors to create their own class agenda. Time to rev up. Back to work on Monday!

If I were to set some goals for myself for 2011, they would be to grow as an educator and continue my work with rewriting the way we grade and measure our students' progress, to create a book club with a few fellow book-loving friends, to learn to knit, to keep on sewing, and to grow another wonderful garden with happy honey bees and plump egg-laying chickens. Plus, I want to backpack and camp, including biking around the base of Mt. Adams and then summit in a two to three day adventure!

 

Happy new year!

from lunar eclipse to winter solstice

Tonight, I am hosting a solstice celebration with a few close friends, food, drinks, fire, and candlelight to celebrate the longest night of the year. Yesterday, I cleaned and sewed, cleaned and sewed, like an elf trying to get everything ready for Christmas time. It won't be, I believe. I have a keen sense that most of my packages will be arriving after the Dec. 25th date, perhaps on the third or fourth day of Christmas?

I am eager to post photos of my little creations, but that must wait until presents and packages have been opened. Until then, I must snip and sew and wrap and mail and shop and cook.

Pictured above is a black orchid, part of the Catasetum family that grows in South America, grown by my uncle Jim Pluskota.

Have a wonderful solstice today. Eat dinner by candlelight with friends. Feast on winter foods and cider and wine. Sit by a roaring fire. Enjoy the darkness and the light.

pumpkin season

Last night, while handing out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that we had, Brian and I carved pumpkins that the pumpkin fairy had delivered to us during the night. We used an amazing wood carving tool that made carving much simpler and quite easier to be creative. My pumpkin is the one above and the one on the left below. Brian's is on the right.

Here are Amy and Rob's awesome adult-themed pumpkins:

 Tonight, after making fig stuffed chicken in a cream and tomato sauce with sliced brandywine tomatoes and steamed green beans, I roasted the seeds in lots of olive oil, sea salt, and some chile powder for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. They were so delicious, Brian, Amy, and I gobbled them all up while we filled out our Oregon ballots.
Happy election!

as summer falls away

Oh, the woes of being busy. No time to stroll with my camera through my garden. No time to sit and write about flowers and blossoms and bees. I've been too busy with my stellar social life and fantastic new job, being one of the few and blessed to land a full-time teaching job over the summer (and at the school of my top choosing!). Plus, I helped coordinate and attended my lady Cass's bachelorette party. The wedding itself is on Saturday, which is going to keep me busy this week. So instead of geeking over flowers and blog entries, I've been geeking out over grammar games, multi-genre writing projects, and dirty drag queens. (In the photo above, my girl Addy gets up close to one of the lovely ladies at Darcelle's. Photo credit goes to Sarah, maybe.)

One of our little projects for the wedding was a mini-craft night in which we cranked out magnets as wedding favors for the guest. Cass got to blow off some wedding stress, we got to kick it for the first time in a while, and we made the cutest magnets ever. Really, it's so easy and fun, I'm never buying magnets again. Here are just a few of our little creations:

This week may bring forth more photos, since I'm in charge of photography for the wedding. I'm going to borrow my friend Amy's camera and play around with it this week in hopes of getting comfortable with it by Saturday. Then, on Saturday morning, I'm going to head to the coast to take photos of Cass and Matt's big day. And it's going to be a big day, all right. And another lazy Sunday.

Here's Portland's famous Darcelle.

seed, bud, blossom, FRUIT!

The blog-o-shere contains wonderful, amazing photos and writings of peoples' talents, art, gardens, skills, creativity. Sometimes, it makes a girl feel a bit inadequate. We look in the mirror and see wrinkles and zits. We look at our garden and see the basil that croaked or the weeds. I've been meaning to document some photos and aspects of the less-than-perfect life in order to learn, to increase my powers of observation, to perhaps gain insight from readers out there, and to document how achieving our potential is hard freaking work.

But today is not that day, because after a week of working every single day (my bank account thanks me) and celebrating Mr. B's birthday, I looked to find tomatoes!!! Five little green tomatoes!!! And lots more blossoms!

So today, I celebrate green little tomatoes and yellow tomato flowers and little tomato buds. I celebrate the progress on my self-designed topsy-turvy tomato planter made from a recycled two gallon water container:

The nasturtiums and tomatoes both have buds, and the marigold is one of my happiest. I'm also celebrating the fact that my beneficial garden, where I scattered seeds that attract pollinators is, in fact, doing just that, with a myriad of bees, from bumble to honey to mason, are constant visitors.

 I'm celebrating the beauty of my garden with all its flaws and room for improvement.

 

And I'm celebrating having the day off! Time to go get some good grub and go roller skating with friends. What are you celebrating in your garden or in your life, gentle readers? I'd love to hear from you.