Clever Nettles

Jasper near the top of our nettle patch!

This post is about Nettles!  The super food kind and the fashionista kind!  I think I finally figured out how to get my photos to load correctly so here it goes!

                                                    Jasper at the nettle patch helping pick!

I have been harvesting, eating and drinking nettles for about 8 years now.  Before I had Jasper I started an herbal apprenticeship at RavenCroft Gardens.  At RavenCroft I was able to study for 3 years and I earned my certificate as a Community Centered Herbalist (CCH). During my time at RavenCroft I learned so much about connecting people, plants and the earth and I have been able to share some of my tiny bit of knowledge with my community.  In my first year at Ravencroft, in the Healing from the Ground Up program, I was able to develop a personal Materia Medica beginning with Nettle, Dandelion, Red Clover, Comfrey, Oatstraw, Burdock, Plantain, Calendula, Kelp and Chickweed.  The majority of our work was based on Susan Weed's book Healing Wise and all of our work was centered on the Wise Woman Tradition.  I cherish my years and time at RavenCroft.  I made such deep connections to women, ideas, theories and practices that changed my life forever.

Nettle Tops

One way that RavenCroft "grew" me was in my learning about Nourishing Herbal infusions and how to wild craft, gather, harvest and use all sorts of weeds, foods, medicines, plants, roots etc.  One of my favorite "weeds" has been Nettle.  I harvest nettle every early spring and hang it by the bunches in my garage to dry.  I used the dry nettle to make nourishing herbal nettle infusion for myself and my family.  Jasper calls it nettle juice and has been drinking it since he was a baby.  I like to drink it cold and especially in the summer when my allergies are acting up.  I use the leftover leaves in soups, quiches, pastas, etc and if I have left over infusion after a few days, I feed it to my plants. 

Nettle bunch hanging to dry.

I make my infusions by weighing out an ounce of dried nettle leaves and stalks and shoving that in a half gallon canning jar.  I fill the jar to the top with hot boiling water and put a plastic cap on it for at least 6 hours.  If I make it at bedtime, I let it sit on the counter all night and put it in the fridge in the morning.  I like to drink it cold so as soon as its good and cold, I just pour the infusion off the top of the nettles and drink away.  Nettles makes my skin, hair and nails so much more healthy and it is LOADED with tons of minerals and vitamins.  No other green vegetable excels nettles in mineral and vitamin content and it is one of the worlds most chlorophyll rich plants.  Recently I have heard nettle lauded as a Super Food and I totally understand why.  There is over 1000mg of calcium in 8oz. of nettle.  Wow!

Close up nettle top.  These are just about to bloom and then Nettle harvest time will be over til next year.

With the fresh nettle I always make a quiche the same night of the first harvest.  This year I made  bacon, shitake and nettle quiches, one with regular pie crust, one with spelt crust.  Jasper ate most of the spelt crust quiche in his lunch the next few days and he loves all things rich and green.  The kid eats seaweed and Nori like its going out of style. 

Close up detail of nettle leaf top.

When we pick nettle, we wear tough gloves so we don't get lots of stings.  We make sure to wear long pants and long sleeves and be mindful of our surroundings.  Jasper has become a pro and can now pick nettle with bare hands without getting stung.  He knows how to pick a leaf, fold and wrap it up, and stick it in his mouth and eat it without a single sting.  Pro! 

Close up detail of nettle leaf bottom.

To me nettle smells peppery.  As a standard brew it is gentle yet powerful.  It nourishes and changes energy.  It is excellent for pregnant and lactating women.  All parts of the plant are useful and both of my boys still make nettle cordage like our northwest native american forebearers did.  No part of nettle is poisonous and you might try locating it under big leaf maples. You would do well to make nettle one of your allys in healing.  I did and its high iron, protein and calcium content have served me so well, especially in my bouts of low blood sugar madness.  I will never be without you nettle.  You are a friend for life!

Bowl full of nettle leaves waiting to be chopped.

Recipe for Nettle, Shitake, Bacon Quiche:
1 premade pie crust ( I buy organic ones at Whole Foods)
4 eggs
1 cup cream or half -n- half
cheese (enough to cover the bottom)
chopped onions, sliced shitake mushrooms, and chopped and cooked bacon
several handfulls (with gloves on!) of fresh nettle leaves chopped
Preheat over to 350.  Line the bottom of your crust with cheese.  This creates an oil barrier layer so the crust shouldn't get too soggy.  Next, fry your onions in olive oil and/or some of the bacon fat. I like to almost carmelize mine and then throw in the mushrooms.  Cook a few minutes and then add in all the chopped nettle.  I did this in a big soup pot that I had cooked the bacon in so with the high sides everything fits before it wilts down.  Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the cream and set aside.  When nettle, mushrooms and onions are almost done, toss the bacon bits back in and give it a good stir.  Now take all that and pour it in the pie shell, over the cheese.  Then pour the egg/cream mixture over that.  Season and voila!  You are ready to put it on the middle rack in the over and cook for at least 45 minutes.  Watch the crust.  Also, you can place a cooking sheet under the quiche if its very full so the boiled over spills dont get stuck on your oven floor.  Let it cool for ten minutes or so before slicing and then dig in!  Its good cold the next day for lunch too.  Yum!

Please also check out my friends Kimberly and John's website, Learning Herbs, to learn more about herbalism, plants, and how to use them.  Their website is SO FULL of information and I highly recommend it!  You will even see a picture of Jasper and I if you click on Cold and Flu Care!

Anja's spring banner from her awesome blog Clever Nettle.

On a different note, completely, I love fashion!  One of my favorite blogs to visit and scour is Clever Nettle. I almost named my own blog something-something-nettle.  Anja, the blogs proprietress, lives in Portland and I am fairly obsessed with her, on many levels.  Her work is to thrift for awesome vintage and modern-but-cool clothes and she sells them on her Etsy sight, and then she blogs about it.  Dream job.  And she is so cute.  And she very often posts about food in Portland and those of you who know me well do know that I am obsessed with Portland, food, vintage, thrifting, clothes, etc.  Even though I am mostly a t-shirt and jeans kinda gal, I do love fashion and clothes and I have many a packed closet full of cool vintage clothes that I never get to wear around in my daily life.  Sigh. 

Many of the restaurants I have been to in Portland are on Anja's recommendation.  Check out Olympic Provisions, Calderra Public House and Navarre to name a few.

Chad at Olympic Provisions with all the Charcuterie hanging behind him.

Because of Anja and her friend Rachel, that she often speaks of, I am currently obsessed with Swedish Hasbeen shoes.  I think I have to get a pair, pronto, and I think I will be going to Clementine's, in West Seattle, to try some on first.  Also, my obsession has become contagious and I think I pretty much have Erin talked into needing a pair too!  It'll be a girls afternoon on the town and it aint gonna be cheap!

Assorted colors of Swedish Hasbeens!

Anja is leaving for New Orleans in a couple days.  I feel like a stalker but she has been asking for suggestions of places to go see, where to eat, what to do and visit etc.  Again, those of you who know me, know I am profoundly in love with NOLA, its part of my email address, I just went back for the third time in the fall and I do plan to live or stay there for an extended amount of time in the future.  Fingers crossed!

A blurry photo of us in our hotel room at The Hotel Monteleone famous for being haunted and for its Carousel Bar in the lobby.  Also the rumored birthplace of Truman Capote!

So I have been desperately trying to piece together every little bit of what I would want to tell Anja about New Orleans and I am realizing that so much of the magic of the city is that you have some amazing thing to discover at every turn.  There is never a dull moment and I am not sure that you can ever have a bad meal there.  I wonder what it would have been like if I had gone there for the first time armed with a list of "must do" things.  I think it would have been a little different experience, and I would have been glad to have had some guidance, but I also had the luxury and delight of "self discovery" without the pressure or anxiety of "gotta go, gotta go, gotta go."  I would do that to myself with a list.  It would become my boss and I would feel compelled to "accomplish" every item on the list.  And I would not have as many deep, cool, in-the-moment experiences if I went by a list, because, like I said, being me, I would rush to do it all and not leave time for magic and happenstance.  I am beyond certain that Anja would never just do exactly what I suggest she do, but I think I will withhold my desire to rush to share every detail, of every place, of every taste, of every sound that I would want Anja to experience, so she can find her own experiences of the amazing city.  I gotta think of just a few key gems to share and let the rest stay in the magic little place in my brain where the rest of NOLA is perched on a pedestal forevermore!
Gem #1:

Me in front of Elizabeth's Restaurant in the bywater area.  Take a cab from the quarter.  So worth the drive. Best breakfast ever!

Gem #2 (&3)

This is David's Found Objects.  I would also highly recommend checking out Le Garage across the street on Decatur.  In fact, Decatur is where its at.  Next time, I will be staying on lower Decatur, FOR SURE!

Gem #4 and beyond

Walk around and take it all in!

Walk along the Mississippi on the Riverwalk.

Take the ferry to Gretna.  We went to the Gretna Heritage Festival and it was fantastic to get a real dose of local culture and arts!  Yes, we caught a glimpse of Kool and the Gang and saw the awesome New Orleans Bingo Show!

Just watch out for the BIG bugs!

We spent one day driving up to Baton Rouge and exploring there before seeing one of our favorite bands, The Avett Brothers perform.  It was exciting for us because we were in the 6th row or so and the venue was virtually empty.  Here is how excited we were and how empty the place was:

The lack of an audience should in no way reflect the awesomeness of this band!  We were just in the middle of nowhere!  They were originally scheduled to play at House of Blues in the Quarter but for whatever reason had to cancel and at the last minute rescheduled in Baton Rouge so I think people were just not so aware that they were in town.  Lucky us!

Look at some balconies:

Check out some neat houses:

Side note: Have you been watching Treme on HBO?!!  Ohmygawd, I love this show.  The music, the scenery, the vibe.  Love all of it.
This past October was the first time I had been back since Katrina and it was a very different feel in the quarter.  The sense of mysterious and ethereal things, intangible, laying right below the surface, is still there but the many little obscure shops, galleries and eateries are gone for the most part.  I missed that part of it.  There is no lack of people who are ready to share what happened to them during Katrina.  You can still see wrecked buildings and the high water marks on underpasses and structures.  It makes you wonder and leaves a tinge of sadness but I am just so darn happy that the essence of NOLA is still there.  Keep rebuilding NOLA!  I will be back! 

Do you know what it means, to miss New Orleans, when that's where you left your heart?

SWARM!

My very own swarm of honey bees!

So I am sitting inside at the computer desk on Friday, paying bills and minding my own business, when Jasper comes tearing in the house. 
"Mom! Mom! There's a million bees flying around!"
Me: "Oh? Uh huh, well, I'll come out and see in a minute.  I'm kinda busy here."
Him: "NO!  MOM!  You gotta see this!  Its like a black cloud over the roof!"
Me: "Huh? What the F#@$!? (as I am running out the house, through the garage, into the yard) OHMYGAWD!  They are swarming!  Hurry, get in the house!  Where is the video camera!  Get my phone!  Holy Sh%#!  What the hell is happening?!"
And then ever so slight panic ensues as I try to do a million things at once.  Calling Rachel at Beez Neez, Calling Chad, taking video, taking pictures, uncontrollable shaking and giddiness, nausea, sweat, trying not to freak out Jasper, handling Dish Network guys showing up exactly then to put up new dish, frantic reading of the swarming chapter in Beekeeping for Idiots, or is it Dummies?, its Dummies!  And I am marveling all the while....

Full of shock and awe!

(pictures ended up a little outta order)

What happened you might wonder?  My bees decided to swarm and it was amazing to see.  Its hard to describe but I will try.  I am so thankful we didn't miss the drama of it and were here to see it so we knew where they went and that they were in fact our bees!  Jasper knew right away that something wasn't right because there were tens of thousands of bees in the air, all at once, and they were moving somewhat together in a large mass.  Kinda like a black cloud!  They were landing everywhere and trying to figure out where to go.  They were trying to follow their queen and find a temporary home while scout bees went out to look for a permanent home.  They flew over my roof and into the back yard and toward the other end of the house.  They were covering everything: the car, the dish network van, the house, Chad's drift boat, the windows, the trees and bushes, the BBQ, etc.  I thought the dish guys looked pretty freaked out so I told them that obviously they would not want to be trying to get up on my roof right then and that we needed to reschedule.  They didn't want to be out of their van so I explained to them that a swarm of bees are the gentlest bees you ever will meet.  I informed them that when bees get ready to swarm, they gorge themselves on their honey because they do not know how long they will have to be without a home so they fill up.  When they are full like that, they are docile and sweet, and will only sting if they are forced to.  Granted, I myself would not be comfortable up on a roof, with thousands of bees flying around, hoping not to do something to make them sting.  You  see, I was also trying to convince myself that they were OK, that I was OK, that they weren't trying to attack us even though they were "invading" every nook, cranny, and crevice they could find. 

en mass

The bees seemed confused and their uncertainty made me nervous.  Were they going to congregate on the neighbors house or were they going to fly away and be gone for good?  They were clustering up in several spots as they tried to figure out where their queen had landed.  It took close to an hour for them to start really huddling together in the shape you see above.  They cluster for protection and warmth.
Bees swarm for a few reasons.  I am lucky that even though they did swarm, they did it early.  The later bees swarm, the less time there is for the colony to recover and they likely won't produce or winter over well.  Lots of beekeepers have had swarms already this year and its not even May yet.  Tad bit unusual and may be due to our milder winter and robust colonies.  Swarming is a natural and normal instinct for bees, especially older or crowed colonies.  Congestion and poor ventilation are the two main reasons bees swarm.  If I had more experience I may have noticed earlier on that there may have been queen swarm cells, which look like a peanut shell shape, hanging near the bottom of the frames.  Swarm cells are the earliest evidence that bees are thinking of swarming.  When I had last checked my bees I was following the 7/10 rule which dictates that when 7 of 10 frames are covered in bees, its time to add another deep hive body or honey supper, depending on your circumstances.  At the time, I wasn't looking for swarm cells and the bees were not on more than 7 frames.  Bees work from the middle out to the sides so each outside frame will be the last to get drawn out into comb.

Assessing the situation.  Notice the full bee suit even though I am telling you they are the most gentle during a swarm.  Even an experienced beekeeper should wear the veil but I use the whole shbang, including gloves!

When I texted the photos to some friends, several commented that it looked like a giant pine cone.  It did!  A massive wiggling, writhing pine cone!  As they climbed over each other and tried to get closer to the queen they were surrounding, some would fall off and hit the ground.  They would fly right back up and cling on somewhere else.  Several scout bees were still coming and going but they too had filled up on honey and were little slow on the up take.  I wonder where they would have ended up had I not been able to capture them?  Yes, I was able to capture my first swarm!

Several thousand bees weighs more than you would think!

You can tell in the pictures that they are somewhat low to the ground and hanging on a branch.  It is super duper amazing that they stayed in my yard AND that they converged in a spot that was SO EASY to get to.  I did not have to perform acrobatic swarm collection!   I simply had to step up on a ladder and snip the branch they were on so I could lower the whole mass into a box.  Yes, a box folks.  A cardboard moving box.  Crazy, huh?  Once they were in the box I just closed it up and waited to call Rachel back.  Oh yeah, the plan was to go get one of Rachel's old hives and buy ten new frames with wax foundation to stick in there so the bees could have a new home and start to draw out comb in their new hive.  In the course of that Friday afternoon I think I called Rachel at least three times.  And the bee store, it just so happened, had just that day received a shipment of 200 boxes of bees so they were staying open late but were the busiest they ever are. 

Some of the two hundred boxes of bees!  They sell bees in 3 or 4 pound packages with a queen!

Poor sweet Rachel!  She kept getting these frantic, panicked, stunted, random calls from me and she just kept saying don't worry, it will all be OK.  She was so patient with me and even offered for me to get her old hive since she just got out the hospital again from her allergic reactions to another bee sting.  She is giving up her hives now, and also she is moving to Portland, but her boyfriend is a new beekeeper so she will help him but try not to get stung!  So she had a hive for me to take and the timing of all this, as weird as it was, was perfect since the apiary(bee) store was open unusually late, I had time to get out there Friday night, get the supplies I needed, go to Rachel's before dark,  and get home with everything so I could hive the bees the next day. 

Closing them in the box for the night!

Ta Da!

A few left over stragglers.  I put them near the box and they found their way in.

Jasper had a soccer game Saturday morning so I just left the bees in there box home for the night and pulled the box right up next to the house so they would be under the eave.  It was raining so I didn't want them to get too wet.  The next morning they were still in the box!  Rachel had told me they will stay in a swarm for 2 minutes or two weeks, you just never know.  So I was worried that they would take off again before I could give them a proper home to call their own.  When bees swarm, about 50 percent of the colony packs up with the queen and takes flight.  They leave half their family behind.  So in my original hive I still had many thousands of bees but no queen and that is no good.  We talked about me getting a new queen for that hive but you have to have several days of nice weather to bring a new queen home so that she can take here nuptial flight, mate with drones, and return to the hive to begin laying eggs, unhindered by rain, wind, and bad weather.  She is expensive and important and you don't want to chance her not having a good start with bad weather. 

Close up of bees in a package, awaiting pick up to go the their new hive.

Also, there are many reasons for buying a queen from a reputable supplier vs. letting nature take its course.  To let the colony create a new queen, it must have occupied queen cells or cells with eggs.  If eggs are available, the worker bees will take some of them and start the incredible process of raising a new queen.  This can take a month and that is precious time during honey season.  Buying a vigorous mated queen is a fast solution, she is certain to be fertile, and queens left to mate in the wild can produce bees with undesirable characteristics, such as bad temper.  So for now I have their original hive with many bees but no queen and I have some options about what to do with it. 
Now that I have this new hive started (more on this next), I can either still re-queen the original hive and have two fully running hives or I can combine them in a couple weeks and have one mega hive.  Its a tough call for me!  There are pros and cons to each choice.  If I keep the two hives separate then each one of them is starting from scratch and will most likely not have the time to produce any surplus of honey for me to take at the end of summer.  Remember, bees need about 90 pounds of their own honey to get through the coming winter so I can only take what is above and beyond that.  That's a lot of honey! 
Also, I had originally planned to start a second hive this spring but time got away from me and I didn't order my supplies in time.  So here I am with two hives anyhow but the original one is not a second year hive, technically, now that it swarmed.  It has no queen to keep making baby bees, to collect nectar, and make more honey.  But, two hives is twice the work.  The bees do need to be feed in the early spring and late fall here.  Its a lot of sugar syrup and suiting up and filling sticky jars and not letting them run out, etc.  I enjoy the chores of beekeeping but it does take time and commitment and remembering to do it!  It would be easier and cheaper and less time to service one hive, but if I am already doing it for one, I might as well do it for two, right? 

Honey Bee by August Williams

Well, I do have the option of combining these two hives in a couple weeks or so.  It would practically ensure a MOTHERLOAD of honey for me.  But then I would only have one hive and not two like I had hoped I would of.  But one hive is less time, attention, and stickiness!  How bad do I want honey?  I don't feel too greedy about it.  I want to do right by the sweet honey bees.  But I do also want to make my mead this year, with my own bees honey surplus.  And I use all honey to make my preserves each summer so it sure would be nice to have honey for that.  Regardless, I think combining the hives might be the right thing to do this time. 
I still have a week or so to figure this out.  I need to go back to Beez Neez and ask more questions.  Jim and Rachel are so helpful there.  I take lots of notes so I can try to keep all the info sorted out.  Its a lot to take in and file away and get right when the time comes to implement what you think you know!  Thankfully Jim and Rachel are only a phone call away and they hear from me often and are always gracious, kind and encouraging!
Well, I want to get this posted now even though I feel like I am leaving some things out. I didn't get pictures of hiving them on Saturday because it was a crazy day with the Dish guy coming back and the bees still flying all over since it was nice out and they could smell where their queen had been near the back door.  Many of them stayed in the tree and on the backdoor near where the box had been overnight, until they figured out that their queen was in a new hive down in the yard.  I will take pictures of the new hive next time I feed them and do a follow up post in the next few weeks.  Ask away if you have any questions.  Or comment too if you want!  I hope I have some honey to share with y'all in the future.  Here's to the wonder of bees!

Ocho! Plaka Estiatorio!

Ok, so here is a food post for ya.  Ocho in Ballard is an absolute must!  Especially if you are with some real good friends or your boyfriend.  I got to go twice so far, once with each.  If you love Spanish tapas and small plates to share, this is your place.

Above you will see the famous $10 Maragrita.  I kid you not, it is THE BEST margarita I have ever tasted! And I probably don't have to tell you that I have tied many a margarita on! I can only describe it like Sarah did, piney and not at all too sweet.  My reaction after gulping one down was like, oh my lordy, can you mainline those?!

A few weeks back Maurisa and Sarah and I got to have a night out in Ballard with our intention being to eat our way around Ballard until it was time to go.  We started at Ocho and ended up at a fantastic little Greek place called Plaka Estiatorio. 

Here you can see the chalkboard menu and a slice of the tiny kitchen at Ocho.

First though, let me tell ya a little more about Ocho's menu.  Like many of my lovely friends, I like to consider myself, at the very least, an amateur foodie.  I like things fresh, in season, local, organic, and beautiful.  I like the flavors to make sexy with my mouth and I enjoy it when my taste buds have little orgasms.  Yes, I pretty much equate good food with good sex.  Both can get me hot and bothered, in a really good way! 

So at Ocho they have things like Huevo del Diablo which is deviled eggs, salmon roe, pickled onion, tomato dust, fried capers and dill.
Um, hello, can you say yum!
And they have Jamon Serrano: cured spanish ham.  We ate some of that.  Well, more like some of that melted in our mouths.
And Croquetas Borrachas: fried goat cheese with roasted red pepper almond sauce.  Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside and oh, so delicious.
Setas de Jerez: sherried mushrooms on olive oil toast with arugula.  Earthy yet sweet.  Wish this grew on a tree in my garden.
Albondigas: lamb meatballs with brandy carrot sauce and golden raisins.  Amazing.
Gambas al Ajillo: spicy garlic prawns.  Perfect.
And the evening Chad and I were there I had an asparagus gazpacho that was cooling and refreshing.

But I gotta say.  The one thing I had both times that I could eat all day, every day, day in, day out, over and over is the La Carolina: pancetta wrapped blue cheese stuffed dates in a balsamic reduction.  People!  Is this a dessert?  It was better than dessert.  I wish it were a food group you were required to have 5 servings of per day.  I dream about these little beauties.  And in my dreams they just magically appear in my fridge every time I open it!  Oh, to have it be so.  I didn't even get a picture of them.  I got greedy and ate them fast.  I think Chad got one.  I hope.
Several of the items on the menu have a little star by them and when you look at the key at the bottom of the menu it says: contains raw food, which could kill you.  Blunt.  To the point. And makes me grin.  Love it.
And I haven't even mentioned any of the other fancy cocktails they mix up in this little pixie size space.  You just gotta go see for yourself.  You wont be disappointed.

Plaka is the other place Sarah and Maurisa and I ate at in Ballard.  I thought it was great and again we shared small plates, or Mezedes, as it's called here.  We had our hunk of a waiter pick a wine for us and it was just right.  We shared Patzaria: beets with garlic, fennel, vinegar and olive oil.  Loukaniko: grilled pork sausage.  Octopodi: octopus braised in herbs with lemon and olive oil.  Roasted red pepper and feta dip.  And I think we had some roasted seasonal veggies and potatoes.  It was all delicious.  Although I am pretty much a sucker for anything that has lemon and olive oil.  And the owner of Plaka was so kind and attentive.  He gave me a gorgeous calendar when we left so I can hang it on my wall and daydream about when I get to go to Greece.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, actually, I was in such wonderful company and having such a lovely evening immersed in girl talk, I did not take any pictures here. 

So I will leave you with a few photos from Old Town Ale House,  Chad and I stopped in here the other night to grab a drink and snack before seeing Breathe Owl Breathe at The Tractor.  I will post more about seeing them later but for now I will show you the super cute artwork on the Belgium Trappist Ale I drank.  It made the beer taste extra good!  And those of you who know me, know I have a thing for snails.  Here ya go:

Down where the Sasquatch hide....

Beauty of a day!  A seven year old birthday party.  Rain.  Sun.  Ahhhh, the Northwest.  Just missing a Sasquatch sighting..... Ha! 

I have been wanting to show y'all these lovely badges I made for my Juji (Julie for her 40th!) and for Jasper (for his 7th!).  So so easy yet quite a statement!  Here are some photos below.  I wish I knew how to do a little tutorial for you in case you want to make yourself a badge.  I will try to explain below.  It is really, soooo easy!

Julie's Birthday Badge!

Jasper's 7th Birthday badge!

The back of Julie's badge.

Front and back of Jasper's.

I was able to purchase several of these green rimmed milk bottle caps from the Queen of Tarte last time she was in town.  She was doing a show in Bothell and there was not a lot to drool over from other vendors but Q.O.T. had these and Kathy and I were drawn to them.  Numbers were already printed on them, just like Jasper's 7, and I instantly had the idea for his birthday badge.  The one I made for Julie has a number under it too but I had to cover it since none of the numbers were 40! 

The first thing I did was take some of my many rolls of crepe paper and started pinching and gathering them and just hand forming them into a circle shape until it looked ruffley.  Then I started on the next color or row, and so on.  Once I had what I wanted, I just used white glue to begin adhering the crimped, ruffled, pinched, circular shaped crepe "wreaths" to the back of the bottle cap.  I just overlapped the crepe where it met in a circle shape.  The caps are a kind of waxy, papery like thing but the white glue seemed to work to adhere it all together. 

Then I had to decide what kind of ribbons I wanted hanging down from the badge.  I have a massive collection of ribbon, vintage and new.  I also have a ton of seam binding, edging, ric rac, etc.  The green "ribbons" I used here are actually like hem tape that you might use to cover a hem on the inside of a garment.  Its cotton and very stretchy and I have several rolls of it so this was a good way to use some up.  I just decided on how I wanted to layer them and then trimmed the ends to make points.  You make the points by folding the ribbon in half length wise and then cut a 'V' shape from the fold to the outer edge.  You can make the points as long or as blunt as you like, depending on how long your 'V' is.  Once I have my layers of dangling ribbon situated, I glue them all at the same time and together, to the back of the ruffley crepe lined bottle cap, on the back.  You can make them hang straight down or flare them at a slight angle.  You could also just do one strand of ribbons or several strands! 

To cover up all the glue, ribbon ends and crepe circles on the back of the badge, I cut out a nice little circle of wool felt, with my pinking shears so it has a 'ruffley' edge too, and glue it on the back.  BEFORE I glue it on though, I hand sew a pin to the felt so I have a way to attach it to my clothes or wherever once its all dry and ready to wear.  I have several leftover early entry badges from The Sandpoint Design and Antique Market so I just detached the safety pin part from the plastic and used the pin to sew to the felt.  There are several types of pin backs at the craft store so you just have to choose what works best for you.  Once the pin is attached to the felt, THEN I glue it to the badge back.  Voila!  You are pretty much done!  You just have to wait for the glue to dry and then wear your badge or give it away!

Here is my sweet Julie with her Birthday badge:

Here is tired Jasper, on his birthday, after horseback riding in the desert, but still wearing his Birthday badge:

Oh!  I almost forgot to mention!  Look at this close up of Julie's badge.  You will notice the background behind the 40.  I used the inside of a Yogi tea box!

I did this specifically for Julie because it reminded me of the amazing henna work she does.  I am tellin' ya, this woman is a master!  Getting a henna blessing from Julie is one of my most favorite things to do when we are together.  It is amazing art that stays with me for days and slowly fades as the time since our last meeting grows.  I need to scan the photos I have of Julie's henna work and do another whole post just on that!  The 40 is just stick on numbers that I glued down and sprayed matte varnish over to help hold them on.

Here's to art, craft, milk caps and crepe paper!

Go make art!

Ships Ahoy!

Ann Wood Pattern Ships in Progress!

Here is our first fleet of Ann Wood boats in progress.  (Dont forget to drool over Ann's stuffed owls while you are visiting her blog!)  I will post some more process photos so you can see our version of it.  These have been painted but are awaiting mast and yard construction.  This was a great family project and it can be done in a weekend or you can stretch it out for a couple months like we did.  Since we made so many to start, we did one step at a time with the entire fleet, so it took a little longer.  Most of the ships you can see here are the original pattern blown up 100% or so.  I do like the bigger size for the amount of time these take to make.  You might as well make big ones because I think they will be easier to see hanging from the ceiling too! 

Above you can see some of our small and large patterns cut out of cereal boxes and a few actually taped together and ready to be paper mached.  I don't think we have any photos of the paper mache day since we all did it and had really sticky fingers!  I just use a mix of flour and water and few drops of white glue for paper mache.  We tore up small pieces of newspaper and just basically followed Ann's directions and did two layers on each.  Let me see if I can find a photo of them all mached.....nope....

Painted inside and out.

I started the draft of this post way back when but was waiting to finish it since I was giving a few ships to friends as gifts and wanted it to be a big surprise for them.  They most likely would not have seen this blog post anyhow but wanted to be on the safe side!  These ships were so fun to construct and Ann Woods work is so inspiring.  I can't wait to try making my own ship design and creating an even bigger, more beefy one, to hang with these.  Check hers out and you will see what I mean.  Ann also does amazing things with cardboard and fabric and her work has been featured in severl magazines worldwide. 

I will post some more process photos and tell ya about what we did:

One side of Jasper's ship with mast inserted.

The other side of Jasper's Ship.

The inside of Jasper's ship.  I love his style!

In all, we made 4 small ships and 5 large ones.  We will keep and hang the 4 we made for ourselves and gift the others.  We have given three small ones away so far and they have been well received!  I will show you here:

Here is the one we made for our friend Steffen for his birthday.  You can kinda see the fabric here.  It has octopus, ship wrecks, seals, fish, seaweed and coral.  This is the other side of the sail:

I used cheese cloth to line the back!  The sail pattern does not call for it to be lined but I got this wild hair and wanted to see if I could make it work.  It looked great and it didn't add a lot of heft, bulk, or stiffness to the sail so that was good.  You can see the detail here of how we painted most of them with thin paint so the newsprint would show thru like Ann's.  Also you can see a little detail of how the sail is hand sewn to the yard.  Sewing the sail to the yard really makes you feel like your ship is coming together!

Here are two sails in progress for two ships.  These each went to Maurisa for her birthday and Julie for her 40th birthday!  I used an old indian paisley spread that had lots of various stains and holes.  I really like the reds, greens, and yellows in the fabric.  I did not line these sails because I liked the gauzey feel of the fabric just the way it was.  Here is Julie's finished ship below:

These ships have string attached so you can hang them from the ceiling.  Also, you might notice the buttons attached to the ends and sides.  I used shell buttons on these and they are meant to be decorative and to use for attaching your sails strings to.  I followed Ann's lead and left all my strings long and dangley.  Love it!

And on this sail I used some contrasting but complimentary fabric to make patches on the sail.  As if the sail had gotten holes while sailing the high seas and needed to be repaired!

We have not finished out own four ships!  I wanted to get the gifts done first so we will be working on ours soon.  I will post more as they get finished.  Please check out Ann's blog and website to get inspired to create these!  And let me know if you, a. come across any more ship patterns, and b. make any of your own!  I will leave you with a group picture of all our ships, with their masts attached, awaiting sails.

Hello from Tucson!

85 degrees and dry, every day.

Standing on water?!

Having a blast at the Vaudeville Variety Circus Sideshow!

Having a lot of fun in Tucson!  Have shopped to the point of needing to buy more luggage, ate fabulous food at Club Congress and Sauce, and went to a Circus Side Show that was the most fun so far! Swimming, soaking up the 81 degree sun, and taking naps. Gotta love a vacation! Jasper turns 7 tomorrow! Going horseback riding, eating Sonoran Dogs, and seeing Goonies at the Loft Theatre. Hiking Bear Canyon to Seven Falls on Friday and maybe go to Bisbee on Saturday. Phew! I will post more pictures when we get home and the videos of the boys taking part in the circus side show! Gotta love Tucson!

Packing for Tucson

So we are off to visit Tucson, once again, for spring break.  Thanks to my benevolent father we have a free place to stay!  This year Jasper is old enough to go horseback riding so that is precisely what we will be doing for his 7th birthday.  He is so excited he is driving me nuts with all the talk about it!  You'd think we were going to the moon the way he carries on.  I guess its fun to be a kid and just travel and be "on vacation" without any worries of getting there, financing the trip, making the meals, cleaning up the condo, etc.  I do look forward to laying about by the pool with my cocktail and magazines, while Jasper frolics and August dips (due to the broken wrist cast), sporting my I-run-so-I-think-I-can-eat-and-drink-whatever-I-damn-well-please-belly fat sloshin' around.  Should feel good to get some sun on the nether regions!  We plan to do the Seven Falls/Bear Canyon Hike in Sabino Canyon, visit Bisbee, Az., and horseback ride at La Posta Quemada Ranch in Colossal Caves Mountain Park.  We love to spend hours at the various locations of Bookmans, browsing the shelves for various media.  And When we aren't swimming at our condo we like to hit the local Pima County Community Center, Northwest YMCA because you can dive in their outdoor pool and, boy howdy, does Jasper ever love to practice his diving!

These are some of the things we do together that we all like.  There is also a ton of good shopping and treasure hunting and gathering to be had in Tucson but the boys don't neccessarily like to be dragged around to do it so we use our communication skills with each othere and I basically lay it out for them.  If mamma gets to do her thing without a lot of complaining and whining, you will get to do your thing.  Otherwise, we just do what mamma wants to do and we may or may not get back to the pool by the end of the day.  It's not a bribe, it's a subtle form of negotiation!  They get it.  And they always find treasure too.  And I buy them stuff on vacation I would never buy at home so they know that too.  Its a win win!  Since we are flying Southwest airlines we each get to take two pieces of luggage, for no extra fees!!  Can you believe it!?  So we will be taking some half empty suitcases with us so we have can stuff them with treasure to bring back!  I think I will wait until I get back to post on all the great shops and places to treasure hunt and even some of the restaurants to eat at there.  You all know how much I love to eat and talk about eatting!

Every time we visit Tucson we go to San Xavier del Bac Mission.  I might even drag the kids to an Easter service there this year because the place is so darn beautiful!  My boys are used to celebrating Spring Equinox so Easter is usually no big thing for us but Jasper is already begging me to take him to eat the Tohono O'odham tacos that are sold out in front of the mission. The Tohono O'odham Nation has presided in the Sonoran Desert forever.  I will post some photos here from last year so you can see how amazing this place is.

Would you die for this door handle?  I would!

What  you see when you walk in.  Love that scallop trim on the pews!

Look at the paint on these walls.  Its amazing!  And this tiny little door?  Where does it go?!

A little corner with candles.

A super cool ancient font.

I finally figured out how to get my Iphone to cooperate for mobile blogging with pictures so I will post some from Tucson.  You might notice though that for the these mobile posts I have not figured out how to title them as I would like so they will all be called somethingorother media blahblahblah.  I will change them as I can, when I can.  Also, I have just started to add favorite blogs or blogs I read a lot of to the list you will see here so check back often to see updates.  And visit the links.  You will like what you find!

On another note: I have done a major overhaul of my atelier/studio/craft room/work/sewing space and will post pictures soon.  I wish I could just have you all over to see it and open shop!  I have slowly been moving stuff from the garage cupboards into my newer space and it has prompted me to consider what I really need to have and what I can let go of.  Is this ever really possible?  Can you ever give up something that seems like it might have a future use in some awesome art/craft piece?  Do I keep what's unique and discard the ordinary?  What if I get rid of the seemingly ordinary and then when I need it I can't find it anywhere?  I tend to hang on, to a lot of stuff, probably way too long, and now I have a ton-o-stuff.  Every corner, crevice and crack is filled to the brim.  Oh, to have the time to put these items to use.....  How do I find the time to collect these items but not enough time to transfer them into their next existence as pieces of an assemblage of some kind?  Oh, whoa is me...  Must.....Make.....Art.....

Bees in the air!

Jasper with a Mason Bee on his favorite fedora!

Broken Wrist

My baby broke his wrist today.

Almost 15 and broke his wrist.  The left one, the one attached to the hand he writes with.  Major bummer.  No art class, no swimming in Tucson, no horseback riding in Tucson, no homework getting caught up on.

How will he Fly Fish?

How will he surf?

Poor fella.  I hope you feel better soon Gus.  Be a good boy and don't break any more bones.  I love you beautiful boy.  xoxox mom

Bees, Spring and the Magic of Smoke

First package of bees.  Three pounds and a queen!

Last Spring I started beekeeping for the first time.  I was so scared and so elated.  I had always wanted to keep bees but was so afraid of them.  It was a love-hate relationship.  I had decided it was time to face some of my fears and for me that means diving head on into whatever it is that freaks me out.  (I did this with surfing too.  So scared but just dove in.  Literally!) 

Bees it was!

I took a great once a week class at my local apiary store, Beez Neez, and when I finished I passed the test and got my apprentice bee keeping certificate from the Washington State Beekeepers Association.  Yippee!  Now all I had to do was buy some gear, and I was good to go.  I opted for buying a package deal from Bees Neez, the beginners' Deluxe, and it included almost every single thing I needed to get started.  I got 2 assembled deep hive boxes with frames, a screened cedar bottom board & cedar garden lid with metal top, plus an inner cover, The book Bee Keeping for Dummies, a top feeder, full suit, leather gloves, hive tool and smoker.  Although I had all the accoutrement of beekeeping I was still very nervous.  How would I be able to deal with thousands of bees and not pass out?

In this picture above I have, oh, probably about three full layers of clothes on.  It was hot and hard to move.  I had convinced myself that I would be safe if I wore many layers.  That way no bee could sting me.  I took no heed of the fact that bees that are ready to bee hived have been feed so much sugar syrup that they were pretty much drunk and sleepy.  When bees are hived they are typically the most gentle you will ever see them.  You dont even need to use smoke to hive bees.  Once their queen is in place they just want to stay right with her and they are too full to be too annoyed with you. 

 As a side note, it is much easier to deal with bees and piss them off less if you go gloveless and can be agile with your fingertips and less clumsy then when you have bulky gloves on.  In these photos I have gloves off and it was killing me.  I was so scared!  And to this day I have not since, ever, opened their hive or deal with them in any way without my long protective leather gloves on.  Still have progress to make!

Here I am about to take the plug out of three pounds of bees and try not to faint.  You wont be able to tell in these pictures but as I got closer to having to take the plug out, and thus potentially let thousands of bees fly around me, my knees began to shake.  And, actually, I dont just mean shake.  It was more like an uncontrolable quiver that made it so I could barely stand.  I was wobbly and completely driven by fear.  I look back now and it seems so silly.  My bees are so gentle.  And especially during hiving, they are so mellow.  I had little to be scared of but was making it a way bigger deal than it needed to be.  Next time I start a hive I will have a hiving party and invite people over to see me do it.  Its fun, instructional, informative and might help someone else be able to start a hive with having to be sweaty, nervous and freaking out inside!

You can see in this picture I have all my feeding jars filled with sugar syrup and ready to go.  In early spring, newly hived bees wont have a strong nectar and pollan source yet so you have to feed them in western Washington until the big leaf maples bloom.  After that most hives are good to go.  You will also notice I have a spary bottle and it to is filled with sugar syrup.  You use it to spray the sides of their shipping package that is all mesh and they drink it up, get full, and calm down so they can be hived with minimal uproar.  I am sure I definately oversparyed my little bees but they were OK in the end.

Oh my gosh!  Here I am with the queen package in my hands.  I have already, at this point, had to open the package of bees to get her out and I am shaking like a leaf.  Chad said later that he had no idea I was that scared and he was a little concerned about me.  He kept asking if I was OK and if I need his help.  I was so determined to do it on my own but boy was I scared.  Here I am trying to get the plug out that holds the queen in so I can let her out inbetween the middle two frames and then very quickly dump the bees on her and all over the tops of the frames.  Since she had been with her bees for many days during shipping and while they waited for me to pick them up, they were used to each others smell and pheromones so I could direct release her.  If she had not been with them long, I would have hung her little cage between the frames and let them chew their way to each other thru the candy plug and that would have given them enough time to accept each other.  Notice the marking I put on the tops of the frames.  Frames go into a hive in a certain way with a certain side facing out from the middle.  So the arrows help me know which way to put them back in as I inspect them later and the date is so I know when I started using each frame for later down the road when I have more hives to keep track of.

The moment of truth!

Here is the hiving of the honey bees!  Really you are just dumping them over their queen as fast as you can after you put the queen in the frames, and trying to shake out every last bee you can.  I was so nervouse that I ended up setting the box down and leaving it over night as the stragglers found their way into the hive entrance.  It took them several mintues to get down in the frames enough so that I could place the hive cover on top and an empty hive box on that to hold the feeder.  One of that last things you do when hiving bees is placing an entrance reducer at the hive entrance so there is very little space for them to leave or predators to get in.  Once they are established they can defend themselves better and aren't as susceptible to cold, wind, rain, mauraders, etc.

Happy little bee butt inside a fox glove flower!

Here I am, later in summer, going to check my bees to see how they are doing.  Notice I have my smoker and hive tool in hand.  And it looks to me like the entrance reducer is still on so this might be the first time I lite up my smoker and check on the bees.  Most experienced beekeepers will tell you to leave your bees alone if they seem alright.  But as a new beekeeper it is good to get in there more often to see what they are doing, and establish what normal is.  You have to know what to look for, what you are looking at, if they are making brood, storing honey, etc.  So I tried to get in them at least every two weeks or so last summer. 

I discovered the magic of the smoke.  I was still really nervous here since I hadn't used the smoker yet and wasn't sure what they would do in reponse to me getting in there and looking around. 

My bees are so sweet and smoke is magic!  Once I began to understand the magic of the smoke, I calmed down so much.  Smoke is your best friend when you are nervouse like me!  The smoke makes my bees leave me alone and start ingesting lots of honey in case they need to flee and leave home.  If they might have to leave because they think their house is on fire, or before they get ready to swarm and not know how long they will be without food, they fill up their bellies in preperation.

Just last weekend I got in my hive for the first time this spring.  I was nervous again but this time it was because I had noticed so many dead bees in the entrance and all around the front of the hive.  What happened?  I had always understood that if they are healthy they will carry their dead away because they are very tidy and clean.  Was there something wrong with them?  Was the queen gone?  Why weren't they cleaning up?!  Perhaps when we had one of those odd warm winter days they had unclustered and come out to venture but then got really cold again and many died.  It is normal for a hive to reduce in numbers for winter but I had never heard of massive bee death like this unless disease was involved. 

But they look good.  In fact, they look great!  I love my bees!  They are so easy and give so much.  At this time of year and all thru summer we will crane our heads each time we come up the driveway to see what they are doing.  We will watch in amazement as they carry pollen in the baskets on their hind legs in every color of the rainbow.  We will enjoy their honey at the end of summer and use it to make elderberry mead and give it as gifts.  With my bees I can leave and go surfing on the coast for a weekend and they wont die.  They dont need me to feed them food and water every day.  They take care of themselves and they are sweet. 

I love my bees!

Portland, Projects, & Moisture Festival in Seattle

Its Sunday.  I have been working on two awesome projects but they both are part of some up coming birthday presents for friends so I cant share them yet.  Can't wait to though since they are fun and easy projects that you can do too. 

Above you can see a photo of an utensil drawer/divider that must used to sit in someones kitchen drawer protecting spoons and forks.  Over time its interior green flocked material lining stuff has faded and come off in places to give it this perfect velvet looking green patina inside of it.  I love it.  As soon as I saw it at Stars Antique Mall near Sellwood I thought it could either hold litle miniature items oe become part of an assemblage piece I am working on.  I literally have tons of this kind of stuff around here.  Waiting its turn to be the next project in process. 

I saw two old cruddy and perfect patina painted red drawers just like these at a sale on Friday but I passed them up.  Sometimes I cant bring myself to buy a good piece because I have so many projects going and cant justify having another thing laying around waiting for attention.  I should have bought the red ones though.  Darn it! 

This amazingly perfect condition lamp shade/ lighted picture thingy is so cool.  Chad found it hanging on the wall in someones space at House of Vintage in Portland, on Hawthorn, and it was only $10.  Yes, I know, can you believe it?!  Maybe you have to see theis in person to see how neat it is.  The picture shows on both sides and its like really thick transperancy film material, but thick, I mean really thick.  And each corner has a very small grommet stuck in it like you are meant to attach it to the front of something lit up, like an advertising sign//board, or to those old vintage light up pictures people woould hang in their living room.  Or maybe its meant to wrap around a lamp shade base or something similar.  We have it leaning in a window right now and it looks cool with the light coming thru.  We intend to find a flatish little slab of wood that we can cut a channel in and wrap the shade into a cylinder shape and fit it in there with a light bulb in the middle.  Another small little project that needs to happen.  It'lll happen, cuz I love this thing!  Nice score Chad!

Above you can see a couple covers of old books I found in Portland.  The bluish book covers on the left I found at Stars Antique Mall and there are two of them, with both sides looking perfectly aged and with great patina, so I have 4 pieces of those when I seperate the backs and fronts.  The one on the right is from Monticello and its back side is great too so I have 2 covers there.  I will use all 6 peices, seperately, in assemblage pieces I have in mind.  Most likely they will end up as the background in a shadow box/ diorama type dealio.  I wish I could get my walls to look like any of these book covers and I would be in heaven.  The age, wear, patina, and mix of colors, texture and depth are what I long for.  I cant stand my flat single color walls but know this is not the house to completely make over with plaster walls and pigments.  Sigh.  Another time and place in my future.

Went to a fabulous and wonderful comedy/variete show at Moisture Festival last night at Hale's Palladium in the Ballard/Freemont area.  What fun!  The Mositure Festival works to keep Comedy, Variete, Burlesque and Vaudeville alive.  We went with freinds and by the time we left we were holding our faces because our cheeks hurt and ached from laughing so much!  It was that fun!  So we are taking the kids next Sunday.  The day time and 7:30pm show are for kids too and the late night 10:30pm show is for adults only.  I already know my kids will LOVE this because it is funny, weird, and odd.  It's right up our alley!  There are clowns, jugglers, acrobats, comediens, musicians, rope acts, aerialists, dancers, fan twirlers, and burlesque in the late shows.  Check out their times and other shows if this at all appeals to you.  I think you will find it entertaining and enjoyable. 

Back from PDX (a.k.a. I HEART PORTLAND!)

Whew! What a whirlwind! Two nights in Portland (PDX) is NOT nearly enough to do everything this girl wants to do! Dang! I need at least a week to eat, shop and listen to good music, and still, I bet, I would barely squeeze it all in. PDX has the goods and that's no lie. I happened upon a yard sale and an estate sale and scored, as always at Monticello. Found some sweetness in Sellwood and at Stars on Milwaukie. There is ALWAYS some gorgeous treasure to be had at Randy's Madison Park store on SE 13th where you can find beautiful Edwardian, Victorian and primitive antique furnishings and accessories. Always leave there drooling with a fever! And I was lucky to find an awesome item digging thru all the crap at House of Vintage. Chad even scored a brand new pair of vintage shoes at Magpie vintage clothing on SW 9th that still had the original tag on them as if they were old store stock.

I was so jealous! But I did score many a loot and treasure so I am not too sad!

For now I am just going to post some photos of many of the cool things I found. Later I will write about the food we ate and the music we saw. It was all good and fabulous!  Above you can see three of the four cardboard boxes I found.  These three all came from Monticello.  I love the old graphics on these and they are truly useful.  Usually I use them to wrap gifts in because I believe the presentation of a gift is just as important as the gift itself.  Its the whole experience I am looking for!  My cousin and I have gotten into a wonderful habit of gifting each other with these amazing vintage boxes and it makes gift exchanging all the more spectacular!  I especially love the typewriter paper box becasue of its size.  It is often hard to find vintage boxes, in useful shape and in larger sizes.  Sometimes I find good hat boxes but they are a bear to wrap since they tend to be roundish!  The My Little Library box with the bunny coming out of the watering can is so darn cute and it has the best graphics on the side as well, pictures of every nursery rhyme you can think of, some you can above.

This tiny little wire chair I love because I can upholster it!  Yes, folks!  I want to embellish this little fellow with gorgeous vintage velvet and make it the most inviting chair you ever had laid your eyes on.  Imagine it with a load of beaded olded velvet and maybe even a little weird doll sitting on it and a couture pillow with fringe.  Perfect!

And next, OMG, the most fabulous French ribbon and silk embroidered butterfly appliques I have ever seen.  There is one vendor at Monticello who has tons of vintage french ribbon and material and odd millnery items and whatnot.  Love that vendor!  So hard not to spend every cent there!  Another vendor had these, never before seen, silk embroidered butterfly appliques.  What?!  I mean..... WHAT!!?!!  Have you ever?!  These are TO DIE FOR!  What will I do with them?  Stare and drool and tuck away till gawd knows when....  Just look!  And the butterflies ar on old tissue paper.  Not sure how they are stuck on but they dont seem to be iron ons so ....... Hmmmm......

Well, I had planned to make this a much bigger post but since it has taken me three days to get this far, I think I will publish now and start a new and continuing post later.  Gus gets home from Death Valley National Park tonight.  He has been there 9 days with Community School.  We are all anxious for him to be back but have enjoyed our time with Jasper alone.  Funny how we had Gus alone for 8 years and have yet to enjoy extended amounts of time with just Jasper.  Bitter sweet since it all goes too fast anyhow.  How did August get to be turning 15 years old?  Time flies when you are having fun.....

Gnome Houses and Headed to Portland!

I have been wanting to share these pictures and gnome house ideas with y'all for a while now. I still can't find the pictures of the gnomes themselves but will hunt them down and add them later. Also, heading to Portland for the weekend where I intend to listen to wonderful live music, eat amazing food and shop til I drop. Will be staying at my beloved Ace Hotel and hitting all my usual haunts. I intend to make a Portland post next week to fill ya in on all the places I love to visit while there and share my treasures too!
In the meantime, let me give you peek at the gnome houses. I made the first couple of these over a year ago. I made one for Jasper to keep in his room for all his varied gnome folk and I made another another for an auction. I have made them for friends kids for gifts and just made another for August's Wilderness Awareness School auction so they could raise the money they needed to currently be spending 9 days in Death Valley National Park.
Anywho, I hunt and gather, all throughout the year, from tag sales, to estate sales, to rummage sales, Christmas Nativity Sets. The barn/building part is what I use to build my gnome houses and if I can, I leave the figures behind or give them back to a thrift store when I take a load in. The Creche is so useful to attach all my gathered and dried moss and twigs to. Whenever there is a strong wind I just walk around my yard and gather as much moss and lichen covered sticks as I can. I dry them out well and then use a hot glue gun to attach these in every which way to the nativity creche and voila, a gnome house is born. On this last one I used gathered shells and glued them to the tips of sticks to make them into mushrooms. We also used found and bought feathers and one tiny fake bird. The gnomes themselves are hand sewn using wool felt, gold or silver thread, and tiny bells for the tips of their hoods. I use wool stuffing and make them in three sizes so they can be a family. Last time the kids used nuts in the shells to glue together gnomes and added acorn hats and fur collars. So cute! Also on this last one I used a tiny grapevine wreath and placed some beeswax birthday candles around and melted into it and hung it as a chandelier! So darling! My lovely friend Brooke won this one at the auction and she was thrilled.
The kids help a lot with these projects and have great ideas about how to make them magical places. Try making one with your people and let me know how it goes. Have fun!

Breathe Owl Breathe and Smith

Had an amazing Monday night! Who woulda thunk it?! Got to see Breathe Owl Breathe at a house concert in Seattle (bottom two photos) and went to Smith for the first time to try their awesome drinks (photo of beer) and food. The atmosphere at Smith made me feel right at home with all its taxidermy and portrait paintings. Just like being in my own house! If it weren't for B.O.B. playing up the street at 8pm, I could have sat at Smith all night drinking, switching back and forth from Cardinal 75s to Allagash White pints on tap. I know, I know, not supposed to mix grapes and grains, but they are both so yummy! The menue at Smith is certainly gastro-pub fare with so many dishes looking so delicious that it was very hard to choose. Everyone raves about the Smith Burger so I had it this time and will try something different next time. Chad had the Cuban style Pork and Ham Sandwich. We both also wanted the Braised Oxtail, Roasted Lamb, Mac and Cheese with housemade sausage, and Hanger Steak but, alas, dont have stomachs large enough to consume all that in one sitting!
After our fine dining adventure we got to see a band we discovered at Pickathon last summer, Breathe Owl Breathe, at a house concert with about 20 other folks. It was so fun (see happy photo of Chad!), refreshing, and exciting to be up close and personal with such incredible musicians. We are headed to Portland this weekend to catch some more of them when they perform at Live Wires 6th anniversary live radio show and again on Saturday night when they play at The Woods, an old funeral parlor turned into a performance space. Portland deserves many other posts of its own but I just have to say here.... I LOVE Portland!! OK, anyhow, B.O.B. will be at Pickathon again this year along with many other superb bands, including The Fruit Bats, who I have not seen yet but am so excited that I will! Visit the Pickathon website to discover for yourself some new talent and let me know what you like and love. With Pickathon, you can't go wrong! Enjoy!

A few pictures

Here are a few photos of some things around the house that I love. The two dolls I found in a tiny town outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I have them dressed in some vintage dresses and old silk I had. The Beaded bird pillow/pin cushion I found in Duvall at a shop and I had to have it right away! The amazing blue velvet vintage box is a gift from my cousin who spoils me rotten with THE COOLEST gifts ever! Its full of treasures as well. The little red wheelbarrow is from a vendor at the antique mall I am in, M & M Antiques in Monroe, WA. and the tiny blue metal bed frame is a gift from my bestie Julie. I love my treasures! Enjoy!

Friend and Food and Lover

OK all you Seattle foodie folk. Lets talk about FOOD. I have been waiting to post on Bastille and Cantinetta until I could figure out how to link to them. Ta Da!! Silly me, so technologically lame, I thought it would be hard. But I think this mighta worked!
OK, so have you been to Bastille or Cantinetta? Must Go Now! No kiddin, no foolin, no messin around, GO!
My dear darling BFF of almost 20 years, Erin, dined with me at Bastille after we hit the Sandpoint Antique and Design Market way back at the end of January. What a lovely market and what a lovely meal. I will have to create another post on the fabulosity of Sandpoint but right now we are talking about food. Bastille is a francophiles heaven in Ballard. We were there for brunch and we enjoyed it for three hours! Erin had crepes, I had duck confit and we both tried their brunch drinks, Rosemary Lemonade and a French 75. Delicious! It was divine.
More recently, Chad and I had a superb meal at Cantinetta last Wednesday night before seeing the amazing Fred Eaglesmith at the Tractor Tavern. You know when you have the experience of several different people, from different areas of your life, all saying you should check something out, and you finally do and its like the perfect fit? Well that's Cantinetta. Had heard about it from folks all around me and wouldn't you know we were going to the city early on a Wednesday night so we could actually get a table and not wait (they don't take reservations)all night. The food was good, down to earth and tasty. We started with antipasti: mussels with garlic, shallots, bay leaf and Bresaola with miner's lettuce, egg, and lemon. The bresaola is a cured beef and it was wonderful and salty just like I like it! Then I had contorni: Creamed Nettles with ricotta salata and we both had primi: Chad had Tagliatelle bolognese and I had Garganelli with lamb, lemon and farm egg. Nice and lemony, just like I like it! It was a great meal, although quick, but you could sit there, especially at the bar, eating antipasti and glugging drinks, for hours. Sounds divine. Think I will make a point to get back there and do just that. Join me!

Back in Action

OK, so took a long break from blogging and now I am back to finally tell you about the cashmere hand warmers I have been making as of late. Here you will see photos of two pairs. One pair is a darker blue cashmere and they are long, go half way up your arm, and can be worn over or under a shirt or jacket. The other pair is a lighter blue cashmere that already had this gorgeous shell button detail that I took advantage of. They are shorter but you will notice that I used the same vintage blue velvet trim on both pairs. To make these I simply felt down a cashmere sweater and seam rip a hole in the side seam where it seems like I would want my thumb to stick out. Then to reinforce the hole, I zigzag stitch with my machine, or hand stitch with embroidery thread, depending on the look I am going for. I made two other pairs for friends and used vintage ribbon around the open end near the fingers for a decorative detail. I will try to post pictures of those when I can get photos taken. Really, the possibilities are endless. I have yet to find a better use for felted cashmere sleeves! Try some yourself and let me know how it goes!

Cashmere Schmazmere

I dont know about you but I have a storage tub full of cashmere sweaters that have been awaiting my attention. I'd say half of them have been felted down and half are begging to be washing machine felting. The ones that have been felted have been a great source of amusement for making fun hand/wrist warmers and some funky sweaters. Amazingly, one of the the thickest, most gorgeous vintage sweaters, felted perfectly down to the size of my rather big-for-his-age 6 year old. He is delighted beyond what I can express in words and is always asking, "Mom, can I wear 'the sweater'?" As if its the only swaeter he has. But if you could feel how soft and warm this little sweater is, you would want to wear it every day too. And to make it even more desirable, it has ended up with the sweetest woodland scene on it! I LOVE wool and cashmere! So versatile to use and design with since once felted you can cut to your hearts content and no unraveling occurs. Love it! So with the rest of the scraps from those other felted cashmere sweaters in the tub, I came up with this woodland scene that is so darn tootin cute, I can't stand it, and I want one for me! I tend to make myself the more deconstructed looking, slap it together, and call it a sweater, kind of sweaters. I'll post some pictures of those too as I wade thru all the completed and half finished projects I have goin' on around here. So here, for eye candy and hopefully inspiration, are a couple photos of "the sweater." Most of the appliqued pieces were machine stitched on and then a few of the pieces I added embroidery to give them more definition. There is the big tree, a bird nest with eggs, a bird, a mushroom and a yellow bunny! J wanted a gnome but we couldnt figure out where to squeeze him in so he will be on the next one, probably a vest, that I do for him. The bigger the applique, the easier it is to maneuver and manipulate. The mushroom is layered and machine stitced and also hand stitched. Just depends on how intense and time consuming you want your objects to be that determines which process you use to get there. I will try to post soon on some of the handwarmers and other sweaters I have done or are working on currently. Enjoy! And spend some time felting and sewing for yourself or someone you love. It will make you happy!

Here we go....

Welcome and beware! You have entered the strange but wonderful world of Smashing Rubbish, an outlandish place where I can assure you will get to look in on random acts of collecting, altering, creating and displaying that are sure to astonish and amaze if not totally freak you out! The common layer of dust and cob webs alone might throw you into a tizzy! Come along and join me on this never ending journey of discovery as I blah, blah, blah your ear off with all that I have scored, found, bought, altered, tweaked, picked up off the ground, been given, thrifted, traded, and created. Interspersed you may find rusty yet shiny pearls of wisdom on subjects ranging from mothering two boys ages 14 and 6, to traveling and surfing, to what food I am obsessed with, to what music I have currently set on constant repeat, to how my sweet honey bees are doing, to what I am doing in the garden, to what herb I am using to cure my ills and to what book I can not put down. I will wax on till the cows come home and then some, marvelling all the while!

Smashing Rubbish is the poison I pick, my vice, if you will. Smashing = anything I deem extraordinary, impressive, wonderful, excellent, awesome, cool, badass, the bomb, sweet, groovy, hot, sexy or amazing. You get the idea. Rubbish = any old junk, treasure, trash, crap or garbage that I see potential in and is often not quite junk at all. Rubbish can include antiques, fabric, furniture, stuff other people throw away, bits and pieces of this and that, fixin's, findin's and all the whatchyamacallits I have scattered around here and discover at every turn. Some of my excellent junk, or smashing rubbish, I use to create other stuff. As stated, I will post on what I find, what I do with it, what I love, how I display all the smashing rubbish I acquire, what I have for sale, and anything I deconstruct, sew, alter, create, glue, bead, plant, Dremel, wire, and otherwise transform, which is much of the smashing rubbish I score.

Curious? Then come along and take a peek once in a while. Along the way, and for your benefit, I will attempt to amuse and inform, often gratefully rejoicing and bitterly complaining all in one breathe while sharing my latest projects, blabbering on stuff I don't know enough about, staying calm and freaking out, and hoping to help you realize that if I can do this stuff, so can you, if you choose! You are sure to, at the very least, get a good laugh and come away with a smile. In fact, beware of belly aches and your face hurting. Onward ho!