Inside the Fishbowl

Something old and something new

It seems like I am on a never-ending quest to declutter and destash my craft room.  It's a circle, not a vicious one, but a happy one.  Less stuff leads to more places to put new stuff, thus the clutter is reduced and the stash is manageable.  (FYI--the stash will never be gone.  I love that my husband or my kids can come to me, ask for something and know that it is to be found amongst my things.  Kailtin, my 9 year old, already knows that I have every adhesive known to man for every possilbe use under the sun.)

In order to meet this goal-that-will-never-really-be-met, I am employing the following methods.  Try, try, try to use what I already have and finish the projects that I begin.  Oh, and go back and finish all of my WIPs (works in progress, for the uninitiated), because they contribute to, if not the clutter, because they are well hidden in storage bins, then the loss of any crafty mojo that I have.  So, for every new project, I try to tackle an old project as well.  Oh, and I try to be realistic about whether or not I really even want to finish a project.  If I don't, it goes in the trash.  Yes, the trash.  It's brutal but freeing.  Kind of like following through on your threats to your kids instead of caving in.  It hurts for a little bit, but then you realize that it's for the best, and you feel proud, like you could actually do it again!

But enough of this obsessive chatter about my personal failings and on to my two little projects!  One is a new one--little Valentine's Day gifts for my kids' teachers.  The other is an old one, repurposed for what is going on in my life right now.  Ready?

First the new--because the current stuff is almost always more exciting than the old stuff, right?

Sometimes I make something that's so cute, I can't humble about it.  I think this may be one of those times.  This is CUTE, right?!  But then reality sets in, and I know that I have to give the credit to somebody else. This is not my original idea.  I am a YouTube junkie.  And no, junkie is not an exaggeration.  I crave my Youtube videos like a. . .well, you can insert your own metaphor here. One of the YouTubers I follow is Bona from Live Love Scrap.  I always know when there is something great in the $1.50 bins at Michaels because of her, and she always makes the best projects with things she finds there.  And she's kind enough to share all of her little lovelies with us.  On YouTube!  For a Youtube junkie, there is nothing better.

Recently she showed us some adorable balsa wood boxes that she bought at Michaels and altered.  I was instantly smitten and ran out, probably the minute after I saw her video, and bought a bunch of these boxes.  I may have been back a time of two more to buy more.  I love these boxes!  I never want to run out of them!  I know that this poses a problem for achieving the stated objectives above, so I have put a moratorium on buying balsa boxes.  It has nothing to do with the fact that I bought out one of the Michaels stores in my area on Friday.  Nothing at all. What!?  Don't judge!

Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to use these boxes to make some little Valetine's Day gifts for my kids' teachers to show them how much we love them and appreciate all of their hard work.  They make perfect little gift holders.  Since it was Valentine's Day I filled them with foil covered Sees hearts.  But they will also hold a nice bar of soap--perfect if you want to give a little treat to a friend who is trying to lose weight, for example, or who is stronger than I am, and doesn't eat sugar.  At all.  I'm told that such people exist.  I'm skeptical.  Anyway, who doesn't like a really beautifully presented package, whatever the contents?  

To make this box, I removed the bown elastic and the little wooden knob that keep the box shut.  Then I pained the edges of the box a creamy white color.  Next, I used some of the new Love Story collection by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park Paper to cover the outside and line the inside of the box.  I thought that the lined pink paper was perfect for a teacher.  The banner on the outside is a combination of a sticker from the Love Story sticker sheet and little punches from the Jenni Bowlin Blue Ribbon punch.  I then used some mulberry hearts that I found in the $1.50 bins at Michaels and a little bit of lace that I pleated with my fingers and hot glued into place.  I then put the knob and the elastic back on, filled a little celophane bag with chocolates, put a small valentine inside and voila!  A cute teacher gift that came together really quickly!  By the way, if you want some of these boxes, I suggest you finish this post and then run as fast as you can to your closest Michaels.  The stores I have have been to are almost out.  They probably won't restock them.  That's the danger of the $1.50 bins at Michaels.  If you see something you really like grab it while you can!

My next project doesn't need so much background.  As you can guess, I sort of love the $1.50 bins at Michaels.  One thing that they always have is cute cards.  They're mostly just plain--fun designs but no embellishment.  A long time ago, in a year far, far away, I bought a bunch of these cards, thinking it would be fun to make little card sets to give to friends, since I'm always looking for non-food gifts to give to people.  Anyway, way back when, they had some really cute collections, so I bought a few packs.  But like all of my best laid  crafty plans, the cards simply sat on top of the island in my craft room, unused, unembellished, gathering dust.  Until last night!  I finally thought of a use for these cards!  

Yesterday my LDS Stake was split.  In the process they had to realign many of the wards in our area.  Mine was one of the ones who had some major changes.  Until yesterday I was an Activity Days leader.  What that means is that I got to have the cutest group of 9 year old girls over to my house every other week to work on the Faith In God Program requirements with them, or just to have fun and do something crafty.  I wasn't their leader for very long.  I began in September, but I have really loved getting to know these beautiful girls.  They are all so unique, but somehow they managed to come together, love each other, and be really, really kind to each other.  No, really.  I saw so many little kindnesses during my time with these girls.  I am very impressed with each of them.  I wanted to let each girl know what I loved about her and how she touched my life and taught me some important lessons along the way.

Enter the cards.  The cards were perfect--pretty and girly, and with a minimal amount of embellishment, just what I wanted to give my girls!

The card base is from a pack of cards from Michaels.  I used pink cardstock to create a ribbon banner to run across the bottom.  I stamped sentiments from a stamp set by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday called Simply You.  The cards says, "You are simply the best, the fantastic, incredible, wonderful, amazing person you are."  Next I used the Notched Flowers Die from Papertrey Ink, wool felt, a button and some jute twine to make the little flower.  Finally I cut out some leaves with my Silhouette.  I layered everything together, and a cute little card emerged.  

I still have some packs of cards, but now that I know I can whip up a pack of 8 cards in about an hour, I might feel a bit more inclined to make more and have some on hand for when I need a quick gift.  

I can already feel my craft room getting lighter.  

 

 

Copycat: Corazoncitos from Owlishly

Remember how when you were young one of the most terrible things you could be accused of is copying?  Unless my interpretation of Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth is incorrect, copying is still an unforgivable sin on the playground.  Fortunately for me, that is not the case anymore (unless I was going to say copy somebody and try to pass their idea off as my own.  That is bad and should never be done!), because as I embark on my year of trying to use up my craft stash, I am relying heavily on the copying the talents of others to help me on my way.

I am a collector of tutorials.  I am rather addicted to them.  A vast majority of the blogs that I subscribe to are included in my collection of blogs to read because they are either heavy on tutorials or they aggregate tutorials from other blogs on a regular (and high volume) basis.

Every Monday until I run out (and lets face it--I'll never run out!) I plan on showcasing a tutorial or free patterns that I discovered on a blog or from somebody I actually know in real life.  I don't mind being a copycat.  In fact, I love taking people's ideas and making them my own in some small way.

This week I am showing you a project that I made on Valentine's day as I was laying on the couch with a nasty cold.  It began the flurry of crocheting that I mentioned last week. This project falls firmly under the category of Granny Craft.  I have no illusions that this is the coolest thing that I will ever make.  In fact it might be laughably bad.  Just don't tell Kaitlin, ok?  She thinks I'm one cool mom for making this for her.

 I used this free pattern from my favorite amigurumi pattern designer, Etsy seller and author of the blog Owlishly, Mia Zamora-Johnson.  Mia published this pattern on her blog last year in time for Valentine's Day.  Of course I bought the yarn, but I didn't make anything from it.  This year I decided to get my act together and make those hearts already!  After I had crocheted the three different sizes, I was trying to figure out what I would do with them.  I decided to stitch the hearts together and make a chain at the top so that my kids could hang these on their doors.  Originally (last year that is) I was going to make a bunch of these and make a garland of crocheted hearts for my mantel.  I may still do that.  Next year.  Or I think it would be cute to make up a bunch of these and fill an apothecary jar with them.  Or it would be cool to make some long strands of these and create a curtain in one of my archways.  OK, that might be too much, but you can see how I get myself into trouble, can't you?

Like all of Mia's patterns, this pattern was very easy to follow.  If you are an experienced crocheter, you should be able to finish all three of these hearts in a little over an hour.  

A note, the granny craft aspect of this project, in my mind, has nothing to do with the pattern.  The pattern is so adorable I couldn't forget about it.  And believe me, that are plenty of tutorials tucked away in my tutorials bookmark folder that I have forgotten all about.  The granny aspect of it is that I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn.  Yuck!  I will never buy that yard again.  Never again.  Ever.  That yarn just gives me the creepy crawlies.  It reminds me of a pair of baby booties I received when Kaitlin was born.  I never used them. They were just too scratchy for my precious baby's soft feet!  If you are a new crocheter you may be tempted to buy this yarn because it is cheap and because it's easy to find.  Every big box store that sells yarn sells this stuff.  Don't give in!  Buy something nicer--at least a nicer acrylic yarn, or,better yet, a cotton/acrylic blend, like LionBrand's Cotton Ease) because it's cheaper than 100% natural fiber yarn, but still feels and looks great! Next year I will remake these hearts in better yarn.  And I may just keep going.  I have lots of ideas for them!

Clara and a cupcake

My studio is full of projects that I've begun but never finished.  I have a table dedicated to books that are in progress.  My island usually has a few projects piled on top of it as well.  Most of these projects are approaching one to two years old.  I know, I should be hanging my head in shame, and I am, believe me. As part of my effort to dejunk and declutter my house, I've decided that it's time to finish all of these projects and either give them to the people for whom they were intended or give them away (yes, I will be doing some giveaways soon, I hope!).  

The first project I tackled was the baby quilts I showed you last week.  I actually have two more to sew and then they are ready to wait for babies to be born.  They would be done already, but cutting the fringe gives me blisters so I have to space them out!  Last week I finished the five burp cloths I cut out a year ago that will now be packaged up and given to friends who've had babies.

Today I finished the Clara doll from Alicia Paulson's book, Stitched In Time:  Memory-Keeping Projects to Sew and Share that I started as a Christmas present for Kaitlin last year.  Yes, I am most ashamed of this long term work in progress.  I mean really, I gift for my girl, and I couldn't commit myself to the hour that was needed to finish it?  In reality, this doll is a simple and very quick project.  I just suffer from the inability to finish anything I begin.  Anyway, without any further ado, here she is.

I'm pretty pleased with her as my first foray into doll making. 

And here is the happy recipient.  She hasn't put her down and tonight she took her to bed with her.  With Kaitlin this is the ultimate measure of acceptance.

Now I want to make another.  There are a few things I would do differently now that I've made one.  But that will have to wait.  This week I'm focusing on finishing some bookbinding projects and beginning a journal for a very exciting trip I have coming up.  I'll tell you all about it when the journal's done!

I'll leave you with another card.  I made this one last week for one of the Young Women's birthdays.

I used the Doodle Charms Cricut cartridge, a cereal box (for the chipboard), K & Co Wild Raspberry paper, Fiskers "apron lace" border punch, and various scraps of old Bazzill cardstock.  Love using up those scraps!

Have a great and creative day!

Projects, projects and more projects

In June my mom came for a visit and she insisted on helping me clean my studio.  Never one to turn down help around my house, I enthusiastically agreed.  Three hours later, my workspace emerged from the rubble of many, many creative sessions, and it was usable once more.  Mind you, it wasn't pristinely clean.  Not even close.  But my workspaces were, for the most part clear of clutter.  On that same night, Jeremy had his run-in with a boulder (WARNING!!!  Graphic, bloody photos in that post!) on Mt Nebo.  Two weeks later my mother in law very kindly offered to take my children for a week at her home in Idaho.  Suddenly free, with only one other person to care for instead of three, I headed down to my newly clean studio and started having some fun. Mostly I've been making cards.  I used to make all of my cards, but for some reason I stopped.  Now, I've rediscovered the love of cardmaking, and I've been making cards with a vengeance.

OK, so this is probably my cheesiest card, but I had to post it in the interest of full disclosure and honesty.  This is the card that I made for my dad for Father's Day.  I've been using my Cricut to make most of my cards, but as I've had to make more and more masculine cards I've found that I hardly have any masculine images.  Thus the shark, Big Kahuna card.  

I really loved this "Thinking of You" card.  I made one for my friend who'd just had a miscarriage.  I loved it so much that I went straight home and made another one to have on hand for any future use.  I love the little beaded center of the flower.  I saw it on the Creating Keepsakes blog.  It's a button with a pop up glue dot dipped in beads.  It's so simple, but so cute!  Oh, and I couldn't help but add some bling to the bottom.  I am a sucker for rhinestones on paper projects lately. I want to add them to everything.

These are the cards that I made for the ladies I visit teach last week.  With my crazy month I didn't have the opportunity to actually make a visit, so I made this tri-fold shutter card with quotes from the lesson that I particularly liked.  I loved this project.  It's a great way to make a card that can have a lot of content.  Also I used up some of my stash of patterned paper scraps and alphabet stickers.  I'm all about using up my stuff right now.

This is a copy of a card I made for a girl at church who just turned 12.  She just entered Young Women and we're so excited to have her!  I copied this idea from the latest Card Creations, a special issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  The colors of this card are way out of my usual color spectrum, which is why I like it so much.  It feels fresh to me.  And I also like that it can be a card appropriate for a girl or a boy depending on paper choice. (It's a copy because I wanted to use up all of the paper that I used on this card.  Paper is from the Citrus Stack from Diecuts with a View, and a scrap of red paper that I've had forever) 

I haven't been only making cards.  I recently came to the realization that we were consuming about 5 loaves of bread a week in our house--and we don't eat cheap bread.  I like the nice soft Grandma Sycamore's bread, or even better, Harper's Homemade.  At almost $3 a loaf, I was spending over $70 a month on bread!  My friend, Julie, has been making this bread recipe from Everyday Food Storage for a while now.  She's always told me how easy it is and I'd tasted it for myself at her house with homemade strawberry freezer jam (does it get any better than that?), but I'd never actually made it.  When the kids were in Idaho, I decided to give it a try, and, oh, my goodness, it was easy and delicious as ever.  I love that there is a whole wheat recipe and a white recipe.  That way I can make bread for me and my kids.  Last week I used up the last of the bread in the freezer, and I'm now attempting to make us a homemade bread family.  On Wednesday Alex helped me make the bread. He's completely enamored with helping me cook right now, and thankfully, he's equally enamored with eating anything that he helps create in the kitchen.  You should have seen him stroking the bread this morning after I took it out to slice off a piece for his morning toast.  Ok, that sounds weird, but it was really quite sweet.  He takes ownership, and somehow at the age of three he understands that there is something very special about homemade bread.

Another project that I've been wanting to do for a long time is to make some sort of art piece for Alex's room.  He has a very long wall, so I knew I wanted to a collection of three somethings.  This is what I came up with.  It's (of course) a Cricut project.  I used three Ribba frames from Ikea and the Zooballoo cartridge.  I couldn't be happier with how this turned out.  Now if only I could get Alex to stop touching them so they'd stay straight for more than 2 minutes.

Incidentally, I did this project for Kaitlin's room last winter, but never posted it.  It's also a Cricut project.  Honestly, I had to go upstairs and visit this one several times a day for a few days following the completion of this butterfly collage.  It's just so pleasing!  I lifted this idea from Ali Edwards, and (I think) Paper Crafts magazine.

I had several baby rag quilts cut out, taking up room on my WIP table in my studio.  Last weekend I sewed them up. I'm still working on getting the fringe cut in them.  My thumb always gets a blister, and then I have to wait until the pain goes away before I can work again.  I have one more to sew, one more to cut out and sew, and a few rag burp cloths to finish up, and then I've met my goal of finishing all of my sewing projects that I've started.  Oh, wait I still have the doll that I started at Chritmas for Kaitlin.  Then I'll be done.  My next fabric project involved trying to cut out fabric appliques with, you guessed it, the Cricut.  How did I ever live without that thing?

Jeremy's sister asked me to make her wedding guest book for her wedding which took place in June.  I was so excited to have the opportunity to make a book for her, but I didn't go the handbound book route.  I broke out my Bind-it-all and did a wire bound book instead.  She wanted me to include pictures of her and her fiance on every page, and it's hard to add bulk to a bound book, unless it's an album, and that's not what I wanted to do for this project.  I was really thrilled with how the book turned out. I especially loved the bracket shaped cover boards.  In the inside I made tabs to separate the book for her two receptions.  I used the Fabulous Finds cartridge to cut out the tabs.  Aren't they cute?

Here is the card I made for them to go with the gift we gave them.

This card has a little of everything:  Cricut cuts, scraps, chipboard letters, buttons--all things I have in abundance but hardly ever use.

Truly, tapping into my creativity has allowed the last month, which has been hard, to say the least, to be bearable.  Disappearing downstairs for even an hour is enough to restore me to happiness and calm.

OK, so is that enough for you?  Did my blog load super-slow because of all of these pictures?  Next up, I'm going to get into my five giveaways.  Two of them are almost finished.  Three more to go.  It looks like i may have more housebound days ahead of me.  Jeremy may need to have surgery on his knee, which means that the independence that has been so slow in coming will, with all likelihood, be gone again.  Serenity now! Wish us luck for his doctor's appointment on Monday!

Sunday Crafts

Next Satyrday we're having a Mother's Day Brunch with the girls from church and their mothers.  I jumped at the chance to use my Cricut to create some projects for the party.

This is a card I made with my Plantin School Book cart and my new set of Pink Paislee Retro Spring acrylic stamps.  I love the color combo for this card--so springy and fresh!  On the envelope I used another Retro Spring stamp, and a Prima flower.  I love those things!  I don't think I'll ever get sick of them.

This is a little bag I cut, also from Plantin Schoolbook, embellished with the cutest decorative paper from Crate Paper  I'm probably going to change the circle punches to scalloped oval cutouts, but my neighbor has my Storybook cart right now, so I just made a mockup for sample purposes.  For the party these will be place cards/favors for everyone to take home.  I'm so excited to see the table set up with these on them!  I think it's going to look great!

Wow--those colors look different in real life!  Curses to the cloudy day!!!  Anyway, I just wanted to share my first little projects in a month.  It's been torturous, and I can't let myself get carried away.  I don't want to prolong the cast more than is necessary.  And now I'm off to put my tendonitis brace back on.  See ya, and thanks for indulging my shameless parade of creativity!

 

Paper Craft Blogs

As I sit around day after day with my knitting needle by my side so I can scratch my elbow when I need to (Susan Bates #2 works best), I have very little to do.  I'm good to straighten my house for about 10 minutes, and then I have to rest the old arm.  I don't want to prolong the 6 week prognosis to 8 weeks, you know!    With a 90 degree angle cast reading isn't very enjoyable--the cast gets in the way.  So, what do I do?  I find new blogs to read.  My goal for the next month is to find enough new blogs so that I never run out of good posts.  Of course I only lurk.  I have to save my poor tendonitis plagued right wrist for writing my blog on occasionally commenting on your blogs, oh, and folding laundry, making lunch, and all of the other Mom duties that absolutely require my attention.

I've been increasingly feeling the pull of my scrapbooking and stamping supplies lately, so my blog browsing has wandered in that direction as well.  Here are a few of my new favorites.

 kwerner design--a really fun one with lots of video tutorials!  Fueled the Youtube obsession.

Paper, Scissors and Superheroes--Betsy Veldman, how do I love thee?  

LilyBean's Paperie--just really beautiful stuff!

Maya Road Design Team--all of that with chipboard!!!

Flutter by Atomicbutterfly--found this one this morning through this site, Paper Trey Ink.

Can you see a theme here?  Most of these are very shabby chic type designers. (I feel a little funny using the term shabby chic--I've never really liked the term.  It feels sort of cliche.  Is that just me?) It's  a look I love, but not one I can really pull off all that well.  I'm planning on doing lots of copying when I can!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!  We're heading up to Idaho for our neice's baptism and some time with grandma and grandpa.  Should be a good time!

Happy Easter!  Oh, and if you have any blogs i must check out, leave me the URL in the comments.  I could use a few more.

I Should

I should be finishing my laundry.

I should be cleaning up the dishes from this morning.

I should be making my bed and straightening my room.

I should be finishing the Conference talk I'm in the middle of.

I should be working on getting my studio back in order--it's a mess!  Again!

I should be thinking about what I'm going to be making for my family for dinner tonight.

I should get myself dressed for the day, maybe even put on warm clothes and work on cleaning my garage or getting my yard ready for the growing season.

There are a thousand and one things I should be doing.  So what have I chosen to spend my time on today?  Making notebooks for the Young Women to take notes at the Young Women General Broadcast tonight, of course!

They were super easy to make.  Here are the steps.  My first very casual, though pictureless, tutorial!

1.  Cut several pieces of printer paper in half.  

2.  Cut pieces of patterned paper to the same size (8 1/2 x 5 1/2).  

3.  Stack all of the paper together.  You can choose how many sheets of paper you want to use.  I used eight, for a total of 32 front-and-back pages.  

4.  Fold the papers in half. 

5.  Punch three holes in the spine.  The first, about 1/2 inch from the top, the second in the middle, and the third about 1/2 inch from the bottom.  I used my Crop-a-dile II from We R Memory Keepers to punch through all of the papers at once.  But you could use a paper piercing tool or a strong needle to do the same thing. It will just take you a bit longer to punch all of the holes.

6.  Thread some kind of string (I used waxed linen thread so that I wouldn't need to use a needle, but embroidery floss would work great) through the holes, drawing the string from the inside to the outside of the top two holes and then in through the middle hole.  

7.  Tie the ends of the string into a square knot and viola!  A perfect, and very darling little notebook that any young girl (and I hope her mom) would love.  Well, I love them, anyway.  

8.  As an option you could round the corners.  I think that would be a nice touch.  I got this nifty little tool yesterday at Archivers that can punch through all of those layers of paper at once--so when I finish this post, I'm going to do that.

The best part is that in addition to being so easy, they are also really fast to put together.  I probably spent a total of an hour and a half on this project .  I made 17 books.  You do the math.  OK, if you're math impaired, like me, that's about five and a half minutes per book.  Is that right.  Oh, please don't tell me I got it wrong.  Mom, please call me and let me know if it did!  ;)  And on a personal note, the best part of this project for me is that it got me 9 sheets closer to my beloved Porcelain collection Basic Grey paper.  I'm now up to 70 sheets of patterned paper used!  My goal is to finish the 100 sheets of patterned paper fast this week.  Wish me luck.  

Oh, and good luck to you and have fun if you decide to make these little books.  I think they would be a really sweet birthday gift for an artistic, imaginative child.  You could place them in a decorated tin with a package of colored pencils or markers.  They would also make a nice gift for your girldfriends. Every girl needs a little notebook for her purse, right?

Happy Saturday everyone.  I guess I'll get back to that to do list, now.

  

Uninspired

I'm feeling rather uninspired, blogwise, lately, so you have to endure another list post from me.

1.  Jeremy and I had a date night in last Thursday.  We were going to go out, but then we couldn't find anything we wanted to do more than eat dinner.  So I put the kids to bed before he got home, and he brought us takeout from our favorite Chinese restaurant, Fortune Cookie.

I first went to Fortune Cookie last year with my friend Jenn.  She'd been with her family and simply raved about it.  Not one to pass up a fantastic Chinese restaurant ever, we went.  Her raving was no exaggeration.  I've been back twice, and have never been disappointed.  The best part is that Fortune Cookie is always packed!  Last time, when Jeremy and I ate the restaurant, we had to sit at the sushi bar.  I know, a Chinese restaurant with a sushi bar. Who would have guessed?  Sadly, I have never had sushi, so this won't include a review of that aspect of the restaurant.

My two favorite dishes so far are the two that we tried last week.  They are from the Chef's Specialies section of the menu, which can be viewed online.  The first is Orange Beef.  Don't worry, this is nothing like the Orange dishes that you will find at pseudo Chinese restaurants like Panda Express, where the orange is so overpowering as to be unpleasant.  Fortune Cookie's Orange chicken is subtle.  It's a little sweet, and a little bitter, thanks to the peppers that tone down what could be a sickly orangey taste. Add to that that the beef is a crunchy from a very unique breading method they use, and you have perfection on a plate.  

The second dish was Crispy Prawn with Walnut. (or Crispy Prawn with Walnuts in the American vernacular).  Why this dish isn't included in the dessert menu is beyond me.  The menu description is "Delicately seasoned jumbo shrimp lightly fried to a golden brown in the white creamy sauce."  (I love the English on Chinese menus!) What they fail to mention is that the white sauce is rich and very sweet, good enough to eat aprés meal.

Finally, we had the pork fried rice.  Jeremy and I love fried rice.  Love.  It.  We can't get enough of it. Just a small word of warning.  They offer fried rice as a side instead of steamed rice.  Don't get it. Now, don't get me wrong, it's good.  But the pork fried rice will knock your socks off!  The difference is astonishing.  And when you taste it, you won't mind spending the extra money.

Conclusion, if you ever have a hankering for some great Chinese food, head up to Riverton to sate your craving at Fortune Cookie.  You won't be disappointed.

2.  My favorite shop for patterns for felt food/toys is Bugga Bugs.  If you have any interest in buying patterns for felt food, you're going to want to stop here first.  I just cut out all of the pieces for the Fun Fruit pattern.  I'll post pictures when it's all sewn up.  Today she posted several new patterns, the coolest of which is an I Know and Old Woman pattern, that contains the old woman who swallowed a fly and all of the other animals that she swallowed.  So funny!  I also love her new cash register pattern.  Seriouslly, check it out!  You'll love it.

3.  I've given in to reading food blogs.  I can't help it.  They're just so beautiful.  And, as I attempt to abstain from foods that will not help me lose weight, it helps to see all of those foods and make plans for someday.  So far, some of my favorites are David Lebovitz (the entry from 2006 where he reviews Choxie chocolate from Target is incredibly funny!), Dorie Greenspan (mmm. . .baking, plus she's friends with Pierre Hermé), Chez Pim (Bay Area food blogger--San Francisco!!!) and, a local food blogger, Stephanie's Kitchen.  If you have room for a few more, you might want to try these out.

4.  One of my favorite CDs right now is Dar Williams's Promised Land.  It's so fun to sing along to.  All of the songs are really good (I don't skip any on my iPod) and, bonus, the Genius mix iTunes came up with for it is my absolute favorite.  Don't get me wrong, the soundtrack from Once is still my absolute favorite right now, but when I want something a little more uptempo, Promised Land is what I go to first.

 

Valentine's Day crafts

I'm really loving all of the Valentine's Day crafts that are out there right now.  Every evening I've been sitting down to make felt cookies for my kiddos for the day of love.   Today my blog aggregator had a very happy surprise waiting for me.  This pattern from Owlishly for free on her blog.  If I can find the time, I'm going to whip up several of these and make a heart garland for Kaitlin's room.  If you didn't already know, I love Mia's patterns so, so much!  You can buy them here at her Etsy shop.  In my opinion her amigurumi patterns are the cutest on Etsy.  

If I had one more week before Valentine's Day I would make some of these little love birds from the Lion Brand website.  But as my friend, Julie, pointed out, made with different colors they would be really cute for Easter.  I will definitely make them for my kids' Easter baskets.

Keep checking back--I'll post pictures later!

Oh, and one more link, have you seen the new site, House of 3,from Rhonna Farrer, Heidi Swapp and Janet Hopkins? It's gorgeous!  If you're into digital scrapbooking, or making your Blogger blog look spectacular, then you're going to want to check it out!

Have a great weekend!

6 Things

1. My New Best Friend

I am in love with weightwatchers.com.  Has anyone been to that site?  It's really good!  The tools for tracking points are fabulous.  I have been going crazy typing in recipes so that it can tell me how many points each serving contains.  Even better, there are substitution tools that can help you rewrite your favorite recipes to make them healthier.  I feel hopeful that this will work for me.  I've done Weight Watchers before with success (though not long term, obviously!).  Here's to starting off the year right!

2. The Cool Website My Sister Showed Me

For you recipe junkies out there who are also trying to eat better, my sister introduced me to a website called Eat Better America  that looks really promising.  The recipes are low fat, but tasty looking.  I'm particularly interested in the vegetarian chili recipe, and there are some really yummy dessert recipes to try.  Even though I'm working on losing weight, I'm not going to give up dessert entirely!

3. New Scarf

I bought myself some Debbi Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn at La Droguerie in La Bon Marche in Paris with this ruffle scarf in mind.  I made it for myself last night while I watched August Rush.  I added an extra row because the yarn that I used is not as chunky as the yarn called for in the pattern.  But I love the result.  I might be spoiled for acrylic yarn forever.  Now I finally understand what people are talking about when they say how wonderful it is to work with natural fiber yarns.  I'll probably still use acrylic yarns (the Vanna's Choice yarns are very nice if you're not opposed to acrylic yarns) for things I make my kids.  But for myself, it's nice yarn all the way!

4. August Rush is Such a Sweet Movie!!

'Nuff said about that!

5.  Media Junkie

Lately I've been such a media junkie, madly watching and buying movies, buying music from iTunes and adding books to my "Save for Later" list for my Kindle.  Although this does reduce the size of my checking account, it does not add (much) to the volume of stuff that I have in my house.  I download books and music, I return movies to Netflix or delete them off of my DVR.  And I love that aspect of this digital age that we live in.  I can have things, without having things.  What can I sell without having to produce anything, stock anything, or ship anything?  Genius, I tell you.  Genius!

6.  New Musical Crush

Glen Hansard is my newest musical crush. I just saw the movie Once on Saturday night, and it and he just blew me away.  Though I don't recommend in to everyone--it has quite a few F-words, the movie is wonderful.  It is heartbreaking and real.  It's about a guy and a girl (the characters don't have names, they're simply Guy and Girl) who fall in love while making music together. It's an Irish movie--which should be enough right there.  Is it possible for a bad movie to come out of Ireland?  

For the romantics out there Hansard and his costar Marketa Irglova fell in love while making the movie. Isn't that a romantic movie poster? After buying the soundtrack to the movie, which is gorgeous, I checked out Hansard's band The Frames on iTunes and they're great too.  What I love about Glen Hansard's music is that it full of emotion. Don't you just love when a song elicits an emotional response? So much these days is bland, boring, uninteresting.  This is different.  In case you're interested, Hansard and Irglova won an Academy Award for the song "Falling Slowly" in 2007.  They tour under the name Swell Season.  Check them out!

Here's a couple youtube clips to watch:

Academy Awards speeches

Falling Slowly, performed on Letterman