2/22/2011

How-Tuesday #3!

Hey everyone! It is How-Tuesday time again and I am really excited about what I have to share! For you this week I have beautiful felt dahlias, natural milk paint, and peanut butter pie!


Dahlias have long been one of my favorite flowers, and these brooches capture their form so beautifully. Follow the links to make one.


I have always loved the way milk paint looks on furniture, especially after it ages a bit. Add to that the fact that there are no nasty chemicals in it and you have a winner! Here is how to make it.


Lastly, I am a huuuuge fan of peanut butter, sure to get even more huge if I eat too much of it. This seems like one of those special-occasion-only recipes, so throw a party and grab the recipe here.

2/17/2011

Meet Bentley...

This is Bentley. You may remember him from this post where I uncovered a treasure trove of unfinished amigurumi. I found him in this condition:

He was supposed to be a Christmas gift for my mom about, oh, three or four years ago. And he very nearly made it by the looks of things. I promised that I would sew him together for her this Christmas, and I did! Though, I forgot him on my desk when we went down to my parent's house so he just recently arrived in the mail for mom, and she loves him!


Bentley seemed a little miffed that it took me so long to finish him, and who can blame him? Once he was done he did not quite know what to do with himself...

He just kind of sat there looking around the apartment. It was getting awkward after a while so I gave him my ukulele to entertain himself with. Unfortunately, having no fingers, he could only play the chords of C, A, and Asus, which he insisted on calling the T chord.

He wrote a little ditty called "Cat", about, you guessed it, cats. It went on for hours until I finally had to pry it from his yarny paws so I could pack him up to send to mom.

What a hissy fit he threw! Big baby. But I assured him that he would have a grand adventure and end up in a wonderful new home with lots of things to do. So he waved goodbye for the camera and got right in the box with no trouble. Hope mom doesn't think he is too much of a handful!


It has been a long time since I have made an amineko, and I have one more grey one waiting to be finished which will probably be my last, and I think I might keep him. They are great to pose for pictures, obviously. If you want to make one for yourself I have the translation of the pattern right here. I am really really happy to have this little guy crossed off the list of unfinished projects. I have been working on some of the bigger ones, like the blankets and quilts, for a while now that it is cold here again. I have another finished amigurumi and a free pattern for it that I will post some time next week. Yay!

2/15/2011

How-Tuesday #2!

Happy How-Tuesday everyone! For you this week I have selected a fine mix of moss graffiti, an easy-to-make light box, and some free printable journal pages!

Someday I want to have a living wall or a piece of moss graffiti in my home! Here are the plans.


I made a light box last year to use for etsy photos, but this new tutorial I found seems a lit less labor-intensive. Here is the link.


I love fill-in-the-blank journals, they really get your gears turning. And these ones are so sweetly designed. Print yours for free here.

2/08/2011

How-Tuesday #1!

So remember me telling you about my new inspiration blog? Well, things are going great with it, and it is helping me clean up all my favorite photos, videos, poetry, and strange finds I have accumulated over the past year on my Delicious and Stumbleupon. But I decided I wanted to post all the cool tutorials and recipes over on this blog instead. So, I hereby give you the first-ever How-Tuesday post! I know a lot of other people do How-Tuesdays that feature tutorials that they themselves have made, but let’s face it, I have neither the time nor the brainpower these days to make my own tutorials every week. I hope these links will do the trick. I have for you today a lovely crochet pattern, a simple bread recipe, and a very funny bit of bacon.

A friend of mine at Stitch & Bitch always makes such lovely baby blankets and she was working on a yellow basket weave one the other week. And then I found this tutorial, so on to the to-do list it goes! You can find the tutorial here.

I have the book Artisan Bred in Five Minutes a Day, which I love, but I find the everyday sandwich breads to be a bit lacking. So I was very excited to find this recipe and tutorial, which looks simply delicious! I have been hankering to bake something lately and this might be it! Here is the link.


And last, but certainly not least, is this ridiculous photo tutorial to make a bacon candle. Ingenious? Definitely. Gross? Probably. I have to try it though... Here you go, you have been warned...

2/03/2011

Branching Out...

Hey there! As if I do not spread myself thin enough on a daily basis, I have been trying to organize all my online presences in a better way. Soooo...

Firstly, I have been using Ravelry a little bit more, and I finally figured out how to upload my original designs. At first I thought it was kind of pointless since I have them all on this blog, but then I realized that I can see all the people who are making or have made the projects which is pretty cool. There are a couple other nice features, so I will be on there a bit more from now on. If you want to friend me my username is theslugandlettuce.


Secondly, I created a new tumblr. I never really used my old one, and it was just full of a bunch of back-links to the blog posts I do on here. I want to delete my old one but I cannot figure out how to do it without deleting my whole account. Anyone have any suggestions? Anywho, it is called "Pretty Little Life" and it is just a bunch of photos I have had on my computer forever that inspire me. Check it out here: http://aprettylittlelife.tumblr.com/


Thirdly, remember in this post when I was thinking about posting my ukulele stuff? Well, I have moved that effort over to a different blog that I am authoring with my two co-workers. The concept is kind of fun, check it out here: http://youkeadoodle.blogspot.com/

Lastly, in keeping with the theme of moving things about, Dennis and I have been looking for an apartment of our very own since the new year. It is slow-going and is taking up a lot of my time, along with making me a little stressed out, which accounts for some of my absence around here. Wish us luck, because the sooner we find a place, the sooner I will have a proper crafting area!