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Milestones

Last week, I realized I had just missed my 3 year Etsyversary. I was looking in my shop for another reason on Monday, and I realized that the previous day was the date I joined Etsy . September 20, 2006.
Last year on my second Etsyversary, I made some special commemorative ACEO's and this year the whole thing just slipped my mind.
Then on Tuesday, a friend reminded me that the traditional gift for a 3rd anniversary is leather!
This was all the rationalization I needed to buy myself these fabulous vintage boots as an Etsyversary present!


Then I got looking at more and more vintage shoes and boots. Oh how I love fall weather (aka BOOT WEATHER) and how I love leather and SUEDE!
These are all shoes and boots on Etsy that I am currently lusting after. Click to see full size.


Item listings:
29988582, 31398666, 31160298, 31546116
28854817, 31480078, 31192839, 28266976
25026078, 31160332, 30633522, 30985709

I cannot really justify 12 new pairs of shoes, though. The two black pairs in the second row are to DIE for, but I currently have about 30 pairs of black shoes. What's a girl to do?? Post a comment and vote for your favorite pair.


Last week was also my mother's 80'th birthday! Now THAT'S a milestone!
I made her a lemon meringue pie instead of a birthday cake.

White chocolate, fruit & nut clusters

Today I had a craving for something sweet, so I made up a recipe for some candy just using ingredients I happened to have in my pantry.
I had a handful of almonds, about 1/4 of a bag of white chocolate chips, just leftovers from other baking adventures.
So I sort of threw in everything but the kitchen sink! They came out pretty tasty.



First I decided to candy the almonds, although you could use plain roasted nuts or even raw nuts. That's the beauty of this recipe, just use whatever you have on hand.
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Candied almonds INGREDIENTS:
1 cup whole raw almonds
1/2 cup granulated pure cane sugar
2 tablespoons butter
Combine nuts, sugar and butter in heavy skillet. I use a cast iron skillet. Do not use a teflon-coated pan. Some candy-makers believe that sugar melts better in a copper pot, but I've never cooked with copper pots!
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon, until nuts are toasted and sugar is golden brown and the consistency of a thick syrup. (about 15 minutes)Sugar should not be grainy.
If you want to test with a water glass, the syrup should be in the hard crack stage.
Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
Spray a piece of aluminum foil with non-stick spray (like Pam).
Spread the nuts onto the foil in an even layer.
Let the candy cool, then break into 1 or 2 nut clusters.

BE CAREFUL AND USE OVEN MITTS, and wear long sleeves. This molten sugar syrup is HOT and sticky so if some gets on you it is like napalm. It will burn you and take some skin off with it when you peel it off.
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Then I melted about 1/4 of a bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave, in a medium size pyrex bowl. I had a few pink candy melts left from Valentines day baking, so I threw them in there too, just to use them up. That's why the color is sort of off-whitish.
To melt chocolate, use a low power setting like 30%. Do it one or two minutes at a time, take out and stir, then nuke it another minute. (at low power)
repeat until the chocolate is melted.

Stir into the melted chocolate:
the chopped-up candied almonds
a couple handfuls of craisins (dried cranberries)
a handful of of Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal (brown sugar flavor)

Stir it all together until everything is coated in chocolate.
Spread it out on a plate that you sprayed with Pam. (or rub some butter on the plate)
Put the plate in the fridge until the chocolate hardens.
Remove plate from fridge and chop up the candy into chunks.

Yummy!

You can use milk chocolate or dark chocolate instead of white.
You can use any kind of nuts.
You can use raisins, dried cherries, banana chips, any kind of dried fruit.
You can use almost any kinds of breakfast cereal, to add crunch.

This would be good with milk chocolate, peanuts, cheerios and banana chips.
Just look around your pantry for leftover stuff you can mix in!

WATERMELON GRANITE

Today was hot so tonight I made some Watermelon Granite.

Granite (pronounced Granita and sometimes spelled Granita) is an easy frozen treat you can make without an ice cream maker!
I have also made this in lemon and in red wine flavors.


WATERMELON GRANITE

5 cups peeled and seeded watermelon chunks (from about a 3-pound slice of watermelon)
½ cup sugar (or sugar to taste depending on how sweet the melon is)
Juice of one lemon or lime


Place the watermelon chunks in a blender or food processor and blend on high speed until very smooth.

Strain the watermelon puree in a mesh strainer, Push on the pulp with the back of a large spoon to squeeze out all the juice.
discard pulp.

Transfer the watermelon juice to a mixing bowl and add the sugar and lemon/lime juice. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Not all watermelons are the same sweetness so I don't really measure the sugar, I sweeten to taste. Note that sweetness gets weaker when it's frozen so you want to over-sweeten it a bit in the juice stage.

Pour the juice into a metal baking pan that will fit into your freezer. I use a 9"x9" square brownie pan. Put that on a freezer shelf for about 20 minutes.

Remove the pan from the freezer and use a fork to scrape any ice crystals from the sides of the bowl. Break up any solid chunks. Stir to incorporate the crystals. Return to the freezer.

Repeat the scraping procedure every 15-20 minutes, rake the fork through the pan to break up the crystals, then return the pan to the freezer.
Keep doing this until the consistency is fluffy and “snowy” when scraped with a fork or spoon, at least 4 hours.

Then scoop into bowls or dessert glasses and serve.
It's very good with a crisp nutty cookie such as these
http://chezlatina.com/I/chezlatina_1702_12056958.jpg

Knitted Eyeball

I originally posted this tutorial on Instructables.com on Jan 31, 2009

Intro: This is a fun, easy knitting project using the Knifty Knitter knitting looms. Knitted eyeballs of different sizes make great Halloween decorations. Make a whole set in different eye colors, to match all your family members!

This project is suitable for older children, too, as long as they are old enough to use a (fairly dull) plastic yarn needle.

step 1Materials

The Materials you will need to make this project:

1. Knifty Knitter set of knitting looms.
These come in 4 sizes, for this project I am using the smallest loom (the blue one) but you can use any size. I have made larger eyeballs using the green loom.

2. Yarn- I am using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice. If you are using one of the larger looms you will want to either use thicker yarn (bulky weight) or use a double strand of worsted weight.
1 skein of white yarn
1 skein of black yarn (you won't use very much black so if you have some leftover from another project that is perfect)
1 skein of blue yarn (or brown or green, whatever eye color you want to make)
1 small skein of red yarn or red embroidery floss, I used Sugar 'n' Cream crochet yarn.

3. scissors

4. Poly fiberfill stuffing

step 2Getting started

You will start with the white yarn.
The knitting process follows the basic Knifty Knitter instructions, I'm assuming if you own the looms you have used them before and know the basics.

Cast on with the white yarn and begin to knit a tube.

Knit until the white tube is about 5 inches* long.

*5 inch measurement pertains to using the smallest loom. If you are using a larger size loom, these length measurements will be larger.

step 3Changing colors

Now you want to switch to the blue yarn.
(or brown or green, whatever eye color you chose)

Leave a tail of the white thread anchored to the outside peg, and wrap the next circle of loops using the blue yarn.
Continue knitting with the blue yarn a few more times around, and then tie off the tails of blue and white in a knot together. Pull the tails of the knot inside the tube to weave in later.

step 4Knitting the pupil

Knit about an inch and a half* of the blue yarn, then change colors to black.
Follow the same color changing directions as in step 3.

Now knit about an inch and a half with the black yarn.
When you are done, anchor the tail to the outside peg and cut the yarn leaving about a 6 inch tail.

• Inch and a half measurement pertains to using the smallest loom. If you are using a larger size loom, these length measurements will be larger.

step 5Remove eyeball from the loom

Wrap a piece of black yarn around the outside of the loom to measure it, and cut a piece about 6 inches larger than the loom circumference.

Thread the piece of black yarn in the plastic yarn needle that came with your Knifty Knitter loom.
Use the yarn needle to lift the last set of loops off the loom, one by one, following the basic Knifty Knitter directions.
This piece of yarn will serve as a drawstring to close the pupil, once the eyeball is off the loom.

step 6Tying the drawstring

Now your knitted tube should be off the loom and look something like this.
It looks long and skinny but don't worry, the tube will stretch quite a bit when it is stuffed.

Turn the tube inside out, and pull the last black piece of yarn tight from booth sides like a drawstring, closing off the black end. Tie them in a tight knot and also tie those 2 tails to the black tail from the tube.

Weave in the ends of these tails and the tails from both times you changed colors.

Turn the tube right side out again.

step 7Stuff the eyeball

Start to stuff the eyeball through the white end, which will still be open.
Use white poly fiberfill stuffing, it will still be somewhat visible through the holes in the knitted tube, but it won't fall out.
It won't be as visible through the blue and black sections because they are not stretched as much.

A tip from myrrhmaid on Instructables: use a length of pantyhose as a liner to keep the stuffing from coming out. Great tip!

Stuff it until you get a nice rounded shape, it can even be a little oval shaped like a nearsighted eyeball.

When you think it is full enough, thread some of the white yarn with the plastic yarn needle and thread it through the bottom loops on the white end of the tube.
Close it tight and tie it off using the same drawstring method you used on the black end.
Weave in ends.

step 8Add the bloodshot veins!

Now you could stop here, it's a perfectly nice little eyeball. Roly-poly and soft, all ready to be thrown at someone! But something is missing! To make a good Halloween decoration, you really need some veins.

Cut some of the red yarn, about 24 inch pieces are easiest to handle.
Thread one of the pieces in the plastic yarn needle and start "embroidering" veins onto the eyeball. I just improvised this step, weaving the red yarn in & out, over & under until it looked good. When you reach a stopping point like the end f a vein, just tie off the yarn in a knot and cut off the excess.
This is really a creative license thing, you can make the veins as simple or as branched as you like. No two eyeballs are alike in real life, so no two knitted eyeballs will be alike either.

Tutorial: T-shirt hacking

edit July 25:
This tutorial was featured of Totally Tutorials Blog. They have lots of other great tutes so check it out!
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This is a tutorial to take a big, boxy, unflattering T-shirt from Michael's craft store, like this one:
(click any photo to see it larger)


And reconstruct it into a cute, girly, puffed-sleeve babydoll Tee like this one:



Michael's T-shirts really don't look that great on a woman's body. They have some good points: they are inexpensive, and they come in a lot of nice colors, but that boxy crew-neck cut just doesn't thrill me. So I decided to see what I could do with the standard T-shirt to make it cuter.
This week my local Michael's had blank tees on sale for $2.50 each, for any size. I picked up this pretty lemon-lime color.

Materials needed:
1 t-shirt
some thin elastic (optional, if you want gathered sleeves like mine)
scissors
sewing machine, thread, etc.

For this project: Buy a tee that is 1 or 2 sizes larger than you would normally wear. I bought an XL. (unlike American Apparel, these XLs really are EXTRA large, I think they are mens sizing)

First I sketched out what I wanted to make. I designed a top with a flat piece on the shoulders and upper chest, called a yoke, and then a loose, gathered section on the body. The front yoke is curved because I think that's more flattering, and the back yoke is straight across.
I added puffed sleeves.

The only seams you will need to sew on this top are:
2 armhole seams
front yoke
back yoke
finishing the neckline.
The side seams, shoulder seams, and hems are already done for you.




Phase One: CUTTING

1. Cut off both sleeves from the t-shirt, following the armhole seam.


2. Trim off the armhole seam from the sleeves. Set the sleeves aside.



3. Cut the front layer ONLY into a curved shape, starting about halfway up the armhole.
DO NOT CUT THROUGH BOTH LAYERS.
Try to make your curve symmetrial, you can do half of it and then fold the shirt to mark your cutting line, to make sure the other side matches.



4. Cut the back layer straight across, at the same height as the highest points of the front layer. (the sides.)


5. Cutting the yoke.
First you want to trim the shoulders because the oversized boxy tee probably had the armhole seam halfway down your bicep. We want the new armhole seam to be right at the natural shoulder. Hold the yoke up to your body or use a well-fitting shirt to determine where to trim the shoulders. Discard the two shoulder trimmings.


6. Cutting the neckline.
I don't like crew neck tops, they aren't comfortable or flattering. I wanted a deeper scoop neck which I think is more feminine. Trim off the neck ribbing and set that aside, you will reuse it.
Cut the front layer ONLY of the yoke into a deeper U-neckline. The back layer should stay at the higher level.


7. Trim the bottom of the yoke: Trim the front yoke into a curved shape, and trim the back yoke straight across. Discard the excess you trimmed from the bottom of the yoke.


Here is the final yoke piece, all trimmed and opened flat. You can see the difference between the back yoke and front yoke shapes.

step 8. (no photo)
Take the neckline ribbing you set aside in step 6. Trim the ribbing from the rest of the scrap fabric and the tag. You just want to salvage about a 1 1/2 inch wide strip of ribbing. It will be like a long loop. Stretch it out by gently pulling on it. It should stretch quite a bit once all the seams are cut off.



Phase Two: SEWING

9.The first thing. you want to sew is to finish the neckline. It's easier to do this while the yoke is separate.
Pin the ribbing to the neckline of the yoke, pin it to the wrong side (inside) of the yoke.
It should be long enough to bind the neckline after you have stretched it.
Now sew the ribbing to the wrong side of the neckline. Do not stretch the neckline of the yoke as you sew, you should only stretch the ribbing as needed to fit the yoke.


This is the wrong side of the yoke, with the ribbing sewn on.


10. Now you will fold the ribbing over to the right side (outside) of the yoke neckline. Fold the ribbing to cover the seam allowances and encase all the raw edges. Pin and sew the ribbing down to the right side of the yoke. This is one of the most important parts to do neatly, especially the front neckline, since it is the closest to your face. Most people won't notice a funky sleeve but will notice a crooked neckline.



Here you can see the ribbing area in the back is finished, and the ribbing near the needle is folded over about to be sewn.


Here is the yoke, with the neckline ribbing finished.

11. Attaching the body to the yoke.
With pins, mark the center point of the front and back yoke, and the center points of the front and back body pieces.


12. Set your machine stitch length to a long basting stitch, and baste along the top edge of the front and back body pieces. Also baste just along the top half of both sleeve pieces. Leave your threads dangling and both ends.


13. Pin the front yoke to the front body piece, right sides together, matching centers and matching sides. Pull on the loose basting threads like a drawstring, to gather the front body piece to fit the yoke. Distribute the gathers to be fuller right over your boobs.

14. Now sew the front yoke seam.
If you have a serger, you can do this in one step. Sergers are the best for sewing with t-shirt knits.
I don't have a serger so I sewed a straight seam, then I trimmed the excess seam allowance, and then used a mock-overlock stitch to finish the edges.
Repeat this process with the back yoke and back body pieces. You can distribute the gathers evenly across the back. Pin and sew the back yoke to the back body.


Here is the top viewed inside-out, with the front and back yokes finished.

15. The next step is to add the sleeves, which you set aside in a previous step.
There is no left or right sleeve, they are identical.
Pin the sleeve to the armhole, right sides together. Match up the side seam of the body to the underarm seam of the sleeve, and match the shoulder seam of the body to the top shoulder crease of the sleeve.
Distribute any gathers to the top of the shoulder area.
Now sew the armhole seam as you have pinned it.
If you have a serger, you can do this in one step.
I don't have a serger so I sewed a straight seam, then trimmed the excess seam allowance, and then used a mock-overlock stitch to finish the edges.
Sew on both sleeves.


Here is the top with sleeves added. This is the front view.


Here is the top with sleeves added. This is the back view.
Now you could wear the shirt just like this, if you like straight loose sleeves.
But I wanted puffed sleeves so this last step is optional.

16. To make the sleeves puffed, I added elastic to the sleeve hem. You don't need to make a casing for the elastic, because the existing hem will become your casing.
Measure around your upper arm and subtract a couple of inches. Cut 2 pieces of narrow elastic to this length. You can use 1/8" wide elastic, or 1/4 " wide, whatever you have on hand that will fit in the sleeve hem. If the elastic is stiffer or less stretchy, then only subtract one inch from your arm measurement.


Cut two small holes on the inside layer of the sleeve hem, one hole on each side of the underarm seam. Do not cut all the way through both layers the hem to the outside, you want these holes to be invisible from the outside.
Do this for both sleeves.


Attach a safety pin to one of your elastics.


Poke the safety pin into one of the small holes you cut. Use the safety pin to thread the elastic through the casing, until you get to the other small hole. Pull the safety pin and elastic out the other hole.

Tie both ends of the elastic together in a secure knot. Trim the ends and tuck the knot into one of the holes.
If you used wider elastic you can also sew the 2 ends together for a smooth flat joint, because a knot may be too bulky.


Here is the finished puffed sleeve from the outside.

Design ideas:
You can screen print on the shirt or add other embellishments to the yoke area.
You can buy two shirts in different colors, and then swap the yokes. So you can make a top with a black yoke, and pink sleeves and body, and another top with a pink yoke, and black sleeves and body. Give one to your friend and you will be opposite-twins!

"whoopie pie" cake

This is like a cake-sized version of a Whoopie Pie.
The frosting uses this recipe for whoopie pie filling, although I am using Kraft Marshmallow Creme instead of Marshmallow Fluff, which is not commonly available in my area.