Sound Advice

I made a couple of linen library totes last night. I absolutely adore red and linen. I'm not sure what it is about the two together but you just can't go wrong with red on linen. These are in the shop. I've got a couple more I'm working on and will hopefully get them in there later this week.



I'm almost done with a wholesale order I've been working on. I will be so glad to get it finished and sent off, I think I may be able to get it out today.

This morning is remarkably cooler than the past two. It looks like we made it through Heat Wave 2007, as our local news calls it. I love that any weather condition that is at all beyond normal immediately gets a name followed by the year, which is then followed by a story on how to deal with said weather. Such as tips to avoid heat stroke #1 drink water #2 don't sit in the sun for hours #3 find some water to swim in #4 buy a fan or air conditioner. So there you go, more words to live by from Chet and Dot. I'm telling you, I might get a book deal, here.

Paper and Twill

New items from the Chet and Dot Print Shop.
Some cards:



Why yes that is Sleepy Bunny of Vinyl Pouch fame. Here, she's sound asleep in the clover.

New Twill Tape; Dots and Happy Sailboats:

And a few bookmarks:

These items will be in the shop later today.
It's only supposed to get up to 98 degrees later today. It's several degrees cooler than yesterday's high of 1000. So. Hot. Last night I stood in front of the sprinkler while I watered the tomatoes. It was delightful. Happy Summer!

Happy Cappuccino

Some happy, non-animal creations for the shop. Happy little cups of cappuccino!



Crafty Wonderland was great yesterday! It's so nice to get out and meet people who know me from here or etsy. We also got to chat briefly with the owner of one of our favorite local shops about a possible wholesale venture. They just opened a shop in Tokyo, which is like a dream account for me. I would love to have my stuff for sale in an adorable little gift shop in Japan!

It's supposed to be 200 degrees here this week. I plan to plop down in front of the air conditioner and sew. My outside temperature tolerance tops out at around 85, any hotter and I start to go crazy. It's not pretty. Stay cool, friends, literally.

Bunnies and Vinyl

I whipped out some new vinyl pouches yesterday. I couldn't get enough of this sleepy bunny so she made it onto 4.

A little umbrella with scalloped edges::

I'll be selling at Crafty Wonderland this Sunday, stop by and say hi if you're in Portland.
Happy Friday!

Quiet

The peace and quiet has returned to the house. Everybody headed home yesterday. I like visiting with my family, but it is nice to have things back to normal. On Tuesday, we went to Jamison Square here in Portland. If you have kids and are looking for something to do this summer, this is great! There is a wading pool that fills up and empties every few minutes with water that pours out of the giant stone steps along the side. It's endlessly fun for kids and adults.

This little mushroom pouch is in the shop, I'll be adding more items soon. I'm just getting back into sewing mode, post family.

I hope you had a nice holiday, we watched a rather nice fireworks show right from the backyard.

Time Out

I'm just popping my head out to say hi, I've got relatives in town, 2 of whom are small children. It's been a long time since I've had little ones around.

We've been to the zoo, the park, the ocean and tomorrow we'll do some crafts (yay!) and maybe find a fountain for the kids to play in. We roasted marshmallows and lit sparklers last night.

See you in a couple days.

Can I Interest You in a Cupcake?

I really do have a life outside of cupcake making, despite appearances. When I first moved to Portland, I was thankful that the myth of constant rain turned out to be just that, a myth. I'd heard how it would rain constantly without respite, and thought I might have to consider devising some sort of umbrella harness so that I wouldn't be completely soaked when I stepped out. That is definitely not the case, thankfully, though I am started to wonder where the heck summer is. We're having an unusually high amount of rain and have been since November, I understand. I've grown tired of it. I do like not having to water the garden but I don't like not being able to sell cupcakes on Alberta during Last Thursday because of the incessant rain. That's right, all the cupcakes I made a day in advance, thinking that my preparedness would surely pay off are now sitting on the counter looking lovely. The weather wins again! I made 54 of them. 54! I've given some away and have relatives coming tonight, who will undoubtedly help eat them. Perhaps next month, I'll make cookies, after checking the weather report, of course.

Ok, enough about cupcakes. I, personally, am a bit cupcaked out. Except of course for the ones made of felt. Those, I will never tire of.

I finally bought a teflon presser foot for my sewing machine and it arrived in the mail yesterday, so I pulled out the vinyl and made a couple of pouches. I really like working with vinyl, though I don't think I would ever want to work with it exclusively.


As mentioned previously, relatives are coming to town including two little ones. I've got a disastrous house to clean and child proof. Have a lovely weekend, I hope it's sunny!

In the Kitchen with Chet and Dot

My great grandmother grew up in Mexico and I do so wish I could have tried her cooking. I imagine her making enchilada sauce and refried beans in a tiny little kitchen while all 11 (!!!) children ran through the house. Unfortunately, the only recipe that survived was for homemade flour tortillas. I used to make these a lot more often but now they are more of an occasional treat. They're best fresh off the griddle. I like them with just butter but they're delicious with jam, too. In fact, this morning I had a half butter-half jam one. Here is the recipe in case you want to try them for yourself, it's super easy:
6 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder (aluminum free, please)
3 teaspoons salt
Blend above ingredients in large mixing bowl
Cut in 1 cup shortening or lard until well blended
Add 1 cup hot water, and mix, I usually end up using my hands at this point.
Knead into a ball, adding more water or flour as necessary.
Let the dough rest under a towel for 10 minutes or longer. Tear off a piece of dough a little larger than a golf ball. Form into a ball and roll out as flat as possible.

Always cook on a hot griddle. These cook fast so I keep the heat at medium and flip often to ensure even cooking and prevent burning. They just need about 1 to 2 minutes per side. Store the dough at room temperature wrapped in plastic wrap and then a towel to keep from drying out. If dough isn't to be used within one to 2 days, store in refrigerator and let come to room temperature before rolling.


Tomorrow is Last Thursday already. I'm going to sell cupcakes again. Vanilla and chocolate this time. I want to experiment with making a lemon cupcake, but I think that will be for next month. I've got lots to do, it always sneaks up on me and then I spend 2 days running around like a lunatic trying to get ready.

New items in the shop today:

Update

I'm very pleased to report that Miss Fifi is feeling much better. She's almost fully recovered. We're still giving her antibiotics, much to her dismay, and have about 4 more days of them, but it's a small price to pay for a healthy kitty.

We picked raspberries at Allison's last night and then I made 16 jars of jam and 8 jars today. We've got strawberry, strawberry/raspberry, and raspberry. I think we're set for jam. Though it's amazing how fast a jar can disappear in this house. This morning started out quite nicely with fresh berry jam, scones hot from the oven and a cup of nice, strong coffee with cream.

Summer Reds

I find myself drawn to all things red lately. I particularly like it paired with blue and or brown. I think for some it's more of a winter color, but it's always reminded me of summer. So many of my favorite summer things are red, berries, watermelon, and tomatoes.


A new sewing kit and some sweet cupcake twill tape is in the shop today. I finally got the kraft boxes I've been hunting for. They are exactly what I wanted and I love the sewing kits in the kraft rather than the white. The white boxes had a glossy sheen that I wasn't happy with, had they been matte, I might have liked them better.

Strawberries from a local farm, ripe, delicious and ready to be made into jam. Isn't summer great? We'll have fresh raspberry and strawberry jam just in time for my mom and sister's visit this weekend. Perfect.

Little Kitty

I feel like I haven't posted in so long, but it's just been a couple of very long days. On Thursday night, we had to rush our little kitty, Fifi to the emergency vet because she was very sick. Four hours later, she got to come home and we started her on antibiotics. We thought for sure it was something serious but it turns out it was just a virus she contracted and she's feeling much better. She's back to her adorable, demanding self. Thankfully! She's still not eating or drinking regularly but she's getting there. Poor Kitty, it's the worst feeling in the world to have a sick pet. I felt like everything came to a standstill for a while there while we focused our attention all on her. She's sleeping next to me as I type and I couldn't be happier. I know some people think that I'm crazy for the way I am with her, but she's like my child. I worry about her and dote on her just like any parent does. I have had her since she was born, I got her mom, who, unbeknownst to me, was pregnant. She only had two perfect kittens, both of whom I still have. Fifi was born first and Mama Belle, left her alone for an hour before coming back to have Roly. I kept tiny little Fifi warm until Mama came back and took over. They are like night and day, one a big, dopey boy named Roly and Fifi, a semi-petite, highly intelligent girl. I love them both for different reasons but Miss Fifi is really my baby. So there you have it, a brief history of Jenn's cats. I'm just so relieved that my kitty is ok.

More twill tape printed and in the shop. I'm really happy with the owl on pink. I found a roll of pink twill I'd bought and forgotten about. I love that.

I got the fabric swatches yesterday and I've narrowed it down to 2, I think. One is a sandwashed cotton broadcloth, that has a suede sort of feel. It's really nice and I think it would print well. The other is a linen/cotton blend, but it's a little thinner than I'd like. I'm still going to look around but I may go with the broadcloth.

Have a nice Saturday, I've got a birthday party to attend this evening, and have yet to decide on a gift or side dish to bring.

Parsley, anyone?

Here are the garden pics I promised. They're not as exciting as they will be in a few weeks. That clump of leafy green on the right there is our bumper crop of curly leaf parsley and celery (weird huh?) from last year. I pulled about half the parsley out this spring because I do not need massive quantities of curly leaf parsley, in fact, I meant to plant flat leaf but wasn't thinking. Next to it is a little flat leaf parsley plant that hopefully will take off. We've got rhubarb and peas, and will have zucchini and pie pumpkins. We also planted cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes and tomatillos.


Booties!

This is such an fast and easy project, which is why there are suddenly baby booties all over the house. I love to knit but really prefer working on smaller projects rather than big things like sweaters and such. This is adapted from the pattern in Stitch and Bitch Nation. It's the only pattern I've tried from the book. I've been a bit disappoined in all three stitch and bitch books thus far particularly the crochet one, Happy Hooker, I believe it's called. I suppose I'm just not into rock and roll wrist cuffs and skull sweaters, shocking, I know. Anyway, booties are cute, fun and oh so tiny. It's hard to believe they can fit on the foot of anything other than a doll.

I snatched up the last copy of this at Powell's yesterday.

I wasn't sure if I would like it or not because all too often I'm disappointed by sewing (and knitting) books, but this book is really great! Congratulations to Amy for a truly lovely book. I already have a few favorite projects that I can't wait to try. I love these curtains:

and this puppet theater is the cutest! It hangs on tension rods in a doorway, brilliant.

I just ordered some fabric swatches for the fabric I'll be printing. My friend Kim has graciously offered to share her silk screening wisdom with me. I've done some silk screening but there is something that I'm not doing right, so it's Kim to the rescue -- Hooray!

We spent the last several hours in the garden, weeding and planting the vegetables we bought weeks ago. It went surprisingly fast and now we have an actual garden. I'm so happy with how the back yard has come together this year. I'll take pics in the morning, it was dark when we finished. Now we get to sit back and wait for the lettuce, onions and squash to appear. We made a second little strawberry patch that I'm hoping will produce enough berries next year for jam. Mmmm...jam. It's almost time for raspberry jam making, how are the berries coming along Allison?

The twill tape is in the shop! I'll be adding more this week, so be on the lookout.

I'm off to watch Deadwood, the new season just arrived via Netflix. It's so good. If you haven't watched it, beware the language, if you're sensitive about that sort of thing. It took me awhile to get used to the constant cursing.

Bakery

I had dinner with friends last night, they served mushroom risotto that was amazing. For dessert we had a raspberry trifle. No pictures unfortunately, but the trifle was beautiful. Over dinner, we got to talking about the bakery/shop that my friend Chary and I want to open. We have a few different names in the running:
1::Petit Four
2::Sweet Tooth
3::Parfait
4::Fondant
I think sweet tooth is super cute because it warrants the cutest illustrations of a happy tooth as the logo, but I think petit four and fondant are more "distinguished". I really like Parfait though it was pointed out that it that it may be a bit pretentious for what we're going for. I think it's awfully cute though, it might be more suited to a little ice cream shop. I think we may end up going with petit four because we like the idea of everything being on the small side rather than large. No giant muffins or cookies the size of your head at Petit Four.

We've been talking about opening a bakery/mini boutique for a couple of years now. I love the idea that it could be a place where you could stop and buy a handmade gift and a selection of sweets. I think that Chary and I would make a great team, she is an amazing baker and chef and we have very similar tastes. In fact, look at what she brought me back from Canada last week. The box says 'puppet'. It's so adorable now I need to find the perfect spot for her.


I hope everyone is having a pleasant Monday afternoon. The sun is shining here and it's supposed to warm up. The past couple of weeks have been so cool. I'm sure that after two months of roasting in the summer heat, I'll be cursing the sun, but for now I'm happy it's here.

Look at this perfect little scene, Miss Fifi is in love with the new wool blanket and has found the best spot in the house, she can watch what's happening outside and fall asleep in the sun.

Some more gift tags in the shop today. I'm still working on more twill tape, and then that will be available too.