Summer Sunday

Today was just lovely. It started off with coffee out watching the chickens (the best!).

We went to the farmer's market in the morning to get berries for

pie!

felted bowls drying in the sun

Tonight it's off to dinner at a friend's where I will pick raspberries until the sun goes down.

Craft Sale

Just a quick note to let you know that I'll be selling at a craft show/food drive tomorrow (Saturday the 27th) at Urban Outfitters in NW Portland.
Stop by and say hello!

Coffee

I'm waiting for the second pot of coffee of the day to brew so I thought I'd share some thoughts on coffee.
Coffee is good. Stumptown coffee is very very good.
My favorite way to brew coffee is in a stovetop espresso pot. I use a French press sometimes, but the stovetop pot, brews good strong coffee really fast, which is important.
I made some new coffee cup (or tea if you're so inclined) cozies.
I forgot how satisfying these are to make. They're a quick project and great way to use up sweater and fabric scraps. These are in the shop. Which, by the way, now has over 400 items! I can't believe it.



On another note, the weather has been positively dreary here in Portland. The chickens don't care for it one bit. As you can, see it's best to stay close to the coop in case of a downpour.

Now I feel that donuts are in order. Yes, coffee and donuts.
Happy Weekend!

Prints

I have been going through some of my sketchbooks trying to sort through and pull out ideas I like or drawings to use for embroideries or prints. It's always interesting to look back at older work and see how my art has changed and improved. Some of the older drawings are so crude, but I remember just being happy they resembled what I had in mind.

These prints are in the shop. They're my first new prints since we got our new printer (which is awesome). I'm really happy with the results. Yay for good printers!

Elephants!

The shop has just had a delivery of elephants!
I have had this elephant stamp that I carved a few years ago and today I decided she needed a bow. Then it became clear that a banner was in order. So here's the new and improved elephant design. I'm thinking these would make sweet baby shower invitations or maybe first birthday party. Fun!

Chickens, Gardening and Notecards

The title should give some insight as to what's been on my mind lately. Our chickens are growing big and are hilarious! It's so nice to look out the window and see a flock of little chickens pecking and digging and chasing each other. I love that having chickens gets me outside so much more. I can keep a close eye on the garden progress that way.



the coop is almost done, it just needs the roof and run attached


Miss Millie waiting for some yummy worms


Millie and Honey in the herb garden

There are several short videos of chicken antics here, if you're so inclined. We have one blue egg layer, which I'm so excited about. Blue eggs! It's hard to imagine that soon I'll have my own egg supply right in the back yard. I'm expecting the 2 older hens to start laying around September and the others in October.

I've got some new block printed notecard sets in the shop. I'm anxiously waiting for my hydrangeas to bloom, so I thought I'd carve a stamp in the meantime.

Life with Chickens

I thought it was time for an update on life so far with the chicks. We diagnosed two of the five as roosters, and they have gone to live with a nice family who were looking for just that sort of rooster. Now we are left with what we believe are 3 hens. It's so funny because we were really unsure if we wanted to get chickens, even on the way home after buying the chicks, we weren't sure we wanted to raise urban chickens, but they are so much fun, I'm sure we made the right choice. I spend way more time than I should watching their silly antics. Every time I sit down to watch them, they are doing something new and crazy. They all have different personalities and have grown attached to us as well. They'll be going outside in a couple of weeks, and while I'll be happy to have the dining room back, I will miss having them so close by. It's amazing how fast they grow too. They are already getting to the awkward chicken teenager phase. This is the 3 girls perched on their box today:

I have managed to get a lot of sewing done in the past few days in spite of the chicks. In fact, my Etsy shop has a record number of items in it. 301, to be exact! I've just added these sweet friends and some new felted houses. I also carved a new stamp with a little house on it. I'm excited to print some new house cards.




Happy Weekend!

The Babies are Here!

We picked up our chicks yesterday. We had to get 5 so that we could increase our chances of getting the 3 hens we want. We suspect one is a rooster but it's far too early to tell. Meet the new family members:





We haven't named them yet but we've got some ideas in mind.

Wooly Goodness

There has been lots of needle felting going on here lately. I am very fond of this little owl. It will be hard to let him go:

Easter Delivery

The Easter Bunny has just been to the shop.

More Cake

This weekend Jenny's mom was here for her birthday, which was a perfect opportunity for yet another layer cake. This one is a 4 layer lemon mascarpone cake. I used an epicurious recipe but I don't think I would make this particular cake again. The cake itself was a bit dry and spongy, and not as moist and springy as I would have liked. I made a lemon vanilla buttercream that was just lightly sweetened and balanced out the lemon curd-mascarpone filling which was very sweet and tart. I am always happy for a chance to practice royal icing flower making:

It ended up being a perfect early Spring birthday cake.

My Nest

Hello again! I'm posting twice in a week how unusual.

My house was featured on the Housemartin blog today. Pam came over last week to photograph the house. If you live in Portland, be sure to visit her amazing store, Ink and Peat on North Williams. It was so interesting and fun to see someone else's view of our home.

photo by Pam Zsori

Nesting

My birthday was last weekend. I had a small get together with some friends. This year we decided to make a nest cake. This was a labor of love, let me tell you. I think Jenny and I spent 5 hours on Sunday putting it together, then dismantling it then reconstructing it. It was all worth it. The cake is the coconut layer cake from Baking Illustrated. The cake was delicious! So coconutty! The nest was made of coconut and meringue which were baked in a bowl to achieve the nest shape. The eggs, leaves and flowers are marzipan. If you like marzipan but not the price, I recommend making it yourself. It's actually ridiculously easy and so much less expensive.



I've had nests and eggs on my mind a lot lately. We're thinking about getting some chickens. We would get bantams because they are small and cute and I love all things small and cute. The woman at the garden store showed us one of the bantam chicken eggs and we were sold. They are so adorable! I am hoping we can get the chicken set up figured out quickly so we can go get the little chicks. There is one variety of chicken I like called brahma chicken, I would like to name one Barack Obrahma. Ha ha. I kill me.

Oh, and I've just added a big batch of new sewing kits to the shop.

5 Targets

I went to 5 Target stores, one of them twice, today to get this bounty! The new Orla Kiely line is so lovely. We got the canisters at three different stores. We still didn't manage to find any of the textiles like the dish towels, aprons and place mats. We'll keep checking. I will stay strong.

I've been embroidering like crazy lately. There are some new framed pieces in the shop. These are so fun. I've been going through all of my sketch books and turning various drawings into embroideries.

Peas and Jam

On a recent thrifting trip, I bought a vintage craft book. It's from 1981 and while that's not usually a decade whose crafts I admire, this particular book had some real gems! Like giant crayons with faces in a GIGANTIC crayon "box". Adorable. Anyway it also had a pattern for mason jar potholders. I'm not sure if you know about my obsession with jars. Really, I love and collect all sorts of containers. But my favorite is the jar. I like them teeny tiny and super big. I also seem to have a bowl collecting problem, so much so that there are always bowls which cannot fit into the cabinets so they sit on counters and shelves. I can't seem to resist buying a lovely bowl or jar. So how could I resist making jar shaped potholders?



Clearly, I could not.

Coasters

I had the idea for these woolen coasters before Christmas, and finally got the chance to make some. They are made with 100% wool felt and wool roving. The flowers are all needle felted. I have to say that if I could only choose one craft to do forever it would probably be needle felting. I love it so. These are in the shop.