Ready for Spring

I couldn’t help swinging by the fabric store yesterday knowing full well that spring fabrics had arrived.  I gravitated towards this vintage style floral and soon realized that it was created by one of my favorite textile artists, Sandie Henderson.  My friend turned me on to her blog: portabellopixie.com I love her vibrant colors with a classic, vintage twist….her photography is incredible as well.  I married this floral with a Joel Dewberry pale yellow fabric and had the perfect spring market tote in the making.

I have another fun Indian inspired fabric in store, we shall see what it turns into….a thrifty purse maybe?

Hello 2010, Time for a Facelift

After shelling out many hours for Christmas orders last fall, I’ve decided that it’s time to give my studio a facelift for a new start to the year.  So, I started pulling inspiring photos of other studios that I would like to take parts and pieces from.  Once I get the renovation underway I will post the before/after shots.

 

I have always loved this style of craft table from Pottery Barn.  It’s clean, open and the right height to stand and create or sit and think.  It’s construction is fairly easy, and even the cleanable white laminate would work well for my varied projects.

I like this photo for the color palette and style.  The pockets of orange accents works well with the white furniture pieces.  I am not too keen on the baby blue for my studio, but works well in this setting nonetheless.

I like the way the creator of this table uses fabric for a splash of fun and yet this table also allows for concealed storage to put messes away.  Still a very clean and fun look.

If I was limited on space this would be a likely option, but since I have the whole sunroom to myself I can be a bit more open.  This armoire workspace would also be better for the more organized crafter, where as I like to spread out and create havoc.  Actually looking at how neat this space is organized even stresses me a little.

Here’s another example of a closed craft table with open shelving for fabric.  Very neat, clean and accessible…..dig it.

 

And here’s my studio, so I have my work cut out for me.  It’s not quite sure what it is right now, but I love that it’s so wide open.  I just need to designate a few areas for KitchStitch and kick the picnic table outside for the spring.  Stay tuned…...

Tote-a-licious

Finished up three more totes for a Christmas order, including this vibrant fabric one with red and black flowers, suited for a 17” laptop.  It is by far one of my favorites.  I still don’t have embroidery capabilities but was pleased to find such cute iron-on appliqués. 

 

I also decided to try out a new cake recipe on my husband tonight.  His birthday was last week and he requests the same thing every year……chocolate cake.  Well, while searching for chocolate cake recipes made by other than Ms. Crocker, I stumbled across this Golden Rum Cake recipe that was highly recommended.  I decided to make it this week’s venture.  The glazing is cooling as I type so I hope the wait is well worth it. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup dark rum
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup dark rum

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over the bottom of the pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in the eggs, 1/2 cup water, oil and 1/2 cup rum. Blend well. Pour batter over chopped nuts in the pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let sit for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto serving plate. Brush glaze over top and sides. Allow cake to absorb glaze and repeat until all glaze is used.  (or pour half of glaze into pan and put cake back in, pour rest of the glaze on the bottom of cake and let fully absorb.)
4. To make the glaze: in a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat and continue to boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup rum.  

Christmas Orders Are In…..

And I’m quickly wrapping up another order of totes.  One including a tote for a Breast Cancer Survivor, which I am honored to create a design for.  This should wrap up most the totes for the season and now I’ll be onto children’s craft aprons, which I cannot wait to design.

Butternut Squash Soup

I’m a huge soup lover, but have had my fair share of failed butternut squash soups either off the shelf or from the market.  I planned for a section in my garden for this invasive gourd just to try my shot of making my own version.  After harvesting the baby squash (before the first freeze) I was so excited and roasted them with butter and brown sugar….the house smelled incredible.  The rest of the steps of my journey are below, and boy it is a filling meal in a cup.  I couldn’t get over the aromas and flavors of every bit from a visually simple soup.  It’ll be hard to buy this off the shelf again, when I know how good it can be homemade.

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons chopped onion
• 4 tablespoons margarine
• 6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
• 3 cups water
• 4 cubes chicken bouillon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, saute onions in margarine until tender. Add squash, water, bouillon, marjoram, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender.
2. Puree squash and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan, and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

Winter Tails

“Winter?” you say?  I am staring at 10” of snow outside our window resting on our fence.  Yup, it's here…..ah well time to get out the scarves and mittens again.  Copper has had quite the eventful season, starting it off with surgery to remove an obstruction of a combination of toys, rug and stuffing from his bed.  Although this guy is heavily monitored and constantly gets things taken away from him when he’s up to no good, we were shocked to see how large this mass actually was.  Stitches are removed and the cone is gone, so now we’re back to a normal schedule of romping around on the weekends and he doesn’t know any different.  I am working on Christmas stockings for all 3 KitchStitch furry animals, will post pics soon.

Happy Halloween

I know it’s not here….yet, but it’s still my favorite holiday. I think it’s the combination of scary movies, creative entertaining, sweet treats, spooky tricks, pumpkin seeds, 3’ high ghouls and gobblins on their first expedition…..I love it all.  A few festive fabrics have made their way into the shop which made spooktacular shawls for entertaining this month.

 

Our pumpkin patch is full and a few of the big boys are still ripening.  We received our first SNOW last night so the rest of the veggies (tomatoes and squash) are safe to cut down, but not without making some chow-chow first.

I experimented with a fantastic zucchini recipe that was husband approved:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

Well back to the shop, Christmas orders are in ….so expect some posts of works-in-progress…..