Sewing

Embellished Sweater

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Several months ago I purchased this sweater from Her Tern Boutique:

I love the flower embellishments. The petals seem to be made of sweater material and were hand sewn onto the garment.

I had a couple of sweaters I never wear, so I thought I’d give it a try.

I made a little petal template out of tagboard and cut out five petals for each flower. I pinned them in place and then sewed them onto the sweater. Then I used embroidery thread to make the center of each flower.

 I think I might add more tonight, but I wanted to wear my newly refashioned sweater to work.

Uncategorized

Knit Nat Crafts Giveaway — Enter to Win!

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Creativity is in the air here at Knit Nat AK, which means it’s time for a crafty giveaway. One lucky person will win a hand made craft from Knit Nat!

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Visit www.knitnatak.blogspot.com and scroll to the bottom of the page where it lists the blog’s followers
  2. Click the “follow” button and enter your Gmail account address
  3. Any person who becomes a follower in the next FIVE days will be entered into a drawing
  4. On May 6 a random follower’s name will be chosen 
  5. Knit Nat will contact the winner and will mail out a crafty item ABSOLUTELY FREE. Pay no shipping!
Becoming a Knit Nat AK blog follower is simple and hassle free. You won’t receive e-mails from me (unless you request it). It’s a fun way to support your friends and to keep up on crafty ideas.
So sign up to win! 
breakfast

Hubby Cook — Breakfast egg cups

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My husband left today on a two-week road trip through Canada. He knows it makes me sad to see him go, so he made us breakfast this morning. This is a rare occurrence since he claims he can’t cook. How wrong he was! After devouring two of his ham and cheese egg cups, I am convinced that I’m not the only one making dinner from here on out!

He got the recipe from Cook’s Country Magazine. It was a laborious preparation — he said — but the results were pretty tasty. The bread had the texture of puff pastry and all of the ingredients blended well.

Here’s how to make it.

Makes 5 servings

Ingredients:
5 eggs
5 slices white sandwich bread with the crusts cut off
2 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
5 thin slices of cheddar
3 thin slices of black forest ham, halved crosswise
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place eggs in a large bowl of hot water for 10 minutes.
Using a rolling pin, roll the pieces of bread till they are thin. Pinch the sides of the bread and fit each one into little ramekins or a muffin tin. Brush each piece with butter and bake until golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.
Top each cheese slice with a ham slice. Make a cut from center to one side of each stack. Shape it into a cone and press into the toasted bread. Crack an egg into each ramekin/muffin tin and season with salt and pepper.
Bake about 15 minutes. Remove from oven, cover with foil and let sit about 5 minutes.

Sewing

Tokyo Tie Bag

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An acquaintance came into the store the other day with the loveliest little purse. It was a simple design and when I commented on it, she said she bought it in a little arts market in New York City, but a friend of hers had scanned a pattern for something similar.

She forwarded me the pattern and it was for a Tokyo Tie Bag. Here was my first attempt:

If you do a Google search for this, you will find several patterns that resemble the one I made. I recommend this pattern from Darling Petunia’s Blog. Her pattern looks like the one I made, but the dimensions are slightly different.

Besides cutting the fabric, it only took about 30 minutes to construct. It’s really worth trying.

After whipping out my first one, I decided to tweak the pattern a little. I wanted my next one to have a flat bottom, but to also have a sort of kimono look to it. I was hoping the crossover of the fabric would create a little pocket, but it turned out too floppy so I had to sew it shut. I like how it turned out decoratively, though.

I’m going to have to make a ton of these. I think for my next one I’ll make the straps longer. My friend Robert suggested making large versions out of T-shirts, so I’m going to give that some thought. It also dawned on me that thrift store pillowcases could be put to good use with this pattern.

Crafts

Hubby Craft 2

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My mother-in-law gave us an antique kitchen scale last week.

My plan was to simply spray paint it a different color. But then I lost motivation. My husband picked up that motivation and went all the way. He got a wire brush that attaches to his power drill and sanded off most of the paint. Then he took acetone to it to get off any remaining paint. Then he spray painted it.

In other words, he did a much better job than I ever would have.

Way to go, Stephen!

recipes

Chicken and Asparagus Crêpes

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As I’ve said before, nothing beats a $5 Costco rotisserie chicken. And what to do with the leftovers? Why, make savory crêpes! In this month’s Food Network Magazine, they had a recipe for chicken and asparagus crêpes. They call for store bought crêpes, but why buy them if you have the time to make them? The following is the Joy of Cooking’s recipe for crêpes. I made them in the blender and refrigerated the batter for about a half an hour before making.

Makes about 12 crêpes

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup lukewarm water
4 large eggs
1/2 stick of butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt

To make crêpes, heat a 9- or 10-inch frying pan with rounded edges over medium-high heat. When it’s heated, rub a stick of butter all around the pan. Then take a paper towel and rub the butter all around the pan. Next, add about 1/3 cup of the batter to the center of the pan while rotating the pan round and round to evenly distribute the batter. It’s ok if the batter goes up the sides of the pan. The crêpe will begin to brown around the edges and separate from the pan. When it does so (it always takes a little longer with the first one) use a rubber spatula to separate the edge of the crêpe all the way around.
My favorite way to flip a crêpe is to shake the pan vigorously to loosen it and then using momentum, flip it without using a spatula. Here’s a photo of my doing this a few months ago:

Then cook the other side of the crêpe for about 30 seconds or so.

As far as the Food Network recipe goes, I changed it slightly. For the fresh herbs, my dad brought over some of his homegrown.

I ended up using parsley, thyme and oregano. I also only used 1/2 cup of parmesan in the filling and didn’t top the the dish with the remaining cheese. Instead of ricotta, I used cottage cheese. We just can’t get good ricotta up here.

Thrift Finds

Thrift Finds 3

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I flew up to Fairbanks last weekend to visit with my mother-in-law before she moves out of state. While up there, I had to check out the consignment shops. In addition to some $15 Lucky jeans that fit me miraculously well, I picked up this unusual jacket.

I love the color and I think I can pair it with most of my blouses and several pants. It went really well with my Forever 21 ruffle top.

Price? Four dollars.

Oh yeah. I love thriftin’

Les importantes

My Quilt Finally Has a Home

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When I graduated high school, my mom made me a quilt. Not just any patchwork, scrap quilt, but an intricate, well-planned one. Each basket square was given to a close friend, family member, or person who impacted my life. Each was given a fabric pen and instructed to write something on the square and give it back to my mom. These squares traveled as far as England. After the top was pieced, she stitched flowers and grapes and leaves on every square inch of the quilt, save the border, where she stuffed letters to form the first phrase from Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet — “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”

yeah. my mom’s a badass.

She named the quilt, “The Secret Garden.” From far away it can be admired, but only when you crawl across it with your nose nearly touching the fabric will you be able to see its true beauty. Each square has  different foliage — oak leaves for the wisdom of my father, forget-me-nots for my high school boyfriend, evergreen boughs for my now passed-away grandmother. Nothing was overlooked in this masterpiece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a young adult I was worried about using the quilt for fear of ruining it. Also, I never had a good bed for it. This quilt needs a regal bed — and I don’t just mean a queen size. It needs to be displayed with care and reverence.

Fast forward 10 years. My husband’s mom is moving out of state and she gave us an antique brass bed. Benetfinks & Comp. Made in Cheapside, London.

Thanks to both our mothers. Our guest room truly is fit for a queen.
Crafts

Tips on Tulips

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It was my mom’s birthday on Wednesday so on my way to work I stopped by the grocery store to buy her flowers. I brought my own vase and instead of paying a lot of moolah for a pre-made bouquet, I was just going to make my own. Daffodils were only $2 a bunch and there were all sorts of different colored tulips. I decided on a simple arrangement of daffodils and purple tulips. When I went to pay for them, the young woman behind the counter told me that daffodils are toxic to other flowers, so if you mix them, the other flowers will die.

I was surprised that a grocery store clerk knew this. I had worked at this very same flower department when I was 14 and I knew very little. I just loved flowers.
So I took her advice and went for yellow and purple tulips.
She then provided me with some other useful tulip information that I felt like sharing:

  • Tulips grow even after you cut them, which is why the purple ones in the photo look taller than the yellow — they must have grown faster
  • Tulips like pennies, so drop one in the vase not just for good luck
  • If a tulip is drooping, poke a pinhole just below the bloom and it should perk up
I gave this last advice to my mom upon floral delivery and she told me she tried it out and it totally worked. I guess a little air bubble gets stuck in the stem after it has been cut, so a little hole lets the air escape and get to the bloom.
Neat!

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