Kirsop Farm!

So another year of crunchy fresh organic local and super tasty vegetables await us soon. The shares for Kirsop start the first week of June and I can hardly wait. Besides the fact that they have the worlds best sweet carrots they offer a lot of variety and a cool newsletter with recipes. In addition to the great produce they offer they now also offer grain and flower shares as well as poultry. The chickens and Turkeys are raised locally, happily and without hormones. I cant wait till we get a turkey from them for thanksgiving this year. They also now offer online payments which makes it much easier to get them paid. I do most of my billpaying online and this has been super easy and helpful. Genine, Collin and the crew are super friendly and live less than 2.5 miles from our house. I couldnt ask for a better set up. I love this farm!

http://www.kirsopfarm.com/

fast and cute cardie tutorial from stitchless tv

Me thinks I will try this one :) Very cute.

Mountain Rose Herbs, Oregon

This place is excellent for knowledge and quality, plus they are local to the Northwest and Organic! Please check them out for your herbal needs.

Cargo pant recycle.

Inspired by Mark Montano's Big Ass Book of Crafts 2 I made this messenger bag using wool gap cargo pants. I found them at the Goodwill outlet where clothes are a bit over a buck a pound. I washed them and w an old scarf I made a cool messenger bag.

Fondue!!! and the next day....

So I have been craving fondue forever. Ok just since Steph's last Bday when we went to Swing in Olympia.....
I finally pieced together a fondue apparatus (from pieces found at the goodwill and Ebay cause I like vintage/used stuff and I am cheap). While shopping at Fred Meyer my wandering eyes spied pre-made fondue cheese!!!! It was 13 bucks but fed my family of four and then some.

I chopped crusty breads, sweet local apples, slightly steamed broccoli and celery into tiny bite sized pieces. We even managed to prevent the children from stabbing each others eyes out with the long skinny forks. Dinner was delicious and took only a few minutes.

Leftovers included apples, bread and broccoli. I turned leftovers into breakfast the next day by making french bread chunks with apple caramel sauce and a fritatta (ms) made with the broccoli and fontina cheeses. It too was awesome. There was even enough left over for second breakfast al la Hobbit style.

Crystal Head Vodka....and bath time.

So I splurged a few weeks or so ago and purchased Dan Akroyds Crystal Head Vodka. The vodka was rather tasty, the best I have had in years but...it is still vodka.

The bottle alone is worth the price. I decided to use mine for bath time.

I filled it with lavender infused oil, foaming soap and some red food coloring. Admittedly its kind of gruesome but pretty cool. yes, I need to clean my bath grout better......

Crafts that I gifted. . . and things I have been up to.

So its been a long time since I posted. I've been pretty busy with work, kids and life in general. I realized I never posted pictures so here are a bunch with brief descriptions.

Above are pictures of the coasters and cards that I made for the Winter Holiday.

Below are examples of wrapping paper.

In my free time I am either reading or putting stuff together hoping it looks ok or sticks. Here are examples of other crafty things I have done recently. 

This mirror was made a long while back and is covered with pictures I took of local Low Impact Developments. They ranged from yupster condos in Portland to tree houses on Bainbridge Island. I thought it was a great way to remember the trips I took to visit these sites and so it hangs by my front door to remind me that we don't have to pillage everything to make something beautiful and livable. 

This one here is a Star Wars case I made. The artwork is from John Karpinsky. You can get his prints and learn more of him at his Etsy shop. I really liked some of the set prints that he has and am thinking about purchasing one of the bigger ones. I think they'd look great matted and hung. I plan on keeping this for myself.  It was an old Sony Micro TV case. 

Last but not least, this is a wool crochet heart I am making for a friend who just had a valve in his replaced.  It isn't quite anatomically correct as I am missing a valve but given the circumstances I guess its ok. I haven't finished the veins yet but will shortly. They are made of a fine red mohair, the rest is bulky wool. 

So that is about it in a nutshell. I anticipate someday finishing the Haliburton Suitcase shelving unit and will post pics thusly. In the meantime, don't forget to take time out to try something new, even if its a small thing.