I found myself in the Stocking Stuffers Gift Guide on Etsy today via Craftopolis (which is a great tool to find yourself in treasuries...I love to thank curators). If you don't know about the gift guides, they are a great way to shop on Etsy.
Hey, thanks Etsy!
I spotted a few things today that just hit me like a ton of bricks.
1. All About the Whipped Cream - Film Photo Card (spotted on the front page of Etsy), by Helene Smith.
2/3. Amazing photography captured with an iphone by Deb McLean (found via decor8).
4. Stunning new work by my Etsy friend Jessica of Miniature Rhino (pssst...these will be in her shop update today). Long live snail mail!
What hit you today? Erm, I mean that figuratively.
Go figure, Boo (my four-year-old son, and those of you who follow this blog know that Boo is the name I use for him here), decided to be a ghost for Halloween. Since he has no idea that I call him Boo on this blog (I often use it as a nickname, however), it couldn't have influenced his decision:
I got the sheet at my church's rummage sale. Oh, the huge eye holes roughly cut (so that he can see) and the choppy bottom from hacking the excess off while my four-year-old could not hold himself still - classic! I tacked the front so that he could have arm holes and use his hands, but hide them if he wanted. He was a very popular little ghost last night trick-or-treating...you just don't see ghosts much anymore. I guess I'm a pretty happy momma about that, no uber-commercial costume needed...there were plenty of those!
Before we did the trick-or-treating, we went to Ashland for the Halloween parade. It was rad! Unfortunately, both sets of rechargeable batteries for the camera were low, so we didn't get many pictures. We did mangage to digitally capture Octomom however:
Yep, with all eight!
Ooh, and by the way, I lowered the prices of my Halloween inventory by 25%. I only plan to have the items in the shop for one or two weeks, then they will be taken down. So, if you had your eye on something, now is your chance!
I hope you had a safe and fun Halloween!
Sometimes I find so many great ideas in such a short amount of time on other blogs that it blows my mind. I've found some great stuff the last couple of days and I just had to share.
First, a new book, Copenhagen Apartments. Stunning:
(found via poppytalk)
It's in Japanese, but if you don't read in Japanese, who cares? It's utter eye candy!
Next is this incredible coffee table/rug combo:
(found via swissmiss)
"A Coffee table that interacts with its Rug, the coffee table is in the shape of a traditional child’s sled and sits neatly into a thick pile rug with two deep groves cut into it, giving the impression of compressed snow under the weight of the skis."
Well, I don't have the money for it and it feels very seasonal for where I am, but it's SO incredible! (Did I say that already?)
How about some DIY wallpaper that is easily removed? Pretty rad, I say! Check this out:
(found via Design*Sponge)
You can find the instructions here and more info on the maker's blog here.
Not only do I love the impermanence, but it's an inexpensive (yet time-consuming project, but I have more time than money) way to do wallpaper (I guess I have expensive taste when it comes to wallpaper). Ooh, and I love that it looks handmade...perfectly imperfect!
Lastly, fantastic cake stands. These would work for other uses as well, check out these stands made from powdercoated (I wish I had the ability to powdercoat at home) upcycled brass candlesticks, the tops are Corian.
(found via Apartment Therapy Re-Nest)
Check out these pieces, here from Iacoli and McAllister.
I have another guest post up at Etsy Stalker. This time the post is about sculpture. Head on over and check it out, it may widen your horizons and there's some humor as well.
I've been working at my church while Boo is in school, and I'm mainly organizing and purging right now. I found a bunch of vintage office supplies that the church is no longer using, so I got to bring them home. These are left-over cards and envelopes from the church library. I think it would be very useful for my books when I lend them to friends or family:
The top box is roughly half full of envelopes and (obviously) the bottom has the book cards.
The majority of our books are still in boxes because our bookshelves aren't built yet (I have the design completed, however), and they won't be until other surrounding bits are completed.
I'm sure I'll share more vintage office supply goodness soon!
It's always surreal to pop up Etsy and see your own work on the front page. If you search for "forest" on Etsy, you may find these:
Thank you Etsy admin!
A sample of what we've been seeing outdoors, indoors.
1. My only surviving terrarium (trial and error...I'll trial try again).
2. Hazelnuts from our local park that I'm going to try to propagate.
3. Plastic deer from my church's rummage sale that was this weekend.
4. Teeny tiny mushroom....
As I mentioned in the last post, Boo and I went to Jenny's on Tuesday. We cracked lots of walnuts (European or English walnuts) with Jitka and Boo even did some cracking (although he mainly played with Jitka's son who is the same age). He used a nut cracker that works well with children's hands - you can see it in the picture below, it's upside down, but it's a little cup that holds the nut...Boo's four if that helps you gauge for the children in your life. Walnut shells are sharp, so keep that in mind. Boo was fine, but I sliced my finger...it's sort of like a paper cut.
It really is true how much better fresh food is. These walnuts are lighter in color, more buttery in texture, and lighter in flavor (ie. bitterness) than store bought. Jitka has been gathering the walnuts daily to keep on top of it and before the hulls get all mushy and black. If you have any great uses for walnut shells, please let me know. I know that there are many industrial uses (they're put in tire rubber and work great instead of studded tires...we had them when we lived in a more icy/snowy location), but I don't know of any home use. Oh, and we tried using the walnuts on the small scratches on Jenny's table, it really does work well to camoflauge the scratches!
We also made pie from a pumpkin. I rarely take my camera with me while visiting friends because I either forget to take pictures, or the camera just gets in the way for me. I did remember to get a few shots of pie making however, The recipe we used was strayed from a bit. I like to roast my squash, it seems to intensify the flavor (think of the difference between boiled veg and roasted). I got this trick from my mother; she makes mashed butternut squash (like mashed potatoes) this way. So, to do this, cut your squash in half, take out the seeds/strings (Save the seeds to roast. I have never done this, but I assume that butternut squash seeds would roast the same as pumpkin.). Cut the squash into eight or ten pieces and put them in a roasting pan (or casserole dish) skin side down with a little water in the bottom to keep the bottoms from burning. We roasted the pumpkin at 400 (it probably could have been higher, but I just wanted to be safe not to burn the top part of the pumpkin), uncovered for an hour and a half. Check your squash after an hour, however. Then just scoop out the pulp after it cools enough to the touch:
See the little bit of water in the pan? Oh, and to feed two birds with one seed, roast the seeds on the top rack at the same time...just remember that they take much less time and need to be checked often. I don't know how long ours took. They turned out really good with a bit of canola oil and salt on them before going in the oven.
We used a food mill to "mash" the pulp. This doesn't work so well with squash. Jenny and I both found food mills this summer at thrift stores and they are great hand tools. We have noticed that they don't process some things well that have skins (grapes for jam) or are fiberous (squash). They process apples really well. Jenny said that she hasn't tried potatoes and I thought that they might get gummy from the rotation of the tool. I have heard that a ricer works well with potatoes. If you've tried them with a food mill with success, again, please let me know!
Since the food mill didn't process the fiberous pulp too well, we could have measured the pulp after doing our best, added the other ingredients and then blend it in the blender, but it turned out fine for us...we didn't mind the texture. If you do this, make sure to measure after the pulp goes through the food mill for a more accurate measure, otherwise there is a lot of air space.
Anyway, no other pictures of the pie...we did make it crust-less however, a great trick. Also, my friend Codi has been making this same recipe with whole wheat crust and honey instead of sugar with great results!
Happy Thursday!
I came across a treasury that I'm in that is simply eye candy. Woodland Winter by The Missing Thread.
I hope your week is going well. Boo and I are going to Jenny's today. We're making crust-less pumpkin pie from a pie pumpkin, roasting the seeds and our friend Jitka is going to be there with walnuts to crack open from her tree! It's certainly Autumn!
