Sneak peek: Spring!

It's been pretty busy here, not really in a crafty sense, but in a "Holy cow I have so much to do in less than three hours!" sort of sense.

A couple months ago, I ordered a Tyler Wentworth and Jane doll because..... ??? I don't remember. I'm sure I had something awesome planned. But I thought of something better. Something cooler. Something that I have managed to remember.

The four seasons! Well, the four seasons, personified! With dolls! In pretty dresses! :D

I've already planned out how the outfits will look, start working on patterns, acquired two more dolls, you know. Important things. Things that keep me from blogging... >_>

Anyway, to make you feel better I've included a sneak peek at Spring, since her dress is approaching being finished. (It just needs some more embroidery and flowers!) Here is Winter modeling it, since I don't have Spring in my possession yet:


Also coming up: some more paintings, my first quilt, and perhaps OOAK Barbies as Jem and the Holograms.

Craft room!

Ok, I promised a look into my not-cool craft room, and you know I always deliver on my promises. Well, except for the promises I make about crafting. >_>

Here is my desk. If I were on Cribs, I would say "This is where the magic happens," mostly to confuse everyone because that's what people say about their bedrooms. Since I'm not cool, this will never happen, but it's a nice fantasy. Over on the right wall there is my collection of "Shakespeare in Penguins" doodles. I'm really quite fond of them.

Oh, does my curtian decoration look familiar? ;) It's pretty sweet having a balcony, even though I don't really use it. Unless it's warm and it rains. Then I bustle out there with my chair and a glass of wine. B)

Painting in progress and my fan for when I burn things in the kitchen. I don't have an easel. I mean, I do, I just have no idea where it is, which pretty much means I don't have one. A piece of cloth on the floor is sufficient, right?

This is where I was planning on putting a loom (the whole reason I got a 2br apartment!!) but I ended up not getting one. :( But I love lamp. And penguins. And Mermaid Lady.

Finished product from yesterday

So I embroidered this piece yesterday, and then had no idea what to do with it. I was thinking I might make a suncatcher or something, but the sober view of my stitching made me wince, so that's a no go. I consulted an internet forum that has nothing to do with crafting for their opinion, and decided that I would just frame it in an embroidery hoop with my new etsy cloth behind it. But I was also thinking about crazy quilts, from another not-on-topic post in the forum.


So it's not exactly crazy quilted, but it is a little silly. I couldn't help myself! I thought a little lace at the bottom to make it less empty... and then saw the ribbon... and there were all these beads that I spilled everywhere that I haven't cleaned up yet...

And then it was too late. For future reference, though, using a hot glue gun on LACE and SHEER FABRIC and then pressing it down with your finger: NOT A GOOD IDEA. I don't know whyyy I kept doing it.

Just a lil' tease.

I did some quick embroidery tonight. Since the cloth is translucent, I couldn't be lazy about about the stitches look from behind, like usual.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this piece yet. Probably I will sew it on to some of the fabric I just got from etsy and hang it on my wall.

I like how the piece dangling in front of the face is actually just dangling there.

What I've been up to: aka, picture-spamming my way to forgiveness.

Ok, I said I made lots of things, and I know you want pictures, so here we go! Things I have created recently include:

A knit bunny. Mostly a prototype, I'm planning on making a larger one later. Not sure how well it will work out, but it's a cute (and easy) pattern from my knitting calendar. I'm hoping it will look a little less like an evil white ant with ears next time.

And as usual, cupcakes for my coworkers!

These were for a meeting to go over editorial standards. I wanted to butter up the writers so they'd be nicer to me. ;) They were my tastiest yet; I had coworkers coming to my desk the next day to see if there were leftovers.

These were for a group outing. I had a lot of fun making the sugared raspberries. The left is gluten-free chocolate with vanilla icing, middle is coconut-lemon meringue with lemon-curd filling, right is vanilla filled with wild berry jam-filled and topped with vanilla icing and a vanilla-sugared raspberry. I picked the berries for the jam, too. :) The berries on the cupcakes are from the supermarket, though.

My Mom's birthday cake. I know, I am an awesome daughter. ;) I didn't have any more pastry bags, so I ended up using my cookie press to do the frosting decorations. It's not really even close to my best, but my mom was happy, and that's what counts. That bonsai tree in the back is also for my mom. You can't see it too well, so another pic.

Also for my mom's birthday. A lil' fishin' dude. A long time ago, my mother and I were looking at bonsai trees. She saw a lil' fishin' dude similar to the one here, and said, "Oh! How cute! I want one!" (or something close, it was over a decade ago, gimme a break!) I said, "I could make that." And I did. Then that lil' dude was broken, and so I made another. I think that story was too long.

I also made this totally sweet flatware organizer out of duct tape and cardboard. I couldn't find any that actually fit in any of the drawers in my new kitchen, and doggone it, I can't have my chopsticks touching my spoons! They'll just fight and make a mess! Especially the Nesquick Bunny spoon. That guy is fiesty.

Ok, does making a dandelion wreath count? My parents' dog really liked it! And by liked, I mean, liked to chew on it. (I also just really like this picture.)

I made... a ... fort? Does that count?? Ok, now I'm stretching. I think this is where I stop and admit that I didn't really make all that much stuff. :(

Anyway, plans for the future involve a lot of knitting, embroidery, painting barbies, and making doll clothes. :D

How embarassing...

So... it's been a while. How are you doing, blog? Feeling neglected and unloved!? How could you say that!? I know it's been a while, but you've been in my heart and guilt-laden thoughts! Every time I create something I think of you, and how I should be posting here, oh, and there's all that other stuff I need to post and that is gonna take an awful long time. And you know I just moved and it really does take me a month to unpack. Oh... it's been two, near three, months? Uh, you're right. Like always.

So let's get back together. We'll take it slow, k? I'll show you a few things I've done, then you can talk about your feelings some more.

First, and I think this is the most important... I have a craft room! It's not really organized yet, and frankly I doubt it will ever be as cutesy or clever as the craft rooms I see on the internets, but it speaks to me, and is my space. That's what counts. I will devote an entire entry to it later.

I also finally learned how to knit a hat. I'm actually really proud of myself, because I pretty much just taught myself and went from there. It was surprisingly easy! I also FINALLY finished knitting the red scarf I've been working for, oh... two years approximately. Here is a pic of me wearing both!

Yes, the wallpaper, I know.

Also, I'm taking the plunge again this year (because obviously I love to torture myself): I'm doing NaNoWriMo. Again. I just realized today that I had no plot, so I thought of one. It's about three sentences right now. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. OMG DED.

I have about 20 more things I have made that I need to post, but we'll take it slow. Now tell me again how much you missed me.

Hey mom!

Well, this weekend contained Maternal Figure Day. (My PC term, since not everyone has/likes their mother.) Since I am in the happy position of having a wonderful mother, I celebrated the day with her. And of course, since I’m me, I couldn’t just buy her some fancy-pants present; I had to make something. Well, more than one something.

First, I decided to remember how to do embroidery. Embroidery is actually something I really enjoy doing, it’s just so tedious that I tend to get lazy and not finish. Also, I really need to sketch out what I’m going to embroider in detail, and I’m always lazy and use a pen, and then the pen bleeds and it looks crappy. (And yes, I made that mistake this time, again… -sigh-)

I forgot to take work-in-progress pictures, which is too bad, since you would be able to see how I totally changed my mind while approaching the end of the piece and decided to fill in the branches with a poorly-done staggered satin stitch. (I know that’s not the proper name, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is!)

Anyway, here is the finished piece:
Probably the best part was filling in the bluebird with crayon. (Note to self: next time, do that before finishing all of the embroidery.)

My mom really loves it, and it’s already on display in the kitchen. I put black cloth on the back so that you can’t see my messy stitches in the back, and it makes the cloth look kind of dirty. And I keep looking at it and getting irritated, because I can see all of my mistakes and how easy it would have been to fix them. I was on a schedule, though, and I just barely finished it in time (1am, Friday night). Why did it need to be finished by Friday night, you ask? Oh, because I had to make these:
Mmmm. I used vanilla bean seeds for the first time in these cupcakes. My mom was really happy. I hope she doesn’t mind me posting a picture with her in it!

These tasted pretty good, but served as a life lesson: don’t try to bake or make meringue buttercream when it is REALLY FREAKING HUMID. Also, don’t forget to put in the last egg white when making said meringue buttercream… >_> In other news, Swiss buttercream was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be, and delicious to boot. I’m bringing in the leftover cuppies for a meeting tomorrow! :D

(And see that cupcake in the bottom-left corner? That's the one my brother ate. Because it had the most frosting. Of course!)

picture spam!

Happy Earth day!! I've made a couple things since my last post, and I've been too lazy to post... sorry. :( A lot is going on. And I have lots of writing that I should be doing... :(

Anywho, Heather came to visit and I made her a mini cake:

(Note to self: next time, DON'T forget the baking powder! hehe)

I also made trifle for my mom:


This is my parents' friend, attempting to ruin my trifle:


And a very scribbly self-portrait:

(At the bottom, it says "Self-portrait #18 million." Probably accurate.)

Caaaaake.

I baked a cake. :3
It's a yellow cake, with white chocolate buttercream frosting and raspberry filling. I layered raspberry jam, raspberries, and frosting in the middle. The pink frosting is raspberry frosting. It is delicious! :D

It really bothers me that all of my cakes and cupcakes come out lopsided. I'm not sure if it's because the oven cooks unevenly, or if the oven is slightly tilted forward. I'm gonna have to invest in something to prop up my pans. Or I could wrap the pans in a wet towel. Y'know.

I'm going to be doing Script Frenzy, starting next... Wednesday? I should probably check that. I'm writing a "script" for a graphic novel about superheroes with useless powers with AJ. It is seriously hilarious. Perhaps I'll post excerpts.

I think I'm going to go work on my painting of Medea

moar cupcakes

I made pina colada cupcakes this weekend. Very delicious. I only got one picture of them, though, which doesn't at all show how pretty they were.

-sigh-

You can almost kind of see how pretty the frosting swirl was, and how there's lime wedges and shredded coconut on top. You can't really see the pretty yellow color they were. I knew I should have taken pictures before I gave them to people, and had someone who wasn't well, er, marinated take a picture.

The recipe was really good, though, and really easy. I used box white cake mix, (lazy) replaced a portion of the water with pineapple juice, and added crushed pineapple to the batter. Then I made simple sugar syrup with pineapple juice (note: do not take eyes off of boiling pineapple juice for more than 5 seconds... seriously.) I added copious amounts of Malibu to the sugar syrup once it cooled, and soaked the cupcakes in it! :3

The buttercream was made the American way, with butter, powdered sugar and milk Malibu. Heh. I also added some of the pineapple simple syrup, and colored it.

32 of the cupcakes went to my friend's birthday party on Friday, with good reviews. (Best review: "Whoah... this isn't an onion. Awesome!" nom nom) I brought the remaining 15 to bf's pre-show band practice. Bf's friends really liked them. I have decided that my groupie responsibilities are pretty much just to make cupcakes for the band.

I drew up a pattern to sew a gumdrop penguin (you gotta see it to understand). I'll get around to making it once I have suitable fabric. Maybe I'll use the same fabric I did to make Matt Demon.

Strawberries!

I've been pretty into strawberries recently. I don't know why. Ok, I know why. They are delicious and they wear their fruit-clothes inside out. And they were on sale at Trader Joe's.

It all started a couple weeks ago when I was thinking about college. In college, I was really poor, but still a bit of a foodie. (And I was really pretentious, but that's beside the fact) A frequent meal of mine would consist of (day-old) french baguettes with hunks of (store brand) cheese. Sometimes I'd drink wine (good ol' strawberry Arbor Mist) with it, and if I was really feeling fancy, I'd steal grab some strawberry slop from the resident's dining hall to eat with it. Iknow, I know, so classy!

The thing is, it was a really delicious combination. So I decided to try to recreate it, with good food.


I soaked strawberries in Cotes du Rhone wine with a bit of black pepper, then baked the (premade, I'm lazy) mini french baguette, and sliced it up. I topped the slices with TJ cheddar cheese (my favorite!) and baked it. I topped the melty-cheesy-bread with the wine-soaked strawberries. It was incredibly delicious, and not just because I had already finished off the bottle of wine. I even made it again for bf, and he agrees. I'll probably post the recipe on recipezaar, when I remember to.

Later, bf and I were talking about how making chocolate is my new thing. I made chocolates for my friend Heather's birthday (and forgot to take a picture >_>) and she really enjoyed them. Bf always has these ideas for Restaurants That He Should Open, and he said that it would be really interesting to open a chocolatier that only made fruit/chocolate combinations.

The idea piqued my interest, so for Valentines Day I made him a box of fruity chocolates.


Obviously, there were chocolate-covered strawberries, which were actually superfun to make. The little chocolates are filled with raspberries that were coated in chocolate and wine truffle. (Note: Chocolate wine truffle was a surprisingly bad idea. I'm going to have to work on it. Or use a recipe next time. It was fine with the raspberries, but not so great on its own.) I also made (no picture) wine-filled chocolates. It was really hard. :( Only four of the nine I tried to make actually worked out, and they leaked a bit. I'm not sure how to make it work next time, but I'll figure it out, cause it was really good.

This reminds me of some polymer clay charms I made. So cute.

Pretty in pink

Yesterday I craved cupcakes. I think you know where this is going:


I stopped at AC Moore on the way home from work (well, it's really quite out of the way, but nevermind that). I bought myself a mini cupcake pan, and a 1M tip. This tip is amazing!! I don't know how I survived without it before! I'm still a beginner with it, but I think I did all right. I had the green cupcake papers from when I made the truffles (I needed something to put them in!). They kind of clash, but I don't really care.

These are (gluten-free!) rice flour cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting. The frosting was a learning experience. I don't know what I was thinking last night, as I joyfully poured the (defrosted, sorry!) strawberries in with the butter, and then tried to mix in the sugar (I'm going to blame it on it being 10pm with only 5 hours of sleep the night before). It was a complete failure. An awful, terrible, disgusting-looking mess. I wish I had thought of taking a picture, because mere words cannot describe how gross it looked. I panicked, and scooped it out of my mixing bowl into another bowl. Then I mixed up some regular, no-flavoring-added buttercream, and slowly added the curdled, nasty blobs that were supposed to be strawberry frosting. The result, as you can see, had no nasty blobs, and had a good strawberry taste, despite only having half the amount of strawberries it was supposed to.


Actually, eating one of these cupcakes tastes a lot like eating strawberry ice cream in a cone. But sans the brain freeze. I have like 2468735789 of these in my fridge. Why did I make them last night!? I knew I wanted to bring them into work, and that I wasn't going to work today because of snow. I set myself up for eating-all-the-cupcakes failure!

Busy busy bunny

I've been busy with work and boyfriend and family and that kind of stuff... I also rearranged my room. I also have been gathering my craft stuff (and my new sewing machine!!!!) together in the basement so that I can set up a craft area down there. It should be excellent.

Anyway, on MLK day, my boyfriend was over, and I had the sudden urge to make truffles. I didn't really have a reason to make them, but I had the ingredients... so I made some! I covered half of them in cocoa powder that had a little cayenne in it, and (with bf's help) dunked the remaining truffles in chocolate and decorated them with white chocolate. I forgot to take a picture of the best-looking ones (which I gave to bf to eat and share with his family). I did take a picture of my less-than-stellar examples, though.


They were delicious, though, and I guess that's what really matters! It's gotten me on a huge chocolate spree, and I bought some chocolate molds. I think that some people are going to be getting handmade chocolates for Valentines Day! Mmm mm!

My dinner date with Heather

Oh yeah, and our menfolk came as well.
Heather and I spent wayyyy too much time making craploads of cupcakes. We made 12 Mars bar/rice crispies "no bake cupcakes" (you can see them in the tower picture), 12 carrot cake cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting, and 12 Victoria sponge cupcakes, half with chocolate buttercream, and the other half with raspberry filling and whipped cream. Delicious. A couple of pictures:
Heather really wanted to try out my snowflake fondant cutters, which I warned her were less-than-useful. It only took her about 18 million tries, but she got 5 snowflakes! Then we stuck the Cornish hens in the oven, later than planned. We made sangria which tasted like "raisin juice," but damn, did it look pretty! I was at the supermarket and I saw some starfruit, which has always interested and intrigued me. I smelled it, and I was SOLD. And, it's even as delicious as it smells. I want to go wherever these things are grown, when they're in season, and try some of those. It must be magnificent. (Yes, I am biased against produce in the supermarket, and for good reason.) But slices of the starfruit looked lovely as garnishes for our sangria. I'll have to try to think of more things to do with it!
The hens were kind of a failure, because Heather and I stuffed them with dates, and then I forgot to factor in that extra time, and we cooked 4 instead of 2, and I didn't factor that in, and we didn't cut them in half, either. So, you guessed it! They were seriously undercooked. It may be tacky to stick a little hen in the microwave during a dinner date, but we were too hungry to wait. Reviews said, however, that the recipe was delicious. I will make it again, but I won't stuff it, and I'll only make 2. And I'll use less olives, cause Josh doesn't like 'em, and who else would I cook it for!?