Punk Rock Flea Market

So... yesterday Mary, the ridiculously awesome knitter chick, and I had our very own (half) table at Philly's R5 Punk Rock Flea Market. This was our first time at any type of craft market! Being the "pro-craft-inators" that we are, we were exhausted, but proud, as we hawked the goods that we created during the late night before the market and in the weeks just prior to the big day. The sale was kind of a bust, as people only seemed interested in buying used clothes and VHS (don't ask me why) tapes and not well crafted and unique finds, but we had fun!

Here's some of the goods we had on sale:

Mary's Ridiculously Awesome Knitting

And here are my assorted goods:

Yummy Vegan Treats

Monkey Bread

Chocolate Truffles

Mary also represented Northern Liberties Soy Cafe with their delicious Vegan chocolate chip and oatmeal-cranberry cookies. Yum!

Embroidery

Clothes

Thrifted purple velvet skirt from Goodwill with hand-made fabric flowers from my fabric stash (seared at the edges) and embroidered... it didn't sell, which I am actually happy about as it will now have a home in my wardrobe...

We had a talented digital artist by the name of Kristin Grossi from Marilla1918.etsy.com as our neighbor. It was dangerous to have her as our neighbor, as we basically used any of the $ we made on her designs. Mary got this crazy cute robot framed print and I got her Woodland Friends and Octopus prints to decorate our house. She was also super sweet. Check her out on Etsy for some handmade goods for the holidays.

xoxoxo

I love Fall!

As you might have guessed by the title of this blog, I love the fall. It is my favorite season, hands down. When I lived in California, I missed the fall. They have fall, but it is just not the same. No crisp, cool Autumn air, no crunch of the leaves under your feet, no smell of a fireplace.

Some of the best things in my life happened during the fall. I was born in the fall...I guess this is the best thing of all! I married the love of my life in the fall and I adopted the feline love of my life (Pumpkin - the name also gives away how much I love the season) in the fall. My favorite holiday is in the fall. And all the best foods are in season in the fall, pumpkins, acorn squash, and of course, pumpkin pie!

So, to celebrate the Fall, I've started making some Fall crafts. Here is the first:

I feel as though this wreath truly embodies the season: the warm chocolate yarn, the flowers the colors of the falling leaves.

This fall wreath will be going to someone very special in my life...

xoxoxo

Babies!!!

Lots of friends and lots of family members are having babies lately. I can't bring myself to purchase any old gift from Babies R Us. What fun would that be? So, I've started making diaper cakes. Not only are they useful at the party (i.e. as decor) but they are, so I've been told, a very useful present after the baby comes home.

Here are some cakes I've made:

My first:

My most recent:

xoxoxo

Bean Burger ... Bazinga!

I plan on whipping up these deliciously simple burgers to chomp on while I watch the season premiere of The Big Bang Theory...

The ingredients...

Mash 1/2 can of canneleni beans and 1/2 can of black beans. Add 1/2 onion diced, 2 cloves garilc minced, 1/2 pepper diced, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1tbsp crushed tomato, one egg, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp parsley, salt and pepper to taste and mix together.

Now here comes the fun part... divide the batch into six equal parts, rolling into balls and then flattening into patties. Since I don't eat meat, I've never made hamburgers or meatballs. This part of the recipe is surprisingly fun!

Fry the patties up in a bit of oil... I used olive oil but you could certainly use the spray to cut the fat.

Add some melted cheese or any toppings of your liking. Here I added cheese and avocado. So as not to waste the remainder of the beans, I've also made a black and canneleni bean hummus which made a delicious spread for the burger bun. I used the flat bread buns here, but any bun will do!

Enjoy!

*note to self - do not choke on Bean Burger while laughing hysterically at BBT*

B is for Bear...

I've been on an embroidery kick for the past year. Last year around this time, I started on a very special project for the newest little one in my life, my beautiful nephew Braydon. This project took me a long, long time... to be exact, the length of the entire first three seasons of Heroes streaming from netflix! I must say, the first two seasons were definitely the best, the show seemed to go downhill after that....

Anyway... the time spent was well worth it just to see the look on his parents faces when they opened the gift at Christmas.

Without further ado...

To make the project even more of a challenge, my nephew just had to have the letters "y" and "n" in his name. Actually, the "y" panel presented much less of a challenge then "n" did. Just try finding an animal that starts with the letter "n" that a small child will recognize... I dare you.

The panels were constructed entirely of felt. Each piece was drawn by hand, then cut, and hand-sewn onto the panel. I added some touch & feel components to each panel too, including a silky fabric for the fish and the carrot, a fluffy fabric for the cloud, buttons in the shapes of airplanes, a duck, and apples, and some plastic under the alligator and the moon to give them a crunchy sound when touched. All of the panels were then bound into a book. The binding was also stitched by hand. I was a bit tired by that point, and I think it might have even been Christmas Eve, so a picture was never snapped of the book after binding.

The project was inspired by a post I read on Craftster.org, one of the best crafting websites around.

xoxoxo

You've gotta have goals...

In May of this year, my husband and I bought our first house. We bought a house so that we could have somewhere we loved to live and raise a family... but most importantly so that we could adopt a dog!

We adopted Barlow, a chocolate lab-mix, from a rescue in Chester County, PA... La Mancha Animal Rescue (lamanchaanimalrescue.20megsfree.com). La Mancha is a "no-kill" rescue that has so many adorable dogs, cats, and horses to adopt. Although our hearts were breaking for an older dog, we adopted a puppy. We have a lot of time right now to care for one and knew that it was probably the only time in our lives we would have the patience, energy, and time needed to raise a puppy. Barlow's beautiful colors, sweet personality, and gorgeous brown eyes won us over the minute we saw her. So, home she came.

My husband wanted to put her into obedience classes. I vehemently argued against it, not because I didn't want a well behaved dog, but because I knew that I could do it myself! My Master's is in Applied Behavior Analysis, the science that is the foundation for animal training. I was not going to pay someone my hard earned cash to teach me what I learned in my first class at school!

So, we embarked on training this sweet little pup. So, far we have her sitting, lying down, giving "high fives", and shaking paw. Peeing and pooping outside of the house, well, that is another story...hey, you have to have priorities, right?

So, I set a goal for this weekend and that goal has been achieved...

Enjoy Barlow's new trick!

xoxoxo

If you can't find it, make it yourself!

I've been searching and searching for a a bulletin board/key hang combo that was pretty and matched my kitchen decor. Today, I got so tired of looking (shopping is certainly not one of my favorite activities) that I decided to make one myself....

Here is the finished product:

And here's how I did it:

1. Bought an 8.5 x 11 picture frame at Michael's, some cute hooks at Target, and attached them with a little help from a drill, a screwdriver, and my husband!

2. Bought some beautiful scrap-booking paper (again at Michael's - my fav) and cut it to the size of the frame backing...

3. Bought a 5-pack of thin, 8.5 x 11 sheets of cork-board...

4. Removed the glass and placed the scrap-booking paper into the frame...

5. Placed 3 sheets of the cork-board into the frame and on-top of the paper...

6. Added the frame backing...

7. And here it is complete...

I no longer have to waste my time shopping when I could be playing with my puppy!

xoxoxo