Happy birthday Gayle!

Tonight we have Gayle and Nancy over for a birthday dinner celebration. Elle asked me to make steaks (Dad style) and a coconut cream pie (Kentucky style).

So, last weekend we did a test run of the steaks because, let's be honest, who likes steak cooked more than medium??? Not I. Steaks should never be any color but pink while you're eating them. Yet, elle and her mom and dad like medium well. Ho hum... Last Sunday's dinner was lovely, even though I was the only one eating. (Poor elle had a stomach bug, but sweetly sat with me while I ate my half of our fancy Sunday dinner.)

Tonight I have selected loin cut steaks, and I'm using the traditional Dad style coriander/garlic rub. NOM. The house smells great as the steaks are in the microwave, just getting to know their rub a little better.

For the coconut cream pie, I jump into the family recipe book. Aunt Vic's coconut cream pie is DELISH and TO DIE FOR with calories: butter, sugar and everything baked goods offer to make Americans over weight. In the spirit of trying my best to keep elle's dad's bday dinner semi healthy, I elected the following substitutions:

splenda for sugar

light butter for butter

light pie crust for regular pie crust

skim milk for milk

lite coolwhip for whipping cream w powered sugar

And, Voila.

I know, I know, I KNOW. The pie is a bastardization of the original recipe. But, it might be good. may be? The toasted coconut isn't on the pie just yet... we still have 2 hours to wait, and I didn't want soggy toasted coconut topping.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed!

Peacock clutch

Tonight I started work on seester's peacock clutch.  My first adventure is dry felting the feathers. I want to make two.

Gosh, my arm is tired!

Incase you're unfamiliar with dry felting, its when yarn is stabbed into fabric with a special barbed needle. I love the raised affect it creates to a peice of fabric.

I don't love this feather. I'm thinking it needs more whispy outside strands. I'll get there... just not tonight.

An over crafter?

While I'm working on the gift set for leslie's benefit, I had to stop and make something just for me.

Maybe I like to over craft? Possible. I now have a pruse, a clutch and a card holder that I carry with me. Super ooober organization here, people.

In this pic is my new hummingbird card holder. It lives nicely in my clutch and safely keeps my cash and cards from rolling around in my clutch.

Yes!

Copy cat crafter

Found this neat-o craft on etsy and had to make myself one (well, ok, three).  Its an ipod/cellphone pillow, allowing for easy reading vertically or horizontally, or just a cute comfy spot for your most used electronic.

I (of course) made three. The prototype taught me that rice stuffing doesn't really work for these. Numbers two and three are filled with stuffing and super light.  Not really what I think they should feel like, but they work, for now.

Next week I have a new commission for a bit warmer (yay Kim and her horse, Jazz), so I'm hoping to have an easy evening schedule to get that little innovation created and photographed, just for your viewing pleasure.

A weekend of failures

Yep. Crafting this weekend was a dud. Let's recap:

First, the kilt.

Ya know, it's wearable but I royally screwed up with the pocket. Yes, there are belt loops and a pocket. It's totally a kilt, but if Derrick decides to wear the belt, he can't get into the pocket.

Lesson learned: kilts are easy, once I get a male human or dress form in my life. But no model and fitting a kilt to me, does little to help.

And finally, the jean rug.

It's totally fixable. I'm just angry about its bubling. I pulled the thread too tight near the end. Either a redo for a rug or some slight edits for a kitty bed.

Lesson learned: don't pull thread too tightly when forming circle patterns. Sad part about this lesson is that I already know this skill from knitting in circles. UGH!

A hunk of braided jeans

I'm half way there!

Here is a pile of the completed, braided jeans. 4 pairs of jeans and one skirt. A circular rug (hopefully) will be the outcome!