These are my pets...

I had so many pictures to choose from - indulge me! - I love these two little fuzz heads more than I can possibly explain!



Big sister Hobbes...







Little sister Cassiopeia better known as Cassie, Cass, or the doughnut...

Featured Etsy Blogger :: Cozy

Etsy Blogger Street Team

This month's featured blogger on the Etsy Blogger Street Team forums
is Cozy. She is a pretty awesome street team member! She keeps up with our calendar, and when each member has a birthday, she'll post that member's EtsyMini on her site. Isn't that nice/cool? !

My favorite items from Cozy's Etsy Shop include her Sprinkles Kitchen Cloths, Cotton Ball White Kitchen Cloths, and the sunny Fresh as a Daisy Kitchen Cloths. At $12 for a set of four that's superb value, and eco-friendly to boot!

Be sure to visit Cozy and say hello! She rocks!

Bears for Babies

New England is so crazy! I sat down to write this post five minutes ago, tops, and it got dark and the rain came down so fast and hard I couldn't see across the street through it. Now it's sunny and balmy. So weird.

Anyways...just had to share that! I have many babies to make presents for, for the holidays this year. Two yet to be born, that means shower gifts will be forthcoming too, and my little nephew Mason. I thought it would be cute to give each of them a little hand made bear. The pattern is from Last Minute Fabric Gifts, though I adapted it slightly to my liking by giving the little dude eyes.



He's not quite as lumpy looking in person as he is in this photo, I'm quite pleased with how this came out. It's odd, but the colors I chose are EXACTLY the colors of my childhood bear Pookie - who I'll have to introduce to this blog someday - I didn't even realize it before I put it together! They'll be two more of these to follow, hopefully I can keep up the ass-kicking on my Christmas list ;)

Etsy Bloggers May 26th Blog Carnival : Show me how you make something!

I'm excited to be hosting this week's Etsy Blogger carnival. My theme was tutorials. Show me something, a tute, a recipe, your studio process. Check out the links below to see how they responded:

Maureen Blakeley Impawsible To Resist presents A work in progress - A tutorial - Etsy Bloggers Team Carnival posted at Impawsible To Resist.

Lily Wrey presents May
26 EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival "TUTORIALS" posted at TuLips Talking

Simply Sweet presents Blog Carnival Tutorials posted at Simply Sweet...Homemade Treats

Ashleigh presents Memorial Day 2007 - part one posted at M i l l i p e d e B e a d.

Stormy Designs presents Tutorials by Stormy Designs posted at Stormy Designs.

Jackie presents Talkin' Bout a Revolution posted at A Keeper's Jackpot.

Deb Baroff presents Tips
for Preserving Documents and Photos posted at Stroll Through Storyland.

Anthrid (katy spindler) presents Top Secret Activities— REVEALED!! Part 1 posted at Anthrid- Den of a Thoughtful Rabbit

QuiltsWithHeart presents Quilts With Heart: EtsyBloggers May Carnival: Tutorial posted at Quilts With Heart

Rebecca presents How-to
grab a screen shot posted at FaerieRebecca's Workbench.

Becky presents Tapioca
DeLITE posted at The Fab Miss B

wearewedges presents Blog Carnival Tutorial: How to Make Wedge Treats posted at WE ARE WEDGES.

Rainy presents Tutorials
Blog Carnival - The Best Cookies Eva!!!!!!! posted at RainyDayArt

BabyLyons presents Taking a "Snippet" of your Treasury posted at BabyLyons' Treasuries.

Scribble Nation presents Block
Head posted at Scribble Nation

Kathy Grzedzinski presents Personalized Sterling Silver Bookmarks posted at Moonage Daydreams.

eddy presents The Most Awesome Chocolate Cake, I Can't Believe I'm Sharing This! posted at girleddycreationstation

Megan Juenemann presents The Up-cycled Onesie Dress: A How To posted at Twinkle.

Yazmin presents Etsy Blogger's Carnival: My Photography Setup posted at A Pretty Rock Jewelry - blog.

Kelly presents Tofu scrambler tutorial posted at Kellybot

HomeMadeOriginals presents Tutorial: making simple items using recycled sweaters posted at Home Made Originals.

MoonMystic presents Hypermiling posted at Smell This. . .

Kelly Drill presents posted at Macaroni and Glue.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next
edition of etsybloggers using our carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index
page.

Broadripple Socks :: WIP

These are knit from the glorious aforementioned Tashi that we picked up at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival. They are shaping up to be much, much easier than my first socks, and it leaves me hopeful that I can whip up a dozen pairs of hand made socks in less than a decade.



The pattern I'm using is Broadripple Socks from the summer Knitty, 2003. I messed up the cuff on the first sock, but it's a mistake I celebrate, because I actually like it better than what the pattern calls for. Instead of purling between the cuff rows, I continued to do the pattern over and over and it created a cute wavy edge.



I managed to do the kitchener's stitch for the first time ever, to finish off the toe, and I'm in love with how neat and clean it is!



Now I have to not let the second sock syndrome take over so that I can sport these around town!

P.S. If you are visiting my blog, you'll notice that I've decided to display only one post up per day on the main page. This is so my mom won't go crazy trying to read my blog and avoid seeing her Christmas present at the same time! Mom: If you missed a few older posts, just look at the sidebar to the right and you'll see my previous post titles and archives. You know which one not to look at ;)

CHRISTMAS SPOILER :: MOM DO NOT READ THIS POST

Let me tell you something about my mom.

My mom is a bag lady.

My mom is a bag lady and boy do I follow closely in her footsteps in that regard!

Rarely are we Duclos women seen carrying purses. God forbid! They are much too small to accommodate everything, except the kitchen sink, which we need to be carrying with us at all times, just in case. Of course there are specific bags for specific jobs...The magazine bag, in my mom's case, sometimes categorized into different bags, or sections of one bag by topic: craft magazines and cooking magazines. There's a small purse within one of these bags that holds the essentials, wallet, keys, checkbook and the like. Then there's the ever present project bag, or knitting bag. This is where my mum's Christmas gift will come in handy!

You see - all of these bags that follow my mother around, are always full to the brim. Scissors, needles, threads, crochet hooks all become buried in the rubble of crafty goodness. When I saw Mackville Road's Sewing Bag Tutorial I knew that it would be a perfect, useful, yet sweet gift for my mom for Christmas.

I chose one of mum's favorite color combinations for this, red on white, or natural in this case...



There's an awesome little felt needle booklet on the inside.



Pockets...



I did modify one step of the tutorial. I attached the cover section to the back pocket via machine before stitching up the sides of that pocket. I'm lazy and I didn't feel like hand sewing it. It was a little tricky to maneuver via machine, but I like how it came out!

I'm going to tuck some fun things inside, like new spools of basic black and white thread, needles, some pretty pins, some special buttons. I hope that she likes it! Thanks again to Diane of Mackville Road for posting the tutorial.

Cooking Notes on Rhubarb Crisp

I bought some rhubarb at the farmer's market last weekend. I had never cooked with it before, so I went to one of my new favorite cookbooks, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters, for some inspiration.

I only bought three stalks of rhubarb, so my recipe was considerably smaller than the crisp recipe in the book (it asked for 4lbs of fruit). I made about three cups of the crisp topping, used it as needed and froze the rest for later. Waters doesn't give specific measurements for adding sugar to your crisp fruit, although she states that rhubarb needs "a lot." I added a tablespoon at a time until the tartness didn't quite turn my face inside out, and ended up added a little less than 3/4 of a cup for 3ish cups of fruit. Not for the faint of heart when it comes to sugar!

I baked this at 375F for about 45 minutes, and it's absolutely delicious. After it settled in the refrigerator for awhile, and I reheated it, it almost tastes like peaches! So tasty! Now that I'm not scared of cooking rhubarb anymore, I'm hoping that there will still be some at the market this week, so that I can buy bunches and can it for later.

Cheers, S

Typical Day

Sheesh, I didn't mean to go missing for the past few days. Things have been stressful on my end, with my impending departure from work getting closer and closer, and the new head honcho announced, and in town, (ugh)! I've been doing fun de-stressing things like knitting, going to the ballet, seeing the new Narnia movie (it's great)! But I'll save that for another time, let's get back on track with little meme, shall we? Abby tagged me for the "Typical Day" meme, and I've never done this one so I thought that I'd give it a go. This is any typical weekday for me...


7:00-9:00: Wake up. Depends on a) how late I stayed up and b) how ambitious I'm feeling that morning

8:00-10:00 Coffee - NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! Accompanied by the less important actual breakfast, e-mail/blog reading time.

10:00 Make a "list" for the day and set about doing the tasks on it, (cleaning, working, crafting, grocery shopping, cooking). This is usually accompanied by any number of my Pandora stations.

11:00 After the first task is done, it's back to the computer for a little effing about.

12:00-1:00 More things from "the list"

1:00ish-2:00 LUNCH

2:00ish-3:15ish Usually at this point I decide if anything else on the list is going to get done today, or if I want to squander some more time on the computer before going to work...

3:30ish-9:00pm at the latest: Head to work and teach dance classes.

After work: Maybe home to have dinner with Matt, maybe to one of Matt's shows, maybe out with my dance buds.

Late: Blog surfing/knitting while I watch one of these three things, depending on my husband's whims; CSI (Preferably Vegas, but Miami is great for a laugh), MST3K - that's Mystery Science Theater 3000 for the uninitiated or Family Guy.

12:00-1:00am Go to bed, except if coming home from a Growler show (2:30am-4:00am)

Get up and do it again!

I'll tag Gemma, Abby and Diane if you have time.

Wrap Skirt to Gypsy Dress Reconstruction - With Vague Tutorial

I started with a wrap skirt that never stayed closed on the sides, so I was constantly showing an indecent amount of leg when I wore it. It's been sitting unworn in my closet for over two years.



It also had a few hole where I would safety pin the sides together.





I removed the waist band,



then put right sides together and sewed a side seam.



I cleaned up the edge with my pinking shears for good measure.



I sewed a bib onto an undershirt tank - but I thought it came out a little boring -



so I added some pretty ribbon trim.



I hacked off the bottom of the shirt and attached it to the skirt. I patched the holes with leftover fabric from the waistband. Voila! Now I have a new sun dress that I will definitely wear over and over again! If your skirt is shorter you could use this tutorial to make a tunic like shirt instead. If anyone tries this I'd love to see pictures!



It's best seen larger here.

NH Sheep and Wool Festival 2008 aka a Fiber-Lovers Extravaganza

Warning :: This post my cause you to suffer from fiber sensory overload.

Oh. my. gosh. If you love, knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, the NH Sheep and Wool Festival is possibly the greatest event ever! I don't even know where to begin...

I guess I'll start with my purchases. I had limited funds for the day, but I managed to score some great things.

* The Official Vermont Maple Cookbook purchased from Sweet Maple Alpacas - at $2.25, how could I resist, really?!



* 100% Romney/Border Leicester Roving, hand-dyed, 4oz for $8, purchase from Brimstone Hollow Farm, (no website, 603.525.3070). I plan to use these in another round of thrummed mittens to go into my shop for next winter. The deep red is going to go nicely with the chocolatey brown wool I use to knit those up!



* Tashi, oh, tashi! This was one of the first yarns that we saw during the day, and I thought about passing it by ALL DAY, so we had to return to Ball and Skein's booth before we left. This is to be shared with mum, because at $20 per 195 yards I would have never been able to take this home! It's so soft!!! It's 65% Merino/20% Bamboo/15% Silk and Hand-Dyed, so gorgeous, I could gush on and on about this yarn. Mum and I are going to combine the colors to make shorty anklet socks for summer. I didn't catch her first name, but the owner of Ball and Skein has a blog called Smatterings where she records her spinning and knitting adventures. Smatterings shared her booth with Leslie Wind, a talented jewelry maker who makes shawl pins. She blogs at Folly Cove Fiber Freaks. They were both super nice people, nice chatting with you ladies!

That was it for me on purchases, but I saw so much more that I wished I could've scooped up and taken home with me.

Don't you just want to dive into this hammock of roving from Riverslea Farm?



This yarn from Buckwheat Bridge Angoras was deliciously soft, and I loved the vibrant colors!




I learned tons of fun things too! I was amazed by watching the ladies of the NH Weavers Guild in action. Their work was mind, numbingly over my crafting head!





Another weaver created this ingenious first prize loom out of drinking straws - now that's what I call rock n' roll!



Then there was Dilys Morris (no website, 603.744.3047), who sells ancient beads for support spindles from every continent. She was kind enough to give us a spinning demonstration.





I know this is turning into a fiber love-fest novel, but this post wouldn't be complete without mention of the many cutie animals that I saw...

Like these guys:



Look at that punim!



This fluff ball is an angora bunny:



Oh there was food too - frozen apple cider, cobbler straight out of the oven and a fair staple, fried dough - yum!



Are you still with me? Here are links to more fibery/crafty goodness.

* Cheryl Kumiski - beautiful, art glass jewelry and buttons

* Ewe and I Farm

* Foxfire Fiber and Designs - this booth had some fun knitting patterns such as the bird in the hand mittens and the wintergreen mittens.

* Maple Creek Farm

* Melissa Jean Handknit Design - original patterns and AMAZING handmade buttons

* Thyme and Ewe Farm -my mom bought a ton of preserves and jams from this booth.

This is...what reminds me of my mum

When I saw this week's "This is" topic, it really stumped me for a moment. My mom is such an integral part of my everyday existence, that it was difficult for me to think of something that reminded me of her. I see her a few times a week. We knit, we cook, we sew, my mom fixes my sewing mistakes as I get crabby and eat doughnuts, (more on that thrilling topic soon)! Being reminded of something makes me think "past tense" so it's not surprising that the memory that popped into my head for today's Mother's Day post was something from our mother/daughterly past...

Music, for me, is something that is inherently entwined with memory. I'm sure that if I put enough thought into it, that I could make a mix tape of songs composed entirely of music that reminds me of specific moments in my life. Certain songs just bring me back to a past moment in an instant! You may laugh at what comes next, but it is the absolute, honest truth.

The album that reminds me of my mother is ABBA Gold - Greatest Hits



Oh, ABBA. I love ABBA. Listening to ABBA is a completely corny, guilty pleasure of mine. It may be one of my mother's lesser gifts to me, but a gift nonetheless!

I don't remember exactly when my mom got this CD, but we didn't have a CD player until I was in 8th grade/high school, so it must have been around that time. This was definitely one of the first CDs that my parents bought for themselves. Every weekend my mom would blast this throughout the house. ABBA was cleaning music. ABBA was for washing dishes, and shouting lyrics over the hum of the vacuum, and I ate it up. To this day, hearing Fernando, Chiquitita, Money, Gimme a Man After Midnight and all the rest make me think of my mom. Those songs make me want to dance with a vacuum, sing into the handle like it's a microphone and hard core clean my house.

I'll leave you with an ABBA classic, Thank You for the Music. I loved this song as a kid. I thought it was about me, except for the golden-haired, beautiful Swedish girl aspect of it. Thanks for the music mom, and everything else that you do for me. Happy Mother's Day!

Saturday Scores - All About the Farmer's Market

This week's bounty:

* Seen above: Starter lemon verbena, thyme, lemon basil (from another farm, I can't remember the name!), rosemary, greek oregano and orange mint respectively, plus a bar of beeswax calendula soap from Ragged Robin Herb Farm

* A delicious Indian bean(?), pea(?), (can't remember I ate it too fast), dish prepared with spices and coconut with saffron flavored rice, on the side, from Divine Cuisines from Kittery. Matt and I devoured this for lunch today - so good! Apparently they're opening a restaurant in Kittery very soon. This will be a must to revisit for the future!

* Another visit to Sugar Momma for a maple candy, my beloved maple cream and this week, something new, maple coated walnuts to go into my salad. Sugar Momma told me that I'm going to need a 12-step program by the end of the year. Umm, I think she's right. I have a slight maple problem.

* A medicinal buy from Blueberry Hill. Little known fact here on the bloggy, I've suffered from mild psoriasis my whole life. I'm running out of my store bought cream that I've used for years, that doesn't really do anything except moisturize, and I'm looking for an herbal alternative. I bought a tincture made from burdock, red clover and yellow dock that you take with a little water everyday. It's supposed to be good for any skin ailments, so I'm interested to see if there are any marked improvements!

* Italian Sausage from Kellie Brook Farm

I love shopping at the market, because you always run into people that you know. I saw a few of my dance students, and I bumped into Sara Zoe from the Seacoast Eat Local blog.

That's it for me today! Tomorrow I'm going to the Sheep to Shawl NH Fiber Festival. Whoo-hoo! I'm sure I'll come back with lots to share!

Crochet Bandit

I've reached clinical crafting insanity. I've decided to teach myself how to crochet, (okay with heavy help from my Stitch n' Bitch ladies + and the SnB lady, Debbie Stoller), because I truly have an insane amount of leisure time to devote this. I've already torn apart the swatch that you see in the photo above and have made a new, slightly less wonky, more even little number. I now know how to chain, single, half double and double...whoo-hoo!

The reason that I'm doing this is that I've become obsessed with crocheted necklaces lately, like this one from Creative Yarn's Etsy shop.

Beautiful? Yes. Can I afford to pay $23.50 for it? No, but if you can, I've linked to the store so hop to it! Can I make it myself? Probably. Without swearing? Definitely not.

I'm so happy that I learned to knit first, because crochet is so fast! If I learned how to crochet first I would never have had the patience to knit anything. Crochet is definitely difficult thus far for me for two reasons: 1) I want to move my yarn around, and not let my needle do the work 2) Crochet directions have nothing to do with their names. For example "double crochet" implies to me, as a knitter that I have to make two maneuvers to complete this stitch. Wrong! Try...like five maneuvers. Throw in some swearing, okay six maneuvers. Wind, push, loop pull, loop wind -AHHHHHH! I'll get the hang of it, I'm sure. We'll see how it goes!

Hibba Bibba

I'm feeling a little clothing recon crazed lately. I have urgent desires to attack everything in my closet and cute it up for summer.



This shirt is a hand-me-down from my sister, that I've had forever, but I've never really cared for the Old Navy, fake "Miami Athletic" club logo. It's also a little short, so I always layer it over something, and until now it's pretty much been relegated to studio time or pajama duty.

Not anymore!



I've had a fat quarter of the red and white print for a long time, and have never quite figured out what to do with it. I purchased the rick-rack as a finishing touch - bringing the project total to .99 ish cents. I think that's a pretty sweet trade off for my spankin' new shirt!

Ugly logo-ed t-shirts, beware! I feel a bibbifying campaign coming on!

Skully Fake Isle - Complete!

My skully fake isle is done!









What I learned:

* I hate circular needles, so I made the large size of this on double pointed needles. I don't recommend doing this! The tension caused the design to be difficult to block, and fit a little snugly across the forehead area.

* The large size is LARGE, if I were to make this again for myself I would probably make the regular size.

Hopefully my hubby likes it! I think it will be a good snow-boarding hat. What do you think?

Farmers' Markets Return to the Seacoast!

Last Saturday I attended Portsmouth's first farmers' market of the season. There were more vendors than I expected, considering the long winter that we (fingers crossed - barring all freak snow storms!) seem to have finally pulled through. There were many shoppers out as well, despite the rain, and I enjoyed taking in the scene, observing the shared excitement among the attendees for local food and goods.



I felt that this excursion was applicable to share on the NH Etsy Street Team blog because growing the food you eat is about as DIY/handmade as one can get. It's no secret that I have enormous respect for local food producers. I view crafters, artisans and farmers as part of the growing diy community. Many of us are returning to traditions of making things by hand, consuming less, taking care of the earth, living respectfully off of the land. Participating in these actions brings me joy. Being a part of this community gives me hope for a better planet. We are part of the solution.

The following quote really hits the nail on the head for me:

"...buying local supports community economic development, helping communities sustain their livelihood and character. It provides access to the freshest food available, enhancing taste and reducing food waste. And it strengthens our food community, encouraging social networks and food security in our communities and regions. Not only that, but knowing where your food comes from can help you advocate for lower-carbon production methods in your community, such as reducing fertilizer usage, no-till agriculture methods, and pasture-based livestock systems." (Originally posted on Discover(ing) Sustainability, UNH's sustainability blog, and re-posted, where I saw it, on Seacoast Eat Local. )

I urge you to support your local farmers in the coming months. Challenge yourself to eat one meal made of entirely local ingredients this summer. Discover what foods are unique to your area - and taste them! You might be surprised at just how easy and fun this can be!


Cheers, Sarah aka geek+nerd

Seacoast Growers Association Markets

Portsmouth: Every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the City Hall lot on Junkins Avenue - special opening ceremonies to be held the second week of the market, May 10th!

Dover: Wednesdays starting June 4, 2:30-6 p.m., McIntosh College’s Atlantic Culinary Academy parking lot, 181 Silver St.

Durham: Mondays starting June 2, 2:30-5:30 p.m., Durham traffic circle, Pettee Brook parking lot

Exeter: Thursdays starting June 5, 2:30-6 p.m., Swasey Parkway; Hampton: Tuesdays starting June 3, 3:00-6 p.m., Route 1, across from the post office

Kingston: Tuesdays starting June 3, 2:30-5:30 p.m., Main Street.

There are twenty markets in York, Strafford and Rockingham counties, view links to information and locations on this map.

Not in NH? Search this national database for a market near you.