Fern Watercolor

Last Monday, May 21st, was my mom's birthday. We had her and my dad over for a special dinner and presents. 

My mom loves ferns, so I made some fern art for her. Remember this post with the oak leaf? I used the same coloring book and tracing method, and used another page from the same linguistics book.

Then I painted the fern in with watercolors.   

I had the book page professionally framed here (they do an amazing job!).

My mom collects different editions of Pinocchio, and when my guy and I were at Powell's last summer, he found this for her.

We wrapped her presents in kraft paper, doilies, and baker's twine.

She loved them!

Organization Tip: Earring Display

I just read Elsie's post on organization, including ways to display jewelry, and it made me think that some of you might find this earring organization tip useful (plus it's really, really easy!). 

All you need are two pushpins and some fishing line (or clear wire). Cut your fishing line to slightly more than twice the length of where you are going to hang it. I have a wooden shelf in my closet that I attached it to, so I stretched the fishing line across the length of the shelf, then doubled that amount and added a little more so that it has a bit of give.

Tie the loose ends of the fishing line together so you have one big loop, and then start twisting it (a lot). Once the whole thing has been twisted, use your pushpins to attach both ends wherever you are hanging it (in this case, the edges of my shelf).

All that twisting made little loops, and now you can put one pair of earrings together in each loop.

This works for any type of earring back - I use this for all my earrings, except for the tiniest little studs.

So now not only are my earrings all together in one place, they are easy to see and choose from and they look pretty. Functional and decorative is always a plus!  

Moving!

Please excuse my long blog absence - we have been busy, busy, busy! The main cause of our busy-ness was moving. We've been living between two houses for awhile now, and we finally sold one of them! 

My guy and I each had a house, and so it was double the yard work and double the housework, not to mention splitting our time between both houses. It's nice to both be together under one roof all the time now, but we're still dealing with piles and boxes! In the meantime, we're trying to find and enjoy the beauty in the mess: 

: vintage linens
: pictures waiting to be hung
: stacks of books
: kitties exploring new furniture and empty boxes
: arranging things
: fresh flowers
: books on shelves
: catnaps
: a clean(ish) kitchen
: re-arranging things
: and drinks at the end of a long day

Thank you to those of you who have left comments and emailed in my blog absence. I have missed being here, and I'm glad to be back!

x Katherine

Valentine's Toast

Tell your loved ones how you feel with toast this Valentine's day! 

 To make this love-ly breakfast (sorry, couldn't help it!), start by toasting two pieces of bread.

Choose a red jam in any flavor you like (I used some of the homemade raspberry jam we make every year).

Take a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and cut out the shape on one of the pieces of toast.

On the other piece, spread a thick layer of jam.

Put the cut-out piece on top of the other, and your sweet Valentine's toast is done!

I'll be making this for my guy for breakfast on Tuesday.

Have fun with different shapes!

(The part you cut out is cute with a little jam on it, too).

Enjoy!
xo

Chicken & Egg

So I was just reading Abbey's post about the book Chicken and Egg, and I thought - hey! I wrote about that, too. But I realized as I was looking through my archives that I had written it, but for some reason never posted it. I'm not sure why? But anyway, here's a really old post about a really great book:

The last weekend in April, I got to go to such a cool event.

The author of the book Chicken and Egg was at the Bibelot on Grand Ave. doing a book signing, and she had one of her chickens with her!

She also had yummy treats made from some of the recipes in the book.

AND, best of all, I got to hold the chicken! She is a Silver Wyandotte named Coco.

This was absolutely thrilling for me! I love chickens, and I really, really want to own some. It was great talking to Janice (the author) because she's local, and so she had really great advice for owning chickens in Minnesota.

So that's all I had written in my draft. Maybe I had been planning on adding more, but now I can't think what that would have been. As Abbey says, the book is gorgeous. And you really should go check out what she made from it. Delicious!

Knit Bow Ear Warmer With Pattern/Tutorial

Last week I discovered a new-to-me blog, and completely fell in love with it. It's Rebekka's blog, Dear Friend (found via Stephmodo). Go check it out! You will not be disappointed. Rebekka writes in such a sweet way, and she has beautiful photos. In addition to that, she has started to knit, and knits up the most wonderful things. On Friday, as I was looking back through her archives, I saw this bow ear warmer that she had made:

Photo from Dear Friend, used with permission from Rebekka.

I just knew I had to have one for myself, but there was no pattern to go with it, so I made one up. I thought I would let you know how I did it, in case you would like to make one, too! (And I heard from Rebekka that so many people wanted to make it, that she's writing up a pattern for it and is hoping to post it soon. I wonder how similar our patterns will be?)

This is one of those projects that is so satisfying. As soon as I saw the photo, I looked through the yarn in my stash, and grabbed this one. Then I knit here and there over the weekend (by the fire...), and then had my guy take photos of the finished ear warmer for me on Monday. So quick and easy!

I didn't think to take photos of the process until I was almost done, but I'll do my best to explain what I did. The yarn I used is Vintage Chunky by Berroco, and the color is 6165 (if you're local, I'm pretty sure I got this at The Yarnery. I just had one skein - if I remember correctly, it was an impulse buy. I just couldn't pass up the color!).

If you want yours to turn out with a similar look, you do need a chunky yarn. Mine called for size 10 needles, but I used size 11 (when I went to grab my 10s I only found one. Not one pair, just one. And I couldn't wait to start the project, so I used 11s).

The main difference that I see between mine and Rebekka's is that I knit a decorative edge on, which you can do or not. Basically, I purled the first stitch in each row, and knit the rest. So here's what I did:

Cast on 16 stitches.
Row 1: knit 15 stitches, slip remaining loop onto needle holding previous 15 stitches.
Row 2: purl first stitch, then move yarn behind needle so it is ready to knit. Knit 14 stitches, slip final stitch onto needle.
Repeat row 2 until your desired length. You want it to have to stretch a little to go around your head. I just kept holding mine up to see if it was long enough. Once you reach desired length, cast off.
[If you don't want the edging I did, skip slipping the last stitch and purling the first, and just knit all stitches.]

I then used a tapestry needle to sew the ends together.

This is what it looked like when they were sewn together - then flip it so the seam is on the inside.

To make the bow, I just took a long length of yarn, and wrapped it around the band over and over, then sewed the ends in. Originally, I thought to wrap it around where the seam was so that it wouldn't be visible, but the seam was a little stiff and didn't gather well - but you could definitely try it on the seam and see if you have better luck!

I've never written a knitting tutorial before, so if you have any questions or if anything is unclear, let me know in the comments.

Also, if you are interested in a photo tutorial for the edging, let me know. I'm visual and learn better if I can see what I'm supposed to be doing, and I would be happy to put that together if anyone would find it useful!

Do let me know if you end up making one of your own.

Happy knitting!
xo