When Crafts Go Bad

I thought I would take this opportunity to get real. I've looked at hundreds of great blogs written by extremely talented people showing off their best work. But what about the projects that go wrong? The gorgeous skirt that just didn't work out right or the gourmet brownies that burned on the edges and stuck to the pan? Seems those never make the cut. Not only do they die a painful death somewhere during the creative process but they never receive the honor of being blogged about. Well that's all about to change. I'm going to break the stepford-like tradition of blogging and write about a project gone bad.

I started out with this cute and campy pair of fuzzy toe socks that someone gave my daughter as a gift a while back. My daughter isn't able to wear toe socks and was pretty bummed. I decided I'd cheer her up and surprise her by refashioning them into something cool. But what would it be? I thought maybe a pair of regular socks; but that wasn't inventive enough. Then it hit me, arm warmers. Something fun and colorful she could wear with a short-sleeved tshirt during the winter - her arms would be warm in style. Maybe it would even start a fashion trend, I thought confidently. So I started into it, figuring I'd catalog this great moment in fabric refashioning through photographs. Surely this project would be post-worthy!

Sadly, it was not, something went horribly wrong. The fabric wouldn't cooperate, the seams were all lumpy and awful. I ended up having to trim into the cute little froggy's face in an attempt to fix the lumpy seams. The result was misshapen and awful. I wish I had allowed myself enough room at the time to be okay with my failed project. I should have given myself credit for trying and chocked it up to lessons learned. But I was upset that I flubbed it. I finally just had to scrap them. Try as I might to save them from the landfill, that's where they ended up. I took my daughter shopping and let her pick out a cute pair of socks which made her happy. The moral here is live, learn and keep it real. To everyone out there who has made a crafty faux pas, know that you are not alone. There's room in the blogosphere for that much honesty. Besides, it made for two fun photos and a confessional blog post so I guess it wasn't all bad.

Cool Tool: Gasoline vs. Hybrid Calculator

I dare you to type in your current car versus an alternative fuel or hybrid vehicle and see the difference. It can be pretty significant. Like in our case: I drive to work five days a week with an hour commute each way. (Yes, that actually means I burn 2 hours a day sitting in a frigging car instead of doing something useful, unbelievable.) Anyway, our minivan is no spring chicken and our pickup truck was drinking up gas at last years $4.00 a gallon high. Something had to give. A friend of mine turned me onto hybridcars.com. I think you’ll agree it’s a snazzy little cyber-gadget! You type in the info for the vehicle you’re driving now and then compare it to the hybrid or alternative fuel vehicle of your choice. For us it was our Dodge Dakota pickup vs. the two top-selling hybrids at the time, the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius. The Prius took the prize in every way; lowest emissions and highest MPG. It’s been almost a year since we traded our truck for the hybrid and this cool tool played a big part in our decision. Even if you’re not looking to trade-up, it’s worth checking out just to learn more about your personal energy consumption and fuel costs.

Tool Wishlist: KitchenAid Food Processor

While I was struggling with my blender to puree butternut squash & curried pear soup the other day, I was reminded of how much I wish I had a food processor. And not just any food processor but the winner of the Cook’s Illustrated food processor equipment review, of course. The coveted KitchenAid Professional KFP750. According to the test kitchen gurus over at Cook’s Country, it’s hefty 12-cup capacity bowl performed very well chopping, pureeing and making pie/bread dough and comes with a handy mini-bowl attachment that makes short order of chopping herbs, etc. I can imagine dozens of ways that it would speed up food prep in my kitchen. Fresh salsa would be a snap as would pureed veggies for soups and sauces. And I wonder what I could do with chocolate(?) For now it’s on my wishlist, hopefully someday soon I’ll have one of my very own. ;-)

Old School Woodsy

If you grew up in the 70’s, you might remember Woodsy Owl. I was big into Woodsy! He was green before going-green was popular. I was in girl scouts then and decided to start picking up trash along some of the country roads near my house. It started out as work to earn a merit badge. Somehow I even managed to get my parents and little brother involved. I’d like to think it was my clever persuasiveness but more likely I just wore them down with incessant nagging. We each put on a pair of heavy work gloves, toted big black trash bags and set out on more than one occasion to gather up whatever less-thoughtful people had tossed out on the roadsides. It was a pretty thankless job, messy and sometimes stinky. But I always felt good about it. Like I was undoing a bad thing. A little average kid from southwestern Pennsylvania, actually making a difference in the world around me.

Some years later when I was in my twenties, I went on a date with a forest ranger. We went on a hike to a beautiful, remote area in the Ouachita Mtns. When we got back from the hike to the parking area, we noticed some hikers had thrown a bag of trash out of their car. The ranger promptly wrote them a citation, tucked it under their windshield wiperblade and threw the trash bag in the back of his truck so it could be disposed of properly. My own personal Woodsy Owl — except he looked much better in the uniform — I was in love! (okay, that’s a little heavy on artistic license. Obviously there was more to it than that, but you get the idea.)

We now have two little woodsies' of our own and take small trash bags with us when we hike. Sometimes even when we walk in our neighborhood. So on this first day of spring when we’re all looking forward to spending more time outdoors, I’d like to challenge you to do your part. Pick up what others carelessly toss or accidentally lose. Keep an extra trash sack in your car or in your pocket just for the occasion. Get your kids in on the act. Let them learn firsthand that little acts of kindness and stewardship make a big difference in the scheme of things.

Happy Spring!

Sharing the giveaway love

I am home today with a sad tummy, but I wanted to share this cute jewelry giveaway: Cinnamon Sticks handmade jewelry with custom handstamped message. The winner will receive a $20 gift certificate to her online store. Check it out at Cinnamon Sticks GUEST GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!! Hurry it ends tomorrow 3/18! Good luck. :-)

Calling all artsy girls

More artist trading card fun, except this one’s for us ladies: Sister Trading Cards. I’m definitely signing up. Please spread the word by passing this post to any and all your girlyfriends and soul sisters.

Here’s the scoop:
send 20 ATCs (20 different ones or 20 times the same)
size 2 ½ x 3 ½ inches (64 mm x 89 mm)
sign, number and date on the back of the card
no theme, all techniques, no deadline, you’ll get a set of 20 in return

send to:
STC c/o Cat Schick
246 23rd Ave. NW
Calgary, AB
T2M 1S2 Canada

March of the Tools: Vintage Screwpull

This has to be one of my all time favorite kitchen tools. Indeed we’ve had a long love-love relationship with our sleek black ScrewPull corkscrew. We’ve been using this one for over 15 years and it still works great. I was happy to see they are still making this model since it’s such a functional design. Interestingly it’s been snapped up, in the states at least, by Le Creuset (which is a whole other bit of loveliness, but I’ll save that for another post).

I used to have one of those dinky corkscrews with the flappy metal wings that you pull down on each side. In theory, it was supposed to force the cork up and out. Yeah, right. It never worked. Either I’d end up with a hundred tiny chunks of cork floating in my vino or I’d somehow manage to injure myself with the ill-designed contraption. Back in the day, a coworker told me about her corkscrew; how great it worked, how it was so easy to use and that it’d never cracked a cork. So I visited the local kitchen store and picked one up. What a difference a good corkscrew can make. It operates really smoothly and easily. The only time I ever injured myself with it was when my Mom brought over a bottle of wine to share and I, being the semi-wine snob that I am, assumed it was a cork and proceeded to ram my corkscrew down through the top of the screw-on cap (duh!). It emerged unscathed, though my thumb sadly did not. Stupidity aside, this is a solid, sturdy, well-designed tool. If you are even the least bit frustrated with your current wine opening device, I’d urge you to consider a ScrewPull. It’s a handy gadget to have around after a hard week!