A Blueberry Pake

   In the last month or so, I finally decided to move to Houston, TX (shout out to my brother Chris!) So I have been thoroughly busy deciding what to take instead of making anything new. However, I had the day off on the fourth of July and I wanted to bake! I wanted something "American" - and I had a lot of blueberries just waiting to go bad before I could eat them all- so I immediately thought of making blueberry pie. I mentioned this idea to my boyfriend, who said, "oh I hate pie, I like cake better" and that blueberry pie dream was killed. Of course, I never really love fruit pies myself and I know how much work they take (hello lattice crust: my worst nightmare), so I wasn't entirely mad at my BF for pointing his preference out.

But what else could I make?
Of course, of course! A Pake!

    If anyone else out there is addicted to Drop Dead Diva, they will immediately know what I am talking about since Stacy's Pakery has been in the plot-line for the show for a while now.  For all those others though, a pake is a pie recipe mixed with a cake recipe. If you search for "pake" on google, you will get a fully made pie inside of a cake (aka too much work). Instead, my pake has a pie crust and the bottom half is fruit filling; the top half is a sour cream cake. Goodbye need for a lattice top.

Steampunk Jewelry, Part 2

  
My friend Courtney reminded me today that I haven't posted anything new here for almost a month. Mainly, this is because I haven't had any new crafts to post about because I have been working so hard on getting ready for my first show at Soonercon (a comic convention in Oklahoma). I was making pendants (refer back to my first post about this topic) and my life exploded steampunk.


     Everyone in my family kind of jumped on board, from helping me take apart watches to coming up with new things to make steampunk-esque. My grandfather had a huge collection of keys, including some awesome skeleton keys, so those began to feature prominently in my work.

     Today was the first day of the convention and it was an interesting experience (shout out to: the guy who bought my very first piece; the girl who picked out my mother's favorite; and the little girl who loved the shiny, bling-ed out keys- thanks!) I will be putting up a page devoted to my work, so check back later for more on that.

Get Organized

      This is a project we've needed for quite some time: Cleaning up the workbench. Usually, it's such a mess that you really can't find anything you need in order for it to be productive. So over time, it gets used less and less because it isn't easily accessible and you can't ever find the tool you are looking for.  My dad is a bit of a tool hoarder (sorry dad, the truth had to come out sometime)- even if it is rusty or doesn't work well, it is kept just in case "it could be of use someday"

Just look at the amount of tape I used to make all these labels! (To the left of the storage bin)

     He already has one storage bin for small pokey things (nails, screws, molly bolts, washers, etc.), but he still had more, overflowing from recycled butter tub containers. And, they were all mixed together, which just killed my OCD side. So when I saw another clear plastic storage bin at a garage sale, I jumped on it like there was no tomorrow. I gave it to him for Christmas- he wasn't as humored as I was. He put it in the garage, on top of the workbench on its side and eventually piled stuff on top of it rather than actually using it. I hinted that perhaps we should clean the workbench after the drawer planter project, but he was decidedly ignoring my pleas.

    Of course, I couldn't just leave it like that! So I busted out my favorite tool, the label maker, and went to work. We still have 50x the amount of tools we need, but on the special occasion that I am looking for a brayer, a cordless drill, and a level, I have 3 of each to pick from, which makes me happy.

Garden Tripods

   Yes, yes, yes. I will admit, I am on a bit of a gardening craft kick right now. I'm sure it will end soon, with the full heat of an Oklahoma summer looming. Blech. 100+ degree weather is not the best environment for plants.

    Which means I must get it out all now, right? This week, I made an easy garden tripod with just 3 simple materials (plus a pair of scissors)! Awesome, right? But I can't take any of the credit. I actually found great instructions to the project online, here. Anyway, it was a snap to put together these bamboo poles. The only adjustment I made was cutting down the bamboo to fit the needs of a small climbing vine rather than using an entire length of bamboo for each leg. This also allowed me to be able to make more support structures for the vines. So let's grab some leftover bamboo and get climbing.

Garden Name Sticks

Finished product

      After the doozy of last post, I wanted to keep it nice and brief. However, I'm still in the garden mood. I got an idea for this project when I couldn't find any metal dowels to use and after I tried banging on a metal spoon to make it flat (it worked much better in my head). When I failed at both of those options, I began rooting around in the wooden skewers and found some unused (and washed, but used) chopsticks. At first, I was just going to color coordinate them - because I'm organized like that- but I figured it would actually be better if you could see what the plant was.

      I need to make a ton more of these for all the various plants we are growing this year (onions, carrots, peas, blueberries, blackberries, squash, zucchini, lettuce, mustard greens, and tomatoes, plus a few others)! Especially since they are so easy. But to start, I focused on the herbs for my new garden center on wheels.

Materials:

• chopsticks, unfinished wood
• permanent markers        (I used sharpies)
• A fine tip black permanent marker

Chopsticks

Sharpies

Gardening...on Wheels?

Finished project!

    Well, spring is here and being able to go outside again is both good and bad for my creative side. It means I spend less time indoors with idle time on my hands, but it also means more time spent in outdoor spaces. And since the backyard becomes an extension of our home in spring, what better craft project to do than one involving plants and our patio.



   Last summer, I found a few old drawers at an estate sale. The lady sold them to me and asked what I planned on doing with them. I said I wanted to make a planter out of them - of course, right? Now that was all well and good to say it, but actually getting there was kind of a struggle. First, I had to clean them out (they had sat outside all fall and winter) and put holes in them for drainage. Then I painted the decorative details purple and water proofed them using spar varnish. Next came the question of how to actually arrange them. My dad and I went through quite a number of configurations before settling on the final design. And then I was so happy, thinking all we had to do was put it together and we'd be done. But then my mom got in on the design process, suggesting we add height and wheels.

     Wheels? What? Why? But still, I was intrigued by the idea of a cart peddling herbs. So, we added old chair pieces and AV cart wheels my dad had lying around. And Tada! We were done, right? No, now we must paint the chair legs white so that they match the drawers. This is an example of a little input from others being a good idea, but too much having the potential to derail a project. My garden clock is ticking away, letting me know that time is running out for my herbs to be able to grow and flourish as the heated onslaught of summer peaks it head over the horizon, laughing that we are at a standstill.

Steampunk Jewelry

A sample of the pieces, right before they are baked

    As promised, I have a new craft for you, based on a steampunk aesthetic. Basically, this is a brass/metallic look including gears, sprockets, wires, etc. Steampunk is based upon an alternate version of reality; an idea of how our world would have developed differently if Victorian England had relied more heavily on steam power rather than developing electricity. There are tons of sources out there to describe how this look came about, so check some of that out for a better explanation. 

My craft zone for steampunk jewelry projects. You can see clay, embossing powder, as well as tools (in the soup can)

     My mom keeps checking out books on this aesthetic used in crafting and one of my really good friends recently went to a steampunk/scifi convention in Dallas that really got me into the idea. Especially when it comes to costuming and jewelry, I love make-believe and whimsy. This craft lends itself well to the beginner. Gathering all the little tidbits is probably the hardest part of the whole creative process. Luckily for me, I am a compulsive craft/object hoarder, so I often have lots of junk lying around dying to be played with and put in a project.