Hi all! I hope you are having as happy of a holiday season as I am! I’m up to my eye balls in all sorts of fun stuff, but it’s all top secret crafting for friends and family! I decided that this week I’d give you an update on how
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The Christmas tree is a German tradition spanning about 400 years and involves taking a live tree in to the home and decorating it, to keep it there for the duration of the Christmas holidays. In the nineteenth century the Germans invented the first artificial Christmas tree which was made of wood however
Read MoreI love shopping in the bulk bins at my local co-op. And buying big bags of spices from the asian food store down the block from my house. And from the farmer’s market. And pretty much anything that smells neat or is called for in a recipe.
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The weekend was ripe with potential. And then I got laid out flat with some kind of cold/sinus/fall muck. So I decided to spend Saturday and Sunday playing around with paper and trying to figure out which origami ornament would be the one I make for all my friends and
Read MoreLife has a funny way of looping back around and smacking a person upside the head. Especially when, like me, you go with your gut. Let’s rewind to about 9 months ago. I decided to take a part-time-fill-in-every-once-and-awhile job in the Octagon Center for the Arts gallery shop. It was
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I know we are a good two and a half months away from Christmas, but I really want to avoid the last minute crazy of the idyllic *handmade* christmas. I’m going to make gift baskets again for our friends and family. In each one I want to have mix of handmade crafts
Read MoreWe did our vacation in 5 phases. It was an awesome good time AND exhausting. Oktoberfest Triathlon. A few days in Galveston, Texas swimming in the ocean, eating candy, and eating amazing food. 5 Days with friends outside of Dallas. Backpacking in the Ozarks — the White Rock to Shores
Read MoreI’ve been wanting to spruce up the house and instead of doing a 100% halloween makeover, I’d like to do more of an autumn flavor.
Read MoreIt’s a commonly known fact that I love mail of the slow kind. So much so that I rented out a PO box (PO Box 1314, Ames, Iowa 50014-1314) just so I could get unsolicited mail from anyone wanting to send it my way. When UPrinting contacted me about sponsoring a
Read MoreJason and I have been having a huge blast being on vacation this week. Vacation 2012 phase 1 was doing the Oktoberfest Triathlon (my first repeat race! Last year it was the first Tri I did). We ate a ton of pre-race amazing food.
Read MoreI’ve been joking around all year with friends about my potato tower of power. Using minimal space, you get a huge harvest of potatoes, and they are relatively easy to retrieve. I finally got to harvest the fruits of my labor!
Read MoreCANDY CORNNNNN NOM NOM NOM NOM Okay, I just had to get that out of my system. Jason and I LOVE candy corn. But, it’s, well, a teeth rotter. Each year we get ONE bag and that’s it. Which is hard because it’s not one of those gallon sized bags.
Read MoreI had never heard of Julia Rothman or her latest book Farm Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of Country Life until my publisher sent me this copy. They are so sweet that way, “Kristin, we just know you’ll love this book, here you go!” And I do lvoe this book!
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The irony that I’ve literally written the book on mending is not lost on me. My mending pile is a mile high. Most of the time I try and stay on top of it, but times like this summer happen and it really gets away from me!
Read MoreI’m facing down 6 tomato plants FULL of green tomatoes this week. And other than fried green tomatoes, I couldn’t honestly think of anything to do with them. I put the task to google and found 6 recipes I’m hoping to try out sometime this week and depending
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I just got a new homemaker merit badge — lawn mower repair! Our lawn mower was working just fine and then, poof, it wasn’t. Jason and I went back and forth over the last month about whether to take it to get repaired, try to fix it ourselves, buy a
Read MoreI like writing knitting and sewing patterns because it’s exacting. You have your drape, you have your stitches, you have your needles. One stitch, two stitch… nice in a row. Even sewing is pretty math based. Crochet, kind of. It’s organic and shapely. You can put your hook just about anywhere.
Read MoreSooooooo, sorry you haven’t heard from me for a long time with no explanation. You see I encountered something I’ve never encountered before. “Missed Scheduled”. I thought you all knew that I was on ragbrai and was taking some time off and while that doesn’t excuse my absence this past
Read MoreThis week I’m on the trail of RAGBRAI for the first time. In fact, when this post goes live I’ll be well on Day 2 of riding. I’m nervous. I’m excited. And I’m dreaming about all the cool things I should make for my bike.
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