Halloweenin'

Hello! First, the Indianapolis city guide is up and you can see it here. They included a lot of my photos. See if you can find me (I'm in a reflection, oops).

 Now, on to Halloween.

Eyeball plant stakes

I'm/we're doing a sci fi theme this year with monster plants. I have a small container garden's worth of faux potted plants and an assortment of plant stakes to enhance the live plants already present. This idea came along because I saw a great DIY from the prop master of Home and Family and I am a plant hoarder year round so it goes well with what's already on hand.

The image above is some of the stakes stuck in a rosemary plant. The stakes are easy and minimal. I used sticks from the yard, spray paint, 1.5" styrofoam balls, spackle, acrylic paint, and gloss coating. Find some sticks and paint them green. water down some spackle and coat the foam balls, allow to dry overnight. Spray them with white paint. Then I painted they eye with acrylic paints. I made a circle and watered down the paint in the center to create a darker outer ring. Once that dried a bit, I used the end of a paintbrush dipped in black to make the pupil. Then I let that dry and sprayed them with a few coats of gloss. After the gloss dried, I used a glue gun to attach the eye to sticks. On the first ones I added leaves and green fringe, but I decided I liked the minimal look best. Drying is slow, but assembly is quick so this project offered some instant gratification and that was nice after making larger carnivorous plants.

Here are the foam balls drying. I have a fancy system of discarded packaging and toothpicks.

This photo shows some of the process and that my cat is very helpful. I put the balls on toothpicks before coating them and stuck them in some packaging to stay upright while drying. I also kept them this way to while painting. I removed the toothpicks when it was time to assemble everything.

I'll have some more prop photos and DIY's after proper pictures are taken. If you would like some inspiration, try these sites:

Pumpkinrot

102 Wicked Things To Do 

Dave Lowe Designs 

There is still so much to do... make plant slime, sew a costume, paint more eyeballs, set up lights, etc.

xoxo,

b

Cyanotype Tutorial

Check out Cyanotype Photo Print Crop Top on Cut Out + Keep

The photo print shirt tutorial is available now through the link above.

Enjoy!

xoxo, 

b

Goodbye to the Best Boy Ever

Holding hands

This fuzzy little man crossed the Rainbow Bridge yesterday. It was very early in the morning and we were with him when it happened. He lived to be over 19 years old and during his last week he had lots of cuddles, scratchies, porch naps, and cheese. I think he was a happy little man. We met when he was 6 years old and spent the next 13 years together. He was very vocal, loving, and demanding. He was really great at training humans.

I had never actually seen anything die before and it simply wasn't peaceful the way it's always portrayed in movies. It was terrible to see, but I am glad we were with him. We held him and talked to him until he completely let go.

I miss my little spoon, cuddle buddy, companion. He got up with me in the morning, greeted me when I came home, went outside when I went outside, and went to bed on my chest every night. The house is quiet now. No one is begging for cheese or lying under my feet. It's sort of lonely and strange.

I know he was just a cat, but I miss my little fuzzy man.

xoxo,

b

Nest making while waiting on me to finish taking a bath.

Taco night

I love you Whiskey Kitty.

Milk Paint DIY is Online

The Milk Paint Tutorial is now available on Cut Out + Keep. Give it a look here.

...and a cat meme.

xoxo,

b

Milk Paint Party Cones

I just submitted a tutorial to Cut Out + Keep. I will let you know when it is available. For now, here are some pictures...

xoxo,

b

Cyanotype Photo Printing

Hello! I just finished reviewing a Jacquard Cyanotype Set. That means that I got a sheet of instructions and 2 black bottles of dust. The instructions provided were concise, but included links to a website that had more information and helpful tools. I've been interested in "blue printing" for a long time, but I've never had any experience with it until now. The only thing I think I've ever seen are those sun sheets that come pre-treated. My daughter did those at summer camp one year.

Anyway, I got the set and I was intimidated, but excited. So I started working on all my pre-print stuff like picking an item to make, deciding what kind of image, etc. I'm not going to go over the whole thing here because it will be up on Cut Out + Keep, but there was an emotional craft fail along the way and I changed the original project. Initially I was trying to do a men's shirt refashion and that just did not happen. I am still planning to do the refashion at some point, but I'm not sure if it's the right item to combine with a cyanotype print.

I had a minor craft-tastrophe followed by crafter's remorse and then I pulled it together. I took some time to think, salvage my work, and move forward. Beyond all that though, this is a process that I think should be explored more. I've thought of a lot of possibilities for cyanotype printing, most of which would require greater skill with the process than I currently possess.

Unfinished panel from the tutorial

Test Samples

Detail

Detail

The first print that I exposed was large and once it was processed, I discovered a lot of mistakes. After I looked at the first exposure, I started over, but I added test pieces to experiment with. I discovered that smaller pieces of fabric were definitely easier to work with. That probably should have been obvious, but some how it wasn't. I was much happier with my test pieces than I had been with the first attempt I made. I have some more fabric cut and treated so I think I am going to back to those eventually and see if I can correct the first mistakes.

In the lace print example above I used decorative packing tape. I would like to make a pattern using this and find some other prints. I'm thinking I could also use painter's tape and create a striped pattern. The palm print is from a section of the photo negative I used in the first exposure. I wanted to make sure that the problems I saw in the image had to do with the way I had coated the fabric and not because I had a bad negative.

Testing...

This photo is of the samples again, but also includes a piece of fabric that some of the mixture dribbled on. I was looking at the "water mark" on the fabric and started thinking that the chemicals could be used to create a gradient painting or even a tie dye type of print. I am not a painter, but my husband is so I'm thinking I'll give him what I have left of the sensitizer so he can experiment.

So what do you think? Have you tried any of the other uses I've suggested? 

xoxo,

sun exposed

b

My daughter the foodie...

A week or two ago I realized something about my daughter; I figured out what her hobby is. Of course she dances, but I don't really consider that a hobby for her, it's more of a lifestyle/passion. I think those can be different things. I guess I think of hobbies as something more casually approached; the excitement is the same, but the pursuit is a little more laid back. I determined that she is a foodie. Technically I stated that her hobby is the pursuit and photography of boutique food experiences, but I think most people refer to that as being a "foodie". I felt that my description better explained the activity, but to simplify I suppose I'll use the term that was given back to me when I came up with my observation.

We had a variety of food adventures last week, from food truck night at the park to a new cafe called The Garden Table, it was pretty great. We even celebrated National Doughnut Day with a visit to General American Donut Company. So many food adventures and her camera was with her at every one of them (sometimes more than one camera).

The habit in action at General American Donut Company.

Food truck Thursday with The Flying Cupcake.

Saturday morning at The Garden Table.

Acai bowl at The Garden Table.

The lady loves food. It makes her happy. She also loves photography and nutrition. She's been this way since she was tiny (not so much with nutrition, but eating and taking pictures has always been a big thing). So here is to clear cut, well defined interests and unique hobbies. I'm not sure I'd know what to do if it were any other way. If she weren't like this I might never leave the house (#shemakesmeleavethehouse). You can follow along with her adventures on Instagram. Her feed is like a highlight reel of sites around Indianapolis.

"The Fault in Our Food Coma"

I've taken to documenting the whole thing. Her friends describe my Instagram feed as the "behind the scenes" of her's. I've explained to her that:

1. I am photo documenting her life.

and 

2. This is my contribution to photo journalism.

I think we work well together.

xoxo,

b

Place Cat Here

My friend designed a shirt and then it went viral. The shirt money goes to a fundraiser he's doing for a program called Family Reach. He has cancer and he's doing this fundraiser run before his third surgery to remove cancer.

Photo from Place Cat Here order page

Anyway, cancer sucks, people are doing important stuff, makin' an impact, blah, blah, blah. Buy a shirt. Do it here:

Place Cat Here

xoxo,

 cat shirt wearing, 

b

The Tiara is Up!

See Pompom Tiara And Wand and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

The book review is posted now on Cut Out + Keep.  I also photographed a tutorial and I share that here next week.

xoxo,

b

Vegan Quiche

Hello! We just finished the spring performances at the ballet school and it's been a very busy few weeks. I'm not really sure if I was coherent the entire time. All I remember is the driving, some crying, and lots of food. So. Much. Food.

Athena the ballerina as a swan with Smart Water accessory.

First, obligatory photo of adult size child in costume. I haven't ordered my photos yet and this was taken quick while she was running backstage. This was her second weekend of performances. The week in between had some rough moments. One of these moments resulted in me making quiche for the first time, late at night after being gone all day and making two trips to the store... Oh, well it all worked out.

The recipe for one somehow made enough for two.

The quiche I was replacing had broccoli filling.

One evening last week the Lady came home to find that her quiche had been eaten while she was out. This was more than she could take at the time. I went to the grocery and purchased the ingredients to make a new quiche (after looking up a recipe). I think I follow directions, but I overflowed the first pie shell. I decided since there were two shells and excess whipped eggs, I should make a second one. What was I really going to do with a frozen pie crust anyway? I sauteed some chard and kale for the second quiche. Normally I wouldn't buy a pie crust, but it was 11pm and corners were cut. It seemed to turn out okay. The quiche smelled great, but I don't eat eggs so I'm not sure about the flavor. It looked right (if that helps at all) and my family ate it willingly.

The photos are from my phone and taken at night. This is what happens when you don't think you're going to be doing things, but then you do them and decide to put it out in the world. Everything in the kitchen photographs just a little extra yellow at night. (Conjuring up horrifying images from Martha Stewart's food Tweets.)

Vegan Quiche

 Mr. Husband and Miss Lady eating quiche all week made me hungry, but I don't eat eggs. I decided to make a vegan version. It could definitely be prettier and I'm sure next time it will be, but it tastes okay. I think I could have added more water or something in order to get a smoother filling for the crust. I used a recipe from PBS.org. It was very simple and involved most of the same ingredients used in tofu scramble.

I was hungry. I didn't wait for it to cool and firm.

A view of the cut away section.

I just read through the quiche directions and I can tell you what I did wrong. Do you see how it looks layered in the photo above? That was a mistake not a preference. I forgot to stir the blended tofu with the cooked vegetables. Oops. I'm sure the flavor is still basically the same, but I would have preferred everything to have been blended together. Not skipping that step might have helped it to fill the pan better. This time I made my crust using the same recipe as before with the pot pies. It's a really great non-vegan recipe and I just sub out some of the ingredients.

Last thing, I follow a blog called Annie's Eats. I've been following awhile and sometimes I will veganize a recipe. I was at the farmer's market on Saturday and I saw a woman that I thought had to be Annie from Annie's Eats. It was her, but I did not speak to her or tell her that I follow her blog. It seemed too weird. Is it strange to be a blog groupie? I'm torn.

xoxo,

b

So much food!

I have been doing lots of baking/cooking. I don't really cook meals (unless it's breakfast) and I don't exactly do dinner dishes, but I've been experimenting with making instead of buying. It certainly isn't saving any time and probably isn't saving much money. I can't say it's costing extra either so I'm probably breaking even. I do believe we're getting a better quality product and I'm learning some things. I was also feeling the presence of a food rut and that wasn't so great.

I'm getting good at granola bars. I've been using 2 recipes so far. This one is baked and this one is not. The baked recipe is not sweet on it's own. The flavor is nice, but not sweet. The second time I made them I added about a tablespoon of honey and that worked well.

Most of the recipes I've been looking at include the use of a food processor. I don't have one and I was trying to make everything work without one, but... It wasn't so great. Over the weekend I broke down and bought a Kitchenaid Food Chopper (that name is confusing to me).  I had been looking at them online and the color I wanted was on sale at Target. I have appliance weakness.

So cute!

Yay! Hopefully this will make my bake/cooking easier. I got it home and used it immediately to make a pie crust.  I've made pie crust before, but never like this. It's my best crust so far, but I'm not sure if the new appliance has anything to do with it. 

Hashtag pie

Sneech

These are the veggie potpies we made. I always end up with a little extra crust. In reality it's probably for the purpose of making a decorative edge or maybe I'm just rolling it too thin. I make silly embellishments.  I should add that my food chopper is too small to make the pie crust the way the recipe says to.  I make it in halves (or 1 sheet at a time) and that works well.

Wheat tortillas

The weekend before, during life without a food processor, I made some wheat tortillas. These were very easy. They just take up kind of a lot of space when making. That weekend also included some mediocre veggie burgers made using the blender (I don't recommend it) and mostly successful vegan meringue cookies.

I've been in a cooking mood lately. Have I finished my daughter's bedroom yet?  Not so much, but I'm going to.

xoxo,

b

Granola Bars!

For awhile now, I have been thinking about making granola bars. Is that weird? It's something that I keep going back to and last night I finally bought the ingredients. It was kind of fun.  I went to the grocery store that's run by the local food cooperative.  This grocery has an entire wall of bulk bins and a decent selection of natural dried fruits. I needed a few other things from there that I can't get as easily from the regular grocery so I decided to go for it with a new baking adventure.

First home made granola bars

Yesterday before shopping I looked up several granola bar recipes.  Most of them were very similar.  I wanted to sort of figure out a kind of base recipe to go from.  I saw that most recipes included honey, brown sugar, and butter.  I read some blog entries with a few of the recipes and I had a moment; high fructose corn syrup is not the devil. All of the recipes I read included the addition of sugar. Some of the recipes pointed out that commercial granola bars contain high fructose corn syrup and the authors of these posts went on to say that they did not feel good about consuming HFCS. It's fine to have opinions, but they still chose to use sugar in their recipes. If the goal of making your own granola bars is to reduce the amount of sugar you are eating, great! However, eating sugar is still eating sugar and sugar intake of any kind should be kept low. Anyway, I like sugar. I know I usually eat too much of it and this statement about HFCS, just like what I read written in the blog posts of others, is an opinion.  

The recipe that I used can be found here and you know I didn't follow it exactly because for some reason I can't. I made a few substitutions for a vegan version (you can decide for yourself how you feel about honey). I used Earth Balance instead of butter, carob chips instead of chocolate chips, and dried cherries instead of cranberries. Carob chips have improved so much from what I remember eating. The ones I bought yesterday tasted like dark chocolate. I don't even think my daughter (who has never had a carob chip) would have noticed any difference. I just stirred all the chips into the warm mixture instead of leaving some out to press in. The directions said the melted chips would act like glue and I wanted glue.

They were super simple to make and more affordable than expected. I'm enjoying the tartness of the cherries with the other flavors.  These have a nice texture and a range of flavor, chocolaty, nutty, and tart.  I'm planning to try some other variations.

nom nom nom, xoxo,

b

Spring Break, Easter, and the Bedroom

We had a few very busy weeks recently. Last year for spring break we went to the rain forest, this year we stayed at home. Of course staying at home and "doing nothing" involved bargaining to keep the child happy. The result is that we blew up spring break with a mini Indiana tour.

Wayne White speaking at the FATE Conference.

The first photo doesn't have much to do with spring break, but it's how I kicked off the start of it (which doesn't mean much since it was not my spring break). The 2015 FATE Conference was held at Herron School of Art and Design this year and artist Wayne White was the keynote speaker. So much happy. This is my art nerd equivalent to having front row concert seats or something.

Food and photography

The lady likes food and photo documentation. I took two days off work to make for a four day weekend. The first day of urban exploration we went to a brunch place called Milktooth. She got latte art and a giant pie of a pancake (I guess it was actually a Dutch baby pancake).

Kale pastry; the name is long and starts with an f.

Out taking photos

The final day of my four day weekend we went to a doughnut shop and then walked around to take photos. She kept telling me to get out of the picture.

Mirrors! Finally mirrors!

On Easter we took a lady trip to Ikea. I can't seem to get any photos of that to move on over here. I bought the last piece of furniture for this room and it took me until the next Sunday to finally unload the car. Last Saturday though, I finally got the courage up to wrestle the mirrors again. The first time I tried this (maybe 5 weeks ago?), it did not go well. I didn't have the right supplies and I got frustrated. I spent many hours on a Saturday measuring, drilling, wiring, and lifting only to end the day with sore arms and lots of discarded, broken wire.  I gave up and went to bed. The next day I bought the proper supplies: heavy gauge picture wire and heavy duty mounting tape. It still took awhile to get it right, but this time was much better. I knocked a screw out of the wall while trying to hang the mirror on the right. That had me worried, but it's been 4 days now and they're still holding.

Maybe I'll get the Kallax together by this weekend (just looked at the Ikea website and noticed a price increase on the Kallax).

xoxo,

b

How Not to Follow Directions

Salted Caramel doughnut and coffee at the General American Donut Company.

I'm doing a book review for the site Cut Out + Keep.  This means that I receive a craft book, look through it, tell them what I like, and then make something from it.  That seems straight forward and easy enough.  I chose a project that I felt excited about and I got all my materials together.  I even learned what a hand cranked knitting dolly is.  Nothing knitting comes naturally to me; that thing was/is confusing.

I spent a couple of hours sitting in bed watching a movie and cranking out cord.  Clearly I was over excited about this because I have cord for days.  Really, I have made the project twice and I still have a pile of cord.  Also, don't make cord in bed, sit at a table or something.  My back and my arms were sore.

Okay, back to the project; I made it and it was frustrating.  Then I looked back at the book and found directions that I did not follow.  I made it again, it was less frustrating, and again, I found myself not following all of the directions.  Maybe this project was written in a general way so that the person making it would be encouraged to take a little creative license?  Maybe I'm just not good at following directions?

I already know I'll be making a third version of this project (I just can't let go!) and I want other people to make their own versions so I can see if they follow the directions or do something more like I did.  This has become less about crafting and more about a curiosity of how each person interprets things differently.  Obviously, I need to get back into grad' school. I'm even carrying the book around with me so I can study it.

Soy latte at the Foundry.  They have great diy OSB tables.

Anyway, in between making versions one and two, I went to a doughnut shop and a coffee shop.  The Lady Bean wanted to explore her home city and we were out of coffee.  I probably needed the break because I think I'm obsessing.  Wanna' come over and make a tiara?  Bring yarn.

xoxo,

b

Alligator Pinata

It was birthday time again and this year that called for an alligator pinata.

The candy went in an opening in the mouth.  The alligator is based on the one from Oh Happy Day.  If you'd like to see more photos look on my Instagram.

xoxo,

b

One finished corner...

Valentine surprise

I have a bedroom update, but first, have you ever tried to gift balloons on an extremely windy day?  It doesn't work.  All the strings tangle and won't separate.  So my two bouquets of six became one room's worth of ceiling balloons.  I grabbed the scissors and right before I gave into cutting the strings, I decided to just release them.  I think this worked much better.

One completed corner.

I have one corner (and most of a wall) of the bedroom finished.  I tried to hang the mirrors I had just finished painting, but they're very heavy and one of the wires kept snapping.  I put them away and bought the proper supplies when I went out to run errands.

The art wall has been up for awhile, no changes there.  Her back ordered West Elm bedding finally came and I steamed it in the dryer.  I couldn't handle the thought of ironing it.  I think I might hate ironing so I was procrastinating about putting on the bedding.  I survived though and I finished these little mountain pillows.  I read a tutorial for making these pillows, but I ended up just sort of doing my own thing.  I had a sweater dress that shrank and some felt scraps so I made some chalk shapes and cut them out with a rotary tool.  I sewed the felt and sweater into place at the same time.  After they were stuffed and together, I tacked down the felt edges with a buttonhole stitch.  I cut out the rest of the dress and decided to make more.  It's very satisfying.

The side table is the same one we've had for awhile.  It's from Urban Outfitters and I think it's for record storage, but it's also good for books.  The wall sconce is new and also from Urban Outfitters.  I had to finish the headboard before I could decide where to hang it.  It doesn't look like they sell the table anymore, but I kinda' love the little light.

The headboard is what I would call one of my major projects for the room.  The main project, other than painting and papering, was refinishing the dresser.  I looked for some headboard inspiration for awhile.  I know that beds don't have to have them, but it makes it look complete to me.  I love tufting and I saw a great tutorial for a faux tufted twin headboard on Vintage Revivals.  Mr. Husband is a painter so we have a variety of large frames around the house.  I looked around and chose the one I liked best.  I got real excited and bought all the supplies.  I found some great remnant fabric and learned that it's cheaper to buy a foam mattress topper than it is to buy foam (Joann Fabric coupon + twin eggshell topper = best deal I could find).  Alright!  I was ready to go and my materials sat there for a few months.  Um, meh.  I have no idea why I'm this way, but I am.  I think I was intimidated by the thought of messing it up.  When I finally did decide to conquer it, everything went quick and smooth (until I realized that I didn't have access to a nail gun-- we're working on that).  I had another person to help for everything except the tufting.  The directions are easy to follow.  I had some trouble getting my faux tufts to staying so I pressed down harder with my stapler and put 2-3 staples in for each tuft.  I used the same button kit as the tutorial and it worked well, but thicker fabric will take a little forcing.  I used a hammer to press the button backs in (be careful not to flatten the button face when doing this).  I kind of love it.  I would make another.  I'd actually enjoy having a reason to make another.

Right after I finished.  See my scissors?

Here's a bonus photo since the pillows are stacked in front of it in the other photo.  My next big DIY for the room is to cover a bean bag chair in faux fur.  The pre-fab versions that were adult size (Miss Lady is 5'5 and growing) were way too pricey so we got a cheaper chair with the intention of making a cover.  I just ordered the fabric. 
The room should be done in April.  I'm slow and I need to make a trip to Ikea before I can complete it.  So much to do.

xoxo,
b

This Room

Hello!  I have been obsessing over Miss Bean's room.  I have filled myself to capacity on Pinterest and various online searches.  Can't. Look. Any. More.  I've reached my visual fill and now I just need to get in there and work, but, um, I have to work so it's going slow.

Way back when--moving in.

 The image above is from almost 4 years ago when we were moving in.  The Lady Bean was little then.

The same wall a week ago.

This is that same wall; the space to the right of the window.

Detail of gallery wall.

This is a little bit of wall art DIY.  The empty frame in the previous picture became the home for a happy little salt dough cloud.  I made some ornaments in December (and then I wondered what to do with them).  I put printable paper from Mini Eco in the frame and glued the cloud on the glass.  Boom!  A little bit'a cute.

The new dresser when we first saw it in the store.

Another update since the first picture is a new dresser.  She's 13 and 5'5; I think she could use some grown up furniture.  We replaced the two pieces of children's furniture with one large dresser and I love it, but this finish wasn't going to work.

Our inspiration

The "French Maid" dresser was the inspiration for the new finish on her new dresser.  It's pretty great.

The room in 2015.

This is how the bedroom looks currently.  You can see that it's still very much a work in progress, BUT...  The dresser is done!  Look to the left, that's 5 feet of lovely.  Oh how I love to do finish work.  The decorations hanging from the ceiling are nice, but they need to be taken down.  The Lady doesn't do pink anymore so while I love paper decorations, we are going to move on to something similar, but different.

There are mirrors to paint and more frames to hang, cords to hide, etc. and so on, and so on...

xoxo,

b