New Books …

These two books are all about style, and a certain je ne sais quoi.  You’ll need to forgive me that last because in this context, it’s a bad pun (you’ll see).

I have no design training.  None.  I took one art history class on medieval manuscripts, and one on photography over a decade ago, and that is the sum total of my art classes.  And I think that my lack is bothering me.  One of the things that training of whatever kind helps you to do is to focus your ideas and thoughts, to give you a vocabulary to discuss whatever it is, and to give you the tools to express what you know.   I have a lot of that in some areas, but in the design area I have almost nothing.  And it’s turning out to be a pain – here at home trying to figure out how to make stuff and oftentimes at work where we work with designers fairly frequently.

So I suspect that recently I’ve been unwittingly trying to give myself a crash course in design in the only way I know how.   I get books I think will help, and I research the crap out of my subject, I analyze it until it’s in tiny little easily digestible pieces. Then I fiddle with things, replace some bits with other bits, throw stuff out I don’t like, pin up stuff written on or stapled to little index cards on my bulletin board I like.  And ultimately, I usually figure out what feel like I’m missing.

I got these two books, not because they’re my style, but I think it’s because of that “I don’t know what” part I just mentioned.  Both have distinctive styles.  So I’m looking at things that have a recognizable design element, and figuring out how it was achieved.  Design is kinda funky that way, though, because in so many cases the sum is really more than its parts.

First, things with a French look.

Simple Sewing with a French Twist: An Illustrated Guide to Sewing Clothes and Home Accessories with Style (via) by Celine Dupuy

The first book – I was watching it for a while at the store. Thinking to myself, “Maybe I need to subscribe to Marie Claire. Maybe this is cliche. Should I get it?” So yeah, I was a little unsure about buying. Then I found this review over at disdressed which made me feel better knowing what to look for in the book. I think that I may make a future couple of birthday presents from this, you know, just in case anyone I know likes French stuff (you know who you are, Ms. Eiffel Tower. If you see this book, tell me if you like anything).

Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts (via) by Joelle Hoverson (Author), Anna Williams (Photographer)

I’ve wandered through PurlSoho.com quite a bit and noticed this here book, which was written by one of its owners Joelle Hoverson. She also wrote Last-Minute Knitted Gifts … but I don’t knit. “Last-minute” in this context is supposed to mean that the projects can be completed in 8 hours or less. To me, I’m not sure that equates to last minute for me, given my extremely limited crafting time frame, but I’m interested in trying them out. Well, once again what I’m interested in the style here – again, how it was achieved, the fabric choices, the end result.

This book I was interested in for the same reason I look through certain patterns and books, wander by certain designers, read certain blogs. There’s a certain contemporary crafting lifestyle/style/something that is present here. It’s certain shape and fabric and color choices … PurlSoho stocks many of those fabric companies that work with independent designers, in fact.

So those are my two books.  On the more technical side, I also ordered a book on crocheting tartans.  I’m curious about how that works.  Maybe it will help with my scarf

I’m Back + Fall Decor + Cookies! (Big Post)

Housekeeping Issues…

As I mentioned Saturday, I have moved my blog to an independent host. Most everything got moved and my email subscriptions seems fine, but I believe my RSS feed was screwed up and Google’s indexer seems to have lost me temporarily. If you are a subscriber via an RSS feed, please sign up again – I’m sorry for the inconvenience this has caused!

Meanwhile, I’ve been set up with more new tools than I can handle, and the site redesign is proceeding apace. As usual in my life, I expect the new stuff to be gadget heavy (or in this case, widget heavy). I have Google analytics now too. I spent an hour looking around earlier, and I think I’m going to have to absorb that in bits. SO MUCH information!

Back to crafting:

I recently decorated for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I hung up my door sign, bought my little gourds and multi-colored corn and brought out the ribbon. My husband and I baked cookies. I’m waiting to get one of my favorite Thanksgiving decorations from my mom (hi mom!): it’s a cornucopia with fabric vegetables, and I hope to sew/crochet additional vegetables for it.

Meanwhile, this is my dining room here, feeling autumn-y. It’s not a fab picture, but you get the idea. My decorations typically involve a lot of ribbon. I love bows and ribbons. I like organza most of all, and during the holidays I like things that shimmer or sparkle. My living area is a mass of brown and dark red, so it really does well with fall things. I’m still really pleased with the curtains I made.

Want some cookies? Come to my house.

I may have mentioned that Jeff and I made the 3-D Halloween cookies from Williams-Sonoma – at $24 for the set, I think that the cookie cutters are a bit expensive, but I really haven’t seen anything else like them, so I guess they get to charge for being unique. They also have a Christmas-themed set of 3-D cookies now (the link was broken at time of posting, sorry).

The cookie cutters make a Scary House, a Cat, a Witch and a Pumpkin. Icing is separate, but they come with a Fan-Tab-U-Lous cookie recipe. Basically you mix up butter, cream cheese and sugar and add some flour to make dough, and then you bake. These cookies are not health food, but they are terrific to eat. They’re soft and crispy both in exactly the right way, lightly browned lovely sweet treats.

Jeff and I both took them to work (this recipe makes a lot) and they were a big hit. At my workplace people took pictures of them and showed them off to others. Sweet! Want one? Pop on over to my house, I still have some left. Really, how many cookies can one woman eat?? We neglected to take pictures of the final, put-together product, but the ones below should give you a pretty good idea of what they looked like. Enjoy and get hungry!

Makin’ Cookies…

#1 First you find out that you don’t have a flour sifter and have to improvise. Luckily, a strainer is at hand. #2 You have to try to kill your hand-mixer by making it run too hard in a bowl full of cream cheese and butter. Eventually you succeed, but not before your mixer smells like burning. #3 Resolve to buy a real mixer. #4 As you taste the butter/cream cheese mixture, realize just how bad for you these cookies are.

#5 Reaffirm how bad they are for you by adding sugar. #6 Realize you have no vanilla. Run to store. #7 Then realize that you have no more room in your bowl even though you have yet to add any flour. #8 Realize that you have no larger steep-sided bowl. Hmm. #9 Move batter to a shallow but larger bowl, and deal with splatters. (The dog now has a a sugar high from catching the bits that land on the floor). We now have a coating of batter on our shirts. #7 Belatedly attire ourselves in the aprons that were hanging 2 feet away the whole time.

#8 The dough is finally mixed and the mixer again smells slightly like burning. Resolve again to see about that real stand mixer. #9 Chill the dough. Wait.

#10 Come back much later and roll out the dough. Realize you don’t have that rolling pin you thought you had, and try to figure out at what point you threw it away. #11 Give up and go back to Williams-Sonoma for an ultra-swank rolling pin because they also have these neat rubber bands that attach to your pin that allow you to precisely determine how thick your dough is when rolled. #12. Roll. Poorly. #13 Put down more flour and do it again. Better.

#14 Cut out cookies. #15 Have a devil of a time figuring out how to get it to the baking pan. #16 Realize you don’t have the parchment paper you need. Run to store. #17 Finish the cookie cutting and reshaping. #18 Repeat from #12 about a dozen times over until your sheets are full. Chill in fridge.

(Note: Our cookie-making took about 3 days. We only have 2 baking sheets, so we did this again and again. Roll, cut, transfer, chill, bake, repeat.)

#19 Bake the chilled, cut dough. Be thankful you didn’t forget or screw anything else up. Cookies come out browned and delicious. (oh, sorry, did I taste one?)

#20 Begin to wonder how you’re going to eat all these cookies. But happy that you remembered to put them away before they spoiled.

#21 Decorating time approaches. Out comes the cream cheese icing (yum!) and the black and orange food coloring. Out comes the decorating pens. Out comes the bowl of hot water because the icing in the decoratng pens is rock hard. Out comes the knives, and mixing things, and bowls and … wait a minute, this is a mess!

#22 Get totally sick of frosting. Ugh, just the smell of sugar is awful. #23 Realize you have no way of taking frosted cookies to work, particularly if you take public transportation. Oops. Begin wondering if the icing will harden. #24 Wonder how real cake decorators ever do this stuff with any skill.

#25 Forget to take picture of cookies put together, however, cookies make it to work thanks to being late to work, ingenious pan rigging and judicious use of foil and plastic wrap.

They are enjoyed.

Buy Handmade

Today it’s come to my attention that I have offended in my blog, and for my sins I apologize. I have good intent, but not always good execution. I make mistakes and I learn from them, and I do my best to fix my mistakes where I can. I have done so here.

Allow me to state for the record that I am a huge supporter of handmade, crafters, independent artists and designers.  I encourage everyone to support these people with their funds and encouragement so they can thrive in their chosen professions, and to encourage everyone else they know to do what they can to support indie as well.  If you need any help with this, I offer my Index of Indie, where I have gathered all sorts of sources, and which I continue to add to.

I do have things to post – my husband and I have made and decorated the very awesome 3-D cookies from Williams-Sonoma, and I did some decorating I was going to share.  However, I believe I’m going to take a hiatus from blogging instead, and come back when I’ve had a chance to think – I’m an introvert, after all.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with something I just found at the Craftzine and I strongly encourage you to participate as well. It’s the Buy Handmade Pledge for the Holiday season.

Go to BuyHandmade.org and sign the petition. You pledge to buy handmade for the holiday season, and to encourage others to do the same for you. After all there’s nothing as good as handmade, is there!?