Mermade Market April 2014

I just applied for the upcoming December 2014 Mermade Market, and it reminded me I never posted about the April 2014 market. 

Mermade Market is a new small business started by a family friend, Elise Capener, from my hometown. It is a curated market of handmade goods in Dana Point, CA. I heard about the first

market in February right after I had Arlin. Feeling a bit "blah," I thought it would give me the creative boost I needed to get out of winter hibernation/pregnant mode. Plus, how could I miss a handmade market in my hometown and the opportunity to craft with my own mother? I also schemed that this could be the boost my mom needed to work on her "someday dream" of selling her culinary treats. We applied, were accepted, and then scrambled to figure out what exactly we should make. I felt rusty since my last Punk Rock Flea Market and Provo Farmer's Market days were gone. I hadn't made any new patterns for a while plus all my craft supplies were in boxes in a freezing garage. 

Since the sale was the 3 days leading up to Easter, it would be a good idea to have Easter themed goods (not to make a sacred holiday commercial....), so we went from there thinking of little gifts for Easter baskets. In the end, we had a good time emailing, talking on the phone, scheming what we could do and what the other person could make; it's always easier to tell someone else what they are good at and what others may want to buy. 

My mom made her famous marshmallows (vanilla and passion fruit!) and infamous caramels (vanilla and salted). I made linen rabbits; papier mache hollowed eggs from my own ducks and chickens; and small bags (zippered and drawstring) from vintage linens. I also had a random sale section from old stock. True to form, my mom took the extra step to have a polished storefront and created a business name and logo: BLACKWELDER BAKING CO. Brook Reynolds, of Inchmark, was the graphic designer, I love her work - she did our wedding announcements. To display our goods, I remembered my mom had a beautiful pine armoir to contain and display our items in many layers. I love how our booth turned out and we were 3rd highest grossing seller :)

Chromatic Birds

As mentioned earlier, I been making wool felt birds and wanted to show off one of the final results: I sewed them in order onto ric rac for something to hang in your kitchen window.

Pretty and simple, but also time consuming....

A close-up:

This is only one of the final results... the other, which I hope to begin soon is for our bed :)

knit quilt squares

Our Relief Society is knitting a quilt for charity. Everyone (who can knit) knits squares in various colors and stitch patterns that will then be pieced together to make a large afghan/quilt.

These are a few of my favorites I have made so far.

We started a few weeks ago and it may take a while to finish, but I'll post a picture of the final quilt when we finish it.

covered stones

I finally found some small, smooth stones to make the crochet covered stones I wrote about here.
I followed the "urchin" pattern from Resurrection Fern's tutorial and improvised another pattern. I used "fine" crochet thread and a size 10 hook.

I like how they turned out; they made a nice moving away gift for some of our friends.

Resurrection Fern

One of my favorite sites to check is the Resurrection Fern.
She creates little micro-worlds and photographs them. Using leaves, flowers, seeds, ferns, rocks, snails, kitties, water (etc.) combined with handmade elements like embroidery, crochet, knitting, and sewing she makes beautiful collections of objects that have a common shape, texture, color...or just look good together. Anyway, hard to explain, just check out her site.
What I wanted to say about it today is that she has posted a tutorial at The Purl Bee on how to make her most recognizable - almost trademark - object: crochet covered stones.
They are so beautiful.
If you know how to crochet, it's very simple. You can follow any doily pattern or invent your own. Crochet it the size and shape of a particular smooth stone. Once it fits over the top of the stone, use a strong thread in matching color to crochet it to the stone by making progressively shorter crochet rows as you round the edge of the stone and work your way to the underside. Hard to explain in words, but check out her site and tutorial for more information and inspiration.
Happy crocheting!
I was excited to find this tutorial since I have recently gotten back into crochet, as posted here.
Oh, one time, for Christmas, I made my sister a crochet acorn holder necklace as per Resurrection Fern's inspiration! It is adorable and hilarious; Briana got a kick out of it!

gift for me?

Wow, I would really like this sewing kit as a gift :)

sewn paper giftbags

For my first Christmas in Seattle, Christmas 2008, I made some nut mixes / snack mixes to give as gifts. I was missing my friends and family and I wanted to send everyone a gift to let them know I was thinking of them. I made spicy nut mix, sweet nut mix, soy-wasabi nut mix...everything. I soon realized I needed a way to package these snacks. My mom always keeps cellophane bags on hand for quick gifting. Anything, be it baked, candied, sewn, glued, or re-gifted looks great in one of those cellophane bags. But I didn't have any and I was SNOWED IN!
Sometimes, when I want to buy something I, I try to think "what would people have used before that was invented and sold at the store...."
I thought of cloth bags, like bank robber gold bags but I didn't want fuzz sticking to these snacks...
I thought of paper containers, like old fashioned popcorn and street vendor snack containers.
I ended up using parchment paper (baking paper) and my sewing machine. I sewed folder parchment a few inches apart for the side seams and trimmed the paper about 1/4 inch from the seam. I sewed corners so the bags could stand on their own. Then, I filled them with snack mix - could be anything, though - and sewed the top closed. Before I sealed the bags, I stamped a shape on paper to make a note and sewed it in while sewing the top seam.
I think they are so adorable and have funny personality.

I have resorted to these sewn bags frequently since that Christmas that I like to think of them as a trademark of a Tess gift :)

Need a quick Christmas gift for the Boss? Sew a few slices of dried porcini into a little paper pack, and voila, Christmas present.

Need to make a few quick bucks? Sew stinging nettles into paper packs and sell at farmer's markets (or the punk rock flea market).

And yet again: Going visiting and need a gift? Sew ginger snaps into a paper pack and head on over.

And good news about the visit: we will be welcoming a new member into our ward this Saturday when she is baptized!

flying dove crochet bag

About a month ago I helped a friend sort through her deceased friend's old handiwork supplies. She was kind enough to offer me any of the supplies I wanted in exchange for the help and support going through the boxes.

I went home with a bundle of wool yarns and vintage crochet and tatting threads. Beside the wonderful colors and packaging labels, I love these threads for small crochet projects like bean balls/hacky sacs for kids, necklaces, flowers, etc...things I can do while riding the bus into Seattle for work.

I also came home with a stack of vintage patterns and pamphlets. These you already know I love....
After scouring the pages, I found 2 projects I wanted to start right away.
One is this cool leaf shirt and skirt. I think I will make the skirt narrower and lower waisted, and in green, of course.

The other is a mash-up project inspired by this lattice crochet corner hankie:
and this lattice crochet bag (via the House that Lars Built)

I didn't like how the dove looked in the hankie pattern, though I liked the dove idea. I drew up a pattern on graph paper and started to crochet the bag "by the seat of my pants" (Adam is convinced I do everything by the seat of my pants...)

I was so anxious to begin the dove part that in hindsight I began it too early, resulting in the dove way down at the bottom of the bag. However, the most obvious problem here is that the dove doesn't even fit on one side of the bag...oops.

Also, in my unplanned haste, I failed to add some rounding to the bottom corners of the bag, so there are little points down there. I don't like how it looks at all. Adam's opinion of it is "Why did you make it all Grandma-y in pink?" Good point. my defense is that pink is the only color of which I had two balls and I didn't know how much it would take and didn't want to run out mid-project.

Anyway...before I even finished the first trial run, I started the second. I used orange thread and made the lattice squares 2X2 stitches instead of 3X3 stitches to give the bag more structure and prevent my items from falling out :)
I began the base with a few rows of single crochet stitches followed by a few rows of double crochet stitches to give the base more stability. I remembered to round the edges by increasing at the corners. So far it looks good; a little large, actually, but it will be a more useful bag that way, I suppose.

While making the first bag, I thought of all the fun things you can draw/write into your own graph paper pattern. I still like the dove, but I decided I also wanted to write Tree Peeps into the other side.
Updates to come!

ginger snaps

It's always a great time of year for ginger snaps.
I tested out my Night Moth cookie press (a gift from my sister Candice). It's not made for regular cookie dough like this recipe (I should use a special, thick dough to get the image to last through the baking) but I wanted to test it out anyway.
I used a recipe my sister Briana got from a friend:

Kick in the Pants Gingersnaps
¾ C butter
1 c sucanat
1 egg
¼ C molasses
½ tsp salt
Cream sugar and butter, add egg, molasses and salt then add dry ingredients (below)
2 ½ c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp cayenne pepper (this makes for a nice sharp "bite" use more or less to taste)

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight (or three hours)
Preheat oven to 350

Make into balls (or roll dough and cut out shapes). Flatten well with criss-cross fork pattern. Sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar. Bake at 350 for 13 minutes. Cool completely for a nice crunchy cookie.

candlesticks

I got a surprise from one of my favorite teachers from BYU, Blaine Furniss. Beside being a great plant and fungi teacher, he is very important to me because his enthusiasm and knowledge of plants and fungi is what inspired me to learn more about the photosynthetic world and what is now - and will always be - my life pursuit...fungi!
Blaine likes to make candlesticks from wood he collects. Over the years he has made one for me and now I have three! I love them and I am thankful for his influence in my life.

Respect the Spindle

Over the last 5 days, I have come to respect the spindle.
Last week, I suddenly became obsessed with spindles - something I had never cared about before.
First, I finally realized what they were (I have seen them hanging in yarn shops, but ignored them because I didn't really know what they were/how they worked).
They are simple, handheld tools for hand spinning fiber.
Then I read online how to use one (google searched it) because I was too embarrassed to try in the store AND I was at work, so I had to be virtual.
Then I wanted to get my hands on one and try out this ancient, women's skill...but I was still at work :(
After work I walked over to the cool U District fiber store, Weaving Works, tried one out (using my recent google knowledge) and realized no one at the store really knew how to use a hand spindle either. I also found out the nice ones are very beautiful and expensive.
Then I read online (searched 'how to make a spindle') that you can easily make one with a wooden toy wheel and wooden dowel or even with a pencil and CD's (If you were babysitting or something...?)
I figured I should make one for my birthday, and have a great present for under $5.
You have to remember the original spindles were sticks and balls of clay, so you don't need to be fancy.

Here's how I did it:

wheel, dowel, brass cup hook

and here is what I spun:

the cotton fluff from the vitamin bottle!!!
hahahahhahaha!

I saw this intriguing book called Respect the Spindle. It has beautiful photos of spindles both new and antique from all over the world. Very cool.


Here is a great link to interesting photos of women spinning all over the world.

Mushroom Party

I like to have mushroom parties for my birthday celebrations.
Adam and I planned one this year and it was great :)
Pretty much it is a mushroom/fungi themed potluck where everyone brings something made by, from, in the shape of, or out of mushrooms/fungi and I make one of my famous mushroom log cakes.
And then we eat everything!

This year we had: mixed mushroom soup, miso and shiitake soup, nettle soup with morel cream sauce, mushroom-nettle torte, spinach stuffed mushrooms, and yeast risen bread.

Unfortunately, I only took pictures of the first few people that came and we didn't get a whole group photo. Bummer.
It was so fun to catch up with friends and make plans to hang out again soon.

The hazelnut-cardamom mushroom cake:


And...
I got this in the mail from a good friend:

Isn't it wonderful?
What a great birthday. Thanks, friends!

Spring chick

Spring, Spring, what a glorious Spring!

We are having the most glorious spring weather!
And it's coinciding with my 25th birthday :)
March 18th, 1985
Here are a few of my favorite photos as a little one:

My family gave me an ebelskiver pan!

So, Adam and I made ebelskivers for breakfast. YUM!

night moth

One of my favorite Christmas presents was this old fashioned, wood carved "night moth" cookie press.

If was given me by my lovely sister Candice from House on the Hill Springerle and Speculaas cookeie press company.
Well, all my presents were my favorite...
Here are some of the most photogenic:

Tomato sauce mill :)

Books

New blue clog shoes
Thanks for all the presents and good times together :)

Bridal Shower

Well, some friends in my home area planned a wonderful bridal shower for me on March 28th. I know that was a while ago, but I wanted to share some of the photos since it was so nice and they planned some great surprises.

They wanted to plan all the food and gifts to celebrate what they loved about me. It was great! At first I was hesitant to even have a bridal shower, but...I'm glad I got to have one :)

It was really fun to see what they remembered and loved about me and to feel so supported and loved by all the women in my life.

So...

First, they invited all the women in my life
Then, they decorated the house with bark and lichens and moss. (I guess everyone knows I love "woodland")
Then, they made delicious food like mushroom tarts and french madeleines! (I used to love french things and was the french club president in high school!)
Then, they served everything on pretty antique plates with family heirloom silverware and linen napkins. (I love antique items, especially ones from your own family heritage)
Then, they got me the best group gift: a huge Excalibur dehydrator! (Adam and I have already been busy making yogurt, dehydrating mushrooms, herbs, strawberries and more!)
Then, they planned another surprise group gift: they told each lady to bring an antique plate so I could start my own mismatched collection of antique plates from the women I love!

It was so fun to see each plate and hear the story of how they picked it out. "I call this one 'The Three Sisters' and thought of you, Briana, and Candice." "This one has a barn and donkey and I thought of the farm you and Adam want to someday live on." etc.)
There was another beautiful group gift and I truly was showered with gifts, advice, well wishes, and love.
And finally...There was homemade kumquat marmalade. A few years ago, I babysat for a week in the house where they threw the shower. They had a kumquat tree and I made marmalade while they were gone. It was so good. The really funny part is that when I realized I was going to be in California in May for our wedding, I immediately remembered that May was kumquat time and told my mom I was going to ask her if I could pick them again. She said, well, we'll see when you get here if you have time!

Thanks LeAnne, Pam, Chris, Shirley, Nancy, Cathy...and everyone for a great shower!
It was so thoughtful, I loved it!