saturday spotlight - lg imagery

A picture is worth a thousand words.

There's some debate about the origin of this phrase, but whether it was first coined by Fred Barnard, Confucius, Ivan Turgenev or someone by another name, its truth isn't diminished.  I've always wanted to be able to speak with a camera, but for some reason the images I capture through my lens say one word . . . maybe five . . . but definitely not a thousand.  Someday I will finally commit myself to taking a photography class. 

I have a friend whose pictures have much to say . . . about joy, time, life, love  hope, promise, the future and so much more.  That's why this Saturday I'm stepping outside the typical craft bubble and shining the spotlight on an incredible photographer, Lana Greving.  She shot these two pics one day while my girls were visiting her house.  This wasn't an intentional photo session, but I love the pictures she took while the kids were just playing outside.

Check out more of her wordless essays by looking around on her website for LG Imagery.  Be inspired and . . .

craft on!

a freak fake tornado destroyed my cabin cake

Two quick pics to share tonight.  First, read last night's post.  Did you do it?  Seriously, do it!  Okay, now continue.

Last night I tried to make a free-standing cabin cake like the cabin on Little House on the Prairie.  Unfortunately, the prairie can be a dangerous place, and there was a freak tornado that destroyed that cabin. This picture shows the aftermath of the tornado that destroyed the cabin.  (Do you like my costume?  That's me transformed into Caroline Ingalls.)

After calling my insurance company and finding out that I'm not covered for freak fake tornado accidents that destroy horribly made cabin cakes, I came up with this one-dimensional cabin cake as a stand in for my daughter's birthday party.  It's not what I was hoping for, but she liked it.  Cake done, party over . . . clean up begins.

Craft on!

two things I learned today

Each night as I tuck my oldest into bed, I ask her, "What is one thing you learned today?"  Well, tonight I'm answering my own question.  Here are two things I learned today:

First, I learned that I need more than two hours to create a Little House on the Prairie cabin birthday cake.  Who knew?  I made my youngest daughter's dog house cake in two hours, so I gave myself two hours for Laura's cabin.  Denied!  I tried and tried and tried, but I just couldn't make it work.  I called my daughter into the  kitchen and said, "Honey, mommy may not be able to make you a Little House on the Prairie cabin cake in time for your party."  She said, "Mommy, it's wonderful.  I love it!"  This is what she was looking at . . .

This is clearly a cake only a daughter could love!  I love her even more (although I'm not sure it's possible to love her more than I already do) for saying that.  I tried a few different methods, but I finally had to admit failure.  Here's a few other pictures of the cake that almost was. 

As I was tucking her into bed tonight, she said, "Mommy, can you tell me a story about a time when your mom tried to make you a hard cake and failed."  Aw shucks . . . sometimes I hate failure!  But in spite of not being a fan of failure tonight, I will be adding this cake to my flickr group celebrating failure. 

The second thing that I learned today is that I can make felt bread.  Yippeeeee!  Success!  One piece down . . . nine more to go. 

Celebrating failure and success tonight.

Craft on!

a fully wonderful day

Usually, on Sunday I post a kids' craft tute of whatever craft we managed to create, but today was so full that we didn't have time for our usual Sunday kids' craft.  We started making a Little House on the Prairie cabin birthday cake.  It's going to be a bit ambitious for me.  My soon-to-be five year old wants a costume party with a Little House on the Prairie cake.  This may be the most eclectic birthday party ever.  A few months ago I managed to make a dog house cake, so I'm hoping to use a similar process for the cabin.  First step . . . make a 5 x 9 cake and a 8 x 8 cake . . . done and in the freezer.  Both girls helped add ingredients and stir without complete chaos breaking loose . . . I consider this an incredible success!

We did pull out the craft supplies so we could make a few birthday party invitations.  This is the point that the birthday party plans got even more eclectic.  As we began crafting the invitations, my daughter said, "I want a 'costume-Little-House-on-the-Prairie-cake-tea-party' party."  Hmmm . . . I have three days to figure out what a party that involves people dressing in costumes, eating a Little House on the Prairie cabin cake and drinking tea looks like.  Any ideas?

So . . . no Sunday kids' craft tonight, but we had a day full of creating . . . a fully wonderful day!

Craft on!

saturday spotlight - beautiful bags

I'm not a "purse-person".  By that I mean, I'm not a person who switches purses based on outfit or outing.  I simply put my stuff in a purse (usually a really BIG purse), and I carry that particular purse around until it wears out or the contents of an entire sippy cup of milk get dumped into it.  Sadly, this has been the fate of quite a few purses.  You would think I would have learned to be more vigilant. 

Although I am not a purse person, I have been tempted to start collecting and hoarding purses by my friend Liz who, like me, recently began sewing.  Liz has taken to sewing like a duck takes to water or a dog takes to fire hydrants.  (Liz please don't be offended that I'm comparing you to ducks and dogs.)  She's been sewing for three months, and she makes beautiful bags and purses.  So . . . this Saturday I'm shining my spotlight on Liz - mom, wife, friend, BBQ competitor, beginning sewer, purse person . . .

Be inspired and . . .

craft on!

tonight i'm making bread . . . it's a slow process

I thought that making bread from felt would be easier than baking bread from flour.  I was wrong . . . very, very, very wrong.  Originally, my over-achieving self was going to repurpose a Sara Lee bread bag by filling it with a dozen or so slices of felt bread.  I can say that after one night of making felt bread that my girls will be lucky to get four pieces of bread total - enough for each to make a sandwich.  I worked for over an hour, and this is as far as I got.

Yes, that's one side of one piece of bread stitched to the crust about a fourth of the way around.  That's what I have to show for 70 minutes of my life . . . yikes!

Here are a few more pictures of my 70 minutes of bread making:

This is me actually tracing a piece of bread to get the shape of my felt pieces.  I can honestly say that I've never had a reason to trace food before, so this was kind of fun.  (And yes, I did put the bread back in the bag afterwards.  Shhh . . . don't tell my husband.)  I had just enough oatmeal colored felt to make two pieces.  Looks like I will be making another trip to the craft store at some point.

If you've been reading along since January, you know my struggle with using a rotary cutter.  If you haven't, let me catch you up to speed . . . I have serious trouble using a rotary cutter.  There, you're caught up.  But I managed to use one tonight to make my crust.  I measured out a half-inch and used a few of the tricks that many of you passed on to me in January during my angst-filled introduction to the rotary cutter and cutting mat, and the crust piece turned out almost straight.  Little victories!

So my journey with making food has begun.

Craft on!

i'm getting hungry . . .

Thinking about all the different felt foods I'm going to be making this month for my ninth craft till Christmas is making me hungry.  I'm expecting to gain at least five pounds this month.  Maybe I should have went with a felt board instead of felt food.  Too late now . . . I'm already hooked.  I know that there are A LOT of great tutorials out there for felt foods.  I've been super inspired by One Pretty Thing's Felt Food Round-up, but I'm going to experiment a bit with my own ideas before I revert to using these fabulous tutorials.  If you are looking for one great site for felt food, I recommend checking out Polly's Helping Little Hands and her felt food cook-along.  Polly also gives step-by-step instructions for making this delicious looking pizza pictured below.  Are you getting hungry yet? 

Eat up and . . .

craft on!