penny carnival

Cake, camping and crafting

I have nothing profound to say. I'm only here to report that I love summer.

Who doesn't, right? I love it so much I want to make out with it in the back seat of a car. I want to tattoo the word "summer" on my right bicep (the left bicep is reserved for the imaginary tattoo I have designed in my head but will never get). I want it to last for-ev-uh.

Here are some reasons why:

1. The new bakery at Chaps called Cake, and eating lunch with my girls in the grassy outdoor seating area. 

I believe we were there for almost three hours the other day. That place is heaven on earth for a mom because the kids can just play in the sandbox while I read the paper and drink delicious coffee (Bumper Crop, of Coeur d'Alene).

Inside Cake, you can see how owner Celeste Shaw found amazing new uses for old objects. Can you tell what this round blue thing is?

Yep, an old display case from a hardware store that formerly held nails and screws. She has two of them in the space, and if I remember right the plan is to load them with to-go bread.

Celeste's creativity never ceases to amaze me. Here's some eye candy (or should I say "eye cake"?):

My pictures don't do it justice. You must see it in person. Perfect opportunity: The Latah Summer Market, organized by Celeste and happening July 10 and 11 in the parking lot in front of Chaps and Cake. Artisans, antiques, produce, baked goods, flowers, more. 4241 S. Cheney-Spokane Road off Highway 195.

By the way, Cake pastry chef Gina Garcia made my birthday cake this year. Lemon chiffon. Delish. 

2. Backyard camping.

You know we're getting ready to go camping bananas around here. Well, J and his close friends decided to celebrate the Great American Backyard Campout with a night of practice camping with the kids. (OK, they had no idea there was a national effort to promote backyard camping yesterday, but we were pretty impressed by their good timing.)

Hot dogs, s'mores, an outdoor movie and nine kids with their dads in tents. Does it get any cuter? 

Apparently the picture below was taken during a hilarious game of hide and seek. Our friend H was "hiding" behind a tree, and it took Bo forever and a day to find him. It's not even an old oak tree or anything. It's more like a cluster of thin branches with a big dude behind them.

Is she rocking the pajama bottoms + 2T T-shirt or what?

For breakfast, they grilled French toast kebabs.

 

So much fun I almost wish I'd been there instead of out to dinner/drinks with the wives and then on a long run in the morning with one of them. Darn. Maybe next year. (But probably not.)

3. Nature crafts.

I'm working on those eco kid crafts I mentioned the other day (prepping for the make-and-take craft booth at the county fair).

Here's our take on Maya Made's nature crown:

Bo opted to draw pictures of nature objects instead of taping them to the crown, (although I was not aware that Sleeping Beauty counted as an object of nature):

I also made a bird mobile from newspapers, inspired by projects from the Queen of Tarte, Kayte Terry and myself a couple years ago:

 

Do they look more like rubber duckies than birds? Oh, dear.

 

A bit of advice if you're doing newspaper crafts with kids. Do your best to use articles with nice words. This little bird snuck in somehow:

Damn media. (Wink, wink.)

Farm Chicks Part III

We couldn't resist. My friends and I went back for more Farm Chickery this morning and walked away with a few additional treasures. I'll show off my finds in a future post.

In Farm Chicks Part I, I noted that the color white seemed to be a popular choice this year. In Farm Chicks Part II, I said burlap was also a material of choice this time around. 

One final theme we kept seeing: laundry. It came in the form of wheely laundry baskets lined with ruffled linens, a giant metal sign that spelled out the words "coin laundry" and other really good goods. I have one of those scary basement laundry rooms with all the pipes showing, but this booth from Station 8 Antiques has me thinking I could add some brightness and cheer by draping (a lot!) of fabric.

Update: Debi Burton from Ormolulu saw this post and kindly sent me a photo of the "coin laundry" sign she had for sale at the show. This thing was huge. Makes me wish I had a GIANT laundry room.

 
 
Every vendor I asked said they were pleasantly surprised by the volume of sales. And I don't blame them. Serena announced on the loudspeaker this morning that 4,300 people attended Day 1, and several booths were notably more bare than I've seen before on Day 2. 

Update: Serena told me today that they normally get less than 4,300 attendees the entire weekend, let alone the first day. It was a big year!

One note about the pictures I'm posting here: The vendors enthusiastically and generously allowed me (and many other people) to take photos of their creations. Much of what you see are vintage household goods that look great because of their timeless design and well-worn patina. Other items, though, are crafts that the vendors came up with themselves--ideas that belong to them.

I, personally, am inspired by their work and have plans to re-create a few projects in my own home. But please don't use these images to replicate the creativity of these talented individuals with plans to sell the goods. I don't mean to be preachy; I just think there are still a lot of people in the craft community who don't understand that that's not OK.

OK?

On to the pictures ...

A daybed from Station 8 Antiques:

 

Thread spool photo holders from Carly Tee Photography & Design :

Total darlingness from Funky Junk:

Enamel goodness from Big Ship Salvage:

    

Honest Abe from the Queen of Tarte (this painting was my "one that got away" this year):

A lovely deer, also from Tarte:

Sweet bunnies from Hutch Studio:

 

Birdies, too:

Super cute hats from Old Mans' Pants (yes, they're made from old mans' pants):
 

 

I think the nice man behind me approves:

Many, many beautiful things from Celia (who happened to get engaged this morning! Congratulations, Celia!) and Gladys from Junebug:

From The Rusty Bird (vshawver@earthlink.net):

From the Vintage Barn:

From Wild Whimsy:

(These are fabric flower cuffs for your wrist:)

      

Whew! And there's so much more to say, not the least of which is a huge thank you to Nis and Emily for making the trek to Spokane and filling my weekend with laughter. More on the treasures we found ... coming soon.

  

Farm Chicks Part 2

This is a continuation of today's earlier post about the 2010 Farm Chicks Antique Show, which is happing this weekend here in Spokane. 

We went back to the sale after lunch and detected another theme among many vendors: burlap. 

It was used in every which way--as tablecloths, wrapped around wreaths, as upholstery for chairs and benches, etc. One vendor made what were sort of burlap socks for flower vases.

I love the look but I read something recently (don't ask me where) about all the icky chemicals that are in burlap. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but I like brown muslin just as much so I think I'd go with that if I were trying to re-create the rustic look from the show today.

Here are some more shots from the day. I'll probably post parts 3 and 4 tomorrow. 

From Retreat:

I want this kitchen island!

 

From Summerland Style:

   

 

  

From Bella:

I love, love, love these rolling laundry carts--

 

Walking into each booth was like opening a book of creative inspiration. I'm always amazed at the effort and talent that the vendors bring to the show.

More Farm Chicks pictures coming Sunday. Time to sleep.
  

A neat fundraiser for Haiti ... Tuesday(!)

Oh, goodness. I meant to say this three days ago. There's still time, though ...

My friend Stacey, the witty and talented woman behind Is There Any Mommy Out There, is hosting a fundraiser tomorrow (Tuesday--so probably "today" unless you're an insomniac like me) to benefit the orphanage in Haiti where her daughter Saige spent the first year of her life.

It's going to be a great way for kids to help kids, since the theme (hArt for Haiti) revolves around children selling their own art to raise money for the orphanage. 

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kids Sports. You can read more about it here. 

If you're in Spokane, go, go, go! What a great way to teach our kids compassion and a great way to help children--children who already were in such need!--who are suffering because of the earthquake. Thanks. Best of luck with it, Stacey!

More coming soon, including two Valentine's dresses I sewed tonight for my sweet peas. Here are three words to whet your appetite: ruffled heart pocket. Squeal!!!

12 Days of Crafting, Days 7 and 8: candle crown and countdown blocks

I just posted Day 8's craft for my 12 Days of Crafting project over at Dwell Well.

Today, we made a Santa Lucia crown from felt:

 

 You can see the tutorial, more photos and an explanation of what in the world a Santa Lucia crown is right here.

Day 7 was a project from my sister-in-law, Kim: countdown to Christmas blocks.

Cute, huh?

Four more crafts to go.

We are knee deep in Christmas here. Party for J's side of the family was last night. Great fun. His family is very musical, so at one point we were all sitting around the piano singing Christmas songs (and then Beatles songs and then Elton John songs). It was beautiful.

 

Today we went to Spokane's annual Gingerbread House Build-Off, one of my favorite events of the year. Money raised goes to a program that helps women in need get on their feet, get some job skills, etc. Local pastry chefs and architects team up to design a gingerbread house to fit the year's theme. Here were a couple of the works in progress:

Meanwhile, kids can buy a gingerbread (graham cracker, actually) kit made by the women in the program, have a seat at a table and decorate their own little houses.

I hope you're enjoying the holidays, too.

Repurposing a quilt top, this little piggy, and my sweet Bo

It has taken me 10 minutes to start typing this post because my hands are busy feeding my mouth a big hunk of bread that just came out of the oven. I would like to tell you that it's some earthy, nutty, whole wheaty bread, but it's not. It's white sandwich bread, made with overly processed flour. There's butter melting on top of it. And I'm in heaven.

First, congratulations to my friends Carolyn and Scott and their daughter Joey, who welcomed baby Julian into the world today. I always get weepy when that much-anticipated e-mail comes (or Facebook update, I should say. E-mail seems so old fashioned now, doesn't it?). Good work, Mama. Now cuddle up with your little bundle and get some rest.

I have a partial update from Saturday's trash-to-treasure presentation. As a reminder, the newspaper gave me $25 to buy some junk at the big indoor yard sale they host, and then I had 24 hours to come up with a plan to repurpose it. Then, in front of a (very small) audience, I transformed it.

One of the items I bought--for $5--was a quilt top. I don't think I'm going to win any points for creativity here, but I basically just used it like I'd use any fabric and turned it into an Emmeline apron:

This was the last project I did at the show because I knew it would take a while, so I sent the audience off to do more shopping while I sewed it up. They came back at the end (well, some of them did) to see the result.

Thanks again for everyone's encouragement before the show. It went fine. Later this week, I'll show you what I did with wooden alphabet blocks, an old picture frame, and a soda-bottle crate.

Now, shifting gears ... to poverty.

There have been a couple of pivotal moments in our 4-year-old daughter Bo's life. One was when she saw the Broadway production of "Annie" last winter. It's probably not P.C., but she still likes to don the Annie dress I made her and scrub the floors "like an orphan." Hmm ...

A second pivotal moment was when her beloved preschool teacher Miss Kathleen quit her job at the school to go back to social work, helping homeless women and children find permanent housing. Ever since then, Bo has been on the lookout for homeless people. She also sometimes asks me if Miss Kathleen has found a home for Annie yet. (After which I fruitlessly try to explain the difference between fiction and reality and then give up and assure her that Annie is with Daddy Warbucks now.)

Anyhow, on a more serious note, Bo's concerns about poverty--especially children without enough food to eat or without a place to live--has been growing. I asked her last week if she'd like to do something to help, and she said yes.

Together, we came up with a plan: she's going to make crafts that she'll sell at a local farmers' market and then donate the money to a crisis nursery here in town. So between now and Oct. 10, the date of her sale, we'll be stocking up on crafty-kid inventory.

She got started tonight with a project I've eyed for months now.

Presenting Bo's very first papier mache pig puppet:

 

(Turns out an empty thread spool makes a great snout.)

The little pig is drying now, and tomorrow he'll get a coat of paint and something to wear.

I'm sure we've all read articles about kids doing good things for charity, like donating their birthday gifts to a cause. I love seeing that, but I have to admit I've always been skeptical about how much the parents are pushing it rather than it coming from the kid. Not that it'd be a bad thing that they're pushing them to do. On the contrary. It's just the pushing I don't like--or the assumption of pushing, since it's just the cynic in me that questions the kids' motivation.

But I can tell you this crafting project of Bo's is coming straight from her heart. It's the first thing she talks about in the morning and the last thing she says at night ("are we going to help the people tomorrow?"). I'll never question those feel-good articles again.

It's enough to warm a mama's heart. 

Bread warms up other parts of me. One more slice before bedtime ...

From trash ...

... to treasure. Soon.

I'm on my way to a big indoor yard sale, where I'll be demonstrating how to turn castaway items into something better. The good folks at the local newspaper gave me $25 to spend at the sale yesterday. With Magpie at my side (and oftentimes very far away from my side--going junking with a toddler is challenging, to say the least), I spent the money on these items:

There were a lot of quilt tops to choose from, but this one for $5 caught my eye:

The cookie cookbook, well, it's full of cookie recipes. What can I say? For $3, I had to have it. The plan is to use it to decoupage, though, so I'd better pull out my favorite recipes now.

And am I the only one with a crush on these vintage metal trays? Mint and red. 'Nuff said.

Wish me luck! I'm going to be on a stage, which makes me a bit nervous. You would laugh at me if you saw how little the stage is, though. It's really no big deal. It's just that I'm used to crafting in my basement while wearing pajamas, not while wearing platform shoes with people who've actually taken sewing lessons in the audience. Eek!

I survived a make-and-take craft booth

As I just wrote on my other blog, I need a T-shirt that says that.

I'm back from 5 fun-filled hours teaching eager crafters (most of whom were darling little kids) how to make stuff out of secondhand materials at the North Idaho Fair. 

Take a look at some of their creations:

The one this kindergarten teacher made was one of my favorites:

How cute is this little monkey?

He sewed a pillow instead of a flower. And charmed my socks off in the meantime.

This is how the booth looked:

I displayed some of my crafty stuff to show folks how they could repurpose old objects.

And, yes, that's Amanda Soule's new book Handmade Home sitting in that wire basket. I bought it two days ago but haven't had a second to look inside yet.  

You can see more crafty photos from the booth here.

My only regret about the fair is that it fell on the night before the first day of preschool and I feel like I haven't properly ritualized the whole going-back-to-school thing with Bo. I think we'll have to get up extra early and go out for some pancakes to make up for it.

There's so much I could say right now about how inspired I was by the crafty kiddos at the fair, many of whom had never used a needle and thread before, and their ability to turn old sheets into beautiful objects.

Instead, though, I'm going to bed. G'night.