Thursday, October 27, 2011

Boo!

In true Halloween spirit I thought I'd share a picture from Calico Ghost Town that Ryan and I stopped through on our road trip out West. Happy Halloween!



We also stopped at the Cadillac Ranch and spray painted a few cadillacs.



And we stopped at the Grand Canyon (among various other random stops), woah baby is it grand. It was my very first visit there, Ryan's second, and I was amazed by how huge it really is in person...wow. Overall, it was a pretty darn awesome road trip.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

A Christmas Hat

I just finished knitting this Christmas stocking cap for my little nephew. I have yet to have him try it on, so I hope it fits!



I used an alpaca wool blend and it will certainly keep his little head warm! I'm knitting him one more before he heads to the midwest for Thanksgiving/Christmas and it will definitely be more Scandinavian looking. I'll try to get a picture of him modeling them both when they're finished!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Antique find


Check out this awesome trim I found a month back at an antique store! Ryan and I took a short weekend trip to Solana Beach here in California and came upon an adorable little antique shop specializing in antique sewing products - amazing!

Now I need to decide what to do with it...

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Pumpkin Pasta



Last week here in California was a nice cool week that really reminded me of a midwestern Fall, minus the color changing leaves (the best part!), so I felt like cooking Fall-themed things. I came across this cheese ravioli with a pumpkin sauce in one of my holiday cookbooks and gave it a whirl and boy am I glad I did - yum.


I just used prepackaged 3-cheese ravioli and made the sauce in 15 minutes.


Pumpkin Sauce:


1. Cut up 1 onion (I used a medium-sized red onion) and saute with a little olive oil. Add 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (if you don't like the taste you can totally omit these, but I love them so I added extra...). Saute until soft.


2. Measure 1 cup milk. Mix 1 Tablespoon flour with a little bit of milk, once combined add the remaining 1 cup of milk. Add to the sauteed onions and stir constantly on high heat until it thickens.


3. Add the 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup pumpkin puree and mix throroughly. Pour over your cooked ravioli and enjoy a Fall dinner!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Christmas Stitching...

Here is a small peak of my latest Christmas project, a printed embroidery kit from my mom's linen closet. I'm learning all sorts of stiches I've never done before and love it!


Pardon the camera string that somehow got in the shot, I was in a hurry. Can you believe Christmas is only 2 and a half months away?! It's sneaking up on us quickly!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Homegrown happiness

Ryan and I have a lovely little patio that is perfect for a few potted plants. So far we have a rather large pot for herbs and a second, not so large, pot for our 2 pepper plants. We are growing jalepenos and habanero peppers, spicy! The first batch was finally ready to be picked and here we have it:



Since Ryan loves all things extra spicy, I made him some pepper jelly from the peppers. It was my first experience making a jelly, I've only made jams up until now. So easy! I used the recipe straight from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook in the "preserves" section. It's sweet and spicy, I think it would actually be pretty tasty on some grilled chicken or pork.


Craft club is this week and I'm so looking forward to it! I think I will use that time to finally start me and Ryan's Christmas stockings. Hope you have a great week!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Dala Craftalong on WhipUp



Remember the Dala Horse Craftalong? Well Carina just did a guest post about it over at WhipUp, check it out here!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Hand-spun yarn

As I was organizing some bags of craft supplies, I came across a few older crafts I haven't done in a while, like these balls of hand-spun yarn. I began spinning in college and was instantly hooked. I used a drop-spindle, and while it takes quite a while to get a decent amount of yarn spun, it is so addicting!


These are just a few of the balls I completed. I only ever knitted a hat from the yarn I spun, but would love to do a bigger project with all hand-spun yarn. I love multi-step projects. Buying the wool (one day I'd love to have my own sheep for wool!), spinning the wool, winding into balls, choosing a pattern, knitting the said pattern and then wearing (or gifting) the final product!

My next knitting project will be knitted Christmas stockings for me and Ryan's first Christmas!