Friday, May 27, 2011

I Heart Coconuts

I really do love all things coconut. Coconut oil, coconut milk, Banana boat... but I may have to draw the line at baking with coconut flour.

I bought some in bulk at Sprouts earlier this week and have been desperately trying to love it. I tried this recipe for coconut flour blueberry muffins and while they were good, they didn't meet my muffin requirements. 

This morning I tried coconut flour pancakes and while the kids gobbled them up I thought they texture was all wrong. So sad especially when the web site mentioned them tasting like donuts. sigh.

So please send me coconut flour recipe that you have tried and love!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Something Is Brewing

Without going into a ton of detail, I just submitted a design for a crochet book. I have had this idea for a while and I was able to flush it out today. Luckily the deadline is near so I won't have to wait too long to find out if the publisher likes it. If they pass on the idea, have no fear I will find a home for it.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Bad Year For Chickens

This morning I saw a sparrow carrying off a feather and thought "Ahhh, how sweet. She is using a feather for her nest." I then go to bring out water for 3.2 only to find feathers everywhere.

Two words - Owl Attack!

Sigh... It is my fault for not bring her crate in last night but I thought she had enough cover under her favorite bush. I was wrong. Very, very, very wrong.
That poor chicken. First she gets scalped and now this. Little Man cried for awhile and seems to be over it. This was a very bad year for baby chicks at my house. I need to stop writing this post and get outside and clean up the rest of the feathers.  Hopefully I will have more cheerful chicken posts in the near future!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

iPhone 4 + Mom = Happy Family

For Mother's Day my family got me the iPhone 4 and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I should also mention that I am not really in to jewelry, designer clothes or purses but I love gadgets. Give me an electronic as a gift and I am happy girl. Maybe this is the ying to my crafty yang.

I had a ipod touch which I loved but didn't love that I had to be in a free wifi area to make use of all its awesomeness. It is also handy to have a little camera to capture moments that would otherwise be lost because I don't carry my real camera everywhere I go (although I often wish I could). The quality isn't great but it works. I recently discovered I could upload images to Ravelry  using my iPhone which is nice when I have a WIP, which seems nicer than the blank square that normally fills that space.

Here are some of the recent images I took. 



You shouldn't eat dandelion seeds.
As I was writing this is made me giggle that I am complaining that my phone/computer/gps system/arcade/encyclopedia/camera doesn't take better pictures. 

More craft projects are in the works... stay tuned.


Friday, May 13, 2011

Chicken Injuries

We had bad luck with chicks this year. After losing one chick when it was few days old, we lost our Golden Campine about a week ago. I am not sure what was wrong with her but I did notice that she seemed to have stopped growing. The other chick was growing great and I decided it would be a good idea to move her to the big coop now that she was alone.

Because chickens are stupid, I put her in at night and hoped they would all wake up and just think she had been there all along. I checked on her a couple times before going to bed and all seemed to be okay. In the morning she was still nervous but alive and uninjured.

Fast forward to after lunch...  I open the coop door to find one of my White Orpingtons covered in blood, not a great sign. The poor teenage chicken had been scalped. While I am tempted to insert a picture, it is pretty gross and trust me when I say you could see bone. No feathers, no skin just grossness (and I have a pretty high tolerance to blood and guts). So after I was done crying and feeling really, really bad for this chicken I covered the wound in antiseptic cream and waited for my husband to come home and "take care" of this poor mortally wounded chicken.

During those long four hours I talked to one of my parent's neighbor and friend's husband to learn that this type of injury isn't that uncommon and if they live through the night they will probably live. My husband came home to find her eating and drinking with copious amount of cream on her head and decided she didn't need to meet her chicken maker.

Fast forward a week and she is doing great. She has the most nasty looking scab on her head but other wise doing great. She looks like a vulture. My husband bought a crate for the next time we try and introduce her into the flock and my neighbor gave me some additional tips like letting her bond with one of the friendlier chickens in the flock prior to introducing her to the rest and taking out the mean chicken for a couple days when we try again.

The friendly Light Brahmas
In summary - chickens are mean to each other. Chickens are stupid. I am not the type of person that can kill an animal to end its misery.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Oliver + S Family Reunion Dress

I saw this pattern when my mom was visiting and knew I was going to make it. Like all of the Oliver + S patterns it is classic and modest, two features I appreciate when looking at little girl clothing.

I found the vintage-looking fabric at a local quilt shop but didn't stop to look at the name. It was only $4/yard that day so I got enough to also attempt a matching doll dress (eventually).

Oliver + S Family Reunion Dress

I also played with some of the decorative stitches on my Janome DC2010. I had to stop myself because I could just keep adding and adding all the way up the dress.
 There are pintucks that you can't see that great because of the busy pattern, but I know they are there!
At our last fitting Baby Girl screamed and threw herself around fighting even putting on the dress. I know it is too big for her but that is better than being too small. Maybe she just needs to see the finished product to appreciate all the hard work her mama put into her new dress.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Tunisian Crochet Camera Strap

About 6 years ago my mom sent me a bag of strange looking crochet hooks that on first glance I thought were knitting needles. Having no clue what they were for I put them away - way, way, way back in my closet. I learned what they were really for about a year ago and since then I have had "Learn To Tunisian Crochet" on my list of new techniques to learn.

First thing I did was watch a couple YouTube videos on Tunisian crochet and then I bought the book Tunisian Crochet: The Look of Knitting with the East of Crocheting, by Sharon Hernes Silverman. After having the book sit on my shelf for a couple month I finally got motivated to give it a shot.

Using the basic Tunisian simple stitch, also known as the Afghan stitch, I made myself a camera strap cover. With some trial and error I found the right width to fit my strap.


Materials:
Size 6 Tunisian Crochet Hook
Worsted Weight Yarn - I used Malabrigo - Hummingbird
Understanding of Tunisian Simple Stitch

Gauge: 6 stitches per inch

Instructions:
  • Create a foundation row of 20 stitches - I would recommend testing the width after a couple of rows to make sure it fits your specific strap
  • Work TSS for the entire length of strap
  • Turn work with right sides facing each other
  • I used a crocheted slip stitch to seam the edge
  • Turn half your strap inside out and work camera strap into cover
  • Unfold strap and pull the second half through

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