Totally on TV

So the other day, as part of my "work," I got to to model a cutie fredflare outfit on the CW11 morning news. Then a couple weeks ago a film crew from Eyewitness News came by and there are a couple shots of me doing my shipping thing. So funny!

Check out this fredflare blog post for the videos...

Happy Birthday MOM!!!!

Ok, I have the best mom ever and today is her birthday so I thought I would share with the world some of my most favorite things about her:

She always played games with me in the car. This was of course really fun as a kid, but I now realize what a great tactic it is to keep kids occupied and not complaining!

We recently started playing Yahtzee on a regular basis- usually during meals- when I'm home for a visit.

She always buys me a raffle ticket at the fund raisers she goes to. If my ticket wins, she gives me the prize when most people would keep it.

I can do a crazy dance in front of her for at least two minutes before she looks up and acknowledges me. She totally does this on purpose!!

I don't think she's EVER complained about going shopping with me.

She is an amazing gift giver, wrapper, care package packer, stocking stuffer-er... incredibly generous and thoughtful, this one. I especially remember the one Christmas when the presents were numbered... yeah, she likes to organize... and I got my nintendo AND tickets to see NKOTB in concert.

I always had the coolest clothes. I remember shopping at Kids-r-Us in elementary school and feeling so rad. For Christmas I would always get amazing outfits with matching socks and hair things (think sparkles & feathers... Lucky!)

She loves:


She is always willing to help. I see her help with so many organizations that need to raise money or organize an event. She'll do even the smallest task and never expect any notice for it.

She's friendly and makes conversation with strangers everywhere we go. It's really cute.

She raised me to be creative and never bored.

Most of our conversations take place while one of us is in the bathroom.

One nickname or me: Poopsie, which is unrelated to the reason above.

She's my mom and no one elses!!!

I LOVE YOU TWO BUNCHES MOM!!!!!!!!!!!

Arrrgggghhhh!

Right now, I was supposed to be with friends here

wearing this


sipping this

But I'm not!

In usual Kim fashion I awoke early, went to the grocery store and made a bag full of treats for the event. Fittingly, the odds where apparently against me today- I waited FOREVER for the bus and then when one came, finally, I realized I didn't pack my wallet. I had to run back home and of course missed the bus. Since there's no way to get there from here, I walked. In the heat, carrying all my crap. By this time, I had totally missed the LIRR train I was planning to take, but figured there would be another one and I'd just meet my buddies there. Nope. Last train.

There I was in the Atlantic Long Island Railroad Station wearing my favorite Victorian petticoats, my new Sephora bright red lip stain, toting 20 chicken salad sandwiches and a lime custard cake. Yeah, I let loose a couple tears. It was such a let down.

So I thought if I bought a few dumb things at Target which was right there, it might pick me up. Yeah, I got some scissors that are my favorite color and a beautiful new journal with creamy pages and a lovely plaid cover:

It did make me feel better.
So did about six of those chicken salad sandwiches and an iced coffee.

Now I have my fingers crossed for an awesome movie on TV.

"Over Board! Please let it be Over Board!!"

Dresses!!

Tonight I'm working on a new pattern for a little girls dress. I'm never quite sure about sizes, so today I went to Old Navy to get a bunch ofdresses to take measurements from.

Mine won't really look anything like these... I just thought the basic shape would be similar. Here's a swatch of my idea... but that's all I can show you!

Steak frite

Last night I made this for dinner. Steak, French fries and yummy salad. Then I watched two rented movies. Ahhhhhhhh
Here's what I did:

Fries
Usually people freak out over the thought of frying but I like to make my own fries and it's pretty easy. I use a wide skillet, so I don't have to use too much oil since I never know how to best dispose of it afterwards. I cut the potatoes with the skin on because it's yummy that way and make sure the fries relatively the same thickness and size. This is not just an anal, Martha Stewarty thing, it's essential in making sure they cook at the same rate. The oil has to get pretty hot, but once it's heated you might want to turn it down a bit so it doesn't smoke. This is highly unlikely if you use canola oil. For heavens sake, don't use olive oil! It has a much lower tolerance for heat and will burn if it gets too hot. I learned this somewhere, but notice it most when I try to make popcorn on the stove and all I have is olive oil. It pretty much always burns the popcorn. Anyway... toss the fries in and wait until they're golden on the edges. They get brown quite quickly after this, so be ready to remove them if you don't like dark fries! Work quickly, but carefully- you don't want to burn yourself. To get them out I use my pasta scoop. It's pretty amazing at grabbing the little guys and draining off a lot of the oil. (I'm the queen of using things for reasons other than what they were designed for) You should let them cool on a plate with a couple of paper towels underneath, just like you would bacon. Sprinkle on the salt. Then try to wait until everything's done to gobble them down- good luck with that!

Steak
Super easy!!!! Rub her with salt and stick her in a fry pan. Get both sides... to your liking. My steak happened to come with a peppered edge. I got it because it looked like a good cut, I didn't really want the peppered edge, but it turned out to be good! You could do that yourself, if you wanted.


Salad Dressing
I'll just do dressing because you can figure out on your own what you want in your salad, right? For dressings lately I've been doing a little bit of mustard, vinegar, salt/pepper, a dash of chili powder and finally olive oil. Put them all together and then shake or stir. The mustard acts as an emollient to keep everything together. I like the added spice of the chili pepper, especially with arugala in my salad! Spicy city! You can use lemon instead of vinegar, that's nice too. (Did you know that olive oil looses it's good-for-you qualities once cooked? It's really good to eat it in dressings or on bread then, isn't it?) Make sure your greens are dry so the dressing will stick to them. Salad spinners are good for that or you can do this little trick I learned from Martha- place your wet greens in a clean dry towel, draw edges together and then whip that sucker around!! I do it out the window...would Martha approve? I don't know, but I don't want my house covered in water!! It works really well!

New phase of Jewelry

If you read my second blog post you know about my little stamp collection. Well, I have been trying to figure out a way to incorporate stamps into my jewelry making for a while now and have just hit on something that pleases me much.

I didn't want to do much to the stamps, as not to destroy their beauty... so I tried just gluing two together and hanging it on the end of a chain and made a matching pair of earrings. They looked pretty, especially that scalloped stamp edge, but it seemed too delicate. One swipe to tuck back your hair and there goes your earring!

Well I hadn't investigated much more than that until a recent shipment of jewelry findings arrived. Here's what I made because I can't wait any longer to show you!!!



It's a flip top frame with stamps inside.


I mounted each stamp to a piece of chipboard (using acid free glue of course, mom)



And then made sure each one was double sided so you can flip through and change your necklace everyday!! How many options is that! It's a little treasure box so you can carry a little stamp collection around with you!



Then I pair it with a little nautical-but-nice charm and a vintage chain.


That's enough talk. I'm going to make more NOW!

Celebrating Independence

Here's a gathering of patriotic stamps I found quite fitting for the day. I've always loved the symbolism of the flag and it bothers me when people diss it. For me, the flag represents the ideals our country was founded upon. Our government might not always make decisions that make us all happy, but we can all look to the flag to unite us and remind us what we should carry in our hearts to live and strive for.

UnINSPIRED

Truth be told: I've been lacking in the inspiration department lately. Right after the craft fair, I had this major drop off in my drive to make much of anything. It's quite possible I just needed a break after all the late nights getting stuff together for my booth, but I was getting a little worried as to why I didn't feel like making things. Don't get me wrong, the craft fair was a great success and I'm super happy about it. I was also a little let down, because once it was over, I didn't have a "reason" to make stuff anymore! I was standing at the foot of a mountain I had no intention to climb, with no other way around it.

I didn't think I needed a "reason" to make things, it's just something I do by nature. All of a sudden though, the thought of lifting a finger was too much for me. Um, so had my previous course in life ended? What now, get a normal job and remember the good ol' days? What was wrong with me?


I wasn't INSPIRED.

It happens. But what do you do about it?

What a gift to have a break from making. Seriously. I love being uber productive, but getting ready for Renegade... I kind of went on auto pilot. I was cranking it out in a push to fill my tables. The pieces were inspired at one point(like the three months prior when I first thought of them!) but mostly I was just making different versions of the same thing. It would be silly for me to compare that level of production to that of a new creative period.

My suggestion on being unINSPIRED?

Pay attention. Notice it. Feel it. Then go out for a really good dinner and order dessert. Visit Maine (it's the "way life should be" after all.) Go to the flea market. Buy some new materials. (As much as I want to be thrifty, a few new jewelry findings seem to spruce my entire supply.) Drink a few beers if you want. Give yourself permission to RELAX. Oh and just wait.

In hindsight, I can easily see this time as an uninspired period of waiting. In actuality, it felt terrible and I'm only able to be writing all this because I found my pathway up the mountain. Some INSPIRATION!!!

More on that to come....

Funny work photo

Check out my Maine thrift store finds which I gave to my fredflare co workers!

Jen, second from left, wrote a blog about it!!

My Latest Pattern!!!!

My latest sweater for Blue Sky Alpacas! I made this for them in white and LOVE the version they made in green. It debuts their newest yarn, Suri Merino: a luxurious 60% baby suri/40% merino, single ply yarn, which comes in 14 inspiring colors. My favorite thing about this design are the 14 buttons up the collar which makes for a very sexy, Victorian touch.

I loved knitting with this yarn and want this sweater for myself!!!

You can view all of Blue Sky's patterns here.