Crafty Biker Baby

Hi everyone! I threw a baby shower for someone over the weekend, and it was so much fun (and hard work!) make decorations and setting up games!! It was quite a crafty shower. I made the invitations, some decorations, and signs and instructions for various games on my computer, We even had the guests get crafty and paint little bibs and onesies. Here's a picture of my favorite: 








Of all the things I made for the shower, my favorite was a 'diaper bike.' What's that, you ask? Have you heard of a diaper cake? It's shaped like a multi-tiered cake but made of diapers, baby washcloths, and other baby items. Well, that didn't seem like the guest of honor's style, but as she used to ride a motorcycle, I went with a diaper bike instead! I found a tutorial here: ttp://www.sweetaprils.com/2011/08/diaper-motorcycle-tutorial-diy-how-to.html

It surprised me by only taking a couple of hours to make. Although the shopping took a long time, because I was really picky about what I wanted to give the guest of honor! I love the penguin rider. We had a bit of a penguin theme for the decorations, as the guest of honor just loves penguins! I like the cute little frogs on the blankets and bibs, too!

I had to tweak the design a little bit to work with what I found. The receiving blankets I bought were longer than in the tutorial, so I had to wrap and fold them a bit more to get them to fit. I also used a smaller plush, so I folded down the handlebars-poor little penguin couldn't reach them before! I also used a few extra diapers (20 per wheel) just because I bought a pack of 40, and it seemed silly to leave the 6 extras! 
I also added my own little touch: a little tailpipe made out of the most adorable penguin socks that I found! I didn't want to stretch them out by using them for the handlebars, but I really wanted to include them. I think it works!

Have you ever made a diaper cake? Or had a crafty party or baby shower? Please share!

Plenty of Fish in the Freezer-Making Halibut Ceviche

We have several pounds of fish in our freezer from the fishing trip my fiance went on when he was visiting Alaska. I'm determined to use it up before we end up with more-ack! To that end, last night we made a halibut ceviche. It's basically my own recipe made from cobbling together several recipes I found online.

For those of you not familiar, ceviche is a fish dish found in South American cuisine. I personally had it for the first time in Peru. Ceviche is not cooked-raw fish or seafood is marinated in some kind of citrus (lemon or lime) juice, usually along with other ingredients (such as onions, chilis. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceviche) Obviously, as with sushi or any other raw fish dish, you need to be careful that you use very fresh fish, and there is some risk of food poisoning from raw fish. Ingredients: 1lb of Halibut - cut into 1/2 inch cubes juice from 5 lemons juice from 5 limes 4 jalapeno peppers, diced and seeded 1 sweet onion, diced 1 bell pepper (we used orange), diced 3 medium tomatoes (we used some pretty purplish ones), diced fresh parsley and cilantro-diced salt and pepper-to taste, if desired

Cube halibut and dice jalapeno peppers and mix with lemon and lime juice in a non-metallic bowl (glass or plastic will work). Cover and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.

Dice onion and bell pepper and add to mixture. Stir well and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour.

Dice fresh tomatoes, parsley and cilantro, salt and pepper. Add to mixture and serve.

You can serve this with corn and potatoes (which is how I saw it done in Peru), or rice, avocado, tortilla or plantain chips, or whatever you want, really! We had ours with a whole grain rice 'medley' and sweet potato tortilla chips (both from Trader Joe's!) This recipe is really a lot of fun to make-and easy apart from all the waiting. I love how it got more colorful as we went along. I tried this once before-several months ago-with a mix of halibut and salmon, but never got around to writing down what I did. I really preferred the halibut over the salmon. You could easily make this with most other white flesh fish, I think. 

 Do you guys like ceviche? Has anyone tried making it? It's really easy, just a lot of time marinating. What would you add? How would you serve it? Please leave me a comment and let me know!

Beading Made Portable

I've always been jealous of knitters and crocheters. Their craft seems so portable. You see them working all over the place-waiting rooms, coffee shops, trains. I've always wanted to be able to do that with my jewelry making! I've always thought it would hard to organize bringing a lot of beads, wire, and tools with me. Not to mention I wondered if I would get funny looks.

So, I set about looking for a way to carry my beading with me so I could give it a try. Here's what I came up with:

Basically, I stole two smallish boxes that my fiance had been given with some fancy tea for his birthday. They have tight fitting lids so they wouldn't fall open while traveling. One would easily fit in a large purse. I removed all the packaging from inside and just started wedging things in. I carry a beading mat in one, so I can put things out on a table without them rolling around.

When I travel, I always wrap my pliers so they don't damage anything. I turn some duct tape sticky side out and wrap it around the ends of each pair of pliers, with the pliers in an open position. Then I wrap another layer of duct tape (sticky side in) over the first layer so it doesn't stick to everything.

So far, it's working pretty well. I've used them to work while waiting for my father to have a procedure in the hospital, and on an amtrak train. I find making rings to be one of the easiest projects to carry with me. The tea tins don't fit a ring sizer or hammer, but I can carry those separately pretty easily, or leave the hammer at home. I've also got an old biscuit tin I bought at a yard sale for when I need to fit more/larger items in. The problem with that (at least the one I have) is that the lid doesn't fit tightly and needs to be rubber banded on.

I'm working on a few other ideas for ways to carry my beading projects around. I'd love to hear about your ideas. Is your craft portable? What's your favorite way to carry it with you?

New Treasury Featuring Local Artists

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share my latest treasury with you all. I made a treasury on etsy featuring some local crafters/artists from the Cambridge/Somerville/Boston area. There is so much good stuff going on around here! Enjoy!



Don't forget to stop by my shop to see my new listings. In the last few weeks, I've added fun rings and scrabble tile pendants to my shop. And please leave a comment here to let me know what you think!

Triple Letter Score-Scrabble Tile Pendants Part 2-making bails!

I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting this, so here is part two of my post on scrabble tile pendants! Once the resin had cured on the scrabble tiles, the next step was to add the bails (or, pendant-hanging thingers, as I would have called them a couple of years ago before I started making jewelry-I’ve learned a lot of new terminology!) There are a lot of pre-made glue-on bails available, mostly by Aanraku. But being me, I wanted to make my own bails from wire. I had some idea as to how it might be done, and I looked around online for examples to see if anyone else was doing something similar. I didn’t find any, and I started wondering if handmade bails would even work! Luckily I asked around to a few of my jewelry-making ‘tweeps’ on Twitter, one of whom has made her own bails in the past and she reassured me so I got started!

I made the bails themselves with 22 gauge half-hard wire.  I made a small wire spiral, and made a large wrapped loop on top. (That was especially exciting as I got a chance to use my new wire looping pliers!)  I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures during this part of the process-I got excited and made a whole bunch before I remembered I wanted to blog about this!

I hammered the spirals flat figuring that that would make a more surface area for the glue to adhere to.  I also hammered the loops to harden them.

I then sanded both the wire spirals and the backs of the scrabble tiles to make a rough surface for the glue to adhere to. 

Then I was ready to glue! After doing some reading online I’ve found that a lot of people use an adhesive called e-6000. I’ve heard mixed reviews of it, though, with some people saying that their creations fall apart using this glue! My friend Meredith of TilleyJewels suggested something called Crafter’s Goop, which I think I will try out next.  My fiancé has a quick-drying two-part epoxy that he’s used for wire projects, so I tried that first because we already had it. You have to mix the two parts, then use it quickly before it begins drying.

Here is what the finished product looks like, both front and back. I’m pretty happy with how it looks, and just about ready to list them in my shop. The glue (and the results of my resin spills that I mentioned in the last post) are visible, but only on the backs of the pendants. My main concern with these was sturdiness-would the handmade bails stay on? A friend of mine has been wearing one of them and has had no problems so far. On top of that, when I was trying to take pictures of the pendants, I dropped a wooden board that I use as a background right on top of them, and the bails didn’t separate from the pendants. The adhesive wasn’t even fully cured at that point, so, I think they’re going to work pretty well!

As usual, thanks for reading, everyone! Please leave me a comment and let me know how you like the pendants. Would you buy one?

I was included in a treasury: City Life!

Wow! One of my scrabble tile pendants was included in this lovely 'City Life' treasury by Shroompers on etsy! Check it out!

Semi-homemade cooking: Unfried Rice

I came up with this recipe while I was helping out my mom who had been ill with pneumonia. She’d just come home from the hospital, and was only just starting to regain her appetite so I wanted something fairly simple I didn’t want to head to the grocery store. All we really had in the house for quick cooking was leftover rice, frozen veggies, and eggs. And so, unfried rice was born! This was really a thrown together dish, so please excuse the lack of measurements and exact quantities-do what you want, modify, and use what you have on hand! Here’s how I did it:

Ingredients:

Pre-cooked or leftover rice (probably about 3 cups)
½ a bag of frozen broccoli (obviously, substitute whatever veggies you have on hand or prefer)
2 eggs
Soy sauce
Seasoned rice vinegar (we use a brand called Nakano)
Ground mustard
Dried (or fresh) parsley


Basically-I cooked the frozen broccoli by the stovetop method-which involved putting the broccoli in a pot with a small amount of boiling water. I partially drained the cooked broccoli leaving a little water, and added the pre-cooked rice. I scrambled and cooked the egg s, and chopped them up with the spatula before adding them to the pot as well. I turned on very low heat and added the soy sauce, vinegar, and spices. I mixed everything together and cooked until heated through. That’s it!


It came out pretty tasty. Not quite the same as fried rice of course. I think I’ll make this again at home with some changes. I might add a small dash of sesame oil and maybe red pepper flakes or sriracha to make it a bit more interesting. Let me know what you think! What would you add or leave out?