Cross-stitching seems analogous with child birth...

... it's a long, arduous process to finish a project, but you always forget about how hard it was by the time you're ready to give it another go.

Here's a look at what I've been working on the past few months.

I am such a sucker for nerdy craft projects.  There's really nothing more satisfying that immortalizing something nerdy in a hipster medium.  For example, I whipped this cross-stitch up while watching seasons 2-4 of Dr. Who:

I was so inspired by the fun and joy of this cross-stitch project that I decided that I needed a bigger, grander project.

I received a cross-stitch kit for Christmas from my amazingly wonderful sister-in-law-to-be Jessie.  Not only was it an incredibly nerdy World of Warcraft reference, but it was also a good 4-5 inches high... in petty-point.  I tried to find a definition of petty-point on the internet, but failed abysmally.  It involves teensy stitches  on 18 count aida cloth, with only one strand of thread.  All that to say, this was a grand undertaking.

It's actually been a little grander than I anticipated.  I started working on him shortly after I moved back to Alberta at the beginning of May, and he's still got a long way to go.


I present to you the half-completed majesty of Flagglemurk The Cruel.

The pink line is the median point for the piece.  As I have yet to really make much of a dent south of that line, I suspect he's around 50% complete that this point.

I will continue to write updates on his progress, which will hopefully motivate me to keep on going.  He has been by far my most time-consuming project, with Nyan-cat coming in at a close second.  But, I think he's going to be totally worth the work in the end.

I realize it's been entirely too long since my last post.

Now that exams are over (forever!!) and I've settled into my new life back in Edmonton, you can all expect much more crafting from here on in.

I had my sewing machine serviced after Josh and I got back to Edmonton, and I was absolutely itching to try out a project on it.  Our new home gave us a project pretty quick.  I'll start by saying that we love the place that we're renting right now.  It's only ten years old, it has amazingly plush carpets and a fantastic bathroom, and all the rooms are spacious with lots of natural light.  The downside to this otherwise splendid home is that it is almost completely devoid of storage space - which is a problem for me, because I hoard craft supplies.

In particular, our front entryway doesn't have a place for keys and mail and those sorts of things.  Being the crafty gal that I am, I decided I'd just make some hanging space on the wall.  I chose the "Hanging Wall Pocket" out of One Yard Wonders.  I will first say that this book is great for patterns.  The authors have some truly inspired ideas for household items.  I will however caveat my praise by saying that the instructions for the patterns are atrocious.  They're always vague, and oft times contradict themselves.  I guess if nothing else it ingrains in young crafters the necessity to read the entire pattern and instructions over several times before you start cutting, or there will be tears.

I learned my lesson a few years back when I made the "Organized Bed Pocket".  I blindly followed the instructions, and ended up having to replace the bias tape on the entire project because their instructions on how to attach bias tape were entirely incorrect.  All that to say, I was prepared this time when the pattern told me to cut the main body piece at 6" intervals, but actually meant for me to make a chalk mark at 6" intervals.

I let Josh pick the fabric for the project.  I had actually purchased the solar system fabric with Josh in mind, but I hadn't committed it to a project yet.  He was really excited to use it for our mail/key holder.

And here it is in all it's glory. 

It's attached to the wall with some hefty finishing nails and two grommet holes.  

Here's a better shot of some of the planets. 

I'm quite pleased with the outcome.  We decided to hang it in the kitchen, rather than down in our entryway.  It should definitely cut down on some of the clutter that was amassing on our counters.  I've also got a couple nice big chunks of the solar system fabric left, more than enough for another small project.  

It was great to finally get a project finished.  I've been working hard on a large cross-stitch piece for a while now.    I'll share a sneak peek of it next time!  

Make Your Own Tea Bags

Today we're going to make tea bags!

I discovered how amazing tea was during law school.  More specifically, I discovered that tea comes not only in Earl Grey and Green varieties, but that there are entire shops devoted to selling hundreds of different varieties.  My recent favourite is Jolly Jellybean from David's Tea.  It has jelly belly jellybeans in it (I'm a sucker for a gimmick), and tastes divine.

While I enjoy tea, I find it hard to enjoy at school if it's loose leaf.  I've been running a nouveau apothecary out of my locker for the past few years, with jars of tea and tea scoops and the like packed onto a shelf.  I have concluded however that this is a silly way to go about things - it's messy and it takes up valuable real estate that could be used to house my inordinately large paper copy of the Income Tax Act.

According to the internet, it's all the rage nowadays to make your own tea bags.  They seemed like a lot of work though, and I'm more of an instant gratification sort of gal.  But they did seem like a great way to stop scooping loose leaf tea at school.  So I decided to improve on the method.

My mom started buying me tea supplies for Christmas a few years ago, which is how I learned about disposable tea filters.  Most tea shops sell them, and they run you 5-6 dollars a box.  

These filters got me to thinking about how I could more easily go about making my own tea bags if I used the prefabricated filter as my base.  No complex sewing would be required, and it would end up doing the same job in the end.  I gave it a whirl, and it was quite a success!  Since it worked out for me, I wanted to share it with you all.

First, you'll need some supplies:

Scissors

Pen

Stapler

Baker's Twine (There's a great tutorial on how to make your own at http://www.niftythriftythings.com/2012/01/diy-bakers-twine.html)

A set of tea bag labels - you can download the ones that I made here

Loose Tea

Tea Measuring Scoop

Tea Filter bags (I use T-Sac, but any brand will do.)

Instructions:
1. Cut 6" lengths of twine until you have one for every tea bag you want to make.

2. Scoop out your loose leaf tea with the tea scoop and place it in the filter bag (Like you would normally do when making a cup of tea).

3. Folding the Bag

3.1 Fold the bag to make a line just above where the tea ends in the bag. Unfold.

3.2 Fold the bag to the right, folding it so that the edge is even with the first fold that you made.  Unfold.

3.3 Fold the bag to the left, folding it so that the edge is even with the first fold that you made.

3.4 Fold the right side of the bag over the left, using the folding lines you made in step 2, to form a triangle.

3.5 Trim off any excess filter bag that extends beyond the line of the fold you made in step 1.

3.6 Fold the tip of the triangle down halfway towards the edge of the triangle.

3.7 Fold the top of the bag down to the edge of the triangle.

4. Attaching the Twine

4.1 Unfold the top of the bag and slip the twine under the triangle, so that it sticks out to the side.
4.2 draw the string back towards the middle of the bag, and then up towards the end of the bag.
4.3 Re-fold down the edge of the bag.
4.4 Draw the twine/floss down towards you, and then put a staple on top of the twine.

5. All that's left to do after that is to write the name of the tea on a tea bag label, then staple your label onto the end of the twine.   

Repeat until you have a enough tea to last you a while.

And then enjoy the fruits of your labour!

They're certainly not the easiest way to enjoy a cup of tea, but they do allow you to enjoy more exotic blends when you're at work or at school.

Quick and Easy Sugar Cookie Bars

After an extremely successful reading week full of crafting, I have decided to start blogging about my crafting and baking adventures (Josh thinks it would be a good creative outlet for me, and I tend to agree).  My recent success with concocting my own recipes and craft patterns has also inspired me, so that I may share these crafty findings with a wider audience.  

So, without further ado, I will begin with baking (because this is the first project I've remembered to photograph along the way).

As a law student, I spent an inordinate amount of time on Pinterest.  While generally not leading to any socially useful endeavour, it occasionally winds up leading me to a great recipe or pattern.  A few weeks ago I stumbled upon sugar cookie bars on Pinterest.  It was a life changing moment.  I can have sugar cookies with less than a 2 day cookie baking  marathon? Sign me up!

I gave them a go... and met with failure.  My cookies were woefully undercooked, and kind of tasted like flour.  Thinking that that particular recipe might just not be for me, I plied my Google-fu in an attempt to find variations on the sugar cookie bar.  I came to the startling conclusion that, although there are numerous sites with sugar cookie bar recipes on them, they're all the exact same recipe.

It was at this point that I decided to get creative.  I was handed down a delicious sugar cookie recipe from my Grandma Smith.  I knew the cookie itself was delicious, so it seemed a better sample recipe to test cookies in bar form.  So in the end, I used my Grandma Smith's sugar cookie recipe, and just modified the cook time to bake them in bar form.  Quite happily, I met with great success!

I would now like to share that success with you.  They're super easy to bake, and they'll make you the hit of the next social gathering.

Sugar Cookie Bars 

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Place parchment paper in the bottom of a 9x13" cake pan and PAM the sides of the pan.

Beat the margarine and sugar until creamy.   Add eggs and vanilla and mix well (for a minute or so).  In a separate bowl mix together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.  Add dry ingredients to wet and beat together.  

Transfer the dough to the cake pan.

With your hands or a stiff spatula press the dough down flat to cover the entire bottom of the pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top of the cookie is a very light brown.  

Let pan cool for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookie slab to a cookie sheet to cool completely (if you used parchment paper on the bottom of the pan, it will pop out of the pan easily).  To ice, make up a batch of your favourite vanilla butter cream frosting and apply it to the cookie slab with a spatula (I adore the icing from the Primrose Bakery cookbook).  Add sprinkles on top, and then cut the cookie into bars with a sharp knife.  

And you're done! The only person that won't thank you for these delicious bars is your waistline.