Poetry Books

Poetry Books are faboulous bedside table  jems. Each poem is a short version of some thought, memory, or feeling. Pick up on any page and start reading... In this case, Migrations Poetry and prose for Life's Transitions are reflections from lifes movement from one chapter to another. There are poems of weather, birds, weather, air, and also dark passages such as bewilderment, violence, aging, loss, death, and trama. All the poems reflect Duluth or the northland in some way.... www.wildwoodriver.com..$15.00

London 2012 Olympics - Finland

London 2012 Olympics - Finland by onemonday featuring sports shoes

American Vintage long sleeve top
$72 - the-dressingroom.com

Shop True Religion Women's Lizzy Capri in White
sidestreetboutique.com

Keds sports shoes
dsw.com

The Fair Isle Sock

Fair Isle Sock...
Knitting....Its such a zen thing...It grounds me in times of stress and family instability. Often times when I can't fix things or after I've given a fair amount of maternal advice, there is nothing to do but wait. Wait or pace. Or why not wait and develop my knitting skills?

Knitting is a acquired skill, and it takes practice. I often can't knit in the summer, but love it in the winter with a cup of calamine tea and a cookie...One project leads to the next advance level and then before you know it, your at a intermediate level making some cool wool socks...The book I used is Patons Next Sept Four Socks and Slippers

Honey Wheat Pizza...

California Kitchen Personal Pan Pizza...
As a single person,and refined culinary taste, I love pizza.  I don't want to go through the hassle or expense of ordering ordinary pizza made out of white flour and sugar, or buying frozen pizza ...
This recipe gets credit to California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook ..

Honey Wheat Pizza Dough

1 tsp. yeast
1/2 cup plus 1 tsp. warm water {105 to 110 degrees}
1 cup bread white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
5 tsp. of clover honey
1 tsp. salt
1 T. extra virgin olive oil plus 1 tsp. for coating

Let your yeast and water sit for 5 minutes, add some flour, and let sit for half an hour. Then add rest of ingredients. and hand knead for 5 minutes.  Let rise to double. 
Then refrigerate overnight to develop the yeast flavor.  Use a small amount of cornmeal to roll out.  Divide into 4 individual pans or 1 large pizza or 2 medium.  It is necessary to prebake the crust for 5 minutes.....then add sauce and toppings...or package up and freeze. 
It is most important to use heavy duty bake ware.Lightly greased.  I bought mine from William Sonoma , and they are 4 deep dish pizza pans...

My Pizza sauce is bottled. But I always add extra basil on top of the sauce.  The best pizza sauce is Trader Joes... But find the best taste for you..

There is nothing better than piping hot pizza, Loaded to the max with your favorite toppings, overdosed with cheese...

South Hampton Up cycled

South Hampton Necklace...
This piece is up cycled. The center medallion is an old earring from the 1980's....The inspiration was a picture from a magazine, that was similar. I used glass pink beads in various sizes and shapes, and mixed in gold beads.

DIY leather wrap bracelets

Leather Wrapped bracelets....

Pinterest has lots of creative ideas for bracelets. I like this style as it is casual  and organic.

The secret to a great wrapped bracelet is to keep the same size beads, use a good quality nylon thread, and a needle that will thread through your selected beads. I like using my collection of buttons to accent the color of the beads...

Lingerie

Move over Victoria Secret. I've  designed a  night gown  for my  over 50 body  that  includes an upscale, modest, but elegant look. I started out with New Look Pattern 6784. I then added a seam in the back bodice, and created a circle opening. I added length to the front, and added a curved lower hem in back. The fabric is a thin light purple, with light purple lace. I lined the lace with a sheer white lining. Overall, the design from the New Look pattern turned out great with an additional side seam alterations to the bodice.

Hemp Necklace

Hemp Necklace

This is my version of incorporating hemp string into a piece of jewelry. It is approximately 40 inches long, and uses a  mixed bead composition with clear seed beads between the larger glass beads. I then used  gold thread to give a bit of sparkle with the cream color hemp thread. It  turned out light and delicate, perfect for summer which could blend in with a variety of clothing .

Paris Bag

Paris Bag
My inspiration for this project came from an independent French film that I was watching at the time. The actress's purse was a  design spark  as I  loved the texture of her bag...

I have an interest in purse construction and have a distaste for cheap Chinese plastic bags...I developed the pattern with a small size along with a  cross over body style. I lined it with light purple polyester taffeta fabric, and make lots of pockets inside..I used a  single center pleat for a center design and added an antique brown button for accent.

The fabric came from my shower curtain, that no longer fit into my bathroom space, and could not bare to part with such lovely textured fabric. So  in essence it has been up cycled into a useful purpose.

White Dress

We all search for the perfect black dress,what about the perfect white dress?...This project was made a few years ago. It was a collaboration between my daughter and I. Her inspiration was a dress worn by her favorite celebrity, Nicole Richie.  The design is elegant, timeless, and a classic.

I started out with a basic princess seam strapless bodice top pattern. I lengthened it to above knee and widened the pattern thus creating a dress form. A white interlining from white cotton to the  top of the bodice for structure.  Then I applied black piping to each seam and added it too the top edge of the dress. Then added boning to the upper bodice, and lined the entire dress in white. Finally I added a lapped zipper in back.  The effect was " voodoo majic" in visually  lengthening the body.  The dress made its debut on the runway at the Barbazon Modeling Fashion School final performance night. She looked stunning!

Street Punk Sweatshirt

Street Punk Clothing

As I begin to watch Season 1 of Project Runway, my creativity ideas became to form into a distress anti-clothing project....I begin with an oversized sweatshirt with a color that I loved, turned it inside out, thus became the new right side. Then my design went with long vertical wavy lines, dividing the garment into sections. {A design element which I hoped with elongate the middle section of the body}. I used tan solid fabric, and a cotton duck print, that blended in with the tan fabric and the dark denim color  of the sweatshirt....I frayed and left all edges raw to give it a frayed punky look, and it will only fray more once it has gone through the wash a few times.. I quilted along the edges in a random wavy pattern to anchor all the fabric behind. I placed black ribbing at the neck, sleeves, and bottom and left one edge raw to add to the distressed effect. Overall, it turned out great....

designing greeting cards

Design for a card...

I was reading an online spiritual page that created the spark for this project. I took two of my favorite household items,snapped a picture with my digital camera,played around with a computer  photo program and created this picture. Its still in the draft form, still needs polishing, and now I need to get some cardstock.....Thank god for the local arts and supply store!!

There are many youtube tutorials for jewelry making. I love this piece as it combines sparkly,with pearls in a mixed bead composition. I love the earthy bohemian look to it. And of course it has some blue in it, my favorite color....

I like jewelry making. I had this glass fish bead  from a local glass blower, and finally got inspired and made it into a necklace.

I completed my first bead stitch project.  So now I'm in the Skull and crossbone knitting society league.  Its a really fierce piece. And now I sold it and it belongs to a happy Harley Davidson motorcycle chick......

Carla's cookies {chocolate chip peanut butter cookie}

At one time I worked in the tailoring position in Macy's. There was this awesome mens tailor/ star trekker/baker  named Carla. She gave me this cookie recipe. It is an upgrade from the Tollhouse brand of cookies, and since my family is a die hard chocolate chip cookie fan. It was an instant hit... Here is the recipe....
1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. of peanut butter
1 c. white sugar
1 c. of brown sugar

cream together. Then add 1 tsp. of vanilla. and 2 eggs..  Then add 3/4 c. of white flour, 1/2 c. of whole wheat flour, 1 tsp. of baking soda, 1 tsp. of baking powder, 1/2 tsp. of salt, 2 1/2 c. of quick oatmeal. 1/2 to 1 c. of chocolate chips. Bake on parchment paper at 325 degrees until done appoximately 8-12 minutes...

Fiberarts

I love the small quilt pieces with embellishment. This is my first piece. Years ago, I tried to plan some sunflowers next to my rental trailor..Then some cute toddlers came along and picked the tops  right off of the sprouts  before my eyes!....So I didn't get angry, but thought, how can I perserve my love of sunflowers, and came up with this comcept.

Minnesota bird.. I couldn't find the right fabric for the background so I painted it myself. I like the tree design and it could be an inspiration for another project down the road

New Beginnings

Welcome to my blog...its under construction as I build...this is going to be fun!!..