Graphic design and other fun...

Just had to show off my friend's awesome digital design blog.  She recently did a photo shoot for a project for school and we got to participate.  The project was to create all the graphics for a CD.

So fun!  Check it out here.

And speaking of having fun with photos....

I had a little fun, myself! 

Have a great week!

Ash

Gauntlets!

I forgot to share those arm gauntlets I was knitting with my souvenir yarn!  But they came out pretty great!!

Super soft and there is even some left over yarn for me to use on another little project.  Hmmm....what next?

Ash

Crazy doggy...

I just had to share with you all my crazy dog.  He has some how figured out how to get into the chicken run without letting any chickens out....the only thing we can figure is that he crawled under the fencing.

The thing is that he can't seem to figure out how to get back out, and thus this is where I found a yipping dog Sunday morn...  

(I love how the chickens are just standing in the back and the dog is looking at me wondering why I am laughing!)

Have a good week!

Ash

Baking days....

Yesterday's theme was apparently baking.....

First, I got a wild hair to finally do some sewing that has been waiting for me for some time.  One thing that I had cut out a long time ago (ok...hate to admidt it, but I think it was close to 3 or 4 years ago!) was an apron.  It has the cutest fabric and I have no idea why it got pushed to the side.  Look at the cute owls!

And I am happy to say it was finished early enough to go do some baking in it!

But first my man and I decided to get out of the house for a few while it was nice out and walked down to the thrift store nearby.  And I found this awesome french bread baking thingy....

(Gotta love the old school box it came in!) So you shove some dough in the middle of the glass Pyrex tube and it just expands in the tube....

 Then you bake it and get yummy circle bread! :)

Well...I wasn't done with bread.  A long while back I found a madeline pan and still hadn't made them.  So for the first time I finally tried it out.

They taste good...but maybe a little over done and I filled the molds a little much.  Oh well...it was a lot easier to make than I thought and practice will make perfect. 

Hope you had a chance to enjoy some yummy baked treats this weekend, too!

Ash

Souvenir Yarncrafting

I was recently in California visiting my family in a tiny town called Clio (as you may have read in a previous post...they have the cutest little population sign!!), and their neighboring town is a tiny tourist-y town called Graeagle.  There they had a cute little yarn shop called "Woolly Notions".  Of course I had to go!!  And what a  great selection of yarn they had!

I had also recently heard someone talk about souvenir yarn and thought it was a brilliant concept!  Why buy trinkets that will inevitably just clutter the house to say that you went somewhere, when you could get a little ball of yarn and make that into something useful and memorable!

So....I got the awesome ball of Mini Mochi by Crystal Palace yarn in a color called Lake, and have started making myself some wrist/arm gauntlets (a.k.a. warmers). I think they are turning out beautiful!

I am finished with one gauntlet, and have to admit that I bound off too tight and had to leave a little piece 'open' when making up the side,  but it is still wonderful.  Will share the finished product with you soon!

Ash

Simple things...

I have lately been thinking a lot about the simple things in life, making my life more simple, and have just had an overall need for going 'back to my roots'.

I think this means different things to different people.  To me, it is knowing how to take care of myself (and my family) by not only providing with a job, but being able to provide with crafting, cooking, baking, and farming. It is a sense of self-sufficiency, that no matter what, me and my family will be ok.

I was fortunate to grow up in a non-traditional setting - my family built our house on 10 acres of land that had no power out to it, so we created our own with solar and wind power.  We gardened, I learned to crochet at the age of 11 or so, and we were happy on the simple things in life.

Anyway, I recently found this book at the library that I had to share with others that might want to bring a little of that 'simple' life back.  It is an adorable little handbook called "The Prairie Girl's Guide to Life" by Jennifer Worrick.

In it you can find how to make ice cream, how to make old fashioned soap, how to spin wool for yarn, how to milk a cow and even learn how to pan for gold!  There are so many things that I want to try from this book.  

Hope this weekend you can slow down and enjoy the simple things.

Ash