Hot air balloon

I have been wanting to make myself a fun pincushion for quite some time now (as I don't have one at all, somehow...)  But what would I make?

I was thinking about steampunk stuff, and what I first thought of was a hot air balloon.  I love the way steampunk styles everything as it were in the Victorian era.  And I also love hot air balloons for another nostalgic reason - as a kid, we would always go down to an area of town in Prescott Valley, AZ (my hometown) to watch as the hot air balloon pilots filled the balloon.

Thus, I made myself a new air balloon pincushion out of felt!

This was the first go at the basket.  The blue was to simulate sky...I ended up tweaking it as you will see.

And here are all the pieces of the balloon itself.

Almost done!  

And the final product!  I think it helps that I love the pearlized pins, so they made a great addition. I know its not super steampunk, but I love it none-the-less!

From above...

Quite a large pincushion, but the most fantastic one I have ever had!

Happy Sunday!

Ash

My new jacket

I finally made my jacket!  Man...I bought the fabric months ago, but I have the sewing bug at the moment, and was able to whip it up.  The pattern from the book I bought, Sew Serendipity, is so super cute and simple!  I love it and can't wait to make my skirt now!  Here is the blog (which I just found and I am very excited about!)

Here is me at the very beginning, working on the collar...

And then I forgot to take more pics while I was sewing.  But here is the finished piece!

Cute, right?!  

I can just tell this weekend will be full of fun crafts.  I have walked through some fun shops and the bookstore tonight and have all kinds of new ideas.  I will share what I end up with soon!

Have a great weekend!

Bye bye!

Ash

Retro Recipe File!

I have been trying very hard to reorganize lately (one of my resolutions was to get the house truly organized, which will definitely take me all year...).  We have been making periodic stops at the thrift stores to look for items that would help with my efforts.  For example, I have decided that we will shift to storing bulk foods, noodles, drink mixes, etc., in glass jars and containers.  And so far it has been so fun to find nice new containers!  We found one perfect for the hot cocoa and for the sugar for our newly organized kitchen 'nook'!

I have also been going through allllll the old magazines I have, and clipping the recipes that I want to keep.  For a while, the task of organizing just the clipped recipes was getting to me....I really didn't like the thought of pasting them all into books.  But now all is well!  I found this handy retro recipe file at the thrift store!  Is this thing not the coolest?!  (This is where my husband asked me when I got so old...LOL!)

I was the first one (evidently) to write on the tabs, even!  (It's the little things in life, right? :)

In other news, I wanted to share these cute stitch markers that my sis made me for the holidays.  They are made of polymer clay.

Cool, right?  I have been using them, and they have been working out quite nice!  Thanks, sis!

And, for something completely different....

I saw this at the store the other day.  I think of it as a mix of an Easy Bake Oven for adults and a Foreman Grill....

Haha!  Don't worry, I did not buy it.  But it did make me think a lot about our society. Now I love my cupcakes, but is it necessary to have them in 10 minutes?? And right under it on the shelf....well a similar item....that made donuts! 

Oh, well.  

Have a great week!

Ash

Thank you, thank you

Thank you!  Cards, that is!  I am finally getting around to getting the thank you cards done for all our great gifts for the holidays.  I got these cute blank cards with a window in them for Christmas, and they have been put to good use!  

(This pic even has a little bit of kitty in it...hehe)

I have also cut out the jacket that I mentioned I was going to make months ago!  Making progress!

Ash

Happy new year!

But before we jump into the new year, I will step back into the past of ol' 2010 to show off a few things. :)

Due to making presents for people that read this blog, I was unable to post most of the things that I made.  And then- to top it off- I forgot to take pics before I wrapped most of them!! Ugg!

But I did manage to get a few pics and can illustrate a few of the things I made with other means. 

These are some little tiny cork boards for several of my family members.  They are a few dollar store frames painted white and given fun felt flower and button embellishments.  The inspiration came from one of my very favorite blogs - LollyChops!  She is so creative and I just love the things she comes up with!  Thanks!

The thing that I think I spent the most time working on...well I forgot to get a pic of it.  But it is the Deady Bear (a teddy bear that died due to a giant bee stinging it in the chest) which is from the Son of Stitch and Bitch book. :)  It is all stuff to knit for guys. (When you click the link - you can scroll through the pics to get to the deady bear but it is one of the last pics)

I did manage to get a picture of Larry, the recipient of this awesome bear, whilst opening it. 

Haha!  He loved it! :D

While we were in Klamath Falls for the holidays, it snowed!

This is the great view from my grandparents' house.

And this was the tracks from the car when we tried to get up the driveway. ;)

But enough about last year!  Happy new year everyone!  New post to come to talk about the new year soon!

Ash

Crafting like crazy!

I have been crafting like crazy!  But the bad thing about having a blog that family and friends read, is that I can't post pics of what I have been making.  But I assure you- anytime I am not at work, I have been crafting - trying to get all the holiday gifts done by the 24th.

I have been knitting, crocheting, playing with felt, quilting, and even drilling holes in books.  But you will have to wait for pics after the gifts have been given.  

But had to share this...our kitty seems to have an issue with me knitting....

Just in case I don't make it back on here before the holidays - be safe, have fun and eat lots of yummy food for me!

Happy holidays!  

Ash

The adventure to the ranch

Last weekend, my hubby and I decided to road trip-it down to visit my parents who are currently working at a ranch down near Paso Robles, CA.  The entire trip was an adventure!  

First, we decided to go ahead and drive our older pickup truck the 12 hours or so to visit.  We thought it might be a little iffy, but we had a fresh oil change and air filter and we were on our way! 

The pass near Mt. Ashland was a hairy on the way down, but very pretty!

This was the view from the passenger seat, and this was how Ric felt driving in the slushy snow with our not-so-great tires.....

The trip was going as planned until we had been driving about 6 hours.  I smelled something funny and looked at the gauge for how hot the engine is running...it was overheating.

So we stopped for coffee in a little town called Corning to let the truck cool down, and bought some coolant. After that, we had to stop almost every hour to put water and coolant in.  Not a good sign.

But we made it the remaining 6 hours (well, longer than that as we had to take it easy - more like 8 hours) of driving and arrived at midnight at the ranch.  We retired the truck for the night, excited for horseback riding and ranch tour the next day.

Friday was great!  Dad, Ric and I took a ride on the horses.  

This was my horse, Hank.  He was great!

Here we are all riding down in a dry creek bed.  I took a chance and snapped these while on Hank, but I had to show how close the little tiny dog was walking behind the horse!  Gutsy little dog!

(My dad is right in front of me in the hat, and Ric in front of him.)

After meeting the rest of the farm animals and helping with feeding time,

we went into town for great food and to pick up a thermostat for the truck.  We had high hopes that that was all that was wrong.

We got to stay in the bunk house next door to mom and dad, which was also great!  After a good night of sleep, Dad and I went to work on the truck.  And sadly, it was not the thermostat.  After installing the new one and going for a ride, it was more evident than ever that we must have blown the head gasket.

But that was the day of the big UO Duck game!  So we went into to town to have a few drinks, watch the Duck kick butt (we are going to the Nationals!) and think on the options for getting home.

Option #1- take the train ride back to Oregon (about 20 hrs) 

Option #2 - Try and fix the truck in time to get home and hope that we did not crack a head or do worse damage

Option #3 - Fly home 

Option #4 - Leave the truck with my parents and buy a new car

Can you guess which one won out?

Here is Ric in our new(er) 2009 Kia Rondo!  It is really, really nice.  It is tough to go back to a car payment, but I think it was worth it.

Here are a few more fun pics from the ranch...

Kitty on the hay bales!

This is what I miss about the desert!  So pretty!

Oh and this is ranch cat, Charlie!  He rides on the little Kubota with my dad all the time! :)

Then it was back on the road to home. 

This is Ric happy in our new car.  It was a smoooooth ride home.

With one stop at....

Split Pea Soup Anderson's!  Sooo good!

What a great, and crazy trip!  Thanks again, Mom and Dad!

Ash