Preserving Nature...

Good morning!

It's 11:00am and my head hurts but I'm determined to work through it. I've been up since 8:30, excited about the idea of making strawberry preserves.

My two books I special ordered on "putting up" came in! Today is Saturday, and the best part of Saturday is getting up and heading to my local Farmer's Market. It's open from 8-3pm and is a block long with stands on both sides of the street.


(This is Becky)


(This is Dorian)

My new roommates Dorian and Becky (D&B) went with me last week and fell in love. They won't be attending the market today due to cat-sitting for a friend, so I have a nice list of items to purchase for them. The pressure is on!

The best part of the Farmer's Market? Organic, local strawberries! I'm going to purchase 2 quarts for the preserves recipe and 1 quart for family. I don't know if D&B want strawberries, I should text them on my way out.

The strawberry preserves recipe calls for:

2 quarts whole berries, capped and quartered.
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 pack pectin
1/2 tbsp butter
7 cups sugar

It should make 7-8 half-pint jars.

If I can get everything organic, I will be thrilled!

The coolest part? I have all this left-over strawberry fabric that I can make cute little jar "hats" out of.



So today's plan?

0. Pharmacy for headache relief
1. Farmer's Market
2. Home to drop off produce.
3. Downtown to Zabars for canning supplies
4. Copy Center to color-copy some photos for coasters
5. Maxila & Mandible to look at butterflies
6. Home to make coasters for my mom's birthday (Monday).
7. Off to a birthday dinner w/ the family for my mom.

<3 Always,
--Taina

Three Day Weekend!

Good Morning!

I have tomorrow off from my fulltime job for Easter, which means I am in the middle of a three-day weekend! Awesome!

I haven't updated in a while (Bad Taina!), but I will give a summary of what's been going on in my handmade world:

Last weekend I bought a bunch of speckled chocolate M&M eggs to make birdsnest cookies for tomorrow and proceeded to eat a whole lot of chocolate, leaving not enough for cookies. One day I will learn that planning anything having to do with candy in advance doesn't work in my household. =)

I listed an owl coin purse and a leaf coin purse! I'm so stoked about them:


(Click photos for more info!)



The owl fabric makes me smile.

My spring fabric came in from FabricStash and I LOVE it! 4 half yards of different prints. I prewashed it all and cut clutch pattern pieces out of them, leaving enough fabric for more coin purses and maybe even a few makeup bags.

Yesterday I went downtown to Mood Fabrics on a hunt for heavy duty interfacing in white. No such luck. They sent me to a place on 39th Street, I asked for heavy-duty fusible interfacing, the employee swore it was fusible, I stupidly took his word for it, brought it home and nope! Doesn't fuse. I have no idea what I am going to do with this stuff. I'm using my black heavy-duty interfacing now, which doesn't show through, so it's not that huge of a deal, but I was partial to my pellon. I will have to order some online. le sigh!

My cards from MagicJelly arrived a couple days ago! She's such an awesome artist. I'm going to send one to my Etsy Penpal, Nadine.

I made my first clutch ever last night. I'm so excited by it! I think I'm going to keep it for my Easter outfit and make more for my etsy shop. I'm actually not religious at all, but Easter and Christmas are the two days my family gets dressed up and has a big dinner.

Okay, it's 10:30am, I want to make another clutch, list it, and head to the farmer's market for organic eggs to dye tonight.

<3 Always,
--Taina

a relaxing weekend.

Good Afternoon!

I have no social plans for today or tomorrow and I'm actually kind of thrilled about this. I went out last night with 5 coworkers for Mexican food, got home before 11pm and slept. I really needed the rest.

Today I haven't made anything yet, I'm still in bed, I've been awake since 8 this morning. I'm catching up on last night's episode of "Lost" and thinking about all the things I want to make. I'm waiting for my roommate to leave this afternoon. Sometimes I don't like to be watched while I sew or knit. I really just want some quiet time in front of my machine.


(click photo for more info)

I listed my latest makeup pouch, made from the cool fabric I purchased at Mood Fabrics a while back.

I've read somewhere around 8 blogs so far. I love reading crafty blogs, they are so inspirational. Two Etsyans started a daily forum thread called "The Original Blog Love" where bloggers can post their links and everyone else can browse all the daily entries in one place. So much fun.

The only four things I MUST do this weekend (Fri/Sat, I work Sundays) are go to Target, the Farmer's Market and the library. I already forgot what the fourth one was, but I have it written down somewhere.

I usually have much more to do than that, so this seems pretty darn relaxing!

Spring knit dresses are on sale @ Target and I finally found out I got Easter Sunday off from work so I want to go and see what they have. I have been eyeing certain Sparrow/Swallow necklaces on Etsy and think Easter is a great reason to purchase one. I sent a message to a seller asking about shipping policies, as I really only have a week to receive it in time to wear with a new dress. I hope to hear back from her soon!

My family is really not religious, but we use religious holidays as good excuses to share a meal and good conversation. I also use it as an excuse to buy a girlie outfit to wear.

I will probably do Target and the Farmer's Market bright and early tomorrow, on the way to the Farmer's Market I can return some library books. Sounds like a plan!

<3 Always,
--Taina