Longwood Dessert!

In celebration of food as an art form I wanted to share the experience from 1906, the amazing restaurant at Longwood Gardens. Dan ordered the Pomme de Noel. It was apple cheesecake mousse, vanilla caramel, and pecan streusel. The exterior was a candy crust in the shape of an apple. I've never seen a dessert as beautiful as this. Every bit was edible.

My friend Mark ordered Night before Christmas which was served under this amazing glass greenhouse. They brought it and did the big reveal. His dessert looked like a Christmas tree.  It was hazelnut mousse, dark chocolate ganache, chocolate cake and plum meringue

The decorations looked amazing. It was a great day to see a Longwood Christmas.

Tower of Washi

Okay, time to come clean on what is apparently an addiction! I have so much washi tape. Years ago I got the We R Memory makers washi tape dispenser. Needless to say I have way too much tape to store in the dispenser. The nice thing is that it allows you to hold 20 rolls of tape. 

The center of the dispenser has a small peg in the center, that can be used for rolls of tape. I noticed that you could pull this peg out and I thought, it's too bad this isn't taller, because I'd love to store all my tape in this holder. 

Coincidentally, my friend Pat recently gave me a 3" binder rings to hold washi tape. It's a great solution because you can see the rolls, group them and get to them easily.

Then I got a brainstorm, what if I ordered a piece of plastic pipe that would attach to the dispenser along with the 3" binder rings.

I ordered the 2 foot pipe from Amazon and it fit perfectly. Then I ordered binder rings. I was disturbed and amazed when I went to group all the rolls of tape on the rolls and stack them on the new pipe attached to the dispenser.  This is the tower of washi.

I know, it's insane and it makes me realize that I need to use this up stat. This is so much tape! It's nice to have it out so I can see it and it certainly encourages me to use it when I can see it in the dispenser. Also, I know I don't need to buy any more, EVER!

Pipe from Amazon:

Clear pipe to fit Memory keepers washi tape dispenser post

Tape dispenser:

We Are Memory Keepers Washi tape dispenser 

Wedding Projects

2019 was the year of the wedding for us. We were invited to 6 weddings, that's a lot of cards.  

Here are some of the projects for this year:

Shower card using piece of white embossed paper to make the dress.  Just cut a waistline and add a ribbon.  So fun and easy.

The envelope had to be decorated as well.  Used the Hero Arts Ombre ink pads, Mermaid and Light Purple to Grape Purple. The stamp set is one of my favorites, Concord and Ninth Bold and Brushy! The set includes the double-lined box and a solid stamp to make a solid background for each letter. The solid stamp is perfect to show off the ombre inks!

Finally, the card below was one of my favorites. I used my Brother Scan and Cut, found an image of a tie and removed the "Mr" from the tie!  Then all I needed was an & and Congratulations.  I did weld the letters in the word together, so the die cut for Congratulations is one piece, instead of separate letters.

The white card was scored on a score board and it was three lines in a row, with a couple spaces between.  Then I mounted it on gold and black card stock.

Finally, here's a wedding cake card I made.  I used the embossing folder to make the cake layers.  Then I edged each with a layer of beaded trim. I used a tiny flower hole punch and adhered a small gem to the center of each. These flowers perfectly adorn the cake. The background is made using another embossing folder that creates the vertical lines. 

Finally, the thin white and black ribbon finishes it off. I have included the sizes for each of the cake layers so you can get an idea of the proportions. I rounded each piece so that the top edges look more cake-like.

Great thing about this card is that if you hand-deliver to the wedding, no issues with trying to put this in the mail.  

One of my favorite murals

A favorite Philly mural

I wanted to share my favorite Philly mural.  Here's a link to more pictures on this site: Link to Chew Street Mural

The Universal Principle of a Mother's Love: Parris Stancell and The Maternity Care Coalition located at 6607 Chew Avenue.  

The colors are amazing and the images are simple and magical. 

Stop by and see it, you won't be disappointed.

My version of Longwood Christmas

In January 2019 I went to Longwood Gardens and they had the most gorgeous displays using paper of all kinds.  This piece really got my attention.  I thought it was something I could make for our house.

So in the fall when I was in the Poconos with friends on a walk, I found the stick!  That was all I needed. I saved boxes and picked up three kinds of wrapping paper, some jute and gift embellishments.

I really enjoyed arranging the boxes by size, choosing which paper to use and of course, embellishing the gift boxes.  Then I realized I didn't have a big wide open wall to place my "wreath" against so it had to free float near our stairs.  This made hanging it easy but the only trick was to encourage the boxes to face forward and not to swing around the wrong way.

Love how this turned out!!

More zippered bags!

July of 2018 (gasp) I posted about my first zippered bags. I had gotten a new sewing machine in order to recover patio chairs. That was when I had the urge to sew something on a smaller scale.

Since then, I've branched into fabrics and I've made dozens of zippered bags.  I got the instructions and how to from YouTube and Bluprint's Angela Waters the Midnight Quilt Show host and overall adorable quilting teacher.  She's so fun to watch!

Here's a link to the YouTube video: Link to Quilted Zipper Pouch Angela Waters

Because of the thorough instructions my first attempt was a success. I couldn't believe I made something so cute!

I then had scraps to use up and I decided to quilt smaller pieces together and use them to make smaller versions of the quilted bags.  This is one of those cases where I truly LOVE to make these little practical works of art!

Key take away: it's the fabric that makes these bags extra fun.  Joann Fabrics had been selling state themed fabrics.  So I had to make Florida and Pennsylvania bags using these fat quarters.

Here are some of my projects:

Below I used scraps, sewn together to make a small version of the quilted bags.  The regular size is 16" by 15.5" and my zippers won't allow anything larger than this.  You can easily go smaller though!!

I used the pattern of the fabric to help line up the quilting in the super hero bag below.  I change the type of stitch for the quilting on each bag. Sometimes a straight stitch, sometimes a decorative stitch, it just depends.  That's the creative part.

I found another new favorite artist on YouTube. I'm a big fan of Vanessa The Crafty Gemini who does all kinds of videos on various sewing projects. She also offers classes and I recently signed up for her bag of the month club. 

You cannot believe how many amazing free videos she has.  She's also a teacher on Bluprint!! She had a gift series in December of 2018  and made zippered bags out of vinyl. OMG I love these and I've made a ton of them. Ultra easy and fast!

Here's a link to her video: The Crafty Gemini Vinyl Zippered Pouch

After I had worked with vinyl my mind started to go crazy with ideas to make a bag that was vinyl in the front, so you can see the contents, but made primarily out of fabric.  Voila, here's the bag I crafted myself.  

The bag below was actually my first attempt and I realized that you need to have fabric around the vinyl because you don't want to see the seams through the front of the bag.  The bag below was a great first pass, and I use it and still love it but learned an important lesson.

Another small bag using fabric scraps. The fun is in picking the fabrics, zipper colors, stitches to use and thread colors.  Truly a perfect outlet for me.

So I wanted to share shots from December 22 when we went downtown Philly to the Christmas Market.  We appropriately hit the Nut House in the Reading Terminal and then went shopping.

Dan got chicken and waffles for brunch. It was delicious! Really gets you into the Christmas spirit!

I made a new friend, an adorable little white llama!

Barbie ephemera

So ever since the new year I'm obsessed with cleaning out the detritus in our house.  Particularly the basement where storage is competing with my craft supplies.  

Just to lay the groundwork on the type of hoarder I am, I've actually come across w2s from my earliest jobs dating back to the 80's.  Now the silver lining is that these were all filed together and labeled, so it's not like this paperwork is stacked in aisles in my house and might fall and crush me. It's a journey.

Don't worry, those have been shredded and I'm setting about changing my habits.  I think that this resurfaced when I had to shred and dispose of lots of my Mom's paperwork.  It made me realize I can be like her and hold on to paperwork for much too long.  I only want stuff that sparks joy, so I am yearning to de-clutter.

Side note: isn't it funny how newly discovered stuff that's been sitting around for decades can't be purged from your house fast enough?

So the best part of this clean-out chore is finding little surprises.  Essentially, time capsules.  This one I had to share. My Barbie collection of accessories.  This includes brightly colored plastic clothes hangers, princess phones, a color tv, turntable,  Coca-Cola bottles and martini glasses. Also, brand named foods like Libby's corned beef, who knew?

The trip down memory lane is really fun and eventually I'll have to donate these.  I'm sure some little girl would love to play with them!

Halloween in January

I just happened to be browsing pictures and had to share this from Halloween.

Check out my Frida Kahlo costume from 2019. I did my eyebrows (using eyeliner), ordered some fun dangly earrings, donned a ton of rings and bracelets, made a wig from yarn, got a beautiful flowered headband and made a skirt from an old denim dress. I sewed a ruffle on it and attached ties to the back to make it like an apron skirt. 

I sewed a panel to the skirt with one of my favorite Frida quotes: 

My neighbors Kelly and Quinn were so excited I had to get a picture with them, and their Sesame Street Costumes.

I love all things Mexico and all things Frida.  I cannot believe it took this long to make a Frida costume.

Waves of creativity washing over

Okay, hope you are ready because I have some major sharing to do.

Here's the card for 2019 and I was hesitant to post it until all my friends and family have received it.  Think it's safe to finally do so now!

Love the Concord and Ninth Birthday stacks stamp and die cut set.  I might have to rank this the best birthday set of all time. No rules that I cannot use it over and over each year, just have to shake things up when I do.

So you create the pieces and I used Neenah desert storm cardstock and white embossing powder and ink.  Then I had a blast using my Gansai Tambi watercolor set to color in the balloons, candles and presents using the blues.  Nothing like khaki and blue (unless it's khaki and pink, etc.).

Hope you love it!

Here's another one I did way back in early 2019.