cleo*dee

I made these Monday and Tuesday and the last was eaten for dinner tonight.  Pretty nice to cook only once this week so far and stinkin' cheap since the main parts were bulk items (and the eggs were from an Amish farm that my dad got for me- they were cheaper than regular eggs are at the store here but sooo much better). 

Scott hates fruit in non-dessert things so I made myself wild rice with some red onion, corn and cranberries.  I threw in an egg for protein.  


I'm not a fan of green beans or curry so I marinated some chicken in a mix of milk, garlic, curry, coriander and some sugar and salt.  I threw all of that into the wok with green beans, onions, peppers and a little basmati rice

Saturday Scott and I wandered down to the trail by the river to wait for the fireworks.  Pictures soon but today we went to the Audubon Society's Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve.  It was so lovely.  From meadows to pine woods to a pond the walk was great and we saw lots of fun birds and other creatures. 

We started out the trip by popping into the gift shop where I found this book on the sale table.  For 5 bucks I can now check off whenever I see a bird and write down where and when.  I can't believe it's taken me 27 years to get one of these.  Bonus: it looks like a sweatshirt I bought at a beach in Delaware when a wee lass.  


( butterflies and bees )

 

So I bought some fabric on clearance for about $2 a few months ago to make a purse out of.  The lining is extra fabric from fabric I used to make a curtain for our bedroom closet.  I got it at Jo-Ann's.  They have a section that is reproductions of late 1800's pioneer fabrics which was right up my alley.  The buttons were extra from an old coat and I bought the lace at a yard sale.  I got about 6 yards for a dollar and had no idea what to do with it but couldn't leave it there.  I did buy some bottomweight fabric yesterday for the straps but it was 60% off and I used a 10% coupon so that made up the other $2.  I'm usually horrible at lined purses but this wasn't too much of a hassle although it is a tad lopsided.  It took me two nights, I cut out a basic shape I wanted in craft paper and then went to town.  I even made some pockets.  The only thing I need to do is put a button on the large pocket since I didn't make it deep enough but I'm pretty tickled to have a new purse and that it only cost me 4 bucks.  Next extra project is possibly figuring out how to take in a shift dress.  For now though it's back to sewing squid faces and gearing up for fireworks. 

So I'm still trying to do some non-cleodee sewing to help keep me on track.  Right now I'm basically doing the grunt work with the squids; cutting them from felt, sewing faces, and sewing up squids, cutting the squids from the extra felt surrounding them and then closing them up.  All to get them ready to have accessories.  This becomes tedious since each one is done by hand and I've found that if I make myself break for other projects I can keep up my stamina.  So far since last Monday I've sewn 48 faces, sewn and cut 68 and sewn up and closed 23 of those.  I have it down that I can sew 2 squids in less than an hour but that doesn't include cutting them out or sewing them up.  It took me 20 hours just to sew all the faces.  It took me a bit more than 12 hours to cut out the 68.  I bought 2 dresses last week from Goodwill.  A vintage maternity dress and what looked like some little girls Easter dress.  The maternity dress had a dart in the front that made it look like you were wearing a loose-fitting onesie.  I didn't get a picture of before but I'm sure we can all picture a dowdy, flowing romper.  It doesn't look like anyone ever wore this and I can only assume why.  At first I tried to just take the dart out because with the attached belt it had a very lovely fit.  The dart was actually cut so there was a hole in the fabric once I removed it so I put it back in and cut it just below (my clothing skills are limited).  I folded the sleeves up twice and stitched up.  I was going to cut it but I liked the slight puff it gave them and it made my life much easier.  The other dress was a pure disaster.  It should have been simple- just cut off the top, fold down and sew up the edges.  I wasn't thinking before I cut and then for some inept reason I decided I could fix my mistake with another cut, apparently I was scissor happy today.  I kept the bottom so perhaps it will be added to a slip so that it can peek out from another skirt since I bought it for the bottom anyway.  But hey, enough of failures- let's focus on the successes.



Ico's house and birthday balloon still remain.  I'm waiting until it dies to get rid of it because that box has given him such joy I can't bear to take it from him without due cause.  The balloon however is being tossed this trash day.  

I'm pretty smitten with the ruffles on this.  Normally I don't buy anything with ruffles because, while pretty, they seem to over-take the shirt.  These stay in place and so I love them.  One thing I love about vintage things, they just seem to have more structure and I love that someone hand-stitched the edeging on all of the ruffles.  

I couldn't concentrate on my work yesterday evening so I decided to take a walk down to the grocery store to get a red pepper to make some hummus.  I had officially broken my very long line of baking/cooking failures with my first successful batch of yogurt yesterday so decided to try my luck at something new to go along with the wheat thins I had made the night before.  I walked down around 9pm just as the street lights were coming on but the sun was still casting most of the light.  I saw and caught my first lightening bug of the season and enjoyed the warm breeze that signaled thunderstorms to come later (along with the thunderheads in part of the sky).  I love walking around my neighborhood around this time.  It's so quiet and there's lots of people out on their porches and the resident mocking bird is doing his calls for the night.  Normally it's too busy and loud in the daytime to hear all of this or on most nights of the week when it's time for drinking.  I headed back to the apartment and made some tahini first.  At Peight's they sell sesame seeds in bulk so I thought I'd just make my own and it was incredibly simple.  I used 3 cups of seeds and enough olive oil to get the texture I wanted (not sure how much I used but it was way less than the cup it said was needed).  I now have enough to use for probably 3 or 4 more goes of hummus so I'm well under the $12-15 they charge for a bottle of tahini here.  I roasted a red pepper on a steamer (thank you, Alton Brown!) and it made the kitchen smell so wonderful.  Overall it's incedibly delicous, quick and easy and much cheaper.  My only notes for next time are texture and additions.  I'm still not pleased with the texture (it's a tad too grainy for me) and we both want more garlic, although we both are garlic fiends.  Next time will probably be a very garlicky hummus with some shredded parm.  The wheat thins are so great and full of flavor but I still need to roll them out thinner.  They're not pretty but have much more flavor than the crackers at the store (although I still love the store ones).  I still need to see how this compares to the cost of store bought.  All my items for it are bulk but it does take a bit of time to make and to wash off all that sticky dough and the batch gives me about the same as a small box at the store.  I'm pretty sure that if I can get them thinner I can get about the same or more as the family sized box.  I eat a lot of wheat thins. I also figured since I was on a roll I'd make a batch of brownies for the week.  Apparently Sundays are becoming the baking day around here since last week was tortilla making for me and salsa making for Scott. 

I tried the whole tactic of popping corn over the stove in a metal bowl.  It was good but I'm starting to have aversions to items cooked in oil so I think I'll invest in an air popper for the next time.  Sad to say I can't eat movie popcorn anymore but such is life.  

Also in life is this, done of course by Scott.  Totally fun to do and for the time being it'll be on the website with a video featuring the librarian squid coming soon(ish).

I've been pretty quiet in internet land because I've been feverishly cutting and sewing Christmas and winter squids along with Squidtivities.  Deadwood has been keeping me company (along with Ico) and many walks have been taken so I can see the sun and relieve the wrists.  I have goals in mind on how many squids to make but there will need to be more list making before my master list goes up.

I've been sifting through about 16 yards of felt and cutting out squids to last me the rest of the year and of course making lots of lists on what needs to be made before the holidays.  This would go much smoother if a certain little beastie would stop bothering me every 5 minutes to play with his new favorite toy- some ruffles that I cut off of a tank top and knotted together for him.  Sometimes I do get annoyed at him but then when I smush his little face in my hands and kiss his head and he just sits there and not only takes it but purrs, all is forgiven.  

So we saw No Doubt.  They were good, I have never gone to a "concert" before so it was an interesting experience.  It was outside so the nosebleed seats for us was the giant lawn which was pretty comfortable.  Since seeing a band in this environment for me is more about being entertained than getting into the music I'll just get to what we're all most interested in,  Gwen's outfits.  They were pretty sweet and I was pretty stoked that our new camera could zoom in so well.  I especially liked the sparkly skinhead look.  I enjoy the fact that she's so famous she can get a Fred Perry made of sparkles, or diamonds for all I know, our zoom isn't that good.  I also enjoyed that she went all out with the skinhead outfit and did the acid wash pants.  Go Gwen.  Unity all the way, skins and pins, racism- no thanks. 

Last night involved seeing No Doubt from the grass, pictures soon but for now enjoy some more rural scenes.

So it's 12:35 in the Southside and the riot cops have already sent home the sports fans from celebrating the Stanley Cup win.  Ico had his own riot tonight in the office while I packaged squids and checked google to verify whether I had seen a river otter or a beaver today.  You know, when you only see the tops of their heads it's really hard to tell the difference.

So I bought lots of stuff at Renegade but they were all presents so I can't show any of them.  The only thing I can show you is this, my new favorite necklace from Jenny Topoloski. 





Each bee died of natural causes and is placed in resin with a lovely background of gold.  I can say that I got 2 of these necklaces so a certain young cousin and I will have matching necklaces which will be so totally awesome.  Since I can't really mention any of the other purchases I will direct you to my flickr to check out many, many pictures of the great vendors that were there.

I'm too tired to post too much, I've spent the afternoon/evening taking photos and uploading items and then backing up my files since my computer keeps crashing.  So, head over to the shop and check out some squids and cards! 

W00T. 

  

 

 

We are back!   It was a pretty whirlwind trip but some fun hangout time was had by all.  Some new squids will be added to the shop along with the newcomers of cards, mini squids (I have never offered them online before), aprons and the cat toys.  I'll post more later on my lovely purchases and folks I met later this week.  







<3!

I commissioned about a 9ft banner from our friend Denman.  He's an awesome artist so we just told him to check out my website and go for something that was similar to one of my logos and he gave me this (this is also a little sneak peek with cat barrier- this is pre-sewing):


I love it!  He did an amazing job painting this and I love the feel of it.  I'm totally stoked about the flourishes and the insane perfection of the big letters (even with a grid I have never been able to pull this off.  I have nothing against vinyl banners and I was actually thinking of getting one but I just didn't think it would fit with my items or how I like to present my work.  All of my tags are designed by Scott, printed on our (very) old printer and cut out by me. I sewed my table sign and my table clothes (although I still haven't gotten around to making the larger one) so I didn't think vinyl would really mesh with all of that. I also like to have my tent make you feel like you're stepping into some weird carnival sideshow/ market place that's taking place sometime in the 20's so a handpainted sign seemed the way to go for that.  This is also how I like to dress and what my interests are so it's pretty easy to figure out what I want (and very easy to buy awesome old things saying "but it's for my display!" knowing full well I'll just end up with an awesome basket to house things on top of the fridge.  I also enjoy being able to help support others who are also making it as full-time artists whether I do so through trade or cash.  This is one of the biggest things I love about what I do.  I get to go to shows and meet lots of other artists and interact with my customers. I love belonging to a community that is ready to pass along the work they can't do themselves to other small time folks out there so that we can all try to make our living doing what we love.  Granted, I can't afford to do this with everything I need (i.e. business cards or felt) but I'm pretty happy when I can.  

So last night we went to Commonwealth Press to have the illustrious Dan Rugh print up some squid cards that Scott designed.  Dan is rad and was very gracious to put up with us poking around while he printed up the goods.  I did help a bit by being the unofficial drying rack runner. 

If you ever have anything you need printed hit them up, they're awesome at working with small businesses and their needs (especially if you only need small runs of something which is usually the case) and they're just super nice folks to work with.  I can't even begin to explain how awesome they are so I'll leave you with some pictures:

Dan:


loading up the paper (we got some lovely speckletone paper from French Paper Company to work with):


and what I mostly was doing in between walking prints over to the drying area; playing around on the practice skateboard.  I am totally getting one of these.  I have no ability to actually skate so this is a nice way to at least pretend I can do something athletic:

And the cards (but just a sneak peek dear readers).  I still have to get them laser cut and then we're wrapping them like little parcels, so much work left to do but totally worth it:

For my birthday we finally replaced our old camera with a new one.  This weekend we walked around Pittsburgh testing it out.  I can't wait to take it to Renegade. 





There's oodles more on the old flickr page

I got most of my aprons in the mail and washed up although I still have 2 more to finish.  Here's a sneak peek of one. There will only be 6 available. I'll have some lovely yellow gingham ones (full and half), a brown and yellow clover print full apron and another full that is light blue with petite pink roses.  I can't wait to see them all lined up in the tent! 

This weekend was spent hiking in the woods, dipping my feet in a river and taking pictures and movies for Cleo Dee's.  Scott took these.  Not much else to report until I finish sewing all the new aprons that came in the mail today. I also got the new pins from Button Arcade in the mail today so if you want free squid pins make sure to stop by the tent early Saturday, they're usually out by Sunday!  I'll be leaving next Thursday so hopefully I get everything done in time. 

and came back with this (after some editing by Mr. Benson :)