404 huh?

Dear Kelly,

Remember that time I visited you and we decided to move this blog to Wordpress and it didn't work because I kept getting an error with my host and I spent a lot of time calling and emailing customer support and they couldn't figure out what the problem was and we temporarily gave up and eventually they did email me to say that I should call and they would do that logging-into-your-account-remotely-while-you-watch thing so they could figure out the problem and I've yet to do that because I'm tired so all this time our lovely blog has been offline and who knows how many people have clicked through from Pinterest only to get a 404 error page? Remember that time?

Well, I had this brilliant idea! I could just repoint the domain back to Blogger and I just did that and voila! Here we are! Fantastico!

Craft posts soon, perhaps...

Love,
Shayne

Starting small...

Dear Shayne,

All right! You've cracked it all back open by ending our three year hiatus! (Think anyone besides us is still out there? Since our last post, RIP Google Reader* sooo... you'd have to be pretty committed to taking our [seemingly dead] RSS feed with you.)

Soo... I have been wrestling with my guilt at not sending postcards after my last post, but it's time to just move on, right? (Although I will go back and see if I can still find any of the people who wanted one -- I still have those postcards!)

All right. Let's make a post! Last week, I got a text from you saying you had an "urgent button need":

And you confirmed the phrase, soooo... I made this puppy and sent it to you:

Still difficult to get good photos of buttons!

Now. You gotta tell me -- what does it meeeean? ("Double rainbow" is not an acceptable answer, despite my reference. Heh.)

And I am particularly proud of this perfectly placed emoji sticker on the Priority Mail envelope that I sent to you:

Glad it got there in time! (I got waylaid for a day with this weather, but it *looks* like spring is on the horizon -- fingers crossed.)

love,
kelly

PS -- It's crazy for me to think that the last time I posted here, Kaesea was still with us. I am going to have to press Yoda and Eddie into craft modeling -- I think they'd be up for it. Heh.

* I still miss Google Reader, but have since moved on to Feedly -- where are you getting your feeds these days?

Let's bring this back and get straight to the point

Dear Kelly,

There's a pun in that title...

We are bad bloggers. Bad, bad bloggers. But I as I was browsing through our posts yesterday (2012 was the last one - yikes!), I was much worse than you. You were a damn good blogger and I, well, I sucked.

So here I am to revive our little blog with a necklace I made this past weekend for the oldest daughter of one of my bestest friends, Chrissi. She and I have been friends for ten years now, when #2 and I moved into the same neighborhood she lived in with her ex and aforementioned oldest daughter, Leah. Sam was five and Leah was three. Chrissi's son Ethan was actually in her belly the first day we met and born the next day! Now she also has another daugther, Rei, who is the cutest, cuddly thing and just walks up to you and puts her arms up for a hug and she's so little that you can't help but pick her up in the middle of that hug. 

But I digress. Leah turned 13 last September and I wanted to give her something special and of course life got in the way (see: last blog post in 2012!), so I just got around to making this necklace for her, which she should get in the mail to open this weekend. It will be an approximate "Happy 13 1/2th Birthday" present. Who doesn't want one of those?

Leah loves shades of aqua and turquoise, she's taken archery classes, and arrows are totes cool these days. The arrow charms came in a pack with all three colors, so I decided to use them all. I made the little dangles and bead connectors, and used jump rings to make the chain. Actually, I didn't have any 4mm silver jump rings and ended up taking apart a pair of dangly earrings to get those. (I've since stocked up on jump rings.)

Chrissi tells me that the birthday girl will love this and I'm pretty confident myself. Hopefully, I'll get a good picture of her modeling her present.

Now I'm off to make something for you :)

Love,

Shayne

Postcardy Fun

Dear Shayne,

I actually made these post cards several months ago but then... I just couldn't bring myself to mail them then because I loved them so much!

I've now admired them for awhile now, so I think it's time to set them free. Right?

Ok! Who wants a postcard? If there's anyone reading this, leave a comment with some way to get in touch with you -- email, blog, etc. Heck, if you don't mind your address out in public, go ahead and put that in the comments if you want! You can also email me your info: onetomatotwo [at] gmail [dot] com. And I'll send you a postcard!

It was super fun to make all of the butterflies:

Postcard, anyone?  (I think that darker pink one has your name on it, Shayne.)

love,
kelly

Squirrelly Embroidery Cuteness

Dear Shayne,

This Instagram photo does not do this embroidery justice. And this embroidery doesn't do the original drawing justice! But it's still pretty darned cute:

A friend of mine illustrates the most adorable creatures you have ever seen. Seriously. (I also stitched a penguin -- need to grab a photo of that.) When I first saw her illustrations, I said, "Must. Embroider!" Finally got around to it this month.

She needs to find a better stitcher than me to make her some samples and sell these designs. Pronto. Cause they are super CUTE!

love,
kelly

Cross-stitch: Finally Framed

Dear Shayne,

As I was packing up the house, I came across two cross-stitched pieces that I had yet to frame (this skull and this letter B). Since I was already so busy I could not see straight, I decided to add to my over-full list and frame them! (Of course.)

Added to this little blackwork piece (miraculously already framed!) and here they all are:

We had an art show at work and I entered these pieces -- deadlines are a good motivator for finishing projects, right?

Meanwhile, another artist in the show fell hard for the skull, so I will probably be making another one. I think the trick to finishing it will be buying another one of those round frames right now!

love,
kelly

I am knitting! (And posting about it!)

Dear Shayne,

As you know, I have just moved across the country (we're going to have to address this blog name at some point, but let's dwell on that later). I don't know why I didn't see it coming, but this activity took waaaay more out of me than I thought it would.

Of course, the first thing to go was blogging. And the second? Crafting. But this week... I knitted!

I'm working on a wool blanket and it's hot in Michigan, but what the heck. I'm knitting! And... I'll be ready for winter!!

love,
kelly

PS - I hate the new Blogger interface with a white-hot burning rage. Were we talking at some point about moving this thing to WordPress? I think the time has come.

Napkins: Too Awesome to Use?

Dear Shayne,
>Cough!< >Cough!< Good lord! The cobwebs around here are thick enough to choke a horse!

Since I am currently planning a cross-country move, I'm casting around for blog-fodder in these not-so-crafty times... (unless we count packing boxes as "crafty" -- I am damned good at it, I must admit...)

Here are some amazing napkins that my friend Dawn made for me last year (Hi, Dawn!) (You're still with us, right?) and I have been neglectful about posting. Shayne, they are so beautiful and amazing that I have been afraid to use them:


Let's get a full view of one of those beauties, shall we?

(Note: That does not look perfectly straight, but that is 100% the fault of the photographer -- I did not hang 'em right. They're beautiful in person. Absolutely perfect!)

Totally gorgeous -- pieced together with hockey prints + awesome coordinated fabrics. We recently had guests over and I used them, but I must admit I was a bit anxious the whole time. But they're napkins, right? Meant to be used, right? Yeah... I just gotta keep telling myself this.

love,
kelly

PS -- My plan to mail something every day in February plan failed spectacularly, but I did send about 6 items that I probably would not have otherwise. (So maybe not a "spectacular" Fail. Just... a mostly Fail? Let's go with that.)

Challenge: One letter a day for the month of February

Dear Shayne,

A bit last minute on this one, but if you can squeeze one out today, there's still time to join this challenge -- write (and send!) one piece of mail every day the Post Office is open in February.

This idea brought to you by Mary Robinette Kowal, who has created a site where participants can sign up and interact with one another.

That's only 24 days. You in? Go!

love,
kelly

Mitt-y Christmas!

Dear Shayne,

Thanks for clearing out the cobwebs around here! Can't believe we have not posted since November -- wow. There's been crafty stuff going on, but I just have not made time to post. So here's a start!

For Christmas (only a month late -- who's counting?) I made... well, hardly anything at all! With our upcoming move looming, I just don't have as much time as I'd like for making stuff.

But you, my dear, are one of the few lucky recipients of a Kelly Handmade Gift this past year... your mitts:

(Wish I had gotten a hand model for those -- they look weird.)

Hope you like 'em -- they're cotton and not super thick, so I don't know how warm they are, but the colors are gorgeous! (Good job on buying that yarn...)

My other handmade gift? More mitts! My BFF Jenny has been freezing in her new office, so she got a thick warm pair made in super-soft Cashmerino Chunky. It's like buttah! (If you're not allergic to wool, that is...)


They're a little more blue-greeny in person, but my camera would not co-operate the day I took this and I wanted to get them out the door.

Here's to a crafty (and post-y) 2012!

love,
kelly

Car Modifications

Dear Kelly,

Scott's car died last week and he made a quick decision to buy a used Suburu Outback (he's in two bands, so having space to haul equipment was a must-have). Because we are very immature, we made a few modifications to the back.

Outback before:

Outback after:

AllWheelDrive before:

AllWheelDrive after:

Assumably, you read Sam's Christmas story which provides a bit of context for "Lawdy." I can't wait to show him tomorrow. (And for you readers, I'll post a link to Sam's story soon -- just don't read it if you're easily offended.)

So, yes, my boyfriend is driving around in a station wagon that says "Butback" and "Lawdy."

Love,

Shayne

Makin' Thanksgiving dinner

Dear Shayne,

Every year, Bill and I make a complete Thanksgiving dinner just for the two of us. Then we eat leftovers for a week -- it's fantastic! This year, I snapped photos of the food we made all day. Want to see? I knew you would.

For appetizers, we had...

Deviled Eggs:

This is the only way I eat eggs. And it has got to be my grandmother's recipe. It's spicy and delicious: mayo, creamy horseradish, dry mustard, onions, salt, and white pepper. Sprinkle with paprika. Fabulous.

Crab dip:

This recipe is so easy, I once worked with a woman who said, "I make it in the car on the way to the party!" I wouldn't go quite that far, but it really is easy:

Mix together 1 package of cream cheese + 1 can of drained crab meat and form it into a brick or a ball or a square or however you want to display it. Slather it with cocktail sauce, put some Triscuits on the tray, and then move out of the way because a stampede of party-goers will mow you down for it. (Thanks to my mom for this recipe!)

Meatballs:

This one is a tradition from Bill's family. Nice at a party because you can keep 'em hot in the crockpot. The recipe is straight out of the 60s and still tastes great.

The sauce is, improbably, 1 jar of grape jelly + 1 jar of chili sauce. Sounds horrible, but tastes amazing and makes the house smell fantastic.

While eating appetizers, Bill put the bird on the grill:


Bill brines the bird using this recipe, and then bastes the heck out of it with chicken stock, butter, and white white while it's grilling. It's out there for a few hours and comes in moist and delicious!

While the turkey's a'grillin, we make the sides...

Garlic carrots:

This recipe from my grandma and is as delicious as it is easy: steam the carrots, then sauté chopped garlic (the original recipe calls for butter, but I use olive oil -- just as good and better for you!)

Then combine the garlic and the carrots and mmmm! (Added bonus: no vampires.)

Green bean casserole:

This stuff grosses me out, but Bill loves it, so here it is. The recipe is straight off the back of the can of fried onions... I suspect that this one dish is single-handedly keeping that item in production. What else are they used for?

Stuffing:

I am not really a stuffing eater, so I usually just make Stove Top for Bill. But I saw this recipe last week and thought, "If ever there was a stuffing I will like, it's this one!" So I made it. It seemed really promising: pumpkin bread, corn bread, cranberries, sausage. Mmm!

But I still wasn't wild about it. I think... I am just not a stuffing eater. And Bill didn't love it, either, so we're back to Stove Top next year (as it's also about 1000x easier!) I think that recipe would be fantastic for anyone who likes stuffing. I just... don't.

Hrm... did not get a photo of my mashed potatoes. Guess I was too busy stuffing my face!

I also missed the photo opportunity of the perfect bird coming in from the grill. By the time I turned around to take it, Bill was already this far along:



The house smelled so good, I think we were just anxious to EAT!

Here is my plate on the table:

(Note to self: Get a couple of plain white plates for food photos... every photo I take of my food has a giant tomato in the middle!)

And, finally...

Pumpkin Pie:


Which, as you can see, is really just a vehicle for whipped cream...

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

love,
kelly

New quilt for Kaesea

Dear Shayne,

A couple of years ago, I made this quilt for Kaesea. It's been great -- it stays on the foot of our bed, on top of a heating pad (bonus!) and makes a great gushy-food placemat (rather than having that all over the duvet cover). Also, it looks nice with our mostly-blue duvet covers.

Recently, we got a new duvet cover that didn't quite match the old quilt. You know I don't need much of an excuse to make a quilt, so I took this opportunity to whip one up.

The new duvet cover has beiges, browns, and greys, so it's a neutral roundup. I like stripes, so this was my first design:


Once I saw that together, I decided I wanted something a bit more harmonious, so I cut more strips and laid them out in a sort of a tonal gradient. I laid them out on the couch so that I could re-visit them and verify the order.

When I returned, I found this:


Note:

1. Kaesea pre-approves his quilt.
2. The new quilt perfectly matches Kaesea's fur. As I have mentioned before on his blog, his back is becoming light brown in his old age (he used to be dark grey, and still is on his head). As you can see, Kaesea has actually arranged himself to match the stripes on his quilt here. Hilarious.

So I decided to make it two-sided -- one side is the original random stripes and the other side is the tonal gradient. It's nice to be able to mix it up!



And here's a shot of it on the bed, showing how nicely it matches the duvet cover:


And, most importantly, here is Kaesea, enjoying his new quilt:


Love that cat.

love,
kelly

QIP: Choosing a binding fabric

Dear Shayne,

Do you remember the quilt-in-progress I posted about waaay back in September? (Started here, found a big problem that needed fixing here, then promptly dropped off the face of the blog...)

I fixed that blocks-too-dark problem, but then failed to take a photo of it before sending it off to the quilter. It's going to be ready any day now, so I'll post when I get it back. In the meantime, here's a little story about binding.

(Gosh, that sounds boring... but this is a craft blog, after all.)

I usually like a stripe-y binding, but I couldn't seem to find one in the right colors for this quilt. I used a polka-dot binding for my cousin's quilt and I really liked that, so when I saw these cute dots, I thought I was onto something:


However, I didn't have the fabrics from the quilt with me when I found this at the shop, so I wasn't 100% sure if it would match.

But then I noticed the name of the fabric pattern:


As I mentioned before, I bought the main fabric for this quilt because it reminded me of our little cat Biscuit's fur (Wow. I cannot believe it's been 6 months since he passed away. We still miss that little kitty every day.)

Sorry... getting all Debbie Downer there, but my point is that this is a quilt that commemorates a cat and the fabric is called "Cat Walk." So I bought it.

Got it home, put it next to some blocks I already had finished and... voila!


Looks great! Stay tuned for photos of the finished quilt...

love,
kelly

Your mitts: Need your opinion

Dear Shayne,

When we were together last year, you bought some yarn for me to make you some fingerless mitts. I'm finally getting around to it (mostly because you told me that you're cold...) I've completed one, but I need some help deciding what to do for the second one.

Here's the first one:

(Gorgeous, right?)

Sooo... here's the problem: This yarn is a very slow striping yarn. As you can see from that mitt, I only covered 4 colors in just 1 mitt. Here is the remaining ball of yarn:

I am pulling from the middle, so I am going to be knitting the blue and green yarn you see around the center very soon.

Sooo... here are the options:

1. Press on. This will probably result in the next mitt being pink, green, and blue (with the same plum-y thumb as the first mitt, because I knit the thumbs before I started anything else).

2. Skip the blue and green and go to the colors that are similar to the first mitt (pink, orange, red, purple). The mitts will not be identical to one another, but they will be closer to the same "family" of colors.

I love all of these colors together, but when used on such a small project, it really divides up the colors into chunks. Sooo... do you want 2 totally mismatched mitts (the one above + a blue and green one) OR do you want me to do some color finagling to get them close to one another?

Let me know ASAP so I can send these off to you and keep your paws warm!

love,
kelly

PS - Have I mentioned lately how I hate the new Blogger interface? Just sayin'.

Woven scarf for Kate

Dear Shayne,

Despite my lack of posting lately, I have been making stuff. Including this woven scarf for my cousin-in-law, Kate. I'm not 100% sure that these purple-y brown colors are her bag, but she's always so warmly appreciative of handmade gifts -- she's the best kind of person to make stuff for!

I bought the yarn at A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland, but I cannot find the ball band right now, so I'm not sure of the brand/fiber/colorway. When I stumble across it later, I'll update the post. For now I'll tell you that it felt great and made a lovely fabric -- I love the color variegation:


love,
kelly

Qiviut!

Dear Shayne,

You know what this blog needs? Some content! Fortunately, my parents gave me a gift last week that fits the bill -- qiviut!

What is qiviut, you say? (I mean, besides a word that begins with "q" that does not have a "u" immediately following it...) It is super-soft, super-strong, super luxurious yarn (think cashmere, but even better) that comes, improbably, from musk ox. (Want more details? Wikipedia can help ya out...)


Along with an amazingly generous 400+ yards of qiviut (this stuff is like spun gold), they also gave me this great book called Arctic Lace, both purchased on their recent trip to Alaska (which sounds really cool -- have you ever been there?) The book is fascinating -- not only does it include many patterns and ideas for working with qiviut, but there is also a lot of history and cultural information about the native people of Alaska. Really great stuff.

What's the occasion? Oh, my birthday. Which isn't, technically, for another 5 weeks or so, but my mom was practically vibrating with excitement about giving me this yarn, so who am I to object -- you want to throw luxury yarn my way? Go for it!

love,
kelly

PS - The new Blogger interface bites. The Preview is vastly improved, but working on the post is an absolute pain in the behind.

QIP: Continued Evolution

Dear Shayne,

As I mentioned, the original plan I had for the quilt blocks I'm working on changed once I made the first one. And now that I've completed all of the blocks, I've found that I need to change out two of them.

Here is Hipstamatic photo of all of the current blocks -- with the colors reduced by this filter (Libatique 73, if you're wondering), you can really see the problem:


It's that one super-dark block -- it's the black hole of this quilt!

I tried moving it around, but it just doesn't play well with others. It's harder to see, but the one in the lower left hand corner is also awfully dark, so it's also getting remade.

My other option would to be to make some additional darker blocks, but I'm worried about things getting too Halloween-y. So I'm going to replace these two with medium grey versions.

I hate to waste blocks I've made, so I'm thinking of making these two into Halloween pillows. First, I gotta finish this quilt. Wish me luck!

love,
kelly

Evolution of a Quilt Block

Dear Shayne,

Well! After a big spurt of posts in July, we fell silent once again. And, once again, I'm going to end our blog break with... a quilt! This one is still in progress, but I thought I'd post along the way.

So... the day after Biscuit died, I found a fabric that reminded me of the color and pattern of his fur. I fell in love with it and knew I had to make a little Biscuit-inspired lap quilt:

(Moda Fabrics' Central Park Carousel Sunshine by Kate Spain.)

I was also buying some grey fabric for this quilt and the orange and grey looked great together, so I was set!

I've never used a "feature fabric" in a quilt before, as I am a very patchwork-y girl, but I really do love this one, so I decided to give it a shot.

I have loved this quilt from Denyse Schmidt Quilts for awhile (Denyse Schmidt is a goddess, by the way -- that book is awesome):


And I recently saw this antique quilt in Modern Log Cabin Quilting by Susan Beal (another goddess and another fabulous book):


So I drew this:


However, once I made the first block...


I realized that the strips were all too wide and uniform for my liking. I think my error was that the center square needed to be larger, but... it wasn't.

Since I didn't really want to re-make that block, I decided to trim down the final grey border and then funk up the other blocks with a variety of thinner and thicker strips. Like so:

(The lower left block in that group is the one from above, but with the final grey border trimmed down.)

I have been second-guessing my decision to use a single grey fabric for each block -- I'm a patchwork-y gal and it would have been more interesting to mix 'em up -- but I've been thinking a lot about Biscuit as I make this quilt and he was always a scaredy cat, so he probably would have preferred this "safer" choice.

You know, if a cat could talk about his quilt preferences.

All right. I think this quilt is going to be 16 blocks. I've got 10 done, so there's 6 more to go. I'll post again when they're finished.

And what have you been up to?

love,
kelly

Portlandia: Sock Summit edition (Put a bead on it!)

Dear Shayne,

One of the classes I took at Sock Summit was all about beaded knitting. The absolute highlight of the class was the instructor, Sivia Harding. I feel silly to use this adjective, but it's the first one that comes to mind... Shayne, she is magical. Just magical.

Over the course of three hours, she managed to pull from her bag roughly 40 or so beaded knit samples (including, but not limited to: shawls, socks, mittens, gloves, sweaters, scarves and legwarmers) that simply blew the crowd away. And Shayne, these were all her own designs. Not only is she prolific, but I just love the way she gently encouraged us: "It's easy," she said softly, "Just try it -- it's not hard."

That's Sivia for you, quietly encouraging everyone to simply add some beads to our knitting. As if it's no trouble at all. She convinces the class with her gentle style and her magical bag of tricks. Yes! I can add beading to my knitting! Yes, I absolutely can!

We learned to make a pattern for some gorgeous beaded mitts in class, and we received a pre-beaded skein to start the project:


I'm not sure I'll make those exact mitts, but I do feel empowered to put some beads on my knitting! The biggest hit in the class was her pattern for a gorgeous pair of gloves called Fluency. A. May. Zing. If you click that link, you'll see the fingerless version in the bottom photo -- I am totally making those. I've already bought the pattern and have the yarn... now I just need the beads.

As for the title of this post and the joke I just could not get out of my head... have you seen the show Portlandia? Totally hilarious. One episode makes fun of the current craft trend to put birds on everything: Put a bird on it! During class, I kept thinking, "Put a bead on it!"

Put. A. Bead. On. It!

And I will! Stay tuned...

love,
kelly