Sharing: A Handful Projects for the Home

I have been craving some new decor in my home for a couple of months now--I want to re-paint several rooms, bring in some new furniture, redo some existing pieces, hang new stuff on the walls...I suppose part of it is just the time of year and being in the house so much during the cold winter months of Minnesota makes one a little tired of one's four walls.  So, here are a few home projects that have caught my eye and have me imagining all the ways I could fall in love with my tired old home again (like those pipe and board bookshelves from The Brick House--I am positively obsessed with putting up a whole wall of them in our bedroom for all of our books endlessly accumulating [along with the dust bunnies] on our floor.)

Project links, clockwise from top left: Simple board and bracket desk from Kenziepoo; DIY Stencil Pillow from Wit and Whistle; IKEA hack PS Cabinet from Livet Hemma; another IKEA hack--this one with Macket document storage bins also from Livet Hemma; shelving unit from The Brick House; Puff Granny from Pickles; potato print artwork from Oh Happy Day; vintage suitcase table from Stars for Streetlights.

Animal Tees for Mr Beeper

Beeper drew some animal designs for a couple of new t-shirts for Mr Beeper's birthday this year.  The animals are two of Mr Beeper's favorites--the komodo dragon and the platypus (incidentally, also two of Beeper's faves).  The komodo dragon tee  has a little know animal fact that Beeper chose to add: baby komodo dragins roll in animil waste.   Unlike last year's tee, I left Beeper's spelling intact since it is decipherable this year and pretty damn cute in that 7-year-old-spelling sorta way.  The platypus tee is all Beeper's goofy sense of humor--no, I don't know why the platypus is saying, YA-OO!  YA-OO!  CHIP GUY!--but it cracks Beeper up so why change a thing?  Of course, Mr Beeper loved the tees and actually wore the komodo dragon t-shirt to work last week.  One of his coworkers assured him he could sell the Komodo dragon design--I guess grody little know animal facts have mass appeal.

A Bit of Surrealism from Erik Johansson

I came across the work of Erik Johansson today and it just made me smile.  So I thought I would share it.  I love the unexpected, the surreal in the midst of the everyday (like Slinkachu's Little People)--and these retouched photos certainly serve that up, with a side of humor.  

You can see more of Erik Johansson's amazing work here, and buy prints of his work here.  

(found via Scandinavian Deko)

Read This: Earl the Squirrel

You might already be familiar with Corduroy--but do you know Earl?  Earl the Squirrel?  I didn't either--until I discovered a copy of this book at The Great Pumpkin Patch last fall. The black and white illustration on the cover caught my eye--and then I recognized the author's name--Don Freeman (better known for his overall-wearing-bear-creation--Corduroy).  Given my family's own complicated relationship with the cheeky squirrels living around our home--and in our attic--I could not resist a book that made squirrels a little more, well, endearing.

This is a story of a young squirrel whose mother believes has become spoiled and unnaturally dependent upon his human friend, Jill.  Make your own judgments here, but Earl does find a nutcracker helpful when breaking open an acorn (not to mention that red scarf he likes to wear knotted around his already furry neck). 

In the spirit of all great childhood acts of rebellion, Earl sets out one night to gather a bunch of acorns on his own--with the help of his unnatural yet handy, red scarf.  Of course, adventure ensues in the form of advice-giving owls and angry horn-wielding bulls, but Earl also learns a thing or two along the way--not the least of which is that while a natty red scarf does look good on him, and can come in handy in a pinch, it is still not necessary for his survival--a squirrel can get along just fine without accessorizing.

It is a sweet and simple story about becoming independent and understanding one's place in the world while also doing things in your own unique way.  The retro black and white scratchboard illustrations with the happy pop of Earl's red scarf throughout are eye-catching and even without the charm of Earl's character, make this book worth a read.   

(On a side note, ever since I bought our copy of this book, I have been thinking about Katie's squirrel plushie design--the one I purchased so long ago and never did anything with--and how much I would like to make an Earl from an old gray tweed suit jacket--with a little red scarf to wrap about his neck, of course...)

Umbrella Prints Love

What's this have to do with Valentine's Day?  Well, nothing really--except there are some hearts screen printed on some of the fabrics--and also, I do heart Umbrella Prints.  These are two different fabric scrap sets I purchased recently--one is a trimmings pack (top), one a remnant pack with some larger pieces (bottom).  You have to be feeling a little bit lucky when you place an order for one of these since you have no idea which fabrics you will actually receive--but you can safely count on an interesting array of patterns and a beautifully coordinated palette of colors in each pack.  Did I mention that they hand screen-print all of their fabrics on organic cotton/hemp fabrics using eco-friendly inks?  Yep.

Do I have any idea what  I am going to make with these yet?  Nope.  But there are lots of lovely ideas in the Umbrella Prints Flickr group (if you care to see what a $10 pack of fabric scraps can become, check out the photos from the Trimmings competition they held last year).  

Happy Valentine's Day, by the way.  Hope your day is filled with love and kindness and something sweetly handmade.

Make This: LEGO Accessory Valentine Tutorial

Yeah, I'm a little late in delivering this valentine tutorial to you.  So sue me.  It has been a week of many extra homework projects around here--dioramas, book reports,  a 100 days of school poster, and then of course, the usual spelling word practice, math story problems...blahblahblah.  The point is--here is a valentine tutorial for you, just a little later than intended, okay?  If you have some of the supplies around your house already--great--go to it, you can make this right now--if you don't, well, you will probably have to wait to make it until next year since it may require ordering some special LEGO pieces.  So just know that and deal.

But LEGO + jewelry + valentine's cards = a pretty cool project for the kiddies for Valentine's Day.  This is like accessory playtime--jewelry meant to be kept, worn, and played with over and over using the extra LEGO bits.  Necklaces and rings that can be endlessly redesigned--out of sheer boredom, or just to match that special outfit of stripey tights, plaid shirt and a hot pink tutu your kid showed up at the breakfast table wearing this morning.

It's pretty damn easy to make too once you have assembled all the required pieces--although, personally, I would not recommend letting the kiddies do the work with the uber-strength craft glue or you may end up with  LEGOs permanently bonded to his or her body.  Sure, it might be cool for a day or two to have LEGO pieces attached to your hands ("Look at the colorful LEGO tower I built on my hand, mom!"), but it would start to impede simple tasks like eating, bathing, using toilet paper--and that would be not so cool after a while.  

The best thing I discovered through the process of sourcing our LEGO bits was that there is a WHOLE WORLD of used individual LEGO parts to be found out there, in every color, shape, size--and most to be had for 3-10 cents.  BrickLink is pure genius, I tell you.  There is more about that in my tutorial.

Here's the link to my downloadable tutorial and printable templates:

DOWNLOAD LEGO VALENTINE TUTORIAL

And if you are interested, I have some other Valentines ideas from years past you can have a look at here and here and here--none of which require ordering special LEGO parts and probably could realistically be made between now and Valentine's Day.

A Gift for Miss Bean

I made our little friend, Miss Bean, this marker case for a gift recently.  She has just begun to develop an interest in drawing and coloring--her most memorable work to date being the drawing she made on her bed sheets with markers.  Okay, so maybe a gift of more markers was not the best idea but who am to quash early attempts at textile design?  

The marker roll I made for her was adapted from the design in Last-Minute Patchwork  + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson--the design in the book is made for colored pencils so I just doubled the size of the pencil slots so they could accommodate the width of a magic marker, and then made it to fit the number of markers my set contained.  I really like this pencil roll design--I have made it several times and I think it always turns out eye-gogglingly lovely.  It instantly elevates art supplies to being an extra special gift.  The coloring book, Squiggles by La Zoo, is one Beeper loved when he was Miss Bean's age and is perfect for the preschool set.  When I gave it to Miss Bean, she readily got to work practicing her squiggling technique at the front of the book, then moved onto squiggling some very colorful spaghetti on the plate image further in.   Squiggle on, little friend--just not on the bed sheets, please.

Eat This: Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

If I was going to marry a soup--it would be this one.  That's how much I love it.  It so luscious without being overbearing, hearty without being heavy, healthy without hitting you over the head with how wholesome it tastes.  It was actually inspired by a soup I once had at the now defunct Figlio restaurant here (oh, how I miss Figlio)--it was this silky, lemony soup with a touch of basil.  Then I found a recipe for a lemon chicken soup and worked from there to try to recreate what I once had at Figlio--and this is pretty close.  I did go for the traditional greek addition of dill rather than basil (but it is just as good with basil if you would rather, so feel free to use it if you have it).

Of course, you can make other substitutions, like white rice instead of brown (you will just need less cooking time for the rice), more veggies, or even more chicken and rice if you want this to become almost stew-like.  I do recommend making your own chicken broth--I have a recipe for how to do that with old chicken bones here.

This soup is mostly easy to make.  The trickiest part is just whisking the 2 cups of hot broth into the lemon-egg mixture so the eggs will not curdle--but even this isn't all that tricky.  You just need to get a good brisk whisking action going before you pour in the broth.  And the best part is when you add the eggs mixture to the soup--it is like magic how it suddenly takes on this lovely muted color and the texture becomes just a little thicker and a whole lot creamier...

If there is one soup I recommend you try yet while it is still winter around this part of the world--it is this one.  Really.  You won't regret it.  

DOWNLOAD GREEK LEMON CHICKEN SOUP RECIPE