AfricanKelli

« Home

Finny,

I completed the first 6 patchwork placemats this weekend. Good thing because the bridal shower was Saturday afternoon.

They almost weren’t completed. Why, you ask? Because I sewed them wrong sides together at 5 am on Saturday after working late on Friday night. Bleery-eyed sewing does no one any good. The only reason these babies made it photographed, wrapped and delivered by 2 pm was thanks to the roomie. He took them out of my hands with the seam ripper and gave them back to me in ready-to-be-sewn-correcly stacks. I was in a bit of a fury when I realized that I’d sewn the completed patchy tops, the batting and the backing together incorrectly.  I was also running on very little sleep and a lot of Diet Coke. Thankfully, his patience saved the day.

So pretty! And really the part that makes me the happiest is all of the fabric for these (and 4 more still waiting to be completed for chez moi) was out of the scrap box. Love it!

The bride was pretty happy too. Thankfully most of my friends are keen to my crazy sewing and hippie ways these days.

Hope your weekend was lovely, sweet friend.

xoxo,

Donk

Got those Ginger Spa cookies baked last night. In a trifecta of efficiency, these will feed guests at a fundraiser tonight, go to a bridal shower tomorrow and if there are any leftover, potentially end up in a care package delivery for my grandparents too. They are cake-y, but really quite good. The recipe is super simple and if you are  a Phoenician — cake mixes at Basha’s are on sale this week. I’m trying to shift my shopping to Basha’s to help until they right their financial ship. They are very generous in the Arizona community and I hate to see local businesses suffering. And so, the cookie brigade to the rescue!

Hey, it’s what I can do.

And then there is this beast. I’ve been staying at a friend’s house for the last couple of nights and spending gobs of time with sweet Esther. She’s an adorable terror.

Cookies and puppies — apparently I’m still a little kid — but how can these not make anyone happy?

~K

Dear Fin,

Remember when I sewed new curtains for my craft studio before it became my guest room before it became Matt’s room? And then those curtains were changed out again because really? The green didn’t work for me. There was too much other stuff going on color-wise and African/Aussie is a very simple man.  Well, I still had those curtains tucked in my scrap box and in preparing for this month’s CRAFT challenge, I wondered if I could put this fabric to use?

Indeed. I now have 8 placemat backings.

As for the scrappy tops? They are in process. Have you ever noticed how this sort of project takes considerable time to simply prep? I’ve got at least four hours into washing, pressing and cutting the pieces for these, although I am loving the repurposing angle. Also, it is incredibly satisfying to use what I have and to be cleaning up the scrap box too.

How is your project going?

~K

Fin,

Good choice on the July projects — there are several super pretty scarves girls whipped up (including yours). Lovely! The winner is this gorgeous girl. I like the color, the fact she posted a photo of herself and that she just seems very cheery. Brava! Thanks to everyone who played along.

For August, I’ve got two sewing projects and a recipe for us to try. First, let me just say that these selections are 100% selfish. I have some things I need to take care of around the house and I’m doing the whole two birds with one stone thing. I know we started this sew-along ages ago complaining about how all the craft books were too focused on the dreaded three Ps — placemats, pillowcases and purses — but I need some of these. I have boxes of scraps, no placemats of my own and a couple gifts to make. They don’t have to follow this tutorial exactly; the idea is to create placemats from scraps and being environmentally and thrifty-chic in the process.

The second project is a bit more complicated. I can’t find exactly what I want on Craft, but I can find something close and explain the details. My little home’s windows and doors are old. They don’t seal properly and as you can imagine, this time of year in Phoenix, it’s like I am watching dollar bills fly away via air conditioning. What I want to sew are some long, narrow beanbags that can be placed along the door frame and along window ledges. The idea is the tubes will keep the cold in and the hot out. This is as close of a as tutorial I could find. I think beans would work best, but perhaps rice or another grain too?*

Thanks to April and Colleen — this is exactly what I am talking about. Draft stoppers!

Finally, to spice things up and reward ourselves for being so green and crafty — how about a dozen of these? Yum. Ginger cookies are my favorite.

I know we’ve talked quite a bit lately about using what we have at hand, making the most of our gardens and being wise financially. I think honoring these lifestyle choices in our projects makes sense. A recent example of such crafty frugalness: homemade prickly pear jelly — one of the few desert summer dweller perks. Perhaps I’ll have a dollop on one of those cookies soon, eaten on a place over a lovely new placemat in a kitchen with windows lined with beanbags.

Yes. To all of that, I say yes.

Love,

Donk

My dearest Finny,

I haven’t forgotten you, my friend. I promise. I realize I haven’t even acknowledged our July sew-along around here — but that’s just because I suck, not because I don’t love you.

And there you are, sewing your sweet little swimming suit cover up and knitting away like a crazed maniac while I’m out hiking in the wilderness.

But in all fairness, I was hiking with these two and how cute are they?

And while you may think, ” Look, Donk. Water. See that water? You need a swimsuit cover up!” You’d be wrong. Because see where that water is coming from? That’s right. The snow on the mountain above.

I’m a desert girl. I like my water 80+.

But all was not lost — believe it or not, I was thinking about art, sewing, and color quite a bit on my recent journey. For example — this lichen. Isn’t the color combination incredible? Leave it to Mama Nature to throw together bright lime and obnoxious orange on a gray background and have it work. And does it work.

Or the colors on this lightening-struck tree? Amazing. The golden hues caught my eye 50 yards away and I knew I had to try to capture them. Unfortunately there are certain magnitudes of nature that are simply too grand to fully capture.

I was listening to some crazy Utah radio station on the way home when an editorial about finding the right workout partner caught my ear. The narrator talked about how when you are sweating, with your heart beating in your ears and gasping for breath, the person working out next to you is such a great ear. You suddenly feel so free to share whatever is happening because you are both surviving this very moment together. Adam and Kim are great hiking partners. We talked enough to ignore the mosquitoes but keep the chattering of the squirrels and woodpeckers alive in our conversations.

The summit to Sacred Rim in the Wind River Mountains is a spectacular view for fairly little effort. Besides the mind-bending view from the top, he forest floor was eerily peaceful. We walked through two wide meadows full of summer flowers. Creeks babbled as we hopped on large rocks to cross. I felt a bit like Goldilocks — everything was just right.

Somewhere between a giant pine tree and another breathtaking vista, I recognized how very curative this trip was. Thanks for being patient with me, Fin. I know I haven’t been the best partner this month, but I’m back — with a giant bag of fabric and a knitting project completed to soon share.

Much love,

Kelli

P.S. Did you see this tutorial? I’m going to make a handful of these this weekend. Perfect for so many things!

Finny,

Remember when you took this pic in Yellowstone after we read that now famous wolf t-shirt review on Amazon? I should have bought the shirt. I totally could be grocery shopping on a scooter, riding sideways.  I am not going to lie, I really wish we were back in the park right now. I’d love to have a handful of Red Vines, a telephoto lens on my lap and a herd of buffalo headed our way (in the form of delicious burgers.) Instead, I’ve got a handful of thank you cards to write for this weekend’s fundraiser, a stack of grant applications on my lap and a herd of appointments headed this way (in the form of a busy week.) Then again, without this job I love, I wouldn’t be able to get away for such hilarity.

So, let me just reminisce the fun for one more second before I dive back into non-vacation life:

Why am I laughing this hard? Because the waitress, as sweet as she was, asked me if I wanted Chardooooonay or Chablish. Of course, when chablish is offered, you must order the pink wine.  Thankfully, I had the manners to wait until she was out of earshot before this wave of laughter crashed. And Shelley had the manners not to push me off of her, although I think her look is telling.

Lumberjills in the morning.

What a great May this was! We had some excellent entries to the sew along as well, and I’m a sucker for adorable children. I’m pretty sure we have three winners because I love all of these. Zarah — your Russian doll fabric was a perfect choice for this project and I want one of those shirts. Lori, the embroidery? Are you kidding me? Wow. And Alevin, your daughter is about as cute as I’ve ever seen. Love the outfit you made her!

Winner, winner chicken dinners. Brava!

Antlers!

For June, I was thinking we’d get crazy with three projects again. As you know, I’m a fan of cake and these carrot cake cookies look divine. I’ll have to break my “no oven until September” rule, or perhaps I could just put the cookie sheet outside at about 4 pm and watch Mother Nature do her thing. You know, that could work… In the meantime, I’ve got lots of cereal boxes in the recycling because oatmeal first thing after my morning run makes me so hot I can’t blow dry my hair for an hour. Seriously. And what better way to put those boxes to recycled use than these great containers? And while we are at it, a bit of a sewing challenge for us all: stenciling. I love these Lotta projects and thought it would be fun to see what everyone could sew and create with fabrics they have stenciled.

So, carrot cake cookies, cereal box bins and stenciled sewing projects. This shall fuel the creative fires for June. What do you think Finny? If you were crazy crafty, and let’s be honest — I think we’re 500 miles past sanity — you could stencil fabric to cover the box to be filled with cookies. Just a thought.

xoxo,

Donk

Dear Finny McFinberg,

So, remember last weekend when I was bugging you to help me with some freezer paper/stencil/paint ideas for our embellished t-shirt May sew along project? You looked at me from the moon and responded, “Um, I just cut out some fabric and kinda glued it on the shirt.”

Ah. Right.

And so, while you are out with Bubba, enjoying your envy-inducing sabbatical, fly fishing and backpacking with friends this weekend, I’m sitting in Phoenix sewing.*  Yes, you can feel sorry for me. When sewing induces sweat, it’s time to start looking at real estate. And yes, this is the same conversation we’ve been having every summer for the last 10 years (literally) and no, I don’t actually plan on doing anything about it anytime soon. That’s the way I roll. Me + summer in AZ = unneccessary bouts of extreme grouchiness. Amazing how that green-tinged mood crops up when I think of you standing in waders in some beautiful zenful river, sweet talking fish.

Okay, just cranked up the AC and poured myself an icy drink. Phew. Back to the topic at hand, shall we?

You know what? This may be the simplest craft project ever. For those who don’t have a sewing machine and regularly lament, bitch and moan that they can’t play along — guess what? This project takes 10 minutes, a pair of scissors and very little craft talent. And yet the result is damn cute. I present my new hippie badge tank:

Two tanks from Costco

Plus one package of this Stitch Witchery glue stuff

Plus a little VW van fabric

et, voila:

Good choice, Finny. Honestly, the hardest part of this project was finding fabric I wanted to wear on an already cute tank. The VW Heather Bailey print has been hanging around for a bit and worked perfectly. In cleaning out the art studio (turned roommate’s headquarters) this weekend, I found a stack of T-shirts someone gave me. And so, if you’d like a VW hippie badge T-shirt — leave a comment. The first three will have one mailed out this week.

As for you, I hope the fish, the backpacking and the sabbatical are going swimmingly. Miss you!

xoxo,

Donk

* In all seriousness, I think my next sport/outdoorsy adventuring will be fly fishing. I’m considering trading in the tri bike for some waders and a rod. Hmm…

The other day I mentioned I’d like to learn how to sew a dress.  In my mind, this is the Everest of craft — creating something that fits and that I’d like to wear. The two wrap skirts I’ve conquered are hills in comparison, and considering the wrap is so forgiving, even that is a generous analogy. Many of you responded that you too are interested in this project. And so, I thought I’d chronicle my adventure in great detail in case you want to play too.

This week: find a pattern. I found three I’m loving, in part because all Simplicity patterns are $1 (from the normal $16) at JoAnn’s this weekend. I bought two Cynthia Rowley designs and one vintage beauty. (This site is great for pattern reviews. )I couldn’t find a fabric that didn’t remind me of a quilt or frankly, JoAnn’s. While I don’t mind their prints for placemats, wearing it to dinner is an entirely different matter.

So, I think I’m going to try to make one of these dresses first in muslin as a rough draft. A little practice certainly never hurt my sewing. Also, I am skipping a bit because my mom recently bought me some oh-so-silly-fancy sewing machine. They have friends from Phoenix visiting them in Texas this weekend and I’ve got my fingers crossed this new baby is road tripping to Tempe soon. Woo!

~K

The pantry is officially reorganized and clutter free. (Before photo here.) I love my new canisters and the red and white gingham liner paper. I also love the baking basket I put together with the things I use most often:

I filled the picnic basket with cookbooks I rarely use, got rid of jars that needed recycling and reorganized my canning supplies for early summer jam. My CRAFT along 09′ April project is officially complete.

What’s not complete? I have a pot of potatoes on the stove, a bundt pan full of cake batter in the fridge and a raw casserole full of some concoction I am supposed to bring to church tomorrow for brunch after service. Apparently, just as I decided to start cooking this afternoon, one of my breakers went on vacation. Could be because of recent rain, could be just bad luck. Either way, I’m without hot water, have a dryer full of wet clothes that will have to be re-laundered eventually and a fridge full of food I’m hoping won’t spoil before I can hire an electrician Monday morning (coincidentally the same morning I have the largest grant of the year due).

In a not-so-brilliant moment, I went outside in Nancy Drew mode to find and fix this problem myself. I stepped into a puddle, in the dark, and tried to dry off the breaker when I felt a jolt travel up my arm and make my fingers (and heart) jump. The emergency electrician wanted $350 (before parts) to help tonight. I opted for a cold shower and candlelight instead. Maybe just maybe I will wiggle my way into church an hour early and bake away in the kitchen unnoticed. I’ll certainly need resourcefulness and a dash of favor to pull this Easter off with any grace and not arrive empty-handed for a full-dance card’s day worth of celebrations.

Hoping your Easter weekend is passing a bit more gracefully,

K

Best Bunny completed and to be gifted to a couple at church soon expecting their first daughter. Also, the number of homemade bunnies around here lately is a little frightening — but timely, no? Happy Easter, friends!

~K

{P.S. Please do not be distracted by the shiny object that is the Somali pirate story. While entertaining to think of peg legs, parrots and eye patches, those Somali terrorists are shameful — kidnapping the crew of ships full of food and aid for the poor along the African coast. Instead, how about we pray for the thousands in Italy who are suffering. Or Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan,  Zimbabwe… Too bad these countries don’t have pirates. Maybe their suffering would get some press too.}