Everyday Crafty Goodness

Some vintage buttons I got from an estate sale … they look like candy.  Why are vintage things so adorable?

Here’s one of the 4 matching mugs I found this weekend at the Goodwill.  I went in to look for glass containers for my mikrokosmos project but saw these and grabbed them right away.  They were 50 cents a piece.  I also scored a really nice skein of merino wool yarn that had a price tag of $27.50 for 99 cents.  I did walk out of the store with a few glass containers but browsing for the other lovelies cost me a parking ticket!  I should know by now that there’s no such thing as a quick stop at the thrift store. 

Behind the mug is another fabric box I made to keep my coffee table organized … so far so good.

D’oh!  My camera battery died this morning so I’ll have to show off my vintage buttons next week.  Here’s a picture of my babies, Molly the dog and Elliot the cat, taken over a year ago.  I feel very lucky to have them in my life.  I’ve talked about how I got Molly so here’s the story of Elliot…

Elliot and his brother were dumped in my friend Lise’s neighborhood during the winter a couple of years ago.  One day Lise came home to find Elliot and another cat (his girlfriend at the time) in her basement!  It turned out that Elliot had broken the basement window and jumped in.  I was looking to adopt cats at the time so I offered to take them in.  We had agreed to meet up but a blizzard hit that weekend.  The cats were no where to be found.  A few days later, Lise called and said that she has Elliot but there was no sign of his brother.   So that’s how Elliot came into my life.  We never found out what happened to his brother and we can only hope that someone had taken him in. 

I was supposed to go down to MD for Chinese New Year this weekend but my parents are freaking out about the road “condition” because of the recent snow.  A few years ago, I would’ve driven down anyway to make my point that the roads are fine, but I’ve decided not to go this time to save everyone from my parents’ overwhelming anxiety.

My aunts wanted to make dumplings from scratch and I was going to make the wrappers.  I’ve “helped” my grandma make dumplings when I was little but I wasn’t able to make the wrappers with one hand rolling the rolling pin and the other turning the dough in circles.  It wasn’t until many years later when I was living on my own that I realized I could roll out wrappers like the way my grandma did!  So now I’m the official dumpling wrapper maker in the family.  My rule is, if you’re going to make dumplings from scratch, you HAVE to make the wrappers from scratch too.  None of that store bought wrappers nonsense. 

Anyway, the picture is of a couple of porcelain dumplings I made a few years ago.  Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year everyone!!

My Mikrokosmos project.  These are not done yet but i just wanted to see how they would look in the glass containers.  These were inspired by succulents and terrariums.  I had wanted to glaze the pieces white but my teacher wants me to think more about it.  I’m going to be brave and bring these to class for critiques tonight.