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Archive: Home Sweet Home

October 21, 2009

Custom Order Jam Jar Labels by Lelo

The farm collective I am a member of is rapidly canning their late tomatoes, before the rain splits them all on the vine. If you find yourself in the same situation or are considering canning as holiday gifts, consider these wonderful labels. They are inexpensive, functional, and lovely. Add your own unique text to the template and choose a color. Lelo in Nopo Handmade takes care of the rest.

October 19, 2009

How-To: Refresh Wilted Flowers

Summer is over in my area. Almost 5 inches of rain have already fallen at my house. To cope with the seasonal change outdoors, I rely on fresh flowers indoors. I keep them everywhere, and they are also all over my Day of the Dead Shrine. Because cut flowers are so expensive and persihable, I use a quick and dirty trick to milk an extra day or two out of the vase life. Take a pair of sharp scissors, as sharp and pointy as you can find, and just trim all the wilted petals from the back. This flower not only has ugly petals, powdery mildew is growing on it- ICK! Carefully cut all the damaged parts of the flower off. Finally, give the stem a fresh cut at the bottom and voila! As you can see in the photos, removing all that gunk from the flower even made the sun come out for a moment!

August 31, 2009

Prickly Pear: Taming the Wild & Fruity

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Prickly Pear: Taming the Wild & Fruity
By Wendy Tremayne

The prickly pear cactus holds a unique position in nature. It is a fruit, vegetable, and a flower, and all parts of the plant are edible. Even the seed can be ground into flour. Also known as Indian fig, the plant produces food and medicine. Once its thorny exterior is tamed, the prickly generously gives up nutrition, healing, and a hot pink sweet-tart punch. Prickly pear grows wild in deserts throughout the west as well as Mexico, Columbia, Israel, and Italy. It is characterized by thorny pads (nopales) with clumps of large flowers and juicy fruits (tuna) that appear in the fall. The tuna are high in calcium, magnesium, and potassium. They also contain antioxidant compounds. The plant's medicinal properties are still being discovered. Some say that prickly is on its way to becoming a curative superstar.

Scientist, doctor, and wild food lover alike must pass through prickly pear's stingy initiation in order to receive the bounty of its succulent fruit. With a few simple tips, harvesting is easily achieved. This DIY covers picking, processing, and the making of a delicious fruity beverage.

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Top 5 Home Decor Picks from Nicole Balch, Making it Lovely

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Top5 Makingitlovely
Nicole Balch of Pink Loves Brown has a the most amazing home decor style which she shares on her blog, Making it Lovely. I have enjoyed watching the transformation of her redecorating her home and wonderful eye for color and decor details.

Wicupck-Sm M
1. Cupcake Bowl

Nicole Storagebasket
2. Small Storage Basket

Nicole Eggchairs
3. Egg Chairs

Nicole Promnightsc
4. Prom Night Shower Curtain

5. Rolly Coffee Table

Here are the past Top 5 Home Decor Picks we featured this month:

August 28, 2009

Vintage Spool Peg Rack

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Vintage Spool Peg Rack
By Jessica Wilson

Little makes me happier than looking at a jar of vintage goodness. From bottle caps to bits of ribbon to an enormous jar of doll parts, I have quite a collection. This year I am pushing myself to move beyond the happy collections in the jars to actually doing something with them. What good are they really if they just sit there collecting dust? So, now and then, when I put together a gift or trinket for someone, the lids come off the jars and I rifle through them searching for the perfect encore. I may still add to the jars, but more often than not, I am using them and that is just dandy. As a crafter and maker of homemade goodness, I strive to use as much of my stash as possible. Here is an easy project for you to use up and display some of your prettiest vintage wooden spools. You can, of course, use any spools you have but the vintage ones will need no treatment, as their happily old fashioned tops are magical to begin with. When you are finished, you will have a vintage-pretty peg shelf to hang even more of your vintage lovelies.

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August 27, 2009

How-To: Sew a Table Runner

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How-To: Sew a Table Runner
By Betz White

It's a great time to think forward to the season ahead and to make your home feel welcoming. This is an easy way to make a table runner that reflects your style and protects your tabletop. The patchwork center panel allows you to use up scraps or put together a combination of your favorite prints. I used 4 prints from my organic canvas collection, "Family Cottage," combined with an organic cotton canvas in brown for a nice autumnal feeling.

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August 26, 2009

Backyard Garden + Recipe: Individual Strawberry Rhubarb Buckle

CRAFT: Home Sweet Home

Individual Strawberry Rhubarb Buckle
By Katie Goodman

I think whoever made the decision that strawberries and rhubarb go together is an absolute genius. I love the sweetness of the strawberries with the tanginess of the rhubarb, and that's why it was an easy decision to plant both in my garden. Both are perennials (meaning they come back year after year) so it's a well done investment the first year.

The best time to plant rhubarb is during the early spring, but wait until the ground has thawed first. Rhubarb can be purchased as a plant at local nurseries, but is also available as roots. Rhubarb does best in full sun areas of the garden, but it can be grown in partial shade as well.

We didn't see many strawberries our first year gardening, which is typical, but we did see lots of rhubarb! Rhubarb is ripe and ready to harvest when the stalks are red at the base, with lots of red radiating up towards the top. You want it to be mostly red, with little green. Discard the leaves, though, because they're poisonous.

Extra rhubarb can be frozen for use during the winter months. Simply cut the rhubarb into the preferred size for baking, approximately ½" chunks, place on a cookie sheet, and freeze. After the rhubarb has frozen, remove it from the sheet and place it in a labeled freezer storage bag.

The distinction between a buckle and other fruit desserts (cobblers, crisps, crunches, etc.) is that the batter is on the bottom and it's topped with the fruit. The most commonly seen version is the Blueberry Buckle, but that doesn't mean you can't experiment with other fruits.

I like to make this dessert in individual ramekins, especially when entertaining, because it isn't something that dishes up especially pretty when it's baked in one large size. The presentation is so nice when done in an individual serving size, and they also cook faster this way.

For tips on growing strawberries, check out this great article.

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August 25, 2009

How-To: Corrugated Glow Tea Light Lantern

CRAFT: Home Sweet Home

Corrugated Glow
Create sunset lighting with a fiberglass tea light lantern.
By Ross Orr

A friend of mine recently finished a deck remodel, whose highlight (literally) is a transparent corrugated roof that diffuses sunlight in a delightful way. This inspired me to find some way to continue that glow after sunset, in the form of a lantern illuminated by tea light candles.

There are many colors and styles of corrugated roofing available, and whole 8-foot sheets (Sequentia brand) are $23 at my local lumberyard — that's enough material for up to 10 lanterns. The kind my friend used for the deck is fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP), which diffracts light with a sparkly halo. After some feverish experimenting with cut-off scraps, I eventually came up with the graceful lantern design shown here.

In the following steps, proceed carefully so you don't crack the plastic, which is somewhat brittle.

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T-Shirt Quilt

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T-Shirt Quilt
by Michelle Kempner

I have always enjoyed cooking and baking with a recipe. I like to follow exact instructions and then, hopefully, there are no surprises. Other people like to make it up as they go along, adding dashes of different flavors until they arrive at a taste they like. However, I have made a few t-shirt quilts following specific directions and they never turn out the way I want. They always end up too square and blocky. Since I had a number of cute t-shirts that I didn't wear anymore (from the cluttered days of my Threadless addiction), I decided to experiment with making a freestyle, dash-of-this-pinch-of-that t-shirt quilt.

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August 24, 2009

How-To: Emergency Cardboard Dustpan

If you nee a dustpan and you need it now, Instructables user ansanma's cardboard dustpan might just do the trick in the meantime. Dust crisis averted!

August 21, 2009

Craft Room on a Cart

CRAFT: Home Sweet Home

When crafts were just a hobby, I often found myself in the midst of complete chaos. Wool and fabric and glitter and glue sticks were strewn everywhere. And I liked it that way! I have always found a tremendous amount of inspiration in the crazy mess of supplies. But now crafting is my career and I have deadlines to meet. I can no longer afford to spend an hour looking for my scissors.

I used to live in a two-bedroom house; one bedroom was for sleeping, and the other was for crafting. I had an entire room just for my projects, and it was a luxury that I totally abused. Everything was everywhere. When I was working on my book, Feltique, there was wool roving in piles on the floor, sweaters in scraps, and the scissors were buried beneath it all.

A year ago, I moved into a new place. The whole house is just 730 square feet. There's hardly room for my bed in the single bedroom, let alone a dedicated space just for crafting. I worried that if I had to keep everything put away, my creativity would suffer. Instead, being forced into organization against my will was the best thing that ever happened.

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August 20, 2009

Weave a Rickrack Lampshade

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Weave a Rickrack Lampshade
by Diane Gilleland

If you have a lamp with a ho-hum shade, try dressing it up with this simple weaving project. Use brightly colored rickrack for a casual look, or try a series of neutrals for something more sophisticated.

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August 19, 2009

Backyard Garden + Recipe: Fresh Garden Salsa

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Backyard Garden + Recipe: Fresh Garden Salsa
By Katie Goodman

A salsa garden, consisting of cilantro, tomatoes, jalapenos, and onion, is a fun themed garden for the beginning gardener. If the thought of growing onions seems daunting, consider green onions. They are incredibly easy to start from seed, and if you trim them above the root instead of pulling them out of the ground, they will continue to produce all spring and summer.

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August 18, 2009

Flashback: Curio Case Table

I adore little things, whether they be handmade lovelies from Iran, a needle felted replica of my dog Sugar, or that sweet little pine cone that calls to me from the forest floor. The only challenge with little things is how to display and preserve them. The king of kitsch, Matt Maranian, gave us the perfect project to solve that dilemma in CRAFT Volume 06: the curio case table. Matt teaches us step by step how to build a glass table that "turns knickknacks into exotic relics."

His intro to the project is so funny and so true:

I've always been a sucker for those big ol' dusty glass cases found in natural history museums or underfunded historical attractions. It never really matters what these cases actually house: a taxidermied armadillo, Abe Lincoln's top hat, the world's longest tapeworm — put almost anything in a case behind glass and it suddenly seems valuable and exotic.

To make a dusty glass case of your own that serves double duty as an intriguing side table, start with a scavenged window and some furniture legs salvaged from a thrift-shop castoff. A few dollars' worth of cheap building materials and a little paint will finish the job. Suddenly your own collection of worthless relics will have museum-quality legitimacy.

The build itself is fairly easy, and the resulting table is just that much cooler because it incorporates an old window. The fun part comes when you get to choose and arrange your own little display. You can play with thematic layouts, arrangements based on color, seasonal arrays, or pairings that only make sense in your mind. Get all wunderkammer with it.

Here is the full project for you in our Digital Edition. You can also still pick up a back issue of Volume 06, the Play issue, in the Maker Shed.

How-To: Falling Leaves Lamp

CRAFT: Home Sweet Home

Falling Leaves Lamp
By Patricia Zapata

Light and paper are always a good combination, and indirect lighting can be such a nice way to soften the feeling in a room. The translucency of vellum and the texture of the handmade paper is what makes this project really stand out. Add a little bit of a three-dimensional design and the impact of this simple project will be self-evident.

This project specifically requires the use of a large sheet of vellum and handmade paper for added texture. If neither of these are available to you be creative with the materials that you use. For added color and interest, a large poster can be used for the outer tube. The inner vellum tube can be replaced with something like a double layer of newsprint. Keep in mind that the translucent nature of the vellum will provide more light than other materials. If in doubt, hold up your paper against a light source to see if it will offer the look you are after.

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August 17, 2009

Cathy Callahan's Old School: Vintage-Inspired Tabletop Decor

I always tell everyone that if they only have room for one vintage craft book in their collection that it just has to be 1966's Better Homes and Gardens Stitchery and Crafts. I have a rather large collection of vintage craft books covering just about any technique you could imagine (if you need any pantyhose craft ideas I got 'em) but BHG S and C seems to be the one I turn to most of the time.

One of my favorite sections in BHG S and C is "Ideas for a Variety of Placements," and that's where I found my inspiration for this project. I love to use vintage dishes but it's always hard to find vintage placemats and napkins that are in good enough shape to use for company. So I thought why not just make some?

I think it would be really fun to make the placemats in different fabrics for a big dinner party. BHG S and C gives us this handy tip: "For a coordinated color scheme at a special dinner, use not-so-common color combinations in mat and napkins." As soon as I ran across that scrap of 1940s upholstery fabric, I knew that I found the perfect combo to create a beautiful place setting consisting of matching placemat, napkin, and napkin ring.

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August 14, 2009

How-To: Junk Store Corner Cabinet Renewal

CRAFT: Home Sweet Home

I love my local junk store. Just about anything I could ever need is there. Such was the case with this corner cabinet. I had been looking for a shelving solution in my tiny utility room, but the corner cabinets I'd seen in good condition were really expensive. So when I scored one cheap that only needed a some cosmetic work, I was thrilled because I knew I could renew its look and increase the value myself.

The steps are simple, but when you give the paint time to dry, the project will span a weekend. It might seem daunting, but trust me, it's easy, and when you find the perfect piece, a surface makeover is well worth the effort.

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Top 5 Home Decor Picks by Victoria Smith, sfgirlbybay

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Top5 Sfgirlbybay
Victoria Smith's blog, sfgirlbybay is near to my heart since I'm an SF girl too. Her bohemian modern style can be seen in the beautiful photographs of her home and the inspiring photographs she takes all over the Bay Area. You can also take a visit to her Etsy shop where she sells our favorite print, "Keep Calm and Carry On".

Top 5 Home Decor Picks by Victoria Smith, sfgirlbybay

Sf Eames-Rar-Rocker
I love my Eames Rocker. Most of what's in my apartment in second-hand, found at the flea market, or on craigslist, but my Eames RAR Rocker I bought new at Velocity Art & Design, and I love it. It's really comfortable, and I love the modern touch it adds to the vintage-inspired, eclectic mix I have going on in my living room. And it comes in so many amazing colors.

Sf Alameda-Flea-Market
It's not really a 'thing' but I adore the flea market for all things home decor related. The big one here in the bay area is the Alameda Flea Market in the east bay, and I am usually found wandering around there the first Sunday of the month when it's held. It's definitely where I find most of my favorite 'things'!

Sfgirl Amy-Butler
I love Amy Butler fabrics, and just her website in general. She's got amazing an inspirational lifestyle photography section on the site, with wonderful ideas for home decor and mixing up vintage pieces with bright, modern fabrics. Amy's design books, Found Style and MidWest Modern are great sources of design inspiration, as well.

I love Poppytalk Handmade for great crafted home wares. Jan of the blog Poppytalk, does all the hard work for us, curating the best of the best from Etsy and her Poppytalk Handmade shop features some wonderful craft artists.

Sf-Kitchens-Paumes
I love Paumes books. I head over to the Kinokuniya Bookstore in San Francisco's Japantown and stock up every few months. I just love all the different Paumes titles, from London Ateliers, to San Francisco Kitchens. They're amazing books for inspiring a new look.

August 13, 2009

How-To: Simple Bauhaus Throw

CRAFT: Home Sweet Home

Simple Bauhaus Throw
Knit a blanket inspired by the clean lines of this early modernist art movement.
By Lisa Shobhana Mason

On any given Saturday, you might find me strolling around a museum or gallery. I enjoy viewing artists' unique interpretations of universal themes and elements, and I'm drawn to the repetition of various designs throughout the ages. From the bold, outsider art vibe of the Gee's Bend quilts to the vivacious designs of the late 1960s, great artworks and movements influence and inspire many of my pieces.

When I designed this blanket, I was thinking of the Bauhaus art movement with its stern and unadorned style. My aim was to create a piece that is sleek and clean, as well as moody and sumptuous. This throw adds warmth to an ultramodern decor, giving the Bauhaus Geometric Throw a 21st-century look.

Materials

2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Heaven yarn, 90% mohair, 10% nylon, 975yds (891m), 7oz (198g), 1 each in colors Pewter (A) and Blackberry (B) or substitute 975yds (891m) of any worsted-weight mohair yarn for each color.
U.S. size 10 (6mm) circular knitting needle, 29"-32" (74cm-80cm) long If necessary, change the needle size to obtain the correct gauge.
Tapestry needle

Gauge: 14 stitches and 28 rows = 4" (10cm) in garter stitch.

Construction Notes: This throw has four 26"×26" squares, for a total size of 52"×52", arranged so that one color shows horizontal garter ridges and the other vertical ridges.

Directions

Step 1: Knit.
Cast on 92 stitches. Work in garter stitch until the square measures 26". Bind off. Knit 2 squares with color A and 2 squares with color B.

Step 2: Finish.
Sew the squares together with mattress stitch, turning 1 pair of colors 90° so that their garter ridges run vertically.

This project is excerpted from YarnPlay (North Light Books), by Lisa Shobhana Mason.

Mason demonstrates how to mix yarns, colors, and textures to create graphic hand-knit pieces, including sweaters, tanks, hats, scarves, blankets, washcloths, and more. And for free-thinkers, Mason teaches how to take a pattern and make it your own.

About the Author:

Lisa Shobhana Mason is the author of YarnPlay. She loves all things handmade — from vintage to modern, kitsch to ultrachic.

August 12, 2009

Backyard Garden + Recipe:
Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini and Tomato Pasta

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Backyard Garden + Recipe: Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini and Tomato Pasta
by Katie Goodman

Shrimpscampi Dish
This being my first year growing a vegetable garden, I didn't want to begin the adventure with a lot that would be considered "advanced gardening." I knew it would be a little bit of an investment up front — we had our side gate moved to accommodate the garden and had to add a lot of organic dirt and compost to the mix. After spending all that money, I wanted at least a couple of things that would be easy to grow.

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Home Sweet Home Home | Next >

Craft:

Custom Order Jam Jar Labels by Lelo

How-To: Refresh Wilted Flowers

Prickly Pear: Taming the Wild & Fruity

Top 5 Home Decor Picks from Nicole Balch, Making it Lovely

Vintage Spool Peg Rack

How-To: Sew a Table Runner

Backyard Garden + Recipe: Individual Strawberry Rhubarb Buckle

How-To: Corrugated Glow Tea Light Lantern

T-Shirt Quilt

How-To: Emergency Cardboard Dustpan

Craft Room on a Cart

Weave a Rickrack Lampshade

Backyard Garden + Recipe: Fresh Garden Salsa

Flashback: Curio Case Table

How-To: Falling Leaves Lamp

Cathy Callahan's Old School: Vintage-Inspired Tabletop Decor

How-To: Junk Store Corner Cabinet Renewal

Top 5 Home Decor Picks by Victoria Smith, sfgirlbybay

How-To: Simple Bauhaus Throw

Materials

Directions

Backyard Garden + Recipe:
Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini and Tomato Pasta

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