By Tara, on November 24th, 2007% Ok, I confess: my Grams is pretty darn cool. She loves anything I make her and we have similar tastes in books, so she’s a breeze to shop for. This year, I plan on giving her Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, by Barbara Kingsolver, because I know she’ll love it.
But my mother-in-law is another story. She’s not really into handmade; her house is immaculatley decorated, strait from the pages of a high-end catalog. My husband has neve known what to give her and in years past we’ve given cookbooks. And more cookbooks.
I bet I’m not the only one with a woman to shop for, so the first Give Handmade Guide is going to start with these women: classy, department store types; Grandmas, Mothers-in-laws, Moms, aunts…anyone who care about enough to give a thoughtful gift.
How about framing a picture of yourself (seems a little self-involved but I bet this woman . . . → Read More: Gift Guide: Grandmas and Mother-in-laws
By Tara, on November 23rd, 2007%
I’ve taken the Handmade Challenge and am very excited to see so many other people are as well! I’ve always preferred handmade for myself and my general distate for malls has necessitated our own version of ‘Handmade Holidays’ through the years. We do this by paring down the list, making special things for the people who reamin and giving cookies to everyone else. In the 3 years we’ve been married, we’ve developed a bit of a tradition:
We simply don’t buy gift for anyone we won’t be seeing over the holidays Jay’s extended family is huge (15 Aunts and Uncles + spouses + kids) and we just don’t want to mindlessly contribute to the masses of gifts they’re all getting each other, so we give tins of cookies or handmade ornaments. I’m not sure they entirely appreciate it, but after 3 years, they accept it. Same goes for my . . . → Read More: Give Handmade – Tips on managing the Gift List
By Tara, on November 21st, 2007% Ok, first of all, it’s hard for me to talk about *mojo* without using my Austin Powers voice (yeah, baby) but my loved ones don’t find that funny, so I’ll resist (oh, behave).
But in reality, I am feeling the mojo. I’ve been reading, devouring, savoring Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write a little bit each day, journaling my impressions. That bit about resting in a creative idle, well it really sunk in and started to work some magic in my creative life. After a weekend of emptying list of ‘shoulds’ and ‘musts’ .. I woke up with a buzz Sunday morning. I had a burning desire to create, to make, to flow. Luckily there’s a stash of yarn next to my bed, so I grabbed the first ball and needles I found and just started knitting. It doesn’t matter what I knit, or even that I knit…but what . . . → Read More: Creative Mojo
By Tara, on November 18th, 2007% Finding yarns for BCB isn’t easy.My commitment to using only recycled or organic materials really limits what I’m willing to buy. One of my favorite finds is what I call Bananiere (the French word for ‘Banana’). It is made from 100% Banana fibers, which is stripped from the leaves and barks of banana tress. It’s a very renewable and under-utilised material. Besides that, this yarn is actually made from the leftover fibers from the weaving industry, so it’s really recycled!
What made this yarn so irresistable is that my supplier gave me such great information. Below is what she shared with me:
Environmentally Friendly:
Bananiere is made from the remnants of the clothing industry. The fibers would have been thrown out if not for the ingenuity of the women who spin this yarn. They are using what they can to make a new, gorgeous product. . . . → Read More: Bananiere Yarn
By Tara, on November 17th, 2007% I am besot with pincushions.
1. three + three, 2. yet another, 3. cat pincushion, 4. bird nest 2 003, 5. Zingy!, 6. Donut Strawberry Erdbeer Pincushion, 7. red ladybird, 8. Cupcake Pincushion (bottlecap), 9. bottlecap pincushion, 10. koi pincushion, 11. custom order for fgantner, 12. Festival de alfineteiros!
They are just so adorable and small and fantastically useful! After stumbling upon the Flickr group, I discovered some great vendors of handmade pincushions: Kup Kup makes the most fantastic scenes with them MoJo has Poo CrazyCakes has, well, cupcakes!
edited to add: All of those pincushions inspired me to try my hand at my own. I used Purl’s tutorial…but only as a rough guide. I cut the fabric a little too small, and my pincushion is minuscule.The dog added himself for scale, but keep in mind, he’s little! . . . → Read More: Pincushion Love
By Tara, on November 15th, 2007% I am not an idle person. Or patient. I love efficiency. Practicality. 10 year plans. I long for goals and lists and checkmarks.
And yet.
Creativity comes in those moments where the brain has a chance to wander. To wonder. To drift.
Maybe it wonders to un-creative, daily things: the grocery list or if the dog’s been fed yet. But in those in-between moments, when I abstain from forcing efficiency; when I stop writing the list and start doodling in the margins. Creativity. Inspiration.
Barbara Ueland refers to this as “moodling”. She called it being creatively idle. Sitting in front of the tyepwriter (for writers; the canvas for painters, the yarn for knitters) every day, giving space and time for the something that is uniquely you to pour forth onto the page.
I’ve heard it a thousand ways: Allowing the muse to speak. Waiting . . . → Read More: Creative Idle
By Tara, on November 14th, 2007% Starting a blog always feels like an Anonymous meeting:
Hello, my name is Tara, I am a creator.
I have entrepreneurial aspirations and a degree in French.
But my current passion is creativity. It’s a word that’s used so much, maybe overused, but the concept fascinates me.
As for my own creative and entrepreneurial endeavors, in July 06 I launched Blonde Chicken Boutique. I started by selling handpainted earth-friendly yarns on my website. I limited my suppliers to those who could assure me that the yarn was created from either recycled or organic materials because it’s important that my monetary choices reflect my beliefs.
In the last year, Blonde Chicken Boutique has went through some changes:
I focused more efforts on spinning than on dyeing and have researched eco-friendly yarns which are still incredibly hard to source. When I’m looking at a yarn, I consider it’s impact on the . . . → Read More: Beginning a-fresh
By Tara, on November 11th, 2007% breakfast with Stephanopoulos
The pumpkin loaf, it is DI-vine. I altered it a bit (because that’s how I roll) and so this is my take on it:
INGREDIENTS 2 cups white sugar (I will be using cane sugar)1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup fresh ground flax seed (it substitutes 1:1 for oil, did you know that? I didn’t!)2/3 cup water4 eggs2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (actually, I might have forgotten the 1/2 cup, I got distracted)1 cup wheat flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon1 tablespoon ground nutmeg2 teaspoons baking soda1 1/2 teaspoons salt1 1/4 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips (After I measured 1 cup, there was just a bit more left, so I tossed it all in…and really, it could have used even more!)
DIRECTIONSPreheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 loaf pans (the original recipe said 3, but I . . . → Read More: Pumpkin loaf
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