Fundraiser for Haiti in the Bay Area

If you are so fortunate to live in the San Francisco Bay area and you are looking for a way to contribute to the relief effort for Haiti, take a look at the following invitation and book your spot as soon as you can for a benefit supper my amazing sister is putting on. She decided to do this last Sunday (as in 6 days ago) and by Wednesday, she had to move from her original Muir Beach Community Center location to the fantastic Cavallo Point at Fort Baker, in Sausalito (which the chef so generously donated, along with the full use of kitchen and staff!). Every bit of the food and wine is being donated from local producers- from Niman Ranch meat, Strauss Creamery Ice Cream, to oysters, chocolate, and vegetables. She is stunned and is expecting the full 70 people limit to be filled any day (so hurry!). She was intending to put on a cozy and thoughtful evening and it has turned pretty fancy, but I think it is great. People were hearing about her idea through the grapevine and food and wine donations came pouring in unsolicited- people really want to do something and this is good and right. There will also be some great speakers at the event.

She originally listed the ticket price fairly low ($50) because she wanted to make sure people could swing it. I hope those who can will dig a bit deeper.

The benefit will donate 100% of the proceeds to Partners in Health and DG Educational Services Haiti Project.

Here is a link to the invitation:
http://www.pingg.com/rsvp/m26ypxn5v5kygev27

what can we do?

I have been fretting and wondering what I could do about helping people in Haiti get the things they need. I realized that if I sat here continuing to feel helpless, I wasn't going to actually help one person and that simply talking about how horrible the situation is and how devastated I am by the imagery and stories of people terrified and sad and helpless and thirsty, wasn't going to be helpful at all either. So, until I come up with a better plan, I am going to stock my Etsy site and donate to Partners in Heath when I make sales. Maybe I will be more innovative with a little more thought and come up with a better way, since I don't have a zillion people reading this blog or anything, but for now I hope you'll spread the word to folks looking for handmade clothing who might want to buy something with the knowledge that I will donate the money to an organization helping Haitians.

a year

A year ago today I wrote my first One Golden Apple entry and posted it. Why not? Nothing to lose. Right. In fact, I feel like with it I have gained a sort of momentum that either simply coincides with the most creative boom of a year, or actually propelled me into it. Either way, I like having a place to come and write things down, and I especially like to have people out in the world respond to those musings. It is friendly and fun and, for me, propelling. Picture a hand stitched helicopter fueled by the hand made and words (maybe not so easy to picture, but I'm not erasing that).

This year I turned, ahem, 40! I bought a new sewing machine that I didn't intend to buy and swore on the way home, as I was coming up with ways to explain my purchase to my husband, that I would make it work for me. It has! Designing clothes turns out to be unbelievably fun and rewarding and my career is definitely being shaped by the work I do with it. This year I also managed to finally form a band (25 years building up courage for that) and I honestly can't believe how much fun it is. What the hell was I waiting for? My work with Family Fun is still a blast and now all of these things (except the rock-n-roll) are coalescing into an amazing project I can't wait to share in a super loud voice (I'll tell all as soon as I can).

So, it has been a good year. I hope my old and new friends will continue to read and share ideas with me.

Blah, blah, blah. Words, words, words. What is a crafty blog without a picture of something crafty- like a half of a pig being butchered or a skirt or something? I stitched some pretty designs on linen and wrapped them around votive holders and mason jars as gifts to some friends. They turned out just the way I hoped they would, so a picture was taken.

cheer

Ah, it's been good! I'm not sure what is different, but I really feel like we have had ample time to have a blast over this holiday vacation. There was loads of time to make our prezzies, cold cold temperatures to provide a daily dose of skating on the pond, and, well, a very large ham to ensure that no one went hungry- for many many meals and between 2 households we ate and ate fresh roasted ham in many ways (I think the tacos were my favorite, but no surprise there).

We were pleased with how our gifts turned out for sweet young friends, so take a look.

For Birdy, we made a story starter kit- inspired by all the excellent work that my friend over at Red Bird Crafts has been doing with her story stones and discs. It looks like this:


How does it work? Easy. Roll a handful of dice that have a different image on each side. We made 6- a character die, 3 object dice, a weather die, and a place die.
Then we made cardstock discs that had all of those images on the dice (I traced a ton of 1" circles on a piece of paper and Ava drew all the pictures. Then we used that as a master to photocopy as many sheets as we wanted. I have a craft punch that cut the circles out easy-peasy).

After you roll the dice, you find the images rolled and glue them to the top of your story page. the idea is that the storyteller will incorporate the pictures into the story she is spinning.


I wish I could share some of the things she has written since getting the kit. There is nothing better than giving someone a gift and watching them love it. Nothing!

Jonny and Ava created some excellent personalized mad libs for Ben- about their school, the various places we have gone on vacations together, and even a bonus mad lib on beavers. And now here is another example of my gal's supremely thoughtful and gorgeous artwork (and now we will rename this blog "One Kvelling Apple").

Lard

From fairy ornaments to lard...what? I don't think I have ever mentioned the pigs we raised this year in the front field, this being a crafty sort of forum, but all five left for the slaughterhouse and came back as pork this week and they deserve the stage. Now, if you are a vegetarian who is squeamish or sad when it comes to this sort of thing, you should probably head off, but if pork belly and lard pique your interest, then get a load of this:

We rendered about 9 gallons of lard! Well, I took the pictures, being in a particularly sensitive state currently, but my man and dear friends were slick with it.


What will we do with all this lard, you ask? Fry eggs, make pastry, confit something or other, grease machinery, sweat down vegetables for soup in it, and make toffee, apparently. Jonny made this before he left this morning as a gift for his boss. And, yes, it was really good.

One pig came back unbutchered and we got a half and our friend got the other so the two fellows could have the butchering experience. We have a butcher block thanks to our friend Timothy and the weather has been good and cold, so the cider barn was the venue.


Cute butcher!



Ham, weighing in around 25 pounds!



Pork belly being cured. Hello bacon!



We've been eating our share of pork this week, and though I remember our piggies quite fondly (they are wonderful animals, really)I must say, this is the best pork I have ever eaten and I feel incredibly fortunate to know exactly where it came from.

And if you live nearby, we have some for sale still.

ornament swap

Despite the flu still being an annoying house guest, Ava, Harry and I had a chance to make our ornaments for the Crafty Crow Annual Ornament Swap. This year's theme is Fairy Tales, which is great luck for us since we love to make these little lovelies every year. We had a "great crafty mess"- Ava's appropriate description- on the kitchen table of fabric scraps, buttons, feathers, acorn caps, wool roving, and wool felt. Starting with an old fashioned clothespin (also called a doll pin, fancy that) and some tacky glue, it is impossible not to make something ridiculously cute.




We made her tutu by taking a long strip of crinoline and sewing a basting stitch along the top edge. Then we simply pulled the crinoline along the stitch and it bunched up and we tied it on with the ends of the thread. Easy peasy. We did the same with fabric strips too, as you'll see in some other examples. We put a couple dots of glue to secure the skirts in place, as well. The fabric tops and dresses are simply wrapped around the clothespin and secured with a dot of glue.



You can see we just glued the wings on in the back too. And can you guess how we attached the wool hair and acorn cap?



Front and back of this felt sweetie. The mark that makes her nose was part of the wood. I like it!






Fabulous, dahling!



Harry's Superhero fairy. This was all he could muster the energy for, then he dragged his tired sick self over to the sofa. And, no, we will not be sending his germy hero to some unsuspecting child, not that he ever intended to in the first place.



Alright, that's it. I couldn't choose which ones to show, so you got all of them.

machine doodles

My lovely mom is having a birthday tomorrow. We are never together this time of year since she lives all the way out in California, but I do think it would be nice to give her a big birthday dinner party sometime- the kind where she is forbidden to clean up. She's the kind of mom who sends me cards every week telling me how proud she is of me and how much she's thinking of me. She is super stylish and sometimes I feel like the stuff I make might not suit that style, but I think she might like the stitching I've been playing around with a lot lately and only had to ditch the botanicals and replace them with something geometric. This is a scarf made from my new favorite material- wool jersey.



Stitching like this is super fun and I love how it looks. It's nice to take something plain and make it fancy. I've been making neck scarves- maybe they are kerchiefs?- which I think are sexy and fun. A quick gift for all the last minute makers of things.



Happy Birthday Mom! I love you too!