wishing you everything merry and bright

Mike and I are headed to the barn to sit in front of a big roaring fire and eat and drink and make merry – so I’m powering down next week to savor all those big and small moments. Winter walks and hot chocolate with marshmallows and being in the cozy company of family and friends.

If you want to get a sense of what it might be like, you can read some of my childhood memories over here. Including the annual Wilkinson Family Nativity Play. I am not kidding about that one – here’s proof.

Those are my sisters in the front and I’m in the back as the angel – please note the 1970s bathroom towels standing in as wings.

I’ll be back in the New Year to catch up with you all. In the meantime, I wish you everything merry and bright. xoxo

pop-top holidays

Full disclosure to this post: our friend Andy – who started the company Escama Studio – has employed me in the past to come up with step-by-step tutorials. This is no exception. Andy appeared on our doorstep the morning after Viktor Lina from Project Runway rocked this pop-top necklace. Andy was hopped up on the idea of telling people how to make their own (he actually owns the patent for the design). So if you're in need of a last-minute gift and have a soda addiction that keeps you well-stashed with a source of pop tops, here's an idea.

Escama Studio also has a tutorial for a snowflake ornament that requires fewer pop tops. And my mother, who is a big fan of their designs, just sent this ornament to me, no crochet required!

toot toot

(this amazing megaphone is from Yanko Design)

I'm a little loathe to do these press round ups because it just feels so me! me! me! But to be honest, the reason I share them is because I’m so proud of the book and the attention it's getting. And you all are so big-hearted and generous in cheering me on. So I don't want to keep anything from you.

Big thanks to Amy Azzarito at Design*Sponge for including Weekend Handmade in her book round up. It is such an honor to be endorsed by someone with such stellar taste.

Andrea Shea at WBUR in Boston and I bonded over our shared love of both radio and craft, and she blended both in her recent piece on the popularity of crafting. She was kind enough to interview me as a small part of her story.

Lisa Boone from the Los Angeles Times made a set of luminaira with her kids and said really nice things about the book here. I can't tell you how happy and proud it makes me to see people put their own spin on the projects. It was truly the whole reason for writing the book -- to see the projects come to life in other people's hands. 

If you happen to live in western Loudoun in Virginia, please come out this Friday night for a glass of wine and book signing at Dry Mill Vineyard in Leesburg. It's from 5-7 pm and you can meet my parents! I'm headed back to the barn for Christmas so this event will be really special since it's on my growing-up turf.

dip-dyed filter garlands

This year, I’m drawn to cozy natural decorations with a hit of glitz. The combo feels very Northern California to me: we’re normally a low-key bunch, but we’re all adding some sparkle for the holidays.

I made these with natural basket-style coffee filters, dip-dyed in food coloring and gold paint. These are so simple to make and I keep moving them around – one day they’re perched horizontally on the mantle, and the next they’re dangling from a window with the fat, ruffled filters looking like rosettes.

It couldn’t be easier:

1. Dilute 8-10 drops of food coloring into a bowl and add a couple tablespoons of water. The colors will dry much lighter than they appear wet, so I kept the concentration of the coloring pretty strong. Take a coffee filter and fold in half, then in half again. Dip the ruffled edges in food coloring and repeat with additional filters, setting them on newspapers to dry. For the gold-edged filters, I painted gold paint on the bottom inch of the filters.

2. Once filters are dry, assemble the “rosettes” by placing three filters (still folded into quarters) in a circular pattern. Secure each folded edges to the one above it with a glue dot. Next, pinch the centers and arrange the filters in a fan shape. Punch a hole through the bottom.

3. Using paper-wrapped floral wire, run the wire though the hole and tie to secure. Add pine needles and other decorations by wrapping the ends with wire. Repeat to build your garland.

4. Now, here’s the secret to getting the filters to fluff up into fat, ruffled goodness instead of hanging flat and limp: as you open the layers, place miniature glue dots liberally in between the layers to hold them open.

And there you have it, my humble coffee filters, snazzed up for the holidays. The dip-dye gives a lovely, soft watercolor effect and the gold adds a faint whiff of glam. Which way do you prefer – suspended from the window, or draped across the mantle?

my first ever cookie swap

My mom has many talents, but baking is not one of them. My Dad was and still is the family baker, but I don’t remember him ever heading to a cookie exchange to swap Betty Crocker treats.

So having just attended my very first cookie swap, I can definitively say that my parents missed out. I must have come home with five pounds of sugary goodness, from dark chocolate bark with Marcona almonds to a cookie called Santa’s Crack.

Jodi’s famous cookie swaps were immortalized in this article last year. And she wrote a how-to for throwing your own. I particularly adored the stacks of heavy bakery boxes and waxed paper she puts out for everyone’s haul (not to mention her most excellent wallpaper).

where all the lights are bright

I’m not a big shopper this time of year but that doesn’t stop me from heading downtown to bask in the displays and twinkling lights. Even after all these years of living here, the lit-up palm trees still give me a kick because they are so goofily Californian.

I ducked into Gap and look what I found.

Remember my string art last Valentine’s Day? Well, Gap is so adorned in yarn that it’s practically baaing.

lo-fi holiDIY: yarn and fabric trees

Our entry hallway was in need of a little extra holiday oomph, so these très cool yarn trees at One Pearl Button (spotted via Ez) had me raiding my yarn stash as soon as I saw them. As soon as I finished wrapping the first one in yarn, I wanted to try something different. So I wrapped the next in natural batting, and the last in tissue paper and added washi tape and stamps.

I made the tree forms from poster board but you could easily use old birthday hats as the base and do this with kids using fabric or decorative paper. And while I love them all, the plain downy white one might be my fave. It doesn’t translate as well in the photo but the texture and color reminds me of snowdrifts and marshmallows – two of my favorite things this time of year.

tropically festive

Our friend Jack, of Nancy Boy fame, made these for their holiday display. Do you see what they are? Cocktail umbrellas, people! He made a cardboard frame, wrapped it with rice paper, and poked these through. He did a drum lampshade too but I neglected to take a snap of that.

So genius, cheery and bright.

persimmon love

Before I lived in California, it’s fair to say I had no earthly idea what a persimmon was. If you haven’t seen them, the trees are beautiful to behold in the fall as their leaves drop and reveal what look like flame-colored lanterns. The fruit is such a rich color that it feels like it should be on an Indian sari instead of a tree.
 
My friends recruited me for their great Dehydration Persimmon Project of 2011. And it was indeed a mother of a project, since one single tree can easily produce 10 big tote bags worth of fruit. I only clocked in for one shift, but I love these mundane tasks, especially when the endless peeling and slicing is done in such good company, by candlelight with a glass of wine inside a cozy home on a cold fall night. 

tidbits of news

photo from here

A couple exciting things here in the land of Weekend Handmade.

First, I appeared on KQED’s airwaves – not as a reporter, but as the subject of an interview on The California Report. Host Rachael Myrow and producer Suzie Racho produced a rockin’ segment that I was proud to be part of. You can listen right here as we talk about the book and Rachel confesses that she has two left thumbs when it comes to crafting. That admission came just as we embarked upon making the Pressed Flower Luminaria – but afterwards, Rachel said she hoped to make them again with her nephews, so I’m claiming that as a crafty success.

Also, I was on KUOW in Seattle for a freewheeling conversation with Katy Sewall. I loved her relaxed style – seriously, I could have talked to her for days. There’s no audio for that one. And while I would really have loved you to hear it, my inner Luddite sort of appreciates that poof! one moment our convesation filled my living room, and the next it’s gone. Like sands through the hourglass, people.

Finally, for you locals, I’ll be signing and selling books at Nancy Boy on Hayes Valley on Friday night, as part of the annual Hayes Valley Block Party. Please stop by and meet our hilariously funny and talented friends Eric and Jack, who founded Nancy Boy. Their products can change your day – really, drop a few beads of their signature scent essential oil on your pillow and tell me that your addled state of mind isn’t vastly improved. That's this Friday, December 2^nd from 6-9pm at 347 Hayes Street.

And finally, if you can’t make it in person, I’m down to the last few copies of Weekend Handmade that I have available as signed copies. You can buy them right here, for all the crafters and wanna-be crafters on your list. Thanks everyone, as ever, for all the support and love for the book. It means so much.

thanksgiving nourishment

A poem from Kay Ryan called “The Best of It”:

However carved up
or pared down we get,
we keep on making
the best of it as though
it doesn’t matter that
our acre’s down to
a square foot. As
though our garden
could be one bean
and we’d rejoice if
it flourishes, as
though one bean
could nourish us.

a short story of an afternoon

Here was a lovely, unplanned thing in between the book party and family visits and Sarah’s and my first crack at our ALT menu and our pal’s rock concert: A late afternoon ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island, just Mike and me. Bundled up for the cold, lavender-grey skies, hot chocolates in hand for the ride over. Then strolling along the water’s edge among fallen leaves the size of dinner plates, and finding a warm spot for soup and a perfectly muddled old-fashioned.

The end.

super duper fun thing

photo by Sarah

You remember my friend Sarah, the foodie and photographer? Well, thanks to the wonderful team at the Altitude Design Summit, the two of us are hosting a dinner on Alt Eve (that’s my new name for the night before the conference kicks off). I'm so flattered to have been asked. We decided to incorporate both our strengths and turn it into a hands-on evening of cooking, crafts and cocktails.

I’m in Seattle now, so we're going to get up to a lot of experimenting on this rainy weekend. The event sold out as soon as it was announced because it’s limited to a small group. But if you’re going to Alt and want to join, keep checking the Dinner With section of the registration, because people can switch events, so some spots might open up.       

Are you going to Alt this year? I really think you should.

doilycraft: lanterns

There must be a long-dormant link that re-surfaced lately, because I’ve had a couple requests for this project from a couple years ago. The only hitch is that the step-by-step was locked away in my expired Flickr account, so I’m re-posting it here.

These are sweet little lanterns that give off a nice tangle of shadow when lit. And they feel vaguely Moroccan. The only requirement is that you use a doily that has the four “leaf” pattern in the center, as you can see here:

Start by using a craft knife to cut out the four-leaf interior (above). You’re now going to fold and stitch each adjacent “leaf” to turn the doily into a lantern. But you need a little reinforcement where you stitch -- otherwise the paper would tear. To accomplish that, lift two adjacent sides up and mark with a pencil where they meet. Release the doily and place a small piece of tape on the inside of where you marked on each side. Repeat until you have taped both sides of each “leaf.”

Now thread a needle with embroidery floss about 8-10” long, but don’t knot the end. Starting on the inside of the doily, pass the needle through the tape to the outside of the lantern, leaving a tail of at least 4-5”. Now stitch it to the adjacent leaf by passing the needle from the front to the back. Remove the needle and tie the ends of the floss on the inside of the lantern. Trim ends.

Repeat until all four sides of the lantern are stitched so the lantern stands upright. Insert a votive.

Well that was a fun trip down crafty memory lane. Thanks for the nudges to repost this!

ez's gifted guide

Okay, first a confession: I am not a fan or reader of online magazines. Scrolling through digital spread-by-spread layouts is totally unsatisfying to me. So I skip it.

Unless of course, it’s something Ez created. Then I know it will be worth it. In fact, I remember the very image from Gifted last year that tipped me into the holiday spirit. And this issue is no different. From Victorian-looking gloves to a horsehead bottle openers, Ez nailed it again with her hand-picked gift guide. Pretty and cool, but never fussy. And I loved seeing my hometown heros – Lisa Congon’s print and Yellow Owl Workshop’s pendent necklaces.

In her introduction, Ez called this “her little labor of love.” But it's hardly little. Thanks again, Ez, for your taste and merry goodwill. I wish we could all pour a glass of eggnog and make our holiday lists together.

listen to this

I love things that are simultaneously simple, clever and beautiful. My friend MJ (who embodies all those qualities, except the simple one) passed this onto me. So, so lovely.

book party seattle!

Hey Seattle peeps, come party down with me November 17th from 6-8pm at DRY Soda in downtown Seattle! There will be plenty of refreshment, in the way of delicious cocktails and sparkling company. Signed books will be for sale. Plus, I'll demo the pressed wildflower lanterns just in time for you to craft some up for your Thanksgiving tables.

RSVP right over here and pass it on — I can’t wait wait to see you there!

simplest of bags

I have an ongoing love affair with these simple muslin bags and the endless ways to adorn them (I think I bought the bags here). Lately, I’ve jumped aboard the polka dot train with this trio of circle stamps that I picked up at Once Around and new fabric ink pads– look at how pristine!

I added some smaller circles with a pencil eraser. As for what was tucked inside this particular bag, it was a felted bird for a new little girl, fresh from the other side.

avant-garde pumpkins

My mom, niece, nephew and I carved pumpkins this weekend and got a little mixed-media on their gourds.

craft-covered technology

I am taking the plunge and finally getting an iPhone. The other weekend, my friends endlessly made fun of me each time I needed to text and had to do it this way: “M…N…O...P, yes, I want P!” Do you even remember what I am talking about? When you had to text through the keypad and skip over each letter until you get to the one you want? Now you know why I just call you back when you text me.

I have already begin to think about what kind of cover I will get. Then I saw this.

A cross-stitch case from Leese Design! Naturally, it's at Purl Soho. Done and done. I think I might be more excited for the cover now than the actual phone.