Creative Valerina

Moving to Blogger

I've moved! You can now find me at Mountain Bluebird Mama, come say hello!

 

Sunny Days call for Sunny Embroidery

Pink Poppy Sunrise, originally uploaded by vlsst15.

WIP: Pink Poppy Sunrise

Pink Poppy Sunrise, originally uploaded by vlsst15.

My neighbor (also known as the crazy cat lady) wandered into my yard this weekend saying "Valerieeeee??? I have some thiiiings for you. Might you want theeeese?? Vintage embroidery transfers, vintage iron-on t-shirt transfers, and vintage embroidery books. Ummm.....YES, I might. I snatched them out of her hands, raced through the pages and prayed that the transfers would still in fact transfer. As you can see, they do, and Im totally in love with this design.

Craft Apron

A few days ago I came across a little tutorial at getting to crazy about how to turn a home depot nail apron into a craft apron. Seeing as how I needed a gift for my mom for mothers day, and the fact that my sewing skills totally suck, and the fact that this project looked fast, easy and useful (I love useful gifts), I decided to go for it.

The before: (A nail apron from home depot, .99 cents!!)

This picture is from the tutorial. The only difference in my apron is that there were 2 home depot logos on mine (one on each pocket), instead of one logo in the middle. I covered each logo with pretty butterfly fabric and added felt hearts.

The after:

Yay! I like how it turned out and it was easy! Much like LouAnne, I first ripped out the middle seam creating the 2 pockets, then machine sewed my fabric on, hand stitched the felt hearts on, and sewed back up the middle when I was finished. I think its perfect for holding scissors, reading glasses, and a marking pen; my mom should love it. And just for fun, a picture of my sister modeling the apron:

How cool is that? I'm making one for me next!

 

Needle Feltroidery

Needle felting + embroidery, needle feltroidery. Try saying that a few times. I had a lot of fun creating these two little doodles. As you know, I particularly enjoy any project that I can start and finish in 1 night and that was sort of my point in creating these. You know that saying "think big"? Yeah, I did the opposite here - think small (and simple and cute!). Finishing a project is so rewarding and thats why these tiny projects are my faves. But what to do with them now, that's the question.

Pink Lemonade

Gerbera Daisy, originally uploaded by vlsst15.

1 gerbera daisy + 1 pink lemonade wool felt heart= the most beautiful picture i've taken yet!

I heart dyeing

I found this post on Knitty the other day about dyeing yarn with kool aid. Whoever thought of this is a genius. (It should have been me - I was the girl dying my hair with kool aid in middle school; I know how well it works and how permanent it is) Check out the awesome colors you can get using kool aid:

(pic from Knitty, obviously!) I love the blues and pinks, and the green, love it! The reds - not so much, but Im not a red person. I decided to give it a try last night. I picked up cherry, black cherry, and iced blue raspberry (the grocery store didnt have much of a selection). I cut up a felted sweater and dyed a few test swatches. The black cherry hearts came out the best.

 

I know. I just said I'm not a red person, but these will be perfect for valentines day, or for someone who likes red. I think they came out extra dark because the sweater was a dark-ish gray to begin with. I also tried the iced blue raspberry. You can see more here.   Happy Friday!

Crock Pot Black Bean and Corn Chili

I sort of combined a few different vegetarian chili recipes to come up with this.

1.   1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies

2.   1 can black beans

3.   1 can corn

4.   1 6 oz can tomato paste

5.   1 onion finely chopped, approx. 1 cup

6.   1 cup carrots, finely chopped

7.   2 jalapenos, finely chopped

8.   2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

9.   1/4 cup water

10. 3 tsp  chili powder

11. 1 tsp cumin

12. 1 tsp cayenne pepper

13. 1 handful fresh cilantro - add about 15 mins before serving, or whenever you remember to

Top with: Shredded cheese and sour cream, if you wanna!

My disclaimer (for this recipe and any future recipe posts): I do not cook using exact measurements. I rarely use measuring devices (measuring spoons, cups, etc). I measure in the palm of my hand, or by eyeballing it. So how this recipe actually went down is as follows: I poured all of the can goods into the crock pot. I threw 1 onion, 2 handfuls of baby carrots, 2 jalapenos, and 2 cloves of garlic into my mini food processor, then dumped them into the pot. I was basically out of chili powder so- I poured about 3 small palmfuls into my hand, then into the pot. Same with the cumin and cayenne, 1 palmful each and into the pot. I filled a glass with a bit of water, then into the pot. I crocked this on high for about 2.5 hours while I went to the gym and stopped at the store for the cheese and sour cream. YUM, yum, yum! I had no idea how this would turn out, but it was delicious and insanely easy. I also used a crock pot liner- love those things! If I were you, I would totally try this recipe and play with the spices and ingredients all you want. If you don’t like corn, add another can of beans, or another chopped up veg. If you like it hot, add more jalapenos, cayenne, or hot sauce. If you have more time, crock it on low for a few more hours.  Do it, do it.

ps. I don't bake.