Frenchie Bag Deux

It's been over a year that I've been carrying around my Frenchy Bag, and I've grown to love it more every day. All of my initial concerns about it being too loud just sort of went away...poof.

The fabric has worn like iron so it technically didn't need to be replaced yet. But, fickle girl that I am, I wanted a change. I searched around for another cute bag pattern but I didn't find anything I liked as much as the Frenchy Bag. So, why reinvent the wheel? I sewed up another one...

This time more color! Wilder pattern! Caution was completely thrown to the wind. (See, I'm totally growing as a person here.) I ended up using some fabric from my stash. Two Amy Butler fabrics (from many seasons ago) on the outside and a Liberty of London fabric for the lining.

This time I did adjust the pattern with a couple "improvements" of my own. The original pattern calls for a couple section dividers on the inside. Even though well interfaced and stiff, those dividers sort of crumpled and became useless. I got rid of those and instead added a zippered pocket.

This was achieved easily enough by adding an additional panel of well-interfaced lining with a 7" zipper. There are a surprising number of tutorials for this exact task online so I don't feel the need to add another to the mix. My favorite one was from Sew Mama Sew...follow this and you can't go wrong. This technique ended up being so simple I can totally see myself sneaking zippers in anything I am lining in the future.

This is how I adjusted the pattern to accommodate my zippered pocket:

Step 1: Sew the lining fabric with the zipper to another piece of lining fabric with 1/4" seam allowance all the way around. Both pieces should be right sides facing up.

Step 2: Lay the zipper sandwich piece right side up and place another lining panel right side down on top of it. Sew these two pieces together using the specified seam allowance leaving the top open.

And there you go, you have a lining with a zipper pocket all ready to attach to the outer bag!

–Cassandra

PS - Old purse was washed on gentle with Doc Bronner's Sal Suds and hung dry. It looks perfect and is waiting to have it's revival one of these days!

Britex

Okay, okay...I promise I'll stop talking about San Francisco after this post.

There wasn't a lot of time on my trip out west for the crafty shopping I really wanted to do...but I was able to pay a visit to one fabric/notions store. Whoa, what a store it was!

Check out that sign!

Britex is 3 stories of AMAZING. Two floors of fabric and one floor of ribbons, trims, and buttons. I could have actually moved in the decorator fabric section and lived there for a month or so. The fabrics were that luxurious.

Velvet beauty.

I was kicking myself for not having a dress pattern in mind because the selection of dress fabric was staggering. I'm pretty sure if I lived near that store I would have a handmade wardrobe. Sure, I could order this sort of fabric online, but seeing it in person has so much more impact.

The section I spent the most time devouring was the quilters cotton. I'm currently in the throes of making a quilt for my little bear and finding something to add from my trip sounded like a great idea. Sadly, the quilter's cotton selection was really small compared to the other fabrics they carry. Still, I found a few fun prints!

My booty.

You want to know something interesting? They don't have cutting tables at Britex. When you find a fabric you want, a sales clerk comes over and tears it off the bolt. I loved it! No standing in a cutting line!

Lately, I've been sewing and sewing. The new quilt I'm making has 15 log cabin blocks and I'm powering right through them. It's amazing...when you can see your own skill level move from beginner to intermediate, you know you're on your way.

–Cassandra

PS - Britex has an online store too!

What the Kids Are Wearing

It's not often that I attend children's birthday parties but, for some reason, I was invited to two in the same weekend recently. The first, for a newly-turned four year old, was mostly adults so the presents were particularly awesome. The best gift of the day was the "Fart Blaster" gun. I leave that to your imagination. The second party, for a newly-turned three year old, was 50/50 kids and adults so it was a bit more chaotic, but still fun.

The take-away for me was from the first party, at which there was a particularly interactive tween. He was proabably about 12 but not intimidated (or embarrased) by adults. At one point, I noticed that he was wearing a really cool bracelet and I thought, "Wow. That kid's got some style." So, me being me, I asked him about it and, as it turns out, it was made from pop tabs (soda can tabs for you eastcoasters) and embroidery thread.

My crafty brain studied it so I could get an idea of how it was threaded and I immediately started thinking of ways to make it nice enough for an adult to wear.

Here's a tutorial with my first attempt. :)

Step one... save up some pop tabs.

Step two... measure your wrist.

Step three... measure a line of pop tabs to see how many you need to get around your wrist, then double that number because this is a two-layer bracelet.

Step four... lace the tabs together with ribbon. Here's a video (it was easier than trying to capture it in photos):

Once you've laced together enough tabs to go around your wrist, here's how you finish it up:

End with a "bottom" tab as the last one you put on.

Lace the ribbon to the back of the bracelet.

Knot the ribbon on the back to secure the last tab.

Slip the ribbon back through the first tab and tie.

And DONE!

If you have someone in the house to help, it would look really cute with a bow instead of a knot but, you know, my dogs don't have opposable thumbs.

Check out YouTube for inspiration on how to make these even cooler. I plan to experiment some more and see what I can come up with. I think it would be interesting to thread it with different materials - like leather or hemp. I saw one vid where they'd used something stretchy to make a headband out of tabs and another where a girl made a belt... the possibilities are endless!

Happy upcycling, friends.

- Alex

Bounce (but only if you're 21+)

Wisconsin has a lot of proud traditions - most surrounding food and drink (and sports). Some are
obvious, like the Green Bay Packers. Some are lesser known outside of the Midwest, like Friday Fish Fry and brandy Old Fashioneds  sweet. Some are nearly unknown, unless you live in Wisconsin, like Cherry Bounce.




Wikipedia has a tiny entry on Cherry Bounce, which doesn't allude to the Midwestern custom at all.

Cherry Bounce is a liqueur made by infusing brandy with cherries and sugar. Some recipes will use rum, whiskey or vodka instead of brandy.

The English hamlet of Frithsden claims to have originated the Cherry Bounce.

A lane leading off the Old High Street in nearby Hemel Hempstead is named Cherry Bounce and is shown having had this name in maps dating back to the early 19th century.

That's the whole thing...

On this side of the pond, Martha Washington actually had a recipe for Cherry Bounce (which can be found online) and legend has it that George packed a canteen of it for a trip west across the Allegheny Mountains in September 1784.

With the trend in craft cocktails and the resurrection of old, classic drink recipes, Cherry Bounce is making a national comeback of sorts. A Google search yields a lot of recipes from popular and trusted sources like The Beekman Boys, Epicurious, Imbibe Magazine, Cooks.com and more. However, these recipes are a lot fancier than a traditional Wisconsin Bounce. They call for spicing the cherries with things like cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. They also add a step that Wisconsin recipes don't bother with - macerating the cherries for a period of time before adding the alcohol.

The Wisconsin recipe is simple and calls for a total of four ingredients: tart cherries, sugar, alcohol, and time.

Tart cherries. In our state, there's yet another thing we're mighty proud of - Door County cherries (tm). Yeah... they're probably not REALLY trademarked but they should be. For truly traditional Wisconsin Bounce, Door County Montmorency pie cherries are the ones you want. Fortunately, my backyard cherry tree has Montmorencys on it and it was VERY prolific this year.

Sugar. Get a lot. Cherry Bounce is a liqueur - very thick and syrupy.

Alcohol. Like all Wisconsin cocktails, brandy is the preferred and traditional alcohol for Bounce. I'm not sure what the Wisconsin fascination is with brandy... it's too sweet for me. This is one place where the east-coaster in me takes over and I make my Bounce with bourbon. I've also seen it made with rum.

Time. So, the rule is that you put up your Cherry Bounce in early July when the Door County cherries come ripe and you let it sit until Christmas. If you're smart, you save some cherries in the freezer and put up a new batch of Bounce just before Christmas so that you have some in the early summer just before the Door County harvest happens.

Now, how you put your Bounce together is up for debate. Ask 10 Wisconsinites and you'll get 10 variations (within a small range of variables). Last year, I put up Bounce using unpitted sweet cherries because that's what I had too many of. I used bourbon and I cut the sugar back a bit. The resulting Bounce was good but not great. It wasn't enough of a liqueur (not enough sugar) and the cherry flavor was okay but not great. This year, I followed the more traditional recipe and I have great hopes for a truly excellent Christmas.

Traditional Wisconsin Cherry Bounce
makes one quart

• Fill a 1 qt Mason jar half full with pitted, tart (pie) cherries (Montmorency)
• Cover the cherries with 2 C white cane sugar*. Screw on the lid and shake vigorously until the cherries are coated.
• Add 1/2 qt of brandy (or bourbon, or rum, or even vodka) to fill the jar.
• Screw on lid tightly and shake to mix well. 
• For the next day or so, shake the Mason jar occasionally to finish dissolving the sugar.
• The cherries may settle a bit and it's worth opening the jar back up and adding enough pitted cherries to fill the entire jar.

 Put the jar in a cool, dark place and let it sit until Christmas.  Open and enjoy as a shot, mixed with club soda, or with hot water for a cherry toddy.

*I used a cup and a half of sugar. I simply couldn't bring myself to add that much sugar to the jar. We'll see how it turns out.

Last week, we got blueberries in our fruit CSA and my friend Kristine got really creative and made Blueberry Bounce with them. She used vodka as her liquor (which I think was a good choice for blueberries). There may soon be some jars of blue nectar curing in my closet with the red ones.

- Alex

Seeing Signs in San Francisco

As Alex mentioned last week, I was fortunate to have just attended the HOW Graphic Design Conference (this year held in San Francisco). There were so many opportunities to learn a new trick or two, but I've decided that my favorite sessions at events like this are when a seasoned or popular design professional simply discusses their body of work or creative process. Maybe it's because I've been in this business over 20 years...egad!...but I feel a kinship with other designers who feel it deep in their bones. The creatives who couldn't imagine doing anything else for a living. No matter what point in their career, those impassioned designers have the ability to make me sit up and take stock of my own creative path.

I've been back home for a week and I'm actually haunted (in a good way) by what I saw and heard in San Francisco. In order to exercise these demons, I've made some resolutions and promises to myself. Sorry to be cryptic (I hate when people are cryptic) but I'm a superstitious type. I don't want to jinx new endeavors by speaking about them too soon. You will be the first to know when things are ready to be talked about..pinky swear! Sufficed to say, I am creatively juiced up.

The other thing that got me revved up in San Francisco were the vertical vintage neon business signs EVERYWHERE. They give the city amazing character. I took picture after picture of ones that struck my fancy. Here are a few of my favorites....I hope they inspire you too!

I love having periods of intense inspiration. It refreshes my creativity and really gets me back on track. What's your source of inspiration?

Cassandra
(fired up designer)

Friday Finds: Strawberry Country Cake

It's finally getting hot out around here, and that means strawberry shortcake tastes extra good! Instead of the lazy usual way I make it, (sugared strawberries and whipped cream atop store-bought pound cake on individual plates) I am going to try something more home-made.

After doing some web searching, I found this great recipe from The Barefoot Contessa. I'm trying it this weekend! It doesn't look too time consuming for this lazy summer girl.

Photo courtesy of Barefoot Contessa.

Have a great weekend!

Cassandra

Home, Home At Last (Part Two)

If you missed part one, you can catch up here.

Finally. After 8 days in the bee condo (the cardboard nucleus box that the bees came in), my new "pets" moved into their permanent home.

The "old" pet checking out the new pets.

I picked up the bees on a Sunday. The following Thursday I was on a plane to Florida with a return on Monday. I knew that I wasn't supposed to bother the bees for about a week (most people advocate weekly hive checks) and leaving town was the best way to keep my nose out of their space. It was all I could do (and, honestly, still all I can do) to keep myself from poking at them constantly. They're infinitely fascinating and, in that first week, I just wanted to sit and watch them do their thing. Unfortunately, poking around the hive kind of stresses them out so an out-of-state trip was the best way to give them the peace they needed to settle in quietly.

While I was away, the hive I ordered arrived in one giant box - which I found on my front porch when I got home late Monday afternoon. Needless to say, I put down my suitcase, changed my clothes, and immediately unpacked the box.

In the end, after months of research, discussions with veteran beekeepers, and online searching, I went with a medium-frame Langstroth hive instead of the less-standard top-bar or Warre hives. This gave me a lot of options to purchase both locally and from the web. Most hives are made from pine and painted (on the outside). I found a place in Indiana called Legacy Apiaries that makes the most gorgeous, high-quality hives from western red cedar. They promised quality and they delivered! I adore my hive and I hope the bees will too. The crazy part is, this beautiful, cedar hive was no more expensive than a pine one...

Yes, this beehive is set up in my living room. It's empty.

After pulling out all my equipment, I fired up the smoker, donned the veil and gloves, tucked my pants into my socks (so the bees can't crawl up your leg), and I set about moving the frames from the condo to the house. Here, in photos, is my adventure:

This is the new brood box. Notice it's not made of red cedar.

The one thing that threw a wrench into my plans for the most beautiful hive ever, is that the bees came to me living on "deep frames". That means that the box I transferred them into had to be able to accommodate their frame size. My cedar hive is made up of medium boxes (they're shallower) so I had to go out and buy one deep box that sits at the bottom of the totem pole.

This is what it looks like with one deep (on the bottom) and one medium.

My tools: A smoker, a "hive tool" to separate and lift the frames, and an entrance reducer.

You can barely see it but the smoker is working!

This is what the frames look like inside the cardboard box.

Me, loosening a frame to take it out of the box.

My bees, hard at work.

This is what a frame of honey looks like. Very yellow and very heavy.

Whereas brood comb (where the babies are made) is dark brown.

Nucleus frames in the center, new frames on the outside. In the new hive!

For the most part, my first hive check and move to the new home went well. I was able to identify the work that was being done, the bees were amenable to the process, and they settled in right away. The one hitch was when, while observing one of the frames, I accidentally dropped it on the grass. The bees didn't like that much and there was a lot of high pitched buzzing and flying about. No stings though!! I stepped away, blasted them with a few puffs of smoke, and then moved the frame back into the box. I had to scoop some confused bees up off the grass but it didn't seem like any harm was done.

Three weeks later and the bees seem to be in great shape. They love their home and are busy building new comb and making more bees. Lately, they've been building new comb on the "empty" frames in the lower box and every day I see more bees exploring the upper box.



The bees permanent home, nestled in the mint.

 My goal is to build a strong hive that will live through the winter. Honey production will have to wait until next year. So far anyway, I feel like we're off to a good start. Hopefully, this will be home, sweet home for a long time to come.

- Alex