Maybe There Are Some Things I Just Can’t Make Better At Home

These are homemade “Mello-creme pumpkins.”  They are very cute in their pumpkin-y plumpness, aren’t they?  And don’t they have a rustic, artisanal quality rarely to be found in their bland, mass-produced cousins?  These are rich in butter, sweet with best quality corn syrup and fine white sugar, boiled gently, hand-molded, and ridged with a bamboo [...]

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Baby Steps

Aren’t these adorable?  I whipped them up while waiting for the world to cool off enough that I could go to bed.  Thanks to the incomparable Saartje de Bruijn’s pattern (free!), they couldn’t be easier.  I’m going to make a bunch of them and have them stashed away for unexpected baby gifts–which seem to come [...]

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Our Teeny-Tiny Tamalada

So a couple of days ago, we got to yearning for tamales like the ones Joan and I had on the way down to Los Angeles in May.  You know, cheap produce-stand green chile and cheese tamales–heavy on the masa, light on the filling, hotter than hell from sitting under the heat lamp.  The GOOD [...]

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Victim of Packaging

I confess that I am a victim of packaging.  I just can’t resist beautifully-designed boxes, tins, and bags.  You see above a super close up of a tiny package of Chelsea candy, a variety of Japanese toffee.  The box, a beautiful crimson, was spangled with foil stars that matched the foil wrapping the individual toffees.  [...]

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Pincushions–Classic Model

I know, everyone on earth knows how to make these sweet little numbers–but I just figured it out, and I’m finding them irresistable.  Teeny-tiny.  Self-covered buttons.  Pincushions.  What more is there to say?
Except watch for pictures, ’cause I’m sure there’ll be about 47 more of these before I get over myself.

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In Dreams . . .

So I’m sure your dreams are rich, exciting, and filled with psycho-analytic glamour.  Mine, as it happens, are filled with craft projects.  Last night, for example, I conjured up this fabric yo yo embellishment for one of Little Sunshine’s tee shirts.  Luckily, Baggy had a charm pack of fabric from our local quilt shop which [...]

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Pincushions! Prizes! Competition!

pear factory
Originally uploaded by Loobylu

Piecework magazine is sponsoring an Excellence in Needlework pincushion competition, with a $500 prize. Tell me you’re not dying to come up with the Platonic ideal of pincushionery and scoop that magic cash–not to mention the exhibition in the National NeedleArts Association conference, and the photospread in Piecework. The adorable pincushions [...]

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Wallet Shrines

Wallet Shrines
Originally uploaded by melynda.huskey

This is what they look like opened up. If I were smarter, I’d know how to get more than one picture into a post, but I’m not. Feel free to help me, clever- boots readers!

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Wallet Shrines

Wallet ShrinesOriginally uploaded by melynda.huskey
Among the many temptations I have to spend all my time hogging the computer so that poor Tuxedo Boy can’t download any dodos for his Zoo Tycoon game is CraftyPod, where truly creative, generous people rain down coolness on the likes of me.
Hence, Wallet Shrines. Here’s the tutorial at Craftypod, which [...]

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The Indefinable Allure of the Teeny Tiny

Once upon a time, we lived in a little tiny trailer.  The back yard was the size of many people’s decks–but we had two raised beds in which we grew lettuce and tomatos and clove pinks, a bird house on a pole, a dog house, and enough grass for dog and baby to play on.  There [...]

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