cloudy with a chance of great

i'm happy to say that i have completed the little series project that i was obsessing over for the past few weeks.
it all started with this beautiful silver embroidery thread.


i saw it and i had to have it, though i didnt know exactly what i was going to do with it. and then i came up with an idea and tried it out with little success and much frustration. this stuff is not really so easy to work with. it cannot easily be split into single strands, which is what i had intened on doing with it....
and then that little saying popped into my head, "every cloud has a silver lining."
and that is how it started. i had already been really into cross-stitch, and was working on all-black silhouettes, which is the style of cross-stitch that got me hooked in the beginning. so i thought, hmmm, a black cloud silhouette with a silver lining. okay.
and here it was.


well, i knew it wasnt exactly as great as i had intended, but i saw the potential and the idea was growing.
and then i conceded that cross-stitch didnt HAVE to be all-black silhouettes. and so i mixed it up. i got embroidery floss in varying shades of grey.




i was increasingly happier with the shape and execution of each cloud that i did. after a bunch of single clouds of varying colors using the same size embroidery hoop, i moved onto little groupings of same-colored clouds. and by this time, i was obsessed. i wanted to make more and more and more and more.
eventually, i was limited by the number of embroidery hoops that i had. and that was probably a good thing, because really, i would have kept going until i had a whole wall-full.
the last one that i did was this white cloud.


i liked the idea of barely being able to see the white stitches on the white fabric. (and, once i get more hoops, i will do one that doesnt have any filler at all - just the silver lining). but then i got excited by the idea of giving the cloud a little bit of dimension through shading. it worked. i was pleased.

i wanted to hang these floating all over a wall. i framed them within their embroidery hoops, painting the smaller, cheap hoops black (i tried white and it just didnt look good at all), and leaving the quality, vintage hoops as they were.


um, and this is just because i am a geek:


i finished the clouds yesterday. and then last night i was making the dough for a tart that i am making for a dinner party tonight (mmmm, pear-ginger tart....). well the tart dough called for egg yolks. so i had left over egg whites. and what can one make from egg whites? meringues. oh, i do love meringues. anyway, while i was piping the puffs onto the parchment, i was struck with the idea -- hey! clouds! light, fluffy, white -- just like meringues -- and so i stopped making standard swirly meringues and made cloud-shaped ones instead. what a sweet little stroke of serendipity.

clouds in my coffee

this is how i like to start my mornings.
a big latte bowl full of lots of frothy milk on top of espresso-brewed coffee. i like to sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top and then eat the top layer of sugary froth with a spoon like creme brulee. mmmmmmm.

oh, and while on the subject of coffee: here's my latest embellishment to every-day life: the jar that my coffee beans live in got a little crafty make-over with a scrap of fabric, some bias tape, and some glue..



a note to my dear readers: the title of this post is a case of what is known in literature as "foreshadowing." now, usually (except in the case of post-modern literature) the author does not point out the foreshadowed element. however, i am caffeinated, and giddy with the excitement of being close to finishing and revealing the project i've been working on for the past month. watch for it. oh, and it has nothing to do with carly simon, or, for that matter, janet jackson.

initial

a-la peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

so, you are thinking, "um, yeah, kimberly, pb&j, big deal..." well, i retort, it is a big deal when it's A PB&J COOKIE! hahahah! these things are hilarious. a few weeks ago, i bought myself some new cookie cutters (from my top-secret source; sorry). i was helping to throw a mustache party for my sister's 30th birthday, so i needed (needed, got that?) a mustache cookie cutter. while shopping, i came across the bread-slice-shaped cookie cutter. i debated about if i needed that one or not and ultimately decided that yes, i did need it.
well the other day, i was out with my good friend greg. we stopped into Moon River Chattel (super fantastic store on Grand Street in Williamsburg) and i happened to admire a lovely set of oval fluted cookie cutters. greg, being the great friend that he is, bought them for me. while he was paying, we chatted with the woman at the store about cookie making. she suggested i make peanut butter cookies, and greg, usually not much of a cookie fan, agreed. so -- i had it in my head to make peanut butter cookies. but to find a recipe for peanut butter roll-and-cut cokies... tricky, as most peanut butter cookie doughs are too dry and crumbly for rolling and cutting. martha had one, though (although it is DEFINITELY not written correctly -- it calls for 7 cups (!?!?) of flour - i used 3 and they were almost too dry).
so -- i thought pb&j cookies would be a great use for the bread-slice cutter.
they look just like sandwiches! hooray!

here's a plain piece of toast cookie.



and here are those beautiful new fluted-oval cookie-cutters put to use. (thank you, greg!) these ones are sandwiched with chocolate filling in the middle.. mmmm. peanut butter and chocolate...

mis en place

i spent sunday crafting at janna's house. she worked at her jewlers' bench while i used her big dining room table for cutting fabric. while we were working, she asked if i could make her a new tool roll -- as hers was looking pretty funky thanks to a student spilling rubber cement on it. i was happy to take the challenge and worked only with materials that she and i had on hand.. some fabric that i had brought with me, a ribbon from her sewing box, and the tread that was in my sewing machine (which i also toted over to her house).
i do believe it turned out pretty well!


all wrapped up and ready to go...


the old tool roll and the new one...

hatched

here's the latest batch of baby clothing...

hand in (city) glove

no it's not like any other love...




although we're currently in the midst of a little heatwave, the weather should be turning cooler soon, which means it is getting to be about time to break out the knit accessories.



i've been pretty into these glovelettes for a few years and i guess i am not the only one. i've been seeing lots of patterns for them popping up on the internet. i based my pattern on one i found in a weird intro-to-knitting book for kids that my mom had. i experimented and modified the pattern a lot until i found something i was happy with. now i have a system for making these in short, medium, long, and extra long (length). pretty soon, you will be able to get my pattern and learn how to make them via a how-to video starring moi on a brand new website. (ooooh, exciting.. or scary..) but until then, you can just buy them from me. i have a few pairs all knit up and ready to go, and i am putting them up on the chez-sucre-chez etsy store. if they arent there when you click over, they will be soon. i'm doing work on the site and i intend to have it all complete and open for business by october first.

(these pink ones are my special little kj extra smalls)






stay on my arm you little charmer.

happiness runs in a circular motion

i was afraid of circular and double-pointed needles for a long time. it just seemed so complicated, especially the double-pointed needles -- having to use FIVE needles, instead of two?!? ugh, i was quite content with keeping it simple with the good old-fashioned straight needles.
but i am happy to report that i am well over that fear and i've now embraced these knitting supplies. (doctors' needles on the other hand, continue to terrify me.)
inspired to expand my repertoire of knitting skills and try new projects, and by the beautiful green alpaca yarn that i have in my stash, i knit up some baby "harvest hats." fall is coming and the acorns are dropping from the trees. that is where the idea for these came from. i used a pattern from the first "stitch and bitch" book as my template, and then adjusted to make them a little more fun.

here are all of those complicated knitting tools in place: you start off with the circular needles, and then switch over to the double-pointed needles and use stitch markers to help you keep track of where you need to decrease stitches.



and here are the finished products. not so bad...




(if anyone knows where i can get a funky vintage baby mannequin head -- please let me know.. i tried ebay -- nothing good on there... it's difficult to make these hats look as good as they would on an actual baby head.)

buttons and felt

another felted and embellished little zip pouch. this one is only half-felted, actually. i only put it through one run in the washer.

deco

i've been kinda into art deco patterns lately. i've been doodling them a lot... and then did some drawings on paint chips, then mounted paper to the back and turned them into postcards.

another half-cocked idea

these are all pages from an antropologie catalogue that i modified... my idea was to make subtle changes, and then take the catalogue back to the store and put it in the pile of regular catalogues. why? i dont know. now it just seems like way too much work for something that most likely wouldnt even be noticed.

queen of tarts

i bought myself some tart pans and tried my hand at tarts. i think i'm in love.

for the record

i had a dance party for my birthday -- and really geeked out over the invitations that i sent. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on these -- but think the end result was well worth it.


I bought the black circles pre-cut from Kate's Paperie, designed the record label in Illustrator and then cut out the circles and attached them to the "record" using eyelets.



originally, i was just going to make the records and put them in a regular square envelope. but then i thought it would be great to make a sleeve for the record, so i did. it took a bit of experimenting to figure out a pattern that worked, but i was pleased with the result!

meet craft monster

he may be famous someday.

recent haps at the chez

this weekend -- there will be a whole lot of knitting, aaand knitting, aaand knitting... starting with a scarf with pockets made from this quick-knitting ultra bulky yarn


someday soon, when my work-life becomes a little less busy, i will finish these two ALmost complete cross-stitch projects.


this past wednesday, chez-sucre-chez teamed up with general/mountain-again for some more soap making experimentation. we started figuring out how to make the dull, craft-store-offerings of melt-and-pour soap-making at least a little more cool.

using my silicone ice cube tray as a mold...


throwing in the big plastic ring that greg and i have matching ones of from-the-time-we-went-to-jillian's-in-boston-together-years-and-years-and-years-ago.


saying, "f-it, let's see what happens if we just throw some lemon and lime zest in there." (seems to have worked -- smells great, and it hasn't really browned yet.) and using dried lavender. and using take-out containers for soap molds -- they look cool.


looks just like a cupcake. sweet. i wonder if the non-pariels will make cool colors in the shower.