monday stash peek.

a little peek into my card catalog, so useful for my many tiny collections! Including waxed thread, vintage trims, vintage glitter, dye, yarn, flower stamens, bone folder, awl, maybe a jar of just shoelaces. Seriously, I have some weird stuff.

Happy Monday, lately I've have a hard time with Mondays, they seem to start slow and I don't feel very productive. My weekend was filled with knitting, snow, and getting to catch up over lunch with a friend (pretty rare thing for me these days).

I loved your comments on my hoarding post! There were definitely things I don't have, and I realized that I need. Things I do have that were named:
patterned masking tape, latchhook yarn and canvas, crochet fork (came in a big bag of estate sale stuff, I don't know how to use it), soldering iron, gocco printer, brayer, chisels for printmaking, ric rac (I have every size, I've got a drawer full of vintage ric rac!), wood glue, origami paper, and shrinky dinks. Yep. I got a bunch of vintage packs at an estate sale once. 

I loved all your answers, and a few of them I had to look up to see what they were (button hole punch!?! Thanks Jen, now I know!)

I picked the one person that completely stumped me and named things I wish I had.

Anabela: Yo-yo makers? Sleeve boards? Bias tape foot? Bobbin winder?

I wish I had a bias tape foot and especially a bobbin winder. That would have made quilting my duvet cover, where I used 15 bobbins, so much easier. I'm so surprised that from all the estate sale craft rooms I raided, I haven't ended up with a yo-yo maker.

Thanks Anabela, you'll be getting a little something from my stash, either supply or a creation from it.

Thanks to everyone who played my silly little game, it was fun.  

clear souvenir

So I haven't really shown any of my trip finds (coming soon I promise), but this one is probably one of my favorites. We went to an antique store in Reykjavik and Tyler found these beauties in a drawer full of plastic specs. I've been looking for clear frames for years, and these are just perfect. And they were only 5 krona (about 3-4 dollars)!

I have an eye appointment this week to get a new perscription, and hopefully get the lenses for these bad boys really soon. Because they were so cheap I'm totally going to spring for non-reflective lenses. You glasses-wearing friends know what I mean about that. I want people to see my eyes!

I did have to convince Tyler that I should use them, because once he tried them on we realized that they look pretty smashing on him, but his handsome mug can pull off anything, so I get them.

stump the hoarding chump contest

read to the bottom to see the contest rules. 

Yesterday I had to get out my button stash to find some buttons for a project. I also decided to make myself something real quick to give me a little break.

I decided to make a case for my iphone, I got a free case but I don't like using my phone with a case on it, but I do feel some anxiety about scratching it or dropping it. I wanted a sleeve so when I put it in my bag I don't have to worry about getting it scratched.

I used some felt from my stash, I have some really great 100% wool felt I picked up at a thrift store years ago. I just cut a 5 inch strip, folded it and then cut the height I needed, sewed one line, put my phone in and marked where I needed to sew the other seam, sewed it and then trimmed it.

I added a strip and sewed on a button to make a closure, but I probably didn't need that, I sewed it pretty snug. I just needed to use a button!

I love making things from my stash, hoarding supplies for a few years means I have just about anything I need on hand.

**I have a double dog dare for you (and I'm actually curious), to name a craft supply, or sewing notion or anything like that from any kind of crafting technique (you don't have to have it, so think broad!). I am daring someone to name something I don't have. Maybe it will help me fill the holes.

I will come up with a little something (maybe from my stash!) for the winner(s). Let's just see how it plays out.

Let's be reasonable, I'm not going to have an anvil.

ps, let's say I'll name the winners on Jan. 31. Think hard! 

catch up.

It seems like all I'm doing is catching up lately. I still haven't even thought about what I'm even going to do this year, and January is almost over. I'm trying to compile a list of projects I want to complete for the year, things I didn't get to last year. I think my body is in 2011 but my mind is still in 2010.

So for now I'm in my pjs until late afternoon, trying to finish projects and maybe by next week I'll have caught back up to my life.

One thing I'm trying to do for 2011, eat breakfast. I did today, marionberry jam stirred into plain yogurt. I ate it at 11:30, but it's a start. Now it's 3 and time for lunch. Catch up!

crazy cake.

This weekend I made a cake for Tyler's classmate's birthday. I wanted to make a chocolate cake, and I made this cake recipe, which turned out great. The first time I tried frosting, it didn't turn out, so I had to try something else which tasted good but wasn't what I was hoping. I hate it when that happens. 

So I put that cake into the books and hopefully next time it will turn out better. I've been working on some belated birthday presents (you know who you are) this weekend. Lots of knitting! For those knitters on ravelry, I've been catching up on posting my projects. I love that site.

I think eating cake at night makes me have crazy dreams. Sunday I had a dream that I had been appointed Attorney General of my town. I wasn't sure how knitting and blogging really qualified me for that job, but I was ready to try it.

I was being briefed on the issues, and mostly about the situation about natural gas, and how farmers were drilling on their land and the environmental issues with that.

It felt so real until I woke up and heard the local NPR show playing the alarm clock where they were interviewing someone about natural gas drilling. Whew!

trip recap 7: malmo, sweden

my flickr set for malmo

We took a day trip to Malmo, a quick 20 minute train ride to Sweden. It was a lovely city, with great shopping and neighborhoods. We had such a great day there. I am determined that my next European adventure will be to Sweden.

Tyler and I had the best meal of the entire trip, a lunch where we had lots of crusty bread dipped in wooden bowls of soup. The food was delicious, a place where we could forget that we were tourists for a moment and just talk. 

Granit was a great muji-like store (couldn't find a website) with a simple clean aesthetic. I kinda wanted to run into some hasbeens, I'm on a clog kick right now, not sure if I will actually own them, but I want to. Might have to do a little souvenir shopping post-trip.

trip recap 6: Frederiksborg Castle

We went to the Frederiksborg castle one day, it was nice to take a longer train ride. The castle was so beautiful, so historic. I've never seen so many portraits in my life! I enjoyed reading about the history of Denmark, it was our only museum experience while we were there.

The extravagance and decadence was truly something else. And it was huge. It was a funny feeling to imagine that someone actually lived there so so long ago. Here in America I think it's easy to think about our beginnings as being relatively recent. Homes from 1910 are something to be bragged about.

Time is really hard to imagine.

I took tons of photos here, just pop over to my flickr to see the rest. 

Happy Friday! I'm working on some projects and still organizing my life. I don't think I can move on until everything is in its place. I made these brownies twice this week (with dark chocolate cocoa) and they were the shiz. So easy and I always have everything on hand. Maybe I'll make them tonight.

taking it home: koldskål

top photo: the original in Denmark, and then my remake this morning.

In Denmark, especially in the warm months, they enjoy koldskål, or "cold bowl," which is a buttermilk soup. They have it for a light supper, or breakfast. They eat it with kammerjunker, a small crunchy vanilla cookie.

At first I thought it would taste weird, because have you ever drank buttermilk straight? One time I did, after Martha Stewart made some comment about drinking it, and yuck. So sour!

But it actually is light, creamy, tangy, but sweet, and really refreshing. Traditionally it is made with egg yolks and buttermilk, but modern recipes replace the eggs for yogurt, which is what I did.

There you can buy it in a carton, ready to serve, and so when I got back, I looked up recipes and made my own. I combined a couple to be like what was in the one I had in Denmark. It goes perfect with our amercian nilla wafers, which taste almost exactly the same as kammerjunker. This would be amazing with fresh fruit, so I'm not feeling guilty for always eating cookies for breakfast. (recipe below)

Also, Brittany uploaded her video of New Year's Eve in Copenhagen, which truly captures the excitement and terror, pipe bombs exploding and rockets shot right in front of our faces. B does a great job of narrating what is going on, like at :42 when a pipe bomb explodes. The beginning is just before midnight, so just wait until new year's hits, then it gets really crazy.

The pom pom makes quite a few appearances (!), and Paul's statement at the beginning is spot on.
Crotch Noodle! (our American version of Happy New Year! in Danish)



koldskål

makes a bit over a quart, I keep it in a pitcher ready to pour.

1 cup yogurt (I used low-fat, I don't think fat free is good in anything)
4 tablespoons sugar
3 cups buttermilk
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla (truly authentic would be half a vanilla bean)

Combine the yogurt, sugar and zest in a bowl (+ vanilla bean if using). Using a mixer or whisk, mix together until the sugar dissolves. Mix in the rest of the ingredients until blended. Store in a pitcher in the fridge.

You can adjust the flavor a bit by putting in less lemon juice and more vanilla, I love the lemon flavor, but if you don't as much I would maybe add less lemon juice or even none at all if you really don't like it.

Serve with any combo of crunchy cookie (Nilla wafers) and fresh fruit or even plain like a yogurt drink.

trip recap 5: Copenhagen

click on any photos for more info, and see the rest on my flickr.

We fly into Copenhagen, we walk through the airport and I see the smiling face of miss Brittany, our lovely host, to greet us. She is a friend of mine from college, and we reconnected when we were both in New York City for internships a couple years ago. Last spring I met her fiance, who is a dane, and they said to come visit them once they moved to Copenhagen. I tried to tell them I really would come, but I don't think they knew how serious I was.

They were so nice to let the four of us crash at their apartment, and take over their lives for a week. Paul was the best tour guide, taking us around and explaining all things Danish (in danish! He was so kind with our poor language skills). We arrived right before New Years, and made it to Tivoli the last day it was open.

They take their New Year's Eve festivities very seriously, everyone buys professional grade fireworks and were shooting them off night and day. We had a fun dinner, Paul made us traditional Danish pork roast and other yummy things, and we ventured off to the center of Copenhagen. People are shooting off rockets right in front of us, and pipe bombs are exploding everywhere. I've never seen something like that in my life. It sounded like a battlefield. (update: our video here!)

When it was midnight, it was total chaos, we were in a packed group with people wearing safety goggles. It was so fun, but it was nice to run away with all our limbs intact. It was the most memorable New Year's of my life. I don't think anything will top that ever!

Copenhagen is a great city, and we walked around and experienced some famous Danish pastry, their hot dogs (which has a "glove"), and all the bikes. So many bikes! It was nice to have a little city exploration after the adventuring of Iceland.

Iceland recap 4: road trip

see all my Iceland pic on my flickr.

Our last day we took a road trip to the Snaefellsnes peninsula. We just stopped as we drove along, seeing glaciers, craters, black sand beaches, lighthouses, and grassy cliffs. It was a nice way to end the trip, everything was so breathtaking. Iceland is truly a world wonder.

Maybe there is a drawback to going in winter when there is only 5 hours of daylight, but the upside to that is that you witness every glorious sunrise and sunset. It seems like the whole day is twilight. Sadly we didn't see any northern lights because it was cloudy the whole time we were there, that's the only thing that I'm sad about.

I wore my Icelandic sweater that day, which are hand knit with their special wool. You can spot them by their traditional yoke patterning. You can buy them new, but of course, I found mine in a second hand store for so much cheaper. They are super warm, and they are meant to be really large, so you can layer sweaters under them. Icelanders have some truly excellent style, they can layer for winter like an expert. I really wanted to be Icelandic so bad.

This is my last big Iceland post, I might have some bits up of some of the things I bought there (mostly vintage, of course), but next up: Denmark! It won't be as long as Iceland, I didn't take as many pictures, so maybe by the end of the week I'll have my trip wrapped up.

In short, go to Iceland! Pretty much the trip of a lifetime.

recap 1, 2, 3.