I finished the Yoda costume for Pearl this week and I’m so pleased that the tutorial is up over at the CRAFT: blog!

I had a lot of fun making all the bits and pieces, especially the hat (I actually ended doing a set of three, in baby, small toddler, and big toddler sizes — they are super easy to sew up!)

and the snake.

You can see the whole tutorial with lots more photos over here — thank you, CRAFT! And now, instead of frantically knitting away on Halloween afternoon (ahem), I have a whole month to do a few little costume extras. First order of business: add some snaps to keep that snake securely on a speedy Yoda’s shoulders!

p.s. just a friendly reminder, please ask my permission before using any of my photos… thank you!!

Yoda!

I spent 45 minutes wandering around the madness of the 30% off sale at Fabric Depot holding my trusty Yoda action figure up to different bolts of fabric, but I think I got some good ones! The polarfleece is super soft and cozy for her hat, and I liked the cheerful orange-stars quilting cotton for her snake — after I chose the dull green and dark brown, the bright safety-orange felt I’d originally picked up felt like it completed a miniature hunting palette or something. So since she’s one and a half and I get to make the costume, stars it is!

I’ll post photos and a tutorial when it’s done… I’m going to finish it early this year (unlike last Halloween when I was still fringing a scarf a half-hour after the party started).

I just got most of what I need for Pearl’s Halloween costume at Fabric Depot’s 30% off sale… I figured I’d carry on the tradition of posting some of my craft supplies

last year’s sneak peek – I made her a Harry Potter costume!

and seeing if anyone wants to guess what the costume I’m making her is!

I’ll reveal all tomorrow.

On another note, Heather Mann* has unveiled her free Knittn Kitten pattern — for a statement necklace — and it is fantastic!

Just stop by the store this week and ask for the free pattern sheet at the counter — everything you’ll need is right in the magical Kitten inventory. Next week there will be a fantastic pattern up for grabs from Teresa Sullivan!

*another hint at what Pearl’s costume is if you’ve been reading my blog recently!

I haven’t had much time to craft for fun lately, but lucky for me, I just got a copy of Diane Gilleland’s lovely new e-book, Weaving Un-Loomed, and those sweet little projects are tempting me left and right! I learned how to weave on a cardboard loom at summer camp one year and I loved it. I remember that we dyed our own yarn with natural materials and then tried out different patterns and designs, I know I have my first triumphant little project somewhere…

I wrote a bit more about Weaving Un-Loomed as a special post for CraftStylish, and Diane gives a great introduction and overview on her blog post announcing the book, too. It’s a collection of five very different and very cool off-loom weaving projects, along with a comprehensive beginner-friendly how-to, about a zillion great tutorial photos, and a super-helpful resources section. You can buy the project tutorials individually or as a full book length, and Diane is also offering up a free download of one sample project on her announcement post — check out the last paragraph for the link!

As I mentioned over on CraftStylish, my first project will definitely be the Ribbon & Burlap Tote. I love the off-center cross of ribbons woven into the fabric, and the total simplicity of the design is so appealing.

In the meantime, while I dream of weaving, I have my very own in-house crafty inspiration — Pearl has started doing her very own art projects at school, and it’s been so much fun to see them all! I love her finger-painted tree the most. But the red-and-green I-don’t-know-what-that-is is very cool too.

I got her her own set of toddler-friendly crayons for our mini-vacation this weekend (more on that tomorrow!) and I’m planning to make her some play-dough, plus I’m on the lookout for some nice bright finger paint to add to our home art studio.

I have two little cotton smocks my grandmother sewed for me and my brother to paint and glue and make a mess in, so I’ve unpacked them from the big-kid-clothes box and I’m thinking it’s time for a crafty-toddler playdate with one of her buddies soon! I have some burlap and ribbons ready to go, too, so hopefully we can all do some fun little projects together. I could use some more summer camp in my life!

I just got my package of play food this week from the second swap I did, and wow, it’s amazing!

I loved making those simple little veggie burgers, but I am completely wowed by all the 3D and hand-stitching in the swap mix! I put notes on everything in the flickr picture if you’re interested in a few more details. It all looks so gorgeous in person, Pearl is going to love playing with all this stuff when she’s a tiny bit older. She has already had a lot of fun waving the asparagus stalks around (exactly like she does with their real counterparts).

Speaking of food, we surprised Andrew with some extremely fantastic grilling cookbooks for Father’s Day. The first one, Grill Every Day, is by a Portland author I met at the Oregon Historical Society, Diane Morgan.

With this nice weather, we have been grilling a ton lately — in fact, we made her recipe for salmon grilled on a bed of herbs for dinner that night! It was so good, and so easy to make (thanks to the herb garden flourishing so much, I only had to go about thirty feet to get all the extra ingredients).

Then yesterday I made the Israeli couscous with zucchini and red bell pepper (pictured on the cover) — also so good, and so easy. (Though I have to admit that there was no grilling involved, it was just a regular old stovetop production.)

We’re hoping to do some camping this summer with Pearl, so I also snapped up a copy of Campfire Cuisine, which is by lovely San Francisco food writer Robin Donovan.

I’ve marked a bunch of things I want to try (Robin has included handy extras for adapting her outdoor recipes to your home kitchen, too) and one at the top of the list is the grilled salmon with balsalmic fig sauce — we had so many figs from our tree last summer and I can’t wait to make that one!

A huge bonus is that Robin also offers up some really nice outdoor-friendly sauces (dressings, spice rubs, marinades, glazes, and compound butters ) and sides to go with the tempting main dishes — super inspiring, and super easy.

I found both of these at Powell’s on Hawthorne (the cooks, crafts and gardening annex, if you’re local). As much as I love reading craft blogs online and hanging out on flickr, there is something so amazingly nice about buying a book right off a shelf and cooking from a smooth, inviting page, and these two are gems.

I love veggie burgers — and after a few too many gardenburgers at restaurants with no other vegetarian options, a good homemade one* is amazing.

So when I joined another play food swap I immediately thought of making some felt veggie burgers (since Pearl is also a fan), and after a brief and unproductive flirtation with the idea of tempeh tacos, it was on to the burger pattern-making, cutting and stitching!

I started with a tiny version of each piece (bread x 2, swiss cheese, burger, and lettuce) so I could get the proportions right and try out a few stitching and cutting ideas. Once I liked them (I really love the tiny ones),

I made my real patterns and watched basketball while I cut out 56 (I think?) felt pieces.

A quick trip upstairs to the sewing machine, a baby break, and a last round of lettuce leaves later,

I had all seven burgers finished — one for Pearl to keep, and six to swap!

I didn’t have any sandwich bags, so some pink ribbon had to do instead. (I used red ribbon for my fortune cookies a few months ago, come to think of it.)

So they’re packed up and ready to take to the post office, and I think I might try a side of sweet potato fries next. And I’ll definitely post photos when I get the rest of the play food — the sneak peeks I’ve seen look awesome!

(here’s what I got last time, in a bigger swap)

*My favorites are the one at Detour, the seasonal one at the New Seasons deli (which I had for dinner tonight) and the Chez Gourmet pecan flavor, but I really miss the Monster Burger from the long-gone Daily Grind. Anyone who used to work there want to share the recipe with a fan? Or do you have a favorite to share?

One of the things I didn’t get a picture of was all twenty of my finished party-favor terrariums together before they went to their new homes (darn!), but thanks to Caitlin, here are two of them living in harmony together.

I found the little bunnies and dinosaurs at the Decorette Shop, rounded up some moss from my neighbor’s yard, got my buddies to save empty baby-food jars for a few weeks, showed my ID and signed all sorts of forms in triplicate to buy a can of spray paint, and spotlighted some of my favorite vintage pearl buttons from the Kitten as a little topper for each one.

I love how they turned out! This is an easy and fun little project that you could add your own favorite elements to, and it would be perfect to do with older kids (ie, not Pearl). If you’d like to make some of your own, I wrote a tutorial here which is based on Jenny Ryan’s excellent Mason Jar Terrarium tutorial for CRAFT:.

Speaking of making them, I have some of everything left over and I’m thinking of offering up some kits as prizes to my blog readers. Would anyone out there be interested in a build-your-own-terrarium set? If it seems like fun, I’ll write up a post in the next day or two with a chance to win some pearl-button terrarium kits!

Pearl’s birthday party was so much fun! I finished all my craft projects in time (even with a very cool surprise side trip to Astoria in the mix Friday night), our dear friends came over to celebrate with us on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and she loved it all. Well, she didn’t like the cupcake icing so much, but I didn’t take it personally, she is more of a savory type and she did enjoy waving the carrot cupcake pieces in the air. Regardless, they were cute!

More on all that later…

Speaking of cupcakes, I made our family a gift for Mother’s Day this month: a family cookbook with all of our favorite recipes collected into one place.

I used an awesome blank book by Ex Libris Anonymous, found at the wonderful Q is for Choir, and I’ve been filling it with my most treasured recipes — plus lots of notes and pictures and additions in the sidelines.

The button it up chocolate cupcakes and shortbread cookies had to go in, of course!

The how-to, which is super simple, is here on CraftStylish. Next, I’ll be adding our Mother’s Day French toast and Pearl’s first birthday carrot cupcakes recipes (and of course mentioning that the cream-cheese icing could go easier on the sugar next time!).

p.s. if you are in the mood to talk buttons, I wrote up our visit to the fabulous Oregon State Button Society show over at my book site today.

After I finished those fun little applique projects, of course I had to dip into my Kitten stash of vintage pearl buttons for my Pearl button’s party!

Here’s a peek at the two things I’m finishing up today…

I’m still on the birthday-crafting express this week, getting ready for Pearl’s little party on Saturday!

I found this adorable skirt by Pearly Grey at last month’s Crafty Wonderland (which is coming up this Sunday if you’re in town!) and had to snap it up to be The Birthday Skirt. I think she’ll be able to wear it for a long time and it is such a cute one!

I had some of the same fabric saved up in my own stash, so yesterday morning I made some simple appliqued matching pieces for her to wear at the party, too…

I hand-drew the 1 and used steam-a-seam to fuse the pieces down — same way I did the woodgrain baby gifts if you want to see the step-by-step. This is a fun and very easy project, like the pennants I made yesterday, too — I love applique and I love those happy prints.

Tomorrow I’ll be tackling the party favors! And the pearl button cupcake toppers. And the cupcakes!