sock polar bear christmas ornaments.

Why, hello there!

I wasn't planning on making another sock related ornament this year. Actually, I was looking forward to doing something different but then I came up with this little dude and it was hard to resist. Sewing them took no time. What took forever was knitting bitty scarves. I used the bits of leftover yarn from other knitting projects.

Jingle bears~ Jingle bears~ Jingle all the way~!

Helen's furoshiki.

I love when things are well presented. Helen's birthday was coming up and I had run out of wrapping paper to wrap her gift. I recently learned about Japanese furoshiki where people use beautifully printed fabric as an eco friendly way to wrap gifts. There's a similar Korean tradition called pojagi. I found some pretty pink fabric from my stash, cut, hemmed, and trimmed with cotton lace. The end result was a small handkerchief sized square of finished fabric which I used to wrap Helen's birthday present:

Helen's tree costume.

I helped my friend, Helen, shop for a Halloween costume one day after work. She was telling me how she got invited to a costume party and the girls attending would most likely be dressed in sexy costumes. Given the price, the quality of store bought costumes aren't great at all. The cuts are unflattering even if you have the body of a super model. I don't like how Halloween is an excuse for girls to dress as their sluttiest. Costume companies have even managed to sexify The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Ew.

After an unsatisfying session of trying on costumes, I told Helen I hardly ever buy costumes. I usually use what I have at home and make accessories. It ends up costing much less and the costume is guaranteed to fit. Plus, you get a costume that's 100% original and customized for you. We walked back to her car where she showed me a couple dresses she had. She pulled out a brown J.Crew halter dress with texture throughout.

"Do you think this could be anything?" she asked.
"I dunno... " I said, "A tree?"

I wasn't being serious but she thought it was a great idea! We went to the craft store the next day to gather supplies. Helen decided she'd like to be an autumn tree, much more colorful and interesting. This was great because all of the fall foliage items in the floral section of Michael's was on sale for 50% off.

The mask:

The head piece:

Hot glue, hot glue, hot glue! My favorite part of the head piece is the bird's nest with bird hanging out in it.

I make Helen look good.

Susan's produce bags.

Happy produce! :D

I ordered this fun fabric on Spoonflower.com:

I had plans on making produce bags for friends as Christmas gifts. These are for Susan's birthday this week. A super foodie needs good produce bags for grocery shopping.

Jam filled buttermilk biscuits.

My co-worker and I went to Williamsburg last Saturday to graze upon the food stands of Smorgasburg. We stopped by a jam booth by Anarchy in a Jar and sampled their selection of handmade jams. Their most interesting flavor they featured was spiced beer and jelly. It tasted very much like beer with an apple base. I purchased a jar of strawberry balsamic jam and a jar of apricot jam with thyme and vanilla.

Was very excited to use them to make jam filled buttermilk biscuits.

I ate three of them right out of the oven :|