Because 2 days is never enough.

I’ve been wanting to hang a bulletin board above my desk for a while now, but I could never find cork board that was appealing.  I looked online for nice cork squares but they cost more than I wanted to spend.

Erik and I were in a long line at the new Ikea in Brooklyn recently and while we were waiting I noticed a bin full of trivets near the checkout counters.  The trivets were made of cork, came in packs of three, and were only $2 a pack.  A bulletin board in the rough!  I bought two packs of trivets and hung them above my desk using self-sticking foam mounting tape.  Voila - a funky homemade bulletin board for cheap!

Our dear Mindy is about to have a baby.

In order to celebrate this joyous occasion, we had a small shower for her friends and family at my house. We naturally emphasized the handmade for the festivities.

The lovely and talented Kate helped me with the invitations, providing inspirational genius and supplies, including an introduction to Speedball Speedy Stamp Blocks. I’m used to the old linolium block, which I love/hate. I have made some great prints with lino, but have also dug my carver deep into my hand on pretty much every project. The speedy stamp is, well, speedy. And injury free!

For the party favors, I hunted some thrift shops in Manhattan for old (cheap) teacups and made some “tea-lights.”

Mindy and her mom, Joan, made some delicious finger sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, and the Tartine shortbread cookies that could break your heart. Add some ginger scones and strawberry rhubarb compote and ricotta, honey, fig crostini and I think my stomach was as big as Mindy’s by the end of the party.

Being the official 3dayweekend baby is a pretty big job, and there’s a scary possibility that this kid will be wearing a tragic, knit wardrobe and playing with odd, homemade toys. But we’ll have to wait until August 2 to find out (or will we???)

I have been extremely remiss in posting blog updates, but I have a good excuse - I’m pregnant!  Or as my friend Alyssa says - I am working on the ultimate craft project.  One that spawns many other craft projects along the way.

The first completed baby project is a stuffed duck that I knitted.  I am embarrassed to say that I started knitting this duck for a friend’s baby (who is hardly a baby anymore) and by the time I picked up the project again it only made sense to make it for my baby.  (How convenient!)

My brother, Stephen, was visiting last week.  When he saw the duck he got excited that I had knitted a Ferdinand replica.  As soon as he said “Ferdinand” I immediately remembered that I had a stuffed animal duck when I was a kid named Ferdinand.  I totally forgot about him until Stephen mentioned it.  Unfortunately neither of us remember how Ferdinand got his name, but it really is the perfect name for a duck.

Meet Ferdinand (#2)…

As my friend Hardy said, it’s beginning to feel like the baby-of-the-month club in our parts and consequently, I’ve been hard at work making baby related crafts.

I made a very soft and very cozy baby blanket for my friends Seth and Vanessa. Of course, I worked in a leisurely fashion until about a week before Vanessa’s shower and then I had to kick into over-drive, sweatshop mode. I was focused, knitting on the train, at lunch during work, staying up late, even once working on it at a restaurant while we waited for the food.

I was blocking it just hours before the shower and probably it was a bit damp as she pulled it out of the bag.

It looks 100x cuter wrapped around precious little Aidan.

I’m catching up.

Potholders are so April and May to me, but I just wanted to make it know that I did actually sort out the thumb issue. I cranked out a number of adorable and fully functional little mitts and distributed them to friends for wedding, thank you and housewarming gifts.

I have so many fabric scraps and extra quilt batting, that I really should go into turbo mitt-making, but I’ve moved on to bigger, if not better things.

This is a photo from a flight to San Francisco, where I used my time to sew down the bias binding on the mitt collection.

Well, I’d like to say that we’ve been too busy making stuff to actually blog about making stuff, but in reality we’ve been a bit sidelined lately by a combination of technical difficulties and life. But, we’ve still been hard at work on the handmade and I have a whole backlog of things to chronicle.

But, in the meantime, I will report on a fantastic salad I made for lunch today.

I’ve been slightly obsessed with cabbage lately. We’ve been getting loads of farm fresh cabbage at my great new CSA. And a couple weeks ago, Tara Parker-Pope’s health and wellness blog on the New York Times, Well, featured a list of 11 super healthy foods that we should all eat and often aren’t. Cabbage was #2 on the list, along with 10 other foods I love to eat.

With one of my green cabbage heads, I made this great recipe from 101cookbooks, substituting Kirby cukes and avocados for the tomatoes. This got me thinking about the millions of varities of coleslaw one could invent. Here’s what I came up with today:

Half a head of red cabbage,sliced into very thin ribbons

A large handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

2-3 peaches, cut into thin slices or chunks

1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 cup raw almonds

Balsamic and olive oil vinaigrette (I used some dijon mustard as well)

Combine ingredients in a large salad bowl, drizzle with vinaigrette, toss, eat.Yum.