autumn leaves garland

To take a break from sewing pillows this weekend, I decided to make an autumn leaf garland.  I found a tutorial on A Beautiful Mess and thought it would be something cute, simple, and inexpensive that I could whip up and include with any orders from my shop.  I think I am in denial about a lot of my crafting abilities (or lack thereof).  Ever since I was a child, anything involving the use of scissors has ended up a disaster.  I am just not a good cutter.  You will see no childhood handmade crafts hanging on the refrigerator in my parents' house.

I made a leaf template out of some cardboard that I had lying around, and even that didn't work very well.  I ended up with 10 misshapen felt leaves, but at this point, I was still feeling a little optimistic.  Sure, I am lousy at cutting things out, but leaves are all different shapes and sizes, right?  Right?

I had purchased a skein of yarn and two tapestry needles that had big enough eyes to slip the yarn through.  Unfortunately, the needles themselves were not quite sharp enough to actually pierce through the felt, so I had to sit there with a mechanical pencil and poke holes through each leaf.  It was about this time that I decided that perhaps this particular craft was not going to be for me.  I'm fairly certain a second grader could have done a better job at this.

I hung it up in my apartment anyway, not wanting all that time and effort to go to waste.

halfway there!

I am halfway to my goal of 8 pillows for my October 1st shop launch with 9 days left.  Not bad, not bad.  I have some unexpected time off this week, so I'm hoping to get a good amount of sewing done in these next few days while I try not to go too stir crazy.  I haven't taken too many pictures of the process - part of me wants to just show them all at once.  Here's a very unglamorous webcam photo of me hard at work on my couch (next to a large stack of library books - typical):

I'm getting faster and faster at stitching and it kind of amazes me how quickly I took to all of this.  Getting disinterested quickly and abandoning projects is pretty much my M.O.  Just recently I gave up on knitting before I even started once I realized how much math was involved.  Ick.

I went this weekend and indulged in some unnecessary but helpful sewing goods.  I decided it would be a good idea to purchase a pin cushion, so I could stop sticking the needles in my couch while I sewed.  I also picked up a thimble so I could stop sticking them in my finger.  Does anyone know why pin cushions are so often in the shape of a tomato?

While home from work today (after hours of lying in bed reading magazines and eating English muffins) I pulled out my gear, sat in a warm patch of sunlight and finished a new style.  The varied nature the vintage doilies means that I can mix and match styles on the current size offering of pillow (16x16").  I decided to get a little adventurous and try two different sizes and colors on one.  I liked how it turned out, and it looks a lot different than the other pillows.

lemon picnic cake

Summer is winding down; temperatures have dropped dramatically literally overnight, leaves are starting to fall, and I am getting back into the cooking/baking mood.  This is good news for my blog; probably not so good news for my waistline.  I had just finished reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and it inspired me to make a lemon cake as one last hurrah for summertime.


This cake is more of an understated lemon cake rather than having in-your-face flavor like your average lemon box mix.  The batter only has a hint of lemon (creating more of a pound cake flavor) and most of the zing lives in the glaze.



Lemon Picnic Cake
recipe adapted from Mom

Cake Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs, separated
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Separate egg whites into small bowl.  Beat egg whites at high speed, scraping bowl often, just until stiff peaks form, 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
2. Combine the 2 cups sugar and 1 cup butter, beat at medium speed until creamy. Add egg yolks, continue beating until creamy.   
3. Mix together the flour and baking powder, reduce speed to low and gradually adding flour mixture alternately with milk to butter mixture, until well blended. Add lemon peel, lemon juice and vanilla.  
4. Continue beating until well mixed.  By hand gently, fold in the egg whites.   
5. Pour batter into greased and floured 12 cup bundt or 10 inch tube pan. Bake for 50-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

   

For glaze:

In a 1 quart saucepan stir together all glaze ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved, about 3-4 minutes.   With chopstick, poke holes in top of cake; pour glaze over cake, letting glaze seep down into the cake through the holes.  Cool 15 minutes, remove from pan.

Hello!  I am not very good at these introductory posts, but I suppose I can tell you a little about myself.  My name is Kelly Burgess, I am 25, and live in Arlington, Massachusetts.  I moved to a one bedroom apartment this summer after living in a studio for a year and now actually have room to decorate and put furniture.  I decided to start making pillows one day because I couldn't find any online that were my style and that would go with my new couch.  I don't find myself to be particularly crafty (most of my endeavors into the craft world get abandoned before they even get off the ground) but I always wish that I did something with my hands.  I would categorize myself as a photographer first and foremost, but I also make forays into web design, book making, and make feeble attempts at cooking.

I've been working hard this month trying to get everything ready.  I'm hoping to launch by the end of this month if everything goes according to plan.  I have a domain, set up the shop, and have the blog in place.  Supplies have been purchased and I'm on my way.

So here's a finished product and what you can expect once I get the shop up and running:

The first step was to clean the vintage doilies.  I let them soak for a while in my kitchen sink and now they are clean and don't smell like grandmas.

I've even started making tags to attach to the pillows for when I send them out.  I don't have a dedicated craft area yet, so I've been working at my coffee table.  I'm very excited to get this off the ground, so stay tuned for more updates.

blackberry cobbler

I had two goals for the summer: ride the swan boats in Boston Common, and make a pie.  To the surprise of no one, I have not accomplished either one of those goals.  I guess I technically have until September 23rd (the first day of autumn), but the outlook isn't good.  I see it being much more likely that I'll end up making an apple pie once apple picking season starts.  I've also been trying to go to the swan boats for the past five years and I just never quite make it there.  C'est la vie.

While my pie baking goal sucked a big one, I did manage to make a cobbler!  This was both the first cobbler I had ever made and the first cobbler I had ever eaten.  I know.

A couple of years ago I went to Maine with T. and his family.  On the way to their summer house (mmhm, I hate them, too) we stopped at a little roadside shack and purchased a blackberry pie from a little old lady.  I was in love.  I ate that pie for breakfast the next morning with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I've been dreaming of it ever since.

I decided that I'd try my hand at making something with blackberries while they were still on sale.  I purchased some, let them mold on my kitchen table, and then bought more.  All in all, this stupid cobbler cost me about $20.  I was determined.

Blackberry Cobbler
recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

Berry mixture:

• 4 cups blackberries, rinsed clean
• 1/2 cup sugar (less or more to taste, depends on how sweet the berries are and how sweet you would like your cobbler to be)
• 1 tsp lemon juice *
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch (for thickening)

* I found that it was much too sour with the lemon zest and lemon juice, so I would reduce the amount of lemon juice involved.

Cobbler topping:

• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Place berries, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and cornstarch in a 9x9 casserole dish. Stir to coat the berries evenly with the sugar. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons of sugar, the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter in with a pastry blender or fork (or even your fingers) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the egg and milk until the batter is just moistened.

Taking large spoonfuls, drop the batter mixture over the berries. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the berry mixture is bubbly and the topping is nicely browned.

oven-fried chicken tenders

It's been... a while.  I wish I could say that I've been cooking up a storm in my new kitchen, but cereal and pasta have been my good friends lately.  I finally dragged myself out of my non-eating stupor this month and decided I'd actually make dinner... a few weeks ago (I'm sorry).  I scoured my recipes for something quick, simple, and non-offensive.  I came up with oven fried chicken tenders.

This recipe once again called for panko-style bread crumbs and I finally bit the bullet and picked some up at the store.  I am glad that I did.  They stayed crispy where normal bread crumbs would have gotten soggy and gross.  I still haven't mastered the wet-hand, dry-hand method and ended up with club fingers while attempting to bread each chicken strip.

These turned out a little bland - I bought plain style bread crumbs and didn't add a great deal of seasoning.  I think that next time, I would add some herbs and spices to jazz things up a little bit.

Oven Fried Chicken Tenders
recipe from Taste & Tell

• 1.25 pounds chicken tenders or chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 425F.  Line a baking sheet with foil, then put a baking rack on top.  Spray the baking rack with cooking spray.

In one shallow dish, place the flour.  In a second shallow dish, mix the egg and the water.  In a third shallow dish, place the panko bread crumbs, the Parmesan and salt and pepper.

Dip each chicken strip into the flour, then the egg mixture, then the bread crumb mixture.  Place on the cooling rack.  Spray lightly with cooking spray. (This is where the one dry hand and one wet hand method comes in handy...)

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until no longer pink and the coating is golden brown.