Friday, July 20, 2012

Purse

Hello all!  I just thought I would show off one of the purses I made last week.
 I made it with the intention of being able to carry around the book I am keeping all the information about my wedding plans in.  It has pockets for my wallet, phone, and keys as well as two pen pockets, one of which is large enough for my epipen.
 It is super comfortable to wear, and I used scraps from other projects to make it, so I didn't even have to buy any more fabric.
You can see it here sporting two of my new pins from a cool etsy shop you should check out, beanforest.





Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Increased productivity

Leaving work was bittersweet for me.  It's been almost a week and I miss my regular customers, I miss my coworkers, and I miss my boss.  On the flip side, I have gotten so much done.  End of last week, I came up with a new wallet design, and made two new wallets for my etsy shop.  Listings for the pink lined one, and the white lined one, are up. They are made from an old pair of wool pants that were my father's in the 1970's, and a few silk ties a regular customer gave me when he retired.  Check it out.
Both wallets have six card slots, and two cash pockets.  They are very standard men's bifold size, but the wool gives them a really luxurious feel, and the silk ties inside are a really unexpected splash of color.

And that is not all I've gotten done!  I also launched my food blog, The Hungry Griffin, made two purses (photos still to come), and made a rollup for my makeup brushes.  Not to mention all the packing I have done for our upcoming move.
Anyway, the rollup.
As I have been packing, I have noticed that my way of storing things is not always optimal. For example, I was just leaving all of my makeup brushes on the bottom shelf of our medicine cabinet, with our toothpaste and John's various shaving tools.  It isn't the tidiest option, so I decided to make a little rollup for them, so they could all live in one place together.
Isn't it cute?  And the best part is, I made it to fit perfectly in the little clinique bag John's grandmother got me for Christmas.  So now all my brushes have a safe place to live.
So I hope you enjoyed my little update, and expect some photos of purses to come.  (Oh, and if you have a father or grandfather who needs a new wallet, you know where I am.)

Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Hungry Griffin

Hello all,
Just wanted to let you know that I have started a new blog.  The purpose of this one is to share my crafts and love of crafting, the new one is all about food!  I love to cook, and the new blog will not neccessarily be about epic food journeys, but rather about the ones I take every day in an attempt to feed myself and my fiance.  I hope you will check it out, and I hope you will like it.

The Hungry Griffin

Sunday, July 8, 2012

July Fourth

So much has been going on here, you can't even imagine.  We signed a lease on a new place last weekend, we are moving in three weeks, my last day at work is Wednesday (more on that later), and actually, it doesn't seem like so much when I try to list it off, but believe me it is overwhelming.  And the overwhelming nature of packing is amplified by the fact that John will be busy studying for and taking two bar exams up to two days before moving day.
Anyway, I feel like I haven't gotten anything done for weeks, so I'll share my fourth of July cake with you.
Chocolate of course.  I was struck by the idea of making a red, white, and blue cake, using strawberries, buttercream, and blueberries as the colors, respectively.
I layered the cake with fresh berry layers and topped it off with berries.

 I (as usual) used sweetapolita's recipes for chocolate cake and buttercream.  The difficulties I encountered were typical of me, I didn't have enough eggs or any white sugar.
The first shortage was solved by just not making much icing, which worked out as John and I have never been fans of too much icing.  The second left me making icing with raw sugar.  A delicious alternative, but not nearly as white, so the Fourth this year was celebrated with red, off-white and blue (a fact not well represented by my photos).