Fiber Optic Fairy Wings

So after ages of painstaking engineering and planning, I finally finished my first pair of fiber optic fairy wings. They are run by two AA batteries hidden in a concealed padded pocket in the back.
These wings have the same features as the rest of my wings with hinged fabric panels and slide clips for the ribbons.
For my first attempt, I am pleased with how they turned out.
These babies really glow: these pictures were taken in the dark.

Pickled Red Onions

Another food post! This past Saturday I made 10 pint jars of pickled red onions. If you like onions, I definitely recommend making these sometime. They are fantastic on salads. I use a recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, but it's so simple you barely need a recipe at all! All you need is red onions, red wine vinegar, a few cloves of garlic, and some basic canning equipment. I didn't bother to document all the steps this time, since I already did that the last time I made these.

Cootie Catcher/Fortune Teller

I've been pretty nostalgic for childhood lately, and what better object to create but a cootie catcher? When I wasn't dreaming about my future using the powers of M.A.S.H. or playing epic rounds of The Dot Game, I was probably making cootie catchers...




I painted this one with watercolor and drew the insides with ink and graphite, scanned it in and printed a few out! I plan to sell these at the Punk Rock Flea Market on July 11th, read my blog for more details.

Carrot Apple Ginger Juice!

My friend Anna just got a juicer, so I stopped by her house yesterday morning and we made this delicious (and nutritious) juice.

Worry Fish

A few years ago, I saw one of these segmented worry fish charms in a magazine and have looked for them ever since. When Blue Santa Beads (an amazing bead store in Middletown, PA) stocked them last week, I practically danced with delight. You are meant to fiddle with them like worry beads to relieve stress. I've been wearing this necklace every day since I made it and I haven't worried one bit, lol.

My apologies for the lousy photos--clearly I'm not worrying about my photographic skills and I should be.

The Golden Rule Coloring Book

Here's the cover page of The Golden Rule accordion folded coloring book. It measures 5 1/2" high and opens to two feet long.........This is an idea that came to me one day, grabbed hold and wouldn't let go. So I pretty much stopped everything and have been working on it nonstop. A very tedious project, since it all has to be perfect.......visit blog for more info!

A New Ironing Board Cover

I do alot of sewing and look at my ironing board just about everyday and it was so ugly. I jumped at the chance to take a class to make a quilted cover at The Quilt Block store in Exton. I picked my own fabric, designed it myself and posted a story about it on my blog. Ta Da!

I haven't posted in awhile, been busy making WrapADoodles for an upcoming La Leche Leauge Conference in Philadelphia. and designing  The Golden Rule accordion folding coloring book for  mass production, which I will be posting soon.......because it's almost ready for it's debut.

www.artypantz.blogspot.com

Strawberry Jam!

Some friends and I spent a few hours on Sunday making about 30 pints of strawberry jam...this was my first experience with making preserves and I must say the jam is delicious. Yum!

Also blogged here, with some variations/ addt'l links: http://flyingfoxdesign.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/strawberry-jam/

painting in progress

I got stuck on this collage/painting months ago and set it aside, but was inspired last night to work on it some more. It's not done yet but is getting there!

New Stuff

I didn't think I had a spark of creativity left in me after doing a two-day show last weekend at Flagfest. But opening up a box of stuff I haven't looked at in a while--well, that was all it took.

Honfest 2009

Last weekend I went down to Honfest 2009, held in Hampden, MD. In case you are unfamiliar, Honfest is a celebration of 60's style, the campier the better. There were tons of animal prints, beehive hairdos and cat-eye glasses. [See More Pics]

the era of greens

We've been getting our CSA box for several weeks now. I knew I wanted to do this partly because it's in my blood to support local agriculture. But over the past few weeks this abstract idea has developed some concrete realities for me. I don't choose what goes in the box. The farmer grows stuff and once a week gives me a box of what he's growing, so that means, we get whatever is in season. I remember growing up with times of plenty in the area of tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchinis and such. But that was a long time ago, before i was doing my own coking. And didn't involve greens.

I like greens. But I've never had access to greens in seasonal proportions. Eating in season requires a lot of creativity, because the stuff is there now. Some of it can be frozen (not martha has a great tutorial on how to blanch and freeze kale), but some it must be eaten now. I've also had access to a greater variety of greens than I've ever had before: chard, mustard greens, beet greens, spinach, purple curly kale, dinosaur kale, regular (?) kale, arugula, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, bok choy, cabbage. I'm sure I'm leaving something out. They just kept coming!!

At first I just sauteed the greens with lots of garlic, which is actually super yummy, and I enjoy the simplicity of this. But I made a few dishes that I think were a creative use of greens. First, there was the pasta dish that I already blogged about, which is a great use of spinach. I also liked topping pizza with fresh spinach.

This first of these is a vegetarian recipe. Greens in Pastry Pockets.

* Sautee onions, garlic,
* add chickpeas (white beans would be good, too; or chicken or fish for a meat option), sundried tomatoes, a few tablespoons of creamcheese, and some herbs (like rosemary and thyme)
* Stir in whatever greens you have until they are wilted.
* spoon into pastry shell. (Or I've been cheating and using pillsbury crescent rolls, pressed out into squares. Usually need two tubes for 8 squares)
* and bake for about 12 minutes.



Then there's what I'm calling Creole Greens. It's sort of inspired by Gumbo z'Herbes.

* Sautee onions and garlic. (I promise I do have other ways to start recipes.)
* Add ham (or bacon), creole seasoning, red pepper flakes.
* Stir in whatever greens you have until they are wilted.
* Serve over rice. Garnish with fresh parsley



When I made this I had purple kale and beet greens, and the purple and the red were so pretty.

Spring is moving into summer, and the greens are fading. We're getting more variety: broccoli, cucumbers, onions. The past couple of weeks we've gotten garlic scapes, which I've never had before--and they are so yummy. They are sort of like garlic meets aspargus, but tenderer.

I'm having a great time doing this. And it really is helping my kitchen ennui.

--Jeannette

Lemon Love Cake

My middle son turned three this weekend, and here is the cake I made:

It was not without blood, sweat, and a whole lot of tears! Basically, it is a lemon pound cake that has been hollowed out on the inside & filled with cream, then glazed and decorated with homemade white chocolate polka dots (colored blue) and yellow skittles. The tears came after I finished it and tried to move it-- the whole thing fell apart! It was a complete train wreck, in at least four different pieces, not to mention the top had completely fallen off. I somehow managed to squish it all back together and cover up the rest of the carnage with candy lemon slices. No one was the wiser, and it tasted pretty good, too!

The Year of the Snapdragon

In Philadelphia snapdragons are usually annuals, but this particular plant preferred perennial status. Over the winter it was covered with snow and coated in ice, but it weathered each storm with its leaves intact. Several times this spring it was pelted with hail but managed to stay upright, then about a week ago it started blooming.

The photo was taken mid-morning with a FujiFilm FinePix A201. At this time of day the fence appears bluish-grey instead of white, and I love the way it looks with the green foliage and bright yellow blooms. My brain transposes everything I see into jewelry, so you can expect me to design a collection using this color-combo in the future.

The Pillowcase Dress

I made my daughter this 'pillow case' for her nursery school graduation today. Perfect summer-wear and nice and easy to whip up. I had the fabric ribbon tie over one shoulder instead of the more traditional bows on both.

I love this Heather Ross Mendocino mermaid fabric line and can't wait to make more with it.

I also made a little matching head scarf. Super easy with some left over bias tape from the armholes of the dress. Now if I could just tie the scarf on without tangling and pulling her hair!

A couple more pictures can be found on my blog.

new collage

I've been such a slacker about posting here! Trying to get some new stuff ready for this weekend's Art for the Cash Poor. Here's a new collage, one of quite a few that I'll be selling this weekend. It is 7x5 inches, in a glass clip frame.

Odunde Festival

I made this necklace for the Odunde Festival. Along with others, it will be on display and for sale at Spacial Anomaly Gallery, 1944 South St., on June 14. Gallery owner and artist Nicole Pelligrini and artist David Carrozzino will be showing their works. And their is a lot of other stuff by other artists for sale as well.

june 2009 066
Originally uploaded by 7727-1

Horsey

5 dress

My older girl, Self-Possessed Tot (aka Math Geeklet), designed this dress for her upcoming 5th birthday. She ignored my suggestions of a tasteful pink floral and marched confidently to my fabric stash, made selections according to criteria known only to her, selected a button to top it all off, then held out the pile to me with a decided, "Here." She arranged the little scraps herself, asked me if it was okay if they overlapped, then satin-stitched them together. She asked for a pocket with a buttonhole, a prominent 5, and a halter dress style to be cool enough for summer.

She seems happy with the result. Phew.

Talk about easy

I bought a short strand of hurricane square beads and, with the addition of some silver tubes and spacers, there were enough beads to make these two bracelets and a pair of earrings. Stringing the beads on elastic is cheap and fast. I've made a bunch of these in different colors, including a couple in red for Flagfest at the Betsy Ross House next weekend.

New Bag!

Oh.... sorry, didn't mean to be gone for that long! Here's a little bag I put together this weekend for a dear friend's birthday present:

She actually gave me these cute little buttons, so I decided to return the favor and use one on her bag:

It's hard to tell from the first picture, but the lining fabric has cute little line drawings of birds & plants, etc.: