Crafty Christine

Yard Crasher

2009-09-14T11:26:00.002-05:00

My friend Kami went to Louisiana in July for about a week. She recently moved nearby, so I wanted to do something special for her. I thought, hmm, what could I do? My parents watch, "Yard Crashers," so I decided to "crash" her doorstep.

I got some Zinnia's and Moss Roses.

She said she got back in about 1 am and kept looking at the flowers and instantly knew that I was the one that put them there.

Gingerbread Train Stations

2009-09-14T11:20:00.002-05:00

For the past two years, I've been making Gingerbread Houses. I wouldn't call them professionally built, but I do try my hardest to make them stand up on there on. If anyone of you has made one or attempted to, you know exactly what I mean.

This year, I had some new train cookie cutters, so I decided to make my Gingerbread House into a Train Station. It all stood up except the roof! I tried numerous times to keep the roof "glued" on the sides of the walls of the house.

Special Helpers

2009-09-14T11:18:00.003-05:00

Last December, I got two kittens because I need some active little cats to keep me company. They sure do keep me company. Sometimes they like to help a lot!

Here is what the result of their help was...

Christmas Presents

2009-09-14T11:14:00.002-05:00

This year, I thought about making presents, which I do make some of mine. But, I wanted something different. I gave my coworker some Starbucks Christmas blend coffee in a mason jar. I made a little tag and wrapped some ribbon around the lid of the jar. I knew she would love this creative little package. On the tag, I wrote down the brewing directions.

Embroidery

2009-09-14T11:11:00.002-05:00

This is what I made my aunt Carol for Christmas last year.

I also made a pillowcase that my mom gave to her friend. I love to do embroidery and cross stitch. When I feel challenged, I like to do counted cross stitch, mainly on small to medium projects. I haven't done anything large in counted cross stitch.

Christmas Boxes

2009-09-14T11:03:00.005-05:00

Before last Christmas, I showed my coworker how to make boxes out of paper. In grade school, we made boxes out of paper. I guess you could call it a form of hick origami.

Here is a picture of my coworkers paper box.

Catching Up

2009-08-30T09:04:00.002-05:00

I definitely need to catch up and get busy with this blog. I've been busy developing a phototgraphy site and just life in general.

Here is a picture of me with my new camera that I got for my birthday. It is a Nikon D90. I was so excited to get it! I was speechless. I said, I don't know what to say and my 6 year old little cousin said, say thank you!

Country Primavera

2008-08-25T09:04:00.001-05:00

Last night I wanted something warm for dinner. The grill at the store had already closed. So I went into the kitchen and pantry and found everything for my meal. In a little while, I will post the recipe.

For this made from scratch concoction I used:

1/2 cup chopped white onions
1 thinly sliced squashed
1/2 thinly sliced zucchini
1 slice of bacon chopped
1 small can of mushrooms...fresh mushrooms could be used depending on what you have available
1 can of tomato sauce
2 small tomatos chopped
2 cups of egg noodles
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
2 dashes of italian seasoning
salt and pepper

First, I cooked my egg noodles. Then in a large skillet, I fried the chopped bacon with the onions, squash and zucchini until they were cooked. I added the salt, pepper, garlic, oregano and italian seasoning. Then I added the mushrooms and tomato sauce. After the tomato sauce was in, I then added the fresh chopped tomatos. I added the rest of the italian seasoning. I then finally drained the egg noodles. I put the noodles in a bowl and put the vegetables on top of the noodles. I eventually put mixed the remaining noodles with the vegetables.

This recipe would be a great vegetarian meal if you left the bacon out.

Also, I've been picking wild plums for my grandma and I to make wild plum jelly! So far I've picked two big bowl fulls and the tree still has plums that are falling. I've also found a wild peach tree!

Getting a Little Organized

2008-08-14T21:59:00.003-05:00

I got a new book case. It's about 6 feet tall and I love it. I've put my scrapbook paper box, ribbon box, miscelleneous box, embroidery bag and other things on it! This is what I needed for a long time. Now all of my crafts aren't all in the floor or in some huge cardboard box. As you can see, those organization classes for LIS came in handy after all!

Bucking Horse Fabric Silhouette

2008-08-12T10:32:00.008-05:00

The other day I was looking at one of the Martha Stewart Living magazines that I had brought to work. There was a project for a painted fabric silhouette. I thought that this would be an awesome project. I would put a new twist on it by finding a bucking horse and painting that on the fabric canvas. I chose to use red fabric and black paint for my silhouette. Since this was my first time, I was just going to do it and give it to my mom. It's not the best picture, but it does show my project. I'll take another picture when my mom hangs the pictures on her wall.

This project was inspired by Anna Marie Horner who had made one of these painted fabric silhouette's on the Martha Stewart show. I really like this project because you could choose any type of material or outline that you wanted.

I didn't staple the fabric to the back of the canvas tight enough, so when the mod podge dried, there were bubbles in the fabric. If you hang it up on the wall, you can't see the bubbles from far away.

Country Frittata

2008-08-10T10:30:00.004-05:00

This morning I was starving. I like breakfast but breakfast usually doesn't like me. I ran out of waffles yesterday, so I could make some toast. It was Sunday morning and toast is too little for such a great day. I asked my grandma if she would eat the rest of the fritata for lunch and she said she would. I actually had all of the ingredients!

This is how I made my country frittata.

1 zucchini cut into 1/8 inch slices

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup diced onions

dash of salt and pepper

4 eggs (beaten)

pinch of oregano

1 tsp. of grated parmesian cheese

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese or whatever type of cheese you have

Before I turn on the fire on the stovetop, I turn the oven to 350 degrees to preheat the oven. In a greased skillet (I used canola spray), I put in the diced onions, zucchini and mushrooms and also added the salt and pepper. I let the vegetables cook while I scrambled the eggs. In the eggs, I added the oregano and parmesian cheese. I took the vegetables off of the fire before I added my eggs to the vegetables on the skillet. After I poured the eggs on the vegetables, I put the frittata in the oven for 20 minutes. Halfway through cooking, I added the grated cheddar cheese.

I had made this before and told my mom to eat it with the soft Swiss cheese spread. She really liked my suggestion!

Christmas in August

2008-08-09T22:25:00.003-05:00

Back before Christmas, William Sonoma had a rose wreath. This rose wreath was the inspiration for our Christmas wreath. The wreath that we had before for a couple of years had been white flowers with white snowflakes. We wanted something bright and colorful, so we chose red roses. The picture shows the wreath, but it was unfinished. This was the first step in developing the wreath.

Boots and Stars Pillow Case

2008-08-08T21:59:00.005-05:00

This is what I made for my friend's wedding present. The couple are are cowboys and cowgirls. I knew they would like something different and unique. I designed the pillow case myself and it didn't take long to finish.

Hello!

2008-08-07T21:14:00.000-05:00

Hello. I'm Christine and I'm Crafty! I've been interested in arts & crafts along with cooking and gardening since I was a very person. All through school I was in 4-H and one of my big two projects was arts & crafts and food preparation. That experience helped me gain confidence and knowledge in areas that are still used today.

The areas of arts and crafts that I'm interested in is photography (that's the art part) and embroidery/cross stitch (the crafts part). There's other things that I can pick up such as jewelry making and anything else that I can get my hands on.

Talking about photography...I recently won the "Best of Show" award from my employers "employee art show." I'm still stunned that my photograph won "Best of Show," which was voted on by fellow employees.

I'm a better baker than cook. I'm known for my apple pies and peach cobbler. I can definitely whip up a pecan pie. When I cook, I love to make lasagna rollups, which happen to be a family favorite.

This year, I don't have an "official" garden. It's more like here and there. I have about 8 or 9 squash plants that are still producing, 4 canteloupe plants, 1 watermelon, 2 pumpkin plants, and several tomato plants. I planted some green beans, but my grandma planted some morning glories and I think the morning glories killed the green beans. :-( She said next we're only going to plant the green beans and no morning glories. I did grow some corn, which was too late to grow, some okra that I never planted but was still growing but no actual okra on it, greens, and cucumbers. All of these plants never made and I think it was never meant to be.