Birthday sticker collage!

Happy birthday Monika!

Peanut & Purls & the mystic chords of memory...

On February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky, a great man was born. I freaking love Abraham Lincoln. I take my Lincoln love seriously. Like really seriously. I don't want to see Lincoln posed on a dinosaur, wearing sunglasses, or holding an ax. It makes me want to vomit. I am ok with him on a band aide because it's his actual face, and not some jazzed up altered version. I can't tell you exactly when my love for Lincoln came about, but this love is a true love, and it's not going anywhere...

Happy birthday Christine!

Remember when you were like three? Yeah, I don't because I wasn't born yet, but still that was a long time ago. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Let's celebrate with some night cheese!

Peanut & Purls: Golden Birthday!

Peanut, what in the world am I going to do with you? Peanut was always been the fluffiest, cleanest, little fluffer-nutter in the whole world (notice the past tense?). Part of settling into the new house for Peanut means digging in everything, all the time, everywhere. Because there's a garage attached to the house, she has quick, easy access to dust and dirt. Would you just look at those paws!?! She's been prancing around with these dirty mittens for days. I think a bath is in her future.

DIY: Fern watercolor

As you may remember from my post last week, Monika recently turned 30 (and boys can also be jerks). As part of sister Monika's present, I wanted to paint her a little outdoors that she could bring indoors. Cue the ferns!

Sister Monika turns 30!

Today marks Monika's 30th birthday. Monika is the middle sister and some of the stigma surrounding the middle child probably applies to Monika (I think she would agree, she wears her middle sister badge proudly).

Make: eco friendly wrapping paper

This was originally a birthday present wrapping idea, but can easily be converted to a more Merry Christmas vibe, but all in all it's pretty clear, eco-friendly wrapping makes you an earthly hero to the grateful recipient...

dream come true

Here's Mt. Pillow in it's place of honor on my bed. I've always dreamed of hugging a mountain. Thanks, Catherine!

centennial

Our grandparents on their wedding day. 

Received an email from Mom tonight. 

Hello,  Just thought I'd pass on to you that today is my Dad's Birthday and he would have been 100 years old. 
I remember when Mom told me it was her Dad's 100th Birthday.  Now her own 100th is coming up soon too. Love, Mom

Mt. Pillow

Take a look at those pillows! Now, all the pillows are fantastic in their own way, but the point of this post is to showcase the monumental mountain pillow. I handcrafted that puppy from scratch, and I'm tickled pink as to how it turned out. I wanted to make something else for Christine's birthday but I wasn't sure what. I had been thinking about a knit mountain pillow, but I didn't have a pattern, so I made one...

Etch-your-sketch cocktail glasses!

Nicholas loves to make cocktails, so for his birthday I decided to create some customized glasses for all of the delicious cocktails he makes.

Step 1--Ready the supplies. I bought all the glasses at Cost Plus World Market. I think everything was $3.99 a piece. The Armour Etch was leftover from a project Christine did years ago, but I did confirm that you can buy it at Michael's (with a coupon, it would run you about $6). You'll need contact paper (Target $5), a sponge brush, scissors, and gloves.

recipe for success

I've been on the lookout for vintage wooden recipe boxes as part of a gift for the sisters for a while. I found this one in time for Catherine's birthday (31 May...OK, this post is coming a bit late), so I decided it was do or die time and created this. 

1 Cup Cat.

What's this???

 Peanut, there's a cat on it!

 Genevieve, CATS!

 Not just any cats, measuring cup cats!

 And you can stack them!

Thanks to Kitty for the awesome birthday present. I used them today!

Like the cake says...

Catherine turns 27 today! Happy Birthday, sister dear!!!

Happy Birthday!

To this little lady. AKA, Monika. AKA, the middle sister. 

a snapshot from birthdays past

She's chilling in Tacoma with Mom. Lucky birthday girl. 

tiramisu

Here's Mom's surprise birthday tiramisu from Trinacria in Olympia. Lovely!

Meeker Mansion

Mom's birthday is today (61, son!), so Monika and I took her to the historic Meeker Mansion in Puyallup. The Meeker Mansion is a 17-room Italianate Victorian mansion, which was owned by Eliza Jane Meeker, wife of Ezra Meeker, a pioneer and the first mayor of Puyallup, WA. 

The house was decorated for a Victorian Christmas, with cider and cookies. And a bar! If you're from the midwest, you're definitely familiar with the charms of bars. Anyway, the house is really cool--chock full of swell fixtures and moldings and period details, and Monika and I were particularly obsessed with all the old braided rugs. 

Other things we were a little obsessed with:

Mom & Monika in front of Ezra Meeker's desk.

And here's an interesting tidbit on Ezra Meeker from the history portion of the Meeker Mansion website:


"Ezra Meeker became the self-appointed champion of the Oregon Trail in 1906, when at the age of 75, accompanied by two oxen, a wagon, a driver and a dog, he made his way from his front yard to Washington D.C., by way of New York City.  His purpose was to preserve and re-mark the Oregon Trail, which was being obliterated by civilization.  He thought he could make his trip once before he died, but this remarkable man lived to 98 and made this journey by ox team once more, then by automobile in 1916, and by airplane in 1924.  The fact that you can see actual traces of the Oregon Trail is due almost entirely to Ezra Meeker."


Totally rad.

knitted succulents II

Monika came through with some knitted succulents for my birthday. They've found a home with my real succulents. 

I think the succulent community in my apartment is pretty satisfied for the moment. 

Knitted and real life string of pearls. 

This real succulent is growing  a little secret. 

Did I mention that Monika knitted these? She did. She's a little wonder. 

acorn love

Yup, I returned to the acorn necklace project for a friend's birthday (Maya, to be exact). Making felted acorns is super easy, and I suppose I should provide a tutorial one of these days...but honestly, it's soooo easy that you probably don't need a tutorial. Just work your felt into a sort of acorny shape (like an eroded pyramid, yeah?) and glue it into a spare acorn cap. You will have to find the caps somewhere. I stole my acorn supply from Catherine & Nicholas' backyard.
I assume they weren't missed. 

Oh, the other thing is that you'll need to drill a couple holes in the acorn cap. It's surprisingly easy.
Um, I'll just go ahead and admit that I use one of my felting needles to accomplish this task.
I know: so bad! But I don't have any drilling implements and the felting needle gets the job done.
I just used a little piece of jewelry wire to make a loop to attach to the necklace. 

See? Easy and sweet.