Grey skies and simplicity...

We're in that ugly place where fall is coming in, so there are a lot of grey skies and rain... luckily, it gives way to the gorgeous colors of fall. I've caught some really nasty virus, and have spent two days at home, which, in reality, probably makes the grey skies all that much uglier to me. So, all in all, it's been pretty icky here. All will be better soon though... right?

Until then though... one of the simple pleasures of fall, and some serious comfort food, bread. Not sure what it is about bread, but the act of making it, the scent of it baking, and the flavor if it slathered in butter, is always going to be (in my opinion) one of the great joys in life, whether it be a long rising yeast bread or a yummy quick bread. I'm going with a very simple one, since I'm really tired, a savory beer bread. I thought I'd share with you.

The basic beer bread recipe is really about as basic as anyone can get. Grab a bottle of your favorite beer, 3 cups of self rising flour, and 2 to 4 teaspoons of sugar. That's it. From that basic batter you can go pretty much anywhere.

Here's what I added: 1 teaspoon of Penzy's minced garlic, 1 teaspoon of sea salt, some fresh cracked pepper (to taste). I also chopped up about a tablespoon of my fresh rosemary, and added a couple of minced up basil leaves, about a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese, and a good handful of a sharp cheddar cheese.

Lightly grease a loaf pan, and turn the oven on to 400 degrees.

Put all the dry ingredients and the herbs in a bowl, add a 12 oz bottle of your favorite beer. The more flavorful the beer, the more flavorful the bread. I had Sam Adams at home, so that's what I used. The beer will foam, because that is what beer does, so be sure to use a relatively large bowl.




Give it a quick stir, just to wet the dry ingredients, and put it into the preheated oven to bake for about an hour.

And when it is all done, it's golden brown and warm and beautiful. The top and sides are crunchy, and the inside is moist and tender. What more could you want?








Well, what more could you want other than to slathered a slice in butter... and enjoy?

I'm sad...

This Holiday Project thing isn't going so well. I've had three links from one person so far... (heavy sigh).

Come on guys, share your holiday projects!

I think I may not have been in the original post, so let me go back and clarify... Rule number two reads (in part): "2. Ideally, what you are sharing would be a "how to" sort of post."

That does not mean it MUST be a whole tutorial... just things to share. If you have a tutorial, great, but if you have a project that has a few photos of the creation... great too. What I don't want this to be about are veiled sale pitches. This is just all about sharing ideas... recipes... traditions... etc.

So, come on... get involved... they don't have to be long, drawn out tutes... simple recipes, hints, tales about family traditions...

Email me your links (and remember, they can be past links) that have something to do with the holidays... Oh, and if you don't have a blog... heck, don't let that stop you... I like guest posters, just send me an email and add a couple of photos if appropriate... I'm darned good at cut and paste, and I can paste it right here in a blog post!

My email is over in the left side bar...

You know... it still needs something...

I like the stand, like the colors, like the doodle.... REALLY like those spider webs in there, will probably incorporate those into more of my doodles... but you know, it still needs "something".


And, after a moment of contemplation... I know just what it is! Spider webs obviously need a spider, right?












An itsy-bitsy spider... not climbing up the water spout maybe... but how about climbing up the cupcake holder?






















Or, maybe dangling off the side?
















Just one more thing it needs... a home. Let's celebrate fall by finding the cupcake stand a home where it will be appreciated. What do you say?









Here's how this works...

1. You MUST be a follower of the blog. This is the only mandatory requirement. I do these give aways as a way to thank those of you who do follow, so, you MUST follow the blog... that means I have to be able to see you over there in the list of followers on the right side bar, because I cannot tell if you follow me in some form of reader.

2. You can leave a comment every single day right here on this post. That's one entry every day. Only the comments left on this post count toward entry.

3. The give away is open from today's date through 11:59 (Eastern daylight saving time) pm on Saturday, October 15, 2011.

4. On October 16, 2011 I'll head over to Random.org and have it generate a comment number. I will post that comment and the name of the winner in a blog post on the 16th. That winner has 48 hours to contact me and let me know where to mail the stand.

Oh... and just to be clear... the spider comes too...

Oh Carol... you know me too well...

Being a long time reader, Carol knew that, even if I started with visions of candy corn for the Halloween cupcake holder, I so often do not end up where I thought I would. No exception here. I mean, seriously... why keep it simple if you can turn a mole hill into a mountain?







After I looked at the prepared project for a bit, I decided I wanted something very colorful. I know, everyone is shocked... right? Looking through the paints I chose a palette. Hot pink, orange, lime green, purple, black a bit of a bright yellow... seems good for the season.











Looking over the cupcake holder there are obviously good "breaks" or blocks for the colors, so all I have to do is decide where to put what. I have to admit, I love this part, even if I don't give as much thought to it as I probably should at times.











Two coats of paint on ... and I am pretty content with their placement, so all I have to do is decide how much detail I want and where to put it.

Since where the colors bump up against each other is always a tad "rough", a black outline (from a permanent marker) makes for a smoother break.












I'm just going to use some lines on the base, this time I really am going to keep it simple... but check out the orange dots under the circle... I do like that contrast.













Of course, you know I can't keep it all simple. All that space between the black border and the green inner circle just seems so very tempting... So I doodled a bit. My typical doodling, with a bit of spider webs tossed in. 'Cause, after all... why keep it simple, right?

I do like those spider webs...















Candy-corn-like it's not... but what do you think?

A tale of two Michael's...

The house is cleaned, my closet cleaned and tons tossed, dishes done, laundry washed, dried and put away, dog bathed (and sneering at me as I giggle at how fluffy he is), food gathered and put away, dusting accomplished, vacuuming and even the mopping... and just let me say... I am tired.

But, it at least was a productive weekend.

Now, on to what I want to really tell you about...



Here in Lexington we have two Michael's stores. One is absolutely lovely... nice associates, helpful, usually pretty well picked up, the other... let's just say I'd really rather spend a couple of days in thumb screws than have to deal with them. Alas, good or bad, I found myself there on Friday afternoon. I went in search of something specific, but not finding that (as I so rarely do), I was wandering through the store trying to drown my sadness in some form of retail therapy, I spotted these in the wooden-thing-a-ma-bobbie section. On clearance no less. Four in a package... I got two of each.

I have so been wanting to make a couple of cupcake stands, and are these pieces perfect for that or what? (Yes, they are... I do believe they are just what I wanted!)




After giving it some thought, I decided that the first course of action was to attach the "stand" to the "plate". Sadly, this is where math comes in. (Insert a heavy sigh) I really dislike math. A lot. Ok, a whole great big lot. Let's just say I finally figured out how far from each end the 3/4" top of the stand needed to be. And I glued it there with some wood glue. And, while it dried, I held it in place with a couple of rubber bands.

Who needs clamps when you have rubber bands... right?






These wooden thing-a-ma-bobbies, or at least the round, is made of balsa wood. Balsa wood is very, very porous, and tends to soak up paint. That will have to be dealt with. Once the glue is dried and the rubber bands taken off, I put a coat of gesso all over it to seal the wood and to create a very white background for my colors.





At this point, I really have no idea what sort of design I am going to create on here, but since the season is upon us, a Halloween design seems appropriate. At first, I thought of something in candy corn colors, so I drew a couple of circles on the top. The question is... will it end up candy corn-ish... or will it be transformed into something completely unexpected?

You'll have to come back to see...

A few of my favorite things...

In anticipation of "The Holiday Project" that should be starting just into October, I'm sharing a few of my favorite projects with you... maybe it will inspire you to share yours with us!

Pumpkin Man pattern and tutorial... my version of one Martha did.

What? You don't know about The Holiday Project? Seriously? Where have you been? Here' are the details in short form (the longer version of it is here):

Needlepoint witch hat... part 1

Witch hat part 2

Witch hat part 3

Witch hat finishing instructions

"So, here is what I'd like to do... I'm issuing a call to all of you wonderful folks who stop by my blog, whether you are regulars or every now-and-again-ers... I'd like to do a few, maybe several depending on the response I get, posts beginning in October and extending it until it fizzles out, that share links to projects on other blogs in regard to the holidays coming up in starting with Halloween (yes, I edited the post if you read it early... I'm not going to skip it after all). This is a great way to share what you do, and to share your blog..."

Mod Podge transfer

So far... my in box has not been flooded. So, where are you guys? Start sharing your links with me so I can share with everyone else. (Just be sure to read the "rules" over on the original post.

Man in the moon journal page

In the mean time, the photos you see in this post lead you back to the tutorial that is on my blog for those projects... Just click on the links under them and you'll be magically transported to that tute...see, I share, so can you...

**An important note I want to add here.... IF you share your links with us, please send me the link you want to share, not the home page. Also... I don't know about you, but I hate signing up for something that sounds like fun then getting bombarded by emails from the person hosting it selling stuff. Won't happen here. If you email me your links, I will probably email you back thanking you, and telling you when to expect them to be posted here, but that's about it. Your email addresses are never handed to anyone else to be used for marketing, nor do I use them for it... that would just be rude.**

ArtsyBlogger links...

Ok... fall is definitely in the air, because at least two of the links this week have to do with pumpkins! Come see what everyone is sharing!

Paper Covered Pumpkins With Poetry
Cherie takes Dollar Store pumpkins and gives them an artsy makeover.



Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Eileen had fun learning how to create fine art with Photoshop.



Beading Arts
What do you do with copper tube beads? Make a fabulous necklace, of course!



Pumpkin Cheesecake
A wonderful fall dessert idea. Yum!

An announcement...

Well, I did it... finally. I swore I never would, but I did anyway... I find life happens that way sometimes.

ACreativeDream now has a facebook page. Shocking, I know. (At least it is to me.)

Drop by for a visit... and be patient with me, because I have no idea what the heck I'm doing yet.

And, you know I would never leave you in a lurch...

Since I know some folks are not all that comfortable with starting a project like Santa with no pattern... I drew you some!

Yup... I made you a couple of patterns so you can replicate the same Santa look. Here's what you need to know about the patterns...

These are "structured" compared to how I did mine, so their sizes are pretty even. Each pattern has three sizes to it. There is an 11" tall Santa, a 9.5" Santa, and a 7.5" Santa. The first pattern has three individual patterns on it, these indicate where the pattern is placed on a fold. They have one seam.

The second pattern actually shows you how to cut 5 Santas (same sizes as above) from a piece of fabric (folded) that is the size of a regular sheet of paper. Impressive huh? These Santas have two seams because they are not cut on a fold.

Here are a couple of other interesting tidbits... The Santas I made are sewn depending on the size of the scrap I had on hand, they aren't cut or sewn with any consideration to the straight grain of the fabric. This can, at times, lead to some sorta wonky Santas. Personally, I like that. It would drive others crazy. If you prefer a very straight and tall Santa, do pay attention to the grain of the fabric when you cut it. If you like letting them sort of go where they do, don't worry about it.

If you are going to gesso them and paint them, don't worry too much about the color of thread you sew them with. On the other hand, if you aren't going to paint the body, but plan to use colorful fabric to make the body (yes, that is absolutely possible... now give the possibilities a thought for just a moment... think about all that fabric at your favorite fabric store...), use coordinating thread to make the seams.

If you have any questions, please just let me know, you can leave them in the comment area, and I'll answer them there, or you can email them to me and I'll be happy to email you a response (the email is over there in the left side bar).

And, if you think I'm finished with this... just wait until you see what I have in store next week!

Santa part 1
Santa part 2
Santa part 3
The pattern

Ahh... Santa... let's finish him up...

So here is my already pretty adorable Santa.

He's been sewn, stuffed, weighted, gesso-ed, painted and details added.

Whew... I'm already tired... but I want you to see how absolutely adorable he is when he's finally finished, so let's soldier on.












The face is really simple. First, just add some flesh color... in whatever flesh tone you want.

And then add a couple of rosey cheeks...













To which I add just a touch of shading at the top.

Now, take note here, I am not exactly coloring where the lines are. And that is just fine.














Because, I'm going to add a beard, a moustache, and his furry hood.

First, I paint them in with white paint.














When I have the shape outlined the way I like it, I like to add some texture.

You can use the "snow" product, or do like I did and add a texturizing product to white paint.













And, what would Santa be without a bit of glitz? While the textured paint is still wet, I toss on some micro glitter... like confetti... and make a great big old mess.

After I sort of half heartedly clean up the mess... I add a couple of eyes (using that skewer again), after all, Santa has to see his list of those naughty or nice folks... right? And... ta-daaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaa...Santa.













Oh, you want to see the whole Santa? A close up is just not enough? He's so flattered... and happy to oblige.

Oh... but I am not finished with these shapes... come see what I do next...



Santa part 1
Santa part 2
Santa part 3
The pattern

Where were we...

Did I tell ya that a coat of gesso is applied before I start painting? No? Well, it is. That's the first step once the Santa is all sewn and stuffed. Cover it with a thin coat gesso and let it dry.

As the gesso dries it's going to cause the muslin to shrink just a wee bit. And, because these were not necessarily sewn with the straight grain of the fabric, they also tend to twist a bit while they shrink. I like what it does to the end piece... just a bit of a mystery as to how it will all turn out.

When the gesso is dry, then it can be painted.







Now, like I said on the last post, I can see this finished in my head. You may not see the same thing, so let me tell show you how I coax my vision out. First, I know Santa is going to need a face. So that I won't put the darker colors over the area where I want the face, I draw the area in.

See, it's just a little circle drawn on with a fine tip sharpie.








You guys have probably figured out by now that "traditional" is maybe not a word that really describes the colors I love to use. This is not going to be an exception to that. The palette I am going to use for this little guy is lime green, light teal, a turquoise blue, and a dark blue/teal... and a hot pink-raspberry-ish sort of pink, and white accents. It's kinda red and green... sorta...

And I start by using the lime green to randomly paint circles with a brush. And then I fill the circles with circles using the other blues sort of randomly.


When that gets going pretty well, I start filling in the background with the hot pinkish/raspberryish paint. I've watered the paint down a bit (about 1 part water to 3 parts paint), and if you look at the photo, you can see it almost looks like ink more than paint. That's because I have the undercoat of gesso. If I hadn't started there, the paint would be absorbed into the fabric. For me, that inky look really works, I like the unevenness of it, but if you are doing something like this and don't care for that look, just don't water down the paint.



Once all of the color is painted in, circles and background both, you must let it dry. Why oh why this step is necessary is just a mystery to me... you'd think I could figure out a way to skip it... but no. Heavy sigh...

Anyway, once it is dry, I wanted to add some detail to make it interesting... and guess what tool I bring out? Yup... that handy-dandy-pokey-turny-now painty tool... the bamboo skewer.

This little tool has turned out to be quite versatile. The pointy tip draws great short, straight lines and close to perfect dots.

See... aren't they great? All you have to remember is that when you first apply the paint, it's wet. And it stays that way for a couple of minutes... so keep your fingers clear of where you put the dots and stripes.








And then... before you know it... he's ready for a face. Ok, honestly, this took 4 days overall to get to this point... but he is worth it.

I mean, is this just adorable or what?

Tomorrow I'm going to make it even more adorable-er... I'll add his cute beard and face...

Santa part 1
Santa part 2
Santa part 3
The pattern

Look... it's Santa...

Trying so hard to get a jump on Christmas here. I made my list, and checked it twice... decided that most had been naughty... but I'm still gonna get going on the holiday anyway. Naughty or nice, it's a long list. And, since I'm working on it, I'm gonna drag all of you into it too...

Whilst I was looking for something I ran across these things in a box. Doesn't look like much, does it? Just a pile of muslin with some sewing involved somehow. But actually, these are a lot of fun. Several years ago I made a whole "forest" of what I called tree Santas. Tall, skinny Santas, sorta shaped like trees. They have been favorites of mine since I made them. And, much like childbirth, it had been a long while since I made them, so I'd forgotten the effort involved...

And since I do love the ones I have, it seemed a great idea to work on these. Now... these are all different sizes, some are short, some are tall, some are somewhere in the middle. They were created from some left over muslin from another project that I had done, and honestly, were just a whim to use up the extra strips of fabric. Mine were folded in half, and a seam was sewn from the wide bottom to a point at the opposite end. Think triangle.... see up there...

Then comes the pain in the butt part... the turning. That skinny point at the top is pretty darned cute in the finished piece... but it is a bear getting there. This is where one of my favorite, handy-dandy, pokie tools come into play... a bamboo skewer. The blunt end of the bamboo skewer that is. The pointy end is pretty destructive when it comes to fabric. This is a process that takes a few minutes, and a little bit of effort, if you want to get that tip out of there just right.






I do that by pulling the shape over the end of a pair of scissors to sort of open it a bit, and somewhere about an inch or so down I push the blunt end of the skewer into the fabric and draw the fabric down, while pushing the skewer up. Once that starts, and the majority of the fabric is turned, the tip is very gently, yet firmly, pushed out. I'd forgotten how much I really don't like this part. No wonder I had such a big pile of these things that were unfinished. Argh... But, since I am turning... I turned them all. At least that part is finished. Next we move on to the stuffing.









My handy, dandy pokey tool does double duty as a really good stuffing tool as well... nice when you can find something that does that... Once the shape is turned, you start with itty-bitty bits of polyfill, gently working them into the point. USE THE BLUNT END OF THE SKEWER... the pointed end will rip through the fabric, and, while that isn't the end of the world, it could also rip into your finger. That can be bloody, not to mention darned painful. This can be tedious, and it's really the ONLY part of this whole thing that I insist you do very carefully.




Stuff the shape a bit more than half way, or about 2 inches from the bottom, depending on the height of your Santa. You don't have to stuff it so firmly that it's rock hard, but you need enough in there to hold the shape. Since this guy is going to be "standing", you also need to add a bit of weight at the bottom of it. Usually, I'd use some poly-pellets for weight, but they are a bit large for this particular Santa, so I opted for some white rice. A small piece of paper turns into a cone, and rice is worked into the shape. Again my skewer helps out by poking the rice through the cone into the shape. The rice will add a lumpiness to the body of the Santa, so keep pushing it down to pack it pretty tightly. When the rice is in there nice and tight, a layer of polyfill is going to be added at the bottom so that it will hold the rice in while I sew the bottom on.




Once you have the rice and the last layer of polyfill in place, you want to gather the fabric so that you can attach the base. Using a needle and regular sewing thread run a gathering stitch around the edge of the fabric, and pull taught. It is not important at this point that the opening be completely closed, this is really just to make it more simple for you to sew the base on. (If you have four hands you can probably skip that step.)

Then it's on to making the bottom.




Since I want Santa to stand, something flat has to be at the bottom. There are a couple of ways to do that. I am going to sew one on the bottom, but you could also hot glue a wooden round at the bottom of it (that's what I did on the originals) once the shape is gathered. For the one I used here, I measured the bottom and cut a circle of cardboard (left over from the light box adventure), and a circle of muslin just a bit larger. Using sewing thread and a gathering stitch, gather the muslin around the circle. Take a couple of stitches to secure the gather and clip the thread.




Whew... tired yet? All that's left is stitching the bottom to the shape, and then we get to the fun part... so let's get on with the boring and tedious work so that we can get to the fun. I tend to do this in two parts. First, I run a rough ladder stitch all around just to get the bottom on the shape.







When I've gone all the way around with that, and have tugged it tight, I go back with a second set of stitches that are small and much more tight so that there won't be a chance of things falling apart later. Even though these stitches are much smaller and finer, they will be seen (even if not noticed) in the finished piece, so make them little. Of course, if you don't want to stitch, you can use hot glue. But that's cheating... it's the easy way out... (and all of you who are smart enough to use it, I salute you!).







Finally! A triangular shape that can stand on its own! I see a Santa there, among so many other things... how about you?

No? Really? You don't see the cute little curly moustache? Hmm... maybe if you turned your head upside down and looked?

Maybe you will if I paint it on there? And I will, but now I am just exhausted from all this work, so I'll save that to start in the next post.


Santa part 1
Santa part 2
Santa part 3
The pattern