Monthly Archives: August 2016

Red Barn With Sunflowers…

Posted on August 22, 2016 by mvobsession | Comments Off

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Sussex County, New Jersey

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Tagged architecture, barns, buildings, farms, flowers, gardens, New Jersey, outdoors, Photographs

Dog Days of Summer…

Posted on August 20, 2016 by mvobsession | Comments Off

Boonton, New Jersey

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We used to have a dachshund named Mustard so I particularly liked the one here covered in mustard packets

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Tagged animals, art, dogs, New Jersey, Pets, Photographs, statues

The Pancake Queen

Posted on August 18, 2016 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

Oona has always been our pancake fiend. Since she was old enough to take her first bite, she’s been completely obsessed. Every morning she’d have pancakes (or “panic-cakes”, as she called them) if she could. The problem is, I don’t necessarily want to make them every day.

Neve is pretty proficient with them, but Oona has also had trouble convincing her to get up early to whip out a batch for her. So recently, Oona decided to take matters into her own hands. She searched around Pinterest until she found a good, easy recipe she could put together on her own. Then she went to work.

Over the past few months she’s gotten good enough that she can make a batch of perfect – if plain – pancakes on her own. I decided yesterday it was time she upgraded to a better recipe.

Now, there are lots and lots of pancake recipes I like, but I decided Oona would love the recipe from New England Farmgirl, by my friend Jessica. Using maple sugar in the batter charmed Oona right away, and I knew we had a winner.

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She’ll need to practice folding in the beaten egg whites before she gets it just right, but she’s ready to jump in and try.

We decided to use blueberries this time, and the results were just what we wanted: light, fluffy, perfect pancakes.

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I had to restrain myself so as not to eat the entire plate. Before I know it, I’ll be waking up to these beauties more often than not. And how can you start a day better than that?

Tagged: food

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Tagged food, Kids, Uncategorized

Yellow Sunflower…

Posted on August 18, 2016 by mvobsession | Comments Off

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Tagged black and white, flowers, Photographs, sunflowers

Mind-Blowing

Posted on August 18, 2016 by --Deb | Comments Off

What’s the most mind-blowing, world-changing book you’ve ever read? (Or article, poem, whatever.)

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

And also–don’t forget, folks–sometimes WordPress’s spam filter seems to decide that a lot of perfectly valid answers are spam. I periodically check throughout the day for lost comments. But, PLEASE–if your comment doesn’t show, don’t post it four more times in the hopes that one of them will go through. I get very, very tired trying to sort out the duplicates (grin).

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Tagged Wordpress

Bright & Cheery Tea Set

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Adri H. | Comments Off

Project Brief: Design a cheery tea set for a Sunny client. 1x tea cup, 1x saucer, 1x napkin

The brief called for the design of a teacup, saucer, and napkin... but who could resist not designing the entire set?! Not I! I love tea!

What should it have on each piece? I'm not a big fan of the lacy, teensy, frilly flower on my tea sets as many traditional ones do. And lately, I've been really enjoying working with traditional printmaking methods especially linocut. I made a bunch of patterns and arrangements using stamps I made on my own, and some I took into the digital realm and began testing repeats that way. I was really excited to use my recent patterns on something I'd love to own and see every day. I'm a big fan of tea and the paraphernalia that comes with drinking it.

So I set about sketching and came up with a concept that I'd love to have in my own home. The sketch gave me a general idea of how I'd present my work, and then I set about testing colors.

My first tests with pink...

Oh, I was so unhappy with this color combo! It's not me at all! I'd never buy it. After asking my fellow finches why I hated this so much, they reminded me I don't usually use pink in this way... and they're right, this is not really my shade of pink, nor do I own any pink tableware or pair it with sunshine yellow. Out went the pink!

Once the bright aqua and seafoam green went in, I was gelling. The work just came together so quickly. I knew I had to have sugar tongs and a sugar container, a little creamer, too! Finishing touches...

And lastly, I went to work balancing the tea-set. I wanted to have a nice mix and match tea set and napkins that could work in many different combinations. So the second saucer carried the more intense color, and the mugs match. The tea tray got a nice under-pattern and texture to match.

There you have it! Tea for two... a cuppa for me and one for you!

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Tagged Color, design, illustration, MATS, process

Bright & Cheery Tea Set

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Adri H. | Comments Off

Project Brief: Design a cheery tea set for a Sunny client. 1x tea cup, 1x saucer, 1x napkin

My first tests with pink...

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Tagged Color, design, illustration, MATS, process

Review: Weekend Wraps

Posted on August 15, 2016 by --Deb | Comments Off

First, the facts:

Title: Weekend Wraps: 18 Quick Knit Cowls, Scarves & Shawls

Author: Cecily Glowik MacDonald & Melissa LaBarre

Published by: Interweave Press, 2016

Pages: 126 pages

Type: Wraps and accessories

Chapters:

1. A Few Quick Cowls
2. Cozy Shawls
3. Wrapped in Wool
4. Not Quite a Sweater

The In-Depth Look:

From the authors of one of my favorite books, comes this new collection of patterns.

They say in their introduction that they started with the questions: “What would you want to make over a weekend, if you could really just spend a few days relaxing and knitting? What would you want to wear on an autumn weekend away?”

Then, with the instructions that all the designs use worsted or heavier yarn so the projects could be finished in a weekend, they set their designers to work.

The list of designers is like a list of all-stars, too. In the order of appearance, they are: Carrie Bostick Hoge, Emma Welford, Thea Colman, Angela Tong, Rachel Stecker, Melissa LaBarre, Kate Gagnon Osborn, Leah B Thibault, Tanis Gray, Bristol Ivy, Leila Raabe, Kristen TenDyke, Jocelyn J Tunney, Cecily Glowik MacDonald, and Amy Christoffers.

There are 18 designs in all–cowls, shawls, wraps, and not-quite-sweaters. All of them are quick knits, meant for adding an extra layer of warmth on a cool day. The designs are simple without being boring, with enough interest to help your needles fly as you go. There are stitch charts as well as written row-by-row instructions, and schematics as needed, as well as the occasional sidebar to discuss a stitch or technique.

All in all, a book with lots of quick, fun potential. You can get your copy at Amazon or at your local shops.

Want to see bigger pictures? Click here.

This review copy was kindly donated by . Thank you!

My Gush: Fast and warm!

Other posts for this author:

New England Knits (One of my favorites)
Weekend Hats

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Tagged Accessories, Cecily Glowik Macdonald, Melissa LaBarre

Weekly Challenge: Fun…

Posted on August 13, 2016 by mvobsession | Comments Off

The challenge this week is to share something fun.

Seeing the musical comedy ‘Something Rotten’ in NYC last January was definitely one of the most fun plays ever.. It WAS the funniest musical written in the past five centuries and it was fun, fun, fun.