So very busy! I’ve been cleaning like a mad woman (for once!), working my butt off, and finally diving into some cooking! I made a delicious cream of Jerusalem Artichoke Soup the other night! (To clarify, Jerusalem Artichokes are not from Jerusalem. And they aren’t artichokes. But they are also called sunchokes!) I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. I had to improvise due to the lack of a food processor, so I used a masher instead. It ended up being more like chunky Jerusalem artichoke soup, delicious, except the sunchokes didn’t cook thoroughly despite my extra 20 or so minutes of simmering. They had a texture similar to water chestnuts, and an interesting potato-and-artichoke-like taste.
I’ve also been trying rather hard to tackle a craft project nightly! My goal is to get better at everything I try, basically!

One thing I worked on extensively for a whole entire night were some origami boxes. Can you believe I JUST NOW learned how? This particular article from How About Orange says something about “Elementary school being eons ago” with a lesson to refresh your memory. Whaaaat!? My elementary school didn’t teach origami, so this is more of a new thing to me than a refresher! Thankfully I had a bunch of origami paper that I’ve had since I was probably, oh, I dunno, TWELVE! (I don’t think I’ve met an artist that wasn’t a hoarder, really.) The best thing about this article is that this box is actually made of fabric! There’s a link within to the tutorial about stiffening fabric so you can make your own adorable little fabric origami box! In the mean time, I’ll continue practicing with paper so I don’t mess up the fabric and end up pressing it over and over!

On a seperate, yet completely craft related note, I just purchased some book board and some beautiful decorative/wrapping paper from Paper Source! It’s likely I won’t be using the paper for wrapping (unless I have scraps! I will use every sliver of this gorgeous paper!), but rather the end pages of a handmade journal! They also sell book cloth, (and INKJET LINEN BOOK CLOTH!) which I hadn’t realized until after I made my purchase. I’ll just wait until next time I suppose!

Another thing I’ve been playing with are these stitch tutorials from Stitch Diva! Very easy to read (and giant pictures to go with it!) and understand tutorials for basic and even advanced stitches of crochet! You can also purchase knit and crochet patterns as well!

Well, that’s all for now! I just thought I’d drop in and give you all a heads up about what I’ve been up to lately! Craft on, my lovelies, and feel free to let me know when you’ve attempted any of these beautiful tutorials/DIYs (please link to pictures!) and I’ll feature your finished product in a post.

P.S. I’m also preparing to paint my entire kitchen and replace some hardware! (Including the tile. Someone has previously painted it. Are they nuts?) I’ll post up before and after shots once it’s finished. :)

Curiously Crafty: Handmade Journal Tutorial

So I did try this myself, about a year or so ago. I gifted the journal to the Boy and he seems to appreciate it very much! Do you want to see it? Because I’m going to show it to you anyways.

Things I Learned:

1. To stretch the fabric more. Also to press it first. It’s fairly taut but could be more so, and those wrinkles right there could’ve been ironed out.
2. To use a bone folder. I could only make a signature about 3 pages thick, and they stuck out funny, folding it using my finger nail. (I attempted using a pen as a bone folder at first but that didn’t work too well.)
3. Measuring up correctly! I wanted a larger journal than the measurements in the tutorial, using full pages folded in half. I ended up measuring wrong and my endpapers were extremely off!
4. I put the cover guide on, then faced it towards the fabric. I think I did that backwards. Oops!!!!
5. FINALLY, using cardboard! Eugh! It buckles with glue and bends and folds! It works in a pinch, for sure, but in the future I wouldn’t mind investing in some bookboard some day.