Don’t forget to get your whipup 2009 calendar - featuring 13 amazing works from 13 fantastic makers. Purchase through redbubble – international shipping is very reasonable and calendar quality is excellent.
The calendar features makers whose work is incredibly detailed – jodie’s selvedge dress, Shula’s baby wedding jacket and Helle’s crochet experiments.
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jess at how about orange directs us to these super cool animal sticker downloads from Lotta Bruhn.
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Nicky Epstein’s Signature Scarves: Dazzling Designs to Knit
I always thought of scarves as something you used to teach a person new to knitting how to knit, and to achieve a quick result that would encourage them to go on to build up skills. But this book, changed my mind about that limited view of scarves.
The colourful ‘Majestic Fair Isle’ if worn with a coat when commuting or on a cold winter’s morning, would make one feel very smart while wearing it. The ‘Patchwork Floral’ and ‘Winter Roses’ scarves make for fun designs – for a little knitting playtime.
The pattern designs in this book include so many different knitting styles and levels of skills with endless inspiration – including cables, fair isles, applied designs, felting etc – there are many felted designs – which I love but if you are not interested in felting your hand knitting then this book may not be for you.
The illustrations are very clear and detailed. There is a good beginner knit section and a section on making embellishments. Altogether I think it is an extremely interesting knitting book – and I highly recommend it.
About the reviewer: Janette spends her retirement working on all things yarn related. When not knitting, crocheting, felting or spinning she is slowly doing up an old weaving loom and plans to have a go on that as soon as she possibly can.
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Don’t forget to get your whipup 2009 calendar - featuring 13 amazing works from 13 fantastic makers. Purchase through redbubble – international shipping is very reasonable and calendar quality is excellent.
The whipup calendar has a mix of crafts – including the cover their four makers whose soft sculpural toys are featured with Sandra’s viking on the cover, Abby’s sculpture bird, Mimi’s pirate doll, and Emily’s babushka dolls. [click for full size image - or go here to view the whole calendar]
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About the author: Nikki is turning her love of crafting into a full time career by starting her own small business making handmade jewelry. Whenever she is not making jewelry she is knitting, crocheting, sewing, drawing, cutting, gluing, and in general driving her husband nuts with her need to have “just one more project.” Blog :: etsy store
Do you have a ton of holiday meal leftovers? Don’t feel like cooking again for a while? Why not make pot pies for the freezer. This recipe will make either two large pies or twelve mini pies. Ingredients are flexible, use what you’ve got. No leftover ingredient is unwelcome in a pie.
How-to
You can either use store bought pastry (or premade piecrusts) [but if you are into being a little frugal - making it is very easy - try martha's recipe works every time]. You might like to only cover the top of the pie, as top and bottom pastry can be very filling – your choice though to put pastry on the top only or give the pie a top and bottom.
In a very large pot, add Chicken breast cut up into bite size pieces (or left over turkey, chicken, lamb, roast, pork….etc.), a packet of french onion soup mix, chopped basil and garlic (or other herbs) and some olive oil – cook these together over medium heat until the chicken is almost done cooking, or if you are using cooked leftovers – just to brown them a little and combine the flavors – should take just a couple minutes.
Then add to the pot: diced potatoes and heaps of chopped veggies – whatever your family likes – tomato, carrots, mushrooms etc. (sometimes I make half and half batches and add peas later as not everyone is a fan, that is the joy of mini pies, everyone can have exactly what they want.)
Then add a can of cream of potato soup, a can of cream of chicken soup [alternatively - if you don't have canned soup on hand add some cream and chicken stock and mashed potato to thicken] and a bottle of Beer (I think so far Guinness has been my favorite.) Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cook on the stove for 25 minutes stirring lightly to prevent the bottom from burning.
Spoon out the mixture into the waiting tins (either with or without pie crust bottoms) cover the pies. I freeze most of mine without baking them.
If you are connecting the crusts, pinch them like you would a pie. If you are just covering the top, then simply push the edges down onto the pie container. Add a little design of left over pastry – a circle or square or leaf shape on top (held on with a little water or egg white) to designate which ones have peas or pepper etc for the rest of the family.
To cook the pie right from the fresh batch on the stove – place in 350 F oven for 25-30 minutes, then let cool for 5 minutes, enjoy!
To cook the frozen pies – preheat oven to 350 F and cook for 50-60 minutes, then let cool for 5 minutes, enjoy! We are happy to eat leftovers now!
Want to contribute to whipup – read our submission guidelines – January: New Year – resolutions – new ideas – post holiday frugality
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Don’t forget to get your whipup 2009 calendar - featuring 13 amazing works from 13 fantastic makers. Purchase through redbubble – international shipping is very reasonable and calendar quality is excellent.
The whipup calendar has a mix of featured crafts – knitted goods feature with Jared’s miniature sweaters and Aprill’s pinwheel blanket.
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About the Author: My name is Laura but I am referred to as Swirl on my blog. I am the mother of four boys and love to find ways to motivate my children and myself to do things we should do.
It’s the beginning of a new year and for many families this means making some resolutions. I would like to offer an idea that is a fun way to jump start your family in healthier habits.
Inspired by action packed reality tv shows, our family enjoys a family activity we call, ‘Fitness Teams’. Usually after the holidays, a vacation or any other time we feel our family is in a fitness slump we divide into two teams and enjoy a friendly competition to see which team can gain more points by drinking water, exercising and eating vegetables. (*You can customize your categories to fit the needs of your individual family.)
How to Start:
Start by setting three or so categories that you would like to highlight during the next month. For our family, the categories are always: water, exercising and vegetables. Make a point chart – this is a fun bit that the kids can
do.
Our Point system:
1 point for an 8 oz glass of water
3 points for a serving size of vegetables, 2 points for eating half a serving size and 1 point for just eating a few bites.
Then a point for every minute of exercising. (20 min bike ride = 20 points.)
Pick two team captains from your family. (Mom and Dad might be good captains to begin with.)
Team captains pick teammates privately (this way no one’s feelings are hurt they were ‘picked last’ – or names can be drawn from a hat), the captain then names the team and designs a sheet of paper for their score card, which is placed on the refrigerator or some other equally accessible location. The team captain must also keep track of points for the week and are responsible for motivating the team members.
By the end of the week – tally up points. The winning team in our family gets to pick what dessert we enjoy (We limit dessert to once a week) or choose another appropriate prize for your family.
Then NEW team captains are picked and NEW teams are made. We do our fitness teams until everyone has had a chance to be a captain at least once (three weeks in a row for our family at least). Sometimes we add a fitness challenge (my boys are really into push-up contests). Sometimes I add a surprise ‘food challenge’ where I introduce something new to the family and they get extra points for trying it. I’ve introduced v8 juice, eggplant, artichokes and brussel sprouts. I’ll never forget our first week trying this new idea, over the usual dinner conversation my oldest son encouraged my husband to ‘step it up’ on his vegetables intake (read another funny anecdote here).
You might be surprised by the fun your family can have and the spirit of team work in your home as children encourage parents and each other to eat their vegetables and get out moving together.
would you like to contribute to whipup? see guidelines here. January is all about new year resolutions and post holiday frugality.
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Don’t forget to get your whipup 2009 calendar - featuring 13 amazing works from 13 fantastic makers. Purchase through redbubble – international shipping is very reasonable and calendar quality is excellent.
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