Sneak Peek (new little friends)

This little blue bird is eagerly waiting to meet his bride to be.

 Mini mushroom

My first attempt at making a little bunny which is still in it's construction phase. I am not sure what further detail he will have for a mouth or belly.

Enjoy the rest of your week :  )

~noa

Sneak Peek (slowly but surely)

It feels like a long time coming. I have so many ideas and hope to be able to execute them soon. One of them involves wedding toppers which will incorporate bride and groom birds such as below.  I hope you like them as much as I do. 

A Field Guide to Fabric Design

Truly an awesome book by Kim Kight of True Up.

I have been following Kim's blog, which is dedicated to all things fabric, for sometime. When I read that she was going to write a book, I was ecstatic. I have been interested in designing fabric, but I was not sure how the whole process works let alone where to begin. This book was well worth the wait as it is well laid out and easy to comprehend. It covers a wide range of information with a good mix of history, step-by-step tutorials, business tips, manufacturing, materials, and color theory. It is a really good reference book and I could see many colleges using this book in their class rooms. 

I liked that she mentions how to develop your own style by setting constraints to avoid "option paralysis". This is extremely helpful for someone like me who is indecisive and has too many ideas. This tip has helped me realize that I need to start creating inspiration boards and picking one theme to stick with. In this section, she also interviews designers to get tips from them of how they get through their creative blocks. These designers also pop-up throughout the book with additional input on whichever topic is at discussion.    

I am also pleased at how affordable this book is as some books in this category can be four or five times the price. You can tell that she put a lot of time and thought into making sure it was what she would have wanted to read. I would recommend this book to anyone who is either passionate about fabric or interested in getting into the business. 

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

It's my favorite time of year when the house starts to smell like baked cookies.  It's been a tradition in my boyfriend's family to make yummy cookie trays and present them as gifts.    

Pomellato

Oh, I'm in love with this Italian brand, especially their rings.  It has the perfect balance between contrast, color and sparkle. One day my dreams will match up with my pay, but until then I have the lovely imagery below.

Skip Hop Zoo Packs

Skip Hop has the cutest little kid backpacks. They also have more zoo animals to choose from as well as matching lunchies, bibs, tableware, etc. Check out their website for more items geared towards busy moms.

I Felt Awesome by Moxie

When I first started needle felting, I checked out all the books that my library had and  they were all the same.  I grew bored of them fast as I did not learn anything new that I hadn't already taught myself. I came across an artist by the name of Moxie and her work was rather unusual.  I don't usually like buying books online without seeing them first, but after I read her CNN interview, I knew it had to be worthwhile. It's great and filled with tons of tips and tricks.  She really does felt awesome and her large scale replicas of everyday items are just perfect.  I also liked how it's meant to look like a sketchbook.  I would have loved to have had this book sooner. Her website is MadeByMoxie.com 

The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook

I'm pretty excited that I found this lovely gluten-free cookbook, which I can't wait to try out the recipes. The author, Elana Amsterdam has a very nice website filled with a lot more recipes.  

I've recently completely changed how I eat, so this cookbook is a great find. I have eliminated all Wheat, Corn & Cow based Dairy from my diet. I am six weeks into eating based on my Blood Type and I have  also recently fined tuned it with the food combining method.  To some, this might seem a bit radical and with some scepticism, but I figured I'd try it out and see if it's practical.  It is rather hard when your the only person in a household eating healthy.  So far, I am enjoying how much energy that I have. I have also lost 12 pounds and no longer have heartburn. I have been keeping my calories between the 1,500 and 1,700 range until I reach a healthy weight. I am able to track my progress using Spark People. They have a very easy to use free nutrition, weight and exercise tracker where you can plug in all your daily intake. I can also plug in recipes to figure out the calorie count per serving.  

I do miss being able to eat white bread and ice cream, but I have been able to control myself. Although I do have to admit that I did cheat last week and had some Publix Premium Caramel Ice Cream.  The first few bites were yummy, but then having been without sugar for so long, I just could not handle eating another spoonful. I guess without knowing it, I weened myself off of sugar.  I am amazed how much of our culture thrives on wheat and corn. It is in everything and so I am always looking for new alternatives to substitute everyday items that we would typically consume.  I hope the recipes in this cookbook taste as good as they look.  

Homemade Caramel & Cacao Marshmallows

I decided to make some marshmallows from scratch. It took several batches and recipes before they came out just the way I had imagined. Once you find the perfect recipe, the process to make them before they have to set, only takes 30 to 40 minutes. There are many recipes out there and the outcome can be different depending on how many gelatin packets it calls for, the temperature you boil your sugar syrup to or whether you use corn syrup. I also make the caramel as the marshmallows are mixing in the stand mixer. The marshmallows take at least 8 to 12 hours to set.

I made these with organic cacao powder and it gives them a nice rich chocolate taste.  This recipe was slightly different then the caramel ones as you have to incorporate the cacao paste into the mix before you pour your sugar syrup into the mixer.

These were the first Caramel one's that I made.  I did not use corn syrup and they came out much lighter than what I was going for.  I used brown rice syrup in the caramel and it had a nice flavor. 

I was very happy how my last caramel batch came out.  I poured my marshmallow batter in a round pan, but I would use a square one next time. Besides coating the pan with vegetable oil and powdered sugar, I added a piece of parchment paper on the bottom so that I can turn it over on a cutting surface. I also drizzled the caramel over the top of the marshmallow batter after I poured it in the pan.  I then swirled it with a skewer. I let my batch sit overnight before I cut into it. 

I found a nice French recipe for salted butter caramel from David Leblebovitz that complimented the marshmallows insanely well.  I mean this was so amazing and delicious that people told me to sell them. I did not boil my syrup to the complete 310ºF as I did not want my caramel to be so solid. I believe I boiled it around 270ºF. I also used organic brown rice syrup which gives it a nice flavor. I'd love to also try this recipe with crème fraîche.

I'd love to try and make them all vegan with some type of gelatin alternative and just brown rice syrup instead of corn, but i'm not sure if it's possible.  One of my batches with just brown rice syrup did not come out correctly, so I'd have to make several more attempts to get it right. 

That's what she said

Awhile back, I mentioned that I had won a contest to be featured in an interview with Melinda of Simply Smitten.  This is my first interview ever and it was fun to do.  It's now up on her blog for all to see.  Click on the image below to read my answers.