craft boston

on sunday, the husband and i made our way boston's seaport world trade center to visit craft boston.  the show runs twice a year, once in the spring and once in the winter.  while i would have hardly called it spring-like on sunday with temperatures still hovering in the 30s and low 40s, at least it was a sunny day, and the show was indoors.  something funny i noticed is, exactly a year ago, we visited the bayou city art festival in houston.  what are the odds?   anyway, the show had about 200 artisans and we easily spent a few hours admiring everyone's work.  it was incredibly hard to walk away without doing serious damage to our wallets, but i managed, even though it still hurts to remember all the beautiful items i had to leave behind.  

shoes for the tiny

the craft room is still coming together, but in the mean time i've snuck in some sewing here and there.  these baby shoes are for a friend's baby shower this weekend (my first big social event in boston).  the pattern i used is from ithinksew.com, and is really well put together.  

but, to be honest, i am not particularly happy with how the shoes turned out - it can be terribly frustrating to work on something so tiny (absolutely no fault of the pattern maker)!  they ended up being a little wonky. 

i'm hoping my friend won't notice. i'm also hoping the baby won't either. how embarassing would it be if she rejected my shoes?

ways to rid yourself of 30 yards of felt #5: felt rosette wreath

my friend olivia of olivia's ultimate recently began a new cute blog with a friend of hers called deux petite amie. she posted a felt rosette wreath tutorial in february that would be a great way to use excess felt, if you ever find yourself in a predicament like mine. 
check it out the full tutorial here.

noodles with sesame sauce

so far in the race to become liveable space, the kitchen is winning.  while there are still cabinets to organize, and items to place, it is more or less functional.  one of the first dishes i made in our new kitchen is noodles with sesame sauce, one of my favorite kind of chinese noodles.   it's a very easy dish to make, and completely delicious.  the husband can't get enough of of the sauce, and neither can i.  i often double or triple the recipe so we have plenty of leftovers. 

ingredients

1/3 lb chinese wheat noodles (prepare as indicated on package)
shredded chicken breast (i steamed mine)
shredded cucumber

sauce
(this can be made in advance) in a medium sized bowl, combine the following, mixing with each additional ingredient:
3 tb sesame paste (found at asian grocery stores)
1/2 tb sugar
1/2 tb vinegar
2 tb soy sauce
2 tb sesame oil (found in the asian aisle at a regular grocery store)
5-7 tb water, depending on your preference- start with less and taste test

start with the noodles on the bottom, add shredded chicken and a generous amount of sauce, and top with shredded cucumber.

this dish can also be served cold. 

serves 2.

ways to rid yourself of 30 yards of felt #4: make tissue holders

my new craft room looks like this right now:

which is why i have nothing to show you.  however, i'd like to share these felt tissue holders my friend made  using martha stewart's tutorial. cute huh? i really like the little flower detail she added.

i plan on making a bunch of these for my mom and her thousand friends later on. it seems like the kind of thing they'd like.  and yes, i brought the majority of my felt stash with me, although i did give away a yard or two, and i parted with a lot of scraps (that was really hard).