Bob is an awesome dog. We go running and camping together. He plays in the yard while I garden. And tonight he even helped me find a chicken that decided to hunker down in a bush instead of the coop — oh yeah and it’s pouring rain outside. We are a team. Even right now he’s cuddled up between Jason and I on the couch snoring. Adorable. Bob has a problem. He loves me too much. So when I’m doing something like knitting, which means I’m not doting on him, he grabs whatever smells like me or whatever seems like a good squishy play thing and mouths it. He doesn’t usually rip it to shreds. No, he just kind of tugs at it and cuddles it and gives it a little chew.

Before we realized what was going on we came home to find that he had collected every single one of my shoes (about 4 pairs) into his bed and was gently mouthing them – thank goodness or I would have been out all my favs. I can only imagine he was shedding doggy tears wondering when I would return (we were on a bike ride). Well, we’ve kept all my shoes in the closet now and that’s that.

Except now he’s turned on my knitting. Having sat in my lap and having literally every inch of yarn pass through my hands means my knitting is super awesome Kristin replacement in his mind. Well, right behind smelly shoes – I have the smelliest of feet. Read more →

After 2 weeks of take out, dine in, dine out, drive through, diner food, and dining in the car Jason and I are ready for a serious adjustment to our eating habits.

Don’t get me wrong, eating pretty much whatever we wanted was fun. We had a ton of amazing food from literally all over the united states. All over!
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In case you missed it, I shared a recipe and story about making French Toast - which is a delicious breakfast staple.

It was a pretty light week otherwise because of my travels. Last weekend was the Maker Faire (awesome), and Jason and I decided to drive around the country for a bit afterwards. Kind of meander our way home, taking detours and stops with friends as desired. I’m actually writing this in the car while Jason is driving.

Looking forward: if you live in the Des Moines area, check out this Saturday’s Market Day Iowa. I’ll be there with bells (and mending on)!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

Create

1. Beautiful Fabric Pendant - I can just imagine a little fabric leftover being used for this.
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With my last making of French Toast, curiosity took over and I just had to know the origins of this most delightful toast type. And part of me was thinking, “Now is this really french?”

Well, I’m still not really sold on it being exclusively French because egged bread has been around since bread has been. But the French seemed to really make it stick. The story goes that most french foods were developed to hide the fact that they were going stale, rancid, etc.

But again, I think that was a sign of the times (no refrigeration). And tossing stale bread wasn’t an option because the whole making it from scratch everytime thing, think little red hen’s story of growing the grain and grinding it.

So across the world, egg bread was considered the premier way to use up your stale bits. It made it less “meh” and gave it a protein boost in the mix. Toss in some cinnamon and sugar and you are on your way from stale to steller right?

Here’s how I like to make our french bread:

You’ll need 2 eggs, a quarter cup of milk, a 1/2 T cinnamon, powder sugar, stale bread, and a skillet.

1. Start heating up your skillet (10-12″ works well)
2. Crack 2 eggs in a pie pan and add 1/4 cup milk. Usually I egg ball it by adding enough milk to cover the whole bottom of the pan, but not so much that it covers the whites of the eggs.
3. Whisk well and dip the stale bread in the egg mixture, sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon, flip the bread over and egg up the other side and add more cinn.
4. Place the egged bread in the pan and let it sit until browned, about 5 minutes on medium heat. If you try and flip it too soon it will just stick.
5. Flip and cook the other side.
6. Place a plate a dust powdered sugar for a classy look.

I’m sitting on my friend’s couch right now…. no big… except that my friend’s couch is in San Francisco! Jason and I packed the car on Tuesday and have done an epic cross country journey to get here. 33 hours, 3 mountain ranges, and holy moly I’m glad we opted to get the fuel efficient car last year!

Why am I here? The Bazaar Bizarre inside the Maker Faire! I have a booth there this weekend and I’ll be selling the Craft Leftovers zine, Mend it Better, back issues, and in general be there to answer questions and chat.

When I inherited my lastest stash in mid March I just new I had to share these stories with you. I’ve been so fortunate, and kind of a sucker, when it comes to getting free and super cheap craft supplies and tools!

In Volume 4: when you order the print version, you get instant access to the full color PDF version of the zine too! A little print love, a little instant gratification, a whole lot of crafty goodness!

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They want out.

He wants in so he can do to them what he’s doing to this bucket. Chewing the crap out of it.

Since we got Bob in March we’ve been doing this shuffling act of letting him out, putting him in, letting the chicken out, putting them up, letting bob out. About 3-4 times a day.

I put up a chicken fence awhile ago, but not only was it not keeping him out (he would either knock it down or just hurdle it), they also would jump or just squeeze out from under it.

After a few episodes of Bob chasing the chickens and me chasing Bob, I knew this “solution” wasn’t a solution at all and I really needed to put up a more sturdy, taller structure.

Read the full story and see the how to after the jump…

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We were up at 6am Saturday morning shuffling around the house, getting coffee and stocking the citizens up on pets and food for the day. We were doing our first Market Day Iowa in 3 years. It’s funny, to remember that I thought “what issue was I selling?” Oh yeah, Volume 1!

So 3 years and 3 volumes of zines later, Market Day and I have both grown!

Read the whole recap after the jump Read more →

Links to all the things I want to make with my craft leftovers that I just don’t have time for. One can dream!

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