I think most of us are beyond the world of Rolodex, but there is something nice about having all the physical contact info at your finger tips. When I go to craft fairs, craft shops, meet random people, I pick up their post cards, fliers, and business cards. While I always say, “Oh yeah, I’ll get back to you about x,y,z when I get back home,” without a designated home for all that paper, it usually gets shuffled into a drawer, or even worse, the recycling bin because I’ve forgotten what it was all about in the first place.

I started processing business contact paper (because sometimes it’s just a scrap of paper with a name and email, not even a business card) in a new way.

First, I wanted a way to make them all a standard size. I tried putting everything into a little box, but the big pieces of paper crowded out the little Moo cards.

Index cards were the right solution for me–index cards and a stapler actually.

Every time someone hands me a piece of paper with their info, I immediate write what to follow up with directly on it. So for instance someone says, ”Hi, I’m so and so, I think you should sell your zine in my shop/feature me on your blog/have a booth at our craft fair.” I take their card and write, “Email about wholesale/interview/craft booth by xx date.”

Then when I empty out my wallet, I take that little scrap, staple it to an index card and put it in my “file” which is an old recipe box.

When I follow up with them, I’ll write it on the index card that I did indeed do what I was supposed to.

It’s pretty simple, but it’s really helped me keep track of things, especially after the whirlwind of a big festival. For instance, after the Maker Faire last year, I was such a mess that I still haven’t contacted all the people I said I would. It’s only since I started using this little filing system that I’ve started keeping up on my post-craft-trip contacts.

How to do you keep track of all the business cards/contact info that flows through your office?

Happy crafting!
Kristin

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Okay, so I didn’t really “roll” but–wow–I could have! I have a lot of yarn, more than I realized. Every time I think I have it all documented, I find another skein stashed in some drawer or bin or purse.

This past weekend I took all the yarn I have and dumped it into piles on my studio floor. What a mess that was and what fun! It’s not often that I let myself to do that.

At first I sorted it by fiber–fancy stuff like silks and mohair in one pile, cotton and cotton blends in another, and wool in the last.

While the cotton and fancy fibers were just fine, the wool will need some subcategories. Since I don’t have enough shelf space to display it proudly (plus it’s tough to keep it organized that way) it will be going back into bins. That being the case, I’ve opted (as suggested by the kind folks on twitter) to subdivide my wool by weight. And since I have so much, I’m going to further group it by colorways and brands.

I’ve also opted to do another crazy thing. I took photos of all of it. Every single skein.

You can see them all in the Flickr Yarn Stash Set.

I opted to do this for a couple of reasons.
1. Because of the way I’m going to have to store it, in bins, it will be nice to flip through my flickr set to see what I have when deciding what to make with what next.
2. I’m going to list a bunch in my shop in the stash section so while taking pictures of some, why not just do it all.
3. It will help me with my before and after idea because I’ll have a stock of all the yarn I have (the before) already done.
4. It’s had the added bonus of giving me loads of practice shooting photos.

Will I keep track of all this on Ravelry? Most likely not. While I like Ravelry and their “stash” section of the notebook, It would just add one more step. I’m taking stock of more than just yarn and I don’t want to double list things. I’ve set up a series of Collections and Sets on Flickr where all the before and afters, stash photos, WIPs, and stash kit pictures can be found.

Here’s my first Before & After too! This weekend we had lunch with Jason’s folks and while we were chatting back at the house I grabbed a skein of cotton yarn and crocheted up this little dishcloth.

Another golden example of how I started crochet before I took my “before” shot. Ah well, you can still see that there was about 2 oz of yarn there and now there is like 10 yards. Progress!

Next up I’ll start digging through my misc. craft supplies and documenting those too: embroidery, polymer clay, buttons, trim, lacy stuff, bias tape, weaving supplies. Ahh, I love craft supplies. :)

How do you keep your yarn sorted?

Happy crafting!
Kristin

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When I was a kid I always thought poached eggs were fussy and weird. Why in the world would someone want a nasty, rubbery, boiled-in-water egg? And how does that even work anyway? If all those “healthy” people are claiming it’s divine it must be bland and blah.

I honestly have no idea why I decided to try poaching an egg. I also can’t remember where I learned how to do it. It’s totally different than how my mom showed me–which involved spooning boiling water and lots of fussing. Was it Julia Child? Maybe Martha Stewart?

In the last 2 years of living in Ames, I just gave it a shot. Now I have eggs and yogurt or eggs and oatmeal or eggs and greens or eggs and sausage (featured in today’s post) every morning.

If you like hard boiled eggs, you will like poached eggs. Promise. And unlike my mom’s method, this is a can’t-screw-it-up method.

Here we go, poached eggs!

All you need is:
1 small sauce pan filled with approximately 1″ water (remember, don’t fuss!)
1 teaspoon vinegar – You can use white or cider vinegar, they are both tasty
1-2 eggs
Slotted spoon – this is key!

Bring the water and vinegar up to a boil, reduce to a simmer (medium heat) and drop in two eggs (no shells please).

Let the eggs cook for about 5 minutes. You want the yolks to just be starting to solidify so they won’t break when you flip those babies with a slotted spoon. The picture above is right after I flipped them.

Let the eggs cook about 2-3 minutes and remove with the slotted spoon. Lay on a cloth napkin so the excess water is absorbed.

And devour! Yum yum yum!

Poached eggs are great any time of the day. They make delicious sandwiches, are great with fresh spinach greens, tasty with cheese or a salad or both. I like mine on toast with ground mustard and parsley.

Some poaching FAQs:

Why the vinegar? It helps to keep the egg from foaming up and over-flowing the pot.
Why do you flip with a slotted spoon? Because the yolks have a tendency to break their if you grab them any other way. The slotted spoon allows you to cup them, whites and yolk, without breaking the yolk.
What if I like my poached eggs runny? Don’t cook them as long as I do.
What if I like my poached eggs to be more compact? Add less water to the pot.
Why did my poached eggs flake apart? Most likely you have too much water in the pan OR not enough vinegar.

Enjoy!
Kristin

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Volume 2: Issue 8 is hot off the presses!

In the September issue I have delved into the world of miniature crafting. It’s been a blast making tiny crafts on the small scale and reminiscing about playing with my Pink Panther as a kid. Ah the adventures that 10″ high pink plushie and I had.

:: Get Your Copy :: Get a Subscription ::

::Table of Contents::

Hi Ya - Notes from me to you

Smitten Knitten – A knit kitty for your littlest friends
A Few of My Favorite Things – Delights from around the web

Mini Fabric Banner by Claire Chambers of Absolutely Small

Chatting with Denise of Denise’s Shop – the maker of the cutest tiny amigruimi creations around
The Crafty Life
Make a Matchbox by Su Mwamba of Tangle Crafts – You don’t need to buy matchboxes to use them for crafting anymore, Su shows us how to make our own from scraps of this and that!
On the Web – Highlights from the Craft Leftovers blog

Stitch up a Mini Tie Quilt for your mini bed
Color IT! Because who doesn’t love a little coloring from time to time. Take a breather from work and play with me a little bit.
Make Your Own Borrowers Rug – Inspired by the book series the Borrowers, Su has created a wonderful rug pattern to jazz up your small spaces.
Dwelling on Dollhouses – Reflections and stories about crafting for my 10″ friend as a kiddo. The dollhouses I made and why diy’ing with your kids can have lasting impressions and give fodder for good stories later in life.

Thrift Kitchen: Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes – Making a family reunion recipe for just Jason and I, and adding chocolate into the mix!
Mini CLM – That’s right, take this issue and cut it down to size. I show you how to make the smallest zine for your small space. This is the cutest issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly because on these pages you will be given everything you need to make it 1″ tall – that’s like 1/7 scale right?
Find the Words – Take a break, grab a pencil, and find those crafty words in this month’s word find.
Tiny Reading Chair – Now your little friend (Like a Chicken Pants just maybe) will have a place to read their own Craft Leftovers Monthly. This quick to make chair is all the latest in small scale carpentry – in the way that all you need is some fabric scraps, old fleece, mat board, and hot glue. Excellent!
Knitting on the Smallest Scale with the Smallest Hands What are the best found materials for knitting needles for your 10″ tall friend? Well I’ve tried them all and here is what I found.
Until Next Time

::This month’s contributors::

Clair Chambers — absolutelysmall.com –

Su Mwamba — tanglecrafts.co.uk –

Fanie Grégoire — thecraftylife.com –

:: Get Your Copy :: Get a Subscription ::

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

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By Friday the coop was just about ready to go. All we had to do was get some provisions and put on the roof.

We opted for the mason jar style feeder and water holder. And some feed called Start n’ Grow. And one huge bag of pine shavings.

(We dubbed them Mac n’ Cheese. Mac is on the left and Cheese is on the right.)

Sunday we put the roof on and it actually was really easy. I just have to say that those Garden Ark instructions are amazing. We were able to finish in one week just putting in a few hours each day. I think I’m actually going to miss working on a wood working project each morning.

The coop is a really great design. There is an egg door on one side:

And then a larger double door on the other side – I open that one up in the morning so they can get out into the run. It also makes it easy to clean out the hen house. I’ve had a few people ask me about “what do you do with all the waste?” Well, waste not want not and all that junk, I just put it on the compost pile. The mixture of pine shavings and chicken poop is great for the garden.

We picked up our chickens from our friend Matt on Monday and they were not happy at all. They hated being in the carrier. I would like to say that they love their new home as much as we liked building it, but right now they are suffering from flock separation anxiety. They are used to chumming around in a flock of a dozen and now are feeling stressed that it’s just the two of them. When the sun started going down they started doing this little crying sort of chirp. Poor little ladies. Plus it was freaking hot out. I’m sure that didn’t help.

The other day I put up a little chicken wire fence so they would have a larger area to play. They haven’t really taken it to it though and spend most their time roosting on a stick in the coop.

They also don’t quite get that they have a hen house that will protect them from the elements and predators. So when it gets dark, they are distressed because they feel like they are in the wide open in the run part of their house. I’m hoping that after a few nights of being forcibly locked up in their hen house they will get that’s where they are supposed to go. Last night at least they came straight to me to be lifted in, which is much better than the frantic running away they did the first few nights.

Matt assured us that they will be right as rain soon enough and it will just take some time. And he was right, they are starting to really warm up to me. Treat help. So far they Love chunks of tomatoes and cooked rice (I smash leftover bits from dinner into Tablespoon sized balls for them).

I think we have a predator issue, the fence was way contorted this morning. Good thing they were locked up safe and sound in their house.

I’ve actually enjoyed getting up and letting them out of their hen house each morning. They are so funny. That’s the time of day that’s not crazy buggy. Oh and that’s the other thing. They love chomping down on mosquitoes. At first I was like, “Oh no, what if they have issues with all the ants (we have a load in our back yard) or all the mosquitoes (whose numbers are up because all the floods and standing water).” Well after watching them for a little bit, I realized that every time a bug came around…”chomp, chomp, chomp.” Turns out they love munching on mosquitoes, thank goodness. What swell little birds.

I’ll post about the chickens from time to time, but just the major stuff from now on. If gardening, mini-farming, chicken-keeping, drawing, and random bike riding is your thing, you can follow that part of my life on my personal blog on Kristinmroach.com. It’s basically a mash of everything that happens in my life.

Have a great Weekend!

Kristin

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Thrift
Kitchen

Each Thursday I post about ways to be thrifty in the kitchen. This week on Wednesday instead. To me, it isn’t just about being cheap, it’s about living creatively!

Two things recently happened that lead to me giving yogurt making another try. First, my dear Yankee friend Unplugged yogurt making with this great post on the process–no fancy equipment here. Second, I bought a dehydrator to make our own camping food. It came with instructions for making yogurt and a few dishes specifically for yogurt. How could I not try again? What happened the first time? Well, too hot, then too cold and that pretty much tells the story.

I really like expensive yogurt from the local coop. The texture, the taste, and the lovely local aspect. Plus, I have another issue. Every time I get a 1/2 gallon of delicious Picket Fence Creamery milk, I never seem to be able to finish it before it goes rank. Annoying!

Making my own yogurt has helped save money in both ways. I can get a little container of my favorite yogurt. Mix up a batch with Picket Fence milk. And have just enough milk left over for drinking in my coffee for the rest of the week. So I save money by not wasting awesome fresh milk. I also save money by just getting a little thing of yogurt, about $1.50 at most, (or even using last week’s batch for a starter) vs. a whole pint (about $5 depending on the brand).

Making yogurt is easy. Take 4 cups of milk and bring it up to 180 degrees over a medium heat. Stir constantly.

Stick the pot into the fridge and wait until it’s 100 degrees. About an hourish.

Wisk in 2-3 tablespoons of yogurt.

Pour the yogurt-milk mixture into your containers. If you are using a dehydrator, use the containers included with your unit.

You can use just about anything though. I used this cleaned out tapioca pudding container and wrapped it in a towel.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, ignore that mess. I always spill everything everywhere.

I put the yogurt containers in the dehydrator and put the reused container on top, wrapped in a cloth. I set it for 4 hours at 110 degress.

Put it directly in the fridge for at least 3 hours before stirring.

If you like really thick yogurt or a yogurt cheese, put cheese cloth in a colander and scoop the yogurt in. Let it drain for 30 minutes, put back in the container and refrigerate.

::A few notes on yogurt making::

Powdered milk or no?

I didn’t use powdered milk and it turned out fine. That said, I used whole milk. If you are using fat free milk and fat free yogurt, you will need to add some to the mix to help thicken it up. Since I haven’t tried this, I don’t know how much. And I like my yogurt fatty, so I don’t care to find out. :)

What type of yogurt?

Use your favorite! However, make sure your yogurt includes live active cultures.Those are the little guys that make this whole thing work. It will say somewhere next to the nutritional info.

How long does it keep?

About a week. I usually eat mine up in under a week and never have had any spoil.

What if you don’t have a dehydrator?

You can put your yogurt/milk mixture wrapped in a big towel or blanket in your oven (don’t turn it on). In the summer, on the counter will be just fine. You want the mixture to maintain the temp so the cultures stay active long enough. If it cools down too much, they will go dormant.

Also, make sure to check out the post my friend wrote that helped inspire me to give yogurt making another (successful) shot, she has a great foodie blog.

Enjoy!

Kristin

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Friday’s post really inspired me to get my act together and organize my fabric. Each box is 11″ x 12″ x 14″. I opted to sort them by color, which seems to be my best organizing option yet.

::Pink::Orange::Red::Purple::

::Blue::

::Green::

::Brown::Yellow::

::Gray::Black::

::Patterned Whites::

::Utilitarian Fabrics::

::Bolts of Fabric::

::Spiral of Strips::

::Little Squares::

::Pieces that were too big to fit in the boxes::

::The whole shebang::

I think next I’ll organize and take pictures of all my yarn. Should I organize by weight? fiber type? or color? How do you organize your yarn? your fabric?

Happy crafting!

Kristin

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Being over half way through the year, I thought it would be a good time to share my progress on staying away from craft stores and using up what’s on hand. Plus I have a new idea on how to show you what craft leftovers I’m using.

Go me! I’ve kept my craft junkie self out of the craft store this year.

I can count on just my hands the things I’ve bought from the craft/yarn store this year: painting supplies for a painting class, yarn for a pair of socks, yarn for a present for my mom, fabric for a shirt and dress (I actually made both, so that’s good.), a small fabric kit. Yet, I still have more craft supplies then ever. Friends routinely give me fabric (which I love) and so I always have an over flowing source of fabric for project making, hence all the fabric projects here on the blog. In fact, it’s the largest category in the project archive.

Charting Progress

I want to start seeing some downward progress on this fabric pile. Kind of like the monthly progress reports for my business admin, I want to take stock of what I have and really see it get whittled down. I have a pile of unfinished projects, I have piles of yarn, fabric, and the like. I want to say “Ha, I used xyz this month.”

Establishing a Baseline

For the rest of this month, I’m going to establish a baseline. I’m going to take stock of my knitting, crochet, embroidery, sewing, paper craft, and woodworking. Really take a true dig around and see what’s taking up all this space.

I’m going to tally up my yarn, my fabric, all my misc. craft supplies too. Each post will be a different material. So next post I’ll start with yarn. I’ll take pictures of all my yarn, really evaluate what’s going on and all my yarnie projects.

Before & After

I’m going to start taking before and after shots too. Like a picture of a pile of yarn, then at the end show what I made. It’s going to be hard. I’m going to have to be a lot more diligent about taking photos BEFORE I start a project.

Patterns by Me, Patterns by Others

I’ll be writing my own patterns for some of the projects and using other people’s patterns as well. I’ll link up to what patterns I use and where I’m getting my ideas if I am more just inspired by what I see.

Kits for the Shop

And I’m going to start making more fabric kits too. That’s another thing that will really help whittle down my stash. I’ll be posting those starting in mid September. I’ll also try and take before (where I’m sourcing the material) and after (cute pictures of the ready-to-make kits).

I’ll be adding the first round of fabric baseline photos on Monday. See you all then!

Kristin

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Our yard is huge. Huge-er than huge. Well, okay not huge-er than huge. Huge-er than we thought we would be able to afford. It’s private with trees and bushes all around. I have the “the little woods” in the corner of our backyard. The garage is large enough to fit 2 cars + a wood shop. A patio was hidden under creeping charlie. And we have a sunny area that’s big enough for a huge delightful garden + chicken coop/run + green house.

I’ve worked it all into a master backyard plan that we are going to implement over the next three years. We were planning on adding chickens next year. The flood this week sped up our time line.

Our friend Matt is moving away for a year apprentice to a sustainable farmer in Oregon. This wasn’t going to be a problem for his chickens because his roommate was going to take care of them. Well, the rains flooded out their basement and everyone has to move out now, including the chicks. Matt had actually just added a new group to his flock that are just 6 weeks old. They are super cute and have loads of personality. These are the two or three that we want to give a home:

Partridge Cochin

Blue Cochin

And maybe this Buff Polish (the one on the right)

We ventured into the world of chicken coops this week and are attempting to make the Garden Ark Chicken Coop:

Day 1

It is so not looking like the above yet, haha.

Day 1 was literally just shopping. We went to Lowes and it took 3 1/2 hours to buy all the hardware, tools, etc. for the coop. It cost a lot more than either of us thought it would be and we hadn’t even bought the lumber yet (which wasn’t so bad, just another $40 for all the wood). It was mostly the nails, screws, hinges and latches that made it so crazy expensive. A bit of that cost will be offset by using the screws and nails for other projects. We bought 7 different types! Holy crap!

After 3 1/2 hours, we had spent enough time working on it for the day.

Day 2

We went back to Lowes and picked up all the wood for the projects. The 8′ lengths wouldn’t fit in the car with the rest of the supplies.

By this point we had cut and sanded all the 8′ lengths and were getting to work on the ply wood paneling. Our DIY table saw is composed of a table, 2 saw horses and a handy guide that the Garden Ark ebook actually included the instructions for. So handy. I don’t think we would have been able to make the cuts without it.

Here is all the wood nice and smooth.

And here it is all sealed up. Jason and spread it out on two tables and the saw horses.

These are the cut plywood panels that are all ready to go.

Since I took these last two pictures we finished cutting all the panels, doors, and all the little pieces. We’ve even sanded and stained them too. Tonight or tomorrow we are going to start actually putting the thing together, hooray! I’ll take loads of pictures and post them next Wednesday.

See ya later!

Kristin

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You may or may not have seen all the hubbub on Twitter and Facebook, so I wanted to give a quick here’s what’s up.

:: Floods ::

Last Tuesday Ames was hit with the another huge thunderstorm. It was enough to push the already elevated waters to flood levels and the town was cut off from most main roads, about a 1/4 of it was underwater, 200+ people were evacuated from their homes, and our sump pump thankfully kept chugging away and we luckily stayed pretty dry.

Unfortunately, a few water mains broke so on Wednesday we were without water and Thursday – last night we had a boil order because of possible water contamination. It really made me realize how lucky we are to have drinking water straight from our taps. Things are starting to get back to normal today and the whole town is starting the big clean up project. There is debris and rotting vegetation everywhere.

::Chickens::

My friend Matt has been raising some chickens the last few years and this year he’s finally decided to take the plunge into full fledged sustainable farming. He has an apprenticeship for a year in Oregon (awesome!) where he’s going to learn the ins and outs of organic/sustainable farming. Originally his roommates were going to take care of his flock while he was gone, but that all changed when the house they were rented flooded. The two rooms in the basement are uninhabitable and everyone is going to have to move out – including his flock! Oh no!

Through random conversations, Matt knew that Jason and I were planning on raising hens for eggs starting next year. Well, he bumped up our timeline by offering us these sweet 6 week old chicks. We are going to give a home to 2 or 3 of them. Wednesday I’m going to post about the chicken coop Jason and I are building for them.

::Camera::

We heard a thud this morning, I jokingly said “ha, watch it be Sloane knocking my camera off the desk”. Walked into my room and there was my camera on the floor and Sloane hopping around acting like the champion of the world. Wow did I call that one. I’m not sure how I knew since she’s never gone after it before.

The camera works (thank goodness), and oddly enough the lens does too…. except the latch that keeps the lens on the camera broke. It should be of no consequence, but wow, what a bummer. I’m borrowing one of Jason’s lenses until I replace mine. He says I can use it as long as I stop letting Sloane borrow my camera. I think I stick to that agreement.

::Cycling::

I’m in process of training for a 160 mile camping/cycling ride around central Iowa. If you dig cycling/camping/mini farming, you may just want to follow my other blog Kristinmroach.com. It’s more a mash of whatever I happen to be digging on any particular day. The posts are uneditted. I sometimes swear. My grammar can get pretty scary. And it’s about everything from riding my bike around town to attempting to farm in city limits.

::Book::

I’m putting the finishing touches on my manuscript this month, so I’m going to a 3 times a week post schedule until the end of the month. It’s that insane “holy crap this is due in less than 2 weeks” crunch time. Today’s pattern will be the last new pattern until September (just two weeks so not so bad).

Okay, see you all soon!
Kristin

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