Still in an orange sherbet frame of mind

First of all, many thanks for the great response to our very first attempt to raise money for the Gananoque Humane Society. Thanks to Elaine for (so quickly!) buying our bracelet, and thanks to others, like Maria, for sharing our photo on Facebook and helping to spread the news. We very much appreciate you all.

We seem to be drawn to this particular shade of orange just now.....which is kinda weird since it's not a colour we would ever wear. Yesterday, it was beads. A couple of weeks ago it was some lovely salmon-coloured laceweight yarn that we just couldn't resist. Today, it's socks! We had a ball of Austermann Step yarn in our stash. It's been there a long time. Self-striping. When we first came up with the Tipsy Stripey Sock design, we knew this is what that yarn has been waiting for. It's a lovely yarn....SOFT! and infused with aloe. And we love the slightly drunken staggering stripes!! Don't you? They blow the 'boring' right out of self-striping yarn. :)

Anyone for a little orange sherbet?

As we've probably said once or twice before, we have a soft spot for the Gananoque Humane Society. We've started setting aside a few things to drop off to them. They have sales from time to time in an attempt to raise funds, and we're thinking maybe a bracelet here or a knitted lace shawl there might fetch a few dollars. As a no-kill shelter (filled mostly with cats), they do really good work. As we all know, there are LOTS of homeless cats. A sad fact.

Since most of you live a long way from the Kingdom, you probably won't be able to attend one of these sales. We had the brainwave that maybe we ought to give you first dibs on these items. Just in case.

First up, is a little macramé bracelet. Orange Sherbet. This one just glows with the copper coloured cord and the peach and orange beads. Tiny blue beads add interest. It is exactly 8-1/2 inches long and will fit up to an 8 inch circumference wrist.  Only $22 (including shipping)! Twenty dollars will go to the Gananoque Humane Society. Payment by Paypal. The bracelet will be mailed by Canada Post. Please drop us a note at covillewood (at) gmail (dot) com, if you're interested. First come, first served.

Holey Smokes! Edited to say SOLD!!  Thanks, everyone. We'll be listing more stuff in the days to come. Please check back.

Birthday cookies

The whole kingdom is caught up in birthday preparations. 

We dare not say whose birthday it is. 

(She's one of the few who reads this blog.)

If it's your birthday, too, we wish you a good one!

A swing and a miss

More cats. More problems with the consistency of the icing. :( 

More practice required.

Mr. Coco thinks they look a little spooky-alien-like.

But they still taste good.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Remember that old joke? The answer is "Practise, practise, practise." It was a little humbling to make yesterday's cookies. After such a long hiatus from decorating, we were definitely a little rusty.

The only thing for it is to make more cookies! For today, we used the leftover icing to practise. We practised getting the consistency right, and then we practised the muscle control. A little like learning to drive.....you have to 'give it some gas' when you're going into the curve and know when to let up again. And when to anchor the little blob of icing to the base. And it all has to be second nature.

Anybody else old enough to remember practising writing with a pen this way in school? filling notebooks with endless lines of loops? Endless, pointless lines of loops. Who knew we'd one day require this of ourselves? Life is full of surprises.

If you're lucky.

Rusty

We haven't made cookies in such a long time. We have a whole bunch of ideas, but we need to practise to get comfortable again. We like to use wax paper cones for piping the icing. We found the trickiest bit of the whole process may just be getting the consistency of the icing right. And getting the colours right. And, now, working around the humidity. We dragged out our old food dehydrator. It seems to do the trick.

We had a general idea of what we wanted to 'paint', 

but we didn't worry too much about making all the cookies identical. 

Spontaneous is more fun!

Here's the sketch:

These are big cookies. About 4 inches wide!

My grandmother's shortbread cookie recipe.

Have a sweet day!

Need a cute egg cosy?

Finally got the Cupcake Egg Cosies Pattern written up. You can find it here on Craftsy. A pretty good use for leftover sock yarn.

After Mr. Paypal takes his cut, the rest of the money goes to help me buy yarn and supplies to knit/create things to donate to my favourite causes. So, if you buy the pattern, you're really helping me support great organizations like the Gananoque Humane Society and Afghans for Afghans. A dollar here and a dollar there can really add up. Thanks!

Polymer clay play

There are about a million ways to go with polymer clay. 

That's one of the great things about it, and also, 

one of the things that makes it hard to just get started. 

There are SO many options. 

We're pretty stuck on how easy it is to cover metal jar lids. 

We needed a pretty jar to store our tea bags in. 

We love the texture, and the totally spontaneous way the colours show up.

Domesticity in the Kingdom

Mr. Coco and I like to cook together. We have mastered bread. This is 100% whole wheat bread. Nothing but real, honest-to-goodness whole wheat flour. Not the squishy, soft bread you buy in the store that SAYS it's 100% whole wheat but really isn't.

The secret to a light loaf, even with all whole wheat flour is in the kneading, and that's why bread machines work so well. We scoff at bread machines. Actually, we wore out several of them. Now, we start our bread in an ancient Mixmaster that my dad bought for my mother for Christmas many years ago. It was a gift that wasn't very well received, since his goal was to 'help' his wife cook like his mother. (All the women out there are shaking their heads, I know.)

We have our hearts set on a brand new mixer with dough hooks, in candy apple red, or maybe shiny jet black, but this particular one (avocado green, of course) continues to chug along, and we find it really hard to toss out a machine that works simply for the crime of being an out-of-fashion colour. I figure this is a pretty good omen, since a man who can't toss out a mixmaster for a younger, more energetic and prettier model, is probably in it for the long haul with his mate, too. :)

Someone to watch over me

Once she decided Paddy didn't really have cooties, that is.

Sweet Dreams, little Cassie!

Cool cats in the mail

We were admiring the weighted pin cushion and thread catcher that Kate made. 

Imagine our surprise (and delight) 

when we opened an envelope this week to find them inside! 

A gift from Kate.

Cats playing guitars and saxophones. 

Just our style.

Thanks, Kate!

Tipsy Stripey Socks

Sometimes it seems we have the most fun when we use up our odd balls of leftover yarn and just go for it.

Here's a case in point. We had some very loud self-striping Kroy socks, and we had some green Kroy socks that was leftover from the Corduroy Roads Socks we made for ourselves. They were made to go together.

This pair is sized for a child with 8-inch long feet. (They almost fit us....Ladies Size 6....just a touch snug.) They're destined for Afghans for Afghans for their current campaign. We are told green is the colour of Islam. In our eyes, green is definitely the colour of hope. If you're interested in knitting for the women and children of Afghanistan, this is a very easy way to do it. Any sock with a foot length between 6-1/2 and 10 inches is welcome. Use up your leftovers. Slip the socks into an envelope. Slap on a couple of stamps.

We're adjusted the comments setting yet again because a number of people reported blogger was being 'difficult'. Hope to hear from you soon!