Feathered Stick Barrettes

Recently I have made some feathered stick barrettes. I am really excited about them and finally got a chance to take some photos of them today.

They are made, like my feathered pieces, on a piece of  a yogurt container covered with recycled felt. They are fastened in the hair with a stick driven through the piece. The feathers are natural and the buttons I use to finish the designs are vintage or antique. I think they look quite retro.

The wooden sticks on these pieces are made by fellow Etsy seller PacificMerchantile. These are beautiful hair sticks made by hand in Oregon from Oregon hardwoods.

I will be listing these barrettes in my Etsy shop soon.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos

My recipe for Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos has gradually evolved from one I read several years ago. I have intentionally changed some things about the original recipe and probably changed it by accident as well on account of making it from memory. I’ve always loved these but the latest iteration was the best.  Since my friends who I shared the burritos with asked for the recipe, I thought I would post it here.

You may want to increase the bean to sweet potato ratio for more protein. I have made these with more beans and they are good that way too, but I think they’re tastiest with lots of sweet potato. The cayenne I use makes these a little hot. You can adjust to taste of course. I usually use creamy peanut butter but these are good with crunchy peanut butter too, if you like crunch.

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Backpacking with My New Pepsi Stove

Camping is another of my interests. Last weekend I went on my first overnight backpacking trip. I realized that we would want some way to heat water for our morning coffee and it would be nice to have a nice hot dinner when we made camp. I heard about people making backpacking stoves out of aluminum beverage cans. This idea appealed to me for several reasons. First, they use readily available materials that are usually discarded with the recycling.  Also the stoves are very light, simple and effective and the fuel is alcohol which is cheap and accessible.

I made a variation of the stove known as a Pepsi can stove. It’s pretty obvious why it is called this. We fueled it with 91% isopropyl alcohol which was a couple dollars at the drugstore. The isoproply alcohol leaves quite a bit of soot on the pot as it burns but I like that it was easy to find and I don’t mind having traces of it in my mess kit. My first effort was successful, the stove burned well and boiled water fast. Below are pictures of the stove burning during the day and at night . It is difficult to see the the flames in daylight.

Here is a link to the tutorial that I followed to make my stove.

Hearts from Etsians

May has brought some really nice compliments from my fellow Etsians. My brooches have been featured in a few different Etsy treasuries and also a cute blog article about Cheesesteaks and Etsy crafters from Philly. Today, my golden tan and black feather brooch was featured in a beautiful “Salted Caramel” treasury by cooljane.

saltedCaramel Hearts from Etsians

By the way, CoolJane makes really cool greeting cards with reused leather cutouts. They could be framed as artwork! She made these nice father’s day truck cards.

il 430xN.147116139 Hearts from Etsians

First Pics from Garden 2010

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Gardenia Bloom

Originally uploaded by annrockio

I’m pretty pleased with our container garden so far. It includes peppers and tomatoes, a few herbs, a gardenia (pictured here) and a couple ranunculus. The gardenia has its first open bloom this week. Ranunculus are one of my favorite flowers. I couldn’t get a good photo of them today but they are great.

See the rest of the photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/annsphotos/sets/72157623881107977/

Great Recycling

I’ve been thinking about handmade recycled goods and I’ve searched Etsy.com and found these great recycled pieces. I was looking for elegant items that are made from materials that really weren’t useful before the new piece was created.
wpid resycle3 Great Recycling

Yogurt Container to Fascinator Base

We are always eating yogurt that comes in these plastic containers that are not recyclable in Philadelphia because they are made of #5 plastic (polypropylene). I needed to make rigid domed bases for my feather fascinators and I invented this way of making bases from the containers. Here I will show you how to use some of the plastic from your empty yogurt container to make a domed base for your crafty crafting.

Step 1: Gather Supplies.

  • 16 oz Yogurt Container(s)
  • 3 inch paper circle
  • Scissors
  • Pliers
  • Permanent Marker
  • Stapler with Staples

wpid wpid recycle yogurt container 01.3k8FOkClB1hk.Qj7R7xP3fumZ Yogurt Container to Fascinator Base
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Web Design: Rdesigno.com

My friend, r designo needed a spot to share his knowledge with the world. So we designed this blog to fill the need. R designo designed the header and background tile. I was resposible for the layout and the rest of the design including the CSS. Designo is pronounced “də – zĭg – nō”.

rdesigno11 Web Design: Rdesigno.com

  • Design
  • HTML and CSS

Web Design: Brewster Versus Nat

This is Brewster “Nat” Scott’s Illustration/Design Portfolio Site. This site is built on the ModX content management framework. I did the site design and coding. Nat made all of the illustrations.

brewster Web Design: Brewster Versus Nat

  • Design
  • HTML and CSS
  • Content Management