Faceted, polished, smooth

We recently dropped off an order at Honey and Hazel with some new faceted wooden charm necklaces.  Each of these are completely unique, handmade from scraps of exotic woods. They are cut into a faceted shape, then sanded down win increasingly finer grit paper until they are super-smooth. Finally they are polished with a beeswax based finish that makes them feel downright silky. They have a great tactile sense (for those of us who like to play with our jewelry) and they look cool too!  Right now these five necklaces are at Honey and Hazel, so get 'em while they last!

Crochet Box

I'll often make small crochet motifs to try out a new yarn, or just for fun. I like to keep them in an old wooden cigar box, and use them for gift toppers, or sew them onto cards (fabric postcards, anyone?) but mostly I like collecting them and then taking the box out and taking pictures. Enjoy!

Pieces of lace, flowers, snowflakes and the beginnings of doilies. I love to crochet, but apparently I have the attention span of a ten year old.

New Crochet Bottles

Finally, I've completed a new set of crochet covered bottles. Most of them have been done for a while, waiting for the thread ends to be woven in and all of them needed to be photographed. They are all posted to the shop, if you'd like to purchase one!

They were fun to photograph.  I especially like the set of champagne colored thread bottles with fancy patterns, like the ones above; I think they look good together.  I've been trying to expand upon my patterns lately, using more than just a simple netted stitch (although I still do like those).  I've found that the ones I like best are the most open patterned bottles.  They let the light through nicely.

Some new things

We recently dropped an order at Honey and Hazel with a few new items.  I'm excited about the new cylindrical icicle earrings; they're a little bit softer and a tiny bit more understated.  I'm also in love with these v-shaped rose charms that look so good paired with a sparkly chain. You can check them out in the shop right now, but if you're in the area, I suggest you visit them in person at Honey and Hazel!

Delicious Bruleed Grapefruit

My brother suggested this, and we tried it out (a few times) while in arizona. They were so, so good!

1. We started with fresh picked ruby grapefruit, and loosened the wedges by cutting around the membrane with a sharp paring knife.

2. We found that dabbing the top of the grapefruit with a clean cloth or paper towel helped, otherwise the sugar was too juicy and it wouldn't caramelize properly.  Then add the brown sugar in an even layer across the fruit. We ended up with a hard candy top on one of our early attempts, which was certainly delicious--but not exactly what we were looking for. 

 3. Torch it--the sugar takes less than a minute to caramelize.

4. Enjoy!

Baby Blanket

I have a very close friend who is having a baby, and I wanted to make her something special.  I had a hard time finding patterns for baby blankets that were simple and slightly lacy.  I used this Lion Brand pattern, which was very straightforward and relatively easy (thank goodness because I think this may be my second or third project from a pattern ever)  Although the pattern called for a tiny blanket, so I lengthened it quite a bit and in the end, it was about 30" x 40" -- I wanted something larger than a dishcloth.

I was happy with the final result, and I love the dainty little scalloped edge.  I wanted a lacy, open crochet blanket and I debated between this pattern and the one I used.  Ultimately, I chose the v stitch pattern because I could only get Lion Brand yarn before I left and, having never made a blanket before, I  wanted to use the the yarn the pattern called for.  I'm glad I did, because it worked up very nicely (and quick!)  I also love the color.  I know it's not very "baby" but come on--all those yarns come in grossly cloying pink, blue or pastel.

I also gave another gift: a vintage sterling silver baby spoon.  It's for good luck, and because all babies should be fed with a silver spoon (at least once in a while ;)  I liked the pairing of the blanket and the spoon.   I know; I should have photographed them together.  It would have made a better statement, but alas.

Tumblr

We moved last week, and I've been freelancing crazy hours, and everything is busy, busy, busy (of course it all hits at once)

Sorry things have been so light on here lately; but if you're looking for some eye candy, check out our tumblr.  It doesn't have much to do with L&S; it's just a daily dose of photos (taken by yours truly):

We'll be back up an running soon, and we're working on some new designs that will be around in March!

Fused Copper Ring

We have another new ring style in the shop (I know...they just keep adding up!)  This time it's copper wire fused with a silver nugget.  I like this one a lot, and it looks great stacked with our other rings.  It's made with a slightly thicker wire (16 ga instead of 18 ga--we're testing out some new materials) but, of course we could make it to match the smaller wire of the other rings.  I really like these ones!

Warm Winter Drink: Spiced Orange juice

One of my favorite things to drink on a cold winter afternoon: spiced orange juice.  I heat up a mugs-worth of orange juice with whole spices: cloves, cinnamon sticks and allspice, then strain and serve with a cinnamon stick and honey to taste--Delicious!

It's Gold!

We are proud to present our new ring.  It's gold!  The ends are fused, like our sterling silver rings, and it is made from 10k solid gold wire.  I've wanted to offer a gold version of our rings for a while, ever since I made my ring our of my mother's stepped on earrings, and now we are able to!  Right now we only have a simple fused ring, but we are able to make gold versions of our vine, pebble, spiral rings or any other silver ring we carry.

yay new rings!

Lock and Spoon at Creator's Co-op

We are now proud members of Creator's Co-op in Astoria!  Tomorrow afternoon there will be an opening of sorts, a meet and greet of the artists.

We just set up tonight and will be there tomorrow afternoon, so stop by!

It's on 23rd ave between 26th and 27th streets off the NQ trains.  It'a a great new shop that opened in November showcasing handmade goods made by local artists.  Come by and check it out!

Dinner

mmm. . . piping hot roasted vegetables from the oven: onions, beets, potatoes and carrots with tarragon vinegar, italian herbs, olive oil, and sea salt.  For some reason, I've always chopped the vegetables and put them directly in the baking dish, but now I've realized that they work better if you toss them with the olive oil/herbs in a bowl first. . . duh.  I also cooked them covered in foil, but uncovered and broiled them for the last 10 minutes.

I made the tarragon vinegar earlier in the summer when a friend gave me more tarragon than I could use. It was so, so easy but this was the first time I've used it. I was a little bit nervous, since I'm not always fond of tarragon's anise flavor, but the vinegar is delightfully mild on the anise, but deliciously tarragon.

Gift Wrap

Wrapping presents is my favorite part of Christmas.  Seriously, I love, love, love making boxes pretty, and while store-bought giftwrap can be very nice looking, I prefer to use things I already have. Well, I am also a complete cheapskate.

We've gotten a few boxes this season filled with brown paper stuffing.  I always love it when we get packages filled with brown paper because it has so many possibilities.  I can reuse it as stuffing,  or for making sewing patterns (which I do very, very rarely), or, best yet, wrapping paper.  I just got a pretty damask style stamping set, so I'll show you how to take crumpled brown paper and turn it into an old style-looking fancy wrapping:

I usually iron the paper before I use it.  It keeps the wrinkled-ness of the paper, but it also allows it to lay flat. I have a cheap, cheap iron that doesn't actually get hot, so its always on the hottest setting and won't burn anything, but I would recommend using a lower setting than you think you need and see how it goes from there.  But look at what a difference it makes!

Once it's flat and ironed, just stamp away.

I finished mine off with a cream cotton yarn, a pom pom bow, and a stamped chipboard tag:

Since ribbon can be so expensive, and I have a way-too-big-for-my-own-good stash of yarn, I've been finding alternate bow-tying material.  I've fallen in love with pom poms.  I also collect boxes throughout the year (I can't throw anything away) for potential present wrappers.  The below gift doesn't actually contain tea, but I love the twinings tea tins, and am amassing a quantity greater than what I use.

If you have a hard time tying a beautiful bow, you could always draw the ribbon:

But my favorite are the crochet motif toppers. Way, way better than those sticky bows you buy at the store and they only take about about 5 minutes to create.  And they make great tree ornaments, pins, or they can be reused as gift bows.  I have a box of little motifs, whether they be mistakes, or the wrong gauge, or I started something and then got bored with it.

Success!

The Bust Craftacular was a success--Even though it was a miserable, cold and rainy day, many people braved the line to come and see what people had to sell.  We had fun, and the vendors were fabulous--I had a lot of fun shopping and browsing.

Some of my favorites were :

a.s.i.s.

She makes crochet chain necklaces--but with cashmere, netted crochet stones, and silk blouses with doilies on them!  I wanted to buy one of her shirts, but they were sold out.  And she bought crochet bottles form us.  I love the crochet stone necklaces--I was looking at her shop and was falling in love with so many things! I'm visiting her at the Brooklyn Flea to get a shirt, and I am so, so excited.

Georgia Varidakis Jewelry

The gals at this booth were great. I bought a ring from them, and they came by us to visit for a while. She had some fabulous bunny necklaces and earrings, too!  I love my ring.  It's carved to look like a twig (hmm. . . surprising I would like something of that nature...) and then cast in sterling silver. I like it because it works with my other stack, too.

KG + AB porcelain
I bought some cast porcelain nuts and another gift for someone who may or may not be reading this. But I love my nuts!  Perfect little objects.

We also have one more event this season: Bust has partnered with Hendricks Gin to put on a pop up shop this week and we'll be participating in the show tomorrow evening.

It's at 350 Bowery, between Great Jones & East 4th St. and it runs from 4pm until 9pm.  It may be your last chance to get some cool new things before Christmas--so come visit us!