The Olive Sparrow

It's bunny time.....

 
The bunny was created without a pattern, but had been inspired by Fabiola from Fig & Me . I used a wired figure (with the large head bead replaced with a tinnie-tiney waldorf doll head. The body was wrapped with wool and skin fabric before I sewed the knitted bunny-outfit right onto the doll. I left the feet and hands wooden. The bunny also has a large fluffy tail made from a pompon:

The itzy-bitzy little bunny is needlefelted. I had made him last summer while visiting one of my closest primary school friends in Switzerland. He's about 1 1/4" long.

 

This is our little nature shelf. We had a nature table in the living room for a few years, but it got to often neglected and forgotten. Now we've got a very small shelf in the kitchen above our table where we eat our meals. It's a wonderful way to decorate for events. I won't tell you how between specific times it often holds a myriad of unrleated bits and bobs... namely lego, tape dispensers, papers, etc.... wait.. I did just tell you.. (grin)...

And now.. drum roll please... our dyed eggs for 2011!....

I dyed them using german-made colour tablets and vinegar. The eggs needed to still be hot before inserting into the dye, so I was not able to put the rubberbands on.. I tried, but after dropping a way to hot egg.. I surrendered to dip-dying.

Have a wonderful and happy Easter, a time for renewal and reawakening...

 

Lucky Finds

Had a very lucky day at Chez-V V (okay it is Value Village - we say it with a french accent ouround our house - honouring hubby's french-canadian heritage).

I've been looking for a creamer for some time. We already have the "Cookie-Jar", some mugs and Huxley's special secret jar in this old Sears series. They are actually made in Canada. 

Our cookie-jar is where we keep candies and other treats in. The cookie-jar is never empty, yet because it is always here, although out of reach, it is not a big deal and sometimes weeks go by when Huxley requests nothing. 

Growing up there was a drawer in our living room that was always full of cookies and chocolate (normal for Switzerland.. giggle.. I don't know). I never craved sweets, yet knew that if I desired a little something I would not be denied. Hubby and I decided that although we eat very healthy, we would not outright deny our son his treats -- all with the intention that he would not need to gorge himself on this "outlawed" food the minute he gets his own allowance. 

One could argue that it goes against our ovo-lacto-vegetarian diet, yet we talk about our choice of not needing meat in our diet, and so far he has clearly stated that he did not even want to try it. Who knows what he will do as he gets older. For now, the cookie-jar and the vegetarian diet are working for us.

The six little dwarfs.. waiting to help out at the next party.

The 6 little dwarfs. These just make me giggle.

Stitching away

Working on a little something for myself.. will show you what it is when it is finished.

 

Ingredients: 100% black, kinda glossy linen fabric; 100% silk hand-dyed thread; hand stitching, patience, slowness, rough edges, square, healing

inspired by: annekata and a procrastination at the studio and looking through some Japanese craft books 

Diversions

Three new cookbooks have been added to my permanent cooking library this past week. Didn't plan it that way, alas I'm in heaven:

I still remember getting Heidi Swansons first book "Super Natural Cooking" about 3 or 4 years ago and virtually reading it cover to cover. I'm an avid follower of her blog 101 Cookbooks, and of course had to get her new book the week it came out. She did not disappoint with this follow-up book..

 

Plenty I saw a few weeks ago in my amazon recommendations and after a quick peek through put onto my wishlist. Didn't want to rush it... then I saw the book, leafed through it and went straight home to order it.. I already made the sweet-potato cakes (pg. 32) from it and wow.. they were absolutely delicious... I'm planning on making the cover-picture egg-plants for our easter lunch. A gorgeous book, unusual recipes and just vegetables.. 

 

 

The Blue-Chair Jam Cookbook promises to be a great inspiration during the jam-ing season. There are a lot of marmalade based recipes, with lots of citrus fruit, probably a few to many for my taste, however, the book just looks so wonderful on top of my Hoosier cabinet that I will still make many of the recipes from it. Must read it thoroughly when I have a chance, as it has lots of in-depth information on fruit cooking in general.

Yummy! yummy in my tummy!...

 

Here a little something we like to make:

1. Organic Hazelnut butter (or almond, macademia, walnut, peanut) (about 250 grams (half a large jar)

2. A handfull of chocolate chips (depending how chocolaty you'd like it)

3. 1 teaspoon Virgin Coconut oil (this is our magic ingredient)

Put into microwave oven for about 2 minutes (or heat in water bath on stove-top) 

Stir vigurously

Put into fridge to let set - Bingo.. homemade Hazelnut-choclate spread, also known as Nutella

 

Enjoy and do let me know how you like it...

 

 

Giddy...

... and humbly said also darn proud...

Challenge: medieval day at my nieces' school

Her wish: to be a jester

Total cost $5

Time: about 1.5 hrs.

Materials used: 2 long-sleeved mens t-shirts, some bells.

Tools: 5-thread serger, scissors, niece on hand to keep trying it on.

Skills needed: not much.. but willingness to try, to cut, to have fun.. and then to giggle like crazy... who would have thought that half a long-sleeved shirt worn on your head sideways could so easily turn into a jesters' hat.. not me.. 

Puppy-love

Need I say more:

My in-law's puppies. Our last visit with them (the puppies), as they are ALL going to their homes by the end of the week (and not our home...). A wonderful experience for Huxley (and me).

 

Finally!

Today it happened! I've arrived at a chippy that I'm truly happy with. I also drafted the pattern for him and hope to do the detail photos for the instruction sheet by next week. 

But here he is in all his chippy-glory...

I couldn't resist and had to make him a little tiny acorn...

 

The pattern will be suitable for immediate/advanced knitters/needleworkers I think. Would you be interested in testing my pattern for me? If so, please leave me a comment with your e-mail and in a bout 2 weeks I will e-mail you my instructions for your feedback. 

Knitting the "hide" of the chippies is not that difficult. You'll have to be able to cast on, knit, purl, cast on within the knitting, cast off,  knit an I-cord. The shape of the chippy becomes apparent through "sculpting" with needle and thread while sewing him together. 

When the pattern is finalized, I would like to offer it for free as a pdf file here on the Olive Sparrow Blog. I might also sell an extended instruction sheet that has additional animal instructions on it.

Do you like my final version?

Chippy

The "Hide" from last week has been sewed up and this is the chippy resulting from pattern #2. It's not bad, but I wasn't fully happy with it. I also experimented with the way to add the stripes to the side, but don't think it is successful.

There is also a new cast on my finger with new art - Egyptian inspired me thinks.

Chippy from Pattern #3, as pictured below has an extremely long tail (about 14" long), per Huxley's request and since making hand-made goodies for boys is so much harder, I indulged him.

Why the long tail? It makes "Tail" as he was named better able to fly (i.e. swing the tail and launch), also, the tail can be wrapped around Tail's body, or around Huxley's hand or finger.. so much potential. 

I also switched the needle size down and made the front paws a bit smaller than the hind paws - Hubby's idea. The tail is also sewn up-wards, so that Tail can more easily sit on his behind and look more chippy-like. The body is a bit longer too, as chipmunks tend to have longer bodies (hard to see when they are sitting upright).

 

 

 

Eggs from the past

Looking through images I found these from 2009. We put rubber bands around raw eggs, then hard-boiled them with onion skins in the water. 

There will be more done this way in 2011, also with other colours. 

 

Harvesting...

Last fall was a very busy time, so much happening, so little time and then the ground froze on me. I panicked, as I didn't have a chance to harvest our Jerusalem Artichoke. I thought that maybe we would get a January thaw, but no such luck.

On Thursday, I saw a squirrel dig in the grass and decided to see what's happening in the back yard to get it so excited.. lo and behold, much of the ground is thawed. So I pulled on the sunchoke plant (they are annuals), and it came easily out of the ground, not many artichokes though. When I pulled out the next plant however, I found a few chokes in the soil.. I went and got the shovel.. and here my dears is my harvest:

I haven't weighed it yet, but I guess it's around 3kg.

This is from 6 plants. I had put them in the middle of the garden. Not knowing how exactly they would do in my space (it was my first time trying them), I regretted that decision, as they blocked all the light from my swiss chard harvest (i.e. there was no swiss chard harvest last year). This year they are going against the back fence, to block the view and to let them have fun and expand.

My husband was worried if the chokes would taste okay after being frozen in the ground, and they did. It was after reading in many places that once you plant them, they are very hard to get rid off, that I decided that the tubers must likely be okay to stay in the ground during the winter.. now on to preserving and cooking them.. yummy!... 

If you cook with them and have a favourite recipe, I would love to hear about it.