good vibrations

Hi there folks,

I am sitting in my school library, about 2 hours early from class due to weird scheduling, wishing I had brought more crocheting to do. I thought I'd take this chance to update you on my crafty endeavors over the last week!

Last weekend I headed down to San Diego for the Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference. There is oh so much to be said about the wonderfulenss that is GV. I love the philosophy, the location, the people especially... but I was NOT prepared for how much love they had for ME! I showed up pretty late on Saturday, and decided not to set out my wares. I was saying hi to folks I haven't seen in a long time, and I was just plain tired. I enjoyed the evening, especially singing loud and boisterous girl scout songs all night.

The next day I set up my table - I had carted with me all sorts of random hand made odds and ends: earrings of course,
and magnets,
ceramics,
some beanies, bags, coin purses, bird decorations and my new rings! (and probably more, I just can't think of what). I had a pretty full table inside - and was amazed by how I hadn't even finished setting stuff up yet when I had my first customers!

Unschoolers are definitly my best customers, by the way. My favorite thing of all time is having kids come over with a few dollars and buy them and their friends semi-matching things. I was selling my rings for $1.00, so that was very popular with the younger crowd (although the older folks liked them too!) I ran out of rings and was making them on demand right there!

Amy Steinberg, an amazing and inspiring musician was playing a concert for us at the hotel. I decided to set up my stuff in an outdoor table so I could watch the show AND keep selling! I am so, so, so glad I did. Amy is fantastic, beautiful voice, and every song has a wonderful message. There were people dancing and hula-hooping like crazy, and it was some of the most fun ever. I was supposed to leave that night, and people kept buying so I kept selling...probably til 11pm or so.

The unschoolers wiped me out! I came home and had to buy a bunch of ring making stuff, and am working on more birds and earrings!

Patchwork Indie is coming up in November, and there are a few smaller boutiques in October that I am going to - so I need to get cracking.

I'll leave you with this fun photo:


Look closely, one of my birds is in there somewhere!!!

marmalading

This is the lemon tree in my backyard - behind it is a satsuma tangerine tree, and a grapefruit tree which hangs down from our neighbor's yard into ours. All three trees have exploded with fruit in the past few weeks, and I decided that it's time to do something about it!




I picked an entire laundry basket of the lemons, and a sink full of tangerines and grapefruit!


I chopped up the fruit into small bits, while keeping aside the seeds and pithy material. That stuff I gather into a small cheesecloth bag and boil with the fruit and water. The stuff in the bag creates the pectin - after it's boiled for long enough, I squeeze out the bag for the last bit of pectin, and then add sugar and boil some more! It turns a little goopier, gets a great color that's a shade or two deeper than it was at the beginning, and gets a fun froth on top.

Meanwhile, I've been boiling the lids and baking the jars, for a quick-style canning process! It has to be quick, or you miss the window to seal the jars.


voila! Marmalade!

Over the next 24 hours after canning it, they will seal completely - and they make little "pop" sounds - it's ridiculously fun to be in the kitchen when that's happening!

I'm going to be selling my marmalade - hopefully make some honeymoon money. :) If you are interested, let me know!

re-emerging after the holidays

I didn't mean to take such a long break from the computer, even though it was Christmas, but yesterday my internet was down and I had no idea why. Today it's all better though, so....mystery stays unsolved.

In any case, christmas was exactly what I thought it would be - fun, tiring, and good. My boyfriend actually went onto my etsy account, found my list of favorite items, and ordered the most beautiful blue and silver necklace for me from afinishingtouch.etsy.com. How thoughtful is that?

He also got me a fish tank! We went yesterday and bought rocks and plants and fish, and now our house feels even more like a home. I'll post pictures eventually.

When I got online today I had two nice etsy surprises - first, I made another sale. I sold my salt air and sea form crocheted purse - and how silly is it that I am a little sad to see it go? That was definitely one of my favorite bags that I have made - and the photographs of that bag represent a breakthrough for me in taking pictures. In any case, it is also nice to know that someone else appreciated it too!

The other nice surprise was that my shino cup with the curled handle got into ANOTHER treasury!!! This one was curated by desertsoapstone and it's a beautiful, beautiful treasury, so go check it out.

That's all for me for right now. I'll be back here later, I'm sure!