Christmas in Turkey

Since Christmas isn't a Turkish holiday, I'm on my own to fill our apartment with holiday cheer.

There are tons of crafts online to make, but most of them require something that I don't have (like a craft store, a sewing machine, Christmas lights, etc.).

So, using scissors and note cards that I'm pretty sure I've lugged all over the world, I made our own Christmas tree. It looks slightly like a preschool project and absolutely nothing like my inspiration, but it's sufficient for us.



Jonathan and I aren't really gift people and, come to think of it, have never really given each other wrapped presents. But, I told him this year that we each had to get a gift and wrap it so we could put it under the tree.

More knitting projects are coming after Christmas (so the people who are receiving the gifts get to see them first).

Morning Granola

Breakfast always has bittersweet connotations for me. I love the idea of breakfast, but am not really a fan of breakfast food. I think a lot of it stems from the 2 years I cooked breakfast almost every weekend for one hundred people at a retreat center. Since then, eggs, pancakes, biscuits, you-name-it have never really appealed to me.

Jonathan is a big cereal fan, but since yummy cereal is hard to come by in Istanbul, homemade granola has become a staple in our house.

Prep time is quick, but make sure you have a couple of hours to bake and stir the granola.

Here's my usual recipe, inspired from my favorite cookbook, More with Less:

Mix in large bowl:
6 C. plain oatmeal
2 C. whole wheat flour
1. C. coconut flakes
2 C. nuts (try any combination. I prefer walnuts because they taste great after being baked.)
1/2 C. wheat germ (to be healthy!)
1/2 C. flax seed (also healthy!)
1 T. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt

Heat in Saucepan:
1/2 C. extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 C. water
1 C. honey, maple syrup, or brown sugar
1 T. vanilla

3 C. dried fruit (dates, raisins, mangos, apricots, apples, whatever! I usually use 2 or 3 different fruits)

When slightly warmed, mix the wet ingredients in well with the dry ingredients. If you need to, add a bit more water to make sure the dry ingredients are completely coated.

Put half of the mix on a greased cookie sheet and cook at 300 degrees for about an hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so. I wait until it's fairly golden brown before I take it out of the oven. Jonathan likes his granola extra crunchy and I've found it's crunchiest when I let it cool on the cookie sheet.

When cooled, add the fruit and store in an airtight container.

Like I Don't Already Have Enough To Do

A few years ago, I made a list of things I want to do in life. Since then, I've done a few of them, forgotten quite a few, and still have some on the list.

One of the things on my list was to take a picture a day for a year. After running across a couple other blogs that were devoted to this, my motivation was renewed. But, with a little modification.

A dear friend of mine and I have decided to share the blog and each post a picture every day. Joy lives in Colorado and has an incredible eye for art and photography. I live in Istanbul, and though I'm not a natural, I still think it would be a lot of fun to try out.

So, check it out if you want to see a bit more of Colorado, Turkey, or anywhere in between.

www.resplendentawakening.blogspot.com

We couldn't come up with a title, so Joy thought of an adjective, I thought of a noun, and we put them together!

Hand Warmers

I found this easy pattern on Ravelry. As with almost all of my projects, I took it apart once and started over. All in all, it came together quite well and only took a couple of hours per warmer.The cuff covering my fingers can also be folded back so I can do things when them on.

Matching Hats

Jonathan's request for a hat as well as a long plane flight turned into this. I got the pattern from my favorite knitting website, The Purl Bee.

My hat fit perfectly, but I had to adjust Jonathan's a bit. I folded the bottom section in half and sewed it there so it would be shorter.

Slippers (that look like a strawberry)

My goal was to start and finish this project on the flight from Atlanta to Istanbul which didn't quite happen. I'm not exactly sure what I did wrong (twice), but I had to take my first two tries apart. Finally, I adjusted the needle size for parts of the final product and it turned out fine. Though, I don't have as much love for them as I originally hoped because of all the time devoted to making a simple slipper.

Journal

No sewing machine is causing me to be more and more creative with my projects. I recently finished up my old journal. I started a new one but had yet to be inspired. Last weekend, I saw a journal Allison had full of fun paper and I got inspired. In the past, I would have just taken a page and sewn it to to the front, but I had to be more creative this time.

Here are my resources:

Here's my inspiration:

Here's the final project:

Not bad for someone who hasn't colored since the 2nd grade, eh?

On My List

After I get my sewing machine...and learn how to buy fabric at the fabric stores here, I want this book. Badly.

Baby Blanket

So, now that I'm living in Turkey and without sewing machine, I think my posts will be fewer and more far between.

But, here's a picture of a blanket I made for the darling baby Penny. It was super early for him/her, but we won't be around when he/she's born. It was fun to make, but involved lots of cutting which can get tedious after awhile.

Finally!!!!

The day has finally come and I finished my owl sweater! All of the hours were definitely worth it for this! I really enjoy knitting now, which is a great thing since I'm not taking my sewing machine to Turkey. Hopefully they have yarn stores in Istanbul!!!! (I'm sure they do since they did in Cairo, and Cairo seems to have a lot less than Istanbul.)

Check it out!!!!

$10 Wedding Dress

I know I'm already married and had a sweet wedding dress, but this could work in another color right??? I also know I"m moving to a place where strapless dresses are definitely not all the rage so I'd never get to wear it, but it's only $10 right? So tempting!!!

$5 Travel Purse

I've been thinking of what I wanted to do for the next purse I made. I wanted it to have lots of storage and be easy to carry everywhere, so here's what I came up with.



It's basically two zipper purses sewn together. Here's one pocket.

The other pocket.And the middle "pocket" attaching the two zipper purses. I also have a zipper pocket in this one to conveniently hold personal things (like passports)!

I'm really, really pleased with how it turned out. It was an original idea, and it probably cost around $5 to make because it was all remnant fabric.

Now back to knitting the sweater...I'm still working on the first sleeve. I think I've finally mastered double pointed needles though.

Slideshow

I know this is my crafty blog, but I figured I could fit photography in here somewhere.

Jonathan and I had an AMAZING photo shoot of me, more or less, trashing my wedding dress.

They posted the slideshow last night and it's awesome! Check it out!

http://blumephotography.com/blog/

I'm way more excited about this shoot than I was my actual wedding pictures!

On The List

I haven't posted much recently. I'm (almost) forbidding myself from doing anything else until I finish my sweater but I've needed a break from it recently so not much is getting done. I'm also trying not to buy any new fabric since we're leaving in a month and a half. I have a huge bin full of fabric that could be used.

So instead of posting something I did, here's a list of projects I have on the list to do sometime whether in the far or near future.

1. Retro Owl Sunglasses Case. Cheap. Easy. Awesome.
2. Pillow Map. Except instead of making random lines, I want to make lines to places I've been.
3. Ruffle skirt. I have some great almost-matching fabric for this.
4. Sketchbook. A great gift idea!
5. Room dividers. I supposed I need a room to divide for this one.
6. Adorable Dress. How could I resist!
7. Pencil Skirt. I have the fabric and everything.
8. Paper Dolls Sweater. I have a ways to go before I could do this, but I'm dreaming!
9. Bulky Buttony Sweater. I'll have sweaters coming out of my ears if I keep this up.
10.Wrap Shirt. I just stumbled upon this. I wonder if I have fabric for it already.
11. Travel Purse. I'll probably wait for inspiration and design it myself. I want something that I can sling over my shoulder, has a zipper close, and is big enough for me to lug around the world.

This leads me to writing another one of my blog letters:

Dear Jonathan,

I love you dearly and I know you love me just as much and want me to be happy. That's why I was wondering if you would let me quit my job and spend all waking hours of the day making projects. And because projects cost money, would you mind getting a second job (maybe at Starbucks perhaps) to support my craft habit?

Thanks! You're the best!

Love,
Your devoted wife

Spring Ruffle Top

I found some remnants that I couldn't pass up but wasn't sure what to do with a couple of them until I found this sweet tutorial. It was super fun and a bit complicated but ended up working out okay. (I probably make my projects more difficult than they need to be through not being very thorough with measurements, cutting, etc.)

I'm not sure how often I'll wear this, but I LOVE how fun and sassy it is. Jonathan, when he saw my color combo, got a grin on his face and said remarked about my "impeccable taste". I'm going to pretend he wasn't being sarcastic.

The front.


The back.


And the baby. Just kidding--not pregnant. I just look it from this angle!

Lesli's Apron

Lesli, one of my dearest friends came to visit a couple of weekends ago. We had a lovely time together!

I also had a blast making her this apron. I bought the fabric without knowing exactly what I was going to do with it for her, and before I knew it, it had turned into this reversible apron. I LOVE the color combos and think this may be one of my favorite things I've made!


And bummer...I can't find my pics of the other side. It's strawberries!

My first (and second) knitting project

Over Christmas, my sister in-law had a knitting lesson with my mom, Jonathan, and me. I think I'm the only one who actually took it up, but it took awhile. I'm very pleased with the results of my first and second projects.

I made a cowl. (A scarf but attached on both ends and you wrap it around your neck.) It was a simple knit the whole time, so I didn't even have to purl anything.


After I finished these scarves, I decided knitting wasn't for me because it took too long to make something. When I sew, I can start and finish a project in a few hours verses knitting which takes days and weeks. But then I found this awesome sweater pattern. No matter that I don't know how to do any of the knitting techniques--that's what youtube is for, right? So, I hope to have this project done by fall or winter. We'll see!!!

Reversible Wrap Skirt

I found this pattern...somewhere. I originally meant to make the skirt either for myself or a friend, but I was off by a few inches on the measurement, so Mandi inherited it. It looks great on her!


The sits in a strange place on the dress, but other than that, it looks good!

My 27th Birthday

My 26th year was my best year yet!!! And it came to a close with a wonderful celebration of my 27th birthday!

The idea was born a few weeks before during a leisurely weekend breakfast with Mandi. We were discussing how we wished experiencing God through creativity was a more common practice and how we would like to spend more time doing it as well as invite our friends into it as well. That idea quickly turned into a party plan, and what better time to throw a party than on my birthday? (This also meant that people who don't consider themselves to be creative had to come, because it was my birthday! Ha!)

Mandi, the master decorator put together the invites.


Goodwill gives employees their birthday off, so I took Friday off to prep for the party. We ran our errands, had great Pho with Candace at my favorite restaurant in Atlanta. The afternoon was spent baking and prepping for brunch.

Here's the final show.

We had stratta, blackberry bundt cake, banana chocolate chip bread with a cream cheese middle, homemade granola with yogurt and fresh fruit, coffee, tea, oj, and mimosas! No one left hungry, and the boys even got to eat leftovers! (The boys celebrated my birthday at Dave and Busters, leaving the house to the women!)
Once everyone arrived, we ate for awhile and started the project. We left the invite very cryptic so no one knew what we were doing until we explained it. (Another attempt to lure people who don't get excited about being creative!)

Mandi and I spoke briefly about our identity in Christ, but then we let Graham Cooke do the talking. (The video is definitely worth the listen...but not the watch.)


During this talk, we had people close their eyes and pray about a word, or picture, or phrase God has for them to let them know of His love for them. After the talk, we decoupaged mirrors to symbolize what Christ sees when he looks at us. It was wonderful to see everyone's individual expressions because each was different and beautiful! Here are the final creations! (Sorry about the sideways pics--I don't know how to fix it! The flash also blocks out some of the mirrors. Oh well!)


Mandi's:Melissa's:

Michelle's (You'll notice Mike, her husband in the mirror reflection too.):Mary's:

Ohky's:
Melanie's:Erin and Karen's:


Lauren's:Jen's:

Ella's Baby Blanket

I crocheted this for sweet Ella Mae when she was born in December, but forgot to take a pic so I snapped a couple when I saw her this weekend.



I think I'm going to go for sewing blankets in the future. This one took probably 30 hours to make.

New Bedding

I made these duvets a couple of months ago but haven't had a chance to take pics and post them yet. I ordered these two duvets from Urban Outfitters super clearance. The only problem was that they were both twin sized so I had to take them a apart and line up the fabrics and then re-attach them and then sew them together to make it reversible. I made some reversible pillows as well to go along with it. I love them!