Teeny tiny stop-motion animation

I love stop-motion videos.  This one I discovered over at the Pretty Little Things blog. 

Autumn equinox (and a cute video)

Happy first day of Autumn! I'm excited for weather cool enough to wear handknit woolens, sip hot apple cider, and carve pumpkins!

I wanted to share this amazing video. Enjoy, friends!

clean as a whistle: DIY laundry soap

Laundry soap can be expensive and filled with unknown chemicals and fragrances.  Why waste time in the grocery store cleaning aisle, when you can make your very own laundry soap!

It's crazy simple (only 3 ingredients!) and works like a charm.

What you need:

• 1 cup borax (naturally-occurring mineral; cleaning agent)
• 1 cup washing soda (sodium carbonate; water softener)
• 2 cups finely grated soap (use up an old bar or castile (olive oil) soap bar)
• mason jar (or other) and airtight lid to store finished soap

Borax and washing soda can be found alongside your laundry detergents in your grocery store.

I've used both Ivory soap (which grates nicely, but has additives) and Kiss My Face pure olive oil soap (produces curly green soap strings which look odd) and both work well.  Amanda Soule of Soulemama uses Dr. Bronner's castile soap bars with success (see her laundry soap recipe here).  Her recipe is the same as the one I used from David Suzuki Foundation's Queen of Green.

What to do:
Grate soap bar using your cheese grater.  Don't worry about getting soap on your grater - it's soap and will clean your grater before washing off.  Measure and mix three ingredients together in a jar.  So fast and simple!

Washing instructions:
Shake before use to make sure all ingredients are mixed.

• 1 Tbsp for small load
• 2 Tbsp for large load

Honestly, you don't need more!  Laundry detergent companies want us to use more so that we'll buy more!

We're several loads in, and I'm loving it!  Who doesn't love to save $$ and feel good knowing you made something yourself!

Optional: fabric softener
Throw in a cup of vinegar into the rinse cycle.. I have yet to try this, but apparently it does not leave a vinegar smell on clothes.

missed connections

I'm totally enamoured with the Missed Connections print collection by Sophie Blackall.  They are based off of "missed connections" listings on craigslist.  Clever and cute, right?

epitome of summer

Happy first of September!  It's hard to believe that autumn weather is just around the corner, particularly with the heat wave we're experiencing. 

A few weekends ago Mr. Owl (my night owl boyfriend, aka Mr. Kitchen-Crafty) and I spent an idyllic summer weekend visiting family and friends. It was a weekend filled to the brim with good food, wonderful company, and some craftiness too (hurray!).

The weekend schedule was as follows:

1. A long bus ride made fun with knitting and audiobooks (the local library is a great source of roadtrip fun).

Working on my Shalom cardigan.

2. Crepes with fresh blackberry jam and maple syrup.

(photo from weheartit)

3. Picking the last of Mr. Owl's mum's basil and making pesto! It's my favourite!  Honestly so simple to make.

dill beans love posing with pesto

4. Extreme croquet (crocket as it's been nicknamed) in the woods - trees, logs and rocks made for interesting obstacles.

Scared to look. Did I make the shot?

5. Visit to the beaver pond, which turned into one of my top canadian wildlife moments ever: baby beaver hanging out only a meter or two away, chewing on a log and sticking it's tongue out at us!  I only regret not having my camera with me, but I doubt that I would have had sense enough to actually use it. That beaver was mesmerizing!

(photo from weheartit)

6. Blackberry picking from a wild patch.  Now to decide what to make: jam, pie, juice...

(picture from weheartit)

7. Handmade body butter and body bars, which we named Baby Beaver Body Butter after our fabulous encounter.

Recipes for pesto and body butter and balm coming up!  Stay tuned!

Hope you're enjoying the final days of summer!

a birthday, some cupcakes, and sparklers ... oh my!

Fun birthday celebrations this weekend for a dear friend!  The party had a coffee theme, yum!  I contributed mocha coffee cupcakes that I made from this great recipe from Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski (found via the how to eat a cupcake blog). 

They were topped with this simple creamcheese icing (I substituted coffee for the vanilla).  These cupcakes are so moist and the chocolate-coffee combo is blissful!  These will definitely be made again in the near future.  Next time I would try a different icing as the creamcheese somewhat overpowered the coffee.

cupcakes cooling before frosting.

I couldn't resist modeling the cupcakes with my birdie salt & pepper shakers (from Urban Outfitters last December).  I love them so much!

Happy Birthday!

We enjoyed some more fireworks and a near-full moon...

...and played with sparklers too!

when the moon hits your eye...

I am in love with homemade pizza. I have always loved pizza, but not with the same level of passion that I have for the pizza that Mr. kitchen-crafty has been making. He is on a quest to make the tastiest pizza he can, in the style of his beloved New York pizza, and I am along for the ride. And what a sweet ride it has been!

Apparently one trick to amazing pizza is to use a baking stone and to keep ingredients to a minimum, i.e. homemade tomato-basil sauce with cheese.  The little extra is crust stuffed with creamcheese!  I'm thinking goat-cheese stuffed crust would also be incredible.  Perhaps I can convince him that we need to work our way through the cheese alphabet.  Mmm...  

Edit: This site is a wonderful resource. It includes a recipe and detailed suggestions for how to improve your pizza.  Making good pizza involves experimentation and lots of trial and error, fortunately each trial is incredibly delicious!

p.s. Sorry for the crummy photo quality. We gobbled our way through the pizza faster than I could snap pictures of it.