it has been a longg time since I blogged. I though I could blog daily *sigh*.

So a lot happened since last time I blogged, I have attend to a craft fair here in Ann Arbor.

It was a fine day, it was cold but my boot was on the sunny side of the fair so it was really hot! I mean HOT! we even stripped down to our t-shirts at one point.
I made a couple of sales that day, since it was my first fair ever, I think that was ok but the best thing was, I made a lot of friends at the fair.

And also I have been experimenting with Kool-Aid dying. I have come up with pretty good results, was able to achieve a cute reddish brown and light brown which will be my next dolls hair

And made a couple of dolls since then. Speaking of dolls, I only make 1 doll a week, since I want every doll I make to be perfect and special so I take my time and do not mass produce. Sometimes I fell in love with the fabric, sometimes with a yarn so i start making my dolls around that piece. In the coming days I will keep a daily journal (w/pics) of my doll making, how I start and what I do everyday, so if anyone is interested in my dolls can get better understanding how I make them so stay tuned..

With a BIG smile on my face, boomdeyada, boomdeyada…

especially if they are in a cake form. :o) Can you guess what gives this cake that delicious color? Oh! C’mon you can do it; I’ll give you a hint: “Popeye” ;o)

Alright it is (drum roll please!) SPINACH!! And what great thing is that you can’t taste the spinach at all. This cake is a great way to eat your spinach, especially if you don’t like the taste of spinach.

Here is the recipe, the original recipe calls for white sugar and white flour but as always I substitute them with brown sugar and whole wheat flour.

* 3 eggs (they have to be in room temperature)
* 1 1/2 cup sugar (I use ½ cup brown sugar as I do not like really sweet cake, so    the amount is up to you)
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* ~500 gr spinach, roots cut off, washed, drained
* 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (I use canola oil)
* 2 tbsp lemon juice
* 2 1/2 cups flour, sifted (I use whole wheat flour)
* 1 tsp baking powder

Puree the spinach in a food processor, put aside. Whisk the egg and sugar in the mixer or by hand. Add the olive oil, lemon juice and pureed spinach in it and mix. Then add flour and baking powder. Mix for a few minutes. Pour into the oiled cake pan.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Check with a toothpick to see if it’s done, bake until it comes out clean. It takes about 30 minutes. Let it cool and then serve, or do like me and cut a warm slice and put in a bottom of a bowl and add a (2-3?) scope of ice cream of your favorite, yummy!!!

Credits: the original recipe is from: Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook

When I started my blog, though that I would write everyday at my lunch hour, since I work on a computer all day long, updating my blog everyday shouldn’t be a problem. I have gazillion things to write, even have a tutorial about making a loveseat pincushion.

But, soon realized that I can’t blog every day, you see, “me” has this rule about not touching any computers at home in order to spend more time with my family and work on my crafts. This rule only leaves me my lunch hour at work but that valuable hour was eaten by new projects lately, so no blogging for me! Well, until now, so here it goes…

On my previous post I talked about my decorated baskets. Today, I have another one to share with you. This particular basket -I believe they called mosses baskets- made for a dear friend’s baby shower about 3 years ago. I used white satin fabric for both inside and out and decorated with ruffles and ribbons. I am really happy the way it’s turned out Just Beautiful!

 

Before I start posting about my daily life and doll making process here, I feel like I should introduce my self as more and more friends asking about who I am  :o)

Hmm let’s see who am I really? I am 35 years old, living in Ypsilanti, Michigan. As I mentioned at “about us” page, I have a daughter who just turned 2. I work  full time as a Web Developer/ Designer (took me a month to do my web site, but thats a story for another blog post). Let’s see what else oh! I love love love crafting! So far the only thing I have not tried is the jewelery making, I have been sewing, painting, knitting, crocheing, embroidering, designing, designing, designing…

Here are some examples of my craftiness:

There is a Turkish custom for taking your own house slipper’s to the house visits. Every lady in Turkey has one or more pair for this purpose, the idea is that by wearing the clean house slippers, you do not take the outside dirt to inside of the house and also you look pretty in the same time :o) This custom also brought the idea of making a bag for those slippers/shoes. So these bags are really populer in Turkey, they can be sewn (as I did), knitted, crocheted(?)(is this the right way of saying that they made with croche? anyway… you get the idea, right?) I have several of them, this particular one is the latest, I have sewn the bag, then I decorated with ribbons, roses, some black fabric paint to outline the shape of the slippers and I also sewn in some perl beads to give some interest and Voila! Ilove this bag so much i use this one most of the time more bag pictures will come! :o)

And here is another one:

I love decorating baskets, I don’t even remember how many i made so far, This is the last one. I made this for my baby shower as I needed something to put my party favors in! This dressing up boring wicker baskets is great way to add some interest to thanksgiving table to put the bread in or for halloween to collect all the candies, baby showers as seen in example, for bridal showers, or for anything that you may use a wicker basket for. I have more pictures of my baskets I will post them here  as the days go by…

As you can see I love crafting, my latest (and biggest so far) passion is making dolls, I have made different kind, shape, color dolls so far but I am in love with waldorf dolls. Every doll is different and so special.

I will be posting more on my dolls, right now I am working on a red haired beauty which I dyed the hair my self with kool-aid. More on her later, stay tuned!

My web site is LIVE, took me a month to do it! but finally it is done! Wo-hoo  :o)