Sunday, June 6, 2010

Taking a Break

As Cora's due date (July 29th!) approaches I have been less able to create pretty things and focus on my little Etsy business. I'm going to take a break on this blog for awhile and keep focusing on my posts over at our boat blog: http://rebelheart.squarespace.com/charlottes-blog/.

Feel free to join me over there!

I will be back to Red Charlotte though, and I have a few new ideas and tricks up my sleeve for when I return. Until then, keep creating and have fun with D.I.Y.!!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Beautiful Cakes



I often dream of the things I'll obtain when we "live on land again." I have no idea when this will be but a short list of items include:

- A garden (in particular so I can grow tomatoes)
- A panini grill
- A huge, comfortable couch
- A bathtub

And to add to that? Cake stands, beautiful vases, glassware and dinnerware. Some day I'll have all of those things. Until then, I'll dream about them and enjoy traveling around the world on our boat.

These beautiful cakes and the handmade stands they are found on made me wistful for a large kitchen in which to bake wonderful treats such as these and for cabinets in which I could store all my lovely cake stands to display my baked goods. You can see the rest of the wooden items at Herriot Grace. Enjoy!

{Found via Handmade Charlotte}

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Custom-fit Sheets for the Boat

Stop by my sailing blog to see some of my recent work on the boat. I've made fitted sheets for the seaberth and the v-berth.

I'm using fabric from Alexander Henry's Good Earth collection for the seaberth.

For the v-berth I used fabric from Amy Butler's Lotus collection. The boat is a much cheerier place now. After the seaberth is done, I'll be starting on the cushions on the settee in the salon. Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Wanna Get Excited About Fabric?



I just discovered http://www.trueup.net/, a blog devoted to fabric. All things fabric. They review new fabric collections, digital fabric, sustainable sourcing, and fabric patterns, among other things.

They also have a fat quarter giveaway for Jessica Levitt's new line called Timber. The giveaway ends on Friday! Enjoy

Friday, April 2, 2010

It's a Girl

I know I mentioned it on my sailing blog already, but wanted to say it here too, we're expecting a girl!! Cora Rose is set to arrive on July 29, 2010. I wonder what day she'll actually come? There's a full moon on July 26th, but for some reason August 1st keeps popping into my head.

This picture was taken last night at my brother's before dinner. I'm officially 23 weeks. I read in my pregnancy book that Cora will double her weight in the next four weeks. No wonder I've been so hungry lately. I feel like I could eat a house! It took her 23 weeks to weigh a pound and in just four she'll weigh two pounds. Amazing.

I guess that she'll have dark hair like Eric but wavy hair like mine and she'll have our light blue/green eyes as well. Can't wait to meet her.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Inspiration is Everywhere - Truckers Pick Up Quilting and Knitting

Totally awesome. This Wall Street Journal article follows a growing trend among truckers who have picked up quilting, sewing, and knitting as a hobby. The downturn in the current economy has meant that instead of dropping off a load and picking up a new one right away, truckers will sometimes have to wait hours or days until they can head out again. Some men (95% of truckers are men) have started using a needle and thread (and sewing machines!) to pass the time.

The article is a fun read and it is full of great photos of their work and a video that shows a trucker and how he incorporates quilting into his routes. Very cool. Inspiration really is everywhere!

~~ Found via Craft Blog

Monday, March 29, 2010

Handmade Sheets for the Boat!

Check out the sheets I made for our boat on our sailing blog here. So happy to be
creating fabulous DIY again!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Solar Cooker

In the process of making a solar cooker. I've wanted to try one for a long time. I'm going to try cooking something delicious tomorrow and will let you know how it goes:

I think I'm going to start easy and bake some cookies from pre-made dough, just to see how this things cooks. I'm just going to leave it out during the day at school and make sure it is at a good angle to the sun as the day goes by. One of my students is bringing her solar tea kettle. We'll have a feast!

**Update** the cookies are "cooking," which translates to mean: I put them out in the sun on a black cookie sheet and now I'm waiting. No idea if this will work! I'll post pics a bit later!

We just used some pre-made cookie dough and my student brought the tea and solar tea kettle from her house. Here we have the cookies as they'll look when we place them outdoors:

From what I've read you can cover your cooking with a glass lid or top or an oven backing bag (clear) to keep off flies and to trap heat but I'm just trying this today sans cover. (Haven't seen any flies yet so cross your fingers.) Honestly there will probably be more saw dust in these cookies than flies as my students are constructing medieval weapons today on the same balcony that the cookies are baking on.

Below are the cookies 25 minutes into baking. It's working!!!! I turned the sheet around to create oven baking. I'll probably have to keep rotating it every 20-25 minutes. The cookie sheet was HOT to the touch. Will use a hot pad for the next rotation:

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Update: It's 12:14 and the cookies still aren't cooked, but they're cooking. I've had to drag the cooker to follow the sun and at one point I found it in the shade, so I'm not sure how long this will take. The problem is we're on the third floor of the school and the outside patio has a big cover on it so I'm working with an angle of the sun. I wonder if they'll be done by this afternoon?

Update: Well I finally pulled the cookies out of the cooker at 2:30 as we started to clean up for the day. They had started to firm and crust up but were still raw and doughy in the middle. I had a few student volunteers thoroughly wash their hands and then pinch off bits of the cookies from the pan as they were too undercooked to pick up as single entities and eat. The cookies disappeared but I think that's because people like chocolate chip cookies cooked or uncooked. This is what they looked like at 2:30 when I pulled them off. One bummer about using store dough was how oily they were. I don't think homemade dough would have released this much oil (as homemade dough doesn't use oil).

I'm going to try another batch tomorrow. I'll start at the same time but try to position them in more direct sunlight the whole time. I'm very interested in seeing how good I can get at solar cooking with a homemade cooker as the ones I've seen online to purchase are fairly pricey. It would be great to know how to use one while we're sailing, especially in the South Pacific and other hot areas. The cabin will be unbearable if I have to use the oven or stop during the day to make meals.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Cool Photo and Boat Organizing

I'm at home with a nasty cough so I thought I'd share this awesome photo of me and Eric taken at a friend's wedding in July. I had so much fun dancing with Eric that night:

If you're interested in life aboard a sailboat, I have an update on my sailing blog on some of the organizing I've been doing onboard here.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

We're Expecting!

I'm happy to announce that we're expecting our first child in late July. This is one of the reasons that I've been pretty quiet on the blog lately. I'm 13 weeks and was sick with all-day "morning" sickness from weeks 6-12. Eric has been an incredible support through this. He's going to be a great dad. Just wanted to introduce the world to our little gummy bear.

We are still planning on living on our boat and raising the baby on board. I'll be making posts on my sailing blog about the specifics about life on board with a baby. Feel free to follow along if you'd like at http://rebelheart.squarespace.com/charlottes-blog/

This is him/her at 8 weeks and and 12 weeks:

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Projects for the New Year

It's January and I have a new digital camera! Hallelujah. I'm offering the same DIY/Craft class at school as I did last semester so I'm looking forward to meeting my new students and seeing what creative projects they come up with.


The first projects I'll be working on are this storage container created by ReadyMade Magazine. It's Pringles cans covered in Contact Paper and glued together. So cool.

I'll also be refinishing some beautiful teak lawn chairs and of course, working on my jewelry display boxes.

What are you working on?