Christine Chitnis: March 2013

Little Hats

I think these little guys will look very sweet in the boys Easter baskets, although I am sure they will last no more than a moment! This was a super simple craft, just folding and snipping colorful bits of paper to make little hats, crowns and bunny ears.

This will be the first Easter that Vijay is old enough to understand the whole idea of an Easter egg hunt. Our church is hosting a fun day of activities, including an Easter egg hunt with 6,000 candy-filled eggs. I sense a looming sugar high, followed by confusion on Monday morning when our breakfast eggs are filled with yolks instead of sugary treats!

However you choose to celebrate, I hope you have a happy Easter and a lovely weekend. I'm hoping against hope that we might get some blossoming trees this week. My family is coming into town and I would love to show off our wonderful city in all its spring finery.

Easter Eggs, A Few Ways

Easter comes but once a year, so I can't help but go a bit overboard in the egg decorating department. I love Easter crafts- bunnies, chicks, pastels- what's not to love? Last year I experimented with natural dyes, and I really liked the results. I decided to do the same this year, with the addition of a few new ingredients, including red and yellow onion skins, blueberries, and paprika. You can find my complete instructions on natural dying here.

I hollowed out, and hardboiled a bunch of eggs, and then I dyed them a variety of colors.

Inspired by Erin's beautiful eggs at Reading My Tea Leaves, I decided to try botanical printing. I also played around with quail eggs (both in their natural state and dyed), as well as using the hollowed out eggs as little planters for succulents and pansies. I am pretty over-the-moon with the results (a special thanks to Sarah for coming over to help me style my eggs!), and although it required a few late nights to pull it all together, I do believe I'm going to have the prettiest Easter table around!

For the little egg planters, I dyed uncooked eggs, and once they achieved the perfect color, I gently cracked the top, and very carefully broke off little pieces of the shell until I had carved out a hole. I filled the hole very carefully with dirt, and a single succulent. I kept adding dirt, and carefully packing it in, until the succulent could stand on its own.

I mainly kept the quail eggs natural since they are so beautiful with their speckled cream and brown shells. I did try dying a few, and I discovered that when you get the quail eggs wet, the speckled coating comes off, unless you allow it to dry before touching. It proved to be difficult to get a dyed, speckled egg, but I handled a few very carefully, and allowed them to dry thoroughly, and it seemed to work. My favorite dyed quail egg are the ones pictured below, dyed in coffee, which achieved a gorgeous caramel color, and dyed in red cabbage for a rich blue.

For a little more of a color pop, I decided to plant some pansies. The eggs dyed in turmeric made for the perfect planter, their yellow color pairing perfectly with the flowers.

Tomorrow, I'll share one last Easter craft- the eggs which will grace the boy's Easter baskets! And if you have any fun egg decorating links or suggestions, please pass them along. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas!

Miss Maggie

Sometimes my husband just shakes his head when I tell him how I spend my (extremely limited) free time. He never judges, because he sees how happy I am when I have room in my day to stitch and sew, create and dream, but still, he wonders... Lately, I have been furiously stitching tiny ears and boots, a little capelet, and a tiny Liberty dress. The finished product? The sweetest of all bunnies, Miss Maggie (a kit from the talented Alicia Paulson).

Now a project like this would make complete sense if you had a baby girl's nursery to decorate, or a sweet little girl who knew how to gently play with handmade softies. Of course, in our truck-filled home for wild boys, there is simply no need for a sweetly stitched bunny. Nope, no real need at all. And yet she makes me extremely happy as she sits in my studio, nestled against a stack of quilts and pillows, all stitched by hand in various shades of pink.

I do love purposeful crafting- but every once in awhile, making something that is completely whimsical and impractical is just the most fun of all! Today, it's back to laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, cooking and finishing a baby hat that I am knitting for a friend. A to-do list full of practicality. But knowing that my sweet little bunny sits in my sunny studio will bring a smile to my face, and I will dream about my next (impractical, lovely) project!

(another Posie creation from her book, Stitched in Time)

Thrifting Confessions

I'll be the first to admit...I am a totally random thrifter. Sometimes, my purchases are utilitarian- a cast iron skillet for the kitchen, old pinking sheers for my studio; things that have a specific use. When we were decorating our home, I scoured Craigslist, and local thrift stores for pieces of furniture, always having a particular idea of what I wanted. I was careful to purchase furniture slowly and deliberately, so that our house would be light, airy and filled only with things that I loved. However, my thrifting alter-ego is a totally crazy knickknack collector who loves useless tchotchkes and doodads. I can't help it. Because I love a streamline, clutter-free home, I am able to keep this alter-ego in check. But sometimes, despite my best efforts, she gets the best of me!

I recently did a huge purge of fabric and crafting material as I set up my new studio space (a full tour to come once everything is in its rightful place!). It was only then that I realized I love ~~hoarding~~ collecting vintage sewing notions: old spools of thread, pieces of unfinished quilts, buttons, and pretty little scraps of paper.

I'd like to pretend that I put them to good use, but besides my one stitch book (below) that beautifully displays my favorite ribbon and fabric scraps, and prized buttons, I mostly have them sitting around the studio in pretty jars and baskets. I like to pour them out and go through them just for fun, and imagine all of the amazing things I could make with them if only I had the time and energy (yes, I really am as boring as I sound).

All of this leads me to my latest thrifting find, purchased at this funky place Amanda took me to during our visit. Amanda first spotted it, and when she showed me, my heart skipped a beat. Luckily, it didn't call to her in the same way, and she was more than happy to pass it along. I think it's my most favorite thing ever. I am irrationally in love with this little bird.

This little love beautifully rounded out my collection of McCoy pottery, and although I refuse to admit how much I paid for her (I'll never tell!), she was worth every penny. Sometimes, no matter what the cost, you just have to let your inner kook win!

Seeing the Light

This past week, I treated myself to a photography lesson with the amazing Heidi of White Studio Loft. I have worked with Heidi on a few shoots now, and I am always amazed at the lightness she captures in her images. After spending some time reviewing the basic principals of photography (you know, all the fun stuff, f-stop, shutter speed, iso, etc.), we headed to Jephry Florist, a gorgeous, light filled flower shop on the West Side of Providence.

The goal was to work on capturing natural light- I am often frustrated when I cannot capture that airy, bright light that I so often come across out in the world. It was a bit scary setting my camera to Manual (I usually shoot in Aperture Priority), but once I got the hang of it, I was thrilled to have such control.

Heidi was such a patient teacher, and she instilled in me such confidence to put into practice what I learned. Although my photography time is so limited these days, I am excited to get out there and start shooting in manual. It can be hard to make "me time" a priority these days, but every time I spend a day doing what I love, and learning new skills to further my passion, I realize how important it is to build time for myself into our busy family schedule.

I can't wait to share the shoot that we staged in the afternoon (hint: it has to do with cocktails!). I'll leave you with my favorite images from the morning, a vase filled with gorgeous Hellebore blooms, a sure sign that spring is around the corner.

Woo Woo Sweater

This sweater has been in the works for some time now. It was supposed to be a Christmas present for my truck-obsessed toddler, but obviously that didn't happen! The delay was due to the fact that I needed to learn a knitting technique called intarsia. It took me forever to carve out the time to take a private lesson.

I go through extreme phases with my crafting- this winter, I couldn't put down the knitting needles. Now that we are on the verge of spring, I can feel my enthusiasm for knitting waning. Perhaps I'll get going on the sewing projects I have building up in my new studio space! One thing I won't be doing anytime soon- knitting Vijay another sweater.

He wore it once (for these photos), and I had to bribe him into it with a cookie. He refuses to wear it again, and every time I pull it out of the drawer he runs from the room yelling, "NO woo-woo." Which is his way of saying, "No fire engine." Do you think he knows how badly I want him to wear it, and he just wants to toy with my emotions? Is a 2 year-old capable of thinking along those lines? *sigh* I guess I'll just have to wait until sweet Vik is big enough, and I'll make him wear it. Surely he won't put up such a fight, right?

A Weekend with the Soule's

A four hour trip to Maine in a snowstorm, with the boys in the backseat, refusing to nap no matter the gentle rhythm of the car, or the soft music playing. My husband and I kept wondering if we were crazy to attempt such a feat, but once we arrived, and saw the charming farmhouse, snowy fields of sheep, chickens, turkeys and pigs, we knew we had made the right decision. Sometimes you just have to follow your sense of adventure. And follow it we did, right to the lovely homestead of the Soule family.

We spent the weekend "helping" around the farm, and by helping, I mean I took pictures, and Vijay played in the mud (March is mud month on the farm- and boy, do we have loads of laundry to prove it!). He did give the sheep plenty of love...Amanda seems to think Vijay is in need of a pet sheep. Hmmm, sheep in Providence, could it be?

We also spent some time watching water boil...I assure you, it is much more exciting than it sounds when the water happens to be laced with maple sweetness, and a warming aroma. Making maple syrup is especially gratifying when the morning after, you enjoy a pancake breakfast. You can certainly appreciate every sweet syrupy bite, knowing what went into the making.

Because it was a rough winter for bees, we got to enjoy double the sweetness, as we watched honey extracted from hives that didn't make it through the cold months. I'm not sure there was much left to extract after the kids got their fingers in there for a taste.

Back in the city today, with nothing on the agenda but a long walk to campus, and a visit with friends, we find ourselves missing the quiet, easy rhythm of the farm life. Oh please, who am I fooling? With seven kids, four adults, two pigs, four sheep, three turkey, countless chickens and one duck, the weekend was anything but quiet, and farming is anything by easy. But we do miss it- we were so warmly welcomed into the fold, and we are already wondering if we "helped" enough to get invited back during the busy, summer months on the farm.