I really enjoy sewing, and especially making various bags. I thought that this year it would be nice to both get ride of a bunch of extra fabric, as well as make a bunch of tote bags for folks. Nothing new was purchased to make the bags, and even the heavy duty canvas was purchased for other reasons. I tell y'all this because I like when things get saved from garbage and get unexpected and/or second lives. :grin:
Straps: The straps are nylon webbing. Some of the corners may be sharp, so you might want to cut/burn them to make them less mean.
Dark green bags: These are made from cotton/poly blended upholstery fabric that was left over from when I made couch cushions for a friend of mine.
Brown bags: These are full cotton and are left over from when I made a much of chaps and vests for friends for costuming.
Yellow bags: This fabric was found in my friend's mother's attic and she hadn't used it in a decade. I've used it for bags in the past as well. It's outdoor upholstery fabric, and I'm pretty sure that it's polyester (but might be nylon).
Striped bags: This is another full cotton fabric. It's from when I made a jacket for a friend of mine and I've had it for years.
Tan/beige bags: This is a full cotton, heavy duty canvas that I got from Second Use Building Supplies, and it nearly broke my non-heavy duty machine. I apologize that it kind of smells like stale coffee, but I don't know where it came from (neither do they). I'd recommend washing it with either vinegar or baking soda to help remove the odor.
For all of the bags, I recommend washing them to get rid of any leftover fuzzies and random thread pieces. Best to wash the bags on cold, and dry them on low. Remember that even the cotton ones have non-cotton straps.
As a special for y'all, please feel free to reach out to me directly if you ever need your bag repaired. Just note, I'm now out of most of those fabrics so any repairs will be visible.
Warning: Peanut Allergy! This year, the inspiration was Scnex's grandmother in Louisiana. He recalls her making peanut brittle every year to gift away. While we didn't master her particular "soft" brittle this round (was the secret ingredient egg whites?), we played with cane sugar, agave nectar, sea salt, roasted peanuts, butter, baking soda, and homemade vanilla. The first batch was left thicker, the second we spread thinner, and for the darker, third batch, Chef Scnex clarified the butter and added honey and homemade peanut butter. One lucky calendar recipient gets a piece of all 3! TBD consistency in your warm and cozy home. We recommend popping it in the freezer if you want to firm it up. Enjoy with our love!
This year's Christmas ornament is inspired by the vintage German glass ornaments my grandmother had on her tree. It runs on an ATTINY85 microcontroller, and the code is open source. If you're technically-inclined and want to play around with it, check out https://github.com/aaronstj/xmas2025/.
Fudge - peanut butter, orange, and cherry (the cherry did not set due to too much syrup but is still tasty! I wrapped it separately to contain the mess). Contain dairy, chocolate, peanuts. Can be enjoyed room temp or cool (suggest cool for the cherry).
All of the bird pin cushions are handmade with lots of love (and a little bit of swearing) involving hand sewing and all made from fabric already in Kate’s fabric stash.
Use these mulling spices for wine or cider! heat contents of bag with 3 cups of cider or red wine over the stove (add 1/4 c sugar if using wine), reach a simmer for 10 min, then strain out the spices. serve warm and enjoy!
The coaster set was an excuse to put our new 3d printer through its paces, learn how to dial in sizes and depths to get the cork to sit in the print just right, and especially to learn about the laser engraving module. The four designs are patterns common in Japanese kumiko lattice work. The two angular designs are the Asanoha and Tsuno Asanoha (hemp leaf and horned hemp leaf) patterns. The two rounder designs are the Shippo (Seven Treasures of Buddhism) and Ume (Plum Blossom) patterns.
Occasional tarot readings from friends have felt like a nice ritual and time for reflection, much as solstice and the end of the year does. I’ve enjoyed looking at what fits, hits, or doesn’t, and I wanted to offer that to each of you. I bought this tarot/oracle deck this fall at an independent bookstore on Bainbridge Island. The words are my selection/summary of the written interpretations and associations of the maker/illustrator of the deck, Lalania Simone.
(heads up:scented product and contains glitter) You will have received one of three options from my new hobby of soap making! These are from melt and pour soap kits, with skin safe scented oils.
Options include: Peach Nectar and Sparkling Grapefruit, Limonchello creme and Whipped Lavender, Or Rosemary, Sage, lavender embers and orange pomander
{no extra details given}
As I was assembling these, I realized that they are the latest in a string of folded paper projects that I have undertaken in my life, but that it has been quite a while since the last one. I enjoyed immersing myself in folding all the star points.
Mostly, these make me smile. They make me think of stained glass and kaleidoscopes and snowflakes. I hope having one in your window makes you smile!
In keeping with the theme of celebrating the 12 months of the year, this year I made a little cards to celebrate the best little thing of the month! I got this idea because one of my close friends collects rocks they find, and asked me to make a sign for their rock shelf so that they could display their rock of the month. For you all, I left the label blank so that you can write in what you’d like to showcase! It could be a tea of the month, a quote, a photo, a trinket, or anything else. I also included an extra label so that you can change it up. I can’t wait to hear what everyone picks to showcase!
Life is too short to abide undelicious food. I was once gifted a tiny tin of flaky salt and ever since I keep that or a little shaker of kosher salt in every bag I carry. It has saved many a lackluster meal, and honestly a few bad cups of coffee, too.
Your tin contains Penzey's kosher-style flake salt.
~I overestimated how much salt I’d need to fill these, so I am delighted to offer lifetime refills.~
I hope your year ahead contains at least one good book! I made these little markers to accompany you on your literary journey. I made the collages from various magazines (mostly 90s nat geo) and used cereal boxes for the backing.
Since childhood I’ve loved gnomes, and what’s not to love? Living close to the earth, eating good things, and wearing hats so low faces can’t be seen- all delightful to me. This fall I wanted to dig into a project and a small army of gnomes is the result.
Once-loved, small, abandoned objects rescued in unlikely fashion from the bottom of the bins at the Goodwill outlet. They lived with me for a time before they inspired me to send them on in this way. I'm curious for what inspiration they may foster next.
Each Rx bottle contains a word or phrase that made me pause. Some are new-to-me words that perfectly encapsulate an emotion or experience. Some are small phrases that made me consider ordinary words in a novel way — an evocative image, a delightful alliteration, a verb used as an adjective, an oxymoron, a tiny poem, a nerdy meditation. But overall, sometimes words are medicine.
This year I made simple little boxes for everyone with a sweet treat inside and a festive carving on top. Perfect for cluttering up a bookshelf or wrapping the tiniest stocking stuffer!
It's been a wild fall/winter! Can't believe it's already the 19th
These are magnets made from leaves I collected on the last dry fall day before the rains came. I pressed them between paper towels in cookbooks before laminating, xacto-cutting, and super gluing magnets to the back. There's a chance the glue doesn't hold, and you can re-glue it.
The most vibrant leaves in my micro-neighborhood (Capitol Hill north and west of Broadway & John) on this day were Japanese maple and gingko (also a Japanese tree). Tangential to Shintoism, Japanese culture has a language and mindfulness around microseasons--more seasons per year than the four (winter, spring, summer, autumn/fall) in the American zeitgeist. This more frequent awareness calls for appreciation of the smaller, more subtle changes we see in nature, mirrored by our own internal world.
What is composting in your life? What is ready to be released, broken down, and turned into nutrients for the next cycle? How do we appreciate the beauty of what was and how it is ending? What space does this composting create in your life? How do you hold this space, allowing what is meant to live there next to find you in its own time?
I hope when you look at these magnets you remember some of these reflections, and that Everything changes Trees are amazing Transformation is your birthright
💖 Jess
The bag this came in is also a reusable tea bag! I sometimes use these bags to dry loose herbs.
The spice mix is: Dried mango powder Cayenne Salt Paprika
Happy Solstice! Today is the shortest day and darkest night. Each day after this promises a little more warmth. These little gifts add some warmth...and spice! Each sachet holds mulling spices to add to apple cider/juice, mead, red wine, or warm water and bourbon for a hot toddy. I suggest warming your beverage and letting the satchet steep for 4-6min. There is sugar in this so it will sweeten a bit. I'd love to see photos of your drink!
I've always been fascinated by maps, and wanted to make one myself. I think hyperlocal and personalized maps are neat, so I started with a local landmark: Seward Park. We spend a lot of time here — the studio that Sarah works at is in the park, and we often walk on the trails or paddleboard around the peninsula.
The peninsula was known by the Duwamish as skEba’kst. The initial park plan for Seward Park came from the Olmstead brothers as part of a broad Seattle park system, though it wasn't ever built exactly according to their vision. I found the plan visually appealing, so wanted to do something depicting the tree cover and accurate representations of the trails as they exist today. You can see the original plan here on this virtual tour:
https://seattleolmsted.org/tour/seward-park/
I spent a good amount of time extracting the tree canopy using lidar data. I wrote some code to try and determine tree positions algorithmically, but ran out of time to get that working well enough. Eventually I went with a stylistic representation of the trails and hand-drawn trees based on the lidar canopy information, so most of the trees are individual trees or clusters of trees from the actual data.
Printed at Saigon Printing on Rainier.
I am trying a different kind of clay than last year 🤞🏻🤞🏻
I meant for these to be little sauce dishes, but you can use them for whatever you want. The glaze I originally tested didn't work very well, and I ran out of time for more tests so some of them definitely worked better than others.
They have underglaze on the outside with a contrasting glaze slip-trailed over it for decoration, and the same glaze lines the inside. I like the texture difference between the slightly rough underglaze and the smooth glaze. There are 4 different color combinations - hope you like the one you got!