D.I.Y. Louisville 2nd Annual Ornament Sew-Along

 What do you get when you cross a group of crafty ladies with a stack of felt?

 

A whole family of snowpeople. 

 

And just who are the lovely ladies behind this adorableness?

 

Emily – Em Dash Designs

Karen, Katie, Amanda  – Independent Crafty Ladies

Molly – MoMo’s Creations

Robin – A Sterling Reputation

Patty – All’s Fair in cookies and crafts

Liz – Craft E Magee

Lynn – Good Garbage

Carrie – My Ordinary Fairytale

 

Click on the links to check out what these amazing ladies are doing when they’re not spending the evening with me at the D.I.Y. Louisville meet-ups.  I am so fortunate to be a part of this wonderful group!
 

Have a great weekend DIY’ers!

 

~julee~

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Properties of Metal: Meet-Up Recap

What an amazingly fun night we had last week at our meet-up with silversmith Robin Chard!

Robin is an extremely talented artist and we are so fortunate to have her as a member of our D.I.Y. Louisville Craft Collective.  Her work has been accepted into some of Louisville’s biggest art shows, including St. James Court Art Show.  Last year, Robin won first place at The Kentucky State Fair for a stunning jewelry piece made from various metals.   We pretty much can’t brag about her enough!

We had a great turnout for this event and were happy to meet so many new friends.  Here are a few of the pictures from our night working with Robin learning to harden metals, make swan necked jewelry clasps, and findings for earrings.

 

At the end of the evening, we each walked away with a swan necked clasp, and a pair of earrings that we created from start to finish with copper wire and beads.  It was a great night full of laughs and creativity, and we are so grateful to Robin for spending her evening sharing with us!

julee & kim

 

P.S.

You can see the full set of pictures from this night on our Facebook page.

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Insta-Friday….on Sunday

   

Punctuality has never been my thing, as every single person who has ever known me can attest.  What can I say, I do what I can.

I am working a full-time summer job, which means I’ve been spending my days whining about how tired I am and not doing much else.  That also means that the snapshots on my phone aren’t very exciting as of late.  Unless of course you’re into pictures of office supplies, file folders, and large copy machines?

~Summer cherries.  Is there anything more delectable?

~Our July D.I.Y. Louisville meet-up was this week.  Have I ever mentioned how awesome all of the gals in our group are?  Also awesome, is the Moroccan mint tea at Sunergos.

~My daughter was in her very first dance recital this weekend.  Do you know what the opposite of a stage mom is called?  Because that’s what I am.

~I treated two hard-working little dancers to a treat after their dress rehearsal.  I don’t know why I always let them talk me into Steak and Shake, since I eat neither steaks nor shakes.  At least they give out these cool hats.

Even though this is extremely tardy, I’m still linking up my simple moments with Life Rearranged this week.  I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! 

~julee~

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Copic Marker Event–Recap

Recently, we very gratefully  hosted a D.I.Y. Louisville meet-up sponsored by Copic Marker.  Copic Marker generously loaned our group a wide assortment of sketch markers and airbrush systems to try out on our altered journal projects. 

We have some talented artists in our group and having the chance to demonstrate these items and seeing their creativity unfold was awesome!



Copic Sketch Markers are amazing in that they let you create brilliant shading and blending effects for your art.  Each marker has a wide tip and a brush tip.  (Actually, the tips are called  nibs, technically.)  The Sketch markers come 358 colors, and all of the Copic markers are refillable.  Less waste makes the environmentalist in us really happy.



A new toy for everyone in our group was the Copic Airbrush System.  The whole thing hooked up and was ready to go in just a few minutes.  After you attach the included airhose and aircan, you simply snap in one of the Copic markers and bam! you’re airbrushing like a pro.





Even my daughter loved creating texture on her art with the airbrush system.  (I think this is a portrait of one of the Sunergos baristas, but I can’t be sure.)

 

Copic representatives were twittering with us to answer any questions we had about their products.  Do they guarantee color matching between batches of markers?  They certainly do!  What is the average shelf life of their markers?  Three-years.  An insanely long time in marker years as long as you properly care for them.  Do the fine folks at Copic love DIY’ers?  Indubitably!



This was such a fun and wonderful night for our group!  We owe a special thanks to Copic Marker for lending us these amazing products to review.  (We were not compensated for this review and all opinions in this review are of our own.)  We also owe a special thanks to Sunergos Coffee and our favorite barista Tristan for always generously accommodating our group.

If you would like more information on Copic Makers and Airbrush System, visit their website HERE.

If you would like to see more photos from our night, visit HERE.

If you would like more information on D.I.Y. Louisville and are interested in joining us during our next meet-up, check out our events page HERE.

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Insta-Friday–Eating Local

   

Considering that I spend copious amounts of time obsessing over food – the how, when, why, and where’s of what we consume – it’s not surprising that at least 50% of the pictures on my phone are pictures of what I eat.  Here are some of the local Louisville places I’ve been recently:

~The girl and I loving the tofu at Annie Café.

~The hubs and I stopped in at The Root Cellar for some local produce and goods this week.  The zucchini, cucumber, and tomato made their way into our dinner, and those super sweet and delicious strawberries were our dessert.  Raw honey and drinkable raspberry yogurt were saved for later.

~Kim and I met for lunch  for the first time in a long time.  Kim picked Please and Thank You for us to try and we were pleasantly delighted with our light lunch.  That’s an egg, pesto, and fontina panini with a  hot mystery sauce.  Super yum.

~Coffee isn’t technically an eat, but I can’t do a local roundup without adding a picture of my favorite Sunergos coffee.  This is either the white mocha or caramel latte – when I drink coffee, I want it to taste like a dessert.  Who's with me?

It feels great supporting local businesses.  Do you have a favorite local spot in Louisville or your own hometown?

I'm linking up these simple moments with many other bloggers over at Life Rearranged.

Have a great weekend!

~julee~

PS - If you're in Louisville looking for a great way to support local artists and businesses this weekend, check out the Buy Local First Fair on Sunday, May 20. Our friend Craft E Magee will be there with her adorable handmade dolls and other beautiful handmade items.

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D.I.Y. Louisville Meet-Up Recap & Winner

Our meet-up last night was F-U-N!

For starters, two beautiful women ventured out in the cold and rain to join our group for the first time. We absolutely love having new people join our group, and we were so happy to meet Lynn & Justy!

Kim brought her delicious peanut butter and chocolate macarons! 

Oh, my goodness, were they yummy!

 

 

 

 

Our first ever group sew-along was a success.  I love how everyone put their own personalities into their gingerbread house ornaments.  Every one is super cute!

 

 

Group member Angie picked the winner for the felt gingerbread ornament kit. 

Congratulations, ifallsmichelle!

 

 

A great big special thanks to all of our D.I.Y. Louisville group members for coming out and sharing a fun night with us! If you're in Louisville and want to learn more about our group, our Facebook page stays up-to-date with the events and reminders.

~julee~

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Meet Up Recap

Tuesday was our meet up night and as usual it was a night filled with great coffee and conversation.  We were joined by a few members of a knit/crochet group that normally meet that night and it was really nice to meet some new crafters.

Working on a Halloween embroidery project

A closer view.  You can get this pattern for free here.

Our crochet maven hard at work on a blanket.

A stack of colorful doll's feet from Craft E Magee

Julee's cute quilled pumpkins.

A little bit of knitting.

Our favorite silver smith, Robin, who will have a booth at St. James this year.

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D.I.Y. Louisville Meet Up

In case you haven't heard we have a meetup on the first and third Tuesday's of the month at a sweet little place called Sunergos Coffee.  We get together we a few of our crafty/blogger buddies, drink some amazing coffee and tea and get our craft on.  Oh, and guess what?  We love meeting new friends, it's seriously the best part of these meet ups.  We never know whose going to show up and what kind of cool stuff they are going to bring.  Last week we shared a few cupcakes and met some amazing new crafty folks including Craft E Magee, MaePress, Suzanne, and Robin, not to mention all of our other regulars.  We'll be meeting again on the 15th at the Sunergos on Woodlawn in Beechmont, 6 p.m. and would love to see you there.  Check out the pics from our last meet up.

Kim

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Girl Scout Inspired Cupcakes Part Two: Thin Mint

Wow, this weekend has been a bear.  As I type this my back is killing me and I am more than ready for bed, but we managed to have an amazing surprise 60th birthday party for my dad and that's what counts.   So even though I baked my butt off and don't want to see another baked good for a few weeks, I thought I would share that other Girl scout cupcake I promised.  Tag a Longs are my favorite cookie but my husband likes the Thin Mints, so they were the logical next cupcake.  As with the Tag a Long cupcake, I didn't want to just stick a cookie in there, I wanted to make a cupcake with the characteristics of the cookie.  This one has a little bit of a grown up spin, since I added some of our beloved Sunergos coffee to the cupcake.  The Thin Mint cupcake consists of a rich mocha brownie cupcake, semi sweet chocolate topping and a generous swirl of mint buttercream.  As with the previous cupcake this one started with a mix.  Check out the tutorial below for a how to and recipe.

Cupcakes
1 box brownie mix prepared according to directions minus the water
strong brewed coffee, preferably Sunergos :)

Step one:  prepare the brownie mix following the directions on the back of the box, minus the water.  Add enough strong brewed coffee plus 1/4c to substitute for the water.  (if the box says add 1 c water, you will add 1 1/4 c. coffee). Pour the batter into cupcake liners and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. You can tell they are done when they start to crackle on top and don't jiggle when you lightly shake the pan.

After the cupcakes have cooled, melt some semi sweet chocolate.  You can do this in a double boiler or my favorite method, the microwave.  Spoon a tbs onto each cupcake and spread with the back of a spoon.  Let dry.

Frosting:
1 stick softened butter
1/2 c. shortening
4-5 c. confectioners sugar
mint extract
milk

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and shortening until fluffy.  Add the mint extract, I use about 2 tsp.  Add the confectioners sugar a cup at a time.  Add the milk to thin the icing to the right consistency, 1 tbs at a time.  It should be the consistency of toothpaste for piping.  Place the icing in a piping bag fitted with an open star tip and pipe a generous swirl of icing.  Then top with green sprinkles and a thin mint if desired.

-Kim

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