Harts and Crafts Blog | Creative Jubilee

Star Stitch Crocheted Hand Towel

By Christina Lee| March 28th, 2020|Crocheting, Handmade, Yarn Addict|

It’s been about three weeks with the Shelter In Place order and all of us are doing the best we can staying indoors and only going out when absolutely necessary — or when my dog gives me that look. And since then, we’ve all taken extra precautionary measures: standing a minimum of six feet away from one another, covering up when you cough or sneeze (you should have been doing that if you haven’t already!), disinfecting common areas, and washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. You can count to twenty, sing your favorite song, hum the birthday tune or do a happy dance, but make sure to wash your hands thoroughly.

In the spirit of hand-washing, I decided to go back and crochet some hand towels, since I found myself stocking up on paper towels. I landed on the Star Stitch crochet pattern because I wanted to do more than a single, double or treble crochet, but didn’t want to get too complicated and count. After all, when you’ve got a glass of wine in hand, some munchies and your favorite Netflix show going, you deserve to make it easy on yourself and enjoy the show.

Now sit back, relax and crochet!

No better time to start a hobby

By Christina Lee| March 20th, 2020|Handmade, Punch Needle, Yarn Addict|

With the Covid-19 pandemic and the Shelter-in-Place order mandated by Mayor London Breed, there’s no better time to pick up a new hobby than now. Flipping through my Instagram feed inspired me to land on punch needle embroidery.

Since Michael’s was closed, I ordered the Wool Queen punch needle starter kit on Amazon and it came with everything I needed to begin my first project. The kit includes an adjustable punch needle, two natural 11 by 11-inch monk’s cloth, two no slip 8.6-inch hoops,12 colors eight-strand coarse yarn, five inspirational drawings and basic skills introduction. While the instructions were very basic and it didn’t teach you how to thread a punch needle, it was easy enough to find a quick tutorial on YouTube. Once you’re able to thread the punch needle, you’re well on your way to start your project.

I wasn’t a fan of some of the drawings it came with, I took matters into my own hands and decided to draw my own. I was going back and forth between doing an abstract or actually coming up with a scene, but since my kit includes two monk clothes and hoops, I could do both. For some reason, I was compelled to draw a sheep and this drawing, which was overly simplified, brought me back to art class in grade school.

It’s important to keep these drawings basic and save the complexity layer in for my next project. The fun part is usually changing colors and seeing the progress. Since the Wool Queen yarn is pretty thick, each stitch took up a fair amount of space on the canvas, so you could imagine that progress was quick. In fact, I ended up finishing my first piece within two days.

I’m thrilled that I was able to use this time and discover a new hobby. What are you doing to keep your inner creativity alive and well?

Organized Crafting Chaos

By Christina Lee| February 2nd, 2020|Craft Day, Fused Glass, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!|

Today, we’re in for some organized crafting chaos at the Alameda Art Lab Bling Bar. With our workstations filled with shards of decorative glass and our glass cutters handy, we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and make some fused-glass cactus plants. I’m mesmerized by all the shades of green glass and its texture. Olive, sage or pear? Transparent or opaque? Prickly pear, Cereus, or San Pedro cactus? Okay, it’s time to pull up Pinterest and get some ideas flowing.

While I’ve done a few mosaic glass projects, fused-glass is a first for me. It uses much of the same technique in developing the skills needed to cut and shape glass with the cutter. To really get the edges of the cactus rounded and smooth, I learned how to use the sanding tool, which is now my favorite tool. The sanding tool is like an electric nail filer and it rounds out the sharp edges after you cut your glass.

After you cut the glass into various shapes and layer them on top of each other, the fun part of this project is giving them all some character. Here’s where I got to experiment with spaghetti noodles and acrylic paint to create the spine of the cactus. Once we finished, we left the pieces of glass on the table and our instructor fused the glass together.

They turned out great!! Now I can put this on my desk at work. The best part is knowing that it doesn’t need sunlight and I don’t need to water it at all!

Gosh, you sure know how to pawty!

By Christina Lee| January 29th, 2020|Humbling Hobbies and Habits, In the Kitchen, Oh My Crafts!|

Happy 10th Birthday Cooper Crazy Lee! I can’t believe you are TEN. Welcome to the Super Senior club!! From ordering off the doggy menu to hiking around the 500 acre resort in Carmel to making s’mores and buying your favorite dog cookies, we hope you had the BEST birthday weekend ever!! We love you so much!!

Love,
The Family and Mom

For Cooper’s big birthday, he wanted to let the family know just how much everyone means to him and how lucky he is to go through this journey called life side by side with the ones he loves. After many dog kisses and tail wagging, it didn’t take long for him to convince me to pull out my computer, dig up happy memories and log on to Shutterfly to make his birthday gift to the family. We went through an entire process of flipping through each category on the site before he landed on the personalized coffee mugs. I think the last time my mom dropped a mug on the floor, it only made him shutter and reinforced his idea of making matching mugs for the family.

It took a while to go through the photos, but lucky for him, we are a photo-happy family so it wasn’t too difficult to find family photos of the five of us. From our annual trip to Tahoe to long weekend walks to holidays and family gatherings, we have a lot of happy memories to celebrate. It made me smile to go through all of the photos and relive those moments. Each time we took a family photo or a snapshot of Cooper, we had to take them in series of five or ten to make sure we had his full attention. It usually took a squeak of his toy and him being surrounded by family for him to spread a smile on his face. Cooper is indeed a happy dog.

Finally, I convinced Cooper to pick out photos of himself. He was a bit shy, but after dangling a few treats in front him, he didn’t mind at all. We picked out photos from his first to weeks with us to his first few months and then some recent ones.

Well, I must say they turned out pretty darn cute!! Cooper loves his family so much and can’t wait to see the look on their faces.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

By Christina Lee| December 25th, 2019|Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, In the Kitchen|

If there’s anything that can steal the spotlight from Santa and his reindeers, it’s the Christmas tree that lights up the living room, warms up the house and acts as the backdrop to any and all family photos — including this one. Standing tall and decorated, there isn’t anything that’s going to push this Douglas Fir aside, except maybe a tree that can look just as tall and decorated but also fills the belly.

This year, there’s going to be a new tree in town. It’s made of cocoa and it’s about to be glazed and dressed in confetti and sprinkles. It’s got its own set of elves working on holiday time and a table full of decorating pros. Accompanying it will be an army of butter cookie bliss frosted in red and green fitted outfits.

It’s even got it’s own north star that rivals that of the Douglas Fir’s. But we can’t skip to dessert without whetting our appetite with some hors d’oeuvre. I’m afraid that this tree is going to have to stay in its own swim lane and wait for the dessert calling in a few hours.

I dug up an old recipe that I made years ago and I thought this would be the perfect time and place to assemble it in none other than a Christmas tree mold. It takes a little bit of prep you can do the night before, but it’s essentially mixing cream cheese, smoked salmon, garlic, capers and lemon together to create the base. After letting the flavors marinade for a few hours and even a day, then you can mold it into a Christmas tree and dress it up with cilantro, toasted pecans and your favorite chip. It’s plentiful and rich with flavor, and it makes a good centerpiece on the table.

Now here’s a bit of trivia: At the end of the day, which tree came down the fastest? The salmon tree, the chocolate tree or the Douglas Fir?

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!!

It’s like making Jello

By Christina Lee| December 8th, 2019|DIY Home, Handmade, Homemade Soap|

Ok ok, I think I’ve got the hang of this soap-making thang. Grab the soap base of your preference — glycerin, Shea butter, goat’s milk, oatmeal, etc. Chop it up in cubes, throw it in a Pyrex and microwave. Then shake in your favorite essential oil, splash in a bit of color and pour into the silicone mold. This is the classic Melt and Pour soap-making technique in a nutshell and it makes for a great crafternoon because you’re just a few hours away from washing your hands with homemade soap you whipped up yourself.

Now that I have the basics, it’s time to get a little more creative. Since I’ve tried all four of the soap bases, I’m beginning to see the benefits of doing some mixing and matching. I really like the Shea butter for its smooth texture and glycerin for the opacity which exposes the vibrant colors of the pigment. In this case, I’m using three colors: Haze, Powder and Black Sea from Soapy Mica Powder Pigments. With the powder, you really need to blend it well when you mix it in the melted soap base otherwise you end up with clumps of powder that gather at the bottom of the soap mold (which can end up being the top at times).

It’s almost like making Jello. I made a batch of the glycerin soap and poured it into the mold. Each batch went straight in the freezer to set while I mixed in different colors to the glycerin base. Then, it was time to melt the Shea butter and pour it right on top of the glyercin soap when it hardened. This added layer gave it definition and got many ‘oohs and awes’ when I took it out.

If you’re beginning to make some of your gifts or throw them in stalking stuffers, these make a beautiful present for the entire family to enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

By Christina Lee| November 28th, 2019|Holiday Fun, In the Kitchen|

It’s no doubt that we spend a significant amount of time slaving away in the kitchen to prepare a fanciful Thanksgiving meal. Many of us spend ample time coming up with new ideas (or stealing them off of Pinterest), shopping for ingredients, doing the all-intensive prep work and then cooking the night away. Part of the reason we put so much effort and love into our ingredients is because we are proud, humble and grateful for being able to spend it with friends, family and loved ones. Throughout the year, it may be difficult to carve out time to spend with family. It’s easy to check up on them using email or social media, and give yourself a nod that they are doing well. That’s the easy way out and I am guilty of it. While Thanksgiving shouldn’t be an excuse, it is a way for us to come together as a family, focus on each other and sit around the dinner table to enjoy turkey and good company. For that, I am thankful for having my family near and in good health.

As head of the household and big brother to his family, my Dad takes on the big turkey which means the oven is occupied for most of the day so I have to do most of my cooking at home before going to my parents’ house. Along with others, I am a side dish kind of gal and traditionally, I make the candied pecan yams and the brussel sprouts while others bring potato salad, green beans, sticky rice and dumplings (we’re Chinese, so Asian fusion). And of course, my two cousins make the BEST desserts: pumpkin pie, pecan pie and apple pie. You, of course, need a bite of each to really put yourself in a food coma.

Aside from the feast, my sister and I like to come up with something fun and creative. This year, we decided to add in some acorn accents to accompany the baked turkey and the chocolate turkeys. We made one kind of candied acorn with Nilla Wafers and the other was acorns made of donut holes and pretzels. I’m not sure if more of the contents went into our bellies than on the table, but we did manage to get a good handful on each plate. Both were colorful, festive and fun, and brightened up the dinner table — although the red table cloth already did a good job of that!

As our guest arrived, the table got full. Standing around the table with our hands held, we bowed our heads, said a prayer and gave thanks for each other and this feast. From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!!

OK, now dig in!

Pumpkin Decorating at the Office

By Christina Lee| October 31st, 2019|Holiday Fun|

When someone at the office sends you a meeting request and blocks off your calendar to decorate pumpkins, you decorate pumpkins! I can’t remember the last time I decorated pumpkins with my co-workers. I’m usually sitting at a table full of kids half my age ready to jump in whenever they need me to, so I’m glad I was able to pick out my own pumpkin and have some fun. I came prepared to roll up my sleeves, put in some arm muscle and get my hands dirty, but there was a better idea out on the table.

In front of us was a spread of animal face stickies, colored feathers and polka dots, creepy spiders and more. It was a tough decision between the red fox, the unicorn and the funny faces, but I had to go with the raccoon and his striped plushy tail. It was a fun way to take a break from the office, meet new faces and get into the Halloween spirit.

And if fluffy, cute unicorn faces weren’t enough to get you motivated, there were also pumpkin cupcakes, s’mores rice crispy treats and brownies.

Happy Halloween!

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