A Day in the Country is Worth a Month in Town

 

Streets of Philly

Angelala is currently stationed in Philadelphia PA for three weeks visiting Nick. Now before first coming out to Philadelphia in December of 2008, Minneapolis was the biggest city I'd ever been in.  And in those instances, I was sheltered to shopping malls and the like.  My first trip to Philly involved my first plane ride and a day trip to New York City.

Now, I've lived in rural Iowa all of my life.  Pig confinements are the stinkiest things I've had to deal with.  My mom and I regularly get stopped at the store by someone we know.  There is only one decent coffee shop in town. 

My extended, bi-yearly trips to Philly have really opened my eyes to the reality of city living.  Since I was a history major in college, the importance of Philadelphia on American history isn't lost on me.  I am truly lucky to see this city before entering a classroom to teach.  My first trip here was a history nerd's dream with the hot spots.  This is my third trip since then and I've done most of the history stuff.  I've been experiencing big city living these days. 

Today I went on a trip to the grocery store by myself to get a few things for dinner tonight.  Nick moved since I was here last I was here so this was  a new adventure for me.  I walked the five blocks or so to the store.  Not sure if you know this...but it is unbelievably hot in Philly!  I don't want to sound like a complete country bumpkin.  I'm not ignorant or (extremely) naive.  But the cultural difference is a huge change.  A Kosher section in the grocery store?! Not in Iowa.  I stood and stared at the matza balls.  Center City (basically downtown) and the olde city are the tourist-y places in the city.  The difference between those areas and the real Philadelphia is blatant. The picture above is a quick snap I took on my home from the store.  It was relatively clean compared to other streets in the neighborhood.  One thing I can't convey to you is the smell.....downtown smells rank.  In this neighborhood, the smell is like a carnival....sweat mixed with something sweet like a funnel cake mixed with gasoline.  The combination that makes your stomach roll after a few minutes of smelling it.

It amazing how one city can be so many different things to different people.  Two years ago, Philadelphia was a wonderful, exciting city  to me. To Nick, it was the means to end for an education.  To the tourists, walking through the historic district today....well it's a hot sticky mess full of Ben Franklin statues!

Crafting Class...Say wha?!

First of all, I must tell you that I'm blogging from 30 thousand feet on an airtran flight to Philly by way of Atlanta by way of Minneapolis.  Very cool and making my six hours of flights less painful. 

My exciting news of the day (besides the entertaining flights) include my craftiness.  I will be teaching a series of green crafts at the Rustic Corner (RC) on Main in Charles City Iowa.  The first class will be on July 20th from 5:00pm- 6:30pm at the Rustic Corner's new location on main street in Charles City.  

You may be asking what the topic of this class will be....well, I'll tell you!
The class will be a T-shirt necklace.  To test out this creation's viability, my dear friend Kelsey and I took a night to create it over wine and beer plus vegan din-din.

Since I'm teaching a class on this...I can't give away all the gory details but here is how it started...

 

And here is how it ended!! with Kels drinking beer

If you want to sign up for the class (16 person limit) or have any questions, check out the RC on Main.
Should you sadly miss the class, have no desire to put the work into it, or both, they will most likely be on sale from angelaladesigns after the class is over.

Cinnamon Pizza

 My mom has made this pizza for years!  It is a wonderful, quick morning (or afternoon) treat.  Believe me, it goes fast.  Here is how old the recipe is....

 

Recipe:

1 stick of margarine (to cut back on calories, it helps to cut the butter in half.)

1 cup of sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. of vanilla

1 tsp of cinnamon

2 tablespoons of flour

Melt your butter

 

Add your massive amounts of sugar

 

Mmm cinnamon

Throw in your vanilla.  FYI don't ever drink vanilla.  It doesn't taste like vanilla.

I threw in the egg and flour.  Pre-mixed

 

This is the crust we use.  Just follow the directions on the bag.

Pour your mix on the crust.

Cook the pizza at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

The finished product...delicious, cinnamon-y goodness.

If you are like me and enjoy eating the yumminess as you go, you probably look like this.  Who doesn't love eating raw eggs?  :)

Rin tin tin...Can...Pincushion

 

How freakin' adorable is this picture?!

I was wandering through blogland this afternoon but I came across a wonderfully adorable blog named Living With Punks.  Now with a name like that...how could I not read all of it!  She had an adorable tin can pincushion tutorial that was just about as precious as can be.  Her tutorial is so well written and very self explanatory.  I decided I had to make it this afternoon.  She covered her almond can fabric...I did pink paisley scrapbook paper I got at a garage sale on friday.  She used fiberfill but I didn't have any and with no patience, I couldn't wait til I got some.  So I used batting and a few layers of foam stuff Mom had.

Here's what you need for supplies:

Remember what I always say...if you are going to mod podge something, you mod podge the crap out of it!

But like always, I ripped and wrinkled the paper in a few places.  I just covered them with fabric polka dots and flowers. 

You don't need to measure out how much fabric you will need I just cut a big square out and trimmed any off that made it look weird or lumpy in places.  

After you have super filled your can, tuck all the edges inside and voila!

You must be lucky....jeans

My newest obsession is reading recyclart.org, a blog for those who don't like to read....looking at pretty pictures is good enough for them.  I saw a purse made of old pants and fell in love.  Unfortunately when I clicked on the link to said pants purse...the instructions were in Swedish.  At least, I thought it was Swedish.  It looked like something that belonged on an IKEA box.  So I decided I would wing it and just start making the purse.  I'm sure any true sewers would be gasping at me right now.  I began with a vague idea of what I wanted and let the rest spill out of my brain as I went.  How did I start?  With the jeans, of course.  We have a huge box of old jeans in the dungeon of our house for my Mom's jean quilt (which she will begin when she finally has time...busy woman that one.)  I nabbed the only pair of Lucky jeans I ever owned (hand-me-downs for one of my sisters).  Although I haven't worn them in years, it was hard to cut them up.  I love all the personality of them...like inside the zipper "Lucky You" and the clovers all over the inside of the pockets...but I bit the bullet and did it.

I started this making this purse with the idea that it would be simple and a nice afternoon project.  It turned out otherwise...full of decisions and frustrations. But I finally got it done...after ripping out the liner once, recutting the length of the purse, taking a day off because the fabric was making my brain feel as thought it was dissolving, settling for black thread on white and red fabric because I was too tired to search, deciding half way through I didn't even like the idea anymore, questioning my hippie-dippie ways and finally laughing at myself and finishing the dumb thing!

 

I wanted it to be fifteen inches long....

Eventually, I figured out that it needed to be shorter.  The jeans need to be cut close to the crotch to actually work and even then can be difficult to maneuver.

 

The simplest part of this project was sewing the bottom of the jeans together.  I tried to figure out out to easily make the bottom of the purse flat...then gave up deciding it wasn't worth it.

 

In some of the inspiration photos I looked at, they didn't line the inside of the purse.  I couldn't let myself not line the inside.  It would always seem unfinished.  Because I used the Lucky jeans, I wanted the lining to match the red tag in the back of the jeans.  Mom just happened to have this red and white checkered fabric laying around the craft room with no use.  I lovingly gave it a use.  It used to be a liner for a laundry basket before Mom demolished it to use it as a pattern for a new one.  I was very lucky that it was just about the perfect size for the purse.  I only had to trim a little.  

I'm a messenger bag kind of girl.  My favorite purse is a messenger bag and i wanted this purse to have that same feel to it.  I used the legs to make straps.  I cut the fabric at five inches with one inch seems so the actual straps are three inches wide.  

Originally i wanted to put a ring on the end so I could have adjustable straps but because of the legs not being all that long...damn my stubby legs....the straps weren't long enough to accommodate the ring.  As an after thought (after the rest of the bag was completely done), I hand stitched some extra Velcro on the ends of the straps.  

 

Here's what the inside of the purse looks like with some stuff already thrown in there!

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Please forgive my wardrobe...hello crafting, Sunday lounge clothes

Hello purse, Angelala's butt, and what appears to be a cleaning product/door stop.

I would love to be able to give a play by play on the steps to complete this product but to be honest, I totally made it up as I went along with very little measuring.  For instance, I have no idea how long the straps how.  I used as much as I could from what was left of the legs.  At some point, I lost the ability to sew in a straight line and it's rather crooked.  I'm not even sure if I like the purse yet but I plan on using it until I grow to love it.  If you chose to try this project, try things out.  You could make a clutch, messenger bag (as I did), regular two strapped purse, or even (if you are brave) a little backpack. 

In the end, the purse cost nothing and is a good upcycle project! 
Supplies needed:
Old jeans
Fabric scissors
thread
sewing machine (optional...you could do this by hand...frustrating but doable)
fabric (preferably cotton) (again optional...you don't have to line it)
velcro (optional)

The Evolution of my Engagement Ring

I remember high school...sitting in study hall with a few friends at a computer ogling large, princess cut engagement rings. Rings that had fake personality. By fake personality, I mean they were busy enough to be interesting but seemed empty and manufactured.

As I grew older, my hippie-ness and love for all things old/vintage evolved as well.  But for some reason my picture perfect lifeless ring never changed.  As Nick and I started talking more and more about our future together and an eventual engagement, I did more research into rings.  This is when my perfect ring became tainted.  All of a sudden, it was critical to me that my ring not be a "blood diamond".  I informed Nick that I wanted a Canadian diamond, which are ethically mined, or a moissanite.  Moissanite is a lab created diamond which in my head is perfect but if you had suggested that to me five years ago, I would have looked at you appalled.  "A fake diamond?  Not on my hand, thank you very much."  The fact of the matter is that moissanite diamonds look exactly the same and why should that even matter....why do you even need a diamond engagement ring in the first place?  Because the Man tells you that's what you need...but I digress.  If you want to learn more about moissanite:  go here.  Because of the nature of the mining, Canadian (or any other ethical mining areas) diamonds are more expensive.  Moissanite is cheaper than natural diamonds.  I also informed Nick that I didn't want a very expensive ring.  I would be afraid to wear it.  What's the point of a huge ring?  To show everyone that you have money?  Thanks but I'm not that materialistic.

There are other types of rings that would have fit into my category of ethically appropriate rings which I always kept Nick in the loop of. An antique ring would be wonderful.  I started learning more about the categories of rings and the era they were created in.  I fell in love with art deco jewelry in general, not just the engagement rings.

At one point, I had seen and learned just about everything I needed to know on the jewelry I would even consider.  I had told Nick all the things I would like and why they were important to me.  In the end though, it would be his decision and I must say, he done good!  When Nick proposed, .I was so excited to hear that it came from an antique/estate jewelry store in upstate New York. 

Today I have been engaged for over four months.  I have yet to lose my ring and still regularly try on the matching wedding band, not so patiently waiting for the day when I can really wear it.  I still look at it with excitement and hope I will always feel that rush of glee when I look at it.  I often find myself thinking of the woman who wore it before I did, wondering what her story was and hoping that it was a happy one.  Since I got it, we have had happy and sad moments, moments where it was dunked in paint, fawned over my family and friends, and lovingly slipped over my finger by a wonderful man.

Here is the ring the night he proposed. :)