Crafter-noon 11/13

We dubbed a new term yesterday. We're calling it "flint": the time between fall and winter. The leaves have fallen, dusk is at 4:30 pm, and it's getting a little nippier. I hesitantly admit that it's getting me excited for winter--I don't mind an excuse to stay indoors to craft. Dylan has been transitioning into some indoor sports as well, including vermicompost in the basement, but thats another post.

Here are a few of the projects I'm enjoying this November:

I'm telling you, if I have to watch football I really do admire the Packers--I like the citywide excitement and the generosity of the team to the community. However, sitting through an entire 3 hour football game is less exciting to me. My friend Martha introduced me to geography embroidery which has turned out to be the perfect packer game activity--after a girls night and 3 football games I have embroidered the counties of WI. Unfortunately, I made a mistake on Brown county and Dane county, and a lot of others but it's been a nice packer game project.

Disclaimer, I did not make the embroidery on the left, I found that at St. Vincent De Paul Thrift Store on the East side of Green Bay--an amazing thrift store (if you haven't been and are into retro goodies). I did knit the sweater on the right off a pattern from the amazing Goodnight Day, a Canadian knitter who makes beautiful 1 piece knitting patterns (that you don't need to sew together at the end). I used a digital copy of volume II of her pattern series.

What caught my eye when I saw first saw her sweaters (on instagram) was the texture--she uses thin and thick yarn (I had never heard of this before)! I finally found some in town--I used a brand called buttercup that I found at Jo-ann Fabrics but it didn't turn out exactly as I expected. I later learned that the original pattern was made with a yarn called  Malabrigo aquaralla , which is a wool company in Uraguay--cool!

Thin thick yarn!

Another flint favorite this year: the carnival squash (it's is a hybrid between a sweet dumpling squash and an acorn squash)--it is sweeter than an acorn squash. Dylan and I like to slice it up and roast it at 400 for ~25 mins (coated with olive oils and whatever spices we have), we've also recently started baking the seeds, yum!!!

Hope you're enjoying a cozy start to your weekend.

Green Bay on Film

I used to be big into disposable cameras, of course in 8th grade because that was the only option, but then later in college when I was chasing that retro look. This was before I knew about filter apps like hipstamatic, instagram, and VSCO. As recently as 2011 I was able to take a disposable camera to the drug store and in an hour come back to pick up a disk of images for under 10 bucks. I started getting the film itch again, so I swung by a drugstore to grab a camera...

Things have changed since I last used a disposable camera! First of all, the camera was way more than a remembered it being. Secondly, when going to get it developed I checked several places before realizing that it's hard to find a place that has 1 hour film development! It's all send out now (not in-house photo labs)! And like the camera itself, developing the film was way pricier than I remembered.

Would I do it again? No. Only about half of the photos turned out (I forgot that you should always use a flash on a disposable camera, even when it seems like it should catch light). But it did remind me of the intentionality you need when using film (you only get a few shots, so make it count). Here are some fun ones! Photo credit to Kamry!

Light reflector

Kamry and I went o opening night at Backstage at the Meyer to see the band Friends&Family and the Oh Hellos. Very cool Green Bay!

Engineer Prints

I don't know about you, but I often have trouble getting my pictures out of my camera and into print. While browsing the ABM blog I saw a neat (and affordable) way of artfully displaying photos: Engineer Prints! The ABM blog estimated each printing ~$10 which I was excited about (as other large printing options can cost close to $100...yikes). I went down to DigiCopy on Walnut in Green Bay. Each print ended up being $3! These things are huge (about 36inches by 24 inches)--they of course are a little grainy (the printing method isn't intended for photos) but I think it adds to it. Here they are:

Washington Island

We kicked off this golden fall weather with a magical adventure to Washington Island (a car ferry sail from Northern Door County). LAVENDER FIELDS, BEACHES, COFFEE, HONEY BEES--as a T-shirt bragged: so little to do it takes an entire day. We didn't finish half our Island bucket list before we rushed back to the last ferry home. 

While the smooth white stones on school house beach were everything people made them out to be (napping on them was like a back massage), our favorite stop was Sweet Mountain Farm. Sue generously spent some of her Saturday afternoon sharing her apiary and amazing insights on bee life--we could've chatted with Sue for hours. Below are some pictures of the farm:

The amazing Sue

Some honey from the farm

Dustin strategizing the day

Island adventurers: Dylan

Martha (on the ferry, her favorite part of the trip)

Meghan (in a Lavender field)

and a bee

These nordic patterns found all over Door County are my favorite

Thanks for a great day all!

Meet Milwaukee, Third Ward

A little piece of San Francisco in Wisconsin: Milwaukee's Third Ward, located here.

Milwaukee Institue of Art & Design

Colectivo Coffee! A locally owned Wisconsin coffee roaster I would compare to a chain like Philz.

Update from the Apiary

The Bees of Ledgeview, WI have requested a post on the blog (as they've had no time to go on  social media with all the honey comb building). They are doing awesome! Mostly they work with few complaints other than the photo above (taken in late June ) when they started getting really hot and threatened to leave--Dylan responded and built them some vents--it was received well by the bees. They went through a mean streak in mid July when Dylan was stung thrice (but we are letting them blame it on the extreme humidity--as we sometimes blame our own attitudes.  Dylan pointed out that the lifespan of a worker bee is only a few months, so none of the current bee are the ones we originally bought (amazing!). The below photos are from late June when Dylan showed my family the bees! 

Paul!

There hasn't been a slip of a frame out of these tongs yet (which is surprising to me--'m always so nervous!)

A bee showing (the expression says it all--this man has a special bond with his bees)

Dads!