buzzville

Happy Halloween!

Loads of treats around here, including Whoppers - possibly the best candy around, no?!? Last night I quickly improvised some baking for a potluck that Jerry had at work today. I had all the ingredients to make some yummy pumpkin bread, and I happen to have a fantastic 2-part bundt pan that makes each half of a pumpkin. Put the two halves together and it makes a gorgeous 3D pumpkin cake - stem and all! Luckily, I had to do some leveling to the halves before stacking them, so we actually got to taste those discards before it was taken to work. So yummy! Here's the finished cake, surrounded by some candy corn and candy pumpkins:

and here's the recipe (adapted from a recipe that appeared in Bon Appetit in 1995):

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1.5 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 15-ounce can pumpkin (or fresh pumpkin, if available)
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 6 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup toasted, chopped pecans (optional)
• 1 cup golden raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour two 9x5x3" loaf pans. Beat sugars and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Sift flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in pecans and raisins, if desired.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until tested inserted into center comes out clean. Transfer to racks and cool for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out on racks and cool completely. Makes 2 loaves.

Halloween final prep!

What a crazy weekend we had! Unfortunately, one of the down sides of the superbuzzy trip to Japan is the timing - I've had almost no time for Halloween fun. But, this weekend was a total sewing frenzy trying to get Brynne's costume finished up. I had grand plans of working on it before, but as always, everything else seemed to get in the way. Since it was obvious that Brynne would be a lion for Halloween, I tried to find the best possible lion costume pattern. I didn't want just a fuzzy jumpsuit, but something that was more complete and detailed. I came across this pattern designed by Tom Arma (McCalls 8938):

The pattern was impossible to find locally in a larger size (4T), so I ended up ordering directly from McCalls. I think it was basically designed for a baby, but I liked the details and decided to go with it. The sewing actually went very smoothly. I followed the pattern pretty closely, although I eliminated the feet because she'll wear shoes, and I only used one row of elastic at the wrist (who really needs 3 rows of elastic?!?). The real insanity is the mane. This involves cutting hundreds of strips of different colored ribbon in various lengths, using fabric glue to form the strips into loops, and then individually gluing each of the loops to the costume. Ugh! Thank goodness for patient husbands! While I was whirring away on the sewing machine, Jerry was cutting and gluing... his poor fingers were covered in the stuff! In fact, I think he's putting the final touches on the lion hood as I type this!

The good news is that Brynne loves it. Each time I had her try it on to check the fit, she would run through the house roaring and growling and generally being lion-like. I think she might just live in this costume for a while! I haven't got photos of her in it yet because of the aforementioned endless gluing, but I'll get something up tomorrow of the little lion in action. She's a pretty cute lion, if I may say so!

I hope everyone out there has a fun day tomorrow, whether or not Halloween festivities are involved! And, just as a side note, superbuzzy sent out the latest newsletter with a big shop update! If you think you should be getting a newsletter, but you didn't, please let us know!

news all around

One of the top conversations a parent dreads having with their child:

"Mommy! I feel nauseous."

"Do you need to throw up?"

"I just already!" (Brynne-speak for: "I already did!")

Yes, last night was an interesting one - filled with lots of scrubbing, multiple loads of laundry, and a pretty pathetic little girl. We still can't figure out what did it - she's been fine today. It's so hard when they're this age because she doesn't know what's happening, what to do, or how long it will last. I hope our bouts of stomach problems are few and far between in this house!

Other things have been conspiring against me as well - our computer had issues early in the week that kept me from posting and checking email. Things seem to be hobbling along now, but typepad is still driving me nuts. Aside from the periodic "outages", I still hardly ever get an email when someone comments. I used to respond to every comment, but now I can't since I seldom get the email. So, just know that I do read them all and appreciate each and every one!

I'm having trouble believing that Halloween is next week. I'm usually completely Halloween obsessed, but I've had so many distractions this year that I haven't been able to have all the fun I usually do. We haven't even decorated the house yet! But, I do have a lion costume all cut and ready to sew. A couple of months ago, Brynne adopted an alter ego of Leo the big daddy lion. In the beginning, we were severely reprimanded if we called her Brynne instead of Leo, and some unusual (for her) aggressive behavior seemed to accompany the transformation into Leo. We were starting to get concerned about this aggressive personality shift. I was lucky to find a counting book at the thrift store about the smiley lion who has a lot more friends than the grouchy one, and I think the book helped Leo realize that lions can be gentle and sweet. She's loosened up a bit in the past few weeks, but it's been a challenge for us to learn how to respond to this sort of play. I know that it's totally normal, and that some moms have a lot of experience with this! And so, there's a lion costume to be finished so that Leo can complete the transformation - at least for Halloween night.

I've got a number of WIPs very close to completion, but some I won't be able to share until they reach their intended recipients. I've just started a new project in my quilting class that I'm really excited about - I just hope the end result is as cool as it is in my head! I'll be sure to share as soon as I have a bit of visible progress.

Plans for the superbuzzy trip to Japan are coming along, and we really appreciate all the comments and suggestions that everyone is sending in. I'm sure our schedule is going to be packed, given that there's so much to see and do in the short week we have. I mentioned before that we'll try to blog while we're there... does anyone know if we'll be able to walk into an internet cafe type of place and upload photos from a memory stick? We'd like to blog a fun picture each day, but I've never tried to do it before... Speaking of superbuzzy, I just added a few fun new fabrics to the site, and we should have one more good sized update before we leave for Japan. We'll keep the shop open while we're gone, but orders placed between November 2 and November 12 won't be shipped until the week of November 13.

the (not so) calm before the storm!

What can I say? I really don't want to sound like a big whiner, so I'll try hard not to. Life and everything happening at the moment is just a huge whirling, swirling mess. Too many obligations, too many goals, too many projects. Hmph! I have a list of things I want to blog, and the list grows daily, but so does the long list of things I need to accomplish each day. And so, the blog has been neglected and is withering before my eyes. Apologies all around - I'm trying.

But, on a positive note, I do have things to share. New and exciting things! As part of starting superbuzzy, Mariko and I always dreamed of business trips to Japan. However, I had basically written a trip off because of the expense... if one of us should go, it should certainly be Mariko, who can actually speak the language, right?!? Then all of a sudden there were extraordinary airfares - I mean unheard of - and the offer of financial investments in the company from family to help things happen (what would we do without you wonderful people - even those of you who have no money to share?!?), and suddenly we both have roundtrip tickets to Tokyo - in just a couple of weeks! I'm really still in shock, but I need to be productive: make lists, arrange for Brynne, schedule appointments, study my Japanese, research *everything*, re-organize, and the list goes on and on. The lists are multiplying and developing into kinship diagrams that would make even the most experienced cultural anthropologist shudder. I'm trying hard to let the anxiety and sense of responsibility not get the best of me. We want this to be an excellent trip, a productive trip, but I have to remember that it should also be a fun trip.

And so, if anyone still reads this decrepit blog, I need your help! Please tell us where to go, what you'd like us to buy for the shop, what you'd like to hear about and see pictures of! We'll certainly be in Tokyo, and our visit is timed to coincide with Yokohama International Quilt Week, but we may also be traveling to Osaka and Nagoya. We're already picking the poor brains of some of our dear friends (not to mention superbuzzy enablers!), but we'd love to get suggestions of all kinds from anyone and everyone! We're going to try to find a way to post a superbuzzy travelogue of sorts while we're away so that we can share in the adventures, because I know we're going to have some great encounters with yummy food, a vast assortment of vending machines, and more crafty shopping that ought to be allowed!

And finally, thanks for reading, thanks for commenting, and thanks for just hanging around!

new superbuzzy stuff!

Just a quick post to announce that the superbuzzy update is ready, so head on over if you'd like to see what's new!

I have a fun post for tomorrow, once I get a bit of sleep!

superbuzzy news!

I just wanted to post a quick note to mention that the superbuzzy site will be down for a little while today (should be no more than 2 hours), while I upgrade to add some nice new features. After the upgrade, we'll be working on an update with lots of fun new products, as well as some restocking of some sold-out favorites (yay!). If you're already a newsletter subscriber, you should get an email announcing the update, and Mariko and I will also make quick blog posts when everything is ready for shopping! Sorry for any inconvenience with the site being down, but I think the upgrades will make things easier for all of us!

Quilts, Santa Barbara style

Two weekends ago (yes, I'm really behind!) I went to the Coastal Quilter's Guild quilt show in Santa Barbara to see what folks are stitching up north. I had gone to the local guild show last year, and I was pretty disappointed in the overall lack of anything particularly modern or contemporary. The Coastal Quilter's show wasn't all that different, but I did take some pictures of a few I found interesting.

This small art quilt by Lorna Morck is called "Bird Talkers", and I thought the use of various materials (buttons, ribbons, yarn, etc.) was fun and out of the norm for this show.

Darilyn Kisch made this quilt and calls it "Kathie's Girls". Although I'm not so crazy about the execution of the quilt itself, I really like the little dress block, and I think it would be fun to use the block in a quilt with lots of sweet thirties prints for the little dresses. Or, it could be a fun way to use bits of fabric from Brynne's dresses - maybe a dress block for each year from a favorite dress of hers?

I was laughing inside when I read the description for this bed-size quilt... The quilter (and her name is unreadable thanks to my lousy flash...) made this for her husband on their 50th wedding anniversary. He is "intrigued by space and extraterrestrial life", so she made this quilt based on crop circle designs! Makes me wonder what sort of designs I'd have to use to make a similar quilt for my hubby... space invaders? commodore 64 graphics?

 

I was unable to get close enough to this quilt by Juli Shulem to get pictures of the quilting, but each leaf was quilted perfectly using incredible decorative stitches. In fact, the stitching was so perfect that the quilt is basically reversible - the backing is a dark fabric and the quilting is in gold thread, so there's an amazingly perfect outline of each leaf on the back. Really lovely quilting, and a nice overall fall color pallette.

This is a fun memory quilt made of vintage neckties and their labels. I like these sort of quilts because it seems like I see something new each time I look at them - definitely a nice way to remember a family member. Here's a closeup to see some of the detail:

In addition to the quilts made by guild members, there was also a special exhibition featuring quilts by Robbi Joy Eklow. Her quilts are certainly contemporary, but what I was most impressed with is her fantastic understanding of color (especially bright color!) and her incredible quilting. Here is an example of one of her quilts, and some closeups of the quilting (click on the close-ups to really see the intricate quilting patterns!):

Overall, I didn't find anything earth shattering at the show, but I did enjoy taking a close look at these quilts to see the techniques and details in person...

Bubblejet madness!

Hmmmm, it would seem that working, trying to help run a new business, being a full-time mom, taking 2 classes, trying to maintain some semblance of a relationship with my husband, and avoiding a total disaster in our house seems to be getting in the way of blogging lately. And that's a real bummer because I do love blogging... So, I'm trying to re-prioritize, reorganize, and re-think how I'm going about time management these days, and I hope to make some headway! I'm posting far too infrequently for my taste, and I hope I can find a way to change that very soon!

Today's post is a bit of a teaser, but I'm hoping it will be a bit fun anyway! I spent a few hours last week making the latest little promotional items for superbuzzy orders (the keychains are all gone for now!), and had a ton of fun. Our house seems to be regularly invaded by swarms of bees these days, but this swarm was particularly endearing! I printed bees on our printer using fabric that had been pre-treated with Bubble Jet Set:

 

and I cut the little guys into patches:

I'm hoping these will be fun for folks to use as appliques or patchwork pieces on different projects... What do you think? Any suggestions/requests for future promotional gifts?

As an aside, I hope to add a tutorial soon for those of you who may be interested in using Bubble Jet Set, but haven't yet tried it.

Mariko and I are on the edge of our seats waiting for a big order to arrive, so we hope to have an update by this weekend! Stay tuned, and sign up for the newsletter if you haven't already!