| Ten Years… |
[May. 22nd, 2013|03:08 pm]
|
|
http://www.mypapercrane.com/blog/?p=9458  Okay back to my story, ten years of blogging. Thanks for all the kind comments on my awkwardness. You know what my most favorite part of blogging for ten years has been? It’s been you. The interactions, the friendships, the amazing people my silly little blog (hip housewife ahhh!!) has connected me with. I love it. I think it’s the biggest reason I still blog today.
So as you may notice from the photo above, once Miss Davenport got her hands on my website and introduced me to wordpress things were beginning to look a lot nicer.
In 2006 I had links, remember when swapping links was a big thing? Now I guess sponsorships are the way things work? When it comes to stuff like that, and me sitting here reminiscing about links I feel like a grandma talking about walking to school in the snow-up hill both ways. But its crazy to think how much blogging has changed in just the last decade.
Once my website was set up like this, it did not change for a very long time. More recently in the last few years I had wanted to add side bar items, but once again did not have any training. I did searching in wordpress and at first could only change things like the side photos and header bar. I loved my website design, but after so many years I just really wanted something new.
 Meanwhile I had switched over to Etsy and was no longer using the zen cart shop, which was still hooked up to my website. Imagine my surprise when people told me that when you googled mypapercrane.com all sorts of stuff for prescription drugs were coming up. In fact even though my website looked normal to me, this is what people were coming across when they looked for my website.
 It took me weeks, maybe longer really to read info on what to do, where to look. I believe that my website was hacked through the outdated zen cart, so I removed all that, but then had to go through all the files and find the hidden code to get the prescription drug stuff that was hiding on other pages of my website. It took a long time, but I did it! At this point I am sure a lot of you would of hired a professional, but I’m stubborn that way.
 Once my website was finally fixed I was more determined then ever to get a real grasp on how it all worked. I realized I needed to start updating wordpress. I know that sounds so incredibly dumb, but when you don’t have any training in this area, unless some one tells you these things need to be updated you just don’t think about it. I read everything I could about using wordpress and customizing it, and took a big step and began using a new theme that was highly customizable. It has still changed a few times, and I’ve asked you guys for help with questions on more then one occasion, but I finally feel after ten years that I’ve got a real handle on my website and how to change what I want, when I want.
This still doesn’t really delve into what it means to me to have been blogging the last ten years. To be honest I don’t know if there is anything amazing or insightful I could say about the whole thing. It certainly doesn’t feel as though it’s been ten years. I’m not quite sure when I will stop blogging, but I know it’s not something I plan to do forever. Blogging not my job, but more of a way to show you what I am doing at my job. I guess my job is being a maker, this is just who I have always been. But as I am sure you can see from my blog-this is is not all that I am. Thanks for allowing me to share it with you world, for the last ten years. Thanks for being mostly kind, I appreciate that.
Now there is a new way of sharing….instagram. Instagram is super satisfying for me because it has my favorite part of blogging, the sharing and connecting with other people, but faster. Without the pressure of writing out a blog post. I like that people can offer little glimpse’s into their process, or life without the time and care it takes to publish a blog post. I mean, I guess there are people using instagram to upload beautiful photos they’ve taken with their point & shoot cameras. But for me I like the quick photos, the ones that show us what is going on with them right then & there. Sometimes however, instagram makes me lazy about blogging. I am trying not to think of it as an obstacle though, instead just a different way I can share. Do you think that instagram is changing blogging? |
|
|
| Let’s Make Cat Donuts |
[May. 20th, 2013|12:00 pm]
|
|
http://www.mypapercrane.com/blog/?p=9479  Please excuse yet another break in my ten year story (actually I checked and saw my part two never posted! I’ll have that up tomorrow) but I made these cat donuts for crafternoon and wanted to share! I’ve seen cat donuts like this that you can buy in Japan, and have wanted to make them for so long. I searched for instructions but couldn’t find anything…so I thought I’d experiment and hope for the best. After a few bumps, they worked out really well and were pretty easy to do.
 Here are the basic supplies…
-peanut butter melts When I was thinking about what kind of frosting could work for these donuts I knew I wanted something that would coat the top in a nice thick layer. Then the chocolate melts came to mind and I thought they would work great. When I got to the store and saw they had a peanut butter flavor, it was the perfect color and flavor. You could also do chocolate, or pastel cats.
-whole almonds If you make these for some one with a nut allergy you will obviously need to sub the peanut butter melts with another flavor, and the almonds for something else like the melts cut into a triangle shape? I haven’t had a chance to experiment with this part but I’d love to hear if you have any other ideas that would work. ETA–Seanna Lea commented that candy corn might work for the ears and I think that’s a great idea! I’m going to give it a try next time I make them.
-plain cake donuts I went with plain cake donuts because they are nice and dense
 1. First you want to melt your candy melts into a deep small dish. Follow the instructions on the melts. I found that two bags coated about 20 donuts.
2. Dip an almond into the candy melts and press into the donut, for the ears. Stick these into the freezer for a few seconds to harden the almond in place. At first I had tried just pushing the almond into the donut, but lost a couple of ears this way when I turned over and dipped the donuts. It’s worth the extra step to secure them in place.
3. Once the almonds are secure dip donuts down into the peanut butter melts, then turn back over and let sit on parchment paper until the coating is dry. This actually went pretty smoothly and easily. Just make sure you bowl is deep enough to easily dip the donuts with almonds sticking out of them.
4. Once they are completely dry you can use various icing to raw faces on your cats. You could use candy eyes, or just pipe little faces on. I used premixed/precolored frostings for these.
 |
|
|
| let’s talk about ten years… |
[May. 17th, 2013|12:00 pm]
|
|
http://www.mypapercrane.com/blog/?p=9435  I’ve been meaning to make a post about this for awhile now. I kept thinking my blog’s ten year anniversary was in May, then when I finally went back and checked it was actually April. So it is time that I talk about blogging for a decade…here goes! The photo above in my website and blog as it looks now, which is so very different from the way it looked ten years ago when I started it. Ten years ago I had a newborn baby, a great passion for making things, and a computer. I decided I would make a website and a blog so I could have a set place to share the stuff I was making. Before that I had been sharing it on message boards like the Nervousness.org community. People were giving me great feedback and I felt really excited about being able to make things and share them with people all over. I was making all sorts of silly purses. Hedgehogs, dead cat purses (cartoony I assure you) and then one day I had a long skinny scrap of brown fabric that reminded me of toast crust. I made a toast plush and thus my plush “food with faces” was born.
So here is the thing about looking back at the blog and website I made ten years ago. It’s embarrassing, seriously it is so embarrassing. Not only did my website have clip art, it had patterned back grounds. I luckily drew the line at a website that played music and had dancing gifs but that was probably only because I couldn’t figure out how to make them. I had no experience with web design, and it showed. I wrote embarrassing things. Friends I referred to myself as a “hip housewife”. I can only thank my stars that I did not have access to the internet when I was 16, because if I find the 25 year old me embarrassing, I am sure 16 year old would be mortifying. That being said people were incredibly lovely, encouraging, and no one told me my website looked terrible….well, not right away.
 Here is how it looked about 3-4 weeks in. Oh and I had a yard sale section.
 Any blog readers go way back to when I made tampon dolls? Here is a photo of the original doll. Which to me looks as though it was made by a five year old. Embarrassing, I tell you! These dolls actually were very popular and I am told that the image of my son’s arms holding a bunch of them can still be seen on some websites. I just got tired of being known as the “tampon lady”. I just thought they were funny, and well of course I was making dead cat purses too.
 Here you can see the first toast dolls I made. First I’d like to point out they are not toasted at all, they should of been referred to as bread. I remember I had dolls like this the first year that I sold at Crafty Bastards and then a few years later I had perfected my design, upgraded to wool felts and my bread range looked like this. (and apparently I thought it was fine to post blurry photos) Well a girl came up to me and said she remembered my toasts from before, but then she saw that they cost more (I believe they were $15 instead of $10) and she was upset about the change. I think I should of brought along a photo of the old toast to show her she was getting something much better haha.
 Then of course there were my original donuts, you can see the donut holes I made here too. Again these look really rough to me. You can see I have sewn hundreds of donuts over these last ten years.
 At some point I got tired of trying to keep a blog on a website and switched to live journal.
 Finally in 2005 the amazing Kristen Davenport (who now has a vegan food truck in Austin TX go taste her amazing baked goods!) sent me an email saying she wanted to build me a proper website, for free. I told her she could do it for trade and in the meantime she created the little webpage you see above to direct people to my zen cart powered webshop. I’m going to go ahead and leave you hanging here till tomorrow to give your eyes a rest before we go on. I’ve got an exciting giveaway at the end of my story, kidrobot goodies, handmade goodies, maybe some spoonflower fabric too–so stay tuned for that! |
|
|
| dinner |
[May. 16th, 2013|12:00 pm]
|
|
http://www.mypapercrane.com/blog/?p=9427  Sometimes I love preparing dinner, and some nights all I think is “seriously? I have to do this again?” Since my husband works evenings-dinner falls on my shoulders.
Starting two weeks ago I’ve have been taking time out each Sunday to make a weekly menu. Then I go through what we have have, and make my shopping list according to the menu.
One of my boys is super picky, so the menu idea has helped give him a heads up on what to expect. For me knowing that I have everything I need to make the meal that is already planned makes it much less of a chore on the days that I don’t feel like cooking. It’s easy to switch around days in the case that instead of craving that casserole you have your heart set on the salad planned for a few days later.
I’ve been trying to remember to post our dinners over on instagram. I actually look back through when I am in a dinner rut to help plan out some ideas.
The first dinner above on the left was something my friend Molly makes, shredded BBQ on baked potatoes. This BBQ was a prepackaged meat substitute which made it super easy. I did make the baked mac n cheeses, and homemade biscuits this night, so it wasn’t work free. But this was a Thursday which means Tom has off and those dinners are always extra special.
I also made ahead a stone fruit slaw which no body liked, and I just thought was “ok”.
The second dinner pictured is just a big chopped salad shaken with dressing and some shredded cheese, and then topped with fake chicken. Super fast! |
|
|
| Mother’s Day |
[May. 16th, 2013|02:41 am]
|
|
http://www.mypapercrane.com/blog/?p=9415   Mother’s Day was great, and not just because of the adorable little coconut cake. My husband had the day off & the annual used book sale had its “fill a bag for $5″ day. For breakfast we made Leige Waffles (hot sugar waffles) which I’ve been craving since I tried one on my last trip to NY. They take a little while to make because you need to let the yeast rise, but it worked out well since the book sale didn’t open until noon.
Then the rest of the day was spent planting new flowers and two blueberry bushes. Oh and of course there was the coconut cake too.
I got some lovely records I have been coveting and BioShock Infinite . I have discovered though that I cannot play FPS type games. It makes me dizzy, and I am rubbish when it comes to the fighting. But the game is really beautiful so I’ve been making Tom play it every night so I can watch. I’ve been wanting to start a new game since finishing Ni No Kuni, but to be honest—I just want the new game to be just like Ni No Kuni! |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
_yankee_girl_
