Crystal Madrilejos

Being one of the two graphic designers in the family (my brother, Tom, is also a designer. Check out his work here. It’s really great.), my computer skills are called upon pretty regularly to design invites for all types of occasions. My Mom’s 66th birthday is this month and I’ve been asked to do the invitation for her party. Over the years, I’ve found that designing invitations for my family can be a fun way to play around and do all the crazy things I normally can’t do when it comes to client work. It’s also a good way to learn new things in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, but still have a purpose and a finished product in the end.

This year was my Dad’s 70th birthday and we threw a big surprise party. My sister had a cake made at one of those places that has one of those fancy frosting printers and I got to design the graphic for the top of the cake. Most of the time those printouts don’t turn out well because it’s usually just a bad quality photo or just completely botched. But there is actually so much potential for it to turn out really cool!

This is what we had printed on my Dad’s cake:

And it turned out pretty neat! (Unfortunately, we I don’t have a photo of the actual cake. If I can find one, I’ll post it.)

Just one note, if you are planning on having something printed on a cake. Try not to use a graphic that has big areas of black, or all your guests will be walking around with discolored teeth! I tried to keep the black to a minimum on this one, but or course it’s difficult to not have any black if you are going to have any type of photo.

-c.

I am proud to say that we have some crazy talented friends. Our great friends Toby and Angela came to visit from NYC a couple months ago and one day we sat around and made Onesies for Q. I’m pretty sure he has already outgrown them by now (he could probably squeeze into one with a paper diaper but not his bulky cloth ones), but these will definitely be going into the memory box! We used plain white Gerber Onesies and TeeJuice fabric pens.

Drawing by Toby Goodshank

Drawing by Angela Carlucci (the same lovely lady who made our wedding papercut!)

Thanks yous twos!
-c.

P.S. Andrew, my brother and I all made a Onesie, but I haven’t gotten good pictures of those yet. Will post one day…

This year we took a different approach with the bean trellis. Last year, we did this for our peas and lima beans. It worked well enough, but it was hard to get the stakes in the ground and the strings were a pain in the ass. So this year we decided to go with something more simple for our green beans and made teepees out of tree branches. It was hard to get a pictures where they didn’t just blend in with the surroundings, but I think you can get a good idea from this picture:

Andrew simply found some thin branches and cut them all roughly to the same height (about 6 feet) and we pushed them into the ground and tied them together at the top. The beans took to them wonderfully.

Unfortunately, last weekend storms wreaked havoc on our garden. We’ve had a lot of rain this season and up until this past weekend the garden has been holding up pretty well. But last Friday and Saturday proved to be too much to handle. Two days in a row of powerful winds toppled corn, bean trellis’, and tomato plants! I don’t think anything was seriously damaged, but it was a sad sight to see.

-c.

[Image via The Cloud Appreciation Society]

A few years back I was living in a loft space in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. The building had a really neat rooftop with an incredible view. I went through this phase where I would get up super early and run up to the roof and take pictures of the sunrise. I got some amazing photos and got to see some great cloud formation. So I was thrilled when our friend Natalie posted a link on Facebook to The Cloud Appreciation Society! There are so many cool photos on this site and I highly recommend taking a minute to check it out.

-c.

P.S. Just an FYI, the navigation of the photo gallery is a little strange and the images a little slow to load.

One of the many things I love about summer is a cold sweet treat on a hot day! We made these popsicles from a recipe in Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food Magazine. Overall, I think they turned out okay. Both Andrew and I agreed that the flavors could be more concentrated. The fruit portion of the mixture tasted delicious before we froze it, but after it was much more watered down than I would have liked. I think next time we are going to try a fruit reduction to get as much water out as possible beforehand. Anyone else have any summer sweet treat suggestions?

-c.

Remember this guy?

In the months before Q was born, both Andrew and I had a surge of productivity. I think it was our collective subconscious preparing us for a drought. We’ve been fortunate that Q is a good sleeper now. After his bedtime and before he wakes is our free time and both Andrew and I have been able to work on some new projects.

I figured an update is in order for the projects that we worked on before Q arrived.

I should preface this update with the fact that the majority of the time Q wears Fuzzi Bunz cloth pocket diapers. We were lucky enough to have generous family and friends who bought us these fancy pants (since they can be on the pricey side).

In making the wool diaper covers I was preparing for the possibility that we might not be gifted any fancy diapers. In that case we would have to use the more cost friendly pre-fold cloth diapers that require a water resistant covering. There have been times when we ran out of the pocket diapers and had to use the pre-folds as a back up. Despite my initial skepticism, the wool covers work unbelievably well. The amazing thing about wool is that it repels water and absorbs moisture at the same time! If you want to read more about the wonders of wool, you can read more here.

Here is Q sporting a pair of diaper covers made from a repurposed wool sweater that I felted in the washing machine:

The crocheted cover and the knitted cover were also a success! The crocheted ones are still a bit large, but he’s already outgrown the Vanilla cover, so I’m in the process of knitting a larger size.

-c.

We’re hitting that time of year when the garden starts getting out of control. The bugs, the weeds, and the heat are in full force. It’s also about the time everyone realizes that they didn’t allow enough room for everything they planted to grow to their full potential. Gone are the days of neat and tidy beds. Mother nature laughs at our feeble attempts to keep her in check.

But with all that said, it’s also the time when the garden looks full of life! We have been harvesting salad greens for a good month or more now and we’re just about reaching the end of this batch. As the days grow longer and hotter, eventually the greens will get bitter and go to seed. Our greens are right on the verge of becoming inedible (some of them have already turned bitter) so we’re considering pulling them out and planting another round.

This was the lettuce around mid-June:

This is the lettuce now:

This year we planted a few rows of Mesclun but we weren’t too happy with it. Last year it was great, but I don’t know if we just planted and harvested it too late in the season or what. But there was something in the mix that got really bitter. Plus, there is arugula in the mix which normally we love. But it grows so much faster than the rest of the greens and gets tough and extremely peppery if left to grow too long. It can really make or break a salad. Next year I think we are just going to stick to the individual varieties instead of the mixes.

-c.

I’ve been hearing about Freezer Paper stencils for awhile now, but never got around to trying it. This is one of those crafts that sounds fun but time consuming, so I’ve always just filed it away in my brain for a later date. A little while ago, I came across the blog Ambrosia Girl and her great tutorial for Freezer Paper stencils. She made cute shirts for her adorable boys, and this inspired me to make shirts for my nieces and nephew for their birthdays. Using their initials, I made the designs on the computer then printed them onto the Freezer Paper. Of course, I made them super complicated so the cutting part took some time. But in the end, I think they turned out pretty well. This is a great way to make one-of-a-kind prints. Here is F in his shirt:

I wasn’t able to get a picture of the girls, but these are the designs that I made:

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a shot of the girls in their shirts before they grow out of them!

-c.

We considered growing our own garlic, but my dad grows enough to feed a small country. This is from his garden, isn’t it beautiful? I’m continually amazed by the whole growing process, put some seeds in the ground and out comes delicious things to eat!

–c.

Andrew and Q are still sleeping (hooray!) so I figured I’d get in a quick post before the boys wake. This morning I was going through photos and found this little project that I never posted about.

I made this little guy for my friend’s son’s first birthday. The pattern is from Ana Paula Rimoli’s Amiguri Two! and he turned out pretty dang cute!

–c.