Folded Heart Bookmarks

Did you know that although origami is an ancient art, much of its development has occurred within the past 100 years or so?  Me either.

Because paper is so fragile, it’s not possible to know exactly when origami originated but the earliest unambiguous reference to a paper model is in a short poem written by Ihara Saikaku in 1680 CE.  The poem describes paper butterflies in a dream.  

Origami butterflies were used to celebrate the bride and groom at Shinto weddings.  Poems and pieces of origami representing grave goods were thrown onto cremation pyres.  Both of these Shinto ceremonies date back to the Hiean period of Japanese history (794 to 1185), so it’s possible that origami originated as early as the 8^th century. 

That’s a very long time ago!

Over time origami evolved and became formalized, with the development of specific designs used specifically for different ceremonies and occasions.  It continued on in that tradition until the 20^th century.

In the early 1900’s Akira Yoshizawa and other artists began creating original origami works and diagramming their folds.   Those diagrams and other innovations led to an origami renaissance.   By the mid-1900’s origami was popularized outside of Japan and it has been developing as a modern art form ever since.

Traditional origami often included cuts, but modern innovations in technique changed that.  By the 1960’s and 70’s cuts were unnecessary and a distinction was made between origami (paper folding with no cuts) and kirigami (paper folding with cuts).  Modern origami artists do not cut the paper in order to make their designs.

The 1980’s saw the rise of technical origami.  Paper folders began systematically studying the mathematical properties of folded forms, leading to increasingly complex designs.  This trend continues into the present day but the past decade has seen many origami artists return to simpler forms.

There’s a lot of origami on Pinterest right now.  (Don’t you love Pinterest?  So much inspiration there!)   I’m a complete origami novice but I think many of the pieces pinned are quite beautiful.  They inspired me to learn more about what origami is, and eventually to try a project myself:  A folded heart bookmark by Sweetstuffcalledlove.

The bookmark tutorial is presented in a series of photos, with diagramming added.  I’m a very visual person so that works well for me.   The instructions are clear enough that I made the first heart in minutes.  The ones I made subsequently went even more quickly.  They were such fun that I made a whole stack of them to enclose in my valentine cards.

I used  4-inch squares of paper to make my bookmarks so a single sheet of 12-inch scrapbook paper yielded 9 folded hearts.  They’re not only simple, but inexpensive too! 

Go ahead!  Have fun with this project.  If I can make it, you can too.  :^)

A Valentine For Grandma

Gracious!  It's been several days since I posted here.  Sorry about that!  I've been busy over at Aunt B on a Budget.  I'm back now though, and I thought I'd spend some time talking about paper crafts.

Time spent working with paper is happy time for me.  I have a huge stock of it and I'm always happy to go play.

Valentines Day is made for people like me.  It's all about the cards and about bold reds and pinks and rich, voluptuous chocolate browns.  Who would not be cheered by those colours?  I mean, really.

The original design for this card was taught to me by a local Stampin' Up demonstrator, Sharon Annis.  She teaches monthly "stamp camp" classes, where a group of women get together and make cards.  I love stamp camp.  I get to learn new crafting techniques and to spend time with a fabulous group of interesting and intelligent women.

Sharon has kindly consented to let me show some of my adaptations of designs she's taught in class.  This is one of them. Sharon made this design for Thanksgiving.  I've adapted it for Valentine's Day by changing the paper and by using a photo instead of a stamped image.  (I didn't use traditional Valentine's colours, I know, but I'm kind of a rebel that way.  ;)

The captions for the card are easily made in "Word."  You can size them as you wish and use whatever font you prefer.  I used 24 point "Dear Teacher" font.

This would make a wonderful card to send to Grandma.  If you subbed in a photo of yourself playing peekaboo, you could give it to your sweetheart.

To make the card, you'll need:

• 1 piece of 11 x 4-1/4 inch card stock
• If the card stock has a different pattern on each side, you'll need a second piece of card stock that measures 3-1/4 x 4-1/4 inches
• 2 pieces of contrasting card stock, each measuring 3-3/4 x 4 inches
• A portrait photo measuring not larger than 3-1/2 x 3-3/4 inches
• A caption piece that says "Peekaboo!" printed on white card stock
• A second piece of white cardstock, 3-1/2 x 3-3/4 inches, printed with "I Love You!"
• A small piece of craft foam
• A glue stick or some double sided tape
• A bone folder or a sharp tipped device you can use for scoring paper (I use a metal knitting needle)
• Scissors
• A pencil
• An eraser

Place the paper so that it is oriented with the 11 inch edges at the top and bottom and the 4-1/4 inch edges at either side.  Score the paper vertically 2-1/4 inches from the left edge and again at 5-1/2 inches from the left edge.  Fold it as shown below.

If your card stock has a different pattern on the back, turn it over and set the smaller piece of card stock in place as shown below.  The pattern facing up on the smaller piece of card stock should match the pattern on the front of the card.  Check to make sure the larger piece of card stock can still be folded with the smaller piece in place.  You may need to trim the smaller piece.  I ended up taking off about 1/16 of an inch.  Once you're sure it fits, glue the smaller piece of card stock in place.

Turn the card back over and fold it closed to check that you've placed the second piece of card stock correctly.  It should look something like this.

Set the card aside.

Place the two rectangles of contrasting card stock on your board. Glue the photo to one rectangle and the inside caption to the second.  My photo was square and I chose to set it off center.  You can center it if you think it looks better that way.

Turn the piece with the photo over so that the photo is face down.  Mark a line 2 inches from the left edge of the card.  Apply glue or tape to the area on the right side of the line.

Attach the photo piece to the card, lining up the pencil line with the first fold line.  No glue or tape should be showing.  When the card is folded closed, it should look like this:

When the card is opened at the center but has the first fold folded back, it should look like this:

You, of course, will not have writing on the back of the photo piece.  :)

Fold the card tightly shut and hold it in place.  Use a sharp pencil to mark the placement of the top right and bottom right corners of the photo piece.  The pencil marks don't show up well in the picture, I outlined them in black and added arrow pointers so you'll know where to mark.

Open the card.  Check to ensure that the pencil marks are dark enough for you to work with.  Glue the inside caption piece in place, aligning it inside the pencil marks

Close the card again, to ensure that the outside photo covers the inside caption when the card is closed.

Set the card aside again.

Trim around the "Peekaboo" caption to make a small rectangle.  Lay the caption piece face down on a piece of craft foam and trace around it with your pencil.

I used a scrap piece of foam.  Sheets of craft foam are usually available very inexpensively at dollar or discount stores. I use it often when making cards so I always have it on hand.

Cut the traced piece out, cutting inside the lines so that the foam rectangle is slightly smaller than the caption piece.

Glue the foam piece onto the caption piece.

Apply glue to the back of the foam, turn the caption piece over and place it on the front of the card.  I placed mine in the top corner so that the child in the photo would appear to be looking up at it.  Use your judgement about where it looks best on your card.

Erase any visible pencil marks.

You're done.  Pretty cute, isn't it?  The opened card will look something like this:

Have fun with this project.  I'm sure that whoever receives it will be delighted to get such a personal memento.

Thanks again, Sharon, for the inspiration.  :)
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card stock:  K&Company, Kimberly Hodges collection


This project appears on the Think Pink Sundays link party at Flamingo Toes, Craft-O-Maniac Monday Link Party,  Made by You Monday on Skip to My Lou, and Things We Love for Valentines Day by Family Fresh Cooking.

Some People Are So Clever!

Not unlike quilters who sport buttons or wall hanging saying "She who dies with the most fabric wins," enthusiastic crafters tend to accumulate a lot of craft materials.  Trends change rapidly so we learn from experience that when we see something we can use at a reasonable price, we should buy it and put it away for future use.  It's not likely that we'll see it again.

All of those craft materials can take up a lot of space and, because of their unusual sizes and shapes, it can be a challenge to store them in a tidy way that also allows them to be easily accessed when we're ready to use them. Shifting my craft space into another room has re-emphasized this for me, and also reinforced the need to put all my materials in order.

I was very pleased to see this post on organizing scrapbook supplies from the Creating Keepsakes Blog.  Some of the ideas are really good.  I will, for sure, be using pants hangers to organize my ribbon spools from now on!
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Photo source:  http://www.creatingkeepsakesblog.com

Holy Moly! What a Mess!

I'm reorganizing my craft room.  Sounds innocuous enough, right?  Well, let me tell you:

I decided a couple of months back that I wanted to switch our second bedroom into the room which is currently my craft room and my craft room into the room that is currently our second bedroom.

Why?

Well, it has to do with watching TV.  The bed in the second bedroom sits parallel to the dresser where the TV rests, rather than being perpendicular to it.  Since I don't share my husband's taste in TV programming, I do most of my TV watching (and reading and noodling on my computer) while curled up on that bed.  It gives me a crick in my neck if I watch TV for too long, even when I prop my pillows up in the corner where the bed meets the wall.

I debated long and hard about this change because I'm a sprawler.  I tend to spread my work over every available surface.

The second bedroom is smaller than my craft room.  If I leave things as they are, there's no way I can arrange the bedroom furniture in such a way as to allow for more comfortable TV viewing.

If I switch the rooms around,  I'll have the space to watch TV more comfortably but I'll also have less square footage for crafting.  I generally need every square inch of work space I can find, plus a little more.

I think I've worked out a solution to my dilemma:  There's enough space in the larger room to accommodate the bedroom furniture, including the TV, and to hold my paper storage cabinets.  If I leave the paper storage where it is (well, at least in the same room), the smaller room will accommodate my computer desk, my work table and some of my craft supplies.

Additional shelving is definitely included in my future plans for both rooms.  In the meantime, though, there's the physical reality of moving stuff from one room to another and both rooms contain a lot of stuff.

When I decided upon this plan, I failed to consider three things:

First, the floor space in these two rooms comprises about 25% of the total space in our apartment.  Displacing the contents of the two rooms while I switch them around means we effectively lose the use of half of our living space.

Second, the contents of both rooms needs to be sorted through and purged.  Logically, this is the best opportunity I'll have to undertake such a project, but it's time consuming and the resulting disarray is causing us a fair bit of stress.

Third, it's incredibly hard to get any creative work (or even creative thinking) done in the midst of such a mess.  As sprawling a worker as I am, I need a background of order and routine in order to do what I do.

I still think switching rooms is a worthwhile project.  I still think that when I'm done I'll be using both spaces much more effectively.  I still think that lightening our load and thus freeing up some space is a good idea.  It's just that the work itself has left me tired, dusty, a little discouraged.

Today I took some time away from my big switch in order to go foraging for inspiration.  I visited several thrift shops and to my two of my favourite building salvage yards.  I looked through racks of bedding and table linens, stacks of dishes, piles of trays, and about a ton of furniture, doors, windows, cupboard fronts, cabinet hardware, and old light fixtures.

I know.  More stuff.

But, surprisingly, none of it came home with me.  Just the process of looking, of handling different materials, of shifting through piles was enough to re-start my creative process. You don't need to physically own something in order to carry it home.

Vegetable Bean Soup with Parsley and Chive Dumplings

This soup, in one form or another, makes a regular appearance on our dinner table. It's more a technique than a recipe; a means to make something comforting and nutritious while using up what we have on hand.

The dumplings are an optional extra but they're like the icing on the cake.  They transform a simple soup into a comfort food classic.

There's a bonus at the end of this recipe too:  I baked the left over dumpling dough into biscuits that I put into the freezer for another day.  There's a yummy breakfast in our immediate future!

To make the soup, you'll need:

• 1 to 2 litres of stock (I used homemade vegetable stock but any chicken, ham, or beef stock—either homemade or from a box—will work great too.)
• 2-1/2 cups total of a variety of vegetables, either cooked or raw (I used raw onions and celery and cooked potatoes, carrot, and spinach this time)
• 1-1/2 cups reconstituted dry beans (I used chick peas this time)
• Spike seasoning or herbs and garlic

Sauté the onions, celery, and garlic (if you're using it).  Add the stock and any other raw vegetables.

Bring the soup to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook until the vegetables are about half-done.

While the soup is cooking, mix the dumpling dough.  To make the dumplings, you'll need:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons each chopped fresh parsley and chives
• 4 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into slices
• 1 cup milk

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add the herbs and toss to distribute them through the flour mixture.  Use your hands to work the butter into the dry ingredients, breaking it down into cornflake sized pieces, as you would for biscuits.

Mix in the butter to make a stiff dough.

When the vegetables in the soup are starting to get tender but still have some bite, taste the stock and add a generous amount of seasoning.  Remember that you're going to add more vegetables and the beans.  Once you've adjusted the seasoning, stir in the cooked vegetables and the beans.  If the soup looks like it needs more liquid, add it at this point and re-adjust the seasonings.  Heat the soup until it returns to a simmer.

Using two spoons, drop pieces of the dumpling dough onto the surface of the simmering soup.

Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes.  Don't open the pot while the dumplings are cooking.  When the dumplings are cooked, they will look something like this:

Remove the dumplings to a plate, ladle the soup into serving dishes and then top each dish with one or two dumplings.  Serve immediately.

This dumpling recipe makes at least twice as many dumplings as shown here.  Since the dumplings in the post were more than enough for the two of us, I baked the rest of the dough as biscuits.

To make the biscuits, drop the dough onto a buttered baking sheet.  Bake the biscuits at 400˚F for about 15 minutes, until they're cooked through and lightly browned.

Serve the biscuits hot or let them cool on a rack.  If you're saving them for later, store them in an airtight container or ziplock bag and reheat them before you serve them.
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This post is linked to the Gallery of Favorites hosted by 21st Century Housewife and Premeditated Leftovers and to Delicious Dish Tuesday, hosted by Coping with Frugality.

What We Spent

With prices on just about everything increasing at the same time many peoples’ wages are decreasing, lots of folks are struggling to make ends meet.  They’re cutting their variable expenses in whatever ways they can.  For many, reducing variable expenses means cutting back on grocery spending.

Part of my reason for starting “Aunt B on a Budget” was to stimulate discussion about how families manage their food budgets.  I know that I’m finding managing our grocery budget to be a real challenge and I know that many of you are too.  How do you eat nutritious meals when you have less money to spend?

I’ve been posting a “What We Ate” blog every week or two showing our breakfast and supper menus.  I thought it might give you an idea about how we’re managing our food budget.  I also promised a list of our expenditures.

I plan my meals and chart my expenditures from Monday to Sunday, so my budget rarely runs from the first to the last day of any given month.  This budget period covered five weeks, from November 28 to January 1.  It does not include dining out (which comes from our entertainment budget), household supplies like paper goods and cleaning supplies, or personal care items.

I’m not off to a very auspicious start with my planning, having exceeded the month’s budget by almost $25.00.  I knew I was over budget for our groceries this month because the grocery money envelope was almost empty by the middle of the week before Christmas.

As discussed in my last "What We Ate" post there were several reasons for my budget over-run.  I'd used a lot of fresh tomatoes despite the fact that they're not in season, dairy prices have gone up yet again, we'd treated ourselves to both a steak dinner and a rotisserie chicken, and we'd had company.

Whatever the reasons for the near-empty grocery envelope, with five weeks in this month's grocery budget and both Christmas and New Year's Even falling within those weeks, I had to figure out what we were going to do to bridge the gap until the end of the month.  In the end, I amended our menu plan to use more food from our pantry and freezer.  We also chose to pull money from our entertainment budget and apply it to our grocery budget instead.  I'm glad we did.  It allowed us a few holiday season treats.

Our grocery expenditures for this five-week period totaled $174.23 and they break down like this:

• 3 x Good Food Box - $30.00
• 2 x 900 gram/1.98 pound packages aged cheddar cheese - $15.90
• 1 kilogram/2.2 pound package shredded mozzarella and edam cheese - $13.95
• 3 x 750 gram/1.65 pound packages cottage cheese - $16.38
• 3 x 675 gram/1.49 pound packages vanilla yogurt - $7.41
• 200 grams/.44 pound brie on sale @50% off - $2.49
• 2 x 4 litres/1.06 gallons 2% milk - $8.70
• 1 kg/2.2 pounds brie - $15.99
• 250 millilitre/.53 pints heavy (whipping) cream - $1.69
• 1 bunch of chives - $1.97
• 1 bunch of parsley - $0.79
• 1.47 kilograms/3.24 pounds fresh tomatoes - $6.45
• 1 English (seedless) cucumber - $0.97
• .626 kilograms/1.38 pounds red cabbage - $1.37
• .35 kilograms/.77 pounds red onion - $0.68
• 1 bunch fresh spinach - $1.27
• 2.44 kilograms/5.75 pounds rutabaga - $1.24
• 2 x 3 kilogram/6.61 pound boxes Japanese mandarin oranges - $11.98
• 2 heads of cauliflower - $2.97
• 1 lemon - $0.47
• .335 kilograms/.74 pounds carrots - $0.95
• .96 kilograms/2.14 pounds green cabbage - $1.67 
• 1 rotisserie chicken - $7.95
• .64 kilograms/1.41 pound rib steak (on sale 30% off) - $5.92
• 4 sausage rolls - $5.64
• 4 x 398 milliliter/14 ounce tins chili style baked beans - $4.72
• 1 kilogram/2.2 pounds dried chick peas - $1.76
• 1 dozen croissants - $5.99
• 2 x 750 gram/1.65 pound boxes of Cornflakes (with a $1.00 coupon for each) - $3.94
• 700 gram/1.54 pound box Rice Krispies (with a $1.00 coupon) - $2.97
• 1 liter/2.11 pints organic beef stock - $0.99
• 3 x 2 liter/2.11 quart bottles soda - $2.64
• Sales tax - $1.28
• Bottle deposit - $0.60
• Recycle fee - $0.18
• Subtotal: $189.87
• Less gasoline rebate coupons redeemed - $15.64
• Total after gasoline rebate coupons - $174.23

Although we did go over budget, I still think we did pretty well this month.

I’m interested to know how other people are managing in these challenging times.  Any tips you’d care to share will be welcomed.

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Photo:  trustssaints.ca

Spaghettini alla Ceci

I don't love Rachel Ray's afternoon talk show but I used to be a huge fan of "30 Minute Meals."  I learned this recipe from that show, jotting it down on the back of an envelope which is still tucked into the covers of one of my cookbooks.  Because I use the recipe so often, the envelope is tattered now, and splattered with bits tomato and olive oil.  We still enjoy this dish every time I make it.

Rachel called for canned chick peas in her recipe and I'm sure they're fine, but reconstituting dried beans is always less expensive than using beans from a can. 

Since it takes as much time and effort to cook a large quantity of dried beans as it does a small quantity, I cook a whole bunch at once and freeze the extras until I'm ready to use them.

To reconstitute dry beans, begin by sorting through them to remove any pepples of discoloured beans.  Rinse the remaining beans under cold water, then put them in a large measuring cup or bow.  Cover them with at least double their volume of cold water.

Let the beans soak overnight.  They'll increase in volume by a surprising amount.

Drain them and put them in the slow cooker.  Cover them with more cold water or vegetable stock and, if you wish to, add some carrot, tomato, onion, garlic, or thyme to the pot.  (You can use any or all of these but, since I was not sure what recipes I'd be using the beans for, I chose to leave them plain; just covering the beans by an inch or so with cold water.)  Don't salt the beans.  Salt makes them tough and they'll take forever to cook.

Cook the beans until they tender.  Times will vary according to the type and size of the beans you're using and how long they've been stored. 

Once the beans are cooked, drain them and let them cool.  Store them in airtight containers in either the fridge or freezer until you're ready to use them.

To make Spaghettini alla Ceci, you'll need:

• 375 grams/13.25 ounces whole wheat spaghettini
• 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Red pepper flakes to taste (These are optional.  Rachel used them, but my husband doesn't care for them so I don't use them.)
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 cups reconstituted chick peas
• 1/2 teaspoon of dry thyme (I was out of thyme so I used poultry seasoning this time.  It worked fine.)
• 1/2 cup chicken stock (I used homemade, but stock from a box is fine too.)
• 1- 398 milliliter/14 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 handful of chopped fresh parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Grated Parmesan to pass at the table

Boil the water for the pasta and cook the spaghettini to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, place the chick peas in the food processor and pulse grind them to a fine chop.

Heat a large pot over medium heat.  Add the olive oil, crushed red pepper flakes if you're using them, and the garlic. Sauté the garlic for a few seconds, then add the chick peas, and the thyme.  Continue sautéeing for 3 to 4 minutes. 

Add the chicken stock and cook it down for 30 seconds or so, then stir in the tomatoes. 

Once the tomatoes are heated through, taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning.  Drain the pasta and toss it with the sauce.  Let it cook for another minute or two.  

Transfer the pasta to a serving dish and top it with the parsley.  Serve it immediately.  Pass the Parmesan around with the dish.

This recipe makes far more pasta than the two of us can eat at a single sitting.  Fortunately it freezes fairly well.  I let the leftovers cool and then package them in freezer safe, microwavable bowls. 

I defrost each portion in the microwave until the pasta is heated through, stirring in a little extra tomato or stock during the last minute of reheating.